I managed to catch _another_ cold.  Yes, I just had one last month.   Then, to add insult to injury, Monica caught it via IM.   Because she’s sick too.  I’ve found that if I drink hot drinks all day and keep advil and cold medicine with METH in me, I can swallow without wincing.  But its too hot in California for hot drinks.  So, we must all feel very bad for Monica.

But in good news, my camera has arrived from Colorado!   That means I can finally, finally talk about my yarn store trip when I was in Colorado.   Monica had told me about The Lamb Shoppe in Denver, and after seeing their website, I had to go.  So I rudely ditched my family, and met up with my long time Internet friend Ali, where we went Yarn Craaaazy!

Speaking of Ali, I’ve actually known her online for like 12 years, but we’d never met in person.   Also, I’m wearing heels in that picture - I really am that short.

Oh, and notice behind us?  Yarn?  In awesome shelves?  And hanging?  They also made the very good choice of putting out the pattern support for the yarn right next to the yarn itself.  I love it when yarn shops do that.

The owners, Anita and Mary Carol, are super nice.   Here’s me (again!) posing with one of them.  Unfortunately, I didn’t, um, ask anyone their names.  Because I’m bad that way.

Why yes, that is a massive amount of Debbie Bliss yarn behind us!  They had Alpaca Silk and all the Cashmerino lines.  They also have some Interlacements yarn - I think that’s some of it just to the right of us, hanging.

Here’s the owner again, this time posing right in front of their more novelty yarns.

I so love those cherry shelves.

They also carry the Alpaca with a Twist yarn line, which I’d never seen in person.  I fell in love with the Fino, which is a lace weight yarn that is 70% Alpaca, 30% Silk.  I almost bought a skein, but decided that one skein (it’s 875 yards) would not be enough for a shawl, and two skeins would put me over my self imposed budget.

Of course, the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits comes out with the Icarus Shawl, which is gorgeous, and it uses 875 yards of lace weight yarn.  Great, now I have to go back to Denver to buy more yarn.

Here’s one last picture - this takes in the rest of the shelves.

They do have some sock yarn, and some yarn meant for babies/children.  I ended up buying some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn - it was a one of a kind colorway, with lots of greens and blues.

One thing that is apparent from the pictures is that they have a lovely range of colors.  They have variegated yarn, as well as children’s colors.  Oh, and they have Brown Sheep - not just the typical stuff for felting, but Cotton Fleece as well.

They have late hours most nights - and by late, I mean 9pm.  That would be wonderful if I lived in Denver.  It’s very bright and open.  They also have a coffee bar, and places to sit.  They are in a little shopping center that includes a deli and a frozen custard shop.  So, you could grab lunch, yarn shop, and then get yummy yummy custard.

Guess what?   It’s Sheepy Sweater Day!

Who doesn’t like Sheepy Sweater Day?  I didn’t knit it myself - it came from the Signals catalog.  Kevin bought it for me, because he knows I love the sheepies.

In other news, Mom’s sweater is done, done, done.  Well, it will be as soon as it dries.

Okay, this is the worst picture ever.  I’ll do better, I swear.  In any case, I did add an extra inch to each arm the sides by picking up and knitting along the seams.  Then, I did a three needle bind off.  Which works very well, unless you don’t pick up the stitches evenly on one of the sides.  Then you’ll rip it out three times until you get it right.

In other news, I need to start thinking about which shawl I’m going to knit in order to turn it into a bridal veil.   Mainly, it needs to be square, and I need to be able to size it down so that it doesn’t dwarf 4′10 me.   Here are the options so far - most of them are shetland.

1. The Spider Queen Shawl
2. The Unst Bridal Shawl
3. The Shetland Lace Spring Shawl
4. The Wedding Ring Shawl
5. The Garden Shawl
6. Framed Cream Shawl

I think my favorite so far is The Garden Shawl, which is by the same designer who did Aimee’s Flirty Ruffles Shawl.

My main hobby is knitting. Kevin’s main hobby is playing World of Warcraft. I do play a little bit (I have a level 29 troll mage named Splodie), but Kevin is totally into it. On the server he plays on, they were opening a brand new zone, and it was all very exciting, so he took this picture and sent it to me.

In this picture, everyone is waiting to battle the evil. Or the good. I’m not actually sure.

In other news, I wore Monica’s sweater this weekend. Since she moved to California, she can’t wear it any longer, so she gave it to me. I love it - its made from Black Water Abbey wool, one of my favorites.

What? This is a knitting blog? Oh, fine. Here’s where I’m at on my mom’s sweater.

I’m almost, almost almost done with the second front. Then I’ll pick up around the front to knit the very large front bands and collar.

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.