6th MLK Weekend!

A few weeks ago I posted about my trip to Virginia to see my Aunt Theresa (the post just before this one).  Then I promptly forgot to blog about the second half of my trip!

Every year, my sister and I meet in the middle (I'm in MD, she's in NC) at my Aunt Linda's house in Virginia.  We knit, talk, eat, watch great movies, and knit some more.  We dubbed the weekend, Must Love Knitting weekend, which also conveniently takes place on MLK Weekend each year (an extra day off work for travel!).

This year was the 6th year...can't believe it has been that long!

Saturday morning, a couple of Aunt Linda's (and now ours) knitting friends came over for a yarn swap.  It started with a few things...but the pile quickly grew!

I got some very nice yarn to add to my stash!

After the swap, we all met at Baa Baa Sheep, a yarn store in Norfolk (which is now carrying Purl & June soaps, by the way)

All of the yarn was so beautiful, it was hard to narrow down what I wanted to buy.  I ended up getting two very pretty skeins of Madeline Tosh Merino. I'm smitten with the colors. I'm not quite sure what to do with them...I may just keep them around to hold and look at for a while.

This yarn was really pretty and had a little sparkle, but I'm not sure you can see it in the picture.

After our busy day, we went back home to have dinner.  We had a meal similar to one Aunt Linda (and my dad and their other siblings) used to have growing up.  On the menu was Doughtie's BBQ (really delicious) and coleslaw, salad, and jello carrot salad.  I really liked the jello salad, and may try to see if anyone in my house will eat it (probably not).  

We had class on Sunday morning.  It was a practice run for me, since I'm teaching a needle felting class at the Knitting by the Sea retreat in NC next month.  I'm really excited, especially after our little practice run!  Becky and Aunt Linda were star pupils.  

Look at our fabulous beach scenes!!   And York, the dog, was such a good boy posing for the camera. It's like he knew all about how self-timers worked.  

He is so photogenic.  

York was about 9 months old in these pictures. He's a Guiding Eyes dog (my aunt is a puppy raiser).  

Oh, and I brought my wheel to MLK to show everyone how it worked and to do a little more spinning.  I'm learning!

Debbie, Aunt Linda's friend (and our friend too) always comes over to hang out and knit with us on MLK weekends.  She is incredibly generous, and not only gives us lots of yarn when she de-stashes, but this year she sent me home with something else!

Sorry for the sub-par photo, but this beauty is an Ashford Traditional wheel!  Debbie wanted to give it to me, but I told her I'd only take it if we could consider it a long term (very long term) loan, or perhaps a wheel foster home.  I was blown away!!  I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am, and how incredibly generous she was to give me this wheel.  I'm so excited to really sit down and get to know this new girl (the wheel) and learn to spin on her.  

I'm already looking forward to next year's MLK weekend.  Hopefully by then I'll have spun LOTS of yarn to show off to everyone.