This year at Stitches West I’m actaully taking a few classes:

Friday:
Aran Knitting with Beth Walker-O’Brian
Celtic Cables with Melissa Leapman

Saturday:
Spinning for Knitting with Merike Saarniit

Sunday:
Short Rowed Bust Darts with Lily Chin

I’ve gotten all my homework swatches done. Each class’ swatch was done in a different color and placed in gallon sized ziplock bags so I can keep them straight. I still need to get some graph paper this afternoon, but otherwise I think I’m set. The only thing left to do is drag my butt out of bed way too early tomorrow morning so I can get to the conference center before 8:30 am.

Anyone out there use Movable Type for their blog? What do you think of it?

I’m not terribly enthused by the idea of switching to Blogger beta at the moment. The Web host I use for my private email account already has Movable Type installed, and they maintain it. So, I’m considering the idea of shifting my blog to my personal domain. Just want some comments/opinions by people who have experience with MT before making my final decision.

Thanks! 🙂

First off, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Okay, good. Now that that’s out of the way, I can say thanks to everyone who sent their well wishes while I was sick and specials thanks to those of you who reminded me that February is a short month and will be over sooner rather than later. 🙂

Onward to knitting… I had mentioned before that I was trying my hand at a simple st st vee neck sweater using the instructions in Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top. But, I didn’t really saying anything else about it even after prodding by blog readers. So, today’s the day. It’s a plain st st cause I used to have some basic store bought sweaters that I loved so much the elbows disintegrated. I couldn’t patch them, cause there was nothing left to patch. I decided to go with a vee neck to be different from the last couple sweaters I’ve done, which were all crewnecks. I’m knitting it out of Heirloom Yarns Heatherwood in a sage green color.

I cast on the back shoulders with great trepidation and porceeded into the short rows. As I got to the armpits of the back, I tried to figure out what to do next (I didn’t have the book with me) and did a sort of reverse engineering from a bottom up sweater. After reading the directions in the book I realized I was completely wrong and ended up tearing my armpits out and doing it Barbara’s way. Then, I picked up the front and did the short rows, knitting ever downward, working in the neckline increases.

Then, I joined the front and the back. I was making progress. I could begin to admire my handy work. I love the short row shoulders! It was beginning to look like a sweater. This is, of course, when it got extremely boring. All knit, all the time. So, I did what any knitter in my place would do, I cast on a sock.

I think January should be a write-off. It sucked all sorts of balls. The husband had the stomach flu that’s been going around so much it made the news (not the norovirus, but the other one). I had a head cold that I’m still trying to shake the reminants of.

I’m not sure how February’s going to go. There were definitely some birthing pains right from the start. The 1st marked the official first day of officially being a part of the big tech company that ate the smaller tech company I worked for. I’m not really getting into the school thing, and my first assignment is due in a week, and there’s this whole thesis proposal thing I’m supposed to be working on. And we can’t forget the warning a girl I met at a party last month gave me… “oh, you’re a snake. This Chinese New Year’s is for the boar. This year’s going to be hard for you cause the snake and the boar are opposite signs.” Definitely doesn’t sound promising, does it?