denny & amy at the 2006 knitting olympics kickoff

Remember this? This is Denny and me at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics — which also happened to be the first time the Knitting Olympics were held.

We met at the Duke of York pub in the basement, charmed the bartender, and made a right loud knitting party out of a sporting event.

Well, the Drunken Knitters [the group that formed out of the Knitting Olympics meetups] is bringing us back to our roots: this Friday, we’re meeting at the Duke of York to drink, laugh and cast on our Olympic projects with our fellow Olympians. Details here [rav link - if you can't get in to Rav, the thing starts at 6pm and the reservation is in Nadia's name]. Whether you can find your original jersey in your closet or not [or you never bought one, and no, we're not getting them reprinted...you don't want to know the hassles involved therein], come and join us.

Not sure what we’re talking about? Read what The Harlot has to say on the subject here.

What shall I knit for my Olympic project? I have 4 days to decide that.

Dusk + mostly functional neon

I’ve been back on Canadian soil for more than 2 days, but am taking a while to readjust to consciousness. I adjust easily to going west [time-zone wise], but coming back east kills me.

But it’s all for a good cause, so no whining, promise.

I just came back from talking to and teaching members of the North Coast Knitters’ Guild of Encinitas, CA. Going to California in February is never a hardship. The weirdness is that, while the rest of the country was getting itself buried in snow, my home town was merely chilly. My flight home was delayed, but not because of snow: because of wind in San Francisco, my connecting city.

Which meant I found myself stuck overnight in the home town of one of my favorite people [who's a worse blogger than I am, but much cuter, so it doesn't count]. Who came to the airport at 11pm to rescue me from a night sleeping on airport carpet, and put me up on her couch overnight. We got to have breakfast and catch up and there was much hugging. The best flight delay EVER.

Marsha!

Anyway, Encinitas and San Diego were awesome. Sunny but not hot, which is my favorite thing. Great, engaged, inspiring students to learn from and teach stuff to. It was a blast.

At right, you see Marsha, my self-appointed tour guide and companion for most of the trip. She took me everywhere, enabled me into super-cheap [and they fit!] jeans at Ross as well as my first pair of lo Chucks [raspberry, of course] and lots of yummies. In-N-Out burger as a farewell meal? You bet. And here you see her being the best sport on my last afternoon, which I decided was “Hawaii in San Diego Day”.  We ate Plate Lunches at Keilani’s in Encinitas, stopped at Motu Hawaii and Freaky Tiki and then drove up to the beach, brought out beach chairs and I played plinky plink uke beside the ocean.

I leave you with a picture of guild member Amy in her fresh-off-the-needles Girl Friday cardigan. She used the designer’s yarn as well, so it’s really true to Mercedes’ vision, and dang, does it look awesome.

Amy in her Girl Friday cardigan

This may be the blog of the editor of a knitting magazine, but it’s never been a knitting-only blog, and that continues into our new wordpress-powered incarnation.

this wee thing is an Ohana sopranino.

Because today, I need to talk ukulele!

Toronto has been, thanks [I believe] to the Corktown Ukulele Jam and the powerful forces behind it [namely David and Steve], a huge part of the ukulele renaissance. Starting tonight, we’re celebrating!

First off, ukes meet to play together at the Dominion on Queen: tonight at 8pm. If you’ve been before, the format has changed a little — it’s more about jamming together and performance night has been shifted to once a month. If you haven’t been, bring a uke and see what it’s like to be with like-minded music freaks who don’t take themselves too seriously.

Tomorrow is a huge deal. The documentary The Mighty Uke has been highly anticipated by those in the worldwide uke community, and it’s premiering this Thursday [Jan 28] in my own fair city! Not only will $15 get you in to see the movie, but afterwards, we’ll be treated to performances by James Hill, Melanie Doane and Andrea Koziol. The link above takes you to a page where you can buy tickets. My massage therapist is coming with me, and she doesn’t play uke. You should come.

Then Friday night, it keeps on going! Manitoba Hal is leaving Manitoba and on his way to the east coast, he’s playing a concert in Toronto! Details here. The aforementioned David and Steve are also known as Rye & Ginger, and they’ll be performing along with Jimmy the Uke [he's a wee kid that will blow your head off with his adorableness and skill]. I will not hide, however, that the reason I’m most excited about the concert is that my friend Zoe will be performing that night too. She’s got a voice like a sultry angel, and she writes songs that…well, listen to this and this. Concert is $10. Come.

So there. If you’re in or near Toronto and have wondered what all the ukulele fuss is about, there’s no better week than this to investigate. If you see me, say hi!

p.s. the photo above is by the awesome Meg Mulligan.

Unless every electronic device you own is unplugged, you’ve undoubtedly heard about what’s happened in Haiti, and that the knitting community is stepping up [led by our guiding light, The Yarn Harlot] to contribute what they can. Lots and lots of designers are donating some or all of the proceeds of their pattern sales to MSF. Ravelry has helped by setting up a Help for Haiti tag, so that designers can make their patterns easier to find for knitters wanting to support the cause.

My contribution is my Broccowli pattern, which you’ll find here. All proceeds will be donated to MSF until Feb 14. Go! Spend! Help!

Blogger is sort-of idiot proof. Wordpress is not. But Wordpress does things Blogger wishes it could do, so I’m going to learn. For now, the old posts [and there are years and years of them] are in limbo, but I’m plowing on ahead anyway!

First off: the Yarn Roundtables are now online-RSVP enabled, no silly comment/approval process this time!

What are you doing this Thursday night? Want to come? We’re a bit late [cough] in announcing it, but if we get enough people, it’ll be a go! Click the Yarn Roundtables tab at the top of the page, and sign up if you can come!

I believe this calls for a w00t. May I hear a w00t?

i wonder how many times the words “just testing” have appeared on new blogs all over the world since the beginning of teh interwebs.