What I did over vacation

Along with visiting my parents and seeing Maine again for the first time in almost a year, I also did a whole lot of knitting while I was gone. As my boyfriend says "It was an awful long way to go to knit" - but really it doesn't matter where I go, knitting is never far from my finger tips!

So to update my knitting WIPS and FO's - I thought I should make one big post. Hopefully you'll enjoy :)

So, I left for Maine on the 7th of October. I had two flights and a longish layover in Newark. I had brought with me two balls of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes sock yarn in color "crush" for some sock knitting. Socks are a great way to pass the time on airplanes and they are very portable! Something I look for in a plane knitting companion...

The first sock I had 1/2 done by the end of the first flight (about 4 hours) and 3/4 done by the end of the second flight (1 hour) and by the time I went to bed that night that first sock was off the needles! The second sock I finished by Tuesday (3 days later). I think these are going into my Christmas knitting box that is still far too empty for this time of year. :( I gotta get my needles fired up a bit, I think!

Here's a little closeup of the stripey pattern of the yarn. When I first started knitting with it I didn't really like the color. But it started to grow on me the more I worked with it and now I really like them.

As you can see from the Joanne.com reviews in the link I posted above, the color of that yarn is a little deceiving. I had no idea it was so red when I bought it. I was expecting for pinks and purples. But I think they came out OK. Someone in my family will like them anyway. I even have enough left over to make myself a pair of footie socks!

I also visited a little yarn shop in Cornish Maine - Rosemary's Yarn Shop. It's a shop I go to every year while I'm home. She has the best prices I've seen so of course I purchased some more sock yarn for my flights home. I got another whole sock done and the beginning of the cuff of another. These are done in Sockotta self striping sock yarn. I've used this yarn before and I love it. Great quality and a nice feel to work with. This yarn is much thinner then the Moda Dea, so they take longer to knit up. But, I don't knit for speed :)

I also finished another Waves of Lace shawl for my boss at work. It's been in a holding pattern since I returned, though. She couldn't decide if she wanted me to fringe it or not. She made a decision yesterday, though, so I'll be blocking it and fringing it for it's final presentation to her. I love the color and it came out great. I hope she likes the final shawl as much as I like mine! Here's a pic of the finished shawl - pre blocking and finished. It's still on the loom right now, but soon the be bound off!


That's all my work since my last post. Man! When did I get anything else done...?

One final bit of news - I had a great class in Longmont last night. I had a whopping 7 students for my Beginning Knifty Knitter class! That's the most students I ever had in one class. It was a fast paced two hours and I think they learned a lot. I think they'll all be coming back for my Beyond the Basics classes next month. We'll have a new group of loomers soon!

Sorry this post is so long! I'll have time to post more regularly now.