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.

people have questions!

and I have answers. :-)

- we were sitting in recliners because the host injured her knee so badly that she's not allowed to be on her feet more than 5 minutes at a time. ow.

- I'm not wearing any of the sweaters because a) it's HOT on television and I really don't want to be doing a Broadcast News Albert Brooks thingie and b) all the sweaters I had were made of wool.

The end.

[Thanks for the kind words. You guys are the best.]

don't laugh at me.

It's time to party!

Okay. So the Knitter's Frolic is in two days. Saturday, if you knit and you're in Toronto, you're likely going to be there. It ends at 4pm. What will you do with yourself afterwards?

Why, you're going to offload your new goodies, have a little dinner and then come down to Lettuce Knit to celebrate with us! [70 Nassau Street in Kensington Market]

Yes, the More Big Girl Knits book launch party is this Saturday at 7pm.

We will have cupcakes from Life Is Sweet [come early. they'll go fast.]
We will have a ton of door prizes.
We will have JILLIAN in person for the first time in Toronto in ages.
We will have a live Irish all-woman band playing us into the evening [we <3 the Polka Dots!]
We will have all the garments from the book for you to try on and feel great in!

And much more. Denny has promised, if we get her drunk enough, to do a nice jig.

Shannon Okey will be there. Oh, yeah -- I'll be there, too.

Please come!

And since we've spent nearly every penny of our advance actually producing the book and what was left on the cupcakes, we hope you will BYOB. Thank you.

Bring your knitting! Wear a sweater [it will get cool when the sun goes down and you won't want to go home that early]! Bring a folding chair if you feel like it!

See you Saturday!

p.s. Yup, I was on BT again this morning. When I can get my laptop to talk to the Tivo, I'll get the clip up. Wait till you see the kickass models I found for the sweaters this time!

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.

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.

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!

more with the travel!

I've just gotten back from a restorative weekend with Jillian and her family in Ann Arbor. I feel really lucky to be able to [sort of] share her kids when I visit. My sister is of the non-mom variety [as am I] so I don't have official nieces or nephews. So I get to fulfill my auntie instincts with J's kids. It's really something special -- probably moreso because it's not a daily thing for me.

---

Meanwhile, I just spotted this on the Make 1 Yarns blog...their Fall Fiber Arts Retreat is open for registration. And take a peek at who's gonna be there...Nancy Bush! Cookie A! Stephanie Pearl-McPhee! and me. Me?

Me! I get to go to Alberta again, hang with Amy and Sandra of Make 1 and all the cool knitters that they'll bring along. I can't even stand it. I'll be doing my new plug-and-play lace class which I'm really excited about. Plus a little No Sheep action for those that want to partake.

Registration just opened and already more than 25 people have signed up. You wanna come? :-)

um, wow.

This is Tracey. This picture pretty much sums up yesterday's launch party at Threadbear. People walked in as normal folks, tried on sweaters, and turned into coquettish vixens of Big Girl bounty and beauty. Click on Tracey's name above to read her account of the afternoon. She's not on our publisher's payroll, promise.

It really was a beautiful thing to see everyone stripping in the middle of a yarn store [down to t-shirts, people -- there was no nudity :-) ] and trying on all the sweaters from the book. Some were quiet. Some were squee-machines. All were smiling at one point during the day [for some, it was ALL DAY]. Here, look:



And here is Jillian, getting a huge, long hug from a knitter [I'm sorry I don't remember your name!] who tried on Cable Love, walked right over to J and thanked her for making her feel beautiful. We all welled up. It was a seriously beautiful moment, and she DID look super fabulous, too. So many smiles. So many women surprised at how they could look in a sweater that was designed to fit them and flatter their figure.

We laughed, we gave advice, we picked colors, and then picked new ones because the selection was so big it was hard to choose! We ate cupcakes without apology. We had an absolutely fabulous day.

Thank you to Rob and Matt, our beloved Threadbear boys. They give the best hugs, and the cupcakes were MORE than promised. We wanted to eat one of each flavor, but managed to top out at 2 or 3. We gave out new Big Girl and Knitty buttons and we mostly laughed until our sides were sore. More pictures can be found on my Flickr, but I leave you with this:



We're going to try to do it all again in two weeks at Lettuce Knit. Will you be there?

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!

massimo, post-mod

wanna play that game we used to play in Highlights magazine? Spot the differences between these two pictures!





did you get them all?

last summer's mods:
- windshield
- rabbity magnet, via etsy seller skinnylaminx

this spring's mods:
- new top box [aka scooter trunk] found on ebay
- turn signal pods removed -- now turn signals are back inside the white lenses at the front where they were meant to be
- and the last one...you can't see that one. it looks like this:



[and it's actually LOUDER than the cheesy mic on my camera could capture. fun times.]

Toronto central/east-enders unite!

Help stop the possible invasion of our area by big box stores like W*l-m*rt by signing this letter, if you agree with its contents. The full story is here.

We've got enough of this stuff at Eglinton Avenue and further north. We don't need any more characterless shopping in an area that could be revitalized a hundred different -- and BETTER -- ways. Plus we know what happens to small businesses when big box stores open nearby, and losing the character of Leslieville and the Beach would be a disaster for this city.

Thank you for listening. :-)

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.

Crazy go nuts day!

I can think of no better way to celebrate Harlot day in Toronto than by buying her book AND ours, which was just released this very day. Even.

Don't forget -- we're having launch parties in TWO CITIES for More Big Girl Knits, and everyone is invited.

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]
- DOOR PRIZES, people