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’ve decided that Laurie, the author of Crazy Aunt Purl, is my long lost twin. Sure, I have red curly hair, and she has straight blond hair. I’m guessing she’s significantly taller than me, and we don’t actually have the same parents.

Why are we twins? Well, first we blurt out porn at inappropriate times. Second, we have the same Obscene Bootie Problem:

I swear to god, I didn’t do that on purpose. This was my third Ugg Bootie - the first was far too large, so I went with smaller needles for the second and third. By the time I was half way through the third, I decided I’d rather just knit in the white fluffy yarn, instead of overstitch the bootie more than I had to. So I’m working along, and realize, well… Kevin is now calling the completed set “Penis Booties”. He even told me to post a picture so his coworkers can see.

I did finish the set, and they are as cute as they can be. It’s the pattern from Knitty Gritty, and I made three booties (which includes a massive one) out of one ball of Berroco Suede. The white fluffy parts are Berrocco Plush.

The orange sock in front is the Summer 2004 Interweave Knits braided baby sock pattern. I have so much Dale of Norway Baby Ull in bright orange that every child born in Illinois this year might get a pair of bright orange hunter booties. I did finish both pairs, as I can prove below:

Katie has claimed the booties as her own. And she even sat still while I took this picture, which practically never happens. That’s why she never gets to be in the blog.

First, all you local folks (Lucia! Sarah!) should come and knit with us. *lures* And anyone else in the Western Chicago suburbs. We meet every Thursday night, starting around 6:30pm.

Anyways, I realized that I brought my camera, so I had to take pictures!

First, we have Barb’s Poncho (officially named Andrea’s Lacey Poncho), made out of Shelridge Farms Worsted Weight merino. Monica knitted it, and its being modelled by a shy Kimberly. Which explains why she has no head. Kimberly has a blog, but I left the address in my knitting bag.

Speaking of Barb, here is the sock she is working on. It’s made out of Socks That Rock yarn, which has a number of lovely colorways.

Selena (the one in the front) is working very hard putting her tiny tiny preemie sweater together. Dory is helping. You can also just see Cathy in the background.

Speaking of Dory, here are her balls.

The picture does not show just how huge those balls are. They are massive. Very pretty colors though.

Dee made an awesome ruffle scarf out of Koigu from Foxy Knits. I’m modelling it.

First, it appears I’m gaining weight just by standing near the goody counter. Second, its not a potato chip scarf. It’s not. So there.

Here is Kathy hanging out with her monkey. She had just given him a face when I took this picture.

Here’s the monkey sitting. He was crocheted, and honestly, for those of us with very dirty minds, some of his limbs looked fairly obscene at various parts of his creation. I’m just saying.

Here is part of Monica’s sweater. I know she’s knitting it out of Black Water Abbey yarns, and I think its a Rowan design, but I’m spacing out the rest. But isn’t it pretty?

And that’s knit night! I’d show a picture of my project, but its so boring that it would force everyone on the internet to immediately fall asleep. You want to know what’s even more boring? Me complaining for the last 20 months about how boring my damn sweater is. I think folks are going to lock me in my room soon, with the project, and force me to complete it just so I’d shut up.

Dear Penthouse,
I never thought it would happen to me… I was innocently wandering around the local farmers market, and saw this yarn looking at me oh so seductively…

Okay, I’m joking. There was no yarn at the Farmers Market in the Federal Plaza in Chicago. Although, wouldn’t it rock if there were? But, I did a nice big bunch of asters. I was going to take a picture, but I actually took the camera out of my purse last night. What was I thinking? Anyways, here’s a representation from the folks at Nature North.

They smell really good too. I also picked up some fingerling potatoes, onions and wasabi peas.

Dear Penthouse,

I was reading this knitting blog, and no one talked about knitting!

Oops, sorry about that. Anyways, at long last, here is the picture of the neato stitch markers my secret pal sent me.

One of my bamboo ducks is holding watch over the stitch markers.

In knitting news, I’m done with the yoke on the baby sweater, and now have to start the neck. I’m going to be using just over 150 grams of Baby Ull, which is slightly frustrating. But I’ll have plenty left over for a hat. I mean, if you are taking the baby hunting, they need an orange hat.

Speaking of yarn, Knitche now has Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb. Please don’t trample me as you to the store.

This weekend, we went to the Bristol Reinassance Faire in Wisconsin.

Once again, we decided to go up I-94 to get there. Which is silly, because every single year, we get stuck in a traffic jam.

(Fine, I’m no Crazy Aunt Purl with her fancy images! :))

Every single year, we go “Wow! Six Flags sure does backup the traffic! We should pick another route!”. And every year, we don’t. But, we did finally make it. And this year, they had a Wool Tent!

That is just the side of the tent where the yarn was. They had fleece, and quilts with wool batting, and it was very very evil. No one expects yarn at the Renaissance Faire!

I know, I said, no yarn before Stitches Midwest. But, but, who expects yarn at a Renaissance Faire? I had no defenses!

It’s just shy of 1500 yards of hand dyed wool yarn from Coed Mawr Woolen Mill. It appears that they primarily take on other folks wool and process it. This yarn was “wool with a poly core”. It’s reasonably soft - not merino soft, but not overly scratchy. Its also very very luminous. The 1500 yards cost me just under 90 dollars, which isn’t bad, especially since its from a small mill. I’ve already used it to swatch for Eris, the new sweater from Jenna at Girlfromauntie.com. It’s a light worsted weight yarn - I found size 5 needles (which I suppose make it more DK weight) got me the right gauge for Eris, while making a lovely fabric.

There’s a story about the total yardage. Originally, I only bought 700 yards. I mean, 45 dollars worth of yarn is hardly worth mentioning! But, Kevin pointed out that I couldn’t actually make anything out of my 45 dollars of yarn, and encouraged me to get more. So I did. Thus, enough for Eris!

Also at the faire was a bead vendor, Amsbury Beads. They had some fun beads that my local shop doesn’t have. They do make some of their own. Here’s a small selection of what I bought.

And, finally, Kevin ordered my engagement ring (not that we’re engaged - he hasn’t asked. ;)) - the link goes to what I wrote on my personal blog. You can see a picture of the setting.

Oops, I almost forgot the last picture - here’s the Orange Baby Sweater, almost done.

It’s very very close to being done - I’m about two rows away from starting the neck.