A New Year, A New Beginning

It is the first day of a new year, and it means a lot of different things to a lot of people. 

For me, this year will be a new beginning of sorts.  For the first time in years I am at home full-time, having closed our brick-and mortar store mid-December.  No more commuting or working six days a week.  Next week, I start setting up the web site to shop our yarns on-line.  Second, to remind myself that my husband and children are not potential customers, and do not want to be asked “how may I help you” and “what knitting are you doing today” everytime they walk in the room.

Also on the agenda?  Spend more time weaving, especially on this:

This is a LeClerc Colonial I 4-shaft counterbalance loom, and perched on the back are cones of mohair from Louet with which I hope to weave a version of this:

(obviously mine will have only two colours, but you get the idea), but not until I have finished the Keep it Simple Towels (using Louet’s 14/2 organic cotton (being woven on my LeClerc Artisat).

Having read the blogs of more advanced weavers, I am fascinated with the thought of weaving with my own hand-dyed warps, so hopefully this summer, armed with these,

I might just do that (or skip it altogether and order some beautiful hand-dyed lace silk from Fleece Artist/Hand Maiden, if it shows up on the website, you know what I chose).

Despite all the talk of weaving, I am still knitting.  I hope to get some projects finished and post some pics soon.  I did just finish a pair of socks in Tuffy from Briggs and Little (which are now my favourite socks to wear around the house) where I used a shadow wrap short row heel technique (thank you Mara for teaching this).  This is by far the nicest short row heel I’ve seen, with no gaps at the wraps.

I would just like to end this post by wishing everyone a safe and happy New Year and hope you are looking as forward to 2013 as much as I am.

Happy knitting,

Kelly