A Golden Gift

Lookie Lookie what my sister gave me for my birthday. It just arrived, and I am sooooooooooo excited.



Ooooh - A Golding!!!!!!!



The excitment builds - which Golding is it. There is not a bad one.....



Aromatherepy? In a spindle? Lavender? So relaxing. What a great idea!

Let me describe my spindle. It has the distinctive Golding brass ring. You see it and know it's a Golding. It's quality in a spindle. Solid feel but lightweight. It has a little pot at the top to hold a bit of cotton with an essential oil. So you can receive healing aroma while spinning. It comes with a 1/2 fl oz. of Mood Mender - a mix of Clary Sage, Lemon and Lavender. Ahhhhhhh. I need that. After having a headache for a day and a half - non-stop - it's such a soothing scent.



The cherry wood is luxurious. The detail in the top whorl is a fan shape. It spins a lovely circle when the spindle is in use. The Walnut shaft (7 3/4") has smooth grooves about half way down to give the spindle a nice grip, but then is smooth and solid in the upper half to hold the spun yarn.




The whole spindle is .95oz - light.

And I almost forgot - this was not her only gift to me!!! She made a lovely trade on Ravelry for this beautiful lace yarn.



I can't wait to make someting soft and warm with it. As well as spin someting extra special on my Golding.



I Lurve it!!!! Thank you so much Doreen

I've been so lax in blogging and even worse in reading blogs. Between work, vacation, start of school - I'm so out of touch. Sorry my friends for not keeping up on your knitting adventures - I've got a lot of reading on Google Reader to catch up on soon.

My knitting has also slowed down - I'm working on Christmas gifts - lace scarves. I have several in progess - and started the final ones. If I get them all done by Christmas I will be so pleased.

I'm using a diagonal lace pattern that is easy but I like the look. The first one is in SWTC TOFUtsies - and I love the color and yarn.



I expecially love the mix of yellows, browns, oranges, and even a pale green. Beautiful. I should have picked up another ball for socks! This was a beach purchase at my Myrtle Beach shop away from home - Knit -n- Purl run by Phyllis and Terry. Once you meet them, you will love them they are so sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing them in December when we are there for Christmas, and maybe a bit of Christmas yarn shopping :)

And I loved the pattern so much - I started another one for my friend Connie who loves the color Red. It's hard for me to find Red yarn. I found some Red Alpaca, and am making a scarf in that too. But I think this one will work best for Connie. I'm using Baruffa Cashwool. Very soft, and tons of yardage for not a lot of money. And as I picked this up at Pacific Wool and Fiber when it was closing - it was even less expensive at 50% off! I want to make it nice and long, lacy, but light.



I started Hey Teach - but thanks to the Olympics had THREE holes in the stockinette portion. I frogged it back to before the wholes and haven't done much on it b/c I hate frogging and am a bit miffed. But I saw Doreen's and am getting over it - I think I'll start back on it soon.

Schools back in session. And I'm definately "Meh." about it. The weekly Monday onslaught of paperwork has something to do with it. So far - so good. I can't believe I have a 4th and 2nd grader!



I'll have to blog about our vacation - it was fabulous. We had a lot of time to relax as well as spend time with some of my college friends who were vacationing the same time as us. We enjoyed vacating at the same time and location with them so much, we are hoping for a larger group of friends next year. It was fun to get the families together, and to have our next generation develop friendships at the same time. I have a ton of pictures on our family blog.

I'm typing this while watching the DNC. I've been so impressed each night. I hope we get it right in Novemember as a nation. The stakes are so high. So - if you haven't registered. Do it NOW!

Off to a slow start

The Beijing Olympics have been fabulous. The opening ceremonies - breath-taking.

My Ravelymics - not so much.

I did finish one project - start to finish:



I used Handmaiden Camel Spin. The online reviews were that the yarn was to die for. I somehow ended up with colors I was not in love with. And when I got it - I was less than impressed. It felt like cotton to me, not the silky soft I was expecting. But after knitting with it the fabric grew on my - and I love the result now. It almost has golden tones to it. I think it will be a gift - a pricy one- but I'm glad I used it. It was in my sell stash for a while, but I decided I couldn't get what I paid for it and I'm glad I decided to make a special scarf for someone. Camel hair - that's rare! The pattern is Rivolo - it was a easy - but didn't make the nice little rivers at first. Once I tightened my gauge it was better. It knits on a bias - so it's hard to see - you have to block it severely to get the nice pattern. All in all - a nice fast pattern that looks more complicated than it is. The scarf is a little short, but functional - and I may make it narrower if I make it again. The yarn was classed as laceweight, but it worked out closer to fingering with size 5 needles in my book.

I also made a market bag - finally!!!!!



I found this new yarn at the Ben Franklin in Redmond - NaturLin - a Rayon/Linen blend. It looks like Linen, but with a softer hand and very shiny. Less rough to work with, but strong. I tried to break it when I was on the plane without scissors. NOT. Almost tore my skin.

The pattern was called Hadley Mini although there was nothing 'mini' about the bag at all. It holds 4 HUGE balls of cotton yarn.

I loved the yarn and pattern. I will use both again.

I'll close with a few pictures of Sweetie with her shawl:





Next week - we are headed to Myrtle Beach for the week and I get to work on Hey Teach! and hopefully make up for my slow start. Happy Knitting everyone!

Take Two

My browser just blew away my entry. This is take number two. I so do not need this right now.

This was going to be a long entry. We will see now. I have a lot to update as I've been away so long on the blog. Travel, summer camp, work, LIFE. I'm still knitting, never fear. And spinning too. I've done very little blog reading - so I'm out of touch with my virtual knitting friends too. Here is hoping life returns to something resembling normal in September!

Hmmmm, let's start with a few yarn purchases of note. For my birthday my sister totally enabled me to pick up Schaefer Andrea in the colorway Rosa Parks. Even if you don't see the yarn, it sounds beautiful doesn't it? But the deep hues that the silk just soaked up are so lovely. I have it in a nice little ball waiting for a little treat for me.



The photo doesn't do it justice.

Another great find is Knitch. I was able to visit when in Atlanta at a conference in July. I have no pictures. But I found the softest laceweight cotton you can imagine. Habu Cotton Boucle:



I fell in love. Another project I will be not wanting to part with.....

They had lot of Habu - I was in bliss in the display that housed these yarns. I of course had to get the Kusha, Kusha scarf kit - and am almost done with my first one. I will love wearing this mixture of silk and wool this fall.



I have a Black/Green kit too! I will perhaps gift this scarf. Then again - green is my favorite color these days! I actually want to try this scarf with Jojoland Harmony. I think I will like to subtle color changes and the wool weight is close to the Habu wool. So I may just use the green wool for another project as my sister gifted me another cone of it - so I have enough for something bigger.

I've been knitting shawls again recently. Today I wrapped up one for my daugter. I used naturallycaron Spa. It's a Acrylic/Bamboo blend, and makes a super soft fabric. I was so pleasantly surprised at how it knitted up. I had used some before for a baby kimono (disaster, not the yarn but my effort). But perhaps because it was dyed, it didn't seem as soft. This was soft and squishy in the Naturally colorway.



The pattern is Angel Lace by Evelyn Clark. I thought it is perfect for a shawl for her in church where she is always cold. I didn't tell her I was making it until today when it was done. She loves it, so I'm glad I kept it a surprise. I forgot to show her the little angel pattern, I'll have to tell her that later. I think she will like that.



I put little glittery blue pony beads at the end to add a bit of her favorite color and make it special for her. I had her pick out the beads w/o telling her what it was for.




It's soaking now, I'll have to post pictures once it was blocked. But she did get to try it out tonight.




Update:

Here it is blocking.....



On a work note - this was one of the most interesting weeks of my career. My job is being relocated to Washington. Not surprising because despite the frequent travel - I really needed to be there full-time. It could have been a RIF, but I am being offered another job. And 3 days to accept it. I'm full of mixed feelings - it's a significant career change for me. High profile, and sort of exciting. Almost too exciting. Like going down in flames with a new job I know nothing about, creating a bit ole mess exciting. Nothing like fear of failure to get the heart racing. So - this week knitting has been a refuge. I've got to make a decision by Friday, but the decision is basically this or good luck finding something else in NC when 70+ other people at the site with similar skills are looking. So I know what I am going to do, I'm just burying my head a bit before I put it in writing.

Let's get off this topic - too much reality is sinking in.

I'm gearing up for Ravelymics. I'm most excited about Hey Teach!. I picked up the yarn on my birthday as well.



Doreen is doing it with me in the same colorway. Squee!

I have some other things lined up - tackling WIPs, and a lace project. I'm sort of tempted to use my Rosa Parks, I guess I need to decide by tomorrow! Yikes!

Well - it's late and 45 mins past when I was supposed to head out for my walk. And I forgot I need to block Janeen's shawl before bed. Nite, nite.