knitting school dropout

i recently dyed silk scarves with a bunch of the webs ladies. our friend/co-worker gail is the very talented dyer behind the fabulous book hand dyeing yarn and fleece. gail is the kind of person who shares her gift with people. don't you just love people like that?
so, now i am the owner of a pretty silk scarf. i think i'm definitely going through a blue-green phase.

for the last few days i've been kind of struggling with headaches and insomnia, so i'm really just not feeling like myself. the bummer of it all is that staring at my knitting just makes headaches worse. so, in an effort to finish something before tnna, i started an entirely new sweater. it's 90% stockinette, so i can knit (and purl) without having to look at it at all. excellent cranky couch knitting! and look, a nearly complete sweater.
the sweater will have elbow-length sleeves and some neat details at the fronts, but that's secret for now. it's a top-down cardigan, and i'll be self-publishing that pattern (along with a few others that are almost ready) very soon on the blog. i'm using valley yarns goshen in a new color called "pacific".

if you're heading to tnna this weekend, cecily and i will be at the interweave booth first thing saturday morning. you can stop by and check out the book, if you'd like.

Posted by melissa at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

i'm 35 today!

and yes, i did knit the fonz a short-sleeved, round yoke pullover. it's even knit top-down. heh.

Posted by melissa at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBacks (0)

*crickets*

has it seriously been this long?

sorry for the extended absence. life has been crazy 'round these parts. and by crazy i mean that the better part of the last 6 months has been spent sitting on my backside, knitting or writing patterns.

when it all started, the book looked a little like this:

and this:

and now, i am on my 13th sweater since january, which i once thought completely impossible. it's possible, peeps. painfully possible. as the final deadline for the book creeps up, i'm actually not stressed out. i'm excited, relieved, and looking forward to having more free time to visit friends and family again.

i cannot wait to share what i've been up to. i've managed to document most of it in pictures, so when the time comes, i'll have lots to show you.

although i spend the majority of my time at home alone these days, i did manage to get out of the house and have a little fun last month.

ysolda came to hub mills in lowell, ma and i made a trip there to meet her, and to hang out with cecily and cirilia. she had lots of beautiful samples on display (i'm particularly in love with the little shawlette she had just finished). not only is ysolda a talented and successful designer, i'm pretty sure that she possesses the most envied shoe collection the knitting world has ever seen.

i managed to have my camera hanging around my neck, and still forget to take photos. so here, i'm stealing cecily's pictures, because i know she will forgive me.

the next day i picked up my friend melissa and we headed to boston to meet cecily and see peaches! while stuck in mass pike traffic, we made up a game where we guess which other cars were headed to the peaches show. cranky looking folks and line cutters were definitely NOT going to peaches, happy, laughing, and singing folks were DEFINITELY going to peaches. it was such a fun show, with costume changes, good friends and hilarious music, how could it not be?

on the ride home, we listened to riot grrrl bands and talked about how fun it was seeing bands like bikini kill and team dresch when we were younger. i love my friends. i'm looking forward to more time with them this summer.

but now i must get packed. i'm heading to ohio on friday with cecily for TNNA. we'll be taping an episode of knitting daily tv about our book on sunday. stop by and take a peek. i'm bringing a few of the sweaters for the taping.

after tnna, i'll be back here with a contest to celebrate my 3 years at knittingschooldropout.com. i'll be giving away some of my favorite yarns and notions. i'll also be updating you with the amount being donated to www.pancan.org from sales of my pattern bea.

*for the last 11 years i've worked as a 1:1 for adults with developmental disabilities, most of whom are/were elderly. one of the women i worked with years ago would always end our time together each day by saying " good times. we had good times today." she passed away several years ago, but her little saying always pops into my head at the end of a good day.

good times.

Posted by melissa at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)