Weekend of Activities

I must be a homebody. I am still pooped from the weekend's activities. Is it because of the heat? Boy, it's been hot and muggy. High temperature is one thing. The humidity is harder to deal with. We have what they call "monsoonal moisture". Sounds nasty, huh? This made learning spinning a little more difficult. I went to the guild meeting on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and I met lots of very friendly and very special people. I tried spinning with the spindles. But the heat and sweat made it impossible to handle the fiber to make it work for me. I also tried spinning with a wheel, and that worked out pretty well.

Sunday was the spinning class at A Mano, with John Pitblado. What a wonderful teacher. Very clear instructions from beginning to end. We learned how to spin singles and how to ply yarn. Air conditioning was on so no sweating problem there. Lots of people showed up for the class. He will be teaching at the Fabulous Fiber Fest. I think I want to sign up for the spinning wheel session.

Now the "Violets" update, and the last update. It's done! Complete! And given to my friend!

I have to give a lot of thanks to Ted for guiding me through every step of knitting this shawl. I was very lucky that I chose a pattern that he had already knitted. He even made modification so that it was easier to knit, and prettier to look at. Sylvia mentioned how nice the transition between the violets and the river was. All Ted's idea! :-)

Below is a picture of "Violets" being blocked. I didn't even notice that the wrong side was facing up. LOL

Here's a picture showing each design element in the pattern.

I knew I would be too embarassed to ask my friend to pose for a photo in the coffeeshop where I presented the shawl. So earlier in the morning I forced my partner to put the shawl on for a snapshot. LOL Here it is.


Additional Info, 7.25.06:
Pattern: Violets by the River, by Hazel Carter
Yarn: KnitPicks' Shadow in Sunset
Needle: INOX circular US Size 6