How long has it been?

I know it has been a small eternity since I have posted here. I had a very busy few months, and the short periods of time I had to be working on projects was sent working on gifts that could not go public anyway.

In the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to somethings purely for fun, and now I finally have some projects to show.

Here is an in progress shots of a gift that I had been working on for several weeks that is now gifted.

This is a comfort afghan for my friend Chris. I met Chris through the Peaches & Creme group on Ravelry. She is a wonderful person, and has become a good friend. She also does a great deal of my pattern testing for me.

Recently Chris has had a lot to deal with between being laid off, and trying to help her sick mother. When I decided to make a comfort afghan for her I contacted several people in the P&C group, and lots of squares were on the way. Group members sent me 22 of the 30 squares in this afghan. I edged each square then sewed them all together. Luckily my brother Gerry was visiting the night I was seaming this up, so I gave him a yarn needle, and he dove right in, too.

If you want a closer look at any of the squares I have a photo album here. Each square has the ravelry name of it's creator listed.

When the blanket was all done I decided to drive out to New Jersey and present it to Chris personally. She knew I was coming but didn't know why.

This is Chris in the office of the pet store she and her husband own, as she is seeing the afghan for the first time.

We had a wonderful day together, and although we had never met face to face before, it was just like we had been friends for years.

During that same time I was host to two delightful stuffed pigs. Another P&C ravelry group project. These pigs are traveling the country visiting many of the group members.

There is an online scrapbook of their travels here.

The Little piggies spent the day with us, as did Wonder Woman (the stuffed toy I had made for Chris this past Christmas). Here they are at the sign marking the community where Chris lives, and gets her ravelry name from.

I have also managed to find the time to do quite a bit of spinning in the last two weeks. My favorite yarn of late is this thick/thin spiral yarn I created to mimic the look of fluffy white clouds.

I wish I had photographed it before I wound it into a ball, but you can still get a sense of the texture.

This yarn is being made into a scarf for a co-worker that is getting ready to move to Alaska. I figured if ever there was an occasion for a fuzzy warm hand spun scarf, this is it!

Here is the fabric of the scarf. Can you see the clouds?

It's actually been an amazingly quick project- which it had to be because I didn't realize she is leaving at the end of the week.

I spun and plies the yarn on Saturday, and Sunday. I washed it and set the twist late Sunday night, and started the knitting last night. With size 11 needles it has grown to 4' in length in just a few hours.

The last bit of news I am going to share today is kind of exciting to me. I am going to be a vendor at the Squam Lake Art Workshops. This is a five day artists retreat about an hours drive north of me. On Saturday night they are having a vendor fair and ravelry party. So, it will be a very fun event. I plan to sell several different items, including hand spun yarn, and hand painted rovings. Here's a bit of a preview. These two merino braids are my favorites from a dying adventure I had last week.

My friend Lynne will be sharing the booth with me, and we plan to get together for more dyeing next week. Lynne creates Beautiful colourways, and spins beautifully. Check out her etsy store.