A Christmas Tea

As a romance writer and a knitter, I am very lucky to call Debbie Macomber my friend. She's been a writing mentor for years, and over the years we've shared our love of knitting with random trips to yarn shops while at writing conferences, and Debbie is always showing me some new technique she's picked up from some fabulous knitter she's met in her travels. She's just the nicest, dearest woman you could ever want to meet.

And every year, she hosts a Christmas Tea for her "knit friends." It is a very varied group, young and old, shop owners and novice knitters, who all share the love of fiber. This year it took some finagling to get go, but the husband, dear man that he is, left work early to pick up the kids so I could take the ferry over to Port Orchard for her party.

The highlight of the party is Show and Tell. Everyone brings projects they've completed, usually with a story attached and shares them with the crowd. That is Debbie above showing off a vest she finished this year that had been a UFO for awhile. Her goal for 2007 was to finish several of her UFOs and that was one of them.

Many of the projects that are shared are Christmas gifts, like this very cute dino sweater that was going to a lucky grandson.



I am so jealous of the granddaughter who is getting these slippers:



One of the guests teaches all over the area on the intricacies of knitting with beads. She brought a gorgeous sweater she'd knit thousands and thousands of beads into, as well as these socks that were just remarkable:





Finally, we got around to Debbie's office manager, Renata, and she shared a lace shawl she'd knit.



Can you say, "Shawl Envy?!" Then all too soon, it was time to go home and I was sorry that it would be another year before I got to see these wonderful women again, who make me laugh over their mishaps (which quite frankly there isn't a knitter in that room who hasn't made a similar mistake) and their pride in a new skill tackled. So it was appropriate that I rode the ferry home, with a front row seat for the crossing over Puget Sound, watched harbor seals frolicking and rolling in the water, while I considered what I would knit in 2008 . . . while I sat snug and warm in my car, doing what else? Knitting.