fighting the winter doldrums

Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a bear and just sleep through the whole winter. It's a wistful fantasy, the thought of finding a cozy, dark cave and just hunkering down until the cold and snow and long dark nights are over. I'm having a case of the winter doldrums - not actual depression or anything that you or I need to seriously worry about, mind you - just the blahs. It doesn't help that whatever virus I caught over a week ago is still sitting in my ears and making it hard to hear anything other than my own heartbeat thumping inside my head. My friend Pat apparently had/has the same thing, because when we met this morning over coffee and scones at the café in Lakeside Fibers, we had to sit real close and talk loud and repeat everything. (I'm sure that wasn't annoying to anyone else at all.)

One bright spot this week was that last night was the first meeting of a knitting group I've been organizing with a couple other women at the church I [sometimes, not very regularly] attend. Only six of us showed up, but I'm sure there would have been more had the roads been better. We got six inches of snow yesterday, and the roads were still a mess when I left in the evening. I had to be there, though, because I volunteered to teach sock knitting to anyone interested in learning. Sure enough, three of last night's attendees were ready and raring to go. I have to admit I was pretty stoked about it. I'm a teacher by nature and by heritage (just about everyone in my extended family teaches, farms, or both, though there are a few engineers sprinkled in as well), so I came prepared with sample socks and sample sock yarn to pass around, a half-knit mini-sock for demonstrations, and a handout with a practice sock pattern I wrote up myself. All three of the newbie sock knitters, as it turns out, were also new to using DPNs and knitting in the round, so I took some time to familiarize everyone with those techniques. I learned to knit when I was 8 years old, and I learned to knit socks from my friend and colleague in 2002; last night was a reminder that what feels like second nature to me is very awkward the first time for someone else. We did all right, though, and got as far as beginning the heel flap before it was time to go home.

And, just so I don't have two picture-less posts in a row, here's a little preview of what I've been knitting over the past week or so. It's almost done, so there will be an FO post soon!