Back again

A friend of mine reminded me that I had not blogged in quite some time. It's going to take some time to catch up on everything so today I'll just post a little of the most recent stuff.
My grandson turned 2 years old last week. He enjoyed his cake.

I'm a teacher so I have my summers off, more or less. Every summer I set goals. This summer one of the big goals is to knit more. In April I went to St. Louis to attend the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling, I bought a lot of yarn. In May my daughter and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival where I bought even more yarn Ever since, I've been on a self-imposed yarn diet, (until yesterday when I fell off the wagon and bought some very pretty Merino silk Malabrigo at The Yarn Lounge in Richmond, it was my birthday). I have been knitting furiously to use some of my stash before next month when I head to Chicago for Stitches Midwest where I will no doubt buy more yarn. Here is one of my current projects, the Shipwreck Shawl by Bethany Kok. I'm knitting it in Sweet Georgia sock yarn in the Coastal colorway. I love this shawl and I love this yarn. The shawl and I have had several frogging and tinking times but overall it's a fun knit and I love the way it's turning out. The wooden bowl is a bead spinner (stringer) to speed the process of stringing all the those gorgeous beads. The shawl pattern calls for 5000, yes 5000, beads and anything that can speed the string process is welcome. Besides, it's always fun to get and learn to use a new toy.