knitting math

+

+

+
a mystery ingredient =
the newest thing on my needles.


how's that for a weekend-eve teaser?

music that's making Knitty go today

[his website makes me giggle. listen to all the stuff he's done for each of the pages. don't click too fast!]



keep your hands off my teevee boyfriend -- jemaine.
[hey, j, the mustache could go, but don't you dare touch the sideburns]

lather, rinse, repeat.
um, yes, please.

a little more of TNNA

So you saw I got to spend a little time with Franklin. Then I read his blog and found the image at left...which was part of the best post on TNNA I've ever read. You must read it. It's here. The cartoons made me snort in my chair. Out loud, even. I believe I scared the rabbits.

As usual, lots of the stuff I got to peek at will become parts of future issues of Knitty, so I can't talk about them here. Here's what I can tell you.

I lost my voice suddenly, while talking to co-zone-of-funner Shannon Okey on Friday night. Yes, the night before the trade show. It just suddenly went pop, and was gone. Some time after this photo was taken. [BTW, I may look pensive in the shot, but really, I'm just thinking. :-)]

This photo shows that I didn't need to have a voice to have fun. This is the gang at the Tip Top again, posing for miss Mim.

Meanwhile, between the shmoozing and the business card swapping and much of what Franklin chronicles in that blog post above, there was also some surprise gifting.

Beth, who owns and operates the delightful Spinning Loft in Howell, MI brought little pouches, branded with her adorable shop logo [my favorite sheepies!] for a whole bunch of us. My pouch was filled with 2 oz of undyed Seacell. Yes, I buried my nose in it. I can't wait to spin it. On a spindle, even. I wrote more about my new love affair with my spindles in my most recent Knittyspin column, in case you missed it. So Beth, thank you for a kickass and super-timely present!

And then there's Abby, she of Abby's Yarns? I have no idea what I did to deserve this [probably nothing :-)], but she gifted me with her handspun. HER. HANDSPUN. There was nearly an embarrassing moment which involved plotzing and the aftermath there of, but I managed to hold it together.

Hang on. You can't really see the yarn [did I mention it is Abby's handspun?] in that shot. Look here:

Laceweight singles so delicious you could eat them with a tiny laceweight-enabled spoon. Public additional thanks [beyond my hugging and stuff] to Abby for this beauteous eye candy.

And now, I've got to run out to The Purple Purl [this is not a hardship, let's be clear on that]. It's time for the June Yarn Roundtable and just WAIT till the knitters see what I've got for them tonight!

[Tomorrow is all about the Harlot, Franklin and knitting in public. Let's hope the rain holds off, because wet knitters make a funny noise when you squeeze them.]

---

p.s.! did you know? The Purple Purl is having a KIP day event tomorrow, too! So after I go nuts at Lettuce Knit, I'll be heading back to the Purl to knit in the park with my girls. Join us!

Strapping the boys on tight

Before I deal with the title of this post, a little note. Knitty's summer issue is live, with a bullet! I've had fun watching the patterns get queued on Ravelry. Currently, Seascape and Spring Forward are trading first place back and forth. What a blast!

---

Then there's this: People have been asking where they can get a copy of the Montego Bay Scarf pattern [my design that was published in Interweave Knits last summer]. I believe that issue of the magazine can be ordered directly from Interweave, but of course it's long gone from most LYSs.

So I decided it was time to make the pattern available on my own. I strapped the boys on, got out my magic Macintosh tools of glee and this is the result. You can now find the PDF of the Montego Bay Scarf for sale on my designer page at Ravelry.

eta: um, that is, you *will* be able to find it once I get approved by Casey. I kind of missed that step. :-) I'll write again when it's ready.

---

You might wonder why I can make a PDF of this one pattern but not of all the back issues of Knitty. Well, that's easy: this pattern is one simple two-page pattern. We're working on an elegant, all-encompassing, automated system for Knitty, and until we've got that in place, manually creating PDFs [which is what I've done for this one pattern] is just impractical.

This is all said just to let you know that I haven't forgotten about this important issue. It's one of the big things we're working on this summer.

There are others. What are they? You don't really think I'm going to tell you until they're ready for public consumption, do you? [I'm such a tease, I know.]

---

More on TNNA later. Oh, and there are just a few spots left for tomorrow night's Yarn Roundtable. If you're quick, you can sneak in!

happy birthday to my favorite girl

It's the day Jillian was born! It's also the day she popped out her first sprog* [my darling nearly niece]! It is a day for worldwide celebration!

Without Jillian, there would be no Knitty. She's been the other half of my brain for longer than I can remember. [That sounds like a joke, but really isn't.] We've written books together and still love each other. She's also the most fun best friend a girl could have. Ever.

So [since she rarely posts on her blog], please leave a little note of love for her in the comments to this post. Some of you have met her in person, but even those who haven't have felt her skill and prowess [ooh!] if you read Knitty on a regular basis.

*"popping a sprog" is a delightful east-coast Canadian expression which sounds kind of rude but isn't, therefore it makes me giggle.

Knitty 2008 Reader Survey -- whoops!

Are you sure this isn't a Monday morning?

I launched the surprise [woot!] and with it, our new reader survey. Inexplicably, the first question was missing ages over 60, which was totally not intentional. So I had to pull the survey offline to correct it. As a result, you'll find the corrected survey at a new URL:

Knitty 2008 Reader Survey.

Please spread the word if you see others who are frustrated with the situation. I'll send out this new URL tomorrow with the contest winner announcement. I don't think people really want THREE messages from me in less than an hour.

Thanks for understanding.

The biggest contest Knitty has ever had

Sometime on April 13th, Knitty reached an insanely great milestone: 50 million individual site visits. FIFTY MILLION.

As you can imagine, there was much hooting and hollering of happiness. This is a big deal for us, and it's all because of our readers. So we sat down and thought about how we could thank you guys for reading, linking to, talking about and knitting from Knitty magazine. And one thing came to mind: really great shwag.

I contacted some of the Knitty favorites and was answered each time with a resounding, "Yes! We want to celebrate with you!" Knitters, we have ourselves a contest.

How do you enter? It's so easy, it's almost embarrassing. Just sign up for the Knitty mailing list which we:
a) never sell or give to anyone, EVER, and never will
b) only send messages to a few times a year about Knitty-related news and events, like when a new issue or surprise goes live!

Okay. So why would you want to enter this contest? Please sit down. You may need a cold compress on your forehead in order to make it through the list of prizes.



One lucky winner will be chosen at random [using the random number generator] from the members of the Knitty mailing list and will receive:

From Lexie of Lexie Barnes, a $250 gift certificate to her shop!





From Beth of Lorna's Laces,
a sweater's worth of the Lorna's Laces yarn of your choice, in your choice of color!




From Potter Craft, you'll get these six knitting books:
Big Girl Knits * More Big Girl Knits * A Fine Fleece
Twinkle's Weekend Knits * Tweed * Shear Spirit






From Knitting Out Loud, their entire library of knit-related audio books:
Stitch & Bitch * America Knits * A History of Hand Knitting
Knitting Memories * No Idle Hands * The Art of Fair Isle Knitting





From Jennifer of Stitch Diva, her entire library of more than 40 Stitch Diva Patterns in knit, crochet and hairpin lace!





From Cat Bordhi, her entire collection, autographed, including all 4 of her revolutionary moebius and sock knitting books and her novel, Treasure Forest.





We can't stand it. This is about as big as we've ever done anything, and we're super excited! Tell your knitting friends -- it's as easy as joining the Knitty mailing list. And that's pretty danged easy. Are you already on the list? Then you're already eligible to win!

Contest winner will be chosen by a random number generator on May 1, 2008 at 9 am eastern time [that's Toronto/New York time for those that will cut it close]. The random number will correspond to the person's numeric place in the Knitty Yahoo Group [home of the mailing list], which is assigned by date registered. The winner will be announced later that day on this blog, through the Knitty group itself and probably by random strangers on the street.

where i am...

This candid picture shows your intrepid Knitty editor and Knittyspin editor/catalyst in the midst of their quarterly staff meeting. Not pictured are intrepid ad manager, Steph, and intrepid technical editor, Mandy, who are linked in on a Skype conference call from various locations across the Canadian border.

Not kidding. This issue's Knitty meeting took place under Jillian's dining room table. A very time and cost-effective meeting, as always, plus it's extra fun to work in a fort! What would we do without Skype? What would I do without Jillian?

---

Today is the launch party for More Big Girl Knits, v1.0 at Threadbear. We start at 1pm and need to be home for dinner, so come early, try on the garments from the book and eat cupcakes with us!

My tax dollars at work!

This is really cool. I was contacted by Karen at Library and Archives Canada [a government agency that keeps a record of all publications in the country]. When she first wrote, I wondered if I was in trouble, but it's just the opposite.

I am writing to you today on behalf of Library and Archives Canada with a request to archive and make accessible your online journal, Knitty, http://www.knitty.com/ . Library and Archives Canada's mandate is to ensure this country's printed and recorded heritage is acquired, preserved and made accessible for present and future generations. To that end, we would like to ensure that our collection includes your online journal, Knitty.

In January 2007, the Legal Deposit Act was extended to include electronic publications and web sites. As a Canadian publisher, you are required to send us your online publication so that we may archive it and make it available for future generations of Canadians...We would take a periodic snapshot of your website in order to have a copy of the current issue, store the files on our servers, make them available to the public in the Library's Electronic Collection and make information about the online journal available in AMICUS, our online database which is used by reasearchers, libraries, schools and book sellers.

How freaking cool is that?

Anyway, Karen wrote today and the archiving is complete. She'll be adding to it every year with our new issues. Wanna see? Here it is. Our advertisers might be amused that their ads will live on forever, too!

I never plan to take Knitty down, ever [!], but this is a nice thing.

alive! and More Big Girl Knits launch party nooz!

So it's like this. I came home from Ann Arbor, popped out a Knitty :-) [why does that sound dirty?] and then got in the car with hub and drove to Vermont.

The Mindful Knitting retreat was amazing, eye-opening and huge fun. Full deets are being saved for a future article in the Knitty.

Of course, while relaxing, I got a[nother?] cold. So maybe the post-Florida thing was allergies, because this certainly ain't. I have never gone through so much kleenex in 4 days in my whole life.

---

Super-quick party announcement, aka SAVE THE DATE!

More Big Girl Knits launch party, v 1.0
location: Threadbear Fiber Arts, East Lansing, MI
date: April 13th, 1pm
the boys know how to throw a big party and we can't wait!

More Big Girl Knits launch party v 1.1
location: Lettuce Knit, Toronto, ON
date: April 26th, 7pm [conveniently timed to let you finish up at the Knitter's Frolic and then come and join us in Kensington Market!]

Jillian and I will be at both parties, as well as
- samples from the book [possibly their only appearance en masse as we have to return them to the designers shortly]
- cupcakes
- the new Big Girls book in the flesh [both shops will have them for sale]

and other surprises!

Bring your friends, turn it into a road trip and let's make these parties huge and memorable!

blueberry love + flaaaaridaaaaah

way back when my gall bladder and i broke up, the Purlescence girls sent me a get-well love package. it worked! :-)

the sparkly stuff on the right is Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in the deliciously named color Blueberry. i've had it hanging in front of my desk since it arrived and last night, a little lost without a quick-knit sweater to work on, i cracked it open and cast on for the simplest thing ever: a triangular shawl in garter stitch based on the Tuscany silhouette. perfect travel knitting and so beautiful to look at.

---

travel knitting? why, yes. this is very odd to me, but i'm going to florida. this is something many people do every winter, but i've never gotten to be one of them. until this year, when my chicago-based parents got all, "winter is too cold! we must escape!" and rented a place on the gulf side for the whole month. the whole fam has been invited to visit sometime during the span, and my week starts tomorrow.

luckily for me, the house has wi-fi, because i'm full-on into spring Knitty mode and can't stop. but it will be mighty nice to take breaks and such by the pool in the backyard. wow.

so...i'm not into touristy stuff, but is there some amazing fibery thing i can't miss that's gulf-side, an hour or so south of Tampa?

---

hub's staying home to concentrate on programming, watch many boring documentaries and fuss over the bunnies.

---

psst:


yup, that's color accurate. can you stand it?

FINALLY! progress!

remember this? i just now, at the end of December, got to the separation of the back from the two fronts. i started it in March. clearly i lost steam somewhere around albuquerque.

every row is so damned long [this sweater is knit in one piece to the armholes] and though it's an easy stitch pattern to remember, it's not as mindless or quick as the stuff i usually choose. still, i do love the fabric and picturing actually wearing the thing is keeping me going.

so yes. i'm at the point where i just knit a front or the back and leave the others on holders. while i was shopping at Husfliden in Oslo, i found a freakinghuge stitch holder which was [Theresa and i guessed] for weaving. it was just a few dollars so i bought it. it handily, as i hoped it would, holds an entire back's worth of stitches on it with no scrunching.

pictures tomorrow, perhaps. right now, i'm spent with the excitement of it all.

ah.

that's better.

- new Knitty is up [clear your cache, folks].

- Boeing is acting more like herself...enough so that we feel comfortable going on a family trip that really couldn't be cancelled [dad's big birthday party]. she'll be staying, with little Squeezle, at the bunny spa, so they'll be able to watch her in case she gets wiggly again. but she won't. because i told her not to.

- and now I can get back to my last-minute knitting. :-)

happy sigh.

today [a summary]

I'm in the thick of the winter Knitty slog, so this will be short.

- for those at LK last night, and those who love bunnies, the news: Boeing [who is acting fine and wonderful now] does have a 12mm-long stone in her bladder. our vet says we can try antibios, which will help if it's one kind of stone. if in 6 weeks the stone isn't smaller, then it's the other kind that can only be fixed with surgery. in any case, all bunnies in this house will be transitioned to a new low-calcium diet.

- hub now has caught up to me. we both need, um, several different levels of focus in one lens. and my RX has changed a little too. so we both ordered new glasses today. the frames are never the financial problem, but our lenses are over $400 a pair. for each of us. very, very painful.

- I made a mess with Laura last night, and it was wonderful. Laura is the queen of the chemicals. [more on this later, if I'm allowed to.]

- really, can't talk. Knitty. bye.

this stuff amuses the crap out of me

Seriously. I got this in my e-mail box this morning out of the blue. I didn't ask for it. I didn't arrange it. Cafepress just sent it out. Oh! Okay, then. Thanks for the discount!

[marketing stuff like this amuses me, especially now that I'm no longer a proofreader in an ad agency! w00t!]

Seriously, if you wanted the 2008 Knitty calendar or anything else we sell in the Knittyshop, I guess now's the time to go grab it and save some bucks.

---

Meanwhile, I started my day by frying up onions and garlic to make a huge batch of sauce. Ragu-ish [a little more moist than a traditional Bolognese ragu, I guess]. I'm no purist. I totally avoided the true soffrito -- that would mean adding carrots and celery to the onions as I fried them. All I could think of was big chunks of limp celery in my tomato sauce in Oslo, and I just couldn't do it.

My recipe:
-2 lbs of lean ground beef
-1 lb of lean ground pork

salt the meat, fry, drain well.

-portobello mushrooms, one huge onion, two cloves garlic -- all minced and fried in good Tuscan olive oil
-three large cans of crushed tomatoes
-little bit of oregano
-nice bit of basil
-good bit of marjoram [that's my secret, if you ask me]

simmer, covered, on lowest heat ALL FREAKING DAY. eat some for dinner, save some for tomorrow's lunch and freeze the rest in one or two-person servings.

---

You don't really care, do you? Okay, I'll get back to work. But man, it sure smells good in here right now.

The 2008 Honorable Mention gallery is up!

And you can see some of the fabulous photos here on Flickr. Now you see how hard it was to pick winners for this year's calendar contest!

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Who won the calendar contest?

It was harder than ever to pick this year's winners. We had so many great entries!

Our grand prize winner this year is Amelia Hajda. Her simple, perfect picture exactly encapsulates winter in my mind [and might make you reach for a pair of mittens!]. Her winning entry is on the cover and on the page for December. Amelia wins a ridiculously huge box of goodies from the Knitty review cabinet, including yarn, knitting books and other surprises. I may need a forklift to get it to the post office!

Here are the rest of the winners:
January: Alicia Ramirez
February: Sarah Wilkin
March: Jo Kerrigan
April: Flora Wermuth
May: Jenny Spencer
June: Suzie Putnam
July: Heidi Kastner
August: Angela Daff and her bunnies!
September: Lindsey LaPlant
October: Angela Moore
November: Jennifer Schmitz

Each of these runner-up winners will receive a copy of the calendar, fresh from the shop! Take a peek at all the calendar images there!

The honorable mention gallery will be posted in a week or so, and there are some wonderful images there, too. Knitty readers clearly have talent beyond their needles.

---

The full fall surprise just went live as well. Big day around here!

---

Meanwhile, I'm off [stop laughing] to Ann Arbor today to see Jillian, her hub and her kiddos [my honorary niece and nephew], and to teach some classes at the hallowed halls of Threadbear. The Tuscany class is pretty much full, but there may be a spot or two if you'd like to learn about the No Sheep stuff with me this Sunday. Call Rob or Matt at the shop and they'll let you know if you can sneak in.

---

Last night, Denny surprised me when I thought I was surprising her with my sweater. I want to write fully about this surprise, so I have to hold off for a bit. But I promise pictures when I do post. [It was a REALLY HAPPY surprise.]

Maybe I can ask Jillian to snap a pic or two of me in the finished Artfibers sweater, too. This could be dangerous. :-)

---

Okay, I've gotta pack! What am I doing blogging at a time like this?

the bag...it's finally here!

Do you remember this?

We sure do. We've been talking to Tom Bihn for several years now, giving them our ideas and feedback on their ideas for a new knitting bag design. Well, it's ready and you can finally get one for yourself!



It's called The Swift, and it was named by a clever group of Knitty readers around a big table at a coffeeshop in Toronto. One of them wrote about it on her blog, and she's clearly smitten. Me? I got to test a prototype or two and I'm really impressed with the final bag. Tom Bihn's famous for producing well-made, well-thought-out bags, and now we finally get to benefit from the best of his design expertise blended with what Knitty readers said they really wanted in a bag.

Because you might wonder, we're not involved with Tom Bihn except as cheerleaders and fans of the stuff they make. We don't get a cut of the bags or anything else beyond our prototype samples. We feel lucky to have been asked for our opinions and ideas on the topic, and we're glad to see the final result of our collaboration.

Calendar contest news, and other things too

Item 1: Check your spam filters, because I've sent out 12 congratulatory messages to the winners of the 2008 Calendar Contest. It was harder than ever to pick this year's selection of winners. We got so many great photos but only have 12 spots. So if you didn't get my happy message, you may very well end up in the honorable mention gallery! The calendar will be released along with the fall surprise. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Item 2: Panic in the Knitty household this morning. We are out of Stumptown's Hair Bender blend. I bought 2 lbs of beans when I was in Portland, and it's all gone. Does anyone know if they'll ship to Canada? Their website is spectacularly unhelpful! SOLVED! Thanks to Audrey and dameknitsalot for their help. I called, told them I'd take the responsibility for the time delay [the 2 lbs we had lasted about 2 months and still tasted great at the end. maybe it would have been better if it was fresher, but we don't live in Portland, so we deal with it. :-)] and they're shipping 4 lovely lbs of whole bean Hair Bender to our door. Happiness has returned!

Item 3: QUESTION: has anyone taken an Ashford Joy wheel [in the soft case] onto an airplane? Does it fit in the allowed spaces? Please dish. I need to know what to do! I'm damned well not shipping it as luggage and I am sure I read somewhere that it's carry-on sized. ANSWER: Shannon Okey, world-traveller and spinner, assures me that it fits, and if not, flight attendants will treat it like a delicate instrument. :-) It also measures JUST 45" [all dimensions totalled], so that means it's legal.

Item 4: I love Northern Spy apples. It's Northern Spy apple season. Some misguided people think the Northern Spy is a pie apple. In fact, it is the best, crispiest, most perfectly tangy apple that ever grew on a tree.

That is all.

attenion: designer of Felicity

At least that's what I think it was called -- your submission got sent to the spam folder and I accidentally deleted it before I realized it wasn't spam.

Please resend! [And if you know the designer who sent this in, please -- ask them to resend.]

---

ALSO! The Knitty gmailbox is almost full with winter submissions! I've bought additional storage [did you know you can do that now?] but it may not be active right away. [They said it could take 24 hours and I've just done it now.]

So I've moved the deadline back to September 17th, just in case what you send bounces back to you. Spread the word, please!

Thanks again!

somebody's got a sick sense of humor

i was just feeling rather fabulous [post-GB] when i got a cold. started slow and stealthy for a few days, and then hit me like a ton of bricks on Thursday. coughing all night [oh, how the hub loves THAT] despite the NyQuil, and then sleeping all day to make up for it. what a mess.

still, i keep pushing hard on the Knitty while i'm conscious and we're getting close. we should be going live soon, but exactly when...well, you'll have to stand by.

are you standing by? you can knit while you're waiting, you know.

thanks for your patience, guys. i promise never to have a gall bladder out again in the middle of an issue. :-)

my Philly adventure

I'm back from Philadelphia. What, you didn't know I was gone? It was that fast. I think I was away from home a total of 27 hours, but what a crazy 27 hours it was!

First, massive props to Craig, proprietor of Loop in Philadelphia. He's charming and sweet [and now no longer a Jamba Juice virgin], has a great shop and made the whole weekend possible.

The Knittyboard crew wanted me to come to their big Phillyfest, and thanks to Craig's generosity and organization, I was provided with plane fare and the nicest hotel room I believe I've ever slept in. Look at the puffiness of the bed!



That's the Sofitel Philadelphia, btw, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to stay there.

In order to earn my keep, I taught a No Sheep class on Sunday morning to a lovely group of PA/NJ/NY knitters eager to learn about my favorite fibers. And met my first silk-allergic knitter! I confess I looked at her with the same overly sympathetic eyes that people look at me when it comes to my wool allergy. Sorry if I offended...I just can't imagine life without all animal fibers INCLUDING silk. Wow.

And Saturday, we had a big Knittyboard meetup, where I finally got to hug some of the girls who keep the Knitty Coffeeshop hopping and vibrant every day. I have no pictures of them, because they were too busy dressing me in a horror of novelty yarn and taking my picture. No, I'm not linking to any of them. It's just too much to bear. The things I do for you guys!

We had a great time knitting and laughing and embarrassing ourselves with generous doses of TMI and then went out for cheesesteaks. I had a half and fared very well.

Special thanks to Jamie and Jas who made sure I got back to my hotel safely. Pictures on Flickr.

---

And then there's the airport story.

Because I'm not supposed to lift heavy stuff [hint: suitcase] for a while longer, I'd made arrangements for a wheelchair ride through the airport. This worked very well until I got to the Philly airport. A half an hour later, the chair still hadn't arrived, and it was time to board my flight! I freaked! I couldn't get through the security line in time, and the guy behind the counter was completely useless. He wouldn't even try to get me on my flight and was already trying to book me on the next one, 4 hours later.

Are you kidding me?

A supervisor finally came out, and when I explained my situation to her, she escorted me to the "short" line...which didn't move either. I was screwed.

All of a sudden, a flash of silver passes me on the right...a wheelchair with a passenger in it! So I did what I had to: I walked right behind the wheelchair like I belonged there [because I did!], right up to the front of the line, slipped my bags on the conveyor [being careful not to rip out anything the surgeons had put in place] and made it to the gate just in time. I was surprised that no one freaked on me for doing this, but honestly, if I'd had the chair I was supposed to have, I'd have been through in plenty of time.

Oy.

Anyway, it was a great weekend and meeting everyone makes it all worthwhile. I hug you all and will now get back to work.

[Sunnyvale women: I love you. More shortly.]

What happens when Emma Jane gets a little. Well. You'll see.

When I visited Emma Jane earlier this month, one of our to-dos was to shoot the beauty shot for my most recent design, Everlasting Bagstopper. [Yup, it's in the Knitty surprise that just went live!]

We'd decided it wasn't a photoshooty day after all, until I found myself driving us up the side of Owen Sound [the actual body of water that gives the town its name] and I found this spot. And then Emma did her magic. I particularly like the last two: action shots. Woo!






For those who wonder, I didn't initially design this bag to be in the magazine. I searched all over the interweb to find a bag like this because I needed one, but I couldn't find anything that collapsed into it's own pouch [except the nice crocheted bag on Crochet Me]. So I took the Montego Bay stitch pattern [I *was* going to call this pattern Montego Bag :-)] and started knitting. By the time I got past the base of the bag, I realized it was [IMO] good enough to share. I hope you like it.

Why I love Americo so much

Me at Americo during the TTC Knitalong on Saturday. Yes, I bought. Just a little more cotton/silk. Yummy.

Photo scoffed without asking [but with sincere thanks] from Michelle's flickr. You must click for big to see the yarns. Michelle took great photos of the day. Hopefully she'll blog with the stories soon.


[New Knitty is coming soon. Very, very soon.]

drive-by update

So much! TNNA was great! You'll want to read Clara's recap, because she does it right. This time, TNNA was about Knitty-building [adding content, etc] and a few other thingies for me. Just you wait. :-)

---

Meanwhile, you all know what I need to be doing now instead of writing a flowery blog post, so a few quick pics will have to hold you while I go back to work!

pic 1: the secret present I was working on in silversmithy class:


Yes. Those are sterling silver brains, handcut out of sheet silver, BY ME, for my beloved Jillian. Anyone who's ever seen us work together knows that we share a brain and are just better together. Her birthday is this coming Saturday, and I wanted to formalize that. So now we share two brains [we each have one of the silver ones]. She loved it. :-)

pic 2: the accessory I wear all the time now that everyone at the show loved:


Those are beads OF GRASS. Seriously. Read this site to learn more about who makes them, why they're cool and how great it is to be able to support a group of crafting women on the other side of the world as we decorate our bodies. I bought mine in Toronto at the UofT bookstore. You can find links to shops through the Zulugrass.com site -- it's all over the place, but without the backstory, I don't know that I would have noticed these.

[for those that care about such things, this is 6 strands, colors chosen by me, twisted three times around my wrist.]

pic 3: a big shoutout of love to Amy O'Neill Houck and Kim Werker. Girls, looky what I did on the plane home!!


That, my friends, is a granny square. CROCHETED by me. In, get this, Alchemy Silk Chenille. Could you plotz? Thanks to Gina and Austin who enabled me into a skein of this gorgeous stuff [colorway Red Run] when I had the best crochet teacher ever [Amy] at my disposal. You need to see how Amy wields a hook [I didn't see Kim's techique, but it's probably just as sexy.] Amy makes it look like hand ballet. And unlike crocheting straight rows that are boring as hell, doing this, once I got the hook size right, was [dear lord, help me] F.U.N.

No, there will be no Crochetty. No, I am not giving up my beloved knitting. But I do want to make granny squares and ripples. And now I can. Thank you, crochet girls!

And now, back to Knitty. Head down, see you soon!

anotha qwiz

knitty -- [adjective]: Visually addictive 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

2008 Calendar Contest...let the onslaught begin!

We've done it twice already and it's such a tradition that we couldn't think of stopping now! If you've knit something from the pages of Knitty and can get hold of a good-quality digital camera, you could win great stuff! Full details are on the Calendar Contest page, right here:

We always love seeing your photos, and so do the rest of our readers. Don't be shy...think carefully, point and shoot, and then send the results to us!

more synchronicity

Some of you have written about the similarity between our Queen of Cups pattern by Nathania and Cookie A's Mona.

What you guys probably don't know is that Nathania and Cookie are friends. Neither of them knew the other was working on such a sock and hadn't seen each other's FOs until I wrote them about this situation last night. Here's what Cookie has to say about the crazy coincidence:

"My Mona pattern was originally the exact same stitch pattern as Queen of Cups, but I knit it in STR Puck's Mischief to...submit to you! But I didn't like the way the STR pooled, so I ended up not submitting, it got too late, and I had my friend knit it in a solid color. Except I messed up the chart I sent to her which ended up being Mona instead of exactly the same as Nathania's. Now I'm really really glad I messed that up.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we had no idea the other person was working on almost exactly the same thing, are a bit weirded out, but I think are mostly laughing about it."

Ahhhh, that's better

See, when you book a speaking engagement* in fall for the following March, it's hard to imagine that you might be producing an issue of Knitty at the same time. But that's just what I was doing.

Thankfully, this time, I had an extra special team behind me. Not only were Mandy and Steph and Jillian brilliant as usual. This time, hub also stepped in and did some geek magic. He spent a few weeks building a custom Knitty-code generator that makes programming pattern pages much more efficient for me. So this issue, big props to darling hub. You should see how well he understands knitting pattern language now!

I hope you like it. Me, I need a strongbow now. And maybe some more pink beret.

*p.s. I think it went well. The York guild is made up of charming members and a great executive and we talked non-woolly things all night. Special hi to the vegan knitter from out of town and her boyfriend. Let me know if you get to Gemini Fibres...I'm envious! I love that place!

p.p.s. sorry, LK folks. I really had meant to come tonight, but I've been at this nonstop for more than a week and I just crashed. Plus I do need to sit by the computer on live day to fix the little fixables that come up. I hope to come out for a Strongbow on Friday, though!

Knitty, she keep on plugging

Soon!

In the meantime, progress photos for those who love such things. Cables & Os is moving right along. Look.


Look at all those tidy, shiny repeats! Ooh!

But it takes me 30 minutes a row. Really. Why is that?

Cause I'm knitting the fronts and back all at the same time as per the pattern. I don't mind this, because I can see the yardage growing, but MAN it feels slow sometimes.

Never mind. Progress is progress. Once I split the body for the fronts and back, it'll feel like flying! Plus I constantly get to fondle the fabric, knowing this is one of those sweaters I'll have forever.

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p.s. I confess. I had kind of mentally tuned Berroco out for a while, because their designs were nothing like my taste. A lot of novelty and I don't do novelty.

But have you seen their newsletters recently? Oh heavens, it's a new Berroco, and I love it. What's that? A cotton-blend yarn that's specifically created to mimic what wool does naturally? With added elastic? How very No Sheep! Yay!