Woolbearers is closed on Monday, but we are still there in heart and mind, ordering, writing, catching up. I'm sitting on the couch in our den, Guns of Navarone on the tube, surrounded by four dogs watching me. I still have my pjs on and it's after noon. I'll get up after I write this and get ready for the day.

I haven't written much due to life getting in the way. But I have started and am close to finishing several projects that are really exciting to me. For some reason, I am really loving entrelac, so I am doing yet another bag (in Nashua Creative Focus Worsted), which will be the third. I'll post a picture of the second one when I get into work tomorrow. I think it is so cute, and those that know me know that I am usually nervous about anything I finish. It's done in one yarn that is space dyed. I love the effect. We are now carrying flower pins that are embellished with rug hooking and hand dyed silk ribbon, and I use one of the flowers on the bag. It's wonderful.

Then I started a pair of socks with entrelac cuffs. We dye our own line of fingering weight yarn in forty colors, and it just takes a few yards of yarn to do a row of squares, so we are going to package entrelac sock kits instead of our customers having to purchase whole skeins of solid color yarn for each color used. Look for the kits this fall! (Hopefully!)

I also am knitting a baby sweater our of Mission Falls cotton. It is just fabulous to work with. Mission Falls cotton is so soft and textural. Much of the sweater is done with seed stitch and the yarn enhances the stitch. Started a second one out of our own hand dyed cotton boucle yarn. It is gorgeous.

Vogue Knitting Holiday 2006 issue is becoming my favorite. I finished the woven scarf on the cover in Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, and started the lacy top of Jamieson DK weight shetland. Have the front done and if I could shut my mouth for five minutes instead of talking nonstop, the back would be done soon. I also started on the entrelac wrap sweater in our hand dyed Lanamira cashmere blend. (entrelac again). This will be the first thing I have done in the Lanamira besides a swatch, and I'm excited about working with it. It is so soft and wonderful!

There are a few more things in the knitting bag that are needing attention, a few that are close to being finished, and few that I think I might scrap, just because they have been in there so long that I forgot what I was doing with them. One is something out of my handspun yarn and I wonder what I was thinking....it has the hand of a porcupine and I was doing a shawl. Oh well, live and learn.

We are going to motivate now and go see my daughter in Deptford. The last time I went down there, her little blind dog bit me in the mouth which required reconstructive surgery, another reason I haven't written much. It looks pretty good! The surgery required a little pulling over of the skin on my left cheek, so those frown lines are gone. However, the one's on the right are still there, so I look a little like Bert Reynolds when I smile. I always liked him.