We are half-way Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat and I
celebrated by coming home and taking a nap! 
We had a class in woven stitches (with Margaret Radcliffe who is
terrific teacher – she marched us all through a rigorous program of attractive
and clever stitches (sounds like the kind of guy we all wanted to date back in
the day, but I digress…) and kept us smiling with her charming conversation
throughout!  Sooo much potential with
those stitch patterns!  Sarah and I got
all inspired, of course.

Yesterday, we learned how to wrangle yarns in Intarsia
(sounds exotic…) with Jane Slicer-Smith. 
And tomorrow we do “Columns of Cables” with Elise Duvekot.  I keep marveling at how much diversity there
is in knitted fabrics – soooo much potential! 
Sarah and I get all inspired, of course.

The Razzle-Dazzle Ribbings mini-class we taught Thursday
morning went wonderfully well.  We had a
great time and the knitters were delightful. 
A very rewarding experience and we look forward to the Lace and Texture
and Cabled Coffee Cuff classes we teach on Sunday.  (Cabled Coffee Cuff pictured below)

And then there is the Market…!  We have made several forays already, of
course.  Really, I think yarn shop people
must be among the most friendly and charming people on the face of the
planet.  We love visiting with them as
much (maybe…) as we love visiting their wares. 
Ohhh, the yarn…!  Sigh.  Sarah and I get all inspired, of course!

My share of the yarn booty includes Blue Moon sock yarn (Rare-Gems
— a blend of lavender and rust that rocks my world!) to make Sleepy Hollow
socks (more about them in a moment), merino/silk lace-weight yarn from Abstract
Fiber (gold melting into charcoal green melting into russet…) for the North Roë
Shawl, and a stunning collection of yarns (blues, purpley-grays) to make a new
q’mitl (a shorter and dressier version of the Owl Q’mitl pictured below). 

So, okay, the Sleepy Hollow socks.  Turns out I need a pair of extremely cool
socks to wear with my mini-cowboy socks….who could predict that?   And low and behold, up pops the Sleepy
Hollow socks (on the Yarn Harlot’s blog) and this wonderfully engaging sock
pattern just happens to converge with the Madrona Market (and the Rare Gems
colorway) and the Yarn Harlot’s
Olympic challenge.  Well, when Fate takes
a hand, who am I, mere knitting-obsessed mortal, to stand in the way?  So, as the Olympic torch is fired up tonight,
I (over pizza and beer) will fire up the
Sleepy-Hollow-Rare-Gems-Mini-Cowboy-Boots socks!