Heh. Today, I turn 31 years old.

This year, I’m getting surprises for my birthday. Which I love! I happened to be awake last night at midnight, and so I just had to open my birthday package from my mother.

She sent me an alpaca bear (which I loooove - Kevin says he wants to use it as a shammy), a bunch of awesome angora/wool yarn, and some vintage Pingouin knitting magazines. Mike, my mom’s boyfriend, sent me Redneck Extreme Mobile Home Makeover : Or A Redneck Look at Fixing Up and Decorating Your House Without Loss of Limbs, because of the pink flamingos. A few christmases ago, I was desperate to get him a present, and in a fit of insanity, actually sent my mother’s boyfriend a large pink flamingo lamp.

Ever since then, we keep sending each other pink flamingo items.

Oh, here’s a close up of the angora yarn:

In knitting news, Daisy the Cow (the newest addition to the stuffed animal community) is helping me knit Aimee’s sweater:

She’s about 9 inches into the second half of the body. Good thing she can knit, because I’ve been busy making fudge and various cakes for Thanksgiving. And then feeding them to mine and Kevin’s coworkers, since it’ll just be Kevin, a friend of mine, and me. And I’ve gotten far too carried away. But, it’s all fun.

Thank you guys so much for all the good wishes! I’m feeling really overwhelmed, and I’ve only just started planning! It’s so great to get so many comments.

I think one of the very best things about learning to knit is the fact that I’ve made so many friends. This is sappy, but it honestly means so much to me to have friends - for years, I was too afraid. I didn’t have friends, I didn’t have activities, and I was miserable and lonely. In the past five years, my life has changed so much for the better, I can hardly believe it.

For example, the knitting group at Barnes and Noble bought me a birthday present!

They are a set of size small (very important!) polar bear slippers! I love them. As soon as I got home last night, I put them on and modeled them for Kevin. He thinks they are fabulous too. I wish I was wearing them now!

Aimee the Sis’s birthday was yesterday. I did finish her birthday scarf, but I’m giving it to her when she visits the midwest for Thanksgiving. Then, I’ll post a picture. I’ve finished the front (or maybe its the back - the instructions are identical) of her Christmas Sweater - its the Eyelet Cable Raglan Pullover from the Adrienne Vittadini Fall 2004 booklet.

I picked up the kit from The Handworks Gallery during their last Adrienne Vittadini trunk sale at 20 or 30% off (I always forget). That made the kit affordable. But, I do understand the price of the yarn after knitting with it. Martina, which is a silk/wool blend, is wonderful to knit with. I love the fabric its creating - its definately a luxury yarn, and well worth the cost.

In enabling news, Little Knits is selling off their entire line of KFI yarns - that includes Noro, Debbie Bliss, ect. I linked to the Knitters Review post with the details. I don’t think her web site reflects the sale prices currently - I’d call her, as she suggests.

S.W.A.K is also having a very nice sale - I picked up some pattern books yesterday as well as A Yorkshire Fable for 50% off and they’ve already shipped.

Vintage Knits has everything 20% off until the end of the year. You’ll need the code from the post I linked to. I’ve never ordered from them in the past, but I’ve heard nice things.

Quick! I’m copying Crazy Aunt Purl, and made my very own Frappr map:

http://www.frappr.com/knittergailreaders

Go add yourself, and then we can see where all 3 of you that read this blog come from. Muahahahaha.

In other fun toy news, I installed a gallery on KnitterGail. It’ll be easier to browse through old projects that way. I’ll put the Las Vegas pictures up there too. If anyone is looking for a site to host photos, I can create an account - I have tons of available disk and bandwidth.

In knitting news, I’ve made excellent progress on Aimee’s sweater. I decided to ignore everyone and start Aimee’s first, because unlike my mother, she will have no Christmas present at all from me unless I finish it in time. Well, she might get some fabulous Free Silver Jewelry from me. Muahahahaha.

(I’ve received everything I ordered, it is only 5.99, and the stuff, while perhaps not quite 60 dollars retail nice, is certainly equal to what I was seeing in Vegas in the 20 to 30 dollar range.)

I’m back from Las Vegas! Why was I there, other than Vacation Fun?

In the grand tradition of the Yarn Harlot, I present…

My engagement ring at Hoover Dam! Kevin asked Monday night at the top of the Eiffel Tower at Paris. It’s a half scale Eiffel Tower, but the view is very nice and it was very romantic.

Oh, and I was wearing my newest shawl. It’s the center repeat from Shirley Paden’s shawl in the Fall 2005 Vogue Knitting. The pattern is a traditional shawl center called “Spider Webs, Spiders and Diamonds” from the Isle of Unst in the Shetland Islands. Sharon Miller in Heirloom Knitting says that it dates from the middle of the nineteeth century.

This shawl was my first attempt at knitting a lace pattern that is worked on every row. That means that rather than knitting or purling every other row, yarn overs and the decreases are worked every row. It makes for more delicate lace, I think.

Here is another view of the shawl. Well, mainly its a picture of me.

Kevin was sweet, and on Friday, we drove to the two yarn shops in Las Vegas - Gail Knits and Wooly Wonders. I was too shy to ask about taking pictures inside the stores, but I did snag a shot of the outside of Gail Knits. After all, how often do you find a yarn shop with your name in it?

Both yarn shops are fairly small, and in strip malls. Both shops primarily had cotton blends, although Wooly Wonders did have a bit more wool. Neither store had much in the way of sock yarn, although both had an excellent selection of books. I think Gail Knits had a larger selection, but Wooly Wonders did have weaving and spinning supplies. Gail Knits did have a few yarns on sale, but no sale section. Wooly Wonders also did not have a sales section, but they did have some lovely handspun natural alpaca. It was only 24.95 for half a pound, which was about 665 yards. I was very tempted, but it was sport/fingering weight and I hardly need another shawl.

At Gail Knits, I picked up a thank you gift for Barb, who looked after Katie while I was gone. I also bought the 1997 edition of Barbara Walker’s Mosaic Knitting for Dee, since they had it at retail price. If anyone else wants a copy, I know that they still have two copies. Wooly Wonders also had one copy.

For me, I picked up a super cute pair of chocolate chip knitting needles from Wooly Wonders. No, honestly, they are from Serendipity Designs - Knitche here in Illinois carries them as well. They are made from North American White Birch and their tops are made with polymer clay. The bunnies are from Knitche.

Wooly Wonders also had double pointed needles in size 00, 000 and 0000. I’d never seen them in a yarn shop before, so I snagged them. From Gail Knits, I picked up a Jaeger Handknits pamphlet - JB35.

Finally, I didn’t knit much on my trip, but I did manage to finish my sister’s birthday scarf. I’m going to wait to post a picture until she gets it. And, I might try submitting the pattern to MagKnits, but I’m not sure.

It’s Friday Afternoon. I’m going on vacation all next week. So, of course, its time to add new software to the blog!

Namely, the ability to do polls. I’m hoping this will work. If not, you all will have to vote the old fashioned way by leaving comments. Sorry about that!

In any case, I have finished the shawl. I will take pictures and post them once I start blocking. I’m not happy with how I grafted the two pieces together, but it might have just been me being cranky at midnight last night.

Having finished the shawl, that means I can start a new project! But, sadly, there is a limited amount of time left before Christmas. So, with that in mind, whose sweater should I knit first? Mom or Aimee The Sis’s?

<?php
include_once "advpoll/booth.php";
echo $php_poll->poll_process(5);
?>

For the geeky types out there, I used Dreamhost’s one click install to install Advanced Poll. Then, to be able to execute the php code within a post, I installed the PHP Exec Plugin. I haven’t even slightly started playing with any of the poll templates.