Look what came!!!

It's my Crazy Monkey Skein Winder, perched in its new spot next to my Beka swift! This thing is amazing, all my coned yarn is already skeined and ready to go. I need to order more now!!
Might as well give you a shot of the desk park of my studio too, since everything is pretty clean. I have an entire room here, and so far I only really have this one little corner filled. I have a tiny cubby shelf set up for store stock, but it was supposed to be bigger, so that's probably the next thing on the list for this room. Better storage!
I had received some kind of hand crafted knitting "caddy" from Rick's grandma, but we weren't quite sure how it was supposed to be used. After a lot of discussion on this Ravelry forum, there were a couple different viable uses found for it, and I've been using it for this:
That's a section of the Sampler Afghan from Cables Untangled. I'm using Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, so the dowels on this fit perfectly through the skein. It's wonderful for projects that stay close to your couch.

I've been on a spinning/knitting with handspun kick lately. I finished a folded brim hat out of some 3-ply worsted handspun, and Rick couldn't help but ham it up a little.
On the wheel are some super low twist bamboo singles, which I actually finished last night. Should be up in the shop in the next few days.

Busy, Busy!

I've been keeping so busy, I've been having to force myself to stop working for things like food and bathroom breaks during the day. My main focus has been wedding stuff. I really want to get it all done early so I can have a month or two to de-stress before hand and get back to my poor, neglected business!
First, I've been making my own pocketfold invitations, following this awesome tutorial: DIY Wedding Invitations



I think they look really pretty for all the money I saved doing them myself. Rick's sister is a photographer, so she will be taking care of engagement shots this weekend, and then she'll be designing the main announcement with our picture for me to put on them. I already have the info inserts ready to print on my Mac. The envelopes will be easy, since I can print the addresses onto them with the same font right from my printer/computer. Oh, I love technology.

I think after the invitations are finished, all we really have left to do is get my dress fitted (appt already set), get the boys measured for tuxes, and get our readings picked for the ceremony. I'll be so glad when I can rest until May 2nd knowing that there is NO more planning to do. I'm not a party planner. Ish.

On the knitting front, I had a big custom order in shades of purples to do last week, so I did a test regular sized skein for one shade to make sure I had it right. I liked it so much, I knit a pair of monkeys out of it in 2 days flat. (OKAY, I knit *most* of it in 2 days, I've been procrastinating on the very tippy tip of the second toe. But thats up on my schedule after I finish this post.)

For the first year I've been in business, I have not owned a swift, or a skein winder, and only just recently acquired a ball winder. My right arm has nearly fallen off a number of times winding huge amounts of yarn off of cones to be dyed later. I've been saving up for quite a while to get both a swift and a skein winder, and good news! That custom order I had last week was just enough to put me over. Look what I got yesterday!

It's a Beka swift. I REALLY, REALLY love it. I was worried that the traditional umbrella type would be a bit to fiddly and/or might break easily if I use it more than just every once and a while for personal knitting projects, and the adjustable peg type swifts just looked ugly and strange to me. It was love at first sight when I saw this on Ravelry, and I had to have it.

Also, today my Crazy Monkey Skein Winder shipped, so it should be here soon! I can't wait to skein entire cones in no time.