TGIF and What's on the Needles

Today is one of my favorite days of the week--FRIDAY! The older I get, the more I seem to live for the weekend. All day Friday is like a huge countdown to freedom! I enjoy my job, but it's here all the time. I mentioned yesterday that I work from home. My office is here. My work phone and fax lines and office computer are here. It's a great commute, but it takes a lot of discipline to know when to shut the door and forget it!! Sometimes I have that and sometimes I don't.

What's up for this weekend? Daughter Dear has a field trip with school Monday through Wednesday. They are going to the coast for a camping and kayaking adventure. I have a feeling that thanks to Ivan they will have a wet time of it. Eleven year olds shouldn't mind that, but I pity the poor chaperones! This weekend will find us busy rounding up all the things needed for this field trip--the sleeping bag and ground pad, rain gear, grubby old tennis shoes, etc.

On Saturday, my husband, along with one of the ladies from the local fiber group, is doing a spinning demo at the farmer's market. He has been busy the past couple of weeks making drop spindles and dyeing pencil roving to sell. I hope he's successful! His backup plan is to sell the spinning kits to a woman we met in Savannah last week. She has recently opened a fiber shop downtown (more on that in another post!) and is very interested in spinning.

Sunday is fiber group time. We have a group that meets monthly at a local former cotton mill. The mill itself is gorgeous. There are apartments in part of it while the bottom floor is renovated and open for tours. Meeting space leaves everything to be desired--the group is set up right in the middle of where people walk through to pay for things for the gift shop, purchase tickets to tour the mill, etc. I know this makes the crafts visible, hopefully sparking interest from a passerby, but it is a pain in the rump to have someone think they can just walk up and grab your wheel or otherwise mess with your things. I'm not much of a "joiner" so I won't be at the meeting. Husband, on the other hand, thrives on this kind of interaction. We laugh about the fact that in high school and college, I was the social butterfly. He was more a homebody. Now, as adults, the roles have changed. I like being here in my own home with my own things. I much prefer a Sunday afternoon spent sitting in my recliner knitting to one spent sitting on a hard folding chair fighting tourists off my things!

OK...enough griping for one post! Let's talk about what's on my needles. I'm typically a one project at a time person, but right now I have three pair of socks going!! I have the Making Waves socks from the Yahoo group Six Sox KAL. I've finished sock 1 of the pair with a perfect kitchner toe. I'm so proud of that toe! I have yet to cast on for sock 2. There is one more month left for this pattern, so I have time. The pattern works up quickly. This is my first attempt at cables, and I'm finding it quite easy.

Also on the needles is a Gull Wing lace sock from the book Socks, Socks, Socks. This pair of socks is for my MIL for either a Christmas or birthday gift. Given her birthday is in just a few more weeks, it's likely she'll see these at Christmas. I find that I'm not thrilled with the yarn I'm using for this sock for some reason. It's a Regia yarn in white with small spots of pastel blue, pink, lavendar, and gold very widely spaced. Also, the pattern requires a lot of concentration on my part. I can't do more than 3-4 pattern repeats per night at the most!

Last night I cast on a plain old sock using Twinkletoes sock yarn bought from e-Bay seller lotusblossum. All of her yarns are handpainted, and I have the colorway Sunrise for these socks. I wasn't keen on the yarn when I saw it in person. It looked much different than the photo in the auction--more oranges and less blues. When I wound it off the hank into balls, the colors started growing on me more. The blues were coming out more. I've knit the cuff of the sock, and I really like the way the colors are working out. There are so many variations on shade. You could see that if my camera were not at the beach!! These socks are going to be for my daughter. There is enough yarn to make two pair of socks, I think. I got 500 yards!! I'd like to do socks for myself with this yarn using the Broadripple pattern.

I seem to always have a ton of projects for Christmas knitting, and this year is no different. (I've only been knitting almost a year, but still knit a gift for each person on my list last year!) I am doing 3 felted bags--one for my mom, one for my MIL, and one for a close friend. I've knit one bag but haven't felted it. The pattern I'm using is by Fiber Trends. It works up great in Brown Sheep Nature Spun with an accent of Trendsetter Flora. I think I will knit all three purses and then have a felting party. I also want to do some felted slippers, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. I have the yarn (bought at a Christmas in July sale at the LYS!) but may not have the time.

I'll attempt to find our old digital camera and make some pictures this weekend. I am kicking myself for not having brought home the "good" camera this weekend. At least the beach place is ours and no one else (outside of family) goes in there.