still here and preparing for madrona

The last few months have been a blur--houseguests and holidays and long hours at work and getting our house ready to sell, Sprout learning to walk, illness in our own and extended families. Through it all, I've been looking forward to one thing: the Madrona Fiber Arts conference. Now it's only a week away, and I get to take a class from Evelyn Clark on lace knitting, a class on continental knitting, and an intarsia class from Lucy Neatby. Not to mention the fact that--even though the conference happens close enough to home that I can't really justify it--I get to stay in a hotel for two nights! I will finally test the theory that motherhood means you never sleep as well again. Surely if it's going to happen, it will happen in a hotel with no baby/dog/husband crowding, snoring, or waking at 4 a.m.

And I've been cranking away at knitting. Still OTS: the Sprout daycare blankie (which I'm hoping to finish before he goes into the toddler room next week and really needs a good stout blankie for mat napping), the alpaca cable scarf for my brother, the Sprout sweater (I got hung up on it after Thanksgiving, when I'd finished all the pieces but had no place to block or assemble it because our house now has to remain in pristine buyer-ready condition), and a couple of easy Fixation baby hats. I also placed a KnitPicks order for 9 colors of Telemark for the intarsia class but am dreaming of making the Interweave holiday issue cover Fair Isle beret once class no longer requires the yarn. Sorry no pics of yarn, but here's a recent one of Sprout, making the face that he now seems to think is required whenever a camera is pointed at him: