while the camera charges...

I had a great week off from school!! Though i didn't get my entire "to do" list done, I checked enough off to feel as if I wasn't a complete couch potato.
Not only did I have entirely too much turkey dinner (and it's more the sides than the turkey that I stuff myself with), we played a few boisterous rounds of Taboo. Fun!

I also spent a lot of time with the local knitting crew, as we met up on Friday night at the Tattered Cover in HR... most of the usual suspects were there, and we closed the place down. We met up the next day out in Aurora at the new B&N, which had a surprising selection of crafting books!

I'll have pics of my progress (on Spork and Backyard Leaves) soon, but for now, I leave you with this...



why didn't I see this part of the campaign? how is it that NO ONE was patriotic enough to sacrifice themselves for this very worthy cause?

the slow rewind of the last few weeks...

i'm still trying to catch up from all the blogging i missed while being too busy.

These are the latest gifts from my wonderful friends (or actually, their mom). The cone of yarn is a beautifully spun deep purple tweed. The Noro, yes NORO, 8 skeins, is made of some stuff i've never heard of... 40% Ganpi abaka, 58% rayon, and 2% nylon. I call it Noro Tree Bark. i'm thinking of making a bag out of this stuff...

The knitting gift tags were a gift from Stacye's mom... who needs a BLOG! Aren't they CUTE? There are Knit gift tags with knit stitches, and tags with purl bumps.
Thank you Wanda and Marsha!!!



Let's now delve into my weekend of absolutely NO restraint.

oh, i'm sorry... you can't see THROUGH Cosmo's butt?



These two books I bought on Friday at Colorful Yarns we'll see more of that stuff later. I was looking for patterns for mittens and scarves. I wanted them to match...kinda.

more of friday's binge...

From the Denver Metro's latest LYS, String. I bought 2 of each skein, to which Stacey will gladly attest. Which brings me to why i'm posting right now. if you go read her latest entry, you'll see i've been OUTED. I had to take Saturday off, seeing as I had the very disappointing Michigan vs Ohio State game to cry over, then a school shindig, and a night out with some friends. I needed (er, my bank acct needed) a rest.
So... Sunday!

Found me back at Colorful Yarns with Michelle, who 'helped' me pick out yarn. There's a reason i go back there OFTEN. Both the owner (Tiffany) and Carla are pushers. They should be reported to some sort of authority for dealing and enabling those of us with an addiction. see that stuff above? it's incredible. Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran (55% merino wool, 35% microfiber, 10% cashmere). I bought it for my Scarf Exchange Pal... want to see more of my dope score from that particular LYS?

Textiles a Mano. Sigh. at a discount. what's an addict to do?
which leaves us with today's indiscretion...


I was out and about, and hadn't seen Wanda in forever and a day. We met up at Strawberry Tree, which is having some terrific sales as well. 35% off on DB wool cotton, and some sort of sale on the Rowan Felted Tweed. Strawberry tree also has the best deal on Noro Kureyon that I've ever seen, at $6.95 a ball!

ahem. i should feel ashamed. instead, I'm high. I'm obviously in denial about my problem.

How has knitting changed YOUR life?

So, I'm walking to school on Monday, thinking about what a lame blogger I've been this semester. No exciting stash enhancements (except for all my lovely gifties from my SP5 and SP6), no FOs (yeah yeah, shaddap. I know that FOs are NEVER on this blog), no fun pics of group meetings.

And i notice I'm wearing my turquoise cabled cardigan with my brown cords. In my pre knitting life, I would NEVER have worn these two colors together. The turquoise would be saved for either cream or grey combinations. And I thought...hunh. Knitting has changed my life. I wear much more color than I used to (my clapotis is WAY brighter than anything I would've bought in the store), I don't ALWAYS cuss if I've got to wait for the superlong train to cross at Santa Fe or when I'm waiting to get into the parking lot at school. I knit instead! Though I still consider myself a very impatient person, I'm not quite as impatient as I used to be. Instead of getting bored and going shoe shopping all the time or scouring Ebay for knock off designer bags, I knit. Or scour Ebay/Webs/Elann/KnitPicks for bargain yarn. Hmm. I guess that might not be such a big life change, just a change in where my credit card is getting abused.

So... how has knitting changed YOUR life? What about you has changed from your preknitting days to now?

Holey Blog, Batman!!

Meaning, wow, it's been more than a week since I blogged??

school related stuff has kept me from being a very productive knitter. I managed to meet up with the MHC knitters at Barnes and Noble last Tuesday, and closed down the place with Cathi. I also got to touch and fondle Michelle's latest FO, vintage velvet from Scarfstyle. Actually made with the suggested yard. Aptly named, I must say. The rest of the week was spent with my head in the books studying for my comprehensive exams. thanks to all of those that sent well wishes my way. I'm just glad it's over.
After the exam on Saturday morning, i went over to Stacey's, who was hosting a Harry Potter Marathon, in preparation for the upcoming release of my FAVORITE book of the series. She and her sister hosted many people and had a huge spread of food. Queso (cathi, where were you?), chips, donuts, puppy chow (renamed owl pellets), butter beer, hot mulled apple cider, and lots of other goodies. I worked a bit on Spork and finishing up the two baby sweaters I've been working on. Other than that, i've been busy working on making matches for the Scarf Exchange. I don't know how the SP people do it, b/c it took me forever for just 68 participants of the scarf only group.

Since I have no pictures... I have a meme, tagged by Catherine


What is your all-favorite yarn to knit with?
well, i have the inkling that I would say Brooks Farm Yarn, but I can't bear to knit with it yet. It's my luxury stash yarn, and until i acquire more to sit in my stash, I won't knit what I've got. Crazy? Just a little bit?
My favorite yarn to actually knit with so far has been the SWTC bamboo yarn on my bamboo Addi Naturas.

Favorite needles?
It's gotta be Addis. If I have to knit on straights, I love my lantern moons.

The worst thing you've ever knit?
Right now, it's my Rogue. The twisted hem stitch hurt my hands something awful. Then, to find out that my gauge might be off? I have yet to brave the measuring tape to find out if I need to rip it all the way back like "_blank">Stacey

Your favorite knit pattern?
I like anything that's challenging me on something I've not done before (dropping stitches on the clapotis, making intricate cables on Rogue, doing the leaf pattern on Backyard leaves).

Most valuable knitting technique?
Being able to fix mistakes. Dropping a stitch down a few rows to fix it, picking up dropped stitches, putting stitches back on the needles after they fall off my needles. the second best is the emergency 911 call to my knitting grrlz. Seriously.

Best knit book or magazine?
Nancy Wiseman's Book of Finishing Techniques. Can't live w/o that one.

Your favorite knitalong?
I plead the fifth. I have decided that KALs are not for me. I'm taking a page from Jenifer's book... I'll join KALs AFTER i've finished the project.

Your favorite knitblogs?
Good lord. I'm not linking them. Sittin' Here Knittin', Sheep in the City, In the Pink, WandaWomanKnits, Knit It Yourself, The Cat Ate It, The Knitty Professor, Cast On, Cast Off, and KeepTalking... (Gotta check in with my grrlz first). Then I move on to Knittin'Notes, CeliaKnits, CrazyAuntPurl, The Panopticon, The Diva Knits... and i'm missing so many.

Your favourite knitwear designer?
I don't think I've knit enough garments to have a favorite yet.

The knit item you wear the most?
It's gotta be the clapotis. and the felted clogs by Fibertrends

Who to tag?
I think i'm the last to get the meme.

Y-A-R-N is a four letter word

I was driving over to Michelle's house last night for some knitting time, when something caught my eye. Aurora Yarn Supply is an LYS over by her, and its business sign simply says "YARN." Which is just about when I realized that YARN is a four letter word for me. It's dirty, alluring, and irresistable.

Shall we talk about my inability to resist the call of the four letter word? Fortunately, the aforementioned LYS was closed when I drove by, but I made time to visit one of my favorites, Colorful Yarns on Friday. Tiffany, the owner, always runs monthly specials... which makes it very difficult to stay on any sort of yarn diet.



on the right: Chartreuse and purple classic AL by Elsbeth Lavold. I bought 4 skeins in the green, 6 skeins in purple. Phoenix yarn by SWTC (2 skeins) and a loverly skein of cherry tree hill superwash sock yarn. It was ALL on sale, ok? On the left we've got my books...two from Amazon.com.

After buying the stash supplement, I headed over to Monkey Bean to meet Wanda and Michelle. I love this coffee shop, except for the lighting (makes it very difficult to show off yarn).



What have I been KNITTING?
here we've got two baby sweaters. the one on the right is the pullover from Weekend Knits, in sugarplum cottonease. I need to do the dreaded sleeves still. The one on the left is the chunky baby cardigan from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies (Erika Knight) made with the Classic AL.



also, the progress on spork.


that's it for me. Another big test (my comprehensives that i need to pass to graduate) on Saturday.

Also, LAST CALL for anyone who wants to sign up for the Int'l Scarf Exchange I put a button on my sidebar, and the deadline for joining is on Nov. 10th. Don't forget to read the rules before signing up!!

Tricks and Treats. Many many treats

from my SP5 and SP6!! They came one day apart, but I got them both on the same day since I had to pick them up from the USPS.

First up. My final package from my SP5, Jena.



WOW!! Jena told me my final package would be late for a good reason... and is it EVER! I would've waited til next year for this package! Two skeins of Artful Yarns Ballet (with which I plan to make myself a beautiful scarf... any suggestions for a pattern? should I carry it along with another yarn?) A sheep tape measure from Lantern Moon, we've got lilac and green tea , vanilla body spray, sticky notes with my initial, packages of tea, and...


the piece de la resistance... the lilac bath salts and lilac solid perfume! Now I can smell like spring all the time. Lilac is my all time favorite flowery smell, but it doesn't last long around CO... now I can smell it whenever I want. Thanks Jena!!!!!!!!!

Now for my SP6 gift!


Here we've got the Classic Elite Yarn (Sands), 6 skeins!!! Sour jolly rancher candies (I LOVE jolly ranchers!), and a cute black kitty cat tape measure!!
just a close up.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my secret pals!!! I would've blogged about these earlier, but some college friends were in town visiting... and you all know how long it takes to post sometimes!

I still had my volunteer training and school while they were here, but I enjoyed every second of their visit. Though the husband didn't attend the alma mater, I consider him a college friend. It's tough to think of how to entertain friends that live in NYC, but I managed. We dined at 9th Door, a Spanish Tapas restaurant in LoDo. Mmmmmm.... Anna and I shared a pitcher of red sangria, while Scott enjoyed a more manly mojito (or two). On Saturday, Scott's two brothers flew into town (they were here for the football game), so we went our separate ways. Anna and I hit the club that night to hear Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman spin. He's an amazing DJ, and the crowd energy is spectacular when he comes to town. Lucky me, I have connections... and didn't have to wait in line or pay cover b/c I was on the list. Am I shallow if I admit I love saying that? I was on the list.