Sarah and I are super excited for Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat this week!  We love these events — the knitters, the market, the classes!  And, of course, we want to be wearing some fresh and fun knitted pieces 🙂

Sarah gets the award for finishing her fresh, fun piece — a gorgeous lace shawl!  Way to go, Sarah!

My own pieces are, um, in a less complete state.  But I am working on them and think there is a good possibility that one or the other or even BOTH sweaters will be done by the weekend.  One thing going for me is that they are both pretty fabulous and funky garments worked with bulky yarns — fewer stitches and rows per inch means the knitting goes more quickly.  But it is pretty strenuous work — especially if you are chunking away at it for hours day after day (as in maybe 3-4 hours total each day).  It takes a lot more strength and arm movement to maneuver the heavier yarns, stitch by stitch.

(And, in retrospect, this was perhaps not the best time to start going to the gym to use the weight machines.  Between the two — the new weights routine and the behemoth knitting — my arms are achy noodles!  And my hands are just tired and cranky all the time.  BUT I am a stubborn Finn and I am SOOOOO close to finishing the sweaters…)

Here is “Who’s The Beast?” (My own design — you may recognize it from the banner photo on the blog!) standing all on it own on a foot stool.

And here is the Inez Sweater by Olivia — I call it my Tea Cozy Sweater — which will make more sense when you see it finished 🙂 There is a pen (my super cool NASA space pen!) on it to show the size of the cables.

Okay, well, I had better get back to my knitting!  Onward!