Spring Dancing Fever

Things have been hectic, fun, awesome, overwhelming, and ridiculous in the life of Katie lately.
Spring season means Dance Competition season for me.  I've been incredibly busy the last month or so getting all of my groups, duos, and soloist ready for the stage.

We just completed two weekends in a row of competition.

I have never been so proud of my dancers.  We received top scores and awards and special judge's awards for dances throughout the studio, and I was incredibly honored last weekend to receive a Choreography Award for my dynamic duo's musical theater performance.

There were only two given out the entire weekend with around 290 dances to choose from, so it's an incredible honor to get it.  In addition to that, all of my dancers received overall category and age high scores, judge's choice awards, and even some of the highest scores of the entire weekend.
It's exhausting, nerve-racking, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  :)
I'm definitely happy, though, that this week we're going to be winding down a little bit.  We've been all pushing so hard that both dancers and teachers are getting pretty sick, so it was nice to have a little more of a relaxing week last week during dance spring break.  We have one more competition at the end of April, so we'll begin to amp it up again these next couple of weeks.
I did manage to squeeze in some "spring" climbing.

I only put quotation marks around that because I'm using the word "spring" very loosely.  Yes, I got to climb out side at Palisade.  Yes, it was rock climbing, which was great.  BUT my friends and I may have been a tad over-excited to climb in weather that wasn't exactly spring flowers.
I believe the high was 35 degrees, and with a wind coming straight off of the lake, my hands froze trying to complete anything resembling climbing.
I would shove in a hand jam, move it around a little, but because my hands were so cold I couldn't even tell if it was a proper jam or not.  Super fun. :)

Luckily I was with awesome people that all played it off as our favorite "Type-2 fun", and we warmed up quickly with soup and sandwiches at one of the amazing places to eat up the shore.
We're just going to have to wait a bit until the real spring appears up here in the north.  Until then, I'll be ramping up my running to get rid of some of the winter squish I've accumulated over the last few months and climbing a few days a week to get into shape.
I have a lot of summer excitement planned, so it's important that I can execute all of it... ;)

Knitting in 2017

Knitting took a little bit of a back seat last year, unfortunately.  A big part of that was because I would come home from dance around 9, and most of the time I had to grade until I went to bed at 10:30 or so.  Not a ton of time to knit.

This year, that's going to change.
I've been getting better at getting my grading done during the day, so when I come home from dance, I can relax with either an audio book or a little Netflix and my knitting.  I have a lot to catch up on!
Let's take a gander.
UFO's- 
Flamingo Mittens for SIL
So these were actually getting really close to being done- I had one complete and the other a great start.
Then Albert found the completed mitten in my knitting bag.  He pulled the finished mitten out, trotted all over the apartment with it, proud as can be, and left it somewhere on the floor when he was done.
You all know what happens when unsupervised knitting is left out at my house.

Yep.  Guess I'm not nearly as finished as I want to be with these. :(
Le petite Godzilla struck again.
To be fair, looking at the fair isle (though it's not blocked), I'm okay frogging these back to be fixed, since they're a little uneaven.  I might bring these when I go on my skiing trip this weekend- lots of plane and car time means lots of time to knit!
Ivy League Vest for myself
What's with all these colorwork projects?  This one I cast on I believe at the beginning of 2016, and it's hiding deep in a drawer.  I'll probably work on this one over the summer.  I don't even have a current picture because I don't actually know where it's hiding...
StarShower Cowl for myself

I started this to have a travel knit for myself that's easy, functional, and in good spring/summer colors.  I'm going to only let this be a travel knit, as it seems that most of my projects are not.  Too much fair isle...
Scandinavian Snowflake Hat for myself

Another colorwork.  This one is over halfway done, but I needed to find another color to compliment the rest of the pattern.  SO CLOSE to being done with this one- I just need to pick the color and finish it with a movie or two.

What's on the docket next...
Only two things right now!

One is what I'm calling my Adventure Hoodie- a beautiful and easy button-up striped cardigan that will (hopefully) go with everything.  I need something cozy and pretty for all of my summer travels, and hopefully this will be finished by then!

All the yarn is wound, and I'm planning on swatching for this gorgeous thing tonight.  I might be a little excited to start this.  I want to have it finished before I go on my crazy summer adventures!
The other is a Curling Cardigan for my cousin Sam.

It's a long story.  I'll tell you that later. ;)