Tuesday, March 17, 2009

St. Patricks's Day Synopsis (wordy)

Ok, I'm not Irish, I don't celebrate, but I did wear green today. Does that count? At least I didn't get pinched.

A sweet friend reminded me to blog today, so I MADE myself do it. It's been a month again, so it was definitely time.

Things have been a good and bad kind of busy here.

The bad first: We had a lot of water in our basement last week (pump failure) and it has not been fun! We have 2 bedrooms, a family room, and large laundry area all finished down there. All the carpets had to be ripped up, baseboards torn off, EVERYTHING had to be taken out of there, and a cleaning company had to come in. It was ugly. Thankfully it's all dry now, the drywall is patched and we're just waiting to reinstall the baseboards and carpet. I can't wait! All the downstairs stuff NEEDS to get out of the upstairs. The clutter is driving me nuts!

On to the good....
I've been knitting and spinning as much as time permits. I worked on a big project for quite a while. A dear friend from our knit/spin group recently lost her hubby. We wanted to do something special for her, so we all donated a skein of handspun (or commercial or hand-dyed if not from a spinner) and I knit it into a shawl for her. It turned out really lovely and she just loves it.

Here she is, sling and all. She fell and broke her shoulder too. She definitely needed a warm fibery hug from her friends. Here it is on blocking. Excuse the ugly sheet.

It's even more gorgeous in person, and I really enjoyed working on this project. Friends are good. :)

Another great friend from our knit/spin group (Coby from CJKopec Creations) has been very inspiring to me. She can spin the best chunky yarns ever and is a carding master. She recently let me borrow her carder and this is what I created.

I carded about 6oz of wool batts with bamboo and sparkle. They are gorgeous! I can't wait to spin them. So far I'm thinking fingering for a shawl.

I've done a bit of traveling this month too. The first week of March my oldest daughter and I took a 5-day cruise, for her spring break. Then last weekend I went to a fiber festival with a friend of mine (Rita, from Yarn Hollow) to help her with her booth. It was a lot of fun, but hard work. This weekend I am going to a knitting retreat with my knit/spin group at a lodge. Should be lots of fun!

The weather has been great here for 2 days. 65 and sunny. Happy Spring!