This is roughly a conversation that took place in my office this week.

Me:  Guess what Boss?  We had 16 kids show up for a Knitting Class at the school yesterday!  I’ve got 21 kids registered and I have to start a waiting list!  Who would have thunk?

The Boss:  You’re going to blog this, right?  I hope this makes the blog, because it really should.

So yes, the fact that I started a Knitting and Crochet class at the school and that it is wildly successful will in fact make the blog.  He also commented on the fact that he is now an enabler since my office closet is now overflowing with donated yarn.  Hee hee.

Remember These Things with Petals that Smell Nice?

In other news, it appears as though spring might actually come to the land of endless snow.  The rumor is that we might actually reach a temperature soon where snow will melt.  Whether we get any more snow… well that remains to be seen.

It’s been very hard to focus on all the things I need to do this spring when it still feels like February.  I’ve got 2 large events in May as well as all the smaller end of the school year things that happen and I’m starting to feel as though I’m behind the eight-ball on all of them.

And knitting… well knitting has been slow.  I started work on a small scarf because I wanted something springy.  There was just too much red sweater action happening and since one of the sweaters had progressed to a spot where I needed to only work on it at home when I had access to a chart, it wasn’t travel knitting any more.  If I can’t pull a project out and work on it at odd times when I have a minute here or there or am having lunch with friends, then it tends to sit and wait for large chunks of time that rarely happen.

This week it hit me that a very fancy dress up event was happening in 3 weeks.  I have a dress that I found a few weeks ago on sale.  Since it’s been so chilly I really wanted a shawl to go with.  My intention back in January was to make the Lumen shawl.  The event is called the Lumen Christi and I just like the idea of wearing the Lumen shawl to the Lumen Christi.  I’m funny like that.  However, the Lumen is a charted pattern and I’ve already established that I don’t have the time to work a charted pattern consistently right now.

Instead, I chose the Cameo pattern.  I’m fairly certain that I can whip out a basic garter stitch shawl in the time needed.  Of course, the problem with shawls is they tend to get larger as you go, so what seems like a fast knit to start with becomes a neverending endurance race as the rows get larger.

Cameo

I tossed the stash one night this week while my husband was at work (the safest time to really air out all the yarn from the different hidey holes that I stash them in).  I compared different shades of blues and greens against the dress and weighed the merits of each.  I was really hoping to use some green Madelinetosh that I had bought for the Lumen shawl, however it just didn’t sit right with the dress.  I finally decided on these two colors.  The Hazel Knits from a yarn club that I was briefly in and the MacKintosh yarn from a Stitches event.  It was kind of sad pulling out the MacKintosh as I bought 1200 yds of it with the intention of using it for a cardigan or sweater.  Once I saw the match up of the two yarns though, I am happy I did it.

Now, I’m off to enjoy the rest of my Saturday and hopefully spend much of it knitting.

I’ve heard that there are people out there that just watch the Olympics.  They sit in front of the TV with their hands empty and just watch.  I find this hard to understand.  For me, the Olympics is a time to pick out a new project and knit like, well like I’m knitting for a gold medal.

My project for this Olympics was a Leftie.  To up the ante a bit, I invited my friends Maryanne and Troy to knit a Leftie with me.  We each cast on at roughly the start of the Opening Ceremonies.  Maryanne and Troy are both in Washington state, so we had a time zone difference, but that only came into play when I texted at 6 am our time.

Maryanne and I both finished our shawls within hours of each other, and Troy was close behind.  I had an unfair advantage as not only do I have Fridays off, but I also had some unexpected knitting time crop up.  Addie and I were sick one day, and I spent most of that day parked on the sofa.  Then, I made a trip to Winnipeg, Canada for an Optimist Club convention.  I know I’ve talked about the Optimist’s before, my local club knits hats for babies and now several clubs in our area are knitting for children.  It’s a great club, check out the link or google Optimist International to see if there’s a club near you.  The seven hours in the car and the hours that I spent in meetings were put to use knitting.

The Details:

Pattern:  Leftie

Needles:  2.5mm circular needles.  I started with a 16″, switched to a 24″ and would have liked a 40″ by the time I was done.

Modifications:  None.  The pattern is very well done and slightly addicting.  I love switching colors!  I weaved in about half of the ends at one point so I didn’t have as many to do at the end.  My intention was to weave them all in as I went, but the motivation just wasn’t there.  Since a lot of people at the convention wanted to see the completely project, I was really anxious to weave in the ends and block it Saturday night.

Yarn:

The brown (Chocolate Frosting) is handspun from Knitting My Way Home.  Sharon does amazing work.  The spinning was incredibly even and beautiful.  If you haven’t knitted with handspun, you should really give it a whirl.

The pink (Chocolate Covered Cherries) is a locally dyed yarn that I’ve had in my stash for a long time.  Probably longer than I care to admit.  The brand is Knit Me Now Yarn and is available locally or at etsy.

Aren’t the leaves adorable?  I blocked this in my hotel room but the blocking shots turned out terrible.  Hotel rooms do not make for good iPhone photos.

I liked this pattern so much that I started another Leftie on the way home from Winnipeg.  Both of these yarns are from Lisa Souza Knitwear.  I’m thinking of donating one of the two shawls to a Dinner Auction that we do every year for the school.  Which one would you like to win at an auction?