April in Chicago

I made it to Chicago.  There are violets, but no lilies of the valley or lilacs.  There was, however, snow.  It came late and was gone by morning, but still snow in mid April!

It's been write, write, write since I got here. I had to finish up the update of my website and get cracking on the next Yarn Retreat  book.  It is easier to get lost in my work when there is no one to interrupt me.

I am also working on the project for the book.  The characters are new to knitting so I wanted a project that was easy and quick, but also nice looking.  I was also concerned that I didn't use yarns that might be discontinued before the book comes out. Just before I left I went through my stash and grabbed some knitting needles the size of small baseball bats.  I gathered up three different yarns that seem standard and not likely to be discontinued.  I had already come up with a plan for the design, but I wanted to try making it to see what kind of problems my characters would have with it.

It is alway s exciting to work with  a number of strands of yarn because the end result is always a surprise.  I didn't know what it would look like until I started working  on it.  So far I'm pleased with the results.  The retreat Casey is putting on this time is for some of her college friends and I wanted something they would actually wear.

The time here is flying by, particularly since my trip got shortened by the bad weather.  For the days I have left, it will be write, write, write.

The weather is supposed to get better by the day, not that I will really notice.  My head is with Casey on the Monterey peninsula where the skies are always cloudy and the bodies keep piling up.