Twisp of Fate

We had a good turnout yesterday at Methow Valley Spinners and Weavers, for our 4th Thursday “focus on spinning” day.  Somehow we had kind of fallen out of the habit of making this 4th meeting of the month truly about spinning, so it was heartening to see all the wheels in motion and a lively discussion of fiber preparations and spinning methods.  There had also been some interest in learning more about crochet finishes so we had a little demo and practice of basic crochet and also Reverse Single Crochet or Crab Stitch.

I am teaching 2 knitting classes now.  The Tuesday night group is learning how to design and knit their own top-down raglan sweater.  Next week is the 4th meeting and everyone seems to be doing well.  I’ll try to get some progress pictures of their sweater next week.  Here is the one I am knitting along with them:

The yarn is some Rowan Magpie Tweed I bought several years ago from a friend who was de-stashing.  It’s nice to see it finally turning into something!  I am quite pleased with the cable pattern down the front and back, and the cabled rib with rolled edge on the sleeve.  I plan to use that around the bottom of the sweater as well, and then work out something along the same lines for the neckline finish.

My other group is on Thursday mornings – they just wanted some help with their projects, and to learn some new skills.  Yesterday I taught them how to do several different kinds of buttonholes.

We’re off to the coast today to start packing up and moving out of our apartment there.  We’ll be moved out by the end of February.  It’s been a wonderful place to come to when we are in the big city, right at the Ballard Locks, but it has become harder to justify the expense given how seldom we are actually there.  Kind of hard to give it up, though…