Knitting among friends

Lately I've had many reminders of the how great it is to be able to say that we are part of a "knitting community". Saturday the 12th I got a lot of knitting energy when Cina opened her house for a night of knitting, thanks! Then last Wednesday I went to our weekly knitting café and the group had gotten a few new interesting members during the weeks I had been away. I think it is good that we can keep the group open and diverse.

On the web I have also had a few interesting experiences. I've been corresponding with Jody at Knotions magazine about her design Unwrapped that I finished last week, and now she has posted my picture on the site blog. I can ad that I wore it all day yesterday, and it was very comfortable on a hot and humid day. Also the blanket I made for my new niece last month has gotten a life of it's own on Ravelry with an amazing response. If you weren't around to see it, here is another picture of it.















Yesterday I showed about 57 pieces of knitting at a summer feast at the local museum in my home village. I tried to find as many different techniques as possible, like two-end knitting, Moebius shawls, double knitting, lace shawls and also traditional sweaters from Scandinavia and the British Isles. My father was one of the organizers and asked if I could help out with an exhibition, and it was fun to go back home and show old friends what I'm doing these days.















I shared the room with a family that has just bought ten alpacas and they had some wool and textile samples and a lot of pictures. They hope to get proper production going next summer. There was also a woman who demonstrated spinning on a handspindle, and she taught the 8-y-o-daughter of the alpaca family how to do it. Only days before I had bought a beginners kit at Spinspiration and the girl borrowed my little spindle, and her father will be making one for her a.s.a.p . When I got back home I was really inspired and I spun most of the white Corriedale wool in the picture on the little spindle last night. The bigger handspindle is my mother's and she has used that model for plying the yarn that her father spun when she was a child in Iceland. Now it is my turn to try out plying my yarn, and it is fun to be an eager beginner every now and then.