Back in the USSA

Reluctantly I have returned home. Although I must admit it's wonderful to see my darling BF and all the critters running around the house. The BF even brought a rose to the airport when he picked me up!! I think I'll keep him for a while ;)

I had such an amazing time. Saw beautiful art work and churches, architecture and country side. Every single meal I had there was amazing, and gelato... mmmmmm!!!! I am truly amazed that I only gained 2 lbs while gone. I'm still trying to sort through it all, it seems a bit like a wonderful dream I had. Not quite real but so vivid and colorful. I'll post a few pics soon and hopefully that will help me reign in my thoughts.

I did manage to finish the cardi by the time the plane left for Florence. I've made some modifications to it. Instead of ribbing around the edges I knit 3 rows of garter stitch, 3 rows of seed stitch, and ended with 3 more rows of garter. I really like the subtle effect it gives. Unfortunately, before I had even worn it, I spilled a bag of honey mustard pretzels in my knitting bag and didn't realize it. So I pull it out to wear and I find lovely splotches of yellow dust stuff ground into it in a few spots. Tonight I need to see if I can rescue it. I might cry if it doesn't work!

I do want to mention that Ryan over a Mossy Cottage Knits, along with Kim Myhre are hosting the first ever Dulaan-a-Thaan at Village Yarn & Tea . I so want to go and was wondering if anyone from the Portland Metro area would want to carpool? Leave me a comment if your interested.

Self deprecation rears it's head..

Last night was knit night at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop although it looked more like spinning night. We had 5 spinners, 4 wheels with 2 newbies learning to spin. It was a lot of fun and interesting to hear how other more experienced spinners gave advice to the 2 new guys. Yep both were guys! Actually of the 5 spinners there 3 were guys. It's good to see more male spinners and nice to help propagate the species. Back to the advice giving though. I didn't always agree with the advice being given but I felt like I shouldn't say anything because I've only been spinning for 2 months. I know the two more advanced spinners wouldn't have cared if I put in my two cents but for some reason I kept quiet and later, when they had both left, mentioned some of my ideas to the newest spinner. He must have found it helpful because he thanked me a couple of times. Even with this evidence that perhaps I have some helpful advice to give I still played it down. "No no Bob was the helpful one, I'm just new at this". Why do I do this? I do it with my knitting too. "Anyone could knit this shawl, it's only 6 feet of entrelac" (which really isn't hard, just time consuming) I think I need to work on it, if it bothers me it probably bugs other people too. (Ok I know it does, my bf gets irritated when I'm downplaying compliments on my knitting and butts in to tell people how long it took and how amazing I am, it's nice to have someone toot your horn for you). So that will be my new goal. No more "Well it's ok for my second sock, I'm sure I can do better" and onto "Thank you, it took some time and I'm proud of this bit o' yarn!"

Ok after that long-windedness I'll move on to the best part of the night. Janna and Kathy both showed up last night. I even got a hug from Kathy! We met Janna and her DH's girls, Offspring Elder and Younger. Both are such beautiful and polite girls and Offspring Younger wowed us with a very cute baby bootie she was working on. I had a great time getting to know them all better. It was truly a lovely evening and I hope that we'll see each other at the shop more often!

A whole new world!

The title refers to blogging and spinning. I'm new to both so bear with me here. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while but the the little voice in my head kept holding me back. "Who will read a blog from you? What if you have nothing to say? Will anyone laugh, blogs seem to make people spew coffee onto their computers and I'm not sure you can pull that off my dear." Finally I squashed the voice (actually I drowned it with chocolate, that usually works wonders) so here I am. Any advice to a new blogger?

In my knitting life I'm working on the Neckdown Summer Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. I'm using Cascade Sierra Quatro in a beautiful blue color. (I can't find the ball band at the moment) You can see a picture of this at my friend and LYS owner, Cheri's, new blog in a pink variegated color (as everyone who knows Cheri should expect). The major difference between mine, besides the color, is that I believe Cheri's will probably fit, while apparently I have arm pits that fall to my belly button. I'm on gauge and the bust size is supposed to end up two inches smaller than my actual bust so I have no idea what happened. Right now I'm in that denial stage, I should frog it, I know I won't like it later but somehow I keep knitting, imagining that the size fairy will somehow fix it. (Hopefully she doesn't fix it by making me bigger, I don't need any help on that front :P )

I'm also working on a pair of Evelyn Clark Railroad Rib Socks in Lorna's Laces and Knitting Pure & Simple Lightweight Socks in On Lite Supersocke Cotton, Beach Color. I love this last yarn, it has been so much fun to work with.

Ok my goal by next post - find a camera! I'll be able to show my projects and some of my handspun that way. Much easier then trying to explain about handspun merino in natural colors, that just sounds so boring and bland.