Spring in SW Michigan

My poor daffodils! Tuesday I was looking at the flower buds on the sweet cherry tree. Today I am afraid to go out and look at them.

Last night's program of the Lakeshore Fiber Arts Guild was on freeform knitting, led by Juliane Anderson, owner of the Threadbender Yarn Shop in Wyoming, Michigan.

She led into her program by asking, "Do you ever knit a sock and never knit the second sock? Or never finish the first sock? Do you start projects and never finish them? Do you have trouble knitting in a straight line?"

I was mentally shaking my head, No. No. No, to each question, and meanwhile knitting the ribbing on the blue socks that had been stalled by the warm spring weather. Suddenly at 30 degrees F., warm Wool-Ease socks seemed like a good idea again.

I obediently cast on and knit a rectangle, cast off except for one stitch, picked up the stitches along one side, and knitted a triangle, and so on. I imagine if I had been working in little bits of boucle merino yarn, instead of odd yarns out of my leftover bag, I might have been more pleased with the outcome.

Here is a close-up of the shawl Juliane brought with her. This yarn was springy and so soft, I could just pet this shawl. Freeform knitting would be a fun technique for using up leftovers, but I already do plenty of doodling with yarn and thread.

How do I put this -- I do start lots of projects, and I do have projects waiting for me to get back to them. But I don't feel drawn to freeform knitting the way I feel drawn back to some of my projects.

She did have a couple of books for us to leaf through, and I was really drawn to Debbie New's Unexpected Knitting. Look, a knitted cup and saucer! (squeals the tea-drinking knitter). And a knitted. Lace. Coracle. Gotta love the heck out of that.

And it looks like I might be teaching a double-knitting class at the October meeting. That ought to be entertaining, if I don't die of stage fright first.