Winter Knitting & Weaving

I have a cold. Bummed. It hit me like a ton of bricks a couple of days when I was out shopping - enough to send me straight to the pharmacy to ask what was recommended these days. I'm taking Mucinex, drinking lots of fluids & sucking on Vitamin C lozenges by the bagful. Thank God for naproxen. I've been pretty tired but since I'm stuck at home, I've had some quality knitting time. I thought I'd post a photo of the Tina shawl border. One of my friends, who just finished this shawl (our LYS had a KAL) said by the end of the border she was able to complete the 16-row repeat in 15 minutes. I've worked down from 40 minutes (first two repeats) to 26 minutes. I think there are close to 100 repeats to get all the way around the shawl . . . so that'll be . . . I don't wanna know.

And I finally got the warp threaded for shadow weave dish towels. Thought I'd better get these woven because the loom needs to be empty for my upcoming 8-shaft class which starts March 1. I see I have another error and/or broken thread & will sort that out tomorrow. Off to a hot bath.

Where I've been Lately

I promised you a few photos last post, so here we are. I was fortunate enough to get to Madrona Fiber Arts Festival this year. It was my first time and next year I plan to go again. The classes were awesome, teachers were even more awesome. Way too much fun. I took a class from Jill Laski on Blending for Effect, using a variety of fibers. Here is one of my more colorful carding projects. I also took Modular Knitting with Ginger Luters, and we did several samples in our all-day class.

Then, as I mentioned, we went to visit Doug's folks in Arizona, and then headed to Mexico with them for a couple of days of sunshine & seafood.



My take-along knitting project was the Tina Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. Carol asked what color I was using, and it's plain vanilla Knitpicks yarn. I am quite fond of Fiddlesticks patterns. I've done the Lotus Blossom shawl twice - once out of red Aurucania wool, and once out of scrumptious Country Silk. It's a quick knit and surprisingly easy considering how stunning it looks when done. As for the Tina, it's more challenging, but the directions and graphs are clearly written and easy to follow. It's been a great learning experience, and I feel that once the Tina is done, I'll be capable of returning to the Inky Dinky (Mutant) Spider (from Hell) that had me so befuddled earlier on. . . but that will be after one other important project. (Confession time: In the last year I have had three Fiddlesticks shawl patterns on the needles simultaneously. . . I've been on a bit of a lace binge lately. And my other confession is that I suffer from arachnophobia and perhaps that pattern was an unfortunate choice for me.) Getting back to the Tina, I am now on the borders, which are knit perpendicular to the body of the shawl, so I'm beginning the home stretch.

Hi from Arizona

Sorry it's been so long, folks, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I've become a year older (the 30th anniversary of my 29th birthday, on January 24th), and tonight we are also having a birthday party for a friend here in Arizona. We are visiting Doug's folks and their neighbor has also turned 59, so we've had dinner & cake and quite a celebration with Jan, a fellow Aquarian, and her hubby.

We just returned from a few days in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, which is at the north end of the Sea of Cortez. We went there on the Buffalo Bus, with a group of snowbirds who come from all over the U.S. & Canada, but winter in Yuma. (It was 85 degrees here today. One of the folks we encountered said it was -11 at his home in the north today. 'Nuff said.) We had many group outings - a visit to a marine studies center, shopping trips, and a sunset dinner dance. I am quite sure that I saw Santa & Mrs. Claus dancing cheek-to-cheek to a Mexican version of a Beach Boys song. We had a great time & came home with a few treasures, including a sink. Yes, I'm serious. . . we found a beautiful copper sink which will go into one of our bathrooms. We left the guard at the border crossing a bit stunned with that one.

I packed a few knitting projects for our trip, and found that the time on the bus gave me a great opportunity to work on the Tina Shawl (Fiddlesticks Knitting). I am 10 rows away from the outer border. :-) Also, finished one sock for Doug & cast on the second. Alas, I think I overdid a bit & will need to rest my hand. DNS (Dinky Needle Syndrome).

I will publish some photos next time. Bye for now!