still not knitting

but at least i can spin! i pulled out 4 oz of merino that i found last year at maryland in the grapevine colorway. it was dyed by gales art and i have several more of her rovings in different fibers that i want to get spun. her stuff is such a pleasure to spin. i debated on how to ply it and finally chose to keep the colors banded together by navajo plying (3 ply) it seems i need to keep those skills practiced because it was a train wreck at first. i had singles all tangled together and needed to enlist the help of my very tolerant partner. the finished yarn is loverly, soft and will someday be knit into something fabulous.

the biggest challenge in my knittless state is filling the waiting times. i finally pulled some of the books that have been sitting in my que and putting in extra walking time out in the cold. the last snow storm and the growing pup have really been a bad combination. her training has now been officially handed over to her dad, because at 61# (and still growing) she is a strong handful. but every so dear!

time out

my fibery activities have been sidelined because of injury. it would seem that my elbow was not up to the feet of snow i shoveled and my growing young pup. it has been a little stiff and sore since the last snow clean, but the final straw was walking little miss rae. at eight months she is quite a handle full when we walk her. i must have endured one tooo many yanks, cause now i'm out.
i have been able to spin and that is keeping me from going into complete with drawl. i am also being smart and letting it rest/heal so that i can soon be back into my power knitting mode. and we live in hope that the snow will soon stop falling (just got 6 inches of slush).
so, i thought i update on allison's travels. allison is the gator bag that i crafted for my dear sister naughty. she accompanied us on our travels to boston, enjoying a macaroon in faneuil market.













some time with a soldier and of course, a lobster.

she is very social and seems to be having the time of her life.

where is that time going?

my knitting projects have been lackluster lately, and today i realized that i hadn't posted anything in....well about a month.

i was frantically knitting a sweater to wear on our annual 'girls weekend' when i ran out of usable yarn at the sleeves. i have more fiber but had to realistically assess that fact that i could not spin, ply, wash, dry, knit, seam, block in seven days. there may have been a time when i would have scoffed at those time restraints and even seen it as a moral-building challenge. well, that ship has sailed

so i took the sleeve yarn and started a set of mittens. they will be scrumptious when finished. i took them along on our weekend and have just a bit left to finish them.

while i did not knit them in the city of boston, they got to tag along as i hoofed the freedom trail with my dragon-slaying cousin. we tried to pack all we could into the sunny day we had. the north church was a must see for me. then the inner harbor, charles river, charlestown and bunkerhill. being a freedom trail virgin, i didn't realize that you could enter and roam at most of these landmarks. so when kathie suggested we go to the top of the monument, i didn't see any reason not to climb 300 narrow, winding, concrete steps... that's why we are the dragon slayers!

i now have plenty of time to finish that yarn and get those sleeves done in time for the next fun adventure. we were housed and fed by my stampalious cousin linda. i remain pea-green at her talent and skill with all things stamp. she is quick and decisive with her projects and truly has a eye for putting patterns and colors together. her workstation is to-die-for. it got me thinking that one of my biggest difficulties with card making is hauling everything out, finding what i want, then putting it all away. we may have a trip to ikea in our future.