A Yarn about the Harlot

No pictures on this post because I'm not at home yet--still up in the Denver area at my cousin's house on the laptop.

OMG I MET THE YARN HARLOT! SHE WAS AMAZING!

Okay, I need to stop yelling before I give myself an asthma attack, but seriously, I had such a blast Friday night at the Tattered Cover.

She remembered commenting my blog; how cool is that? I thought I was going to die when I started talking to her. Stephanie is truly an amazing woman with a gift, and I can't wait to see her again. I read her new book cover to cover at 1 a.m. Friday night and loved it.

I also made some new friends while waiting for the book signing. A group of lovely ladies from Colorado Springs took me in as their own and made the night that much better. I also bought my first skein of Koigu yarn at the LYS by the Tattered Cover.

I should be heading home to Pueblo tonight or tomorrow morning so expect pictures in the next few days. I'm still flying high about all that has happened this weekend.

Also, may Dylan Reid rest in peace. Dude, you died too young. All the students and staff at DHPH an CCA will miss you dearly.

There's Fiber in Them Thar Bloodlines

One of the highlights of my trip to Chicago was getting to visit the Swedish Museum in the neighboorhood called Andersonville. The museum gave a wonderful display of history explaining how and why different Swedes chose to leave the mother country and immigrate to the United States and how Swedish-Americans lived their lives once arriving here. Being of Swedish descent, it was very interesting for me to walk through the museum with my mother, whose own grandfather came to the States from Gothenburg, Sweden in 1911.



About halfway through the second-floor exhibit, we looked upon a display of the average living room from the early 1900s. In the corner sat a spinning wheel, the second one we had seen in the museum that day. "I knew it!" I told my mom excitedly. "Fiber is in my blood. I must learn how to spin now!" Of course, being the shutterbug that she is, my mom insisted I pose for a picture.


The third floor of the museum was just as amazing. It was totally devoted for children ages two-twelve to understand the lives of Swedish-Americans from many, many years ago. I had so much fun running around pretending to be five years old again. I dressed up like a little Swedish girl and pretended to say goodbye to my homeland before departing for the land of oppurtunity called America.


I had just way too much fun with it all, and I'm looking forward to taking my children to the same museum someday. If anybody ever visits the Chicago area, I highly recommend a trip to the Swedish Museum.

In other news, I'm going to see the one and only Yarn Harlot on Friday at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch. I am so terribly excited about this. What should I wear? Something knit of course... Hmmm... Don't expect a post about my Yarn Harlot booksigning until at least Sunday night though because I am also planning on staying in the Denver area for the rest of the weekend to visit some more family. My little cousin Riley is turning 10 on Saturday, plus her grandmother, my cousin Meredith, and I are planning on visiting some yarn stores in possibly Boulder or Ft. Collins that same day. Tons of pictures of those things to come.

I'm hoping I can keep up this reguarly blogging thing. I really do enjoy it, and I hope to expand my reader base someday in the future. I think today will be a good day. =)

Coffee and cashmere,
Lulu

7 Reasons Why Knitting is Better than Magic: The Gathering

While most of my guy friends are totally into a card game called Magic: The Gathering and the like, I am a knitter. They sit in the cafeteria at the college for hours at a time dueling against one another, playing one-on-one and two-on-two and so on and so forth until they can play no more. I sit and watch for a little while, eventually pulling out some knitting or crocheting or a book about fiber arts because I firmly believe that knitting is better than Magic.

1. To play Magic, one must collect lots of cards and this costs lots of money over the long run. You can find yarn for cheap if you look in the right places, and there is a skein for every budget from Red Heart from Wal-Mart to the gorgeous Lobster Pot cashmere purchased online.

2. With the exception of card houses, you can make plenty of different things from yarn.

3. Yarn doesn't give you papercuts like a Magic card would.

4. Alpaca yarn is way softer than any Magic card.

5. You can knit all by yourself but you need at least one other person to play Magic.

6. Knitting can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be. Magic is pretty much always complicated.

7. You don't have to know how to read to knit (without a pattern) but reading is a required skill for playing Magic.

Chicago Yarny Goodness

And now, some promised pictures... Okay, not all of them because between me and my mom, we took over 350+ pictures; but I do have some highlights from one of the yarn stores we visited!

Loopy Yarns, located on South State Street, was the better of the two yarn stores we visited in the Windy City. I instantly felt welcomed despite by newbie-ness. A former store manager who is now an independent knitwear designer offered to take a couple pictures of me and my mom. Notice the handknit scarf my mother is wearing--that lovely Cascade 220 creation is mine! Even my mother was impressed by the amazing collection of different varieties of yarn. I almost had trouble deciding what would go home with me back to Colorado when I saw the back wall...

Look at all the beautiful Manos del Uraguay! Dear Loopy Yarns even had the silk blend of this gorgeous kettle-dyed yarn. I bought two skiens of the silk blend, which is the stuff to the left in the picture. The purply-magenta skein was for my friend Erin and the deep teal skein was all for me. I aslo got another wool/silk blend yarn from the sale bin at the store at 60% off in addition to some absolutely gorgeous worsted-weight wool that is dyed right there in Chicago (picture of that to come). I ended up giving up over $40 to the yarn store but I was able to go home with some great treats.

And that is that for now. I must take my poor car into the dealer to see why in the world my check engine light came on. As always, more pictures later. Maybe I'll even update twice in one day!!

And as a teaser for my next entry... I bought my first full sized skien of CASHMERE at the other yarn store we visited. Also, fiber arts are in my blood and I have photographs to prove it. More on that later.

Coffee and cashmere,
Lulu

Too Much Oxygen

I'm back from Chicago as of Friday evening. I've been sleeping and unpacking and cleaning and working all weekend, and I've been crazy tired. The funniest part of being in Chicago is all the oxygen!! It's at a lower altitude than mountanious Colorado so there is so much more oxgyen in the air, and it made me very light-headed and feathery feeling. The trip was truly amazing though. I bought some great yarn (pictures to come) and some scrapbooking stuff, in addition to a massive amount of other stuff including two pairs of pants, a Northwestern University hoodie, two sweaters, a pair of Spanx, and a Tinkerbell t-shirt from the Disney store, in addition to stuff for friends and family.

Thankfully I didn't have a single problem getting my knitting through security! I worked a few rounds of my sock on the plane and I'm slowly making progress.

When I get my personal computer being nice to me again, I'll post some pictures!

I'm going to a booksigning of the Yarn Harlot's new book on Friday. SO EXCITED!

Until next time fellow yarn addicts.

Coffee and cashmere,
Lulu

Off Tomorrow to Travel!

Hello blogging world! Currently I am sitting in my cousin Meredith's kitchen on her daughter's gorgeous black MacBook laptop, wired from coffee and chocolate cream pie. My mom and I are leaving bright and early tomorrow for the Windy City. That's right cyber friends, I am heading to Chicago! Hurray for Spring Break!!

On the itinerary for the city of big shoulders includes the Sears Tower, the Art Institute, the Swedish museum, a Sephora fix, and of course lots of yarn and scrapbook stores! (Man could I use any more explanation points in this post? YES!!!!) I've been saving money all month for the trip and plan to do plenty of shopping, for yarn and otherwise. Everybody at work has put in various requests for things they'd like me to bring back.

In other news, school is going well. Graduation is closer and closer, as is prom. (Still need to get a dress, and possibly a date. Ugh.)

I brought several potential projects for the trip, but in the rush to take my sisters to the airport this morning, I left my sock at home!!!!! Oh well, a break might do us good. It's coming along nicely and I even learned a new cast-on method for it. Looking forward to finishing my first wool sock, and ironically it will probably happen in July when I will not need a single wool sock.

That is about all for now. I will try to post from Chicago but I have no idea what type of internet access I will have, if any at all.

And thank you for all the birthday comments!! <3

coffee and cashmere,
Lulu

*SQUEAL!*

My sisters and I got tickets to the May 8th Superchic[k] concert! EEE!! I'm so jazzed about this. I've loved this band for ages and I'm really looking forward to going to this concert in Colorado Springs. So far it's just going to be me and my sisters and one of their good friends, but I'm hoping to take a girlfriend with me too, maybe Melanie or Erin.

Oh, and I've been knitting too... Working on my first pair of socks!! YAY!

My birthday (March 10th) was pretty good. I can't believe I'm finally 18!