Homesick?

I'm working on a chunky cardigan out of these yarns. They're both Bernat Softee Chunky. One interesting thing is, they are both FULL ball, but I bought the darker pink ones from a fellow Raveler on one of the Destashing Forums… She was getting rid of some of her acrylic yarns for free, and I just paid shipping on it. She sent 3 full balls, labels and all. I kept them around for a long time, because I really really like this line of yarn. In fact, my first ever sweater was made out of Bernat Softee Chunky, in aran color.

But now, scroll up and look at them all wound up. They're different sizes!!!

I wound the darker one first, and then the lighter one, and towards the end, I noticed the lighter one was a lot bigger than the darker one! It was so noticeable that even my boyfriend noticed! It was only then I looked more closely and the darker one was a bit thinner than the light pink. I looked at the yarn label, and noticed that the darker one seems like it was an older one. Labels weren't all that different, I would've noticed if they were, but the darker one's label didn't contain any yardage information. It just said it was 100g an nothing more than that. BUT~ the gauge information on both labels were identical. Now, I'm not any yarn genius, but HOW is it possible for anyone to knit in SAME GAUGE with different weight of yarn in size 10 needles????

So, I'm a little bit irked. I'm knitting a sweater, not using anyone's pattern but my own, so I feel a bit more flexible with yardage and adaptation but still! I'm a bit annoyed at Bernat. I'm hoping that the thickness is due to their age, perhaps the Raveler who sent them to me stored them in plastic bag with and that might've flattened them a bit. We'll see after washing it.

Speaking of Raveler……

I recently started listening to more knitting podcasts again. Those of you who followed my blog over some time would know that I got through the bar prep, oh the dreaded bar prep, by knitting and listening to knitting podcasts, sometimes at the same time. I've been away from it because I've been so busy and for some reason my blackberry's download speed slowed down SO MUCH when using Bolt browser.

So I just started again, and wanted to try something other than KnitPicks, and Lion Brand. Most people recommended KnitmoreGirls podcasts.

I went to check out their blog and downloaded some earlier shows…. From Ep. 1~Ep. 8. And while listening to Ep.1, they say, "We're from San Jose, California" and my heart stopped.

OH MY GOD, did they just say San Jose???? And then I started paying more attention to their blog entries. Their LYS is Purlescence in Sunnyvale, and then for Knit in Public Day, they went to SANTANA ROW!