This weekend was amazing! At Anacapa Fine Yarns, Sally Mellville spent the weekend hard at work. I had no idea that this was going to be such a terrific experience. She began the weekend with a lecture on fostering creativity in which she plucked thoughts about the creative experience right from deep in my head. My neck was sore from nodding in agreement with all that she had to say. She is one well rounded knitter - she hopped from Winston Churchill to Quantum physics.
The next two days, she plowed through four more courses - two a day. When she comes to your town, sign up for at least one if not everything that she is offering. I went to Stripes and Stripes that aren't which is mostly based on the content of her third book about Color. Much to play with and tremendously inspiring. We learned how to stripe one at a time not in the round, lampshade, half linen stitch, mock houndstooth and two color ladder stitch. The best thing that we learned is how to keep stripes flattering, which I felt such a freedom by learning because I adore making stripes but fear the power of horizontal things. There are three things that all have to be present to make something striped hideous. Not gonna be a spoiler though - check out the book or take a one of her classes. Worth every moment!
As soon as I got my toosh home, I could hardly get myself in the door before putting my hands on one of my most current WIPs - a pullover for my son. About a month ago, I cast on with some yarn that I have had for awhile waiting to be a pullover for the young man. I haven't really felt moved to start the sleeves because I never feel moved to work on sleeves, especially when not in top down modas opporandi. However, this class showed such great ways to use varigated yarns to their fullest potential and I was in hyperdrive to get a pair of sleeves cast on. Now, please note, that regardless of my fury to get sleeves on the needles, I did swatch ;). 
I introduced some purple from my stash using the lampshade stitch. I am going to keep the raglan shaping and carry the lampshade stripes that aren't through the yoke. Instead of a simple crewneck, I am going to do a split front crewneck. Last night, I doubled the lenght that you see in the picture - a whopping 8 inches with 10 more to go. I can't wait to get to the yoke. Any day now...I would just stay up and knit straight through but one of the most important things that Sally discussed this weekend was the importance of letting your mind get enough rest. You are actually cheating your brain from doing the bulk of its creative work and problem solving if you skimp on your sleep cycle. I have been following her advice since Friday night and I certainly appreciate the permission to sleep well. It makes it easier to get to bed with my early bird, teacher spouse.
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