Things I am excited about!

There are so many knitterly things going on right now that I am all a-flutter about.

1. YARN SCHOOL! I can't believe it's only a month away. When I started planning to go, it seemed impossibly far in the future. I'm looking forward to a weekend away, a chance to meet other fiber peoples and learning how to improve my spinning and getting into dying a little more.

2. Secret Pal 11! I had such a good time on the LJ Secret Pal swap that I jumped at the chance to join SP11. I'm already plotting for how I'm going to spoil my pal - I've got a mini-kick-off package nearly all ready to go out this week. I've exchanged e-mail with my spoiler, I hope I've given her enough to work with, and that she'll ask any questions if she needs to. (I'm not always very good at small talk with strangers, so hopefully I'm not coming off as too aloof or not interested.)

3. Spirit Trail Fiberworks Yarn Club! My lovely husband signed me up for this as a birthday present back in May. Waiting for that first shipment (not until the end of July!) was like torture! I've gotten two of the three shipments now, and I am SO pleased with the club. Last month, I got a skein of sock yarn, a cute sock pattern, a pound of really yummy coffee and a bumper sticker. This month, a skein of some truly divine bombyx silk (and I don't usually love 100% silk yarns, but this is totally not snaggy, at least so far), a gorgeous and unusual scarf pattern for the yarn, a pack of Knitter's Review notecards, and another cute car sticker. I'm SO glad that he listened to my hints for presents this year, and that he picked the more general yarn club instead of the sock club I'd been pointing toward - this is turning out far more fun than three months of socks!

4. Christmas knitting! Those of you who know me IRL may remember that in years past I have cheerily proclaimed that I "don't do Christmas knitting". This year, I am inspired. I have projects in mind for my sister, my brother, my me-mere, my Dad, my Mom and hopefully I can think of something for my other brother. If I have time, something for my SiL and my not-yet-SiL as well. It's early, so I'm still in that happy place where I can pretend that I can get it all done without stressing myself out. The Ravelry queue feature is SO handy for keeping track of everything I'm wanting to knit for everyone.

5. Vacation knitting (see Christmas knitting)! Going on vacation next week; hoping for a fair amount of knitting time. A start on the Christmas knitting, and just maybe, I can start the Knitwits hat kit I bought an age ago to practice fair isle.

I love the return of fall, and good knitting weather. I'm so happy that my crazy busy summer is drawing to a close and that we'll be back in our normal school year routine soon.