the winds of March

The winds of March are wild outside. What am I doing? I'm knitting my handspun into a wee dress.

I love me a pretty turned hem!

North House Folk School

I got back late Sunday night from a teaching stint at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. For those of you unfamiliar with either North House or Grand Marais, both make it very worth the trip!

The North House Folk School sign and campus at Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Teaching in my second class. The view was beautiful, but the bright sun was distracting and too warm.

Beautiful town, gorgeous scenery, great food, and the best students ever! I taught two classes, based on my articles in PieceWork and Knitting Traditions: Skolt Saami Sampler and the Karesuando mittens.

I forgot to talk pictures in my first class (I'm sorry! Forward me any, if you have them!), but here are some of my great students in my second class.

My class included mother and daughter (daughter was the keener and dragged mum along!) and two best friends from grade school who hadn't seen each other in 10 years. Very fun dynamics. I enjoyed teaching knitting and history and throwing in some new cast-ons and skills for those who were interested.

Bear in mind that this was in February, and I'm sure the landscape is quite different today, but let me close with a beautiful picture of the shore of Lake Superior.

January

In January I got a case of "finish-it-itis." As you know, when that hits, it is important to run with it. My goal was to finish some ufos (unfinished objects).

As such, I tackled and completed:

a hat for my daughter

She pointed to a picture she liked and chose her colors and I knit it.

a self-designed, Latvian-inspired hat (begun 4 years ago)

a basic baby hat

a thread crochet cellphone case (at least one year old - no good photo)

a hand-quilted lap quilt (5 years along?)

a baby sweater

Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater pattern

a knitted baby dress (begun 2 years ago?)

And last weekend, I attended a spin retreat and spun up 8 ounces of Frabjous Fibers Polwarth roving.

Ralph the dinosaur

This one is for Rebecca.

My youngest still likes my knitting, stuffed animals and dinosaurs. As such, he deserves to be rewarded.

I cast on this ankylosauras in December during a long car ride (I was a passenger), intending it as his Christmas present. We did not give many presents this year, so I wanted them to be things the kids actually liked. Guess what? He did!

The pattern is from the book Knitted Dinosaurs. The writing is a bit wonky, as the instructions for putting on the legs seem to be opposite of what the pictures indicate. The finishing of it was definitely the tricky part, but I got it all together before the 25th.

He immediately named it Ralph after "Wreck it Ralph." Haven't seen it, yet. Hope it's a compliment.

Here he is, in all his glory.

For those of you keeping track, the hat still is not lost.