I have about 19 zillion pictures for this post. At least 19 zillion.

But, let me start by going on and on about love for Podcasts. I love podcasts. I love them so. I actually found out about podcasts accidentally. I had wanted to listen to a particular Talk of the Nation Science Friday episode. I went to their website, and they said that they had something called a “podcast”. Well, a little investigation later, I discovered a whole new world of wonderfulness. I’m a total NPR junkie, but beyond listening to Morning Edition, I don’t get to hear a ton of it. But with podcasts, I can now listen to Science Friday and On the Media, two of my favorite shows.

Even better, there are knitting podcasts! My favorite is Cast-On – she has great music selections, and I love her Sweater of the Day segments. The original knitting podcast is knitcast, which is also excellent. A third one I’ve found is Fibercast – its a little shorter than the other two.

I spent so much time catching up on podcasts in my office this weekend that I was actually forced to attempt to clean up and organize a bit. I was poking around in the yarn closet, and found a bag containing a very sad sight.

I started this sweater years ago – its a top down aran pattern from Fall 2001 Knitters Magazine. You can see the problem immediately – the purple variegated yarn fights against the cables, leading to, well, a mess. And, its a lovely handpainted, handspun merino yarn I got for next to nothing on eBay. It deserved a better fate. So, I ripped it all out.

I do have to say that I actually tried to deal with the variegation – I knit alternating rows from two different balls. I swatched before I started. But, the real problem isn’t the variegation – its how the color goes from mainly lightish purple to dark dark purple. I think if the color changes had been more subtle, it would have worked.

Monica sent me an email asking me to post a picture of the Sugar Plum Sweater kit Handknit Holidays : Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice. So, here you are!

I bought the 42.5 inch size, and this picture is not quite true to color – the main color is more brown than grey than this picture shows. It’s lovely yarn.

In knitting news, I did start my Mom’s Christmas sweater. Which I would post a picture of, but my mom pokes her head into my blog every now and then. So, um, this is soooo not a picture of Ringtail, the ringtail cat, knitting my mom’s sweater, which happens to be from Debbie Bliss’s Alpaca Silk 2 book. It’s not.

Cabling in that sweater happens every other row, and it actually hurts my hands. So, I decided to knit a scarf for my Dad. (There’s a whole story there, but mainly, I haven’t seen him in 10 years, although he’s been writing me letters lately.)

It’s Interlocking Balloons by Shirley Paden, out of Scarf Style : Innovative to Traditional, 31 Inspirational Styles to Knit and Crochet. I’m using Alpaca & Silk from Blue Sky Alpacas. I was a little worried about how loosy-goosy it is, but then I found a blog by someone that also knit the pattern, and her scarf looks about the same before she blocks. And the final result looks fabulous.