Craft weekend!

My girlfriends and I had a lovely time in northern Michigan last weekend. There was much talking and much crafting. Three of us drove up from down state Thursday night and were treated to a lovely sunset.

Perfect for destressing, the new paint-by-numbers are beautiful and worthy of framing. Much different from the kits I used to paint when I was a kid. Watching Alice work on her painting made me want to get one for myself.

My first project was another needle case, this time as a gift for the woman teaching the embroidery class I’m taking at the quilt show in Grand Rapids next week. It’s just a little thank-you for teaching the class.

The inside is almost the same as the one I made for myself. It was a busy week and I just didn’t have any extra energy to come up with a new design. I guess I needed to get into a crafting mindset for the weekend, too.

Moonset was a beautiful event. Fortunately for us, Jess was awake at 6:00 am to see it and take a picture. I wish I had witnessed it for myself but I was blissfully asleep.

Most of us worked on knitting projects. The above picture shows Sheri’s green sock (an archeology knitting project) and Rhonda’s purple sock and a Slytherin cowl and a Gryffindor scarf. Fortunately, Jessica and Sheri set aside their house rivalries for the weekend.

Sheri brought up several archeology knitting projects: projects that have been in time out for so long it took quite a bit of research to figure out where she left off and what may or may not have gone wrong. This gorgeous multi-colored sock with the baubles was my favorite project of the weekend. I loved it even more than my own knitting.

My knitting project for the weekend. The past couple of years, when I’ve been knitting I’ve been almost exclusively knitting mittens. Mittens are a quick and satisfying knit and perfect when I want to do some knitting but don’t want to deal with a big commitment. This one was completed the day we returned home. (My stash of pairs of mittens mysteriously disappeared a couple years ago. As far as I can tell, they either got sent to Goodwill by mistake or ended up in the trash, again by mistake. I try not to think about it since each pair was made from homespun yarn and then hand knit. If I think about it, I’ll start weeping inconsolably.)

Sunset on the lake is beautiful!

We spent a glorious couple of days on the deck. While it was in the upper 80s and lower 90s, there was a nice wind off the lake so it wasn’t hot. When the sun came around to the lake side of the cottage, we just moved off the deck and under the trees in the yard. We talked and knitted and knitted and talked. It was a great weekend!