A Cranking Good Time

Sunday was knitting day... I participated in a get-together with (new) sock machine friends. There were four of us total, meeting in the courtyard of Trish's beauty salon in downtown Walnut Creek surrounded with greenery.. a very lovely afternoon, and Trish is really an expert and could point out things that were creating problems for me... mainly not having enough weight on my work, and not moving the weight up close to the latest rows of stitching coming off the machine. I was able to produce a few more yards of flawless tubing, then switch to a sport weight, make the necessary tension adjustment and produce a yard or so of that weight successfully! Whoo hooo, I am almost ready to tackle socks! One of the participants, Mary, was practicing heels and toes as a warm up for her next pair of socks, and she whipped right through them... gave me courage.

I leave in a week and a half for the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon, and Randy, who got me signed up for this adventure, was there yesterday as well. She and her daughter, another spinner and teenage daughter and two more spinners from the Bay Area are going on the train as well, so we got to discuss plans, impressions, etc. Randy has made it to Black Sheep the four previous years, and likes the animal events too... we are looking forward to watching them the days we don't have our sock knitting class. We also discussed possible shopping....

I plan to felt up several items later this week, including the infamous travel bag, just in need of a few, last strappy details. I have also managed to finish a summery scarf out of Skacel Hip Hop to put in the shop, and hope to get two more pair of sandals ready before it is my day to work there this coming Friday... I will take pictures too then!

Thanks for the kind comments on my speech... I was amazed to get several compliments as I traveled around my tiny town today. This is new to me; I am comfortable as a public speaker but didn't expect any kudos. Keep thinking to myself, "they must really mean it; if they didn't like it they would just not say anything!"

REMINDER - the contest is still open until the end of the month, so write me to enter.