Hello blogland! I’m coming out from the other side of planning my brother’s wedding last month finally feeling human again. I have a wonderful new sister-in-law and gained a nephew and 3 nieces! Wanna see some pictures? Thought so.  Next up: My first lace F0, my first handspun laceweight and a major announcement!

Bachelorette Party

The bridal shower

The Rehearsal Dinner

Getting pretty

The Big Day!

My siblings and I are very close.  The are my best friends and I’m soooo lucky to have them!

Bronze Peacock BFL laceweight singles & beads., originally uploaded by heartknits.

Just a quick post to try out a camera my sister gave me. Here’s my current spinning project. If I have enough yardage I’ll be knitting up the Aspen Grove shawl by Miriam Felton for my grandmother as the first christmas gift of 2008.

I  got tagged by Kat with the “Power of 7″ list.    She knows how to get me to actually blog!

The instructions are:
Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. (done, above.)
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. (I won’t be doing this part. I don’t think I’ll get sued or anything.)

1.  I have finally reached the point of spinning a true 2ply laceweight and I’m a little shocked  and thrilled that I have!

2.  I’m very antisocial about 60% of the time.  I like being alone and quiet.

3.  I’m becoming addicted to lace knitting with 2 shawls on the needles and 2 more waiting in the wings to be started before the month is over.

4.  I’m a part-time, by request only,  wedding planner.

5.  For the most part I hate school fundraisers.

6.  I’m secretly (Oops!) a slob.

7.  I’d rather exercise strenuously than be told  what I should and should not eat.

There Kat!  You accomplished what others’ requests have not, a blog post.  So give yourself a pat on the back and get busy knitting my socks!!  (Just kidding!!) 

As to all the rest of my small but loyal readership, we will be buying a new camera before school is out in May.  I’m hoping that will be the  kick in the pants I need to blog more frequently.  It’s really hard to do it without decent photos.  I’m still knitting though and spinning so if you’re on ravelry.com come  check out my project page.  I’m Heartknits over there too.  And if you’re not on ravelry, get on the ball and sign up for an invitation already!

The knitting, the spinning, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, our anniversary trip, my big announcement or all of the above? . . . . we’ll start with the knitting.

I knit alot of small projects over the whole holiday season. Several were gifted without pictures taken first so you may get to see them in the future or maybe not. The ones I do have pics of I’m planning on sharing over the course of several posts. Here’s one I’m very proud of, my first stranded colorwork project.

This is Teddy’s winter hat and oh my gosh the lining makes it warm! I had a blast knitting this and loved that it worked up in only one day.

I also knit some very colorful Celebration Mitts for Trinity. I spun up some brightly dyed Shetland wool from my favorite fiber pusher and navajo-plied it into a round, fat & squishy aran weight. They are tightly knit and wind-proof.

Tomorrow I’ll show you the beret I knit to match these, and the one I knit for myself.

Spinning pics will be posted tomorrow too. You can probably gather from my long absence that I’ve been busy. That would be the truth. Between school activities, cub scouts and wedding planning I need a break. I’ve got so much going on it’s almost impossible to keep it all straight in my head. But I do remember the news I just have to tell you today.

I’m going back to school! . . . . and I love school. Starting in the fall with only 2 classes I’ll be working my way up slowly till I’m carrying a full load. However as great as this is, it’s not the going back to college that is exciting. It’s my major that makes my heart race. I’ll be studying Fashion Design, Production & Marketing! I’m finally following the dreams I had when I graduated from high school. So yeah, that’s my big announcement. And Amanda, there’s much more to come where that came from.

You guys sure know how to make a girl blush. Thanks for the huge response. I guess I needn’t have feared. Okay I’d write you a full progress report right now but all my pictures are on my other computer. However let me say that I have a lot to tell you my friends. Till tomorrow, knit with all your heart.

Anybody out there still waiting for me to post?

Sweaters!!  Can you believe it?  I’m actually posting again and I have pictures!

First the knitting:

For my son I’m knitting the Accordion pattern from Knitty.com.  He wanted stripes on the sleeves so striped they are.  We’ll also be adding a hood instead of a collar.  I’m using a combination of yarns, the dark brown is Patons Classic Merino and all the other fall colors are Vanna’s Choice by Lionbrand.  As a confirmed yarn snob I surprised myself by not minding this yarn.  It’s not bad as far as acrylics go.  Anyway the body will get cast on this weekend.

For myself we have two sweater projects.  The Aran Accent Vest hasn’t seen much action lately but I’m still hoping to get it done in time for the holidays.  I’m really enjoying the process.

What has been getting the most of my attention lately is Mr. Greenjeans from the fall Knitty.   I went with some Patons Classic Merino on sale at $4 a ball in the Palais colorway.  It was zipping along till I got the cabled portion and now it’s lagging a bit.  But it will be completed very soon!

I’ve also made myself a Calorimetry from some of my handspun.  I’m in love with this pattern and plan on making almost a dozen as gifts in the next few weeks.

I’ve worked on my lace scarf as well, it’s growing slowly but surely.  Wish I knew how long it’s going to be when blocked so I know when to stop!  I’m planning on making a pair of Wine & Roses Mitts (Interweave Knits) from the rest of the yarn.

I found some yummy Patons Rumor to coordinate with the scarf and a short hour later, I had a new hat.  I’m still looking for a pretty vintage pin and some velvet ribbon to trim it up.

I joined a KAL for wristwarmers and these are my first contribution.  I designed them but don’t really plan on writing out a pattern.  The hands are crocheted with a double strand of KnitPicks Gloss and the cuff with Patons SWS in Natural Plum.  Now I get to rip back the ribbed cuff on the second one to make it match the first one.

Soooooo, as you can see I’ve been very busy.  Next time I’ll share a sock story and share some of my new goodies with ya.  And vacation pics too!  Then…. Then comes the spinning.

I promise I haven’t forgotten the blog but I guess it just hasn’t been very high on the priority list lately. Here is some proof that I’m still here. I hadn’t posted any new pics of myself since I got new glasses and chopped my hair so here you go. The picture above is with my hubby and below is with my sister. Two of my most favorite people in the world. My best friends. I don’t get to see my sister as much as I would like since she is an hour and a half away in her sophomore year at OSU. I miss you sissy. She must be psyhic since she just called me after I typed that.

I need to take some pics of recent stash enhancements, fall projects and such but until I get that done here are a few to tide you over.

These are Lacy Scallop socks. Pattern is by Sockbug and the yarn is Jojoland Melody Superwash purchased at LittleKnits.com

Here is what’s happening with the leftover yarn….little lacy socks for my joygirl.

This was the July SpunkyClub fiber, a yummy shetland wool in the colorway Celebration. It was my first time spinning Shetland but it won’t be my last. This is one third of the fiber chain-plied, when it’s all done it will become the yoke on a top-down raglan hoodie for the joygirl.

And there’s plenty more where that came from! Stay tuned!

P.S. For some odd reason I, (the small project knitter) have found myself in the midst of knitting not one but 3 sweaters!!!  Is the sky still blue?

Believe or not I haven’t died, moved out of the country, or been kidnapped.  I’ve just been very busy and mentally preoccupied.

Going from being a homeschooling household where pretty much anything goes and the schedule is all loosey-goosey to being a public school household with all the necessary structure that implies has thrown me for a loop.  Not that I’m complaining, I really like it and the order it gives to my day; it’s just that it’s taking awhile for our family to settle in and adjust to the fact that our schedule is not flexible anymore.  Set-in-stone bedtimes during the week are not a temporary situation.  The kids are loving their teachers and doing fine at keeping up with the class.

Tabitha may be starting speech therapy to help retrain her to pronunciate correctly now that her front teeth have come down fully.  She was without them for so long she developed some really bad habits that we have to tackle now.   She is so excited about finishing her 100 math facts in 5 minutes to get her name in the class hall of fame.

Teddy is a star pupil having received only excellent daily behavior reports since the first day.   He is reading way beyond his grade level and just soaking up every little piece of knowledge presented to him.

Trinity is loving spending time with me, getting to be the “special” helper and run errands all over town.  She is becoming an excellent baker and towel-folder!  She is very excited to be starting ballet & tap class this month as well.

I am slowly becoming accustomed to having a quieter house during the day, actually getting housework done without too much hassle and having a much-needed rhythm to my week.  The house looks better than it has in a long time and we know where things are!!  I’ve been working on organizing my stash, frogging old ufo’s, and getting ready for fall.

The mums have been planted, the wreath is on the door and I’m shopping for yummy scented candles.  I am sooooo ready for the cooler weather!  Bring on the wind, bring on the bonfires and s’mores.  Bring on the maple leaves swirling thru the air and on the lawn.  Bring on sweater weather and baskets and bushels of apples for pie.  Bring on the wool Baby!

Next: Project updates & spinning!