I went to my knitting group last night. It was our first meeting since the new year. Our fearless leader, April, brought the cool "thing" she was making in the fall. How to describe it...hmm. It is like a shrug with only a back and long sleeves. Know the kind I mean? It was knit in an amazing assortment of variagated wool in a cable pattern and looked really cool when it was on. It looked like a very short sweater with no neck hole when you held it up, but you slipped it on, and...well, it was just really neat! She also brought her drop spindle to show us how she used it to spin wool...super cool. It looked frustrating and time consuming to get any significant amount of yarn on the spindle, but she swears it is relaxing. She has a traditional spinning wheel, too. Seems a lot more complicated than buying yarn all wrapped and bundled, but I'm sure it's also very rewarding.
Are you wondering what makes me think I'm not crazy? I was trying to knit a hat for Kate that looks like a penguin. I saw it in a check-out counter booklet for babies and knew she'd love it (and is just goofy enough to wear it.) It uses black, white and orange and is the first thing I've knit with an Intarsia pattern (or blocks of color in the design). I also thought I'd be a smarty pants and knit it on circular needles so I don't have to run a seam up the back. Guess what? Turns out you can't do Intarsia on circular needles. I sat at home, banging my head against the wall wondering what "duh" thing I was doing wrong. I kept ending up with my yarn at the wrong end of my work. I'd work a row of black and come around to knit the next row and the yarn was at the wrong end. Like trying to type on a manual typewriter (remember those?) without hitting the return key. After showing it to April we agreed that it can't be done. So, I've got to rip it out and put it on straight needles. So much for my stroke of brilliance!
I've started knitting this super simple (since my brain is still on post-holiday meltdown) scarf. I got the yarn at Pat Catans for $1 and the knitting needles were my birthday present from Kathy. She made them herself! They aren't a specific size, so I can only use them on projects requiring "Kathy-size Needles". Fortunately, this is one such project.
I've decided to use my Barnes & Noble gift certificate from Keith's mom to buy this...
I've wanted it for some time and saw a great sweater in the Knit Picks catalog that was from the book. Love doing cables. So how long before I actually make myself that sweater? Quite a while I bet, but I'll still enjoy having the book.
According to the Discovery Channel, there are only four of these creatures currently being raised in captivity! Amazing. 
It was a bit tedious at times...my first project with Intarsia...I'm not a big fan! It's not too bad if you have a large area of color, but small spots like the beak and the eyes are a bit of a pain. I'm sure there's a much more clever way to do it than the way I did it!
