Today I sat in my "office" for six and half hours straight and when the computer screen started going blurry and I was about to scream, I decided to take a little break. I took Genevieve out into the playpen and took some pictures of her. Her naturally black fur is growing in from the head back after her summer haircut. 
I have an oak branch in the pen for the bunnies to play with and nibble on and Genny sat up on her haunches and examined it for a while. 
It has four little cables running up the back and more cables on the front, plus pockets. Thank goodness, I can knit and look at the computer screen at the same time! Otherwise, these meetings would drive me insane! 
At Annette's urging, I've finally decided to update my blog. I've been silent for so long because I have a new job and it takes a lot of my time -- so I haven't had time for a lot of the knitting and spinning things in my life since February. As I told Annette, all I do anymore is sit in the basement in front of my computer. 
Not to be dissuaded, though, Annette said, "Then take a picture of your work station and post that." So, I did. Here we see a picture of my makeshift work station, a door painted blue and placed across two file cabinets. I have my spinning wheel clock above and my faithful companion, Sam, below.
Next we have a picture of my UFOs, all hung neatly in bags waiting their turn to be finished (or not). The beautiful steamer trunk that Kathryn refinished for me is full of fiber to spin and is flanked by chairs full of more fiber.
, and an example of "quilling," which is a type of rug hooking that was practiced in colonial times. 
Next, we have a small sample of my commercial yarn stash, guarded by an angel made out of roving.
The baskets are full of my hand spun yarn -- in fact, I wove the basket on the right myself too. The display case hanging on the wall has part of my collection of ancient spindle whorls in it. My Mom made me the sign that says "Penny Landen Needlewoman" on it with counted cross-stitch.
When we got home, we topped off our dinner with a fabulous birthday cake Kate made for me. It was four layers of chocolate with strawberry filling in between and chocolate poured over the top. Totally sinful! We could hardly eat it after the buffet, but somehow we managed. The picture above is of Daddy with the two girls, who are wearing their Easter bunny ears.Now to catch up on some knitting. 
Annette requested a picture of my angora key fob. I just made it up as I went along. The little random number generator is so small, I was afraid I'd lose it if I didn't have something attached to it. So I grabbed a small skein of Andy fur and knitted a square and then a strap to attach it to the thingie. It's silky soft and it helps to remind me of fibery goodness while I'm working.
Here's a picture of my work scarf. 
It's plain garter stitch so I can work on it during telephone conferences (Shhhh! Don't tell on me!). The alpaca and silk in it really give it a beautiful sheen. The color is called hyacinth, but it really looks like a purplish navy.
Last, but not least, I finished Ally's Centre scarf. It's double knitted so it's two thickness of material and in her college colors, gold and black. I was a little disappointed that it doesn't look very difficult, but I found it to be a challenging project. You have to knit each row twice and you have to keep straight which color to use at any given time. I've done color work before that looked a lot more impressive, but this was hard.
Thirteen of us gathered at the house for dinner and dessert and ten of us brought our sleeping bags and air mattresses and spent the night. 
We knitted and spun and wove well into the night. Actually, I went to bed at 1:00, but everyone else stayed up until 3:00!!! We laughed and talked and had a wonderful time. The next morning, Pat Maley made us some eggs with asparagus and cheese and mushrooms -- delicious! We had muffins and Holly's freshly churned butter. 
Most important, Grace finally got her tapestry started!
December and January were busy months for knitting projects. I made Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Pretty Thing neck warmer out of some beautiful angora blend yarn that Lynne gave me. The colors don't show up very well in the picture, but it's a gentle lavender and pale green. I had so much yarn left over that I made a headband to go with it.
n ocean shades, needed to finally be knit into something. It used to live by my desk and get petted a lot. Now it's become a neckwarmer. I used the Meine Kalte Liebe pattern that I've used before and liked.
When I was in Florida with nothing to do but knit, read and relax, I made three hats for felting and I felted them when I got home. The first one was red, 
the second one was purple and the last was is a 
wee beanie made out of the leftovers from the red and purple hats.
Last, but not least, my current project is a little baby hat for Maria and Eric's new baby, Caroline. I finally found the lost skein of pastel yarn and I started making a little hat from this pattern. After knitting about three inches of ribbing, I took a good hard look at it and realized that the hat would hardly fit a Barbie doll. Then I looked at the pattern more closely and realized it was for preemies. So, that hat took a visit to the frog pond. I started again with this pattern and it looks closer to the right size now, but the colors are pooling pretty badly. I'm officially taking the position that it doesn't matter.
Kate and I decorated the tree early this year so we could enjoy it longer and I wrapped all the gifts in the same paper -- at Kate's suggestion -- to make a prettier display. Kate made a bunch of paper flowers out of tissue and we put them on the tree branches to add to the festive look. 
Ally and Kate woke up considerably later than when they were little. In fact, Jeff and I beat both of them downstairs by at least an hour. When they got ready to come downstairs, we caught them on film and they hammed it up for the camera.
We all opened our stockings and then had a breakfast casserole that I had put together the previous evening from a recipe I got from Mom. Then the four of us gathered around the tree and opened all of our presents. In recognition of my Spongebob mania, Ally gave me a Spongebob throw and the 1st season of Spongebob on DVD. Kate gave me some lovely wooly slippers that I had been looking at admiringly. In addition to other things, I knitted both of them some wool socks and was proud to see both of them wearing them while we were on vacation in Florida. Jeff and I gave each other laptops for Christmas, so we're super high tech this year! 
The next day, after a thankfully uneventful flight, we arrived at the Disney Vacation Club at Vero Beach. Kate got this picture of Jeff and me at the kitchen table in the condo. 
We had a great vacation. Larry took Kate kayaking one day and they saw at least nine dolphins, some as close as three feet away! The next day, Larry took Jeff and Ally on a six mile bike ride -- which he thought was no big deal, but Ally and Jeff thought was a major ride. The rest of the time we relaxed and hung out. We missed Mom and Dad, who usually come down to Florida with us after Christmas, but Mom wasn't feeling like coming this year. We talked to them on the phone several times. 
We loaded up the car to celebrate "Presents Day" with my extended family. "Presents Day" originated through the wisdom of my mother who didn't want to fight for Christmas Day with all of our conflicting schedules and so each year we designate a day for all the family to get together and exchange presents. This year, we celebrated fairly late -- on the 23rd-- because three of our four college students weren't getting out of school until late.
Amy and Frank, my sister-in-law and brother, hosted us this year because Frank was on call and couldn't leave Louisville. Amy had the house decorated beautifully and was all set up to present a holiday feast for all of us. We brought dishes to help out, but Amy really did the lion's share of work and it was lovely.
Everyone but Kathryn's husband, John, was able to come. Here is a picture of Kathryn, my sister and her son, William.
Here, my brother Frank watches my daughter Kate opening a present. Frank is sporting a yellow bow tie that I gave him belatedly for his October birthday.
My daughter, Ally, is sitting on the couch with my husband Jeff and my Dad.
Ally was tickled when she received a canvas bag for transporting her stuff to and from college. The surprise was that it was filled with her favorite snack foods!
Kate, my daughter, was eager to unwrap her gifts, which turned out to be some terrific cooking implements to foster her passion for cooking. She was especially thrilled with the "pinch bowls," just like on her favorite cooking shows.
Here's a group picture showing (from left to right) my nephew John, my sister-in-law Amy, my niece Mary Beth and my sister Kathryn.
