Out of Hibernation...

Ok, I'm back. I think I'm back. Spring has sprung (and I think it's going to stay that way this time -- don't even ask about that early April snowstorm) and I don't have the hibernation excuse any more.

Seriously, winter is tough for me. I deal with depression (long family history, not pretty stuff) and winter really saps my energy.

Ok, enough with the negative stuff! I've been knitting and spinning in an attempt to stay sane so I have lots to catch up on. Unfortunately, I can't find the cable thingy to upload the pictures, so those will have to wait. When will someone introduce a camera that uploads wirelessly? I really hate having to use the cable thingy.

My big project this winter has been the "Perfect Sweater" from the Mason-Dixon website. This is my first ever sweater and I wanted to get a good sense of how to assemble a sweater. This seemed like a good pattern for that. It's very clear, with instructions even a complete novice can figure out. It suggests an affordable yarn and it's even free! Can't beat that. I am on the homestretch, about 2/3 of the way through the second sleeve. Then comes the whole seaming thing, which I have to admit is the most intimidating part. I don't have a good track record when it comes to seaming (see earlier post on the Christmas Gnome), but this pattern calls for a three-needle bind-off for at least part of the seaming and I've had good luck with that. I have to say that it is a sea of stockinette, so if you're looking for mindless knitting, this is your pattern! I'm using Cascade 220 in the blue heather. So far I'm very pleased with it.

In other knitting news, I was one of 400 knitters who was able to hear Stephanie, aka the Yarn Harlot, speak here back in March. If you click here, scroll down to the Minneapolis-St. Paul photo. Look at the first photo, just off center. There's a very bright yellow patch? That's me. I'll tell you, it's hard to figure out what to wear to a Harlot event. I've never seen so many gorgeous sweaters, vests, shrugs, shawls, etc. And here I was, without a wearable piece of knitting to my name. Hence, the incentive to knit the Perfect Sweater. I have to say, after hearing Stephanie's many horror stories of some of her other book signings, The Yarnery did an absolutely superb job -- they even gave us a knitting bag! Very cool.

I saw a couple of other bloggers there, but of course, didn't work up the gumption to say hello (see six weird things about me). Stephanie was great, she is a gifted speaker and had us all laughing for an entire hour. I didn't stay for the book signing, the lines were beyond real. I felt sorry for her, she must have been exhausted by the time the evening was over. I heard that she didn't finish until after midnight.

Tonight is a Knitter's Guild meeting that I'm going to try to get to. This weekend is Yarn Over and I'm signed up for a couple of workshops. One is on getting the "perfect" fit on sweaters (good timing) and the other is an Intarsia workshop with Annie Modesitt. I've not done any intarsia yet, so I'm looking forward to that one. To both, actually.

In a couple of weeks is Shepherd's Harvest, a festival devoted to all things wooly. In particular, there are always tons of fiber vendors there and there's a great selection of roving. I'm going to take a workshop on natural dyes and do lots of shopping. All in all, I'm looking forward to spending lots of time of spinning and knitting time over the next few weeks.