Where did summer go?

I have no excuse other than life just got really busy and blogging fell by the wayside. But the knitting and spinning has not. This is just going to be a quick check in. I will write a long post tomorrow night. My nephew and his finacee are picking up my girls tomorrow afternoon and keeping them over night! Be still my heart....I'm taking my mom to see Julie & Julia and go out to dinner. It will be a grown up night...the girls will have fun and I will have a night to do as I wish.

We had some excitement a couple weeks ago, Emily was scheduled for her second round of surgery re her cleft, the day before my mom calls me saying she does not feel well and to please come home. Ended up with her in one hospital with a "slight" heart attack (oxymoron if I ever heard one) while Emily was in a second hospital undergoing her surgery. Thanks to my sister who quickly came down from the north woods and stayed with my Anna while following up on mom, I was able to just focus on Emily. She came through surgery with great results and is thrilled with the outcome. She just gets prettier and prettier. And she is so very strong and brave. Surgery is never easy and to have it on your face is even harder but she just did wonderfully. And mom was able to come home the next day to start her recovery.

July found us spending nearly a week in Florida celebrating my niece's wedding. The location was amazing, I was able to sneak off 3 times to spend several hours on the beach with the girls. And while the wedding was amazing that was my favorite part of our time away. But seeing my two girls all dressed up in their wedding finery made my heart sing. And taking out all 112 bobby pins from Anna's hair later that night left us all in giggles.

In any event, I'll try to post more frequently, but no promises, because life is life...I'll do it as often as I can.

I'm back

Well that month went by in a flash. A long hard flash, but here we are July 1. My office moved, my new space is really nice. We are in a "green" building, we have many windows (which means I can see natural light without having to tiptoe, crane my neck and hope and office door was open), green roofs (glad the weeding job is not mine) and much more open space. I still live in cubicle land but it is much better than before.

I finished many things in the last month which surprises me. The biggest and best is this....my favorite niece is getting married in Florida in two weeks. While the wedding is outside in the steamy heat of a July night on the beach, the reception is inside and will be air conditioned to the max, so I bought a bright turquoise sun dress for the rehearsal dinner and light ivory with blue pattern sun dress for the wedding. So I dipped my toe into the lace shawl arena and boy am I smitten. I did the Wing O'the moth by Anne Hensen. It is lovely. Pattern was well written, it took me just about a month and I only knit a couple hours a day on it. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and am sure I will be doing my lace in the future.

I also finished a pair of socks, they are Claudia Handpainted in the Lipstick colorway. I got one skein for a Christmas present, and that worsted weight yarn only did one sock, so I had to order a second skein online, the dyelots are different but I still like them, and come winter, these bed socks will be perfect to chase the drab doldrums out of my world.

The other piece of news I have is my job is changing, I'm shifting back into a paralegal role from my legal secretary position. Still in the same department, just back into the paralegal world. I'm very happy. I'm totally swamped at the moment, but it will be ok. It is something I've worked towards for several years and I'm proud that I've accomplished this. Posting will be more challenging, but I'll figure out a balance.

So while I'm working on that balance, we leave for Florida soon. To watch my beautiful niece Kristin marry her love, Jeremy. We will have a great time celebrating this new addition to our family.

Spinning up north

There will probably be long delays in blogging right now. My office is moving to a new location. Which means so much packing and filing and archiving while I'm trying to do at the same time doing my normal work tasks. However, this weekend my girls and mom and I traveled up north to my sister's lake home in Barnes, Wisconsin. They really have a lovely spot. Their home is perched high a hill overlooking the lake.

They have two decks that overlook the lake and it is just amazing. I happily sat there for a bit on Saturday afternoon and worked on my spinning. I'm making better progress with this new batch of roving. And with the light breeze, the humming birds attacking each other, jostling for position at the feeder near by I was so content. We had two evenings at the camp fire making s'mores and writing in the night air with our ember tipped sticks. I also helped repair a dock from major damage done during the winter ice heave. Now that is fun, to be in waders, lifting up dock sections while you pull the metal posts out of the lake bed and reseat them, drill and bolt in the dock sections, while in 50 degree water. I was blessed in that my brother in law took pity on me and I got the waders while he was in the cold water in shorts. All in all a great weekend.

And to top it off, it was Emily's seventh birthday. My girl was so excited and anxious to see what treasures awaited her. She is my ultra crafty girl and many of her gifts were things for her to paint and make and cut and sculpt. She was thrilled.

And finally, to see my mom, happy, with her family is the best picture of all.

Revisit my goals

I read back in the archives and found some of my professed goals for the year. To knit 12 pairs of socks, well I've done 2 complete pairs, have 2 single socks waiting for their matching pair, I reserve the right to count singles to reach 24 socks by the end of the year.
I also wanted a spinning wheel - yippee that has been accomplished. My new goal is to take a spinning class before the end of the year.
Which leads me to my next goal, I wanted to knit more lace. Well call me crazy, my niece is getting married in 66 days. And I'm going to knit my first shawl in that time period. Yup, that is what I'm doing. I picked Anne Hansen's (Knitspot) Wing O' The Moth shawl (not exactly the right title but the best I could remember it) I had suitable yarn in my stash, wound it up slowly (REALLY slowly) Monday night. And last night before heading to piano lessons, I started the set up rows. According to Ravelery, many people finished it in under 2 months. So there is hope. I seem to do well with pressure knitting--see my Christmas schedule. But by moving this up to the top of my priority list, I decided not to take a planned 5 week spinning class in June/July. I need to focus on the shawl during this time. I can wait on my spinning class until fall. So stay tuned. The countdown has begun. Pictures to follow.

First skein

So my first effort at creating a skein of yarn was a bit well all over the place! smile...

there are sections that are reasonable and look like yarn, then there are sections where it appears absolutely no twist managed to make it through the skeining process. Or as I'm telling myself, I have some really lovely "designer" yarn. All lumpy and bumpy goodness. I do love the colors of this roving, so remind me of Neapolitan ice cream. My youngest daughter, Emily, picked it out for me. She does have good taste.

I've also been working on a fair isle headband which is turning out very well. The picture is lacking, but that isn't the fault of the knitting, it is the fault of the photographer, oh ya, that is me. The hands with the lovely blue polish are my Anna's, and the coral is mine, you would think that with both of us trying to show it, the picture would be a bit better. Oh well, I was trying to show the picot edging, but white on white and you lose details, note to self, try to figure out a better source of background for next pictures.

But this served a good reminder for me, I bought the headband and a matching pair of mittens as kits on a yarn hop last year. I had never done fair isle knitting at all and while it intimidated me I loved how it looked, so I dove in and bought both kits. A year passed, I've taken fair isle classes and successfully made some beautiful mittens in fair isle as well as this headband. And they look great. So when I look at my wonky skein of newly spun yarn, I can't wait to compare it a year from now with the yarn I will be spinning then. Because in a year, who knows what I will have learned in my knitting evolution.

Lessons learned from spinning

My wheel has already taught me something. That I need to slow down. In many ways actually. Working full time, having 2 girls, and sharing a home with my mom, usually means from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed. I'm the only driver, so after work I'm the one chauffeuring kids from each activity. When I do sit at my wheel I find myself having to consciously slow down my pumping of the treadles....my can I make that wheel fly, however, it does not create the type of yarn that I want. It produces highly over spun, twisting on itself with coiled energy, yarn singles. Instead of the springy, soft type yarn I want to create. So I think a wonderful by product of my wheel will be to slow down, take a breathe, let the fiber slid through my fingers rather than being pulled frantically and wound tightly on the bobbin. A good lesson I think....to remember to go slowly and methodically through all things, not just in spinning.

Anna's Art Show

Both my girls are artistic. Emily loves to putter and build and make. Give her a box, string and tape and you will never know what she will end up with. I buy tape by the case! But it makes them happy and I love seeing them be creative. Anna made a picture in art class and it was in the school's art show...

it is the Panda way up high...and my girl? She happily refused to turn around so her mom could take a picture of her with her drawing. I threatened to take it of her back and post it on my blog and she still refused to turn around. So here she is....my lovely 12 year old...talented and funny....and at the age where it is embarrassing to have your mom with you at times...especially if your mom has a camera.

I'm slowly knitting away, have the second lipstick sock about half way down the leg. Goal is to finish it by next Tuesday. Also added a few more squares to my growing pile. But nothing truly picture worthy.

I'm trying to get into a spinning class at the upcoming Sheep and Wool festival in Lake Elmo. I'm first on the waiting list, so maybe that will happen. I do love to spin, I just want to get better fast!