Ode to Ishbel

Tess Designer Yarns - Petite Silk (450 yards), 1 skein. As you can see, I JUST made it. Had to change the pattern to get points on the shawl before the yarn ran out. Shawl is lovely and large. Weighs nothing.

If it's quiet 'round the blog, must be coming up on Summer Knitty time!

Hi, y'all! How's it going?

Lots of Knitty production going on here, which is why it gets blog-silent for a while. I'm furiously busy, but writing about what I'm doing during production season is not the most scintillating reading. Never think I've forgotten you. I have had enough free brain-space to keep up the Twitter posts...because 140 characters is easy peasy!

Meanwhile, the iPod is on shuffle and this season, the Tragically Hip and a little Amanda Palmer are keeping me company as I code and Photoshop and try to keep up with the e-mail.

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So, is that all that's happening around here? Well, actually, the biggest news is that I just found out I'm going to teach at WEBS! All the details are on my tour page. Northampton + vicinity Knittyheads...come out and represent!

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What else? Well, I have set a goal for myself. I want to teach in Hawaii. There are quite a few knitting shops and dangit, I can't get the leis out of my head. And yes, the fact that it's the land of the ukulele, my newest and most sincere love, might be another reason I'm really hoping to go. Posting my travel/teaching dreams to this blog has worked before, so I'm going to try it again:

Anyone out there have LYS connections in Hawaii?
introductions most sincerely welcomed! you can reach me at
[my first name] AT amysinger DOT ca

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Not in Hawaii, but you'd like me to come teach at your LYS? I would love to do that! Write me and let's see what we can get happening!

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In knitting news, I am ready to bind off Ishbel , but the remaining yarn may not be enough. Yes, I know that the size I am knitting calls for more than 400 yards and this skein is about 400 yards. I guess I just believe in the power of positive thinking.

I had to frog back half a repeat and invent my own way to get the points in place on the outside edge, and will have no idea if it's worked until I actually sit down to bind off. However I have a lot of work to do [see 2nd paragraph above :)] and am saving this as a reward for work completed.

So I'm getting back to it.

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Don't forget the Hawaii thing.

WWW for May 13, 2009

No song and dance this time, just knitting news from around the world!



Starting close to home, if you're in Toronto today [May 13th], come out and meet the author of the new book, Vintage Baby Knits @ Lettuce Knit tonight from 6-9pm. This book is absolutely stunning and you won't want to miss the chance to meet Kristen Rengren, the author, while she's in town, and see the samples from the book!



Need a little lift? You need a Wonder Woman beanie! A subtle-but-powerful message that shows you are the one in charge.

Or perhaps it's time for a Spiderman blankie?



Taking home your purchases in a plastic bag is becoming, finally, socially tabu. So kudos to Bags for the People who are helping to stamp out plastic bags, one at a time. From their website, "We are a non-profit organization(pending) that provides a sustainable alternative to plastic bags. We use all repurposed materials and give our bags out for FREE. We also perform community building workshops and events to not only get people to make the switch from plastic to re-usable, but to inspire people to take an active and creative role in life."

While you're thinking reusable bags, peek at the World Wildlife Fund project about making the switch to reusable bags. They're featuring pictures of people with their favorite reusable bag and even giving out prizes of groceries!



Our favorite reusable bag patterns:

Everlasting Bagstopper [Amy sez you might want to make it a few inches shorter...as designed, the thing stretches to accommodate elephants, but can you lift an elephant?]

BYOB - a more substantial bag that's also very pretty

The first shopping bag Knitty ever published, the French Market Bag. Do stop by this blog for tips on improving the pattern.

Handknit Market Bag from Classic Elite

Crocheted hobo-style shopping bag



Mysterious scarf mystery [redundancy intentional]. Do you know where this scarf pattern originated?



Another goodie for Ontarians: can't make it to Maryland Sheep & Wool or Rhinebeck? Can you get to Grimsby? Yay! Get the car pool organized!



Are you in New York? There's still time to catch the Yarn Theory exhibit, which ends May 17th. The exhibit takes a look at the intersections between knitting, crochet, math and science.



Annie Modesitt fans, take note: her only stop in Canada on her next class tour will be at The Naked Sheep in Toronto. Full class details here. Don't miss out!



Visit Vickie Howell's latest project: Craft Corps, tied in with the upcoming book of the same name. Weekly profiles of crafters of all sorts. This week, it's Michael Auger, quirky painter whose work I like a lot!



Custom-fit your own sweater with this tutorial! A very practical approach which includes a little sewing -- totally worth it.



Mark your calendars: it's almost time for WWWKIP day!



And that's it for this time. Now go and knit something!

what did I bring home from MDSW?

In the big barn, the booth that grabbed my eye [on setup Friday before the fair was open] was Bullens Wullens. I might have grabbed the big bag on the right on that day. They've just started offering tussah roving, and in so many colors, I can't begin to describe them all. I went all bluey-greeny this time and found things I wanted to spin in random sequence. A tuft of this, a tuft of that. See what comes of it. The pale blue/green on the left is a direct result of watching Dawn spin her bag of same and finding it irresistable, going back at the end of the show and buying the other three.

What else?



Well, since I finished that 5-year-old skein of Tess Designer Yarns' Cascade Silk, I thought I deserved something to replace it with. These are 400ish-yard skeins of tussah [$20/ea!] that will become an Ishbel. The solid color for the lace section and the variegated for the stockinette section, with some sort of alternating transitioning to get from one to the other.

Also got a few bits of MDSW shwag [shirts] and that's about it. Was too busy having fun selling Jennie's pottery, meeting knitters and spinners and poking about the barns to see what was there for a non-woolly knitter and spinner [lots!]. And yes, had to remind myself more than once about the more than 20 spindles I already had at home. I brought the last two I'd bought at Rhinebeck last fall along with on this trip to remind me that I was not lacking in spindle power.

You've got to hear this guy

YouTube - Buck Nix & Queenie Wahine -- worldwide debut!

I am posting this so you can see two things:
1: I didn't fall down while playing backup at the latest uke night and actually was enjoying myself.

2: My musical partner, David, kicks ass, and I really want people to hear him. He wrote the song we're playing, sings with a fabulous bass voice, does killer solos, and is a nice guy on top of that.

The two of us are working to combat long-term stage fright and it gets a little better for us each time we go up there. [When I was a teenager, I competed in the Kiwanis Music Festival on flute and was so nervous that my hands went completely numb as I was playing. Yick.]

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I'm sure some of you wonder what is up with all the uke talk here. Well, when your hobby is your business and almost all of your friends are involved in that hobby/business, it makes for a rather one-sided life. I adore my knitting life and my knitting friends and wouldn't want to live without them. But I find that pursuing this uke thing makes me appreciate both sides even more.

I've never subscribed to the "this is only a knitting blog" concept. For those that do, it's cool, but if I'm gonna share what's happening around here, I'd rather share the full picture. Except for the private bits, because who wants to read that? No, you really don't want to. Trust me.

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Okay, one last uke thing and then I'll go, with the promise that my next post WILL be about knitting. I've got stash enhancement photos from Maryland to share. And progress photos on my latest tube scarf. Yummah.

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That little uke <-- over on the left? That's my newest baby. It's the one I'm playing in the video. It's an Ohana Sopranino, which means it's shorter than a standard Soprano uke by about 2". Proportionally narrower, as well.

I have freakishly small hands, and this uke is a great fit. It's also a perfect travel uke, since it weighs almost nothing and is just super teeny. And it sounds great. For those who care, David tested the intonation [this is a test of the accuracy of the notes it produces right down to the bottom of the fretboard] and it beat his classic 1920s Martin Soprano [which is saying something].