um, wtf?

[before I go into a rant about planned obsolescence, I wanted to thank everyone who commented on the sweater and the photos. thank you. it means a lot.]

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okay. things keep breaking around here. w.t.f?

first thing to crap out this year: our antenna'd cordless phone [when you live in a house with rabbits, you have cordless phones].
- method of death: the antenna plastic broke off, exposing the wire antenna. i actually took a pair of jewelry pliers and bent the antenna end into a little loop so no one would stab themselves in the eye. that bought us about 5 more weeks. then the battery stopped holding even the tiniest charge.]
- replaced with: two antenna-free cordless phone handsets that are much nicer, plus a computery voice announces the name of the person calling, which is only fun when you're not trying to sleep.

next: the monolithic air conditioning unit in our dining room window [it came with the house].
- method of death: hub was moving it to another room and just as he got it installed, he cleverly punctured the freon coil. i panicked, grabbed the rabbits and moved them to the bedroom with an open window and all other doors open and fans on everywhere. then i googled it and relaxed a little [freon is a sufficant, not a poison, so as long as they didn't breathe it in, they're fine].
- replaced with: a super-cheap whirlpool a/c unit that's half the size, 4x as energy efficient, and cools our whole main floor. quietly. this turns out to have been a GOOD thing, the breaking, then.

followed by: hub's Blackberry, purchased only after my previous employer [also a client of hub's] insisted he be available all the time, even when we were in Italy.
- method of death: who knows. he dropped the damned thing so many times i've lost count, and it was 4 years old. in Blackberry world, that's almost ancient.
- replaced with: a red Pearl. whatever. he's the Crackberry addict in the family. he's happy, i'm happy.

but wait, there's more! our 10-year-old tube tv
- method of death: this weekend, while watching Little Miss Sunshine, it made that sound you hear when the power gets suddenly cut off. and then kept making that sound over and over. very creepy.
- replaced with: a ridiculous LCD HD-ready thingy that we got at a great price, but are just not convinced about.

it gets harder and harder to spend money on technology when you know that
a] the unit will likely break, and sooner than you think it should, and
b] something cooler will come out making you wish the thing would break.

i actually didn't want to buy a new tv now...i'd rather have waited another year or so until the really cool ones come out, but i was forced into it because i do loves my tv.

hub was smart and made sure we got the 1080p model, which is going to be important when our dvd player becomes obsolete and we're forced to buy a blu-ray system. oh, and the new tv means that if we want HD, which we now might because the tv can actually display all those extra pixels, we'd have to upgrade our tivo and cable box. do you see the sinister plan here?

i DO love new technology and new gadgets. i just want to buy one when *i* want to, not when the previous gadget they sold me broke, leaving me without the thing i didn't know i needed until i bought it and now can't live without.

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p.s. I forgot to add this: the tv in the bedroom is the one we bought at Consumer's Distributing [Canadian flashback!] before we were married. 18 years ago. and it still works just fine.

I <3 Laura + Ysolda

Ysolda designed the sweater.
Laura took the picture [and did a great job. I haven't liked a picture of myself in I don't know how long, and I like this one very much.]

i've got a Liesl!

One of the bonuses of having a world-famous knitwear designer stay in your house for a few days is that you can browbeat her for a pattern she's designing and knitting right in front of you.

This is the reason my Liesl is done, even though the pattern was just released today. My version is knit from Araucania Nature Cotton [7 skeins] and I just love it. It's not a BGK-styled big girl knit, but it's quirky and I like wearing it. I just try to channel Denny when I've got it on, Denny being the queen of asymmetry in clothing and layers of knitwear.

Laura and her new camera will be taking pictures of the sweater on me at Ysolda's request later today.

p.s. brother, do our floors need refinishing. sigh.

Addicted.

my shop is actually open [no, really this time]

So if you'd wanted to buy the Montego Bay pattern, now you can! Actually, I just made my first sale while writing this post! Thank you, Melissa!

[eee! this is fun!]

uh on.

i went to the store for these [I knew I'd run short]:

because they're having a 20% off sale that ends today -- tonight at midnight for web orders [I'm just saying].

One aside: I asked for a rough estimate of how many beads I'd need to complete a simple inch-wide peyote stitch bracelet. Several employees -- one might have been the boss -- said, "I dunno. I don't do peyote beading," seemed annoyed at the question, and didn't go any further to help. In a yarn shop, wouldn't you direct someone to a book or magazine that might help if you didn't know the answer yourself? Anyway, a few other employees did at least try to help, but really we ended up guessing.

Then I saw these:


Which led to these:


Want closeups?






Whut? Did I do something wrong?

[Notice that, after I finish the tiny peyote piece, I'm moving on to a more reasonable, less-headachy size of bead. It may not be as exquisitely slinky, but I bet it'll be nice just the same. And it won't make me cranky.]

For Theresa, and anyone else interested, some peyote stitch tutorials to help you!

This is the best video I could find on the subject. (wait for the closeup at around 4:30 -- it helps you understand where the needle goes)

This is a cool animation that's quite clear. It's just not something you can take away from the computer.

This is the one I printed that finally explained it for me [I didn't use the videos, because I like to make things hard for myself].

There you go. Let's see your peyote!

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.

dood.

I have one of these. I hesitated to buy it at $80 when new, but the shop owner reminded me there were only 400 of them. The guy knows his stuff, so I listened.

Plus, it's Joe Ledbetter, who I love, and IT'S A BUNNY!

I have GOT to watch this auction. Except I don't want to sell him, and I'm pretty sure I tossed the box. But I am dying to see how much it sells for.

[yes, I'm especially bloggy today. what of it?]

My mama made an Etsy!

She's over there on the right sidebar --->
She makes gorgeous chunky necklaces. The elements come from different parts of the world and she has a real talent for putting them together in the most beautiful way.

Go mom!

3 rabbits for 6 hours

This is Cardinal Biggles.

Cardinal Biggles [not his real name, but close enough so that, if he'd stayed with us, he would have answered to it] is a 6-year-old Netherland Dwarf. He's cute, doesn't mind being held and has very soft, tiny ears.

He was in our house because his family wasn't spending enough quality time with him [first one kid, then two, and the mama had huge guilt that the former bunny time was now being spent elsewhere] and they wanted a better home for him. We share a vet, and they made the connection.

So we thought we would give it a shot. We've read and pretty much live by the House Rabbit Handbook, so we had an idea of what to do.

Introductions downstairs in neutral territory were promising, so we decided to continue on. Here's the setup. We have a tiny house, and the only space to safely keep him in was in the room adjacent to Boeing & Squeeze's mansion. He was fenced in and they couldn't get at him. Or so we thought [hint: foreshadowing].

The girls ran around his fence. There was sniffing. There was mutual boy/girl sniffing. [All participants have been spayed or neutered, btw.] For a while, our living room looked like this. Two girls on the left, ignoring little bunny who is hiding in the litter box inside the dog pen.



It was quiet, so I thought we could let Biggles out for a very supervised short run. It ended abruptly when I found Boeing with a tuft of Biggles-colored fur in her mouth. It was not good. I was ready to give up, but hub wanted to give it another shot. I re-read the chapter on introducing bunnies, and realized that letting him out of the cage in their area wasn't so smart, and maybe if we took a step back, we'd have better results. So I agreed. Back in the pen he went to stay. I thought it would be fine for the evening. [Are you starting to sense a pattern here?]

Then, it started to look like this. Multiple times:



Yes, that's Squeeze, humping Boeing from the wrong direction [not that there's a right direction between two girls, but whatever...]. Squeeze does this from time to time, but last night, it was every 10 minutes.

What happened next, I have no picture of, for obvious reasons.

It had been quiet for a while, and then there was scrambling. THREE sets of four bunny paws, scrambling on hardwood floors. Never a good sound.

I look and Boeing and Biggles are trying to eat each other's faces through the bars. EAT EACH OTHER'S FACES, I tell you.

Biggles went home soon afterwards.

What I think we had were THREE dominant bunnies, and there's no way that could have succeeded, especially since we don't have the space or time to devote to a 5-week introduction period. We did try, and it's a shame he couldn't stay because he's adorable on his own.

In fact, I put it out here now. Is there anyone in Toronto who wants a 6-year-old neutered male bunny who loves to be petted? His family really wants to find him another home where he can spend time out of the cage and be part of the family. I'd suggest it be a rabbit-free home [for obvious reasons], but rabbits + cats often get along well together. If you're seriously interested in meeting Biggles, leave me a note in the comments and I'll make introductions.

Franklin wuz [is still] here

trying to knit with gloves on
Originally uploaded by amysinger

But I imagine by now, after a day of shooting, what -- 150 knitters? -- he's either being intravenously fed good Canadian beer, or he's passed out somewhere.

It was a really neat day. I was all over the city, spending the morning at Lettuce Knit and the afternoon with the Purple Purl girls in the park.

Pictures of the day, if you'd like to see them, are here.

p.s. Yes, I'm knitting with cotton gloves on. The scarf everyone got to knit on was wool and I wasn't going to miss out. May have been a bit awkward, but it worked!

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.]

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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!

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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.

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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.]

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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.

Photographic proof that we wuz there

Mason-Dixon Returns
Originally uploaded by Potter Craft News

This picture mercilessly pilfered from our publisher's blog [Potter Craft News] because though I brought my camera, I didn't take it out of the case once. This happens every TNNA. I get too busy doing to remember to chronicle.

Anyway, back to this picture: this is Jillian and I in our spiffy new Knitty shirts [how cute are we?] simultaneously drooling over the forthcoming new book from our favorite Mason-Dixon women. It's an awesome book and I cannot wait till I can get my hands on a real copy. [This was one o' them b&w proof copies and we had to put it back on the shelf when we were done.] It's full of such goodness, I am at a loss to share. You'll be able to see soon enough.


Also pilfered from Potter [thank you for sharing, Sarah! :-)], a picture of sweet Nathania and baby Ellie and her universe-altering hair. I was lucky enough to get to spend a little time bouncing Ellie on my lap on our first night at TNNA and she is one of those dream, easy-going babies. Plus she smells so good.


Pilfered from Abby's flickr stream [thank you, Abby!], a strange shot showing me just a little too interested in what's on the menu at the Hyatt. Mostly, I was interested in talking to Franklin, but am thankful that there's proof we were in the same room anyway . :-) So that was Franklin on my right and...


Jess on my left. [again, one of Abby's shots]. This is the first time the Ravelers and I have been in the same place at the same time, so there was excessive getting-to-know-each-othering and note-comparing. I really like these three people, the Jess and the Mary-Heather and the Casey. And it's a picture like the next one that shows just why it's so easy to like them:


This is one of Miriam's pictures, again pilfered without even asking first. This captures the true Tip Top experience [TNNAers take over the Tip Top bar in Columbus every time we're there]. Beer, laughter, and Casey flipping Mim the bird with a little freshly crocheted Bob puppet [courtesy of the sweet people at Malabrigo...how cool are they?]. L to R, we've got the KitchenerBitch from the coffeeshop, Casey, Mary-Heather and Jessica of Rose-Kim Knits.

That's all that everyone's uploaded so far. I sadly missed out on the dry-ice madness (see the Harlot's blog for full details and photographic proof of the madness, but I had many adventures of my own. And I'll write more about them tomorrow, including how I lost my voice the night before the whole show started and had to go through 3 days of working my favorite trade show unable to speak.

Now, though, bed. Knitty summer is coming so soon, it's ridiculous, but not tonight.

oh, the power of the convergence of the women!

[crappy underlit cell phone photo, but better than nothing!]

TNNA for me!

Yup, me too.

I'm off to the big knitting/crochet/yarn [and associated needlework] show in Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow morning. Early.

TNNA, here I come!