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.

There is one bit of the Heartland Retreat I glossed over.

It was the spinning.

First, let me make clear that Toni is a wonderful teacher. Second, I had a ton of fun.

But, it appears that perhaps I am not a naturally gifted spinner. I appear to have control issues. To give you an idea, this is me spinning. Dee took the picture and I stole it from her.

Notice something? The folks around me are spinning the way most people spin. Me? That’s me attempting to straighten out my roving, because I somehow managed to twist the roving. Yes, I made the entire roving into yarn.

With much patience, I did manage to spin enough yarn to make a ball.

You know, if I was a 19 year old on LiveJournal, I’d be able to sell that on eBay for serious bucks. I meant to make totally hosed yarn. I did it on purpose. That’s it.

Last night, I tried again with some roving I’ve had in the stash. I had originally ordered a learn to spin kit, which included a spindle, yarn and Spin It : Making Yarn from Scratch . I could not quite figure it out, so I put it away.

Well, here is what I ended up with.

I think I made some headway. First, I realized that I was putting a death grip on the fibers. Second, I realized that the fiber itself was much longer than what I was using at the retreat, so my drafting hand had to be further back. I still can’t really get yarn without a ton of effort, much less make the drop spindle spin, but I’ll keep at it. Small children can drop spindle, for crying out loud.

Update: Due to Extreme Snowiness, I won’t be at knitting tonight. I shall stay home and watch Project Runway, since I already saw who was told they were “out” last night. Dammit. Oh well.

Well, I can see that none of you did your homework. Bad, bad blog readers!

Oh, its okay. I was too busy knitting to mind.

The Heartland Knitting retreat was great fun, and Dee did an amazing job putting it all together for us. Given that she didn’t get much personal gain out of it (well, beyond getting to spend a weekend with us awesome knitters), it was an amazing feat.

I managed to leave the house without:

• A stuffed animal.
• My cell phone.
• A camera.
• My toothbrush.

I swear, I shouldn’t be allowed out of the house. So, I have no pictures from the actual retreat, although Dee put hers up in her gallery.

Annie Modesitt taught two classes - Wire Knitting and Combination Knitting. Wire knitting was a lot of fun, and after I finished my necklace, I made a bracelet as well. The bracelet is just an i-cord with beads every row.

Combination knitting was interesting, and she also taught how to cable without a cable needle. I had already figured out my own way of cabling without a cable needle that works well with the way I knit. Mainly, I rearrange the stitches on the needles in the way I want them, and then knit across. Annie slips the first stitches, and then knits the second set, and then rearranges. Her method really works well when doing combination knitting since the stitches are mounted differently. My method was impossible to use with combination knitting, because I couldn’t get my needle into the second set of stitches while the first stitches were still on the left needle.

We also learned about Bohus Knitting from Jan Kimmet of Kimmet Croft Fibers. I bought this hat kit from her - the little swatch was what we did in class.

The picture on the box is faded out - it isn’t actually green. The swatch colors are right. Fairy Hare yarns are so amazingly nice.

I also bought the yarn kit to make the Sugar Plum Pullover from Handknit Holidays : Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice. It was only 105 dollars for the 44.5 inch size. She doesn’t have the kit up on her website, but if you call or email, I’m sure she could send folks more information.

Toni of The Fold taught us all how to spin. Much hilarity resulted. Did you all know I totally suck at spinning? Well, it was my first time. It was still lots of fun, and I bought some Socks That Rock and Mountain Colors Mountain Goat sock yarn from her.

The Mountain Goat was in Pine Tree (I think), and of course I’ve spaced out the Socks That Rock name. But its still totally gorgeous.

There was also a swap table. I brought a totally sucky cone of mystery silk yarn I bought on eBay. In exchange, I got a zillion balls of this!

It’s DK weight, and a great green color. She got it out of a basement for free.

Another good thing about the retreat is that I got tons of knitting in. There was lots of sitting in comfy chairs, watching the snow fall, and talking and talking. So, Aimee’s sweater is now done! Well, it needs blocked, and the Curling Issue needs to be dealt with. The bottom is stockinette - but there is no curling in the picture. How they accomplished this, I am not sure, but I shall prevail against the sweater.

It’s also not all crooked - its just how I laid it out.

That’s it, although I meant to take a picture of the ball of yarn I managed to spin. It’s truly hilarious looking.

I’ll be at the Heartland Knitting Retreat this weekend, knitting my little fingers off.

So, to keep you all busy, I’ve decided to force you all to read parts 1 through 4 of Gail and Kevin goes to Las Vegas. As your homework, you must write a short essay, left in the comments. Or poem. Either is fine.

• Part 1 - The Proposal.
• Part 2 - We wander around.
• Part 3 - The Hoover Dam.
• Part 4 - The Grand Canyon.

There will be parts 5 and 6, of course. One day.

I won’t be at knitting tonight, because I have a doctor appointment at 6pm, and then I need to do laundry and pack, otherwise Dee will show up for me at 11:30 am, and I’ll be running around in my eeyore PJs.

I am once again stealing pictures that Aimee the Sis sent me in order to make a blog entry.

Her birthday was November 17th, and I knitted her a scarf. She stopped by my house on her way to O’Hare to get back to Colorado. They spent the holiday in Madison with her in-laws.

Here is a picture of her and her husband Mark. If Aimee looks a bit peaked, its because she might throw up on me at any moment. She gets motion sickness really easily, and the long drive from Madison did not suit her well. She’s modelling her birthday scarf.

I knit it out of 5 balls of Debbie Bliss Chunky Cashmerino, using the Seafoam pattern from one of Barbara Walker’s pattern books. It ended up much longer than I meant, after washing and blocking. Oops. Oh well, long scarves are in.

Today, Aimee sent me pictures. First, here is the ever popular Franz the monkey, modeling his new license plates. I guess they go on “Aimee’s” car, but if Franz’s name is on it…

I also made her Banana Bread. I always make her Banana Bread when I see her. It’s like, “Ooh, Aimee is coming, I better get some bananas!” This year, I used a new recipe from the The National Park Cookbook, which required a little more fuss than I’m used to when it comes to a quick bread. I also was about a 1/3rd cup short on banana mush, so I cooked up some apple sauce as filler. Aimee reports it is very good.