Night Swimming

Ok, all right. It's been a long while.

I haven't stopped knitting or spinning like a mad fiend, just stopped blogging and uploading Flickr/Ravelry photos... A big reason why is a recent trip to the North woods of Minnesota.

Extended family and friends joined us, although this was the first trip since 2003 with my brother. He loooves to fish. So, we fished every.single.day. We had a lot of success on the Little Big Fork River. For the first time in my life I caught something other than a lake Perch. I couldn't believe this tiny river had Walleye, Northern, Large and Small-Mouthed Bass, and an armada of massive Suckers.

He's a Rosie-Grier style needlepoint guy, but I did teach him to knit:2008 is a wet, buggy year. The boys had tons of fun in the mudd-
My brother did not.
hee.

I bought these shoes for him during the last holiday. Looks like it's time for another pair!
At the lake I knit in and out of the water. These are Wollmeise socks that have recently been finished, and I love them. Also, I worked on a pair of Cashbah socks for my aunt in lace from the far-right skein.

Mid-vacation there was a slight canoeing mis-hap, and my once-lovely Canon took a final picture of the weeds ---

--and now produces images like this!

It's an impression of my cousin, and yes- this is as good as it gets!~ Once again, time to re-learn that water and electronics don't mix.

So, I'm shopping for a camera. Any recommendations?

Just Two Years!

Spinning update:

There hasn't been much going on in this category. I'm still upset with my stupid drive band that keeps on growing in size. (Note to self, must try sewing a cotton drive band.) A week ago I did force myself to give navajo plying a go, though. I've watched others do it, and after a few minutes of frustration I found a rhythm. This is four ounces of targee/bfl, merino, and angelica from Traveling Rhinos in "Chasing Rainbows". The photo below gives you a sense of how the yarn gradates from color to color.
After Two Years, Who's Counting?

Four-ish? years ago Knit Picks came on the scene. I was fascinated by how cheap their alpaca prices were, and quickly ordered four skeins of their laceweight in Tidepool to compare to Misti Alpaca Laceweight, which sold for $4.40ish at the same time. If memory serves me right, I paid $3.49 per skein, approx. $1 difference. The KP yarn was the same quality as far as I could tell, exept the yarn had a fabulous heather in each color - and Misti only had the same in their dark mossy grey/green. (The same holds true today.) The skeins I received appear to have much, much longer yardage than 440 each. I used 2.2 balls only double stranded for a 78 x15.5"
stole/scarf.

After swatching with the yarn, I decided to knit a shawl with two strands held together on a US 6. Madli's Shawl from IK was calling my name.

I started the shawl and loved it. After two weeks I was bored. Over the next TWO YEARS I worked on it here and there. Finally last weekend I wove in the final ends. As lovely as she looks, she's much better on your neck. What a joy to wear!