I was at a weekend retreat with my spinning & weaving guild, and was able to make a ton of progress on Julissa. Actually, I made even more progress since this photo was taken on Saturday afternoon.
We had such a wonderful weekend. It was the first time we had this kind of retreat. There were 7 of us, and there was no agenda -- it was just a time for us to work on projects (I took a bunch of unfinished knitting projects but only worked on two of them!), chat, and get to know each other better. It was fun to share advice on other people's projects, too. It's really neat to have a problem and have the benefit of the collective wisdom of the group to help you along.
There was another guild from northwest Ohio who was having a retreat over the weekend too, and they were very near where we were. So on Saturday night, we went over to their group to meet each other, knit, spin and drink wine :-) Their weekend was a bit more structured than ours was, in that they were all learning various dyeing techniques. I really like the loosey-goosey way ours was set up. We spent some time on Saturday exploring a couple of the local antique shops, and some of us visited the Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum (I skipped that in favor of more knitting). We shared the meal prep, and let me tell ya, these women made some great stuff. I'm a little afraid to get on the scale after all the great food we had!
I hope I can finish this one pretty soon, now that the body is mostly done. I haven't yet decided whether to go with short cap sleeves or elbow-length sleeves. But either way will be fine, and will very likely depend on how much yarn is left after the body is finished. Full-length sleeves are out of the question, though ... I think they will increase the "frump factor" which I don't want!
But now, I think I'll settle in with a bit more knitting before bed.
G'night!
* in 2011 I knitted a sweater that I really liked. One morning I put it on and the Mr said "Don't wear that." I asked him why and he goes, "It makes you look frumpy. You're not frumpy, you're hot, so don't wear that sweater." So this is my first attempt at knitting sweaters with absolutely NO frump factor!
