I Need This Weekend

Thanks goodness for the screened porch. I am exhausted! It is heavenly to sit out here and knit. It seems like I feel this tired by this time every year. Is that because I'm not getting younger? 

I've been perusing a new knitting book. I don't buy knitting books often. There is the library, after all,  and there are all those amazing patterns online. However, I could not leave this one behind. If I'm going to call myself "Caffeine Girl," then I had to buy this one. 

I do have a rule about buying knitting books. There have to be at least three patterns I'm sure I'll knit at some point.  With this book, the cowls captured my attention immediately. This one is very sweet:

Considering that I wore my wool shawls into late May this year, I think I could find a place in my wardrobe for this one, too:

I really like this sweater. But I do have problems with wool. I need to learn about how to find patterns that work with cotton and linen.

Not that I'm casting on any of these right now. I have yarn for some non-wool projects that I want to do, as well as an embarrassing number of WIPs.

I hope to catch up with my blog reading, this weekend, get outside, and do some things with friends and family. 

This is a much-needed three-day weekend, and I am struggling to get work off my mind. The end of the year is always intense because there are students who are not going to graduate on time. They and their parents are very emotional. I feel for them, but I also have to scramble around to find the right GED programs and get their paperwork in order for the fall. I am working with a handful of homeless students this year, and there is one in particular who I am very worried about this weekend.

Enough of that. Time to get back to relaxing!

Sequence Knitting Really Is All That

I first heard about Cecelia Campochiaro's book Sequence Knitting at Knitting Camp this past summer. Meg Swansen sang its praises, and I was able to page through a copy, but I didn't get what the hoopla was about. Besides, it's a large book with a price tag to match.
Then I saw that Campochiaro was going to be speaking at our Guild and teaching an all-day class on a Sunday. OK, I thought, it might be fun to take the class. And it was.

The book, my notes, and one of my sample knits

A Ph.D. chemist who works in Silicon Valley, Campochiaro is smart, funny, and down-to-Earth.  She is a patient teacher who knows how to start with one skill and build on it. She brought a trunk-load of samples, and they sold her method (which I'm not even going to try to describe for fear of not doing it justice) as much as her lively enthusiasm. I was experiencing a lot of pain on Sunday, but her class was both fun and calming -- and for 6 hours I was able to ignore the pain!

Samples from the class. Mine is the blue one in the center.

The scarf in the photo above is my next project. I've been auditioning yarn from my stash. When you are knitting a scarf out of fingering-weight yarn, you need to love the project; you are going to be knitting this for a good long time!

As for reading, I just finished The Light Between the Oceans. It is, as my friend Joan claimed, a very good read. It is also a heart-wrenching story and there were times when I found it a bit hard to read. I'm not sure how I feel about seeing the movie. I don't know how it could live up to the book.

I'll be joining up with Ginny for Yarn Along. See you there!