It's Yarn Along Day. Check out Small Things and see how you can participate by sharing what you're knitting and reading on your crafts blog.

Ugggggh. This last week has been a tough one around here. Our heater broke twice. The whole family got that nasty stomach bug/flu virus that's been going around. It's been exhausting and to no one's surprise I haven't had that much time to knit. Now that everyone's getting a little bit better I'm finally able to pull my knitting out and work more on the Shakespeare Cardigan.

I only have 1 more inch left before I start separating everything out for the sleeves. It's a bad picture I know, but it's what I could pull out of my hat when trying to run around today.

Being stuck in the house with a bunch of sick babies gives you some time to discover all the things you hate about your house so as soon as they got better I went on an organizational spree. I attacked the yarn nook first thing. For the last year yarn has been multiplying there and getting into all kinds of scrapes. You know, the kinds of things that cause MASSIVE GIANT YARN TANGLES. The kinds of tangles that only a pair of scissors can fix. To be honest, I was kind of looking for an excuse to get rid of one or two of these yarns. Now I don't have to feel so bad about it. Now the yarn has gone from the nook into the yarn cupboard so that we don't have to look at it all the time. I think the yarn prefers its privacy anyway.

Part of this organization that been going through all of my magazines that I've collected since 2004 and culling the irrelevant stuff. Once I pick a bunch of magazines to get rid of I go through them all and rip out the articles or images that interest me and then I make little collages. It's more of a mental exercise for me. It clears my brain to arrange images in a little book with my glue stick and it helps me release some things that were gucking up my mental system.

So here's the latest pile of magazines that will be getting ripped to shreds:

That's what I'm reading right now. Whatabout you? Are you getting into some early Spring cleaning too?

I'm working on another installment of the Interchangeable Knitting Needle Guide. Can you guess which needles?

Here's one hint: these needles are part of a destiny...

Well some of those hints weren't so subtle, but the Lantern Moon Interchangeable Knitting Needles are next on our list. These interchangeables come in rosewood and ebony, which are considered to be some of the most luxurious materials for knitting needles. We haven't tested them yet to see whether the materials make such a difference, but we're going to give them a try.

From the Lantern Moon Site, here's what the Rosewood set includes for $308:

Complete set includes 10 pairs of needles, 4 cords, and a silk compact zip case in an available color.

Needles: US Sizes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 13
Cords: 17", 26", 32" and 40" lengths

Here are details on the Ebony Set for $352.00

What is Ebony anyway?

Ebony is a dark tropical wood that is considered harder and more durable than other woods. You can read more here from wikipedia, but it's a rare wood, which is one of the reasons why these needles are more expensive.

Complete set includes 10 pairs of needles, 4 cords, and a silk compact zip case in an available color.

Needles: US Sizes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 13
Cords: 17", 26", 32" and 40" lengths

Stay tuned. We'll have the full reviews here soon.

This is a special edition of Yarn Along. I'm not just showing your what I'm knitting and reading, but where I went last weekend on my knitting retreat!

I'm a part of a mommy knitting group where we try to knit with our small children around. It's nice to see my fellow mom knitters and fun for my kids to play with the other kids. A couple of months ago I got it into my head that we had to do a knitting retreat. I love knitting retreats. I love getting away into someone else's fancy cabin to knit the hours away.

Since we're all mommies we thought we could get away and bring our little babies and leave the big toddlers at home. The little ones are still manageable and can be easily entertained with toys while we knit. We brought food. We brought dvds. We brought knitting. We rented a place up in the wine country. There might have been some wine... and chocolate.

Of course we also visited a yarn store. We visited Balls and Skeins in Sebastopol -I really wanted to visit Yarnitudes, but we only had time for one shop and Balls and Skeins was next to a taco place so it won out. Now we just have another excuse for another knitting retreat.

Balls and Skeins was one helluva yarn shop, especially for these mammas. We had 4 children under the age of 3 with us and they didn't bat an eye. Lucky for us, our children were pretty well behaved. The staff did an amazing job accommodating our kids, even letting them play with a little bag of cut ends from the ball winder. This is definitely a destination yarn shop for the Sonoma Area. If you're heading to Guerneville, make a stop here. Papas and Pollo was the taco place next door and it was reasonably priced. Portions were so big that we were able to save our leftovers for lunch the next day (so for me and the baby that was just $4/serving).

We ate lunch before really delving into our yarn shop experience. There's a wide variety of well organized yarns, with plenty of knitted samples to tempt you to separate you from your dollars. I found myself quite tempted and bought one of Laura Nelkin's beaded jewelry kits, the Spring copy of Knitscene, The Yarn Harlot's All Wound Up, a fancy pair of scissors, and a crochet/knit fixing tool thing since I can't find my Susan Bates one (insert sad face). I was so happy with my haul that I'm seriously considering that I should forgo Stitches this year.

So All Wound Up is what I'm reading and the Mudra Cuff is what I'm knitting. :)

As much as it's nice to get into a new environment I learned that a retreat is not a retreat if you have to bring your kids. As much as I treasured the quality time I got to spend with my youngest, what I really needed was an entire quiet weekend of just me, my friends and my knitting (alright and also my writing I did accomplish quite a bit of writing this weekend). But I still had a great time.

A retreat with kids is better than no retreat at all. It was nice spending time with the other ladies. I introduced one to Absolutely Fabulous (season 4 if you're interested -my favorite), we watched the newer version of Pride and Prejudice (still kicking myself that I didn't bring the Colin Firth version -so so so much better).

That said, this retreat would have been much better if it lasted an extra day. Or week.

What do you do on your knitting retreats? Where have you gone?