A week from today, Sarah and I head up to Bellevue for Vogue Knitting Live!  And I am pretty excited:) We hit the early bird sign-up in June and went for the whole package — so we are facing 6 three-hour classes, 2 hour-long lectures, and the Shawl Soirée!  All in 3 days.  Our main concern at present is that we have scheduled ourselves up so ambitiously that we will have less time in the Marketplace than we would like — I imagine we will end up making strategic strikes at the yarn vendors between classes (somewhat like the pterodactyls in the most recent Jurassic Park movie…).  But since Sarah and I buy yarn like champions, I am not too worried.

What is giving me the heebie-jeebies in the middle of the night is the possibility of my not finishing my Stephen West shawl (and oh yeah we are taking a class from him!) and my Yellow and Black Q’mitl in time to wear at VKL.  These are the only 2 projects I am knitting on now (which tells you how, um, focused I am!).  As soon as I finished the baby sweater that was destined for Arizona (and which was only slightly damp when I handed it over to the new grandmother!), I dumped all my other projects into the spare bedroom.

(Baby sweater pictured above)

I admit I let my Puzzle Blocks Color Blocks sweater project sleep by my bed and gave it every assurance that it will be coming to VKL as an in-progress piece (you have to knit on something splashy when you are there with all the knitters) and my Find Your Fade shawl will also be attending on the needles.  But, OH, I hope to have the other two done!  I fully plan to wear the Stephen West shawl to the Shawl Soirée.

I have calculated out the number of rows per day necessary to complete it, bind off, weave in ends, and block it before the first drink is poured at the Soirée:  3 rows a day.  Sounds almost laughable (“Ha-ha-ha” she chortled, her Stephen West shawl dangling enchantingly across her shoulders…) except that there are 800+ stitches per row.  That is a heck of a lot of stitches.  Do-able, certainly, but not leaving much knitting time left to finish:

My Yellow and Black Q'mitl.  Which is so nearly, nearly done — but not quite (okay, there are a lot of adorable miter squares left to do after I finish the black lace portion).   This piece is my own design and I would love to sashay around VKL in what is sure to be a stunning, head-turning, oh-my-look-at-that kinda thing!

I have one week.