Itching for Spring

The weather has been on the not-so-nice side lately. Lots of gray days and weather that can't make up its mind whether to snow or rain or whatever. But, we inch along the calendar to my favorite sign of spring -- the North Street Dairy Cone will open for the summer sometime around St. Patrick's Day. And that won't be long in coming!

I spent Saturday at Spa, Knit, and Spin in Freeport with 3 knitting friends. We call our trips to these events "knitting boondoggles." I did very well sticking to my budget at the vendor market, and then ended up going over a bit when we stopped at Purl Diva in Brunswick on the way home. To cap off a lovely day (despite the cold, gray weather), we had gelatto with another Spa attendee we befriended at Purl Diva. It was a nice get-away.

So, what did I spend my budget money on? A skein of Woolen Rabbit Whisper merino lace in Scottish Heather (in some light it looks more purple and in other light grey). I plan to knit another Maplewing as the color I made it in last year just isn't my favorite. At Purl Diva I got 2 coordinating Zauberballs to knit the Daybreak Shawl. And, I bought a pattern to make a quick sweater with some EcoWool I've got hanging around. Two skeins should make this top-down cardigan a quick knit in off-white.

I've also gotten hooked into the Evenstar KAL (knit-along for my non-knitting readers) based on the Lord of the Rings. I'm getting a late start, but since it is a Pi Shawl, I should be able to catch up pretty quickly.

Most importantly, I'm beginning to get my yarn stuff more organized. I had a shoe-pocket thingy to hang up and put it on the closet door. I decided to use it to organize my round and flexible bamboo needles -- I'm so excited! They've been such a pain to keep track of and now they are neatly corralled by size. And the bookcase is painted and filled with all of my fiber books and magazines. I bought one pair of curtains, but the other size I needed wasn't in stock, so I need to order the second pair. I'm still in search of a filing cabinet I won't hate looking at or using, though. But, it is feeling like one small part of my life is getting organized.

We're thinking of using April vacation to clean out our basement. What fun. But, it will be good once we're done. And even better when Nate moves into his apartment for the fall and we can donate a bunch of furniture it is time to get rid of :)

ON MY NEEDLES
STILL working on the hood for the slouchy cardi. Got quite a bit done last night while watching two episodes of Eureka.

Mittens are almost done -- just have one thumb to do and ends to tie in.

And I cast on for Skew socks this weekend and am almost up to the heel on the first one.