Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

Big Grey

I finally finished something! After months of knitting, John’s Big Grey sweater is done, and he loves it. And it fits. Here’s a photo:

Project Specs:

Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, color Negotiation Grey.
Pattern: Father/Son Pullover, from Peace Fleece
Needles: Knit Picks Options circulars, size 6&7
For: John, my sweetie pie
Started: September 2007
Finished: Yesterday
Modifications: None, really. Oh yeah, I picked up fewer stitches around the collar than the pattern recommended.
What I learned: I still like knitting plain stuff. Both of us tend to dress like the Lands End Poster Child, and our wardrobe is, um, rather plain. A plain grey sweater was just what the boy wanted, and it’s just what he got. This is one of the few sweater patterns I’ve seen that actually uses short row shaping for the shoulders, so you don’t have to convert it yourself. The neckline also uses short rows, and instead of binding off the neck and then picking up stitches for the collar, it leaves them live. It’s a well-written pattern, with no glitches that I discovered.

Now, I just need to get it away from him so I can do a little post-sewing blocking.

Here are a couple of post-Hawaii photos to show you what we came back to last week.

Ick, ick, ick. The snow didn’t last long, but we had ice on the streets for several days, and the forecast is just rain and more rain. And I have had the cold from hell the past few days. I rarely get sick, but this one really knocked me out. I was pretty sure it was Ebola for a few days there.

And I have one more Hawaii photo to show you.

Sweet Pea liked Hawaii, too.

Where In The World?

We’re on the road again (wait, wasn’t that a song?), this time to Hawaii. We got here on Friday, and we’re using a week of our timeshare on Oahu. It’s a beautiful place, certainly, and made even lovelier by the fact that January so far has been one of the all-time greyest and rainiest in the Pacific Northwest. I really needed to get out of Dodge before I started shooting holes in the refrigerator. A little sunshine midwinter goes a long ways towards getting me through the season without spending time in a sanitarium.

Here are a couple photos of where we are:

On the knitting front, there have been a few knitting accidents lately. The purple Langsjal Jóhönnu stole is proceeding without incident, thanks to judiciously placed dental floss lifelines. I haven’t needed to rip back to one yet, but I’m certain that if I stop using them, I’ll make a colossal error and have to rip the whole thing out. The lifelines stay. They may brand me as a knitting wuss, but there you have it.

The grey Peace Fleece sweater is nearly done. It would be done by now, but I had some issues with the sleeves. I finished the first sleeve and was well on my way on the second one, when I decided that the whole thing looked rather suspicious. I put the front and back together, and then pinned the first sleeve in and had John try it on. I was a bit concerned that the whole mess was going to fit Andre the Giant, but the body seems to meet with his approval. The sleeve? It reached past his fingertips. So I re-jiggered the sleeve increases on the second sleeve, and it looks like it will be about the right length. Now I have to rip out the first one back to where I changed the increases, I’d estimate about a third of the first sleeve needs to be reknit. I brought it with me, but I’m not so excited to knit on heavy worsted weight yarn when it’s 80 degrees outside.

Then there are the socks. The yarn is Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the color Amaranth. I’ve gotten about this far on them:

That would be one sock, a little over half done. I’ve been concerned all along that this was going to be too small for my big feet, but marched on, knitting along anyway. Just call me the Queen of Denial. I tried it on yesterday, and I was right. I can barely get them over my instep. I thought about just finishing them and giving them away, but I need a new pair of socks, as I haven’t really finished a pair in a long time. And I really love this color. So I ripped the whole thing out and started over yesterday. I have about an inch of ribbing done at the moment.

And that’s all there is in the knitting news. We’re off to church, then to Chinatown for dim sum this morning. I wonder, are there any yarn stores in Hawaii?

Yarn Barf

There is a little trend going around the blogs of knitting directly from the unwound hank of yarn, instead of winding it up into center pull balls. I’m pretty sure that the knitting-directly-from-the-hank knitters, who shall remain unnamed here, were just pulling our legs on this one. I rolled my eyes at the first blog report on this, but then when two or three more reported that this was the best thing since sliced bread, I decided to try it.

I’m here to report that, with certainty, this clearly does NOT prevent yarn barf.

And no, I didn’t take pictures, but it just took me the better part of an hour to untangle the mess that ensues when you try to get all smarty-pants and follow the latest knitting fads. I wasn’t about to leave the mess spread over the entire kitchen floor with the pet menagerie drooling around the edges like a pack of wild hyenas, while I went to fetch the camera. Let’s just say that from now on, I’ll be dutifully winding my yarn hanks into neat little cakes.

I promise knitting progress photos in the next post. I’m off to wind yarn.

Oh, and Dorothy reminded me that I needed to add Lewey to the sidebar. If you look over there to the left, there he is!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s Eve! John and I had a nice quiet evening at home, with champagne and veal chops for supper. “Lights-out” was at about 10 PM, as I just came off a 7 day work week that was a little like an Olympic luge run. I really did try to stay awake until midnight, but I found myself sitting at the dining room table after supper, with my knitting in hand, having fallen asleep right in the middle of a row.

In honor of the new year, I am going to make a few resolutions. I don’t usually do this, as they don’t last very long, but here goes.

I’m going to try to knit only from stash in 2008*. That means buying no new yarn, unless it’s for gifts for someone else. And no, it won’t work if I buy it as a gift for someone else, they already have it and give it back. I think that’s probably cheating. We’ll see how long this one lasts. I might have to take a sledge hammer to the computer to have any luck with this. I probably need to expand this one into not buying stuff in general that I don’t need, but let’s not get carried away here.

I’m seriously going to try to stop fretting about crap that I can’t do anything about. I think this one will last until about 2PM today, but I can try.

I am indeed going to finish that purple Icelandic stole. I am working on it, really.

And the Peace Fleece sweater for John, that’s going to get done, too.

And I’m going to blog more. There, that’s it.

Happy New Year to all of you! I’m going to eat my black eyed peas now.

*Yes, I really said that publicly. I may have to eat my words.

Knitting, & More Pup Cuteness

First of all, a cute pup photo:

Lewey would like to thank all of you for the good wishes and congratulations. His 1st birthday was December 14th, and in honor of the occasion, we took a family vote (a little before our 2-week trial period was over) and decided that he’s staying as part of our family. He’s very happy to have a permanent home. He’s also settling in just fine. He had some food aggression issues at his former home, due to being in a house with another non-neutered male Corgi. The breeder that rescued him also had him “fixed”, and that plus a little focused training seems to have fixed the issue. He’s sweet, smart, and a fast learner. The cats didn’t get to vote, by the way. He’s already learned that he can’t chase cats around here, but doesn’t always succeed in the attempt. They both have claws, so sooner or later he’ll learn the lesson the hard way.

Now, on to knitting. We pretty much have your same three projects going here, a big grey sweater, a purple Icelandic lace stole, and a pair of socks. Just so I could have something new and different to show, I started and finished a pair of mittens this past week. I realized that I did not have even one pair of mittens or gloves to wear, which is sort of ridiculous, given the 12 boxes of yarn balls I have stashed in every closet and corner of this house.

Way back when, I bought several colors of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals, 3 skeins of each. I think I was planning on socks, but this stuff is perfect for mittens. Here they are, a couple of in progress shots, and then finished.

What? You didn't think I'd drink white wine with red mittens, did you?

Project Specs:

Yarn: Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals, color Sara’s Dress (I love that name!)
Pattern: Plain mitten, from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.
Needles: Pony Pearl Dpns, size 3.75mm.
For: Me, the one without any mittens.
Started and Finished: in the past 2 weeks, December 2007
Modifications: Pretty much none, but it’s one of those generic patterns that you can do a lot of things with. For future reference, I made these using the “6 stitch/inch gauge, 44 stitch around” directions. I could go down a size next time and still be happy.

What I learned: It takes very little time to make mittens. This was my first pair, and for those of you new-ish knitters, I’d rate mittens easier than socks. I just love this yarn. Thumbs are cool to knit. But I don’t so much like the spiral decreases at the top of this, finished with pulling the yarn tail through the last four stitches and drawing it closed. Next time I’d try my standard toe finish, which is the paired decreases at either side, then grafting the fingertip end.

I have quite a bit of yarn left over as well. Is it enough to make another pair? Out comes the Magic Scale, and we’ll find out:

Just a couple grams less than half left. So if I make a bit smaller size, I’ll get another pair of mittens! Surprisingly, my sweetie said he would wear this color and would love mittens, so maybe I’ll give him these and make myself the second pair. Isn’t that sweet–matching mittens!

And just so you don’t think I’m completely ignoring my other projects, here’s Big Grey. I have the front and back done, and here’s where I am on Sleeve Island.

Bring on the piña coladas, I might be on this island awhile.

A New Family Member!

John and I got an early Christmas present for each other yesterday. We had been talking about adding another pup to the household, and then last week we heard about a rescue Corgi that a local breeder had available. We went to visit yesterday, and we all liked each other enough that he came home with us.

Meet LLywelyn, AKA Llywey (Lewey!)

He’s a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, tricolored, and just a week shy of a year old. We have him on a two week trial period, but we’re pretty sure he’s a keeper.

Here are a few more photos:

Dog behavior and intuition continues to amaze me. Riley, though she’s a confirmed alpha bitch, likes other dogs and has a blast when various family dogs come to our house to visit. She knew in an instant that this was different, and that Llywey was no visitor. They are getting along though, and I suspect will be great buddies once they work out the hierarchy to their satisfaction. I also suspect that little Llywey has never been exposed to cats. He’s chased Willie around the house a few times, but I’d bet that stops after the first time Will gets tired of it and whacks him on the nose. Lucy has kept her distance, though she came out of hiding and slept in her usual spot on our bed last night, so I think all will be well eventually.

That’s all the excitement here. Oh, except for the rainstorm this past week. It didn’t affect us much here, other than a lot of general sogginess. The main interstate highway south of us is still closed by flooding, which is creating all sorts of havoc in the region.

Next time, knitting and Nanowrimo (yes, I finished).

Yes, I’m Alive…

It’s just November, during the month when all the NaBloPoMo people have promised to write a blog post every single day, and I’ve been working on my NaNoWriMo project. I’m going to have to do some serious writing to actually finish this year, which doesn’t leave much time for blogging, knitting, or actually anything else. I thought I’d take a break and check in though, just so you didn’t think I died or something.

We had a great Thanksgiving at the Knitting Doctor household, though it escapes me why my husband went out and bought 20 pounds of turkey when we only had 8 people to eat it. (And two small children, who didn’t eat any turkey. Slackers.) I’ve already had my allotted quota of turkey sandwiches, and I’ve made a fine turkey stock with the carcass. Tonight will be turkey soup, then that’s it for the year. I’m done with turkey.

Here’s where I am with the knitting projects. They are mostly the same knitting projects, and I haven’t made much progress, due to all the frantic novel writing I’ve been doing.

First, John’s grey Peace Fleece sweater:

Actually, looking at that, I have made progress. Since the last photo I showed, I finished the back, and I’m almost to the armhole shaping on the front. I still love this yarn, even if it’s sort of…plain. And grey, very grey.

Next is the Langsjal Jóhönnu. I have done a few rows here and there on this one. I’m anxious to finish this, as I have many, many more lace shawl and stole patterns and yarns that I would love to get to work on.

I have indeed been tempted to cast on other things, but have resisted the siren song of all that yarn over there in the bags and boxes behind me. After Nano writing is over, I plan to get all gung ho about this one and just finish it. It’s starting to feel a little like an albatross.

Then there is my newest sock in progress:

That’s Madeline Tosh sock yarn, in the color Amaranth. It really is that bright, and then some. I adore this yarn.

You might be asking what happened to the last sock I was working on, the one where I never showed finished photos. That’s because it’s not finished. Here it is.

It’s in a time-out to beat all time-outs. Why, you might ask? I love the yarn (Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop), I love the color (Spirit In The Sky), I love the striping, and I even love the needles. There’s one small problem, I can’t seem to find the other hank of this yarn. I know for a fact that I had two, which would be enough for two socks. As I rounded the heel and headed for the toe, I figured I’d get out the second ball so I’d have it ready. Nope. Can’t find it anywhere. And indeed I have looked everywhere. I may just finish this one anyway, though that seems rather hopeful, given that I’ve already torn the house up looking. I took it to Idaho when we went in September, so I’m betting it got lost along the way. Someday I’ll rip it out and knit a pair of children’s socks out of it, but I’m equally certain that as soon as I do, the other ball will show up.

You can all clearly see that I have two balls of the Amaranth yarn up there, for two socks. I’m planning on keeping the two of them together until I need the second one.

Last but not least, a couple photos of Willie, just because he happened to be hanging around when I sat down to download the camera photos.

Go ahead, tell him what a handsome boy he is.

I’m going back to writing. Wish me luck, there are only 6 days left, counting today.

It’s Here!

Now you all know what I’ll be doing today. And if you live near me and haven’t gotten yours yet, the FedEx guy said he had 14 more to deliver before 10:30.

There will be knitting in the next post, really.

And if you have no clue what that box is, you need to just get a Mac! It’s Leopard, the new operating system for Mac, just launched today. I’m off to play.

Coming Up For Air

The 16-day work slog is finally over. Due to some trades at work, I did 16 days in a row, with 2 days off about a third the way through so I could catch up on sleep. My “short” days at work are 11 hours, assuming I get the work done on time. The “long” days are 15 hours. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job. Remind me not to agree to trades again. The flip side of all the trading is that I now have 12 days off in a row. Well, 11, I was in a coma yesterday and missed most of it. My plans for today involve not getting dressed for several more hours. At least my husband, a dedicated morning person, has finally learned not to shake me at 7 AM with a “honey, honey, it’s a beautiful day, want to get up and go do something?” Honey, honey, I’m already doing something, shake me one more time, and you’ll lose a hand.

I have done a bit of knitting, but it’s all been on a grey stockinette Peace Fleece sweater with no shaping. Back and forth, back and forth. It’s boring as hell, but also very, very satisfying in a grey stockinette tweedy wool sort of way. OK, OK, here’s a photo.

Really, it is pretty exciting. You should smell this stuff. It has that wonderful sheepy smell that I just love. I’m almost to the underarm shaping on the first piece. And that’s about all the knitting news around here.

Oh, not quite, I forgot about my knitting excitement yesterday. The one thing that I did get done was my annual girlie physical, something really to look forward to when you’d much rather spend the entire day with a blanket over your head. I have a new gynecologist, and yesterday was my first visit. I was knitting away on a sock* when she came into the room, and it turns out that she’s a knitter, is relatively new in town, and wants to come to our weekly knitting fiesta at the local coffee shop. Sweet.

And the most exciting non-knitting news? November 1st is only 12 days away. Who cares, you ask? It’s NaNoWriMo time again! The crazy month where thousands of insane wanna-be writers decide to pick up a pencil on November 1st, and not put it down again until they have a 50,000 word novel done by the stroke of midnight on the last day of the month. I participated in this nutball event in 2004 and 2005, finishing in the first year, fizzling in the second. Last year I decided to sit it out, but this year I’m going for it again. Finishing the novel is of course the main point, but it’s a hoot even if you don’t. The next 12 days will be spent on nailing down some characters and a rudimentary outline of a plot (plot? you mean I have to have a plot?), then rushing headlong into the writing on the 1st. If you’re equally insane, go on over and sign up. And I don’t want to hear any sniveling  that you don’t know how to write a novel. Neither do I. It doesn’t need to be good, nobody but you will read it, it’s all about getting 50,000 words down on paper in 30 days.

Go on over and sign up. If you do, let me know. Here’s my Nano profile page.

*What, you don’t knit with your feet up in stirrups??

She’s Alive!!

It’s the same damned excuse. Work work work. I just fell out of a 9 day work stretch rabbit hole, and go back tomorrow for another 5 day siege. Then I get a little bit of a breather. So I’ll get a quick post in before I put my head back down.

There’s been hardly any knitting around here for the past couple of weeks. As a sample of how things went, I got home late one night after a long day at work. While my lovely husband made me dinner, I sat in the kitchen and said, “All I want from life right now is to be able to sit here and knit ONE danged row.”

I stupidly picked up that Langsjal Jóhönnu stole, and started across the row. About 7/8 of the way across the row, I ran into a mistake I’d made in the prior row. I messed around with it a bit, trying to fix the row below without going all the way back, then realized I was brain dead and would probably frak the whole thing up if I tried that. So I painfully unknit all the way back over the mostly done row, then the prior row, fixed it, then started forward again. I eventually finished that one row. Be careful what you wish for.

Speaking of wishing for things, last week was my birthday. How lame is that, failing to blog your own birthday? I even got to work late, as Friday, the big day, was my late shift day. 7AM to 9:30PM. Do I know how to have fun or what? I got a great present from my lovely husband though, the same one who fixes me dinner and makes sure I have plenty of wine and bourbon always available. I drive an oldish VW Beetle with the original radio/CD player. I also have an Ipod loaded with over 10,000 songs. My guy bought me a new car stereo, one that has a connector wired through the glove box for my Ipod. It is very cool. I find myself just wanting to drive around so I can listen to it.

OK, I promised you a finished knitting project a post or so ago. While we were in Idaho, we went to the yarn shop in Ketchum, and I <<cough, cough>> bought a few <<cough cough>> things. One of those things was a lovely little single skein of Synchronicity by Alchemy Yarns. This stuff is just heavenly. I’d like a whole tub full of it so I could roll around in it all day. Unfortunately, it’s also spendy enough that I decided to spring for only one skein. So I made little fingerless mitts out of it. I sort of made up the pattern, as I was in a cabin in Idaho, and couldn’t resist casting on immediately when I got back from the store. Some day if I can decipher my notes, I might post it. For now, here are the mitts.

It actually was easy to come up with the pattern, except when I got to the thumb. The first attempt looked horrible. Then I remembered, I just learned how to do an underarm gusset with the gansey class. I dragged out my trusty knitting notebook and a pencil, and in a few moments had it figured out. Yeah, yeah, I know, mittens are easy. This is just a basic mitten pattern, find one in a book and just work till you get to your knuckles and do more ribbing. But I’ve never done mittens or gloves, and I’m pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to do them all by myself.

Project Specifications:

Pattern: I made it up.
Yarn: Alchemy Synchronicity, in the color Resolution. It’s a silk/merino blend, and the photos just do not do this yarn justice. I used almost a whole skein for these, with just enough left over to let Lucy have fun with. (What? You don’t let your cats play with silk yarn?)
For: Me
Started: In September, when I was in Idaho.
Finished: Four days later. It wouldn’t have taken so long if I’d had any clue what I was doing.
Needles: Metal double points that I had with me for the gansey class. I think they were 3.75 mm.
What I learned: I learned to trust my knitting instincts and just “let the force be with me”. It’s only yarn. Pattern, schmattern, who needs a pattern?

I’m off to try to catch up with NetNewsWire. I’m 513 posts behind in my knit-blog reading. Have a great weekend everybody!

Help!

This is an interlude in my knit blogging to send you off to help a worthwhile cause. Lisa, AKA Black Sheep, is walking in the Step Out to Fight Diabetes fundraiser later this week.

As a doctor, I can’t pass this one up. John has a daughter-in-law with gestational diabetes, and his grandson carries the gene for diabetes. This is a big one, people, and affects 21 million people in this country alone. You would be helping out a lot of nice folks, many of them your family members and fellow knitters, by sending money.

Every bit helps, so even if you can only send a little, please do so. This horrid disease affects all of us in one way or another. Thanks a bunch!

Idaho! FO!

I’m back from Idaho, and have a new FO to report!

First, though, I omitted something from my post about the goodie/prize bag I received from Kim. She included a little “L” shaped notepad, and I discovered yesterday that there were also little “L” stitch markers in the bag. Here they are:

Very cute, eh? I love them and just want to cast on something that needs little stitch markers.

Next, I got a couple of requests about one of the yarns I scored in Boston. It’s the Claudia Handpainted Silk Lace, and it is divine. The color is “Chocolate Cherry”.

Click on that to make it bigger, and start drooling. I have no idea whatever to do with this, but it will be lovely to knit with. It will be a shawl or stole someday once I find the perfect pattern.

Now, the trip. I have never taken a knitting class, and was a little nervous about doing so with someone as famous as Beth Brown-Reinsel. Not to worry. She was fabulous. The class was on “knitting ganseys”, and I learned more in 2 days of classes than I have in months on my own. Beth is a very patient instructor, and managed to get a bunch of women of varied skill levels absolutely enthusiastic about traditional gansey construction. In the process, we finished (or mostly finished) a tiny sample gansey. If you have her book, it’s in there, though I’ll warn you, it’s a lot more fun knitting it with Beth alongside coaching.

Here’s my finished gansey, after a bit of steaming with my trusty Rowenta to block the edge into submission:

And a closeup:

I learned tons of cool stuff by doing this sweater. I had never done an underarm gusset, and was very surprised at how easy and intuitive it is. It’s a little like turning a heel on a sock; once you do it, you wonder why you never thought of it before. I also learned how to do a channel island cast on, which is truly cool.

Probably the best thing, though, was being at an isolated resort for three whole days with a master knitter. Beth spent a couple of hours on the second day talking us through the design process, and showed us how to come up with a gansey sweater pattern of our very own. I intend to knit a full-size gansey some day, but even if I never do, the stuff she taught me will make my knitting much better. And being around a bunch of other great knitters was wonderful. We laughed, shared, and just in general had a blast.

Here are some more photos:

That’s Beth in the middle, with her giant teaching swatch.

That’s Jennifer, who owns Isabel’s Yarn & Needlepoint shop in Ketchum.

Here’s where the retreat is:

Our cabin:

This answers the question of what kind of wine goes with Cheetos:

And the sock enjoying the scenery:

Here’s the details if you are interested in next year’s retreat. Jennifer has done this retreat for several years, and it’s at Redfish Lake Lodge, Idaho. It’s very remote, though they do now have wireless access in the main lodge, if you can’t live without internet access. The cabins range from rustic to more rustic, though we found it very comfortable and absolutely the perfect setting for a retreat. There are no phones in the cabins, and no television, which is perfect. The food was lovely, and the scenery can’t be beat. Ketchum (Sun Valley) is a little over an hour’s drive away, so this really is out in the middle of nowhere. Email Jennifer at her website if you’re interested in next year’s retreat. I certainly plan on going if at all possible.

Next time, another FO!

Project Roundup

I figured it was time for a Project Roundup, and a few other things. First, the few other things. You all might remember the Knitter’s Hunk contest that Kim had a couple weeks ago. I took second place for nominating the winner, Alan Rickman (but only because Emily evoked visions of a naked Alan in her tie-breaking entry–I should have thought of that). As a prize, I got a very cool package full of stuff from Kim.  Here are the highlights:

Note the lovely mitts, the knitting journal, and the spectacular Lavold Silky Tweed!  Oh, and the photo, in case you hadn’t noticed that. She included that as well. Thanks, Kim! Great contest!

Now the PR. I’ve still been working on that bamboo top, but am bored with it. It’s not summer anymore, it’s just miles of stockinette, and it’s going into time-out as of today. Here it is, all bagged up for now. It’s my blog, and I’ll knit what I want to.

I’ll get back to that eventually, but not now. So what’s taking it’s place in the queue?

This:

Miles and miles of grey Peace Fleece, in all its glorious sheepiness. The color is Negotiation Grey, and it will be a sweater for John. I had ordered the pattern with it, which is the Father/Son Pullover from this page, and then tried to convince him that the Cobblestone pullover from the latest Interweave would be better. He firmly likes this one though, so plain plain plain it will be. It’s a good thing I’m happy to knit plain plain plain.

Here’s where I am with Langsjal Jóhönnu. I’m about halfway done with this, and pretty much have the lace pattern stitch memorized. I have 2 more balls of the yarn left, and I have the opposite border done already, so I “just” need to knit till I only have enough yarn to do the grafting, and that’s it.

Here’s the new sock yarn, some very orangey goodness. This is Sock Hop, in the color Spirit In The Sky, one of my very favorite oldies songs.

And the sock it’s making:

You might be wondering what that big ball of yellow yarn up there is. It’s Briggs & Little Regal, another bunch of sheepy-smelling stuff. I get to use that this week. A few months ago my boss showed me a brochure from a yarn shop in Idaho. It was for a knitters’ retreat this coming week. (Click “current events” at the bottom of their home page.) Despite the fact that she didn’t know how to knit at the time, she said “Wanna go??” A short time later we were booked and ready. I’m taking this yarn, and this book with me:

Beth Brown-Reinsel is teaching a two-day class on knitting ganseys, and I am so signed up. And yes, I know I just got back from vacation. What can I say, my boss made me do this. What was I supposed to do, say I’d rather work? There is no internet access (or cellular!) where we’re going, so I’ll check back in when we get home!

Last but not least, before I forget, one of my favorite blogs is back after a summer break. Go check out the latest info on the best way to do decreases!