What a Weekend!

This weekend, my sister and I went to my Aunt Linda's house to have a weekend of knitting! My sister taught me how to knit when I was just out of high school, I think. For several years all I knitted were scarves, but the past two years I've been slowly learning to knit things other than long rectangles. :-)

We started the weekend by heading to Debbie's house. Debbie is a friend of Aunt Linda's. She's also incredibly generous! She had her whole dining room table covered with yarn to give to us! There was so much yarn....it was amazing. She also had an awesome yarn room, with her stash neatly stacked and organized. I'd love to have a room like that some day...

After we left Debbie's house, we headed to Joanne's house. Joanne is another friend of Aunt Linda's. She gave us spinning lessons!! She's a great teacher. First, she showed us how to use a drop spindle. This was a little tricky at first, but I think I was starting to get the hang of it sort of. I'll definitely practice this at home!


Then she let us try her amazing wheel. Becky did a great job!


Then I tried. It was tricky at first, but for a few minutes I really "got it". Too bad it only lasted a few minutes. :-) Hopefully one day when I'm a pro on the drop spindle, I'll get a wheel and really spin!



Here we are! I think I'm trying to fix the yarn after about the 5th time it broke.

Thanks for teaching us to spin and letting us use your wheels, Joanne! We had a blast!

We went home and Becky and I got some soup started while Aunt Linda went to pick up Hanny the puppy at the sitter's house. We had Alton Brown's Christmas soup. It was delicious! I'll be adding that to my rotation of meals.

Aww. Me and my sister.

After dinner, we brought out the yarn Aunt Linda had set aside for us! We got more awesome yarn, and even some sweaters she'd knit as samples for the knitting store where she worked!!
Sunday morning we went to a knitting group at Aunt Linda's friend's house. It was a nice relaxing time knitting and chatting.

After we got back to Aunt Linda's house, we put on our sweats and Debbie came over for some more knitting time.

Monday morning came and it was time to leave. I snapped some pictures on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Talk about cool! Well, I don't have a fear of bridges, so I thought it was cool. I guess if you didn't like bridges, you would not use the word "cool" to describe it! The whole thing is 20 miles long, with 2 tunnel sections under the bay.

If you enlarge the picture below, you'll see where the bridge seems to disappear under the bay and reappear on the other side!

When I got home, I spread everything out on the table. Well I tried, but I didn't have enough room!

Some of the sweaters are draped over the chairs on the back. There is so much yarn it's overwhelming! I love the colors and textures. I can't wait to look through patterns and see what I'm going to knit!

More bags full of yarn!!

I think this is enough yarn to last me for years!!! I better start knitting and stop drooling over it!

Aunt Linda, thank you so much for hosting us this weekend and sharing your yarn and patterns with us!!! Joanne, thanks so much for teaching us how to spin, and you're welcome to come visit any time to see the sheep! Debbie, thanks so much for being so generous and sharing your wonderful stash with us!! And Maureen, thanks for having us at your knitting group!

I had such a great weekend! We'll have to get together again sometime soon!