International I Love Yarn Day

Today happens to be I Love Yarn Day. Why anyone needed to pick a particular day in which to love yarn is beyond me. I manage to find time on most (but not all) days to play with yarn.

But in honor of this particular day, and the new Fiber Artist Spotlight at my local yarn store (for which I am the second person so featured), here are some photos of my knitting currently at my LYS. (I love my new camera!)

Unst Be Blocking

Unst in Progress

Once upon a time, there was some yarn. Specifically a fine 2-ply merino yarn from Colourmart, spun and wound off at the lovely size of 2300 yds/150g cone. (Cone on the left is new, the one on the right may or may not last the shawl.)
The knitter swatched, just like Goldilocks, to find Just the Right Size Needle. (MamaBear had the right size)
The the knitter knit, and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit ...
And someone asked for pictures. So she stopped knitting and found a decrepit camera, and a couch, and some pins.
And, although the knitter didn't measure how wide the shawl pinned out in her Very Impromptu Pinning Session, she can report that each red stripe and each navy stripe on the couch blanket is 4" wide. Finished size is supposed to be 24" wide. Hmm. Overachieve!

Blank Space

This morning, my students are studying quietly. The bread is rising, the washer and dryer are both running, supper is in the crockpot, and the mail is sorted on the kitchen desk. There's nothing on my to-do list that needs attention at the moment. (I just double-checked to make sure.) It's been much too long since I've carved out space to write on my blog, so here I am.

The past almost-three months have not gone by quietly and uneventfully. There's been Scout Camp, a TKGA conference, the State Fair, Joni and Friends Family Camp, and the start of the school year - both the homeschool one and the filia-taking-classes-at-a-local-college one. Knitting submissions have come, and knitting submissions have gone. Knitting projects have popped onto the needles, and they've popped off the needles. I've read the entire Barchester Chronicles and Palliser Chronicles by Trollope. (I'm a bit lost as to what to read next. I think 13 books by Trollope in a row is probably sufficient and I'd like something a bit more meaty to chew on auditorily.)

We're now into fall. The weather is rather warm for fall, which means it's not corn stove weather yet. This heating season isn't going to see us burning corn, since corn prices have more than doubled since last year. I will have to get used to saying (wood) 'pellet stove', I suppose. It's lovely weather for walking around town. This weekend, my husband and I took the road less traveled and walked away from town, then detoured on path through the fields rather than walk through the dust from a combine in a bean field. It was lovely to walk and see nothing but corn, beans, and the top of a farmhouse and some trees in the distance.

The project on the needles is Sharon Miller's Unst Lace Stole. I love shawls - knitting them, even more than wearing them. I expect to finish it in the next week or two. After tomorrow, there will be one long side left to edge, and then the magic of blocking will turn the gray lump into gorgeous lace. I'm pleased that it won't be too small. A too-small stole can be difficult to wear well. It will rest in my craft room until the fair next year, and then be on its way elsewhere. Sort of like the table centerpiece I knit last year in October, except I haven't sent that one on its way yet.

Facebook is being annoying. I miss being able to see only status updates. I really don't want to have to sort through all the things that people 'share' to find out who is up to what. I'm dipping my toes into the water of Google+, and have deleted Facebook from my browser bookmarks. Poof - several dozens of minutes of each day have been recovered! Just think how much more time there would be in a day if we didn't have bookmarks!

And now ... to get OFF the computer and into my knitting chair.