New pictures up

I took pictures of all the new projects last night, including my terribly exciting spinning project! As you can see, I haven't gotten very far on the mittens or socks. I did, however, knit several more rows of the shawl last weekend, but it doesn't look very different from the old picture - it's just a little bigger. I think I may have made the trapped bar in the scarf a little too wide, so I'm going to rip it back a few rows. I love the colors, though. The navy is just called "navy" but the gray is called "Thunder"!

Boulder blogging

It's a good day here in the mountains! We're visiting so that Oliver can do a presentation at the university, and I came along for a vacation. Today I went up to Pearl Street. I managed not to buy anything at the Body Shop or L'Occitane. But that's only because I bought two kinds of shower gel and

- Excuse me, I have the TV on here in the hotel room and I just saw an ad for the new movie "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus." I have to go puke now. -

Whew. Anyway. Yeah, two kinds of shower gel and a tub of "Dream Cream" lotion stuff at Lush. Ooh it smells divine. And then I went to this store called Peppercorn. From the outside it looks a little out-of-control with the hand-painted dishes and stuff, but inside they have all kinds of kitchen equipment, and all the imported food goodies that I used to get at Cardullo's in Harvard Square. Imported English tea, Cadbury bars, fifty kinds of olive oil, Thai curry packets. And Tim Tams. TIM TAMS. Did you hear me? TIM TAMS!!!!! My mom and I went to Sydney in 1998 and I had these addictive little chocolate bars, and I haven't seen them in the US, anywhere, ever. So I am understandably excited to find them right here in my soon-to-be hometown.

And because woman cannot live on Tim Tams alone, I also picked up a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar. I wouldn't want the Fruit & Nut to feel like I didn't love it any more.

Then I checked out the local yarn store. Good points: the Wall o' Koigu and Mountain Colors, an adorable sheepdog, an interesting class schedule, every kind of Brown Sheep wool, and the enormous quantities of gorgeous roving. Only problem: they don't stock Rowan yarns! Fortunately there are other yarn stores in the greater Denver area, so once we actually live here I can go on yarn-hunting field trips.

But I have a confession or two to make. One is that in the euphoria of finishing the sweater, I started three new projects. I started the gray mittens, and the toe of a KPPPM sock, and the Ravenclaw scarf is about 8" long by now (and looks fantastic). With all that, you would think that I shouldn't start anything else, right? Well, um, did you notice I mentioned all the roving at the yarn store?

Yeah. 9 oz. of natural white Corriedale and a Louet drop spindle. I couldn't resist. Look at those little sheepy faces. Baaa!

Wit beyond measure

We're home! Yes, more travel - we went up to Boston for the weekend. It was great to spend time with good friends and visit some old haunts. I spent plenty of time (and money) at Tealuxe, and bought some great new shoes. The knitting-related content of the trip was a stop at Woolcott, where Beth found some lovely rust-colored wool for a hat and mittens, and I found several skeins of Cashsoft Aran in navy and gray... which will of course become a scarf! I won't make it as long as the movie version, or as wide, but I do like the pattern. I knit up a gauge swatch while videotaping this morning's lecture (there isn't much else to do up in the a/v booth, especially when I can't hear the lecture over the projector) and it's lovely stuff. I think I have a cashmerino problem. Speaking of which, the Bonny sweater is growing slowly but not enough to warrant a new picture.

More travel coming up next weekend, so perhaps I'll be able to do more of the shawl on the plane!

But now, time to pass out, as I'm exhausted after this afternoon: the first lab of the semester. The second section is tomorrow afternoon; let's hope my tired feet recover by then.

Skyespun.

It's done. I started it on the flight home from the honeymoon, in June 2003. And it's finally finished. I promise never to take this long to finish a project ever again. But doesn't it look good? Look at all those cables around the collar. I'll block it soon, maybe over the weekend.

Now back to finishing all my other projects! But maybe first I'll just start those socks...

Knitty!

The new Knitty is up and I'm squeeing like a fangirl! It's amazing - I buy Koigu sock yarn, I kvetch about how I can't find the Right Pattern, et voila, Knitty comes up with exactly what I wanted. I also love the Arisaig, especially since I've actually been through there (en route to Mallaig, where you catch the boat to Skye) - but an entire sweater on #2 needles? Not such a good idea for me. Actually that seems to be the theme of this issue: Lots of gorgeous sweater patterns that would take me for-freaking-ever to actually knit. But I'm still very excited about the socks.

In other news: I may have mentioned that I'm from Kansas. I am, however, a firm believer in science in general, and evolution in particular. And so I'm happy that my high school math teacher, Mr. Krebs, is out there fighting the good fight and getting quoted in the New York Times.

Give a little

If you can, donate to the Red Cross and visit the Give A Little knitters' fund-raising page to report your donation.

Like I said,

only a matter of time. I stopped at Pins & Needles after work and picked up a new pair of circular needles for working on Bonny, because the 16" ones were just too small. Both of the knitting stores here in Princeton seem to only carry Addi Turbo circulars in anything resembling a decent selection (there were a few pairs of Clovers, but only in large sizes). Which is a little annoying - I like Turbos, but sometimes I prefer bamboo, and then there's the price difference... Oh well. Anyway, I also picked up some Eucalan wool wash, which I hadn't tried yet, and... you guessed it, two skeins of KPPPM. I stood there for quite a while, drooling over all the colors, but I kept coming back to the fantastic rainbow-colored 122 (it's a little more subtle than in this picture). Isn't it pretty? I could just sit and stare at it all day...

Oops. Sorry, back from the hypnotic trance. It's so pretty that I'm having second thoughts about making it into socks, because then I couldn't stare at it all the time. What to do?