There's No Place Like Home

San Antonio was great! The weather (what I saw of it--inside for meetings most of the time) was perfect, neither too hot nor too cool. Our hotel was right on the River Walk from the back entrance and across from The Alamo out the front door. What a perfect location! The best part of the meeting was being with some truly wonderful friends, people who are in fact my second family. The biggest surprise of all was our Wednesday night celebration, a new tradition with our group. I was surprised to find that the celebration this time around was my and another friend's 40th birthdays! We have 4 of us joining "the 40 club" this year, so I feel sure we are in for more celebrating at our fall meeting. In addition, one of the directors is pregnant--she never thought she could get pregnant, so what a blessing--and two managers are in the process of adopting children.

Husband and daughter stayed very busy while I was away. One of the activities of the week was yarn dyeing with Kool Aid and Wilton's cake colors. Husband will be teaching a dyeing class next month, and he was practicing some techniques on commercially spun yarn. Here are the results:

This is Kool Aid on Lamb's Pride.


This is Wilton cake colors.

I used my airplane ride time wisely and completed tier three of my Market Squares Bag. It was quite the hit at my meeting! Everyone loved the colors. Here's what I have so far--three completed tiers and the beginning of the fourth:


We are busily preparing for the art festival. We thought that selling some knitted items in addition to demonstrating knitting, spinning, and weaving would be a good idea. We've decided to turn the stash into cash! Husband and I both have been working on some novelty yarn scarves which we hope will appeal to the kids. He's also gotten some mohair lace scarf projects going, and I'm about to start on a recycled silk shawl. I'd like to do a couple of small felted bags as well. I'm not sure how much we'll get done, because the festival is in mid-April. Ten percent of any sales must be donated to the school, but that's fine with us. It is also a tax deductible donation, so even better. Here are some progress photos:

Novelty yarn scarves.


Portrait mohair scarf knitted by Husband.


Close up of Portrait scarf.


Mohair shawl knitted by husband.


Close up of the detail of the shawl.

Next week I'm on jury duty. Yay fun. I'm sure you can note the extreme excitement in my voice--NOT! I'm laughing my rear end off at the letter that came along with the summons thanking me for my willingness to participate on the jury. Ummm....I wasn't willing. I'm only going because they threatened to arrest me if I didn't go! Maybe they'll hate me and send me home on Monday morning!