Knitting and Weaving and Gardening, Oh my

So I looked back and realized that I hadn't posted since the end of August. Wow. What have I been doing? First, I need to apologize. I was looking over the blog and realized that I had comments that I have never responded to. I never think to look back to see if there was a comment and so I never respond. for that I apologize and I will try to do better.
I have been playing in my garden. The tomatoes are done. The cucumbers and cantaloupes have died out. There are sweet potato vines all over one bed. I sure hope they're producing potatoes under there. The bell peppers are still going gangbusters. I have over two gallons chopped and frozen. I'll use them this winter when prices are beyond me. Have you seen the price of them even now? Yikes!

I've been knitting. I do a lot of hand knitting when I can't be in my little room that my husband calls my office and I would like to call my fiber studio. I'd call it that if there was enough room to have everything set up the way I'd like. Mobile homes (or manufactured homes as they are now known) are not known for having an excess of room. Ours is a 16 x 80 and has four bedrooms. Three of those are in use as bedrooms and the other one is my space. It's about 8 foot x 9 foot. I have a desk, three knitting machines and two looms to go in there. That's not counting my storage cabinets for the fiber for my fiber habit. I still don't have it organized in a way that I like.

So on to the knitting ... I knit a wedding afghan on my Bond USM. There are five panels. Two have the names of the people getting married, one has the wedding date, and two are a contrasting (ha ha, contrast with white) color with cables running down the length. It took a while to do as the names and date are done in seed stitch. The recipients said that they loved it. I hope so.

I have also finished a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend for Christmas and the Landscape Shawl (on my Mission Possible list) is complete. The shawl still needs blocking, but the ends are woven in and that's half the battle. It took just over three skeins of the four I had for it out of Colinette Jitterbug. I don't know yet how it will wear, but the yarn was lovely to work with. I only have a dishcloth to finish to complete my list for Mission Possible 2010. There is a pair of socks on needles for my granddaughter. They aren't on any list but hers.

I've been weaving scarves out of a cone of yarn that has been in my stash for about six years now. They are (so far) just a plain tabby weave in a deep grey boucle type yarn that I love the color of, but none of my knitting machines liked it at all. All three tried to eat it and so nothing got made from it. Now it's being used. I have more yarn that will get used on the loom because it doesn't get along with the machines that it was bought for.

I wish someone would now talk me off the ledge I'm standing on. I want to try spindle spinning. I also want a floor or table loom, but that's more expensive than a spindle so I'm not about to jump off that ledge yet. Why do I want to spin with a spindle? Not a clue except that it looks like fun and would be a way for me to make my fiber habit more encompassing than it already is. Do I need to spin? Probably not. I can buy yarn and I know that I can buy yarn that looks a lot better than my beginning attempts at spinning could produce. Someone on one of the boards that I frequent said that it's not a new hobby; it's just an extension of the one I already have...fiber. I think I'm going with that. I don't know if I will like it or be good at it, but I'm going to try it. On the upside, spindles don't take up a lot of room. Wish me luck.