I’m in love . . . .with yarn, and gadgets

And oh yeah, my husband. But on the knitting end. I really love the Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Silk Lace 20/2 100% silk. I bought it at A Tangled Skein two weeks ago in the Blue Terra Cotta colorway, and started the Diamond Fantasy shawl in it (Thank you Hannah for the suggestion).



I enjoyed knitting on it so much, that when a Tangled Skein had a fun 20% off everything sale with a Friday the 13th late-night sale from 9 pm to Midnight (as well as sit and knit during those hours with munchies and beverages!), I had to buy ANOTHER skein of this yarn in the Walk in the Woods colorway.



And then my last Christmas present arrived last week. My husband ordered the heavy-duty wooden ball-winder from Nancy’s Knit Knacks, and it CAME! I’ve never used a ball winder I’ve liked better, it just flows so easily, and quickly. I’m even willing to wind my own yarn more often! (I’ve had two plastic ones break on me, and the first wooden one I got elsewhere doesn’t have a comfortable winding design. My sweet husband has been winding a lot of my yarn for me – he actually enjoys doing it – and he also is quite pleased with it.) I'll post a photo of it in use next week. We're off to Massachusetts to attend and perfrom the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA).



Meanwhile, a silly story on myself. I was reading recently my friend Hannah’s blog about the shawl she’d made her mother-in-law, with photos and I thought, oh what a lovely pattern, and followed the links to where it was shown that it was in the Fall issue ’06 of Interweave Knits. I went and looked it up in my copy – and reminded myself that I had STARTED this shawlette in some nice silk I bought at the Montpelier Wool Festival in October. Embarrassed at myself, I found the project – AND finished it within five days!

So here it is just before I unpinned it from blocking, with accent cat (Bailey). Mine is definitely a “shawlette”, but very nice, and I can see getting a fair amount of use from it, especially over the summer, as it may be just the right “extra” for some air conditioned places!




I’m having great fun with socks and lace, they seem to balance each other quite nicely, and since my two friends LOVE their hand-knit socks with wider cuffs then feet, I’ve got lots of opportunities to knit socks – and not add so many to my over flowing sock drawer – and if my husband gets every fifth pair I knit, he’s in good shape!

And 25 years ago on this very day, April 19th, my husband and I had just gotten engaged, and my godson was born! Happy birthday Allan in the Philippines, can’t believe you’re a quarter of a century – your parents and I are only 39!