New Shinies!

I finally finished the shawl I've been making my best friend for her wedding.

It's huge! I gave it to her last night, she seemed quite happy. I hope it keeps her cozy and warm. It is lightweight, but all wool and long enough to cover her whole arms.

I spent this weekend at the Creativ Festival, and came home with more than a few treats. These babies are the big one, though. A new sewing machine and serger. Oh man, they are awesome. The sewing machine is so much smoother than my old one, and I love all the features it has. It's got automatic tension, an automatic needle threader, and automatic bobbin string puller-upper (that's the official terminology, I swear). It's also got 99 different stitch patterns, and a bitch is one. I'm not kidding there, one of the stitch patterns is a doggie. That alone won Andrew over to the dark side of the sewing machine. He's fascinated by the sewing machine stitching the cool patterns all on it's own.

I was going to lug them home on the subway, but my boss and her husband told me I was crazy and were kind enough to back that up with a ride home.

I realized the other day that I've surrounded myself with a moat of yarn. I had to take a picture.
Sometimes Andrew tries to wheel over from his side of the room to look at something, and is thwarted by a stray ball of yarn or a hook that I need to pick up. 

The green bag on the floor is holding the rest of my treasures from the show. I got enough yarn for a cardigan from the last Interweave Crochet I've been dying to make, a few balls for a brioche stitch cowl, a ball of yummy red possum yarn and 4 little bags of spinning fibre. Not to mention the yarn I got last week when my friend Alia was destashing some lovely extra yarn she was given.

Getting the spinning fibre means I need to use up what's on my spindle before I can start with the fun new stuff. That means I've actually been spinning! I'm thoroughly enjoying it and wondering why I put it down in the first place. Too busy, I suppose.

And this is my desktop this morning. The pink shawl I'm making to go with my bridesmaid dress, the red beads and silver spacers I got yesterday and made into a super simple necklace. The sparkly bit in the back is a ball of yarn I got from our booth because I loved it too much to pass it up.
The heathery oatmeal kind of colour yarn is one of two that I got at... a yard sale, maybe? I bought it with a grab bag type deal somewhere. I never cared for it until I pulled it out and decided it would make a very sophisticated cowl. I'm doing a sort of textured herringbone wave based off a pattern I love in a pattern book for knitting.