Catching Up

Yeah, it's been awhile (again). I'm still here, don't worry, and I'm still doing all kinds of fun stuff, it's just really hard to find time to take good pictures and then write up a decent blog post to go with them... Anyone with a full time day job and a toddler should be able to relate! Plus, Jack has taken a liking to my iPad (which he calls a "book", adorably), which means I really can't work on blog posts until he's asleep. But enough excuses, let me show you what I've been up to.

I went to France in September (without my husband and son) for a class I took at UCLA, and while I missed them a lot I had a great time. I can't wait until Jack is old enough for us to go as a family. There wasn't a lot of knitting-related stuff on my trip, but I did get to see a lot of cool stuff in Paris, and a few things in Normandy. Here's Mont St. Michel up in Normandy:

It's a monastery that looks like a castle, mostly surrounded by water. It's very cool, and I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the area.

I did Spinzilla at the beginning of October, and here's what I ended up with:

I ended up spinning 2152 yards in the course of one week! The fact that it was a competition definitely helped, but I also spun it all woolen, which is super fast (in relative terms, of course). Compare that to the ~1300 yards of worsted-spun singles I finished over 3 weeks of Tour de Fleece, and that gives you some idea of how much faster it is for me. I'm now making myself a sweater from some of my Spinzilla yarn--I was going to save it for NaKniSweMo next month, but I couldn't wait!

I took a small break during Spinzilla to see Clara Parkes herself on her Yarn Whisperer book tour:

And of course Jack had to sneak in ;). Clara is at least as entertaining and engaging in person as she is in her writing, so if you have a chance to hear her talk about yarn anywhere, take advantage of it! I also ended up with a "claramel" of my own to bring home, and I hid it away so I wouldn't eat it too soon. I will have to take a picture when I finally taste it (I was dying to ask for the recipe, because I love making caramels, but I of course was too shy).

And there are the most interesting things I've done in the past two months. I hope you're all enjoying the cooler weather and the knitting opportunities it provides!

 

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