To All of You

From our house to yours--



Whatever you celebrate, may it be full of love and good cheer!

See you in 2011!

Holidays

I hope all of you here in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving!

We had a lovely day and ate way too much good stuff. Hubby said it was the best Turkey he had eaten in years, and that is high praise from him. I think it was because this is the first year that I had a fresh Turkey and will definitely do it again next year.

Christmas is not far off and after that the New Year. My goodness, this year has flown by it seems.

There are some pretty cool happenings in my little hometown this weekend. Our Christmas parade and Downtown celebration, as well as a trunk show at the local yarn shop.

There have been full classes at the shop in which I work and I couldn't be happier!

This is my favorite time of year. I love the anticipation and the decorations, shopping for the perfect gift for the few we buy for, the cozy nights at home with the man, and of course all the holiday foods!

Wherever you are I hope that you can find the time to enjoy the season in your own way.

Bye for now friends!

Oh My!

I'm here!

Where does the time go?

I have nothing planned for you today, but looked at this poor sad space and thought that I should just add something.

Christmas knitting has commenced. Gasp! Being very picky about whom I knit for, this is not a terribly large list for me. It should be easily accomplished (I say that hopefully).

I am cleaning the stash and planning a huge decrease very soon. Lots of friends will be attending my stash sale and I will post a lot on Ravelry as well. I have rethought some things and need to simplify just a little. The stash has grown so large that it overwhelms me.

Take Care my friends and I will be back with real content in a few days!!



The North Pole from 40,000 feet. I've been looking for Santa, because I need to talk to him about a few things!

Today's News

Classes are going very well at Yarn Explosion and I will be working there on a semi permanent basis now for a while. I am excited about it and hope to keep the designing and classes going.

This is my Pendragon Banners Socks, (click on any photo to see larger image)





knit in the Arthur colorway dyed for me by Unplanned Peacock Studios.

After reading The Mists of Avalon, I just had to knit from it, so my Camelot series was born. Natasha is dying my ideas of colors for each character and I am designing a knit for each of the main people in the book. Since the bloodlines were such an important part of the story, the red will be in all of them. This is just the beginning of the quest and I am very excited to be collaborating with Natasha on this project. These socks were knit from the toe up on size 1 needles in the Superwash Merino Fingering.

Also from Unplanned Peacock in the Forest colorway is an idea that came from The Hobbit. "In Mirkwood lives the big spiders."





I am terrified of real spiders but this one is very cute sitting on its web. Knit on size 5 needles with Superwash Merino DK.

There's been a lot of reading going on here as well. I got on the band wagon finally and read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I really did enjoy it and look forward to the next two soon. The best thing that I have read recently, though, is Handling Sin. This was a book with a Southern theme, but anyone that grew up in a large family of fun, goofy aunts and uncles will certainly appreciate its humor. I remember my dads large family getting together every year at least twice and all the food, music, and celebrating! Honestly, it was one of the best books I think I have ever read and I have some more of his books in the que.

Now, for some more very exciting news!!

Guess who I will be going to see in October?

Need a hint?




And one more just for the hell of it!



I can hardly wait!! Love me some Alice!!

Hot Time in the Old Town

So, hubby comes home in 4 days. I have a list of things to do a mile long to prepare for his return. The last 4 weeks I have have avoided doing a lot of things that I wanted to have done by now. Just have to be sure to hide anything that may not need to be seen when he gets here! (Just kidding sweetie!)

What have I been doing with all my free time you might ask. Class knitting and teaching has taken up some of my time and also a secret project that I have been working on for some time. But all the class knitting is done and the secret knitting is almost done so in the next week I should be doing something that I have wanted to do for a while.

First up, I am going to cast on for some super cute little bathroom curtains. My bathroom has undergone a little color redo. It was looking really institutional with its belgian waffle color walls and all the white towels and clear shower curtain.Now I have beautiful green towels and a great new shower curtain and I will be adding some little linen knitted curtains with a cafe rod. I will be sure to let you see them!

I am sitting in Barnes and Noble (one of my favorite hang outs) having a decaf coffee. Some people might say, "decaf, what's the point!" but I am really caffeine sensitive and stay away from it after 5 pm. But I still love that delicious coffee flavor! The smell of coffee and books is almost the most sensual experience in the world! Almost.

Yesterday my friend, Roseanna, and I took a trip to Hillsborough, NC. We of course visited the Yarnshop, but we also found a really cute bookshop in the little town that has a big section on Hillsborough authors and apparently they are very prolific in that area. Roseanna and I both picked up books by Michael Malone. She got this one, and I picked up these two. I can't wait to dig in!

I know! You want to know what I got at the Hillsborough Yarnshop. Well I had a $20 card, so I picked up a beautiful skein of Pagewood Farms Alyeska in the Harvest colorway.

It was Hotttt in the Piedmont Triad region! Nevertheless, a great day!

Stay cool and take care "til the next time we meet!

Hot D@#n Summer in Virginia!

I get to stay in the states for the Summer and I'm glad but miss Hubby.

While I am here I will be teaching at Yarn Explosion and hanging out at my other favorite places, Barnes and Noble, The Crooked Stitch, and Mosaic.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Columbus TNNA (The National Needlework Association) show with the super nice ladies at Yarn Explosion and we had such a good time!! I met a cabbie whose name is Tom and was from Kentucky that called me Hillbilly, imagine that! I was able to sneak out on Sunday morning and go to a bookstore in the German Village in Columbus. It is called The Book Loft and contains 32 rooms of books. I am thinking about having my afterlife there! There were 4 rooms of bargain books and I managed to pick up a couple of lovelies. I got Le Morte d'Arthur complete edition for a mere $4.99, Out of Africa, Some Terry Pratchett, and Kurt Vonnegut all at steals! Long sigh-----I love books.

Also while I was there I picked up Shutter Island which was just a fabulous book. I read it on the way home from Columbus and finished it the next day still weary from jet lag and the weekend excitement. It was a wonderful book.

Hubby got me a Nook for Valentines Day this year and it went with me to China! I am enjoying it so much. I still shop around for the best prices as some of the books on the Nook use the trade paperback size for pricing and the mass market paperbacks are still cheaper. So I always compare prices first and, anyway, when I am in the states I still love that new book smell and feeling a nice tight spine. Wait a minute, I know hubby has been gone for a while, but this is a little ridiculous! (Fanning myself briskly!) Anyway, I have the 3G and Wireless model and I really do love it. Its MP3 feature is another of my favorite things about it and I have downloaded audiobooks on it to listen as I knit. I can plug it into the stereo speakers for the computer also and have real surround sound!

Before sweetie left we were able to take a long weekend to Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore and took the bikes and had homemade ice cream and fresh seafood. I just love it there. Not to mention the sea air is great for my sinuses. Click on any photo to embiggen. If you look carefully you can see the Assateague Lighthouse in the background of the center photo.








Talk soon!! All about knitting next time. Hope you are all enjoying your Summer!

Countdown

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for China again. The countdown is already on for coming back on June 9th.

Sorry that I have not been a good poster this year, it's just life things and staying very busy.

So to all friends, I say stay safe until I see you again.

Bye-bye!