Saturday was a seriously fun time. We had a Holiday party at Jackie's house (I hope I spelled her name right). We did the whole thing that involves everyone bringing a present and then stealing from one another with a pre-set list of rules. I was second last to go and wound up with this wonderful book from one of our gals Shari.

I was very happy with this gift as I really want to design my own knits, and I don't buy myself a lot of books because I would rather buy yarn and books are nearly just as expensive. Anyway, it was a wonderful party, plenty of seating and a room FULL of knitters (and spinners) which I just love. Daye brought some ornaments she had needle felted and a bunch of us had brought some needle felting supplies and about 4 or 5 of us took a first time go at it. I have a new found respect for Daye's whose look pretty much perfect. Tammy caught on pretty well, here she is (in her first self-designed hand knit sweater).

Here are most of our spinners (claudia was taking the photo) all crowded around more then one pound of some pretty 2-ply gray wool that Shari had spun up in some sort of self-possessed all night spin-athon.

We discussed how the wool was still had some lanolin in it despite having been purchased "prepared" and we discussed if it would be okay to knit it even though it had the lanolin, or should she wash the skeins first. Our advice was do whatever she liked, when you wash it, it should soften up a bit and loose some weight.

Later I nearly turned blue when Claudia came out with a fully lit-up birthday cake, complete with "Happy Birthday Pixie" written on-top. It was soooo sweet of them, I was just totally surprised and pretty much wanted to cry! Actually Jen was sent to distract me while they brought it out and she didn't have to do much because I had just lost a sewing needle while using embroidery floss to sew buttons on the baby cardi. Turns out it was in my purse and by some miracle I reached in and found it without stabbing myself.

After the cake I opened up a pretty box to find these "Pixie Toes" that Claudia made, very fun and just my colors, and they fit perfectly as well! My favorite part is the little balls on the end, now I just need felted wings!

So here are the buttons on the baby cardi;

I brought Gafilta fish (everyone brought food) and I was surprised by how many people actually tried it and said they liked it. Of course I love it but my dad and my husband both can't stand the smell of it. I think Jen ate half of them.

Knitting Update

I had to swatch again because Sahara is knit on a smaller needle size then SKB, I think this creates a tighter fabric that I like. I always forget how big an impact needle size can have on the resulting fabric.

So here she is, about 4 inches along. It's knit in a very unique manner from the top down but it is not a raglan, so this rectangle is basically the back of the nack and shoulders, knit down until the armpits, at which point you then get to do some tricksy fun stuff to avoid any shoulder seams. It's great for this yarn because it has a nice drape to it while still remaining light.