The Presents are Pouring In!

So, right before Christmas I finally made a decision on what spinning wheel I wanted.  At first I had myself convinced that I wanted an Ashford Kiwi, but then lo-and-behold the "Cadillac" of spinning wheels appeared on eBay and made me second guess.  A Schacht Matchless was up for auction!  I gave myself a maximum I could spend on it, did lots of research as to why this would be better than a Kiwi and decided to place a bid on the last day of the auction as long as it was below my max.

Well, sadly it wasn't.  So the Matchless slipped through my fingers.  Sad and pouty I went with Wino to work at the gallery in Carmel, and happened in on a quaint little knitting store to pick up the spare yarn for the rest of Salt's headband (see the previous post where I talk about that). In the corner of that store sat a fancy looking wheel.  Wino points to it and says "Is that the wheel you'd wanted?"  I looked at it and said "No, I think that's a Kromski, I'm looking at a Schacht."  Then I asked the owner of the shop if the wheel was indeed a Kromski and explained that I've been doing quite a bit of research on wheels lately.  She said she loved hers for many reasons but one was because it had a small footprint.

That little encounter got the wheels (pun intended) a-spinnin' (again, pun intended) in my little brain.  I got home and started looking at Kromskis and fell in love with the Minstrel.  It was reasonably priced, did everything that the Matchless did and came in a beautiful mahogany finish.  Lets just say that it took me less than a week to click the "Buy It Now" button on that one.  She arrived on the 23rd.

Everyone: I want you to meet Gwendolyn!

Isn't she just breathtaking!?  Sigh. I swoon each time I see her, even still.

I've been a bad spinner though, I haven't touched the poor thing since December 26th.  I've been all rush, rush, rush since then.  I go into the guest room to ogle her at least once a day though :)  I plan to spin some this weekend.

I've been a busy bee otherwise.  We took a trip to Napa (I was sick 100% of that trip, 'twas not that fun, but I still managed to get in some wine tasting).  Sadly, I was still sick for New Years Eve and spent it at home on the couch with Wino instead of with the "gang." That's ok, there's always next year.
I realized, on the first though that "this year" I'll be turning 30.  That made me panic for a moment (actually I've been panicking since then, but I'm trying not to show it!) I realized that I need to get my butt in gear and lose these last 23 or so pounds to make Lifetime in Weight Watchers.  So I've rededicated my efforts to get healthy again.  So far I've lost nearly half a pound....but getting back on this horse has been a struggle.

This past weekend we set up our new work out room.  Gotta get back to that running!

On to knitting progresses!
Salt ADORED her scarf/headband (yay!), and Pepper liked his scarf!  Joyous noise all around!

I finished my first sock:

There was no second sock syndrome, I cast on for sock #2 right away and was almost done with the leg ribbing, until I dropped a stitch and was too frustrated to pick it back up.  So I ripped the whole thing out.  The sock yarn is now resting at the bottom of my knitting bag.

I finally started the front of my sweater for the Lion Brand knit-a-long.  It's coming along slowly.

And finally, my LYS is hosting a year-long KAL for the Beekeeper's Quilt.  If you haven't heard of this, look it up.  It's awesome take-along knitting.  I even took mine to the airport with me to pick up a friend.  It's great way to pass the time and oh-so-adorable!

Ok, that's enough with the updates!  I'll be posting shortly announcing my new 365 days project (In which you're suppose to take a picture every day).  I'm going to try to post each picture here, beginning today (and I'll get you caught up from January 1).  Enjoy!