i'm going mental, i must say.

but it's a good kind of mental. the knitty-production kind which means never leaving my office [my house] for more than a short break and dreaming in pixels and stitches per inch.

it's all for good reason but i figured you wondered where i'd gone and didn't want you sending out the troops just yet. okay, maybe send one troop, skilled in multiple massage disciplines [thai, swedish, maybe a little shiatsu on the side] and beverage making. and housecleaning. and laundry. and litterbox changing.

i extra-special hope you'll love this issue. you'll see why when we go live. and that's all i'm saying.

looking as cool as a Fisher & Paykel

My office has recently had a makeover. Wanna see?



What, it doesn't look so different from the last time, except significantly messier? Well, you're not paying attention, then.



Every good office should have a ukulele. [and a Pee-Wee bobblehead and a set of 3 Serenity action figures including Captain Tightpants in said pants and Jayne with a bigass gun].

But wait -- here's the best thing. Did I buy this $14.95 custom-designed hanger to get my uke out of oops-i-just-sat-on-my-uke range?



No. I went to Rona and bought this, except smaller and in grey:


For 80 cents. What the hell costs 80 cents anymore? Not even a pack of gum. I feel quite clever.

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Also! The Knitty Calendar Contest ends tomorrow night at midnight! Have you sent in your entry yet? You know you want to.

Let me be your boogaloo!

The 1980s wasn't all about Duran Duran. I just think you should know.

I was searching for chords for Jane Siberry songs and ran across this. This is one of my favorite Siberry songs. Jane is so young in this video, and so adorable. I guess I was young and adorable too when I watched it the first time.



[If this gets your musical juices going, find more at Jane's site --Sheeba.]

It's very freaky, Bowie.

It really happened. Baseballic proof above. Below, video proof. The first clip is hysterical -- they drove me out on the field in a van! If you listen, you can hear the announcer saying something about "Amy Singer, editor of Knitty..." and then a whole bunch of stuff I can't make out.

Surreal? You can't even imagine. If there weren't pictures, I'd swear it didn't happen.

[For the full photo thread, click the baseball pic above. I captioned them, even.]





Yes, I threw it respectably well enough. The ball made it all the way to the mascot's catcher's mitt, no troubles. But my favorite thing was the huge cheers I got from the knitters in the 200 section. The roar was clearly coming from my people and there were a LOT of them. 900+ tickets sold. You guys make me proud to be a Toronto girl.

Oh, I hear there was knitting afterwards. I tried to knit two rows, frogged both, and spent the rest of the game chatting with friends and, at the end, finally watching the field. We won, and it was a great win -- last hit of the last inning kind of thing. Love baseball when it's good.

brunettes, not fighter jets!

In honor of this, and with much trepidation and also the strapping on of some very large balls, I present my online ukulele debut.

Groupies may apply to peoplewithverylowstandards@knitty.com



This song is not in my key vocally [I'm sort of high-alto], but I could play all the chords, so I left it as it was. And the reason I decided to put the video up despite all common sense is that I'm quite proud of my uke playing after just over a week of practise. The singing-along is a necessary evil.

All other knitter/ukulele players, raise your hands! Bring your ukes to stitch nights! Amuse your fellow knitters, and have everyone sing along! I'll be bringing mine to Rhinebeck and encourage all of you who are coming to do the same!

Seriously, though. I just sang for you on teh interwebs. If you're in Toronto tomorrow night, you'd better come out and represent for the knitters when I throw out the first pitch. No coming in late. I will likely never be on the pitcher's mound in a huge stadium again in my lifetime. You don't want to miss that, do you?

say hello to my leeeetle friend.

:-)

I'm not a large water-dwelling mammal who's moved to the metropolis and learned how to breakdance.

A little music to get you in the weekend [long-weekend in Canada] mood, courtesy the WIUO.

come on sucker, lick my battery*

so while all the work on knitty continues, other things are introducing themselves into my world. fun things. things i haven't let myself think about because they're just too silly and will i really do them?

the mystery object at left found its way to me last week due to the most ridiculous example of serendipity i've ever experienced. i wanted this exact thing -- same color, even -- and elizabeth's daughter had been given this exact thing but it wasn't the right size model [in this case, size did matter :-)]. so now it lives with me.

you may be able to guess what it is, but i'm not telling until next week. i've been working with it and am not ready for my debut just yet. i won't be ready next week, either, but that's just part of this whole new attitude to life thing i'm feeling lately. if i wait for everything i do to be perfect before i share it, i'll never share ANYTHANG. and life is too short for that crap.

i'm not getting reckless. i'm just going to stop preventing myself from doing stuff i really want to do because i think i might look silly doing it.

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*yes, the Conchord-titled blog posts continue. what are you gonna do about it? eh?

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i've also been beading, but since almost all of it is for gifts, you won't see it here for a while.

and prototype knitting has begun on the Blue Moon Luscious Silk sweater, which has resulted in two swatches, both frogged. this design probably requires alternating 2 balls to make the best use of the gorgeous colors. variegateds are kicking my butt lately.

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okay, back to work. and then the mystery thing. woo!

oh, and did you know? one of those magic erasers can make your computer keyboard look like new [just make sure every bit of the water is squeezed out first]. the trackpad, too. i wonder if they're nuclear or magical something. how do they do it?

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.

My sweet Vespa

Doods. Today was my first scooter rally -- The Twisted Wheel Scooter Rally in Toronto. Rallies are basically a reason to ride together, compare and compliment scoots and get ideas for what you might want to do to yours next.

There was also a raffle for a brand new vespa [I didn't win], and contests in all sorts of categories. Surprisingly, I *did* win one of the judged awards: Sweetest Modern Scoot. I guess everyone was won over by my pink leopard seat cover and matching pink sparkly tassels. There's also a pompom hanging from my rear rack in sparkly purple. Clearly, the sparkle appeals.

Take a peek at my photos for the day if you like Vespas too. There's a purple one in there that I will wager you have never seen the likes of anywheres. [And it won for Sweetest Vintage Scoot. You ain't kidding.]

i am like this.

I go to a craft show in the Beach on the weekend. I see beautiful peyote stitch beaded bracelets. Little shimmery lengths of tiny Japanese Delica beads in beautiful colors. They are $25 each [and up]. I remember the tubes of Japanese Delica beads I have in my [small, but reasonably useful] bead stash, bought just because the colors were so pretty and I'd figure out what to do with them later.

So, of course, I couldn't buy the bracelets. I had to make one of my own.

I started with google and found several pages of instruction. Sat down to do it and failed. Next morning, tried again. Failed. Searched Etsy for a finished one, because the amount of time I was wasting had to be worth $25. Didn't find anything I wanted. Searched for better instructions. Tried again in better light.


This time, I got it.

Yes, it's that tiny. Hub watched me adding rows to this little piece last night and called me Insane. With a capital I.



So I am, then. Oh well. At least I'll be Insane with a really cool bracelet.

my japanese sheepy likes the B-52s

Dangit, you guys left so many cool comments about the contest that I finally learned Blogger comments has a feature for multiple pages. To celebrate the celebrating about our celebration, I bring you a dancing sheepy!




I bought this little dancing sheepy from some place in Japan [online, of course]. I have no idea why anyone [but me] would want one of these, but it does make me giggle. The blue base? It's the same size as the top of a plastic soda bottle and it's threaded on the inside. Does that mean you're expected to take your dancing sheepy with you as you drink your Tab?

I love Japan. Maybe one day I'll get there.

a Friday gift

We get Project Runway in Canada a month [or more?] after you US guys get it. So I'm always a little behind, but still obsessed. Tivo also helped this season by missing a whole bunch of episodes that it's just now recording, and even though I know who won, I love the show enough to watch the missed stuff out of order. The main reason: this man. Tim Gunn. I adore him.

It occurred to me last night that someone somewhere must have a Tim Gunn ringtone, and so I went looking.

Nothing.

So I made my own. Except that all the true Tim sound bytes I found were fuzzy or indistinct because of all the production music. It's more than amusing, I think, that my final ringtone isn't Tim, but Santino-as-Tim. Feel free to pilfer and use at will.

Happy Friday!

what happens to my brain when Knitty needs to come out

My blog posts get short and pointy.

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I saw commercials for Stardust, and at first glance, mistook it for The Golden Compass. Figured out within a minute that it wasn't, but maybe I wanted to know what it was anyway. I subsequently found Stardust as an audiobook on Audible.com, listened to the sample and bought the audiobook, narrated by the author. I listened to it every night before I went to sleep while at SOAR.

As a result, I am now so deeply in love with not only the sound of Neil Gaiman's voice, but a] the words he chose to put on paper b] the way he tells his complex, beautiful, occasionally quite scary stories gently in my ear and c] the sound of his voice (yes, I repeat myself), that I used up my remaining Audible credits to buy everything he's narrated himself.

I'm more than halfway through Neverwhere and am quite sure that, should I ever meet the man in person, I would actually faint, dramatically, Victorian-style.

Don't tell my husband.