knittyBlog: November 2004

Want to earn some Knitty swag?

Here's the deal. I need someone to help build the articles archive page. You would get any one item of your choice from the Knitty swag shop. In exchange for this, you would need to go back through all past issues and collect the info for the archive. This info needs to be provided as a word doc with two columns. The left one would have the title of the article and a very brief description (i.e. “Techniques with Theresa: Increases and decreases”) and the right one would have the full URL.

~~Who's game? Write me at amy a.T knitty etc etc.~~

If you get started right away, you can have it done in time to get your swag for the holidays AND I can get this in the winter issue that I'm working on as we speak.

How's that for cooperative community publishing? :-)
---

Man, that was quick! We have a volunteer! Thanks, K!

The Knitty Coffeeshop has a new home

Okay, it's not necessarily pretty, but it is live! The all-new Knitty Coffeeshop. Well, not really all-new...the location is all new, but the posts and members have moved and are already chatting up a storm.

Never been? Take a look! They're a really nice bunch of folks. I've met several of them in person, so I know, baby!

Things

Things I am thinking about:
- How very, very sad I am that I don't live close enough to call Threadbear my LYS. 10,000 sq ft of delicious yarn, 2 adorable dogs [and I'm not even a dog person] and the nicest yarn shop proprietors. And definitely most huggable. I'll be updating the book blog with a report of the day, but you should absolutely know that this shop deserves the great reputation it has for service, selection and warmth. I'd probably live there if I were close enough. This is not an exaggeration. p.s. I bought yarn there.

- Did everyone else put on 5 lbs as a result of the election too?

- The new home of the Knitty Coffeeshop [aka messageboard]. It's still hidden cause we're debugging. Soon!

- When was the last time I knit anything?

- Why my feet are so annoying to me. Not having feet would be worse, but I do prefer my feet to actually function as feet, you know?

What she [and he] said, or why the customs agent made me cry

"...truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate..."

Driving to the US this weekend, I handed my US passport to the customs agent [wearing a jaunty ranger's flat-brimmed hat] and when asked my citizenship, I perkily responded, "I'm one of you! And I voted!"

And without meaning to, out slipped, "...and I'm really sad."

The man just looked at me, with a lot of care and concern in his face, wondering why I was so upset, until he realized that he and I had voted differently.

Gently, he began to tell me how much better off we are now, thanks to the last four years. Earnestly, he listed the improvements [as he perceives them] to the federal infrastructure, like the customs system. "But," I said, "what about the soldiers in Iraq that have to protect their Hummers from artillery with plywood and sandbags? How are they better off?"

"It takes time," he said. And then he continued to say things in support of an administration I do not believe in. And his quiet, unshakeable belief in this administration's correctness broke my heart. He really believed what he was saying. Just as I believe what I and so many others know to be true.

I drove away from the customs booth and had to pull off to the side of the road, crying.

my Charlotte's Web hints...

For the wonderful baker/person Samantha, who makes melt-in-your-mouth cookies...and for anyone else this helps, the following tricks, taught to me by Stephannie, make knitting a Charlotte so much fun, i did it THREE TIMES.

1. all you need to know is the 8-stitch/8-row pattern repeat sequence [which is charted in the pattern]
and
2. you must put a marker between every repeat of the pattern
and
3. you must put a marker 1 stitch in from the edge on both sides -- you will do a YO on the inside of the edge stitch every RS row, and the marker reminds you to do that
and
4. you must put one marker on each side of the center stitch -- you will do a YO before the center stitch and after it
and
5. you must know what row you're on, from 1 to 16.

That is ALL. If you know that you're always going to do a YO one stitch in from the edge on the RS row, and you know what row of the pattern repeat you're on, you never need to look at the whole pattern. You only watch your 8 sts at a time, you watch the sts build at the edge until you have enough to do a new pattern repeat and then you add in a marker to separate it from the edge stitches. And start again.

The keys to relaxing are to counting rows and to keeping your markers in place. Then it's not counting rows from 1 until 100++, it's 1-16, and then you start again. When you have 9 full pattern repeats [or more or less, depending on how big you want to go] you are done.

I hope this helps. It saved me from hating lace...in fact, I rather love it now. All hail Stephannie!

Come on out!

It's time for more signings...come out and see me!

November 4 @ the Naked Sheep
2144A Queen Street East, Toronto, ON
7pm
** that's tonight! **

November 6 @ Threadbear Fiber Arts
319 S. Waverly Road, Lansing, MI
11-3pm
** that's this Saturday!**

If you can come, bring your knitting and stay a while. If you don't yet have the book, grab a copy! And if you've finished something from the book, please bring it so I can snap a pic...others would love to see your work!