Shepherd's Harvest Class Signup is now open, and other stuff

The class signup for this year's Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival is now open. Go here to learn about the festival in general, and here for the full class list. This will be my first time at Shepherd's Harvest, but I've heard good things about the festival for years. On Saturday, I'm teaching a new class- All-Day Nordic Christmas Stocking, during which we will work on a stranded, toe-up Christmas Stocking, with an afterthought heel (the link has a pic). No prior sock knitting, or stranding experience is needed. You just have to be comfortable with knitting in the round. On Sunday morning, I'll be teaching my Writing Patterns for Publication class, which goes over formatting, submitting, photographing, and writing up patterns, and a lot more. No experience needed for that class either. I have heard a rumor about a booksigning in the afternoon on Sunday, but nothing firm on that yet. I'm excited to attend and teach, and I hope to see some of you there the weekend of May 7-8! And as always, the bad thing about teaching at these festivals is that I can't take classes myself. The roster is full of workshops I'd love to attend.

Speaking of going places- I've been invited back to SAFF, so I get to go to North Carolina in October again! Woohoo!

In between planning classes and trips, I've been doing a bit more knitting.

I finished the Opal Dumbledore socks. They turned out beautifully, if not particularly Dumbledoreish.

And I started another hat. I'm experimenting with a honeycomb slip-stitch pattern for the brim, and I'm using up more leftover yarns (this is old Knit Picks sportweight superwash sock yarn- discontinued long ago). I like how it's coming out. I plan to do the crown decreases in plain stockinette stitch. Next time, I'll work the purled rows in a contrasting color- that'll make those recesses pop.

But the biggest knitting project on my drawing board is a wedding shawl for The Wonderful Cassy, who is marrying Younger Son in July. I want to design and knit something spectacular for her- she has already expressed a preference for a rectangular shawl, and I'd like to incorporate some seashell/ocean design elements since the wedding will be in Oregon, at the beach. I'm excited about this undertaking, and since I'm not working on a lace book, or a shawl book, or any knitting book at all right now, I can share pictures as I work. It'll be an adventure!

This 'n That

I only saw one movie last year, and that was Inception (I was there alone- not alone, as in not having a movie date, I mean that I was the only person in the entire theater. It was a mildly unsettling experience). When it comes down to it, I rarely see any of the nominated movies until they come out on DVD (a result of living a long way from a first-run theater, and a disinclination go go anywhere at night). But I always watch the Oscar telecast, just to see the dresses.

Mostly last night, the dresses were stunning (and I don't say that lightly). Mila Kunis managed to look nearly naked and yet fully covered, and totally amazing. Hailee Steinfeld was perfectly adorable and age-appropriate.  Helen Mirren was Helen Mirren was jaw-dropping. I liked most of Anne Hathaway's dresses.

Even the intermediate ones weren't bad. A bit of sparkle around the neck would have kept Jennifer Lawrence's dress from looking like a formal version of Farrah Fawcett's swimsuit. A little less foof would have helped Halle Berry's dress. Nicole Kidman would have looked fine, minus the hip-wrap.

There were only a couple of real disasters: Annette Benning's dress did absolutely nothing for her (and was Warren Beatty drunk on the Red Carpet?). Cate Blanchet's dress looked like a mold encrusted picture frame, featuring her torso. And the less said about Scarlett Johansson's hair, the better.

All in all, an entertaining show, if you mostly ignored the hosts (who weren't as awful as many are saying, they just weren't very good). And there's no such thing as too much Colin Firth. Since The Oscars aren't American Idol, I could knit instead of taking notes.

I took a short break from plain and mitered leftover hats to knit Mary's Winter Garden Hat. The pattern is available from her blog, and on Ravelry.

I love love love the swirly decreases.

This lovely hat is a quick knit- I started it around supper time, and finished before the end of The Oscars. The yarn is Rowan Colourscape Chunky, colorway: Autumn, which I bought at Athena Fibers, before we left for California. It's beautiful yarn, and I thought I was going to make a mitered hat with it, but the repeats are too long. Turns out, that was a good thing- it's perfect for Mary's hat pattern. And best of all- one skein has enough yarn to knit two hats, and since the color changes are long, and the shades change throughout, Hat #2 is not going to be identical to Hat #1, except for the stitch pattern.

The Opal Dumbledore socks are coming along. For a colorway/repeat this chaotic, it's matching up perfectly! Go figure.

And finally, things are back to normal on Amazon, with Fearless Fair Isle Knitting doing just fine, thank you. But for one brief moment on Saturday, there was some major excitement in my neck of the woods!