Blue

Yesterday I came home to find a package from Beth in the mailbox - and it contained yarn! Thank you Beth! It's three skeins of the long-discontinued Rowan DK Soft. Perhaps it's the influence of the similarly blue Shetland Triangle shawl from Wrap Style, or perhaps it's that three 175m skeins of fluffy DK/fingering-weight wool screams "lace shawl" to me, but I'm thinking, yeah, lace shawl. Maybe the Shetland Triangle, maybe the Swallowtail, something along those lines: a smallish lace shawl in gorgeous sky blue to cheer me up on gloomy days like today.

I'm back!

I finally made it through the stacks of boxes to the camera! First, some pictures only a homeowner could love:

On the left, our shiny new behemoth of a furnace! The house came with the original furnace. From 1961. Needless to say, it was not the most efficient model in the world, and we didn't like the possibility that it could give up the ghost at any time. So we bought a new one and put in a humidifier and central air while we were at it! On the right, the rest of the crawl space, newly sealed against radon. Now that's done, we can actually put stuff in the crawl space! This is great because until now, all of that stuff has been sitting in my future craft room.
It was even more crowded yesterday when you couldn't see the desk from this angle. I'm still waiting for the troop of house-elves to arrive and finish organizing everything for me, especially since I can't really lift anything these days.

And for knitting content... yesterday I went to Shuttles for the first time in ages, and I picked up a nice Lantern Moon basket to keep my living-room knitting in (rather than just leaving it on the coffee table all the time). And while I was there I noticed that they had a copy of Favorite Socks for sale! I hadn't realized it was out yet - Anne told us February - but I suppose it's almost February. It's a great addition to my sock book collection and I'm looking forward to making several of the patterns. I particularly like the ones on the cover.

Coming soon in future posts: pictures of the almost-finished stripey handspun scarf, the almost-finished silver socks, and my ever-increasing midsection! But for now, the house-elves haven't shown up yet, so it's back to unpacking for me.

Travels with Yarn

Julia just posted a list of Yarn Shops She Has Visited. I know a new meme when I see one, so I feel the need to post my life list as well. I learned to knit in 1995, I think, and we've moved and traveled a lot, so I have a reasonable list, though it could always be longer... So, in rough order from east to west:

• Liberty, London, England


• Shilasdair, Skye, Scotland


• Circles, Jamaica Plain, MA


• Woolcott & Co, Cambridge, MA


• Spark Crafts, Cambridge, MA


• Pins & Needles, Princeton, NJ


• Glenmarle Woolworks, Princeton, NJ


• The Yarn Barn, Lawrence, KS


• Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins, Boulder, CO


• Mew Mew's, Louisville, CO


• Lamb Shoppe, Denver, CO


• A Knitted Peace, Littleton, CO


• Showers of Flowers, Lakewood, CO


• The Recycled Lamb, Lakewood, CO


• String, Highlands Ranch, CO


• The Strawberry Tree, Denver, CO


• The Shivering Sheep, Denver, CO


• Weaving Southwest, Taos, NM


• The Yarn Shop, Taos, NM


• BB's, Santa Barbara, CA


• In Stitches, Santa Barbara, CA


• Mabel's Cafe & Knittery, Portland, OR

And festivals:

• Maryland Sheep & Wool, Friendship, MD


• Estes Park Wool Market, Estes Park, CO


• Taos Wool Festival, Taos, NM


• Alpaca Extravaganza, Longmont, CO

Enough already

Sam and Cathi both said it well, and I'm sure you've all seen the news reports. We've had four feet of snow in three weeks, then we had a windstorm which knocked out power for much of last night, and part of the ancient fence at our new house is now lying flat on the ground, and there are mutterings in the forecast about yet more snow - and high temperatures in the teens - this weekend. The city actually ran out of salt/sand mix in the last storm. You know, I used to live in New England. This is a New England winter. I may have only lived here for a year but I know this is not a Colorado winter!

But on the bright side, I have a job that lets me work at home sometimes, which is really great considering that I'm getting increasingly large and clumsy, and falling on the ice (which I did last week) is no fun. Today I finally made it to a doctor's appointment that had been rescheduled three times due to weather, and everything is going well in there. It was, however, rather alarming when they gave us the pre-admission paperwork with the "What to bring to the hospital" list. Gah! I still have four months to worry about that!

Oh, and I've been knitting. Fortunately I was well into the garter-stitch scarf when the lights went out last night, so I could work on that by candlelight. (Knitting gray socks in dim light is not such a good idea.) I'll post a pic when it's farther along, but I'm knitting it lengthwise on a 32" circular, so right now it just has that squished-up look. We're all getting together for stitch&bitch tomorrow night, for the first time in a while (what with the weather and the holidays) and I'm hoping to make lots of progress.

Stay warm, everyone!

I've been tagged!

Anne tagged me for this New Year's meme, so here goes...

First Things First

What is the first thing you did in the new year? - Finished watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Then I went to bed.

What is the first thing you ate in the new year? - Blueberry muffins (from a mix) that I made in the morning of January 1. They were delicious!

What is the first thing you knit in the new year? - I'm casting on for a new scarf, simple garter stitch knit lengthwise but using stripes of handspun yarn from the dye workshop at the end of the Spinning 1 class.

What is your first ‘blessing’ of the new year? - Can I carry over ones from last year? New house, a baby on the way, and my job is making me happy so far this week. That's pretty good, I think.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place in the new year? - Um... I gave my hairstylist a big tip this evening after she told me about her recent business woes, does that count?

Post the first photo you took in the new year! - I haven't taken any pictures yet! I think the camera may still be hiding in a box somewhere. But I promise to post pictures of the house as soon as it's slightly less of a disaster.

Happy New Year... may your year be filled with peace, prosperity, and compassion.

NJ yarn sale

A quick PSA for knitters in the New Jersey area: I just got email from Glenmarle Woolworks in Princeton (where we used to live), and apparently they are CLOSING the store and having a HUGE SALE. The store is closing on January 6, 2007: "FINAL SALE going on now, up to 70% off storewide, Sale Hours 10-5 Tuesday through Saturday, Wednesday and Thursday until 7pm." Check it out if you're in the area.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2007 to everyone!

I am delighted to report that we are entirely moved in to our new house!!! Yesterday we went over to the old apartment for the last time to clean it and pick up a few things we'd left behind, which, now that I think of it, is a very symbolic thing to do on December 31, not that I saw it that way when I was shoving the vacuum cleaner around. Moving day was last Thursday but we've been busy unpacking and digging out of the snowdrifts for a few days. The house looks fantastic already, even with a lot of boxes still sitting around, and we love it. I tested out the oven for the first time this morning and made blueberry muffins. Yum.

I almost never make New Year's resolutions. I'm more likely to make random resolutions throughout the year as inspiration strikes. That said, I have a few plans for this year:

• Unpack.


• Have a baby.

Everything else is just extra.

Hope all of you have been enjoying your vacations and have a great year!