A wee winner!

Thanks to Trinity for her suggestion -- her comment was the randomly selected winner of my sort-of little contest.

Trinity, send me your address so I can mail you your wee prize!

You want to know what I've bought, right? NOTHING yet. Nothing. I'm still waffling. Turns out the Kindle doesn't work in Canada [blerg], not that it was in the budget. Current idea: someone suggested an Ice Cream maker. I get bored with the low-fat Chapman's flavors [yummy, but always the same], so this just might be the ticket!

In any case, thank you all for participating! I loved reading all your suggestions and clicking on the links. It's fun to dream.

WWW for November 19, 2008

This week, we're WWWW -- What's What WORLDWIDE Wednesday! Take a look...



Have you seen the new Debbie Bliss magazine? Perhaps not...at my LYS, the copies were gone in a matter of days! The Autumn/Winter issue is full of Debbie's signature cables and simple, elegant British style.



Elsebeth Lavold has some new yarns coming out. Bambool is 80% Bamboo Viscose and 20% Merino Wool. Calm Wool 40% Wool, 30% Camel, 30% Alpaca. To go with, two new pattern books: The Out of the Blue Collection and The Touch of Romance Collection.



More Lavold! knitting exhibit "Knitting Along the Viking Trail" will make an appearance at Seattle's Nordic Heritage Museum, just in time for the second Nordic Knitting Conference, March 13-15, 2009.



New yarns from O-Wool! Legacy DK and Legacy Bulky are made from 100% certified organic merino wool. It is processed in accordance with the Global Organic Textile Standard. No chemical softeners are used during processing, so a rinse soak is recommended as the best way to highlight the natural softness of the merino fiber.



Congratulations to Seasalt, a retailer in the UK, on their successful Go Knit campaign!

Go Knit! is their charity knitting window project. Volunteers hand knit scarves to go into Seasalt shop windows in October. The scarves were sold from the windows to raise money for the Cinnamon Trust, a charity that helps old people and their pets. This year, over 400 homemade scarves were donated by Go Knitters, and in one shop, 52 scarves were sold on the first day!



Brand new from our friends at Interweave -- Stitch Magazine! The premiere issue features 25 clever projects by independent designers — including a patchwork pillow pattern from Lisa Congdon and an assymetrical folds wrap skirt by Martha McQuade of UNIFORM studio, plus articles profiling Natalie Chanin from Alabama Chanin and Katherine Hable Sweeney and Susan Hable Smith, the sister duo from Hable Construction. Projects range from stylish and sophisticated to charming and modern, and always design-conscious. Each project offers clear step-by-step sewing instructions, and included in the magazine are several full size clothing patterns on a pull-out insert. For a preview of Stitch, visit the website, which offers readers two free full-size skirt pattern PDFs from projects featured in the magazine, plus a bonus pattern for a table runner and a tutorial on sewing basics.



We'll have more fiber news next Wednesday!

help me spend my birthday present!

How weird is this? I have a birthday-present Amazon gift certificate from my sister and her sweet hub burning a hole in my e-mail box and I cannot, for the life of me, make a decision about what to spend it on! Wanna tell me what I should buy?

I've got $75 to play with [they spoiled me!] and I can ship to their US address, so it can be anything Amazon sells. Things close to $75 but a little over are also cool. Books, music and DVDs are obvious choices, but too easy. I'm looking for...I don't know what! They don't sell yarn and I already looked for a Lazy Kate [not kidding].

If you're game, fill up my comments with your suggestions! Get creative! I don't promise that I'll pick one, but I just might...

I'll pick one commenter at random this Friday morning and send them something from the Knitty prize cupboard, so it'll be a little birthdayish for the winner, too! Let the coveting begin!

p.s. The cake above? Chocolate raspberry truffle. That's what hub got me to celebrate this birthday. It was UNBELIEVABLY delicious. <3 Dufflet.

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eta: My birthday was a month ago, but thanks for the wishes! Thanks for the DVD recs, but I don't think DVDs this time, either. Sorry I left it out of the original post. It's in now. :-)

Favorite suggestion so far? Kaphine's accordion.
Closest to my own taste: I already have a fuzzy logic rice cooker [bought from Amazon!] and LOVE it huge. Also have 2 OTT-Lites.
Wish I had the budget to top it up for: the Kindle. But I don't. Oh well.

Keep commenting! I love your suggestions! Off to see what vintage they've got! :-)

Knitty secrets revealed!

Okay, so I don't always talk about the business behind the scenes, but this is something you guys need to know about!

You know how, whenever a new issue of Knitty is released, the site gets bogged down and unreliable for about 6-8 hours? And then it's fine again? That's because we're on a shared server with an "unlimited traffic" account that we set up in 2002. It worked very well for quite a while, but as our readership grew [yay!], our server couldn't keep up.

About 2 years ago, we moved to a "better" account with the same webhost that was supposed to alleviate the problems. Those of you with long memories will remember that it was a disaster that shut the site down for hours and hours [not just a slowdown, but a complete stoppage of data] until we returned to our old server. Oy.

So more than a year ago, the hub [aka CTO of Knitty] started seriously pushing for us to upgrade our server situation. It's taken that much time for us to weigh our options, seek out solid solutions and finally, unbelievably, choose a provider. We signed up with the new provider today.

This is a huge deal for us. Moving to the new server should be almost invisible to you, and will likely happen in the next few days. Then we get to play with it, making sure it really does what they said it would. And then we get to implement the new features we put in place in September [the thing that made the server go boom seconds after we went live? that's the thing I'm talking about] and see how we do for the winter issue.

This means that the launch of the winter issue will be a breath-holding few hours for the hub and I. You guys are fabulously determined websurfers and we expect to be pounded with traffic the moment we launch, as usual. This time, we're 99.9% sure the new server can take it and more with no slowdowns! But as a practised skeptic, I'll believe it works when I see it working.

Should we have any trouble on launch day, please know we'll be doing our best to get it sorted out as quickly as possible. But our hope is that you won't notice any difference at all, except that you won't have to post "New Knitty's UP [and I can't get at the site]" on any message board ever again.

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The other thing the new server means is still a secret! We've been working on a sister site to Knitty [nope, not Knittyspin] since 2004. We plan to let the beta version loose as soon as we can. We're really excited about this new site and we hope you will be, too. It's something we believe knitters have wanted for ages, and we're looking forward to telling you all about it. When we can.

if you can watch this without smiling, you're broken

spotted on my sister's LJ.

this kid will be winning the Giller one day. or, more correctly, the French equivalent. undoutably.


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

if you are similarly smitten, her Vimeo stream has an RSS feed. :-)

What's What Wednesday, premier edition

A new feature begins today @ the knittyBlog: What's What Wednesday! Our intrepid roving reporter, Melissa Gow, is collecting all the stuff a web-loving fiber fanatic could want to know, and you'll find it here on Wednesday's knittyBlog. Let's go!



The UN has declared 2009 to be "The International Year of Natural Fibers".



Weaveolution plans to be a Ravelry-type social networking site for weavers. They hope to go live by spring 2009.



A fraction of an ancient spindle whorl was found in Reykjavík, inscribed with runes. The whorl dates from roughly the 11th century and the runes have been translated roughly as "Thórunn owns me". How flipping cool is that?



Welcome back Spindlicity!



Knitting fiction author Debbie Macomber has recently opened a yarn shop.



The Royal Winter Fair is shaking up their spinning competitions this year. They have dropped the traditional sheep-to-shawl challenge and are holding two new spinning competitions instead. One is for drop spindling and the other is a three-person team with a spinning wheel.



We'll be back with more news next Wednesday! [In the meantime, the usual blogness will continue :-)]

The story in photos

This is Lake Louise, Alberta. It is possibly the most breathtaking place I've ever been to. Even prettier than Emerald Lake, if that's possible.

Lots of pictures for you to peek at, including Banff and -- most importantly -- the reason I was there: the Make 1 Yarns Fall Retreat students, teachers, their knitting and lots of fun. There's also the special Make 1 Retreat colorway on Lorna's Laces Amy-Friendly Yarn [!], in case a little yarn pr0n will help get you through your day. The other instructors at the event were Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Stefanie Japel, Nancy Bush and Cookie A, and everyone came out of their classes glowing and motivated. It was really exciting to see.

I taught my Plug & Play class, and it was great to see the students grabbing on to the concept and running with it. One of them [Jeneane] even got so far in her shawl that she snapped a picture and uploaded it to Ravelry before the class was over!

It was an absolutely fabulous retreat, super-organized and fun, because of Amy and Sandra, the owners of Make 1 Yarns, organizers of this retreat. They took care of every detail and are most generous hostesses. 92 happy, smiling students can't be wrong.

I hope I get the chance to do it again next year!

i was away.

And you might not even have known it.

Here's where I was:



More soon.

wow.

You guys are great. I loved reading [and cheering for] all your votes and hearing about what it was like at the polls for you. Maybe one day I'll get to vote in person.

Mostly, I'm just so happy about the election, the huge, record voter turnout and the final result. I really feel that whatever happens to the US deeply affects the rest of the world, and Canada especially. I think what happened yesterday means better times ahead for both countries. I also respected McCain for his speech and the sincerity with which he delivered it. Those were good words.

I don't usually discuss politics on this blog, but this is so important to me that I broke my rule. Now I'm done. For another 4 years, if not longer.

if you are a US citizen, you have only one thing to do today.

and it's not knitting*.


It's not just your right to vote, it's your responsibility as a citizen of the United States. Drop me a comment when you're done and I will give you a yay out loud in the Knitty offices!

I voted absentee in September. Now it's just the waiting.

*in case there's a line up at your polling station, you should totally bring your knitting. I would!

in aid of election eve/day harmony, Cat Bordhi stylee

Cat Bordhi sent me a note today that pointed all of us to her online Moebius tutorial [above] as a metaphor for unity. In her e-mail, she wrote, "...I hope that you will be able to send it on to knitting friends as it may bring peace to them during the next few days, regardless of their political viewpoints. And it may help support the world to regain a sense of grace and true humanity."

If you have never done a Cat Bordhi-style moebius, never tried to learn her unique and brilliant [but potentially intimidating until you actually DO it] cast on, you now have no excuse not to give it a shot. The video above will help you get there.

To read her whole message including design and yarn suggestions, click here. For those who like it short and sweet, here's what I think is the pithiest bit:

So - here is why the Moebius is a perfect expression of the best of humanity, and the healing of the fractured country and world that I trust is coming:

1. The Moebius *appears* to have two surfaces and two edges - ie, polarities such as black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, Republican and Democrat - but when you follow the surface around you will run right into your starting point without ever having changed to the other "side." For there isn't one. Everything flows into itself. Polarities are an illusion. What lies beneath the apparent polarities is oneness, beauty, and grace. In a Moebius you can see it, hold it, be awed by it. Once the frenzy dies down, hopefully those with opposing views will slowly rediscover their common humanity.

I love how Cat's brain works. How lucky we are to have her as one of us.

I'll be casting on a new moebius tonight. Who's with us?

so what's different about the blog?

Another blog!

I put the button over there on the sidebar --> about two weeks ago. The one that says Invincible? Yup, that's the brand name plaque from my huge vintage desk, and it seemed a fitting representative for what the new blog is about.

It's about stuff I love. Vintage, handmade, unique, brilliant, awesome stuff. I do read a lot of stuff blogs -- blogs where people feature things they like. But I was finding stuff on my own that never showed up in these blogs, so I took the leap. It's been 2 weeks and I'm having a blast. The posts are short, which means it's all about the stuff [as am I :-)].

The desk shown above is the find that set me off on this new bloggy journey. It's vintage army surplus, unused, and it FOLDS. Take a peek on the Very Small House blog for more about it, and all the other delicious things I keep finding. I update daily during the week.

good customer service | bad customer service

Over the last 2 weeks, I've seen both and I need to share.

Good customer service
Porter Airlines flew me to Newark and back so that I could go to Rhinebeck. On the trip home, I learned my flight was cancelled when I got to the airport [I gave them my home number as a contact number, otherwise they'd have called my cell and I would have known much earlier]. The problem was an equipment issue and they needed to get a part to rectify it. It was a substantial bump in their schedule, and here's how they handled it.

With very little fuss, they
a) put me up at the [surprisingly lovely] Marriott adjacent to the airport
b) provided dinner and breakfast vouchers
c) when the morning's flight was delayed the next day, provided lunch as well
d) as they gave updates on the delay, they would let us know when the next update would be so we wouldn't just be sitting there, wondering, like the poor folks waiting on the Delta flight at the next gate
e) gave me two credits equalling nearly the entire cost of my flight because of the problems, unasked.

I will fly Porter again, unquestionably. [I haven't even mentioned their deluxe lounge in Toronto where everyone waits for their flights with free wifi, delicious coffee and yummy cookies, plus the fact that they serve small meals, beer and wine, ALL FREE, on almost every flight.]

Bad customer service
Rogers Wireless

I'm just shaking my head at this. I placed the order for the iPhone on the 22nd of October [a week ago]. They didn't mention at the time that I could just go to a store and buy a phone and it would be faster. Sure wish they had. Here, let's use the same list system:

a) first sales rep was rude and cross when I asked why, as a loyal, long-time Rogers customer, that I had to pay more for an iPhone [$249] than a new customer [$199]. No explanation, just curt answers and lots of being bored with me. Transfers me to...
b) second sales rep who was much nicer and, though he didn't tell me about the in-person shopping option [only hardware upgrades can be arranged in store; new purchases must be done online or over the phone, go figger], he was at least nice and gave me a service discount well in excess of the overcharge for the phone. Fair enough.
c) on Monday [the 27th], was told the phones had come in on the 24th and would likely ship that day or the next.
d) on Tuesday [okay, I was eager. sue me], was told it hadn't shipped yet. Maybe tomorrow.
e) today, was told there are NO PHONES and none came in on the 24th. I could cancel my order and go to a store now [NOW they tell me], but must wait until the cancellation goes through. Another 24-72 hours. They can't cancel my order right away. Not even the supervisor I waited an hour to talk to. Dude.
f) finally get transferred to another customer service guy who seems to be intelligent and actually cares about my business. Gives me very complex options designed to make me happy while working around the unbelievably STUPID rules and systems at Rogers. He types a lot of notes into my file. By the way, have been on the phone for 1 hour 52 minutes, mostly on hold.
eta: g) spent an hour at the Rogers shop based on the instructions of guy in step F. Guy in step F has been smoking something and what he tells me will happen at the shop CANNOT happen. Leave without iPhone.
h) Call Rogers again on the way to the Purl and get someone who now says that the reason they can't cancel my original order is because IT'S ALREADY SHIPPED. See item e). I have no idea if she's right this time and likely won't until the damned thing actually shows up.

So what am I frustrated with? Not the people at Rogers so much as the red tape, stupidity and unnecessary complexity of their [not very good] systems. Why should their own employees have to figure out how to bend or break their rules to make their customers happy when they have valid requests?

By contrast, Porter just made it all better before I even asked. That's customer service. Take that, Rogers.

no, seriously. Devo!

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes! Special thanks to Rache in the comments who found the FTP app that is TOTALLY going to solve 1/2 of the remainder of my connectivity problems. Brilliant! Now if someone can just find an app that will let me run Keynote presentations from the iPhone -- because look at this projector! -- I'll be all set!

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Meanwhile, in Knitty parts [why does that sound dirty?], I'm wondering why I am hearing zero Devo web buzz after the surprise came out. Dudes. I know Nicky named her scarf Skullface, and I haven't even asked her about the Devo resemblance, but I feel this cannot be ignored.

We knitters now have a chart for Devo heads. Why are we not running to our stashes, casting on for Devo socks, Devo cowls, Devo tunics of extreme proportions? It's not even fair isle...it's MOSAIC! Even I can do mosaic knitting!

Nobody? It's just me?

I leave you to mock me in the comments. I can take it. Sort of.

improved portability and a BIRTHDAY

Remember this? the portable solution

I have been trying to figure out some sort of mobile connectivity solution for 2 years now. The Palm T|X is good, but often S.L.O.W. And there's no e-mail without wifi.

Fast forward to Scout and I driving to Rhinebeck. Hub txts me that we need to do a bank transfer and I'm nowhere near the internet and won't be all weekend. What do I do?

Scout hands me her iPhone. I am intimidated. It's so shiny.

I type in the URL for my Canadian bank and within 5 minutes [because of the spotty cel coverage where we were driving, otherwise it would have been faster], I've transferred $ from one account to another and am lost.

It's my birthday today, and guess what I'm getting? [It's ordered through Rogers, just not here yet.]

It's still not the all-in-one solution I was hoping for [I'll need to use the Palm for fixing HTML files and uploading them], but it's 80% of the solution, and that's good enough for me.

Besides, it's really cool and I'm an embarrasing sucker for the coolness.

what Julia saw

At Rhinebeck, I was a little light on the camera, but thankfully Julia picked up the slack in one crucial area. Amy + Jillian pictures.

My favorite is the last one.

Knitty's 2009 Calendar Contest winners announced!

It's here! The 2009 Knitty Calendar, fresh off the press and ready for you!

This year, we had a great assortment of photos to choose from and that always makes the final selection process hard. But it's a fun kind of hard and I had a blast putting this one together.

This year's cover photo is from Emily Smartt of Tennessee. Don't miss the fuzzy friends in the background on the right. Just a great picture, Emily, and congratulations! Your huge [and I mean HUGE] box of books, yarn and shwag will be in the mail shortly.

The other 11 winners featured in this year's calendar are also stellar!

January: Elizabeth Caron
February: Emily Smartt
March: Angela Moore
April: Renée Sparkes
May: Ann Makela Schneider
June: Lindsey LaPlant
July: Lorrella Cobb
August: Heather La Rivière
September: Alex Walper
October: Allison Reilly
November: Sarah Friesen
December: Michelle DesGroseilliers

To see each of the winning images, just visit the calendar in the Knittyshop and you can flip through each page at your leisure. Each of the runner-up winners gets a copy of the calendar. They'll be in the mail shortly as well!

What about all the other great photos that didn't make it in? You'll find them in the 2009 Honorable Mention Gallery.

I got to pick up the load of calendars for prizes at Rhinebeck, and they really look fabulous. I'm so pleased, and I hope the winners and our readers will be just as happy.

For now, just remember: when you're photographing your Knitty knits, think about making a calendar entry out of it! You could be the winner of the HUGE box of coolness next year!

the new kids, adopted at Rhinebeck

the new kids
Originally uploaded by amysinger

There are more pictures on Flickr [click the image at right to see them all] including closeups and descriptions of each new foundling. The secret mission spindle was the one in the middle, the Hatchtown. The spindlemaker only does a small assortment every year and they sell out before you know they're gone. We were there when the show officially opened and most spindles were gone by 10 am that day.

I was quite selective this year, but still managed to drop a bundle of $.

One thing not pictured? A gorgeous jacket [quite lagenlook, Brenda!] from Maiwa Handprints [did you visit the Ancient Textiles booth in the back corner of the barn? If not, you missed some serious gorgeousness. Photos of the jacket on me next time I feel photogenic.



Norm Hall niddy noddy in cherry.


All my spindles so far [except the Avi Wasserman who was hiding].


The only fiber I bought. Sliver Moon Farm. I love them.

Rhinebeck 2008 encapsulates the glory of fall.

I've been to Rhinebeck three times now, and this year was the first that really felt like fall. Brilliant fall colors and a significant chill in the air. In fact, I was so programmed by previous visits where knitwear = shvitz that I underpacked and missed two great silk sweater days. Yes, it was that cold.

For those who'd rather look than read, the full photostream is here. For the rest of you, a brief walking tour.


I met many new-to-me Knitty and Knittyspin readers this trip. This group of glowingly happy women were just the first 3 out of a whole group of them. Happy friends getting to hang together. That's what Rhinebeck means to me. [That sounded like the title of a grade 5 essay, didn't it? Sorry.]


My friend Jennie the Potter -- that's her on the right -- made her first professional appearance at Rhinebeck this year and her booth was continually full of jaw-dropped fiber freaks.


Watch for more on Jennie's newest offerings in the winter issue of Knitty.


I finally got to meet Lynne Vogel, who was as fun as this picture suggests.


Of course, I got to hang with Jillian [far right] and Carla [far left], as well as the bonus hanging with Kay and Ann [and Ann's friend Kelly] as we lined up and lunched on chicken pot pies.


Not all girls, though! Stephen, Franklin [sometimes] and Sean were Scout's unofficial posse as she made her way through her first Rhinebeck, which means I got to see a lot of them.

My pictures are pretty lame when it comes to capturing most of my friends, though. Like where are pictures of me and Scout? Me and anyone, for that matter? For some reason, I was living the fun, not thinking about blogging it. I guess that's not so bad, but it doesn't make for a very electrifying blog post. :-)

Speaking of Scout, she picked me up at the Newark airport and we got to drive to Rhinebeck and back together. It was so good to have a little time with her, since she lives so danged far away, and we laughed a lot. We also found the best pickle [sour new dill] on Route 17 in New Jersey. I will be dreaming of that pickle for a long time.

I didn't make it to any big meetups or the Rav party. I was feeling a little insular and wanted to be with a smaller group of friends this time. I still got to meet tons of people as I walked all through the grounds, and that was great!

Every single button and sticker was passed out to Knitty fans and a lot of you guys were much less shy than you've been in the past. Rock on! You know, you never have to apologize for coming up to say hi or that you like Knitty. That's the nicest thing I can ever hear. And I heard it a lot this weekend. So thank you to each and every person who took the time to poke me on the shoulder and grin at me. I send you all hugs.

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There are two more Rhinebeck posts coming. Stay tuned!

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Anyone notice anything different about the blog?

off to Rhinebeck!

To those not going, I totally understand what it feels like. I had to read about Rhinebeck twice as a bystander before I decided I couldn't stand not to go the next time it came around. If you can't come this year, maybe next year!

For those going, I just wanted you to know that I'll be packing the Knitty swag bag which is, this time, full of Knitty buttons and Euro stickers. We've also got brand new Knittyspin buttons to celebrate the official Knittyspin launch. So if you see Jillian or I walking around the fair, don't be shy. Ask for a button!

Travel spinning: my Houndesign laceweight spindle + some sort of tussah from my stash.
Travel knitting: restarted toe-up sock -- 2nd of a pair! -- just inches from the bind off and my top-down raglan in my Amy Friendly yarn.

Hope everyone travels safely! See you on the flip side!