Annual knitting retreat

I spent the weekend in Portland (well, Troutdale, really) for my annual knitting retreat. I'm in an internet-based group that's been together for almost 6 years. We try to get together in person once a year, and this time we met up at the McMenamins Edgefield. It was, as ever, delightful. I totally forgot to pack a camera (as ever). We spent most the weekend camped out in one of the public areas of the Edgefield, the library. As groups of people walked by, we'd often hear a whispered "Knitters!", as if they'd just spotted a rare species in the wild.

I meant to diligently work on projects. My chosen big project was this sweater, which has been in cold storage for about a year and a half:


The back and 1.6 of the fronts are done. I made some good progress on that second front this weekend, until we all went out shopping on Saturday. We hit Knit/Purl in downtown Portland. Nice store, really nice staff. I was seduced by some blue yarn. Blue, people - not red or pink. Be amazed. There was only one skein of the blue I really loved, so I bought it a couple of coordinating little friends. Anyway, despite my good intentions to work on the sweater, I ended up casting on the blue.

I'm making a stole knit lengthwise in feather and fan. I quickly discovered that it's a really easy stitch pattern to screw up, and now there are markers between every one of the 20 pattern repeats.

In my absence, Kidd the terrier scaled the gate to come upstairs and get closer to his kitty friends. He also managed to wiggle under the bed in an effort to make friends with Callie. She was not amused.