Meet Molly

I adopted a cat from our local shelter last night. I've named her Molly. She's very friendly and I think she'll get along with my other cats. She's confined to our extra room for 2 weeks so that she's won't pass along any diseases to the other 2. I'm want to be careful about this since they are 13 and 18. I'll spend as much time as I can with her. Isn't she a pretty kitty?

Socks are Finished!

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Originally uploaded by kimknits126

I finished Tom's socks last night! The ribbing was endless. But I was driven to finish these so I could start something else!

Icelandic Lace Shawl is finished!

Here are some pictures of the Icelandic lace shawl. I like the way it came out. I used a different border than the pattern called for. When I bought the yarn for this shawl, I think I doubled the amounts. I think I have enough yarn for 2 more shawls.

We went to the Norman Rockwell Museum yesterday. The museum is in Stockbridge, MA - about an hour from our house. It was a great day for a drive. The leaves on the trees were beautiful. I've been to the museum twice before. Because there is so much detail in the paintings and he did about 4000 paintings, there is always something new to see.

Afterwards, we went looking in Stockbridge for something to eat. Everywhere we looked, the restaurant was either closed, or in one case - the Red Lion Inn, too expensive. So we came back to Albany and went to Old Chicago. It opened just a few weeks ago so it was really crowded. We had to wait an hour for a table so we had a couple of beers in the bar. The food was really good and the staff was very friendly. I think we'll be going there often.

Progress made on shawl

I'm almost done with the Iceland Lace Shawl. Just a few rows left on the top border. I'll post a pic soon.

We had a great time at Waffles and Puppets. We went with my sister and my niece. I got to hang out with my niece for a while. She's six and she is a joy to talk to. People brought their dogs to the event so we talked about every dog that went by.

There was a guy with some alpacas there. He had a bunch of alpaca items for sale, including some yarn at a great price. I picked up 3 skeins of a light purple worsted.

I saw The Jane Austen Book Club last night. I really enjoyed it. It's a romantic comedy (my favorite genre) and I think that it can be enjoyed even if you haven't read any Jane Austen. The movie is pretty true to the book. I listened to the book last fall when I was going to a Jane Austen book club at my library. I had last read Jane Austen when I was in my teens and twenties. I found it interesting that I got something different out of them as an adult.

Beer Labels

We bottled the Scotch Ale today - 48 bottles. The label is above (Hieland Laddie). The other label is from the brown ale we bottled last month.

We didn't go to the Saratoga Farm tour as I wasn't feeling well. I'm still coughing like crazy. I didn't mind missing the tour as we will be going to the Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck in a couple of weeks (10/20). Next weekend, we're going to the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown for the Waffles and Puppets event.

I've been working on the Icelandic Lace shawl in Knit Picks' Palette. I'm about half-way through. I'm enjoying the knitting. I like patterns that I can easily memorize so I can just knit away while I'm watching TV. When this is done, I have a couple of almost finished shawls that I think I'm ready to finish (for example, capelet from Victoria Knitting Today and Oregeon Shawl by Joan Schrouder).

Ravelry

I'm on Ravelry! My username is lace. I can see why there is so much fuss about it - it's fun! I've got 4 projects entered and have joined one local group. I like that it uses information entered from different sources. For example, I can blog about a project and then tie the post to the project on Ravelry. It is a great organizational tool.

While poking around in Ravelry, I found that there is a Saratoga County Fiber Tour happening this weekend. I think we may go check out one or two.

Pictures of SP package

I'm finally feeling better so here are pictures of the package I received last week. The varigated yarn is a bulky weight alpaca/merino blend and is very soft. The colors are beautiful - soft purples and blues. The other yarn is an aran weight wool/alpaca blend in a very pretty purple. The other item in the picture is a sweater stone. I did not have one and what a perfect item to give a knitter! The other picture is lotion and shower gel in a vanilla scent. Very nice! I've been using the lotion already. I have the best Secret Pal! Thank you!