Pacific Northwest

Here is the shawl I have been working on. I have all of the seagulls done and am four rows short of finishing the trees. The color did not come out correctly it is really a dark cranberry/maroon color, but I am driving to Michigan today and did not have time to play with taking pictures.

The finished shawl should look like this http://www.fibertrends.com/viewer/V4_shawls.html I am quite pleased with it so far. I am knitting it on a US size 9 needle. The pattern calls for a US 6 but if I knit it that tight the gage is completely off.

37 days to spinning wheel. I think that they also give you 10% of the purchase price as fiber. I think it will take me a long time to spin up $40 worth of fiber. They have really beautiful stuff there.

I now have five people signed up for my needle tatting class in January. I am really excited.

I did not take a picture of my craft bag for vacation but I have limited my poundage admirably. I am taking two knitting project, the shawl and a sock and two or three tatting books with supplies. The nice thing about tatting is that you can bring a ridicules number of options along and it looks like very little stuff.

I should be able to visit Yarn a Round in Ann Arbor on Friday or Saturday. They are a great yarn store. I am just going to have to keep in mind that I have a lot to do by Christmas when I get my spinning wheel.

The Great Smokies!

My Husband took me to the Great Smokies last weekend, to get me out of Mississippi for a few days.

They were beautiful and we climbed 5 state high points: Tennesse, North Corolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. It was great fun.

I started my Pacific Northwest Shawl from Fiber Trends and we had a great time. I am done with the first 1 and 1/2 sections of the pattern, all of the sea gulls and most of the trees. I hope to post a picture of it tonight after I finish packing for our trip to Michigian.

38 days until my new spinning wheel!!!

I called Maggie at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins on Saterday and she is holding a Lendrum for me until I get there on the 30th of December. She wants me to try it out before I decide that it is the wheel for me, since I have spent about an hour total using a spinning wheel. I am not sure that I would be able to tell the difference between two of them. They are very nice there and if you are ever looking for yarn in the Front Range of Colorado you should check them out. They carry weaving, basket making, spinning, knitting, crochet and tatting supplies.

I know that I am going to have to stop relying on Boulder for everything I want to buy. But I still know where to get things there so much more quickly. I just don't know my way around Jackson or Memphis very well. It is still easier to get things in Ann Arbor that it is in Mississippi since my wonderful Mother and Brother-in-Law help me get what ever I want while I am there.

Socks are done

Here are my finished Fluted banister Socks. They are not blocked and may never be so they are a little squished up.

I think they turned out well. I had to frog the toes twice because I did not have enough yarn and did not want to have to order another ball of Sockatta especially since I had lost the band.
Here is Alice, my cat, playing with a cat toy that Brynne made for her. Brynne's blog is located here, www.knit.blogspot.com

I am still blocking the Cabled Tulip sweater and I am knitting a baby hat from Dalgarn that I hope to block tonight. Then I don't want to knit any more baby things.
The weather is blessedly cool and the house has been in the 5os at night.
Only 51 more days until I have my spinning wheel.
I also ordered myself two new tatting books on Monday. Monday was a bad day. I really enjoy tatting but was getting tired of making edgings and little circles. So I hope my new book on inverted tatting and Fancy Pants 2, with advanced techniques will be fun. My tatting class that I want to teach in January is also shaping up.

Brewing

OK I have no new knitting pictures from this weekend. Because I didn't spend much time knitting. I did teach two people to knit, though. A girl in my Youth Group. And a friend of mine with a new baby. Both were doing well on their garter stitch samples when I last saw them.
This is what I did last Friday:

That's right we brewed beer. Good, heavy, German beer. It is a recipe called Phat Fired Weizenbock from Charlie Papazion's Joy of homebrewing.
I love making beer, it is fun and messy and always includes spending the evening with my DH:

He says he is the luckiest man in the world because I like to brew beer and I don't like diamonds, to many Karma problems.
It's alive! OK, the yeast in it is alive. People don't make beer, yeast make beer. Yeah for yeast!