i dood it.

And it was good, dude. [Sorry. I'm a little punchy.]

First, we begin with an early snap of Michelle and Jacquie. Notice both are wearing gorgeousness of handknitting:


Also notice the emptiness of the room. Me trying not to panic. Much plugging in of electronics ensued, and then the sweater arrived:


Really, all eyes were on the sweater, because I have never seen anything quite like it. It stopped being yarn and became a painting in wool. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Oh, Steph looked nice, too. :-)

And then it was time to talk. Look at what I saw from the podium:


Mighty nice.

There was talking, there was clicking of mouses and big pictures on the screen, there was talk of wool and mostly non-wool yarns and lots of good questions from the audience. A great night. The trunk show was a hit, too!

Then we headed off to Lettuce Knit for a post-DKC party. A little bubbly [thanks, Megan!] and an impromptu 2nd appearance of the trunk show for those who missed the guild. Feedback continues to be good. Rock.

And that's all! I've got tons of BGK2 work to do, and my sister and her hub are visiting from Chicago, so I'd better get to it! Thanks to everyone for coming out last night, and especially for Jacquie for asking me to speak and just generally being a great friend.

Calling Toronto Knitters! (and those close enough to get here by tomorrow night :-)

My presentation on No Sheep for You at the DKC is tomorrow night already! Will I see you in the audience? Or will there be empty chairs and a big echoey room to present to? (Nervous? Not hardly. Ahem.)

Downtown Knit Collective
Metro-Central YMCA, 2nd floor auditorium
20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto ON
Wednesday, March 28 - doors open at 6:45 pm

Highlights:
- Needle Arts Book Shop is offering copies of No Sheep for You for sale
- I'm not shy with the sharpie if asked
- the entire book will be there in Trunk Show form and yes, you may touch
- post-DKC party at Lettuce Knit, if time permits and they're still hanging out at the shop (I've asked and it looks like we will be in luck, but I'll call before we leave, just to be sure)

I talk a lot

And so I hug Brenda Dayne of Cast On for her skillful editing. We had a great chat over Skype earlier this year, and the result is up on her site right now.

I get very embarrassed when I listen to recordings of my own voice, but Brenda is a great interviewer and she's really good at what she does. Thank you for asking me to be on your show, Brenda! I got to make the Addi Turbo noise happen! Eeeeee!

Why Wendy is my hero

Yesterday, I sent out a plea for someone to print out my picture and take me to the Yarn Harlot's Represent event... and Wendy* did! So I was there, sort of! Go to Wendy's blog for more pictures of the HUGE auditorium full of knitters and a few of me, getting passed around to a whole bunch of them. Hi, guys! Hi, Kate! I am speechless.

Wendy, you made my day. I'm now going to cruise Bloglines to see what everyone else has to say about last night. What an amazing event.

*Wendy's the woman behind Dame Candle Company. She makes yummy things. In fact, I think I'm going to light my Grapefruit candle right now in her honor.

---
Representing around the blogosphere:

Kay, the NY half of Mason Dixon Knitting, was there. Amazing photos and a beautiful poem. Factoid: in the 2nd picture from the top, a silver-haired knitter is wearing a purply-blue cardigan. I knit the same one in the 1980s...it's a Pingouin pattern. Coolio.

Katy's pictures of the event, including the FIT tour

Lizbon's account, with pics and quotes!

Kathy's pictures

Lysa's post with a pic and stories

Penny tells about the community knitting project associated with the Represent event

Kate writes a really lovely, comprehensive report of the whole evening. Some dark but telling photos. :-)

Will you Represent?

Damn, I wish I could be there to see it. Something tells me this could be the Woodstock of our people. No one could make it happen more than our beloved Harlot.

Someone, print out my picture and hold me up in the audience, will you? It's the next best thing to actually being there. :-)

My only consolation is that there will be NO SHORTAGE of blogging after the fact, so that we who missed it can see what we missed.

Make us proud, New Yorkers! Represent and blow the minds of everyone around. Go, Stephanie! Kick ass!

---

Next Wednesday, I'm having my own little room-full-of-knitters event. The Downtown Knit Collective is the first place I went when I decided to launch Knitty in 2002. I stood up and said, "Hi, I'm Amy Singer and I'm starting an online knitting magazine."

5 years later, I've been invited back to talk to the guild about No Sheep for You, in a big auditorium, with chairs that fold down and my laptop hooked up to a big screen and everything.

I really hope you'll come if you can:
Downtown Knit Collective
Metro-Central YMCA, 2nd floor auditorium
20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto ON
Wednesday, March 28 - doors open at 6:45 pm

Marsha from the Needlearts Book Shop will be there offering copies of No Sheep for sale, if you'd like one. I've got a new Sharpie, too. I've also got the entire book in trunk-show form and there's nothing that can convert an non-wool skeptic more quickly than touching these projects.

Afterwards, if we're very lucky, I'm hoping we can get back to Lettuce Knit before their (my beloved!) S&B is over, and finish the party there!

home safe

and too car-fried to leave the house again today. i'm sorry, LK folk.

i'm hoping to see you guys all next week, after I do my shpiel at the DKC...for a desperately needed cider? and will denny be home by then?

sorry. i ramble. 5 hrs in the car will do that to you.

having a wonderful time

How do you amuse two children with a laptop but no video games?


A built-in camera + comic life does the trick.

All is well in A2. BGK2 writing is nearly done and we got a lot of stuff worked out by being in the same room. A real bonus for us [we usually write books by e-mail and Skype].

I'm now in the phase I usually hit after aboug 24 hours here -- wondering how moms do it. I'm not mom material and am glad I get to play Auntie Amy with J's kids. But then I happily return to my very quiet house where the only sound, except for Hub singing to himself in his office [yes, i know he's adorable], is the sound of the rabbits eating things they shouldn't. Parents, I salute you. Jillian, I double-salute you. You are my hero.

Also, Zingerman's makes the best Jewish Rye Bread in the entire known world. I'm bringing three loaves home for the freezer. I'll be at LK tomorrow night, Rachel -- I owe you dinner! Please come!

more happy sheepless yarn pr0n

Last fall at Rhinebeck, I got to meet Mama E. She was one of those people you want to knit with right away, but we never got the chance. You know how Rhinebeck is -- meet, hug, shop, meet up again, more hugging, more shopping. And then it's over.

Anyway, one of the offshoots of our meeting came in my mailbox yesterday. Wanna see?


Your eyes are not deceiving you. That's another coolio colorway done just for me! It's called "Sheepless in Toronto" [snort!] Lest you think I take this generosity for granted, be assured I know how lucky I am. :-)

This is a gorgeous 98.3% cotton/1.7% lycra yarn, hand dyed by Mama E herself in soft springy green, periwinkle and muted indigo. Perfect for socks, of course. But what will I knit from it? Another beret, I think! It's already wound and ready for my kamikaze trip to see J and her kids tomorrow. I love the pink one and I'd love to have another for my less-pink days.

Mama E also included this cool thing:

A big project bag [the size of a large hardcover book!] covered in the coolest Mod Squad fabric. You can find the bags here, and the yarn here -- plus another colorway, too.

Thank you so much to Mama E, and here's hoping we get to knit together soon!

Creeped out at Amazon.

A new book means I'm checking my reviews at Amazon daily...got to see what people think!

Unfortunately, some dude thought it would be funny to make a pass at the cover model [he thinks it's me. har har.] through his bogus review. I'm totally creeped out.

Would you do me a favor? Go to the book's page, and click on "report this" next to the rude comment? It will be flagged as inappropriate and maybe if all of you do it, they'll actually delete the review instead of leaving it there to fester. I've been clicking on it for a few days, and I think they're ignoring me.

Thanks, guys.

I cracked my precious

I've had one skein of Tess Designer Yarns Cascade Silk in Twilight sitting on my skein display rack since I bought it in fall 2004. Two and a half years. You must click on the link. It will explain why I was reluctant to do more than stare at it and occasionally fondle it longingly. The colors! Silver to deepest periwinkle. Mmm. More than any other, THIS was my skein of pet yarn [phrase coined by You Know Who].

Last night, in the middle of working on more BGK2 words [it's all about the words now, baby], I suddenly decided it was time to take it down, crack the label and wind it.

There. She's ready to be knit. I've pulled out my special stitch books and I think I know what pattern to use, even.

I am going to try to design another shawl in the Tuscany vein. [That means a purl-back lace pattern where I start at the bottom and increase upwards. Easy to memorize and really pretty when it's done. That kind of pattern.] This one has to take advantage of [not fight] the long color changes in the yarn, too.

I don't have the carrot of a trip to Italy dangling in front of me to keep me motivated. Right now, it's about proving to myself that I can do this designing thing more than once in my lifetime. We'll see. If it works out, you'll know because I'll post here about it.

Dude. I beat Lynyrd Skynyrd

More from Eventful: thanks to all your clicking, I'm the 35th most demanded performer on their list.

I beat Evanescence, even. There is much giggling in the Knitty household today.

what is up with that R?

In my knitting-related work, I'm "Amy R Singer". But why? I'm so not the kind of person that goes in for middle initial-ness, but I had to. Here is why:

1. When I was writing Knit Wit, searching "amy singer" on amazon produced books like this and this. The most famous webby Amy Singer is a lawyer. She's also not me. I figured I'd have to do something to differentiate us all or else searching would be annoying and more than a little confusing. As far as I can tell, I'm the only Amy R Singer on the web -- mission accomplished.

2. My full last name is actually two names, no hyphen, and we put hub's last name before mine...and we both took that name. Hub and I are weird like that. His name is the R part. Mine is the Singer.

3. So what does the R stand for? Not telling. I don't imagine I've got real stalkers [not the nice kind like Karen, who knit you Nauties and hug you], but just in case, I like to make it harder for them to find me.

Thus endeth your trivial factoid of the day.

eventful is rather cool

And it's showing trends I never expected. Norway? How cool!

I need to ask you another favor -- if you've put in a demand or clicked on an existing one, please go to the comments section of that demand and suggest a venue. I'd love to hear what you guys suggest as the most suitable place for me to come, hang out, talk non-wools and Knitty. In some towns, there are too many shops for a non-local like me to even know where to begin! [And can I just say how EXCELLENT that is!] So your guidance and recommendations would be most sincerely appreciated.

As a result of using Eventful, I've already added an new date to my schedule -- Loopy Yarns in Chicago on April 4th from 5:30 to 7:30pm. If you can come, please do!

A long chain of events

...led to the blue box being added to my right sidebar. You can't miss it, really.

Chain is as follows:

1. some nice person named RJ writes me to let me know that ubergeek Wil Wheaton loves our BMP and Binary patterns.

2. I notice the blue box on his site and click

3. turns out it's a way for people to request Wil visit their home town.

4. I realize I need to do the same thing for the No Sheep tour

5. pompous blue box appears on my blog.

So there you have it. I'll take the feedback from your clicks [if you want me to visit your town, please click] and pass it directly to the folks at Interweave who make the decisions about where they're going to send me. If your friends want me to come, they should click too. I think this could get interesting.

I love technology.

signed,
happy to be a mid-level geek,
Amy

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."

it's not a boob.

it's supposed to be 18[ish] inches around the head. it's actually 22 [and yes, i swatched first]. never mind. i have a big head and you're supposed to wear it on the back of your noggin anyway. [pictures maybe later, if i'm feeling cute enough.]

deets: yarn is Blue Moon Sock Candy in Pretty in Pink (one skein is more than enough). pattern is from the Purl Bee.

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!

here we go again!

It's time for me to start taking the No Sheep show on the road! My first date with knitters is tonight at the York Region Knitting Guild. Future dates are listed here. As new dates come up, i'll add them to this page. I believe I may be visiting places I haven't been before on this one. How cool is that?

[I keep a link to the page over there on the right -- "Meet Amy on the road"]

It's exciting! It's nerve-wracking! and starting tonight, I bring the laptop and do my shpiel electronically, with cords and cables and a remote and funky technological doo-dads. There are pictures! There is a whole trunk show! I'm surely going to say something dumb at least once during the evening. How could you miss that?

I'll also be speaking to the DKC at the end of this month and the K-W knitters' guild at the beginning of next month. And yes...I'm teaching a class in Austin, TX, at Hill Country Weavers on Earth Day! Jillian's doing a class there the day before, too. A double bill! Eee! And after that, I can't wait for the Knittyhead party at Loop in Philadelphia. Cool, eh?

So if you can, pencil me into your schedule, would ya? An empty room is a sad thing, especially when I bring my doo-dads!

----

p.s. If you watch ANTM, This Wonderful Man needs to be your weekly recap read. I love you, Rich Juzwiak. You make me giggle out loud.

small infusion of sanity

Knitty production is hot and heavy now and has been for days. Knitting my complex-yet-beautiful sweater doesn't give me the mental break I need.

But this will:


Wanna see the yarn I'm going to use up close?


I found the pattern here: the purl bee - Purl Beret - Beret Pattern. It calls for Koigu, and I can't think of a better No Sheep sub than Sock Candy. Why this color? Simple. When I was at Rhinebeck last fall, there was one lone skein of this Pretty in Pink. It called to me. But what the hell do you do with one skein of sock yarn?

Clearly it knew I would want to knit it into a beret several months later. Sock Candy is clever that way. Let's hear it for the Sanity Beret!

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.

---

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!

She's back!

Long before there was a Knitty [like circa 1997], there was Wool Works: the online knitting compendium. I had the pleasure of meeting Emily in person, also before there was a Knitty, and was overwhelmed by her knitting knowledge and skill -- she was a steeker! She did Starmores in her sleep! So freaking cool.

Last night at Lettuce Knit, I saw Emily for the first time in a lot of years. She has a new wee girly bairn [so sweet!] and came wearing Inishmore. And bringing news...Woolworks is now being updated again! Very cool news, since this is one of the most comprehensive lists of all things knitting that ever lived on the web, including the cool list of North American knitting guilds that no one else has [as far as I know].

She's working on a redesign, and soliciting suggestions on her front page.

Welcome back, Emily! We missed you!