43 days into a new year!

It doesn't seem like 43 days since Mr P and I toasted each other over beer at Old Chicago on New Year's Eve. It seems like a week or two. This year, I can't wait for spring to show up and get this damn snow off the ground! But on the bright side, cold weather = baking and knitting. What better way to feel cozy, warm and be happy you're not one of those miserable sods freezing their tushy off outside.

I made this really good chocolate cake with a different kind of buttercream frosting the other day. Saved ourselves a slice then sent the rest away with Mr P to his office. I totally forgot to get pictures, so to make up here's something yummy.
This is a Gingerbread Pudding Cake I made today to take to a friend's place. It is fabulous served slightly warm with ice cream (we got the sweet cream with nuts from cold stone creamery)!

In knitterly news, Jan has turned out to be the Month of Yarn. I bought lots of gorgeous yarn and have several on stix as we speak. Take a lookie and bring a towel to wipe off all that drool:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Bombon. An ultra soft merino from handpaintedyarn.com (in color bombon - shades of yellow, chocolate, maize and a sort of purple). It is right now being knit into a very pretty My So Called Scarf . The pink is a bulky handspun in Rosa Purpura that I bought for felting. And felt what you ask? COASTERS!

Next up we have an order from Elann.com. I got some Sonata (100% mercerized cotton) for my first attempt at a top. The color is victorian grape and much as I love the color, I'm a little taken aback with the feel of cotton. It's not as soft as I'd hoped. But we'll see how it knits and washes. I also got a lone skein of peruvian alpaca in blackberry wine. This was combined with the same yarn in color Garnet for a hat. Pictures of the hat later because I plan to knit a second hat and make it a double for warmth. In the meantime, here's the yarn:

And here's a treat for hungry eyes. Lorna's Laces Shepherd in sock weight. Yarngrove.com was having a sale last Sunday and I couldn't resist. If you haven't shopped with them yet, go check it out at Yarngrove. They have a great selection, good prices and free shipping on all US orders. They're very nice too. I only got one skein of each colorway because I plan to make anklets and 215 yds should be enough for a pair. The green and reds is called Gold Hill and the blue/teal is called Buck's Bar. They're both soft and gorgeous. A definite inspiration to complete the sock I have on the needles!

And for you greedy ones, here's a close up.

We went to Boulder, CO the other day and visited this yarn shop called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins. It's a really neat place. Lots of yarn, and a good selection of books and needles. Mostly natural fibers but some novelty. Oh and they also stock nice knitting bags. With the greatest difficulty I kept my hands off the Koigu, Manos and some gorgeous hand painted stuff, and ended up getting 2 skeins of Reynolds Lopi for a bag I'm designing. They also have this really adorable shop dog named Bridget.

If you ever get a chance to go Boulder, check out both the yarn shop as well as a little place called The Boulder Teahouse. It's a teahouse with a history and filled with beautiful Russian art. They also have tons of tea to choose from and a very unique menu. Don't forget to get one of their champagne tea cocktails and the gingerbread!

And that's it for yarn news. There are several projects being worked on and I'll post some WIP pictures next post. I'm excited about my upcoming trip to NJ to visit my sis, so I'm probably going to be MIA until next week. Happy Valentine's day!