My favorite knitting accessory

My SP10 hostess is having contest - what is your favorite knitting accessory? I'm not sure if mine counts as an accessory, but I love my double-sided worm binder from Bass Pro Shops. I can carry everything and anything that I could possibly need in this thing. Here's a picture of it, with Tick the mini-dachsund next to it for scale: 3 weeks from today we're leaving for our first-ever family vacation! Woohoo!!! We're heading towards Nashville, and we're going to be gone about 5 days. We've never gone on a real, honest-to-goodness vacation with the kids; this should be a lot of fun!

Yes, I've been knitting, but not as much as I usually do. Since I last posted, the charity shawl is this big

I have until April 21st to finish it - that shouldn't be a problem. We have a swap at the Ohio Soapmaker's Gathering, so I made a batch of unscented face soap. So far I've knitted 2 of these faceclothes - I need to finish 3 more in the next month:

And with the bar of soap that I made

I started EZ's ribwarmer from KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Bulky - color Storm (I'm going to run out - I need to order 1-2 more skeins)

I started a sweater for a friend - I have the right front panel done (the cables make it look a lot narrower than it really is - and this panel is 24" long)

And I broke out the Mountain Colors sock yarn and started a pair of shorter socks for me

I sat down to Queen Matilda and spun this from a center-pull bump that I picked up a long time ago (I got one for Kristin, my pal for SP9, too, but I don't think she's spun it up yet). It's a gorgeous wool/mohair blend. According to my McMorran balance, it's about 300 yards of light-worsted weight yarn.

An up-close shot:

I knitted a couple more inches on the Mimbres, too - nothing much to see yet.

If it wasn't for this pesky full-time job, I could get a lot more done!

:-)

Good news: We're getting a real, honest-to-goodness yarn shop in Medina!! Woohoo!!!!! StudioKnits opens next Monday!! Finally - a yarn shop in our county!