First glimpse of Hawaii!

I'm flying!
Originally uploaded by amysinger

I arrived in Honolulu last night and managed to stay up late enough to acclimatize [reasonably well] to the time difference.

Today, my kind and fun hostess, Dorothy, took me up to the North Shore and killed several birds [nothing actually died except the shave ice] with one trip.

Everything's in the Flickr stream...take a peek if you'd like to see what I've been seeing so far.

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BTW, in case you hadn't heard, I'm on Oahu to teach the Tuscany Shawl class and give two lectures [No Sheep For You and All About Knitty] at the Hickam AFB Arts & Crafts Center. Everything happens this Saturday, Nov 14th. Any remaining spots are now open to the general public [you don't need to be in the military to sign up]. Details are here. Come out and see me if you can! We'll have a blast!

Since last we chatted...

...more has happened than I can possibly blog. Let's go to the bullet points!

• the magical Sock Summit
• a lovely vacation trip with my mom and sister
• the fall issue of Knitty, celebrating 7 years of Knitty goodness and a gentle redesign
• a trip to The Knitting Nest in a really comfy, not-hot Austin, TX [I didn't think the not-hot was possible!]
• a trip to WEBS -- New England in early fall [heaven!]
  

You already know about Sock Summit [see the post below for wrap-up links all over the web], and the vacation was much needed.

The fall issue of Knitty was the result of months of planning, work and not a little fretting. We're all glad you like it, very! It was a huge relief to go live...a redesign of any sort is always a bigger undertaking than you envision until you're right in the mucky middle of it. I learned a lot, that's for sure.

The Knitting Nest was just a lovely, warm place full of great yarn and nice people. You know the reputations Texans have for hospitality -- well, Stacy and her crew [and her charming husband and daughter!] took more than excellent care of me. We had a great class and a lovely party to celebrate their anniversary and poof, I was home before I knew it!

I've been traveling mostly camera-less lately. Too much to shlep with the uke, I guess. But I did take a few pics with the iPhone on my last trip -- to WEBS -- and you've gotta see them.

WEBS itself is really indescribable. It has nearly everything from every company that makes yarn, and even the work of some smaller hand-dyers. Bags, tools, spinning things, weaving things. And then there's the back room where the bags of discounted yarnish goodies reside, and it's hard not to walk around with your mouth open. For a long time. Just wow. I was so stunned by it all, I took not a single picture inside the shop. But here's their highway billboard:



I had a great Plug & Play shawl design class with really excited and motivated students, and a lovely No Sheep lecture the night before. I bought a sweater's worth of, not kidding, Berroco Comfort worsted, to make this [rav link], and a little yarn for a few friends. On my last afternoon, it was decided that I needed to see a little of the surrounding area

My tour guides, Karen [the lovely shop manager] and Melissa Morgan-Oakes [who I'd never met before this trip, despite us being in the same places more than once over the years] made sure I got a little infusion of New England before I went home. Yankee Candle? Sure! A quick stop at Scandihoovians, yup! But here was the highlight of our spontaneous road trip:


I know that logo. No way. Lexie Barnes' showroom is within driving distance of WEBS? I freaked out.


Here's Lexie with samples from her brand-new line. And I finally got to put my hands on it...folks, the fabric we all know and love is BACK! The nearly bulletproof fabric that is the friend of knitting and the enemy of spills. It feels so solid and smooooth, and look at her new prints!

The little shiny thing in her hand? That's her brand-new circular needle case. It's brilliant! The page on her website doesn't give a hint at the insides, so this is your sneak peek! Lots and lots of pages to hold your needles and way more, plus it zips closed so nothing escapes. Wow.


Another [slightly blurry, sorry] pic of the new goodies. The Kiri print looks bright red on her site, but it really is this deep burgundy color, so I wanted you to see.

One of the other things I've been excited to see is Lexie's new bag shape, the McCoy.


Now, this print is called Lotus and it's not on her site because the factory screwed up and the color isn't what she'd ordered. I personally love the color as is, but Lexie is the designer, and what she says goes! Meanwhile, if you like this pattern, you can grab it if you move fast. Lexie is having a sample sale, this coming Saturday (Oct 3) from 10-5. She'll have bags in this Lotus fabric (limited quantity of course), special deals on sample Classic Lexie totes, and other surprises.

Anyway, back to the McCoy -- yup, she gave me one of them to take home with me and you'll never guess what fits inside this bag:


That's my sopranino ukulele. Fits in perfectly, with tons of room to spare for yarn and everything else a traveling knitter might want. My full review of the bag will be in the winter issue of Knitty, but I just couldn't keep my lips zipped about this one, especially for those who are close enough to grab a sample at the sale this weekend.

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So that's a very spotty, very shwag-oriented catch-up post. I'm home for a two-month stretch now and you may see a little more action on the blog than you're used to.

I need to be packing...

So of course I'm going to write a blog post instead!

Hello, blog! How are you? I've thought about you more frequently in the last few days. Lots to talk about! [I promise not to continue this anthropomorphication of the blog any further. It's getting creepy already.]

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If you've been following my Twitter feed, you know I've been in a Sock Summit preparation frenzy for the last month. I understand many of the other instructors have been similarly focused/freaked out and it's a bit of a comfort. See, these are two brand-new classes I'm teaching at Sock Summit: simultaneously exciting and terrifying. I can't even begin to go into everything that's been running through my head, so I just won't.

I do know that I'm looking forward to Thursday night when I will have finished teaching each class once, and can breathe a little easier. I want to kick ass with these classes [without actually kicking anyone in the ass, because I don't think the students would like that].

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It didn't occur to me that I might need to get a massage before the trip because my neck and upper back would seize up, so I didn't book one. And I guess my favorite miracle worker is away for the weekend, so oh well. We pulled out the Thumper and hub went to town and it has helped!

I'll book her for when I return. Because man, will I have earned it!

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You probably know I think the internet is a wonderful place, and this next story just proves it once again.

I'm enamored [understatement] with the ukulele. I adore playing it -- not that I'm fabulous, just that it makes me SO HAPPY. Here's a little something my BUFFs [best uke friends forever] and I worked up a few weekends ago...Take the Skinheads Bowling. Original version by the incomparable Camper Van Beethoven. Our take is the world premiere of our new girl group: No Skanks On Sunday.

One thing girl uke players have to deal with is that our natural appendages get in the way of holding the uke flat against our chest like guys get to do. This makes it harder for us to play -- or some of us, anyway. So I posted a query on my favorite ukulele forum asking if anyone had ever tried to alter the architecture of the ukulele to accommodate our protrusions, and the discussion didn't go south...it got really positive, constructive and interesting, really quick! Here's the thread in case you're interested.

The summary: the back and forth discussion prompted one forum member to ask about making a concave-backed uke, which I thought was a brilliant idea. After the jokes about custom cup-sized ukes were finished [can't blame them], up stepped a skilled and kind luthier who wanted to give it a shot. In fact, he offered to build a prototype for me and just send it to me. As a gift.

I was floored. His name is Brad Donaldson and you can google him, but you won't find much right now. I offered to build him a website for his work as a thank you, and he's accepted...so that makes me really happy. [No, I won't start work on it until fall Knitty has gone live, promise.] Brad lives about an hour and a half outside of Portland [you know, where SOCK SUMMIT is being held this week?]. So tomorrow, when I get off the plane, I'll be heading to pick up my rental car and driving out to get my brand-new first-ever concave-back ukulele.

Once Brad got into working on this project, he was on fire. Every day, I got a progress e-mail with pictures. He started upgrading the wood he was using, because he could tell it was working out well and he wanted it to be even prettier than he'd planned at first. So instead of solid mahogany [which is fabulous enough], it's now mahogany and quilted maple with rosewood trim and abalone fret markers and his logo. Here, some pictures of the uke without the finish on:







and the money shot:



Look at the curve in that back! He's already strung it up and says it sounds great, and since then, has applied a gorgeous gloss finish which has been curing for the last few weeks. Tomorrow, I get to pick it up and play it. I am so excited, it's hard to think straight.

I'll post pics when I'm back home in a week, so you can enjoy it with me, but if you follow the Twitter feed, you'll see a snapshot or two as soon as I have it. For Sock Summit attendees who are curious, yes, it'll be with me all the time during the week so you can peek at it.

I'm also quite certain that Brad will build one of these for other people as well. I believe he's already started on a few. So I'll share his contact details when it's okay with him.

Like I said, the internet is an amazing place where great things happen.

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Underwear is washing, suitcases pulled out of hiding and my new treat to myself for this trip is ready to be loaded: it's an ePac rolling backpack. Key feature for me: easy access pocket for my laptop so when I get to airline security, I don't have to unpack my bag to get at it. [The bag I've had for the last 3 years only works when the laptop is on the bottom of everything else. Ack!]

I already feel my travel mood improving as a result. I'm just tired of fighting with luggage in front of every xray machine.

There's room in it for a little spindle and fiber, some knitting and even a pocket at the very back for my class handouts, so it's the perfect travel bag. And cheap at $79.

So there you have it. My pre-trip update. There will be no WWW news this week, for obvious reasons. Mel is going to collect more good stuff for the next week and it'll go up when I'm back.

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I'm looking forward to meeting all sorts of people this week, and hope everyone has a great time at the Summit. And for those not going, I'm quite certain that the benefits of this event will trickle down to the entire sock-knitting community in the form of new patterns, books and ideas that we can all share.

Have a great week, everyone!

What Neil wrote.

I do declare, someone get me a Mint Julep lest I faint dead away.

full circle

Remember when I got this? The man who wrote the book the movie is based on saw it tonight, was quite amused by it, and then signed the button-sealed envelope for me.*

I will be shadowbox-framing this baby as soon as budget allows.

*I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to say that Neil Gaiman is a charming man, highly nice, a gentleman, and absolutely freaking hot. Oh, sigh.

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Where's summer Knitty? Soon, my pets. Very, very soon. In the meantime, the rest of the pics from tonight can be found here. I've done the best I can to title them helpfully, including a few choice quotes from the man himself that I remember quite vividly. Much better than a wordy blog post, no?

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.

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].

The Knitty LYS shwag shop is open!

It all started back here. LYS owner Stacy wrote with a brilliant suggestion that now is a tangible thingy. At the brand-new Knitty LYS Shwag Shop you'll find 4 and 6-packs of Post-its, pre-customized to make referring folks to Knitty patterns as easy as possible! You'll also find brand-new window clings and this year's edition of the 1" Knitty button.

Sure, this stuff is meant for LYSOs. But the window clings and buttons? Any red-blooded Knitty knitter just might want some of those for themselves. Anyone is welcome to place an order.

Let's hear it for shwag!

A busy weekend

We had a great Yarn Roundtable on Friday night. 5 really different yarns, a full house, and a guest in from out of town.

This guest and I, we have fun when we're together. We also do lots of work on Knitty in between the laughing and the trying not to buy really great shoes and the drinking of a coffee or two. We got some great stuff done this time.

Meanwhile, we also did these neat things [all pics are iPhone pics...not the clearest, but they'll have to do]:

Spun standing up at the back of The Purple Purl while Roundtable was going on. That's THE Denny, spinning on her brand-new charkha, gifted to her by a big group of her friends, instigated by that guest woman! Said guest is seen here spinning on her new Journey Wheel. Both wheels were purchased from a woman who was done with spinning, and that made these two women very happy. Everything goes round and round in this world, eh?

Stopped by guest's favorite glass shop...Tank Fire + Metal. They make such glass beads [there should be a better word for the beads they make. The are SO much more than beads] and things with their glass. Guest indulged in something skullish. I went for the earrings I've been looking at in the shop for months. Icy blue-green, transparent discs on silver ear wires.

That afternoon, we stopped by a really cool fabric shop that I'd wanted to visit for months. I'd been reading the owner's blog and loved her style and choice of fabrics. Found some great fabric, and wanted to see if they had or or could order another version that I'd seen on teh interwebs. And was treated by the boss (I'm assuming, since I was directed to her by the nice girl behind the cash) as if I'd asked her to wipe my tushy. That so rarely happens, but it really was disappointing. There are so many nice ways to say, "no, I'm sorry -- I can't get that in" that don't have to make a customer feel bad for asking, you know?

The afternoon was beautifully redeemed by a visit to our new favorite Roncesvalles coffeehouse, Tinto. Guest, other Amy and me Amy brought our wheels inside, found an empty space, and spun the afternoon away. We also got to enjoy their sweet potato/black bean/cheese burrito and good coffee. And the servers were all charming as hell, amused or curious about what we were doing, and we felt very welcome to stay. Yay for Tinto! We'll be back for sure.

In a stunning turn of events, I walked out on a Toronto Police Office ticketing my car, because I'd been too late to get to the meter and refresh. I told him I was just coming to do that and...get this...HE TOOK THE TICKET OFF. I have never had a police officer do that in Toronto and was absolutely gobsmacked. Bought the refresher ticket, of course, and thanked the man.

Then it was Earth Hour, and guest and I pulled out our spindles and spun by candlelight. Quite effective, I thought

Finally, guest, THE Denny and I went to Milestone's for a frozen Bellini -- oh, yeah, and some dinner -- and then a movie. The three of us can attest that Duplicity is huge fun to watch and has made us all love Julia Roberts again. Clive Owen has always been in our love universe, and he is fab in this, as always.

Okay, so that's the weekend recap in pictures. A rather full one for frequent-homebody me, and I loved it. Guest has taken the train home and the house is too quiet without her. That'll last about an hour, and then the phone will ring and all will be well.

It's Monday! I say we all have a great week! Who's with me?

New lace, and it's not Tuscany.

I started something new on the weekend and it felt so strange. After a little knitting, I realized this: I have not knit any lace of any sort except Tuscany...for 2 years. (I don't count Montego Bay as lace).

So clearly it was time I shook my head loose and saw what would come out. It looked like this:



Can you identify it? It's quite famous, designed by someone famous for lace triangles. Here, have a closer look:



Puckery! Swirly! Yes, it's a Shetland Triangle. I have wanted to knit one for at least two years and don't know what took me so long.

The yarn is a skein of Tess Designer Yarns' Cascade Silk that's been marinating in the stash for -- no exaggeration -- FIVE YEARS. It may be a little too variegated for this shawl, but I think it works just fine. I've wanted this pattern and this yarn made real for a long time, so might as well do them together and cross two things off my list!



I'm liberating another skein of laceweight [though this is arguably heavier than average laceweight, it is being knit into lace and that counts].

The yarn was in my stash so very long because I really wanted to design something original with it. I was unsuccessful, more than once. Just another reminder of the kind of mind and skill it takes to be a knitting designer more than once every other 2 years. You real designers rock, you know.

You guys have the best ideas.

So in the comments to my last post, out comes Stacy with a brilliant idea. Knitty post-its for LYS owners, customized to make referring their customers to a Knitty pattern as easy as possible.

Design done. Order goes in Monday. It's a brilliant idea and I'm not the least bit bothered that I didn't think of it myself. Knitty has always been all about collaboration, and dammit if this isn't just more proof of it.

I've got a few other things I'm stocking up on as well and when it's all ready, I'll let you know so if you need some, you can get some!

Thank you, Stacy, for the lightbulb! I'm looking forward to thanking you in person one of these days :-)

The great joy of the after-Knitty rush

Rush as in endorphin rush [not as in "Rush! You must go somewhere!" because I've just done that mentally for 3 solid weeks]. There is this weird feeling when I put a new issue up for the world to see. First, there are little things that always need fixing. Always. Then people send in the loveliest notes and that is such a fine, fine way to spend an afternoon. Often, a nap follows [more like a passing out with relief, but usually in nap form].

The next day...what the heck do I do with myself? If you read this blog, you'll notice that I start to make lists of all the things I want to do that I couldn't do until the issue was live. So why break with tradition? Here's the list!

- In the middle of the production crunch, Claudia blogged about a sale on Grafton Fibers Darn Pretty Needles [DPNs...get it?]. They'd been out of my price range -- justifiably, since they're not only gorgeous, but totally handmade in Vermont -- but at the sale price? I ordered two sets. Checking their site today, I see there's a new colorway on sale. OOOh, so tempting.

- So what will I do with my brand-new DPNs? Well, there's this big sock thingy I'm lucky enough to be teaching at. And I have got a lot of socks to knit before August, so I'm going to get started! Knitting on pretty handmade needles makes everything even better.

- I'm eyeing the ugly living-room curtains with the same critical eye I took to our naked dining-room window after the last issue was finished. Time to get out the Bernina again! Just waiting for the right fabric to show up at Ikea.

- I have two gorgeous bags of hand dyed silk roving bought at Rhinebeck last fall. I am going to spin and ply all of it on my Ladybug in a reasonable amount of time. It's only 4 oz [though in silk, 4 oz goes a long way]. Will! Do! It!

- The ukulele group I belong to has a rather primitive forum architecture and I have been given supreme administrative powers to slap it into shape. The software is fine, it's just that the nice guys who set it up are musicians first. :-) Am scared I'll make it all go boom, so am taking my time.

- I need to design new Knitty shwag.

- I need to prepare for Maryland, because this year I AM GOING! I know it's crazy busy crowded with spinners and knitters and not as familiar to me as every inch of Rhinebeck is, but that's half the fun. Plus I'm going as part of Jennie the Potter's posse, which means I get in a day early to help her set up. And maybe map out the grounds a little to know what's where.

- I have a few big ideas for Maryland. Watch this space. I'm not telling yet.

- And I'm knitting, really. The top-down raglan in Lorna's Laces new Pearl yarn is going along swimmingly. Amy Swenson, new resident of Toronto [yay!!] and I are working on the design together. It's very simple, designed to take advantage of the drape of the non-woolly fibers in the yarn. Pictures forthcoming, promise.

And now I need to get to it!

By the way, I know my blogging has been pretty spotty for a while, and though part of it is due to the requirements of magazine production, most of it is due to Twitter. It's so easy to whip off a few sentences and maybe attach a single picture that it makes blogging seem ever so much harder. :-)

For those with RSS-feed readers, if you care to read the Twitterings of a geek knitting magazine editor, you'll find the feed here: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/18513281.rss

I will not be abandoning the blog, no sir! But I am loving the Twitter.

Sock Summit 2009. Yo.

Okay, so everyone else in the interweberverse has blogged this already, so you might already know, but just in case...

I'm on the teacher list for Sock Summit 2009! Also [!!!] This is flattering and exciting enough, being asked to teach by such illustrious organizers and knitting icons [aka Blue Moon Tina and Stephanie/Harlot and the goddess Cat]. But Steph warned me when she called to discuss details that the teacher list would blow my brains out, and it has.

There are designers who I've gotten to publish in Knitty but never had a chance to meet in person. There are designers I've published AND met. There are lots of people I've admired for a very long time and wanted to meet. And of course, there are good friends from all over who will be gathered in one place at one time, both teachers and students.

This promises to be an unforgettable experience. I am so honored to be included and so excited about what will take place in Portland that weekend.

Plus it means I get to drink Stumptown again.

Downward-facing head, but a little treat for you!

Longtime knittyBlog readers know that, as new issue time approaches, my head goes down and posting gets a little weird around here. So as I get into it, I leave you with a little something!

Have you wanted a Lexie Barnes Lady B bag for a while? It's a huge favorite among Knitty staffers and readers alike! Her current collection of Lady B bags is marked down to a crazy low $65 [usual price $130]

Well, because Lexie is the coolest, she's offering an EXTRA 10% discount on these great bags for Knitty readers. Coupon code: iluvknitty

Click here and you can choose your favorite of the three available prints.

Happy Lexie day!

Independent designers and independent magazines go together like tortilla chips and salsa...

...or insert your favorite food combination here.

So there's been a whole lot of discussion on the web about the struggles of independent knitting designers, the challenges of those who publish the work of independent designers, and everything that relationship means. The discussion is explained here. It's a complex issue, and one made more challenging by the innovative possibilities the internet makes available to designers and knitters alike.

Knitty has a unique place in the designer->magazine->knitter continuum, and that's on purpose. I started Knitty in order to publicize and support the work of independent designers who were giving it away for free on their blogs. You can read what I wrote in the first issue here. Happily, Knitty grew quickly from a sweet, tiny thing into a robust magazine, thanks to the support of indie designers, a growing number of readers, and the final piece of the puzzle: our advertisers.

Since day one, Knitty has always been clear on one thing: the work of each designer and author belongs to THEM, not to us. They allow us to publish their work exclusively for a short 3-month period on our website in exchange for a modest honorarium. Afterwards, they do with it as they please, which means their work can continue to generate revenue for them. The other thing we offer to independent designers is, frankly, a huge audience -- 2.7 million site visits in December 2008.

I am so proud of the designers we've featured over the years, some who want careers as designers, and some who just have great knitting ideas. This kind of independent, spontaneous creativity is what I want to be able to continue to share through Knitty for many, many years to come.

I was really touched to read this post that Shannon Okey wrote about Knitty on this topic. She writes about how she's supporting Knitty and why she thinks that support is important.

There are many ways to support Knitty.
Designers and authors do it by sharing their work with us and our readers.

Readers can do it by:

• clicking on the ads in our issues and shopping with our advertisers when they need knitting supplies or want a treat. Since Knitty is free to readers because of our advertisers, this is the most important way readers can show their support!
  
  
• visiting our Knittyshop, where each sale sends a few dollars directly to Knitty...and when you wear Knitty gear, you help promote the magazine, too!
  
  
• joining our grassroots marketing team by telling knitters and yarn shops about Knitty when you come across someone who's never heard of us. We've got a simple letter-sized flyer that you can print, cut up and pass out when you need to...you'll find it here.
  

People have been writing me for quite a while, asking if they could send a financial contribution directly to Knitty as well. After reading Shannon's post, it seemed time for me to put a Tip Jar on the counter. Does it feel strange to do this? Um, yeah. But I also know what it's like to be on the other side -- wanting to show your appreciation for something you love in a tangible way.

If you'd like to support Knitty with a donation, here's what to do:

1. To use a Paypal account or a credit card, click on the Send some love to Knitty! button above. You'll be able to fill in the amount you wish to send and then complete the transaction.

2. To send a check/cheque, payable to Knitty Magazine, here's our address:

Knitty Magazine
2255b Queen Street East
#527
Toronto ON
M4E 1G3

Because Knitty is not a charitable organization, your donation is not tax deductible. Our donors names and e-mail addresses are kept strictly confidential, but the Knitty editorial staff will know you've donated and we all thank you for your support!

Writing this post reminds me, once again, how lucky Jillian, Mandy and I feel to have knitters, yarn companies, yarn shops, publishing companies and other craftspeople wanting to support independent design and publishing in general, and Knitty specifically. And that this little magazine I started more than 6 years ago, because of a passion for knitting and knitters, and a desire to work with people I care about and admire, has become important to so many people.

oh. my.

Look where I am!

Okay, I'm not there now, but I was there this afternoon. The Tucson Desert Museum. This was taken out the car window [!] on the way there.

Want more? Here you go.

For those not following the Twitter storyline, here's what's happened since I last wrote.

- Was in transit from Toronto to Tucson, via LAX for 14 hours.
- My luggage decided it didn't want to go. I was wearing the same clothing for the first two days [though I was able to wash the stuff overnight so it wasn't ewwww]
- Taught a full day Plug & Play Shawl Design class without my swatches [see point above] and having to reprint all the class handouts [again, see above]. It went well, despite that.
- Luggage arrived last night. Have been wearing new clothing ever since. Happy.
- Temporarily lost my wallet/iPhone/everything when I got distracted by hummingbirds at the Desert Museum and put down my wrist-strap purse.
- Ran off the calories I would later consume in buttery homemade tortilla chips [SO GOOD you don't want to know] trying to find it.
- Grateful to the person who found it right away and brought it to the admin office, so I wasn't without my essentials for very long.

So that about catches you up. Highlights for the next few days:

- I get to meet the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild tomorrow for lunch!
- I get to visit a store that stocks Flax Clothing in my size and maybe even buy some. I survived last summer thanks to the beauty of their easy and relaxed linen clothing.
- I get to visit a store that carries ukuleles! Just because I can! And because the flute fund still has a little balance in it. You know.

Hope you all are well! I have something really cool to share with you, but I'll save that for another post.

Off to play with the coyotes!

That's where I'll be all week. Hub will be at home, holding down the fort and [most importantly] watching over the destructo-bunnies.

Blogging will likely be sparse if at all, but I'll be updating the Twitter feed as regularly as I can. With pictures!

p.s. No, I will not actually be playing with the coyotes. But my friend and hostess Heather tells me you can hear them at night from her house sometimes. Cool.

Gotta go!

Snippits, collected for your amusement!

Because those that care will likely wonder, and because I can't possibly write my feelings and opinions about the movie any better than blogger Joshua Starr, here is the review of Coraline that I would have written if I was clever enough.

Yes. What he said.

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For those who are sick of the Coraline talk [not possible!], you can expect the usual yarn, knitting, travel, teaching and ukulele blather to take over starting right about now.

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Oh! Speaking of travel and teaching, you might notice a new widget on the right sidebar of the blog: my 2009 travel/teaching schedule. Woot! I'm finalizing a few more and will add them to the widget when they're confirmed.

For the widget-averse, or to see everything at once, go here.

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And because you kind folk always ask when I post a big whack of tour dates, if you'd like me to come to your neighborhood, here's what to do: Contact your favorite yarn shop and tell them! If enough of you do that at any one shop, it just might happen! Just let the yarn shop know they can reach me at knittymagazine AT gmail -- and thanks for enabling!

Coraline movie premiere planning....Speak Up!

ETA: I'm very sorry. I bought tickets at the Beach Cinema based on information from movietickets.com and it turns out the theatre is NOT showing it in 3D despite the information on the website. I'll be getting a refund and I'm very sorry if any of you get stuck not seeing the version you wanted.

Cinema Clock has what seems to be correct information about which theatres are showing the 3D version.

Good luck, all! I hope we actually get to see the thing tonight!

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p.s. Don't ever buy tickets from movietickets.com. They don't stand behind their listings (they blame the theatres) and won't give a refund. I now have to go back to the Beach Cinema to get a refund. NEVER buying from movietickets.com again. Advise you to do the same. Grr.

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Okay! Info is finally up!

The Alliance Atlantis Beach Cinemas are showing Coraline in 3D. The showtimes are 6:50pm and 9:20pm.

So! I know some of those interested get off work at 6pm, which makes the early show a little tight. Is there anyone who can't make the late show? We could meet at the Purl, stock up on knitting-in-the-dark supplies and then all head out en masse for the later show. Tell me what you think! Quickly! Once we decide, everyone needs to buy their own ticket(s) here:

MovieTickets.com Alliance Atlantis Beach Cinemas. Movies, showtimes and tickets.

Then at least we'll have seats!

Summary: WOOOT!

Attention Arizona fiber friends!

This has been so long in coming [we started planning last summer] that it's hitting me as surreal...but in 2 weeks, I'm going to be teaching in Tucson!

Why did we choose February? Because that's the month when Northerners feel most comfortable. I almost melted in the blast-furnace beauty of Albuquerque in June a few years ago, so I have learned my lesson. :-) Temperature this week: 75F. Heaven.

I'll be teaching loads of classes at Purls Tucson, hanging with Old Pueblo Knitters, spinners and weavers, and it's all going to be a crazy blur of a week.

There are more events listed in the schedule of the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild, including the No Sheep lecture, the booksigning at Purls Tucson, and a Spin-In [!] at Kiwi Knitting Company.

I'm really excited! I also get to spend time with my friend Heather and her family, which is a significant bonus.

If you've wanted to take any of my classes and are in driving distance of Tucson, now's a good time to sign up! I can't wait to meet y'all!

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Boy, do I need a pedicure.

Busy week! [and a long blog post as a result!]

What have I been doing?

* Played here. Julia joined in this week. She's good, and holds her own in front of a mic, especially for someone who hadn't touched her uke in a few months! Also test drove a Fluke, which has a really lovely, deep, strong tone.

* Successfully sold my flute to the lovely Amanda who was the first to put up her hand in the comments. We met at Lettuce Knit so she could take a peek and test drive and, despite some acting up on the flute's part, Amanda was confident that she wanted the flute so she took her home. I got a report a few days later that a misaligned spring was the cause of the acting up, and all is well now. I hope Amanda will be happy with her new flute!

* This meant I had funding to continue my obsessive browsing of sites like this. And narrowing down my choices.

* Drove to the local uke mecca [this means they have better stuff than the standard plastic cheapos, AND they have knowledgeable staff].

* Surrounded by skilled guitarists of all sorts who were test driving and intimidating me with their noodling that sounded good enough to record already, I tried the Fluke again and realized it was too big for my ridiculously small hands.

* Finally tried the Flea and realized that its more compact size [still providing big sound] was my solution. Meet Hurley:



He'll serve me well for many years to come. The Fluke I test drove last week was a 10-year-old one that the [really good] player still uses and loves and makes great music on.

I came home and found that, for some reason, I can play Hurley better than my little grape guy. Maybe it's my imagination, but the chords came easier. I sure did like practising on him.

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So that's where I've been all week. There was also time spent in my dentist's chair which resulted with a brand new $$$$crown$$$$ that has some of the metal showing through the enamel at the top after dentistman had to grind it down and down to fit in my mouth. Not impressed. Seems to me that the guy who made the crown screwed up. And yes, I'm going to get it fixed, as uncomfortable as that will be.

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Spring Knitty patterns were also finalized this week, and today is yes/no day when I send out the notices to everyone.

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There was also, happily, finalization on the question of the month: will I be able to go to Maryland Sheep & Wool this year, finally? The answer is yes!

I'm now figuring out how to arrange teaching gigs either at the festival or at a nearby shop. Advice welcome if you've done this before!

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Happy weekend, everyone! I'm going to recharge with a little tea and get down to the e-mails.

A Saturday catch-all post, including Coraline! Flutes! And other news

For those awaiting the upcoming Coraline movie, a few things:

1. My favorite Coraline news source: Evil Buttons. Read back to the beginning to learn about the Coraline keys [I purchased mine on eBay...wasn't lucky enough to run across it in the wild on my own] and all the other interesting ways Laika is publicizing this upcoming movie.

2. Those following my Twitter feed already have seen this: From Mr Gaiman himself, his favorite Coraline trailer so far...and it's deliciously creepy. Finally.

3. Last Coraline post [for today :)] -- I call all those within driving distance of Toronto to join me on opening night, February 6, to watch the movie! It's too early to find theatres with showtimes, so as soon as I have details, I'll post here. I'll pick a theatre that takes online ticket orders, so we can buy ours in advance and actually all get in to the same showing! [It'll be the 7ish pm show and I'll confess now that I'm rather partial to the Alliance Atlantis theatre on Queen East at Kingston Road.]

4. Were you thinking of joining Franklin and I on the Alaska Sea Socks cruise this year? I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but it has been cancelled. Franklin and I were informed of this news by the cruise operator last week.

4a. I love cruising and teaching on a cruise is absolutely awesome, so I am quite sure that I'll be doing another cruise one day in the future and really hope you'll join me. Will report here when there are details, promise.

5. I joined a Ukulele Jam last week and had a blast. It's very embryonic, and my noob skills are not useless there, which is really encouraging! It's led by two guys who have played in bands and know what the heck they're doing, and it's filled with people of all levels of experience. The ukulele spotting alone is enough reason to go! This has me thinking of my next uke...and the one after that. Being a gear ho™ is not restricted to my knitting, you know. If you've got a uke and can play, you're welcome to join! Visit the site linked above for all the information you'll need.

5a. As a result of finally picking up an instrument I've wanted to play for years and loving it, I've decided it's finally time to sell my flute, which has been carefully stored, unused, for about 20 years. I received it as a birthday present from my parents when I was in high school and loved it for a long time, but it's just not the instrument for me any more.

SO! If anyone is interested in an Armstrong Model 90 sterling head/body flute, closed hole, with original case, leave a note in the comments. It's in gorgeous shape [except for two tiny dents on the back of the head -- I was a teenager. Cut me some slack]. Pictures here. There are a lot of them and the defects I'm aware of [just 3] are marked with notes on the pics.
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Okay! That's it for today. This post was kind of like a little brain burp, all the unrelated stuff in here.

I'm off to do Saturday errands!

Why Milwaukee has the best airport EVER

[click picture for big...you need to see this]

# of people in front of me in the security line: 0

# of adorable security agents encountered: 1

I LOVE MKE. ORD can bite me.
:)

On my way home and so happy, I decided to splurge on data roaming to post this.

Looking forward to recombobulation.

a little Ukulele for a happy new year!

this is way overdue. when was the last time i posted anything uke-ish?

anyway, give this video a few seconds for the guys to get started and i believe you'll be dancing by the end of it. [yay for good production value!]

no ways.

Yup. Neil Gaiman got a box of his own -- as he should!, though it's not one of the airquotes official Coraline boxes, he reports. It is supercool, though. If you're one of my new converts* or an old-time Gaiman fan, you've got to go read the post and see what he got!

My favorite line in the post above?
"I think my favourite of the boxes is http://www.knitty.com/blog/2008/12/my-coraline-box.html but it's a close thing."

Dudes. That's my blog Mr G has linked to, and my box he's talking about! [Megathanks to Elithea for pointing this out to me.] I am just stunned that he's been by here...and I didn't even have time to tidy up!

In any case, welcome to anyone stopping by from Mr G's blog. Not sure all the content here may be to your taste, but who knows? Maybe you'll feel right at home. Can I teach you to knit?

*I've heard from at least three people in the last week that I've turned into Coraline-obsessed Gaiman fans with all these recent blog posts. There are uncountable numbers of us already and there's infinite room for more. Join us.

A little skin for a good cause

Okay. So about a month ago [really, just a month ago], as I was getting ready to go to the airport and fly to Calgary to teach at the Make One retreat, a group of women came over to my house, stripped my living room [and me] bare, redecorated us both and had a little photoshoot.

Uh-whuh?? Yup. The genius women behind The Purple Purl, spearheaded by the insane fearless Miko [that's her in her redheaded glory on the right over there], decided at the 11th hour to do a naked knitter calendar to benefit an important charity. Yours truly was drafted to be Miss March.

The rest of the calendar is truly beautiful. [I'll let you decide for yourself what you think of my page, but I'll tell you that it's a rare picture of myself that I like, and I really like this one.] It's full of knitters of all ages and both genders. The mom of our Tushy Cushy model is featured in all her natural glory while wee Morgana was still tucked safely inside -- she was born a week later.

There is gorgeous knitting on every page -- though my page is more about yarn pr0n than finished objects -- and it's an absolutely beautiful and tasteful representation of our craft.

As the cover pic [above] and the little peek at my page [left] shows, none of our private bits show in this calendar. Carefully placed yarn and knitting did wonders for helping to maintain a minimum level of modesty.

Wanna see my pic bigger? BUY A CALENDAR! :-)

P.S. 90% of the yarn in this photo came from my stash. erp.

You have to have one of these calendars, don't you? Of course you do! Here are the details:

The Purple Purl is looking to raise a whole lot of funds for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation -- Canada’s leading cancer research hospital. The calendars cost $20 Cdn each.

Thanks to generous donations from partners in the yarn world as well as the time, energy and expertise of the models, photographers and helpers means that 100% of the proceeds are going to the Foundation. Your $20 purchase of each calendar will go directly to the Foundation. We think that's kickass.

Are you in or near Toronto?
Get your copy at The Purple Purl - 1162 Queen Street E @ Jones. 416-463-1162.

Can't get to Toronto?
They're very glad to take phone or e-mail orders!

Within Canada: $20 Cdn plus $5.50 Shipping & Handling
In the US: $20 Cdn plus $9.50 Shipping & Handling

Phone: 416-463-1162
E-mail: thepurplepurl@gmail.com

The shop closes xmas eve and stays closed till New Year's day,
so if you'd like one, better take care of it today!

Let's sell out every last copy of the calendar and send a huge $10,000 check to the Foundation on behalf of knitters all over the world!

um, holy crap.

Well, Wednesday was a fun day, eh? We went live after spending months getting the brand new, super-powerful server ready for you all and BOOM, she sploded.

[If you had any idea of the difference between what we had been running on for 6 years and the exponential improvement in hardware, capacity and pipeline with the new server, you'd be as frustrated as we were when it still wasn't enough to handle you all!]

Hub spent yesterday/yesterevening further tweaking the server settings, trying to make sure everyone could get in and by 11pm eastern time last night, we'd solved most of it. The server seems to be running smoothly now, and I find the download super-fast compared to an average day on the old server.

Thanks to 99% of you who understood we were doing our best to get it right! We'll be doing more prep behind the scenes before we go live with the surprise in 2009 and hopefully this won't happen again. But hey -- there are worse things than being so popular no one can get at your site, right?

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Guess what I'm going to do today? I'm going to a small PJ sewing party with my friend Jen. I'm going to pull out my Featherweight and dig into my stash of quilting fabric and make as many pairs of ridiculous PJ bottoms as I can.

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I've also got something to show you:

What's the yarn? Dudes. It's silk. From Briar Rose.

But Briar Rose doesn't do silk? They do now! Thanks to gentle persuasion from my friend, Jennie and yours truly, Chris at Briar Rose has finally added silk to her previously all-wool lineup! She gave me a gift of some of this gorgeousness at Rhinebeck and I wouldn't stop browbeating her until she agreed to put it in the shop, because I knew you'd want it too.

What's the pattern? It's a little something I've worked up for y'all. The whole thing will be available shortly, but I thought you might want a peek at the stitch pattern now. It explains why I'm calling the pattern Broccowli.

You may groan, and I wouldn't blame you.

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Me? I'm going to dig through a bag of fabric. Wheeeeee!

you gots questions? i gots answers.

Thanks to everyone who shared my joy over the Coraline box! I'm still pinching myself...and while we're waiting for the rest of the boxes to turn up, I figured I'd answer the questions from the comments.

Liz: How do you get a job like that? I dunno, but the production company is Laika and here's their careers page. How cool a job would that be?

To everyone who mentioned the secret code [sweaterxxs], it's not really a secret...it's meant to be shared! In case you missed the WWW update last week, here are the rest of the codes for the website:

stopmotion : the Biggest Smallest movie ever made.
buttoneyes : Meet the cast...
moustachio : Bo Henry, art director of Coraline, shows off his remarkable moustache tricks.
armpithair : Every hair in the film was placed there by hand...
puppetlove : Director Henry Selick explains what it must be like for the puppets in the film.

To those who recommended mounting options, thank you! I do want it to be accessible somehow but can't just screw it to the wall. It also needs to be protected against dust if I'm going to leave it open. One other concern is that it was meant to be displayed flat, and hanging it up vertically may put the tools and their little leather straps under too much stress and they may come loose [!]. So I'm thinking about that, too. Maybe a coffee table with built-in display under glass? Hrm.

To everyone who didn't know about the book, I'm thrilled to be the one to share it with you. Jeloca mentioned the audiobook version, read by Mr Gaiman himself, and that's how I read the book -- or rather had it read to me. I bought it at Audible.com [click that link for a free audiobook download if you're not yet a member]. Perfection.

Jeloca: I didn't need a reason to buy a DS or a Wii. You bad, bad enabler, you. :-)

Sharon: Lucky Portland! And yay you for getting to go home again!

Seanna Lee: You beat me. I've never gotten to hear him speak live yet. He's been to Toronto many times, but I didn't learn about the man until long after his last appearance. If he comes back, I'll be there, though.

Dawn: You described it perfectly.

Andrew: I don't think I knew about him when we had our walk. But I do still have "Little, Big" on my wishlist to read some day. :-)

Anonymous: You said it. A brilliant marketing scheme that makes people feel good AND want to see the movie. I hope they give the person who came up with the idea a big raise. Also, a thought...there are 50 of these sent out to active bloggers, but less than 20 have shown up. I wonder if they're sending them out staggered to prolong the excitement?

Obi-Shawn: The customs slip [because I'm in Canada, so they had to get it through customs with proper paperwork] said this was an exact replica of the sewing kit used in the movie. It looks identical to me, and if it's not the one they used, perhaps it was their backup prop in case of disaster. It matters not to me -- it's just as fabulous whether it got used or not.

Kim: You absolutely said it. The internet has been called the spreader of a lot of things, but I think the warm fuzzies that this gift represents is something the media doesn't talk about much. We should do something about that.

Okay, it's late. Night, all.

My Coraline Box

All over the web, boxes have been surfacing, each containing artifacts from the upcoming stop-motion 3D animated feature, Coraline, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I adore the man and his work. And his voice. And all that. I'll stop now. Sorry.

Anyway, when I started seeing Coraline boxes appearing on blogs of all sorts, I dreamed of getting one, but didn't imagine I really would. And then this arrived in the Knitty mailbox. Dudes, I cried with the happy when I realized what it was.

There are 50 boxes in total. This is box #8.

click to read the letter

Now that you've seen the images, I have to tell you something: most of the tools are not metal, despite what your eyes tell you. I have seen them from millimetres away, and if I didn't touch them, I'd never believe they weren't metal, machined to look so menacing and evil. I don't know what they are made from -- some sort of modelling material -- but they're very light and perfectly sculpted and painted to create the illusion that they clearly have achieved. This is not CGI...this is all work done by hand. Remember that when you watch the movie next February.

I am so honored to have received such a gift and want to thank the team in Portland, Director Henry Selick and Mr Gaiman for the whole fabulous Coraline experience.

Because this Coraline box is so uniquely configured, I am hoping to find a way to mount it safely to the wall [in the Knitty office, of course]. Because having it sit, closed, on a shelf would just be criminal.

You'll find the full set of images in my Flickr stream, captioned, for those as obsessed as I am.

omg omg omg omg omg omg omg

I went to the Knitty mailbox today and found this waiting for me.



Here's a clue about what might be inside:



(for those who know what this is, you will understand the blurriness of these pictures is justifiably attributable to sheer weepy joy. a full post on the contents will follow. i haven't even opened the envelope inside yet. i'm just savoring this, piece by piece.)

Dim Sum With 2 Amys!

Posted with LifeCast

Amy is here! She took me out for a dim sum lunch @ Bright Pearl and we had a blast, and an awful lot of squid and har gow.

She's got a new Blackberry. I've got the new iPhone. And the two of us were uploading photos of each other to just about everything. Facebook, Flickr, our blogs, you name it.

See? I told you I needed the iPhone for important business thingies! [No, really -- more on the businessy stuff for the iPhone after Knitty comes out. I have my priorities straight, really.]

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Meanwhile, now that Amy's officially living in Toronto, we're not showing our best weather manners. It couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or snow as we picked up a small supply of groceries for her new place this afternoon, so we just got cold and wet.

But it's okay. She's got a fabulous attic apartment [the kind Rhoda had, except without all the beads and most of the furniture] and it's all good.

I'm glad she's here.

You thought I was kidding?

We really do have a lot of shops that specialize in down products, many of them started by European immigrants to Canada in middle of the 20th century. Some are big chains, but I love finding an independent shop where they really understand their craft.

How do you find such luxuries in Canada? Why, simply visit the website of The Down Association of Canada. That's where I found Daniadown -- the company I bought the twin duvets from earlier this year. I'm not sure where I'll be taking the two-pillow project, but that's what the whole winter is for.

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Meanwhile, it's quiet around the blog and you guys know why. We're on the new server now and, knock wood, all seems to be as promised. Hub is going happynuts with programming things he was unable to on the old server. My happy geek boy.

Speaking of my geek boy, question: I've blindly cast on [after swatching and getting gauge] for a pair of kilt hose. I have 4 balls of Bulky Fixation and I'm wondering if that will be enough for his size-10 feet. Does anyone have any feedback for me?

[He doesn't read the blog. He's very much NOT a blog boy.]

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I'm picking up a special present at the airport today. I'm selfishly excited to have my good friend moving here. I know the next few months will be a challenge for her and Sandra, but I'm hoping I can help a little.

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Okay, head back down!

what i picked with my birthday gift certificate

Because it's all about a good night's sleep, I decided it was okay to treat myself to a brand-new uber-stuffed down pillow. I picked the Royal Velvet Majestic Gold 1200-Thread-Count Hungarian White Goose Down Pillow. I leave the full label in there, because there are [not kidding] seven billion different varieties of down pillow from this company and the differences are freaking subtle.

In the end, I went for pure down, Hungarian [because I'm half Hungarian, don'tchaknow], with the largest fill amount [26oz] I could find. I like the gussets on the side.

I've had many down pillows over the years and there are two on my bed that are so squooshed from years of use that they're not so much good any more. I am thinking, when the new pillow arrives, I'll take the two oldies to a down shop [we have several in town!] and have them made into one new pillow. They usually clean/refresh the down when they do that, so I'll have a fabulous backup pillow as a result!

Thus endeth my diatribe on pillowness.


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It's WWW day! Stay tuned!

i moebiused!

Remember this? Well, as promised, I cast on that evening, pulling a skein of craziness from my wall of special yarns. It's [I've just discovered, thanks to the power of Google] "Raggedy Cotton" from Henry's Attic. It's strips of cotton cut on the bias [so it's stretchy!], and dyed with my favorite aqua blue by Laura, who is rather good at the dyeing thing. I bought it at Lettuce Knit ages ago and had no idea what to do with it.

It's odd as yarn goes. It's not the softest yarn, but in the finished piece, it's got a lovely substance and it's the most wearable moebius I've ever knit. [In non-wools, they tend to be pretty floppy and I didn't want floppy.] I haven't washed it yet which may soften it, but I have put it on my head and wrapped it around my neck in multiple ways and it is quite fabulous.

What was most fabulous was that I only had 6" of yarn left after this project. 3" from my cast on, and, after choosing a random place to bind off, JUST ENOUGH to go around both sides of the piece [aka a freaking LOT of yarn], leaving a 3" tail. I believe Cat charmed the project from afar.

help me spend my birthday present!

How weird is this? I have a birthday-present Amazon gift certificate from my sister and her sweet hub burning a hole in my e-mail box and I cannot, for the life of me, make a decision about what to spend it on! Wanna tell me what I should buy?

I've got $75 to play with [they spoiled me!] and I can ship to their US address, so it can be anything Amazon sells. Things close to $75 but a little over are also cool. Books, music and DVDs are obvious choices, but too easy. I'm looking for...I don't know what! They don't sell yarn and I already looked for a Lazy Kate [not kidding].

If you're game, fill up my comments with your suggestions! Get creative! I don't promise that I'll pick one, but I just might...

I'll pick one commenter at random this Friday morning and send them something from the Knitty prize cupboard, so it'll be a little birthdayish for the winner, too! Let the coveting begin!

p.s. The cake above? Chocolate raspberry truffle. That's what hub got me to celebrate this birthday. It was UNBELIEVABLY delicious. <3 Dufflet.

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eta: My birthday was a month ago, but thanks for the wishes! Thanks for the DVD recs, but I don't think DVDs this time, either. Sorry I left it out of the original post. It's in now. :-)

Favorite suggestion so far? Kaphine's accordion.
Closest to my own taste: I already have a fuzzy logic rice cooker [bought from Amazon!] and LOVE it huge. Also have 2 OTT-Lites.
Wish I had the budget to top it up for: the Kindle. But I don't. Oh well.

Keep commenting! I love your suggestions! Off to see what vintage they've got! :-)

Knitty secrets revealed!

Okay, so I don't always talk about the business behind the scenes, but this is something you guys need to know about!

You know how, whenever a new issue of Knitty is released, the site gets bogged down and unreliable for about 6-8 hours? And then it's fine again? That's because we're on a shared server with an "unlimited traffic" account that we set up in 2002. It worked very well for quite a while, but as our readership grew [yay!], our server couldn't keep up.

About 2 years ago, we moved to a "better" account with the same webhost that was supposed to alleviate the problems. Those of you with long memories will remember that it was a disaster that shut the site down for hours and hours [not just a slowdown, but a complete stoppage of data] until we returned to our old server. Oy.

So more than a year ago, the hub [aka CTO of Knitty] started seriously pushing for us to upgrade our server situation. It's taken that much time for us to weigh our options, seek out solid solutions and finally, unbelievably, choose a provider. We signed up with the new provider today.

This is a huge deal for us. Moving to the new server should be almost invisible to you, and will likely happen in the next few days. Then we get to play with it, making sure it really does what they said it would. And then we get to implement the new features we put in place in September [the thing that made the server go boom seconds after we went live? that's the thing I'm talking about] and see how we do for the winter issue.

This means that the launch of the winter issue will be a breath-holding few hours for the hub and I. You guys are fabulously determined websurfers and we expect to be pounded with traffic the moment we launch, as usual. This time, we're 99.9% sure the new server can take it and more with no slowdowns! But as a practised skeptic, I'll believe it works when I see it working.

Should we have any trouble on launch day, please know we'll be doing our best to get it sorted out as quickly as possible. But our hope is that you won't notice any difference at all, except that you won't have to post "New Knitty's UP [and I can't get at the site]" on any message board ever again.

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The other thing the new server means is still a secret! We've been working on a sister site to Knitty [nope, not Knittyspin] since 2004. We plan to let the beta version loose as soon as we can. We're really excited about this new site and we hope you will be, too. It's something we believe knitters have wanted for ages, and we're looking forward to telling you all about it. When we can.

if you can watch this without smiling, you're broken

spotted on my sister's LJ.

this kid will be winning the Giller one day. or, more correctly, the French equivalent. undoutably.


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

if you are similarly smitten, her Vimeo stream has an RSS feed. :-)

The story in photos

This is Lake Louise, Alberta. It is possibly the most breathtaking place I've ever been to. Even prettier than Emerald Lake, if that's possible.

Lots of pictures for you to peek at, including Banff and -- most importantly -- the reason I was there: the Make 1 Yarns Fall Retreat students, teachers, their knitting and lots of fun. There's also the special Make 1 Retreat colorway on Lorna's Laces Amy-Friendly Yarn [!], in case a little yarn pr0n will help get you through your day. The other instructors at the event were Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Stefanie Japel, Nancy Bush and Cookie A, and everyone came out of their classes glowing and motivated. It was really exciting to see.

I taught my Plug & Play class, and it was great to see the students grabbing on to the concept and running with it. One of them [Jeneane] even got so far in her shawl that she snapped a picture and uploaded it to Ravelry before the class was over!

It was an absolutely fabulous retreat, super-organized and fun, because of Amy and Sandra, the owners of Make 1 Yarns, organizers of this retreat. They took care of every detail and are most generous hostesses. 92 happy, smiling students can't be wrong.

I hope I get the chance to do it again next year!

improved portability and a BIRTHDAY

Remember this? the portable solution

I have been trying to figure out some sort of mobile connectivity solution for 2 years now. The Palm T|X is good, but often S.L.O.W. And there's no e-mail without wifi.

Fast forward to Scout and I driving to Rhinebeck. Hub txts me that we need to do a bank transfer and I'm nowhere near the internet and won't be all weekend. What do I do?

Scout hands me her iPhone. I am intimidated. It's so shiny.

I type in the URL for my Canadian bank and within 5 minutes [because of the spotty cel coverage where we were driving, otherwise it would have been faster], I've transferred $ from one account to another and am lost.

It's my birthday today, and guess what I'm getting? [It's ordered through Rogers, just not here yet.]

It's still not the all-in-one solution I was hoping for [I'll need to use the Palm for fixing HTML files and uploading them], but it's 80% of the solution, and that's good enough for me.

Besides, it's really cool and I'm an embarrasing sucker for the coolness.

Knitty's 2009 Calendar Contest winners announced!

It's here! The 2009 Knitty Calendar, fresh off the press and ready for you!

This year, we had a great assortment of photos to choose from and that always makes the final selection process hard. But it's a fun kind of hard and I had a blast putting this one together.

This year's cover photo is from Emily Smartt of Tennessee. Don't miss the fuzzy friends in the background on the right. Just a great picture, Emily, and congratulations! Your huge [and I mean HUGE] box of books, yarn and shwag will be in the mail shortly.

The other 11 winners featured in this year's calendar are also stellar!

January: Elizabeth Caron
February: Emily Smartt
March: Angela Moore
April: Renée Sparkes
May: Ann Makela Schneider
June: Lindsey LaPlant
July: Lorrella Cobb
August: Heather La Rivière
September: Alex Walper
October: Allison Reilly
November: Sarah Friesen
December: Michelle DesGroseilliers

To see each of the winning images, just visit the calendar in the Knittyshop and you can flip through each page at your leisure. Each of the runner-up winners gets a copy of the calendar. They'll be in the mail shortly as well!

What about all the other great photos that didn't make it in? You'll find them in the 2009 Honorable Mention Gallery.

I got to pick up the load of calendars for prizes at Rhinebeck, and they really look fabulous. I'm so pleased, and I hope the winners and our readers will be just as happy.

For now, just remember: when you're photographing your Knitty knits, think about making a calendar entry out of it! You could be the winner of the HUGE box of coolness next year!

Rhinebeck 2008 encapsulates the glory of fall.

I've been to Rhinebeck three times now, and this year was the first that really felt like fall. Brilliant fall colors and a significant chill in the air. In fact, I was so programmed by previous visits where knitwear = shvitz that I underpacked and missed two great silk sweater days. Yes, it was that cold.

For those who'd rather look than read, the full photostream is here. For the rest of you, a brief walking tour.


I met many new-to-me Knitty and Knittyspin readers this trip. This group of glowingly happy women were just the first 3 out of a whole group of them. Happy friends getting to hang together. That's what Rhinebeck means to me. [That sounded like the title of a grade 5 essay, didn't it? Sorry.]


My friend Jennie the Potter -- that's her on the right -- made her first professional appearance at Rhinebeck this year and her booth was continually full of jaw-dropped fiber freaks.


Watch for more on Jennie's newest offerings in the winter issue of Knitty.


I finally got to meet Lynne Vogel, who was as fun as this picture suggests.


Of course, I got to hang with Jillian [far right] and Carla [far left], as well as the bonus hanging with Kay and Ann [and Ann's friend Kelly] as we lined up and lunched on chicken pot pies.


Not all girls, though! Stephen, Franklin [sometimes] and Sean were Scout's unofficial posse as she made her way through her first Rhinebeck, which means I got to see a lot of them.

My pictures are pretty lame when it comes to capturing most of my friends, though. Like where are pictures of me and Scout? Me and anyone, for that matter? For some reason, I was living the fun, not thinking about blogging it. I guess that's not so bad, but it doesn't make for a very electrifying blog post. :-)

Speaking of Scout, she picked me up at the Newark airport and we got to drive to Rhinebeck and back together. It was so good to have a little time with her, since she lives so danged far away, and we laughed a lot. We also found the best pickle [sour new dill] on Route 17 in New Jersey. I will be dreaming of that pickle for a long time.

I didn't make it to any big meetups or the Rav party. I was feeling a little insular and wanted to be with a smaller group of friends this time. I still got to meet tons of people as I walked all through the grounds, and that was great!

Every single button and sticker was passed out to Knitty fans and a lot of you guys were much less shy than you've been in the past. Rock on! You know, you never have to apologize for coming up to say hi or that you like Knitty. That's the nicest thing I can ever hear. And I heard it a lot this weekend. So thank you to each and every person who took the time to poke me on the shoulder and grin at me. I send you all hugs.

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There are two more Rhinebeck posts coming. Stay tuned!

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Anyone notice anything different about the blog?

off to Rhinebeck!

To those not going, I totally understand what it feels like. I had to read about Rhinebeck twice as a bystander before I decided I couldn't stand not to go the next time it came around. If you can't come this year, maybe next year!

For those going, I just wanted you to know that I'll be packing the Knitty swag bag which is, this time, full of Knitty buttons and Euro stickers. We've also got brand new Knittyspin buttons to celebrate the official Knittyspin launch. So if you see Jillian or I walking around the fair, don't be shy. Ask for a button!

Travel spinning: my Houndesign laceweight spindle + some sort of tussah from my stash.
Travel knitting: restarted toe-up sock -- 2nd of a pair! -- just inches from the bind off and my top-down raglan in my Amy Friendly yarn.

Hope everyone travels safely! See you on the flip side!

if you don't know this guy, you need to

Keri and I got to see Jason Mraz last night in concert in Toronto at Massey Hall. It was, without question, the best concert experience I've ever had. I don't crush on Jason. It's just that his voice hits the exact frequency in my body that makes all things good and possible and right. You must have a singer who does that for you. Jason Mraz is mine.

The video above is from some brilliant person who was also there last night. The quality is EXTRAORDINARY. If I did this right, I've embedded the high-quality version.

I could gush all day about this guy, but I've got to get ready for Rhinebeck, and besides, his music speaks for itself.

nu-uh she di-n't!

Okay, I didn't realize. The non-wool yarn that Beth at Lorna's Laces is using for my colorway? She's been calling it "Amy Friendly Yarn" in messages to me.

But dudes. That's its official name in stores and everything. I'm sure it's the height of ego to be amused by this, but I can't help it.

Proof? Here's the stuff for sale and everything:
- at The Loopy Ewe

- at Jimmy Beans Wool

There is giggling on this side of the keyboard.

knitting! in progress! um, wow!

this would be Gretel-in-progress, being knit in Handmaiden Swiss Mountain Silk Cotton in [probably] Dandelion. have i made errors following the chart? yup. do i care? not enough to frog. soldiering on. i actually started this hat about 15 times with different yarns and needles, so now that i'm this far, i'm going on until absolute folly is apparent, or i end up with a hat.

[i find the best way for me to get accurate gauge swatches for hats is to start the hats, knit an inch or so and then pull from the needles and try on. nothing else works for me.]



this is the gorgeousness of Amy-Friendly Yarn [named by Beth] from Lorna's Laces [silk/bamboo] in Amy's Vintage Office. top-down raglan has begun. LOVING the fabric. yum.

pattern i'm using is based on Stef Japel's top-down raglan formula. i'm trying to understand garment shaping a little better, so i decided it was time to use the formula, not follow a pattern. will this actually result in a wearable sweater? we'll see, won't we? :-)

quick cold-brew coffee primer for Jacquie

because i miss her. :-)

there are lots of posts all over the web about this. here's a short one, condensed with what i've learned so far and my [simple] methods.

ingredients:
- a French Press coffee pot, which i just happened to have around* the house. you can do the same with a big jar and a fine sieve. i just like having a use for something that was in the basement.

- medium-coarse ground coffee [mine so far is a blend of 1/3 ethopian beans, 2/3 sumatran. supposedly blends make better cold-brew, or so i've read]. if you can grind them just before brewing, that's best

- water

- time

here's what i do:
- grind some beans -- a small handful makes about 2/3c
- measure exactly 2/3c and put it in the bottom of the French Press
- measure exactly 1.5c of water from the Brita pitcher and pour it on top
- i have one of those Nigella scrambly whisks and i mix up the whole mess until all the coffee grounds are wet
- put the plunger lid on top, UNplunged, and leave on the kitchen counter for 12 hours, no more. [more = bitterness]
- push the plunger down and pour the coffee concentrate into another container [i use a glass jar] and put in the fridge

to make my favorite milky, sweet latte, so far the blend is:

1 part coffee concentrate
1 part 2% milk
.5 part sugar-free vanilla syrup

that makes it quite milky and sweet. that's today's mix, anyway -- i will likely fine tune it.

if you like regular coffee, the coffee concentrate should be diluted 1:1 with water. but i don't like regular coffee, so i have no opinion.

---

i make this stuff because i think and work better with one single coffee in me in the morning, and my kitchen is closer than any coffee shop and much cheaper. also, this stuff is really delicious and, as advertised, feels less acidy on the tum [which is something i have to deal with].

*the final irony is that this bodum french press? it came as a gift from Starbucks. i'm not kidding. when the less-big coffee giant first came to Toronto in the late '90s, i was annoyed that there was no website of any sort for Starbucks [that's how long ago it was] where i could find the nearest location. so i started my own. [!]

amusingly, Starbucks head office found out about it and wrote to thank me [again, !!] and ask for my address. they sent me a box of coffee stuff, most of which we still have, and this coffee press was in that box. so my home-brew is courtesy of Starbucks, saving me at least $4 every time i make one myself. :-)

things!

Urchin, complete. what is that yarn? why, it's my first handspun! silk hankies, bought at Rhinebeck the first year i went, from Chasing Rainbows [colorway, Pansies].

looks relatively cute from the front. from the back and sides, not so much. maybe with a scarf around my neck? the expanse of neckness without hair hanging down over it is a bit startling to me.

- therefore, i've cast on a Gretel. i do believe, however, that darling Ms Ysolda is on crack about the stockinette gauge after multiple tests. we'll see if it actually fits with the finer-gauge yarn i'm using and her same stitch count. the band is absolutely big enough so far, hence the "on crack" thing.

- yesterday was hub's and my 18th [!!!] anniversary. before we fell asleep, we both said we'd marry the other again in a second. damn straight. i don't know how i was lucky enough to find this challenging man who's helped me fix my baggage, but i was and i'm very thankful of it.

- my head is aspin [ha! pun!] with thoughts of Rhinebeck. last year, we did SOAR and had a blast, and i am constantly thinking of Denny who's there right now and what she might be doing. and drinking. and suspending from balconies. but even more, i am so looking forward to seeing all my people at Rhinebeck.

- i might also be formulating a short must-have shopping list because there's no way i'm doing Rhinebeck without a plan. the #1 thing is a specific spindle, and i'm not telling which because if i get there and they're all gone, there will be such wailing you have never heard. after that, it's all gravy. or artichokes.

- my Rhinebeck hoodie is ordered and shipped to Jillian, my unofficial-official US-based postmistress. Cafepress impressed me -- they shipped almost immediately. so if you wanted one, there's probably still time to grab it! just sayin. there's always a coupon on the left sidebar of the shop, just in case you wanna go for it.

- oh, in case you didn't know, Jillian and I are signing at Carolina Homespun on Sunday at 1pm at Rhinebeck. we don't have time to do the author tent this time, so come see us at Morgaine's booth [she's the coolest, you know].

- there's more, but i have to get to work.

my Neil Gaiman needs have been met

Thanks to all the kind folks who offered to get me an autograph from one of my favorite authors. Turns out that my friend Dawn's got me covered, so you guys are off the hook. She lives in Mr G's home town even!

Thank you, Dawn! Now get in the back of Jennie's truck and come to Rhinebeck with her!!

in knitting news...

There are no words to describe how much I love Ann and Kay right now.

You girls are righteous. [Where did you get the wigs? If you tell me they were your mamas', I think I'll faint.]

Every day of the week I feel like a geek

Are you easily offended by rude and/or inappropriate song lyrics? Does it bother you when songs don't rhyme? Or when musicians don't exactly get the notes right every time, on purpose?

If so, whatever you do, please don't click on this link and select "Everyone Knows" from the player at the top right of the screen. Really. I mean it.

another Vintage Office sighting in the wild!

A big wave and e-hug to Zonda for a lovely post, with great pics, of her new woolly skeins of Amy's Vintage Office. Thank you, Zonda!

are you going to one of Neil Gaiman's upcoming signings? and more about all sorts of yarn!

He's not coming anywhere near Canada, but he IS going all over the US and onwards. Does anyone who reads this blog plan on going and getting an autographed copy of the new Graveyard Book? If so, would it be possible for you to buy a copy of his book for me and have it signed, too? Of course I'll pay the cost of the book, postage and I'll send you some beauty yarn as a thank you.

For those who love Neil, but didn't know about the tour, here is a post with all the dates/times/locations:

Neil Gaiman's Journal: The Graveyard Book Tour

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We are just a few days away from the next Yarn Roundtable and we have a few spaces left. If you're going to be in Toronto this Thursday night, we'd love to have you join us! Visit the Yarn Roundtable blog and leave a comment to the September post to RSVP.

I have heard rumors about a home-baked chocolate cake making an appearance. It would be criminal to miss it.

Amy's Vintage Office on Silk/Bamboo

I can't hold this in any longer.

This is the Lorna's Laces colorway on the gorgeousness that is 51% silk, 49% bamboo and oh.

Just oh.

This colorway was inspired by vintage enamelled steel office furniture and accessories in a variety of shimmery, glowing colors, and this shimmery silk/bamboo version is exactly what I had hoped for. Better, even, with Beth's exquisite sense of color, flow and balance. I am in deep love. Click the picture to see it larger. Yum.

Read more about this yarn and how it will only be available for a limited time from Lorna's Laces.*

Contact your LYS and ask them to get it for you. And then come back here and show me what you knit with it! I'm multitasking, but promise to show a knitted swatch asap!

*if this stuff sells really well, it might encourage Beth to keep it in the lineup full time. I dream of being able to get Lorna's Laces colorways on Amy-friendly yarn and I can't be the only one. Speak with your wallets, knitters, and tell Beth you love the new non-woolly Lorna's and want to see more of it!

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eta: Kim Werker, crochet goddess and editor, was at Lorna's this week, and look at the pic she took! I forgot my camera on the Chicago trip, so even though she didn't do it for me, thanks for taking this pic, Kim!

i has a color.

And it has a name: Amy's Vintage Office. Have you seen the new Color Commentary series from Lorna's Laces? Well, it was just one color until we got mine done -- Franklin's Panopticon, which is an insanely cool combination of yumminess, was the first. Now that there are two of us, it's definitely a series! [I hear there are many more colors to come from famous knitting folk all over the place!]

So Beth, who runs Lorna's, asked me to describe my dream colorway to her, and as she writes, it took us a while to get there. I thought I wanted one thing, which was bright and crazy. But then it turned out that what I really wanted was for Beth to encapsulate one of my big loves -- vintage office furniture -- into yarn colors. The mainstay, of course, is my huge charcoal steel desk. The rest are aspirational items -- things that aren't yet in my office, but I would love to have them here. The tones of vintage powdercoated steel make my heart beat faster at a flea market, and now that I see them in yarn form, I am just as enamored.

Why is there no knitted swatch here like there is on Franklin's post? Well, that's because Lorna's Laces is pretty much a 100% woolly house of yarn. All the protoypes I got to see were on wool, and I even borrowed a group of Purple Purl knitters including a visiting author-friend to help test knit swatches so I could choose the final color. Adrienne took home two different colorways, one of which turned out to be the final Amy's Vintage Office.

Beth will be dyeing up some of my colorway on Amy-friendly yarn and I promise to share a big swatch with you the moment it arrives. Will she be selling this Amy-friendly yarn? She might, if enough of you ask for it. Go visit Beth's blog and tell her what you think of the colorway!

[Lorna's Laces retailers will be able to order the colorway for you. Just sayin.]

happy birthday to one of my favorite people in the world!

i miss you, Theresa! i hope you had a fabulous day!
[youtube vid shamelessly stolen from the HWR blog, because there cannot be enough silly Norwegian boys singing in my day today]

What has happened since last I wrote...

• I became a cover girl [as designer only. Julia is the super-hot model in my knitwear on the ONLY hot day so far this month. And she looked so good in the cowl, I had to give it to her.]
  
  
• Wait, cover? What cover? Don't you know about Knittyspin? This issue, it got its own cover. Dang well about time, too.
  
  
• Yup, fall Knitty came out, and this time, we've got yer printer-friendly pages for ya! This is why I have been a hermit the last month or so.
  
  
• My uke fingers are all soft again. Poo. Haven't been able to touch the thing in a week. Back at it to get my fretting fingers back in shape!
  
  
• I have been knitting behind the scenes for relaxation! Progress is being made on the Luscious Silk lace Sonnet. Photos forthcoming, but don't you dare make me get the camera out again today, okay?

I'm sure there's more, but I can barely see the screen now, so I say byebye. Big love. Sleepies now.

A cupcake for Brenda!

Some time early this afternoon [eastern time in North America], Brenda Dayne's Cast On podcast celebrated a milestone. Some clever person became the 1,000,000th person to download her podcast! A million people! [Brenda, I can't imagine what your bandwidth charges are. Ack!]

Go over and give her a smooch of congratulations. We knew her when, eh? Our little Brenda. I'm so proud!

we interrupt this self-inflicted blog silence...

...to let you know that one of my favorite books EVER is available for free download here. Neverwhere is fantastic [in the dictionary sense of the word], captivating, evil [in the deepest sense of the word] and unstoppable reading.

Good thing, too, because the free book -- to read online or download -- will only be available for a month. Not sure how they've done it, but if you download the PDF version, it will only work for a month from today. Cool.

Go! Get it!

I'm going back to work.

i'm going mental, i must say.

but it's a good kind of mental. the knitty-production kind which means never leaving my office [my house] for more than a short break and dreaming in pixels and stitches per inch.

it's all for good reason but i figured you wondered where i'd gone and didn't want you sending out the troops just yet. okay, maybe send one troop, skilled in multiple massage disciplines [thai, swedish, maybe a little shiatsu on the side] and beverage making. and housecleaning. and laundry. and litterbox changing.

i extra-special hope you'll love this issue. you'll see why when we go live. and that's all i'm saying.

Notes from an audiobook addict

If you've been reading this blog for a long while, you'll know I'm a huge fan of audiobooks. I spend so much time using my eyes [on the computer, for knitting, beading, etc] that when it comes to focusing on print on a page, I don't last very long, which is frustrating. Plus there's nothing better than being read to, imo, especially by a good reader. I love that.

So I figured it's about time I shared my favorite audiobooks with you. Not all at once. :-) Let's do it a book or series a week, okay?

Unsurprisingly, I'll start with my favorite, one of the most unique audiobook series I've ever come across: His Dark Materials series written by Philip Pullman.

In the audiobook version, Pullman narrates along with a cast of character voices that make the story come to life. Pullman may not be the most brilliant writer of our time, but he is a brilliant storyteller, and when you listen to his trilogy told as he [likely] imagined it as he wrote it, there can be nothing better. Be sure, if you're going to get these books, that you choose the UNABRIDGED versions, narrated by Philip Pullman and the Full Cast. There are other versions available and I wouldn't want you to miss the whole experience.

The first book, The Golden Compass, was recently turned into a major motion picture staring [sigh] Daniel Craig and a whole bunch of other people, but mostly Daniel Craig. The second, The Subtle Knife, will likely never be made into a movie and the third, The Amber Spyglass, I highly doubt. There's a strong anti-church theme to the books that grows with each volume. If this upsets you, please don't choose these books. You won't like them.

I don't necessarily share all of Pullman's views, but I found all three books fascinating, captivating and hugely entertaining. In fact, I'm re-listening to them now and am nearly at the end of the final book. Pullman is stunningly innovative and I love the fine details of the alternate worlds he creates and especially the two main characters [you won't meet one of them till book 2, so I won't give away anything here. I hate spoilers.] and the armoured bears. Our world could use armoured bears, if you ask me.

If you click here, you'll be taken to a page on Audible.com that offers you a free audiobook download -- that you get to keep -- with a trial no-obligation 14-day subscription. I'm all about the free stuff, and I've enjoyed being a customer of Audible, so I don't feel weird about passing the information on to you.

I'll have another book for you next week.

where we wuz this weekend...

god, i love this lake.
Originally uploaded by amysinger

here. right here in Milford, Pa, at the tippy top of the state.

i didn't get more than my feet in the water [it was a wedding weekend, not so much with the swimming] and just looking at this picture makes ache to be up to my neck in the lake. sigh.

the wedding [a renewal of vows, actually] was really beautiful and i loved seeing my family and getting to meet my new cousin, who is my new BFF.

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i loved reading about your weekends! you guys were busy!

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in other news:

- my teevee boyfriend got married this weekend. [p.s. that link is a bit rude -- it's to dlisted, but it's also funny]

- as I picked up Boeing to put her in the carrier to take her to the bunnyspa [vet's] for boarding, I noticed something horrible on her chest that wasn't there three days earlier. Boeing suddenly has an abscess and I got pretty angry at myself once I figured out how she got it -- a chew toy had been chewed to a shart point and she actually punctured her skin with the damned thing. she's already had a first shot of pen. g and is improving, but we'll continue to be worried about her until she's healed. if it weren't for the small hole filled with goo on her chest, you'd never know she had the thing -- knock wood, she's acting totally normally, which is good.

yup, really angry at myself. chewtoy put aside [out of bun reach] to show doc in case he needs to see it. sigh.

looking as cool as a Fisher & Paykel

My office has recently had a makeover. Wanna see?



What, it doesn't look so different from the last time, except significantly messier? Well, you're not paying attention, then.



Every good office should have a ukulele. [and a Pee-Wee bobblehead and a set of 3 Serenity action figures including Captain Tightpants in said pants and Jayne with a bigass gun].

But wait -- here's the best thing. Did I buy this $14.95 custom-designed hanger to get my uke out of oops-i-just-sat-on-my-uke range?



No. I went to Rona and bought this, except smaller and in grey:


For 80 cents. What the hell costs 80 cents anymore? Not even a pack of gum. I feel quite clever.

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Also! The Knitty Calendar Contest ends tomorrow night at midnight! Have you sent in your entry yet? You know you want to.

Let me be your boogaloo!

The 1980s wasn't all about Duran Duran. I just think you should know.

I was searching for chords for Jane Siberry songs and ran across this. This is one of my favorite Siberry songs. Jane is so young in this video, and so adorable. I guess I was young and adorable too when I watched it the first time.



[If this gets your musical juices going, find more at Jane's site --Sheeba.]

It's very freaky, Bowie.

It really happened. Baseballic proof above. Below, video proof. The first clip is hysterical -- they drove me out on the field in a van! If you listen, you can hear the announcer saying something about "Amy Singer, editor of Knitty..." and then a whole bunch of stuff I can't make out.

Surreal? You can't even imagine. If there weren't pictures, I'd swear it didn't happen.

[For the full photo thread, click the baseball pic above. I captioned them, even.]





Yes, I threw it respectably well enough. The ball made it all the way to the mascot's catcher's mitt, no troubles. But my favorite thing was the huge cheers I got from the knitters in the 200 section. The roar was clearly coming from my people and there were a LOT of them. 900+ tickets sold. You guys make me proud to be a Toronto girl.

Oh, I hear there was knitting afterwards. I tried to knit two rows, frogged both, and spent the rest of the game chatting with friends and, at the end, finally watching the field. We won, and it was a great win -- last hit of the last inning kind of thing. Love baseball when it's good.

brunettes, not fighter jets!

In honor of this, and with much trepidation and also the strapping on of some very large balls, I present my online ukulele debut.

Groupies may apply to peoplewithverylowstandards@knitty.com



This song is not in my key vocally [I'm sort of high-alto], but I could play all the chords, so I left it as it was. And the reason I decided to put the video up despite all common sense is that I'm quite proud of my uke playing after just over a week of practise. The singing-along is a necessary evil.

All other knitter/ukulele players, raise your hands! Bring your ukes to stitch nights! Amuse your fellow knitters, and have everyone sing along! I'll be bringing mine to Rhinebeck and encourage all of you who are coming to do the same!

Seriously, though. I just sang for you on teh interwebs. If you're in Toronto tomorrow night, you'd better come out and represent for the knitters when I throw out the first pitch. No coming in late. I will likely never be on the pitcher's mound in a huge stadium again in my lifetime. You don't want to miss that, do you?

say hello to my leeeetle friend.

:-)

I'm not a large water-dwelling mammal who's moved to the metropolis and learned how to breakdance.

A little music to get you in the weekend [long-weekend in Canada] mood, courtesy the WIUO.

come on sucker, lick my battery*

so while all the work on knitty continues, other things are introducing themselves into my world. fun things. things i haven't let myself think about because they're just too silly and will i really do them?

the mystery object at left found its way to me last week due to the most ridiculous example of serendipity i've ever experienced. i wanted this exact thing -- same color, even -- and elizabeth's daughter had been given this exact thing but it wasn't the right size model [in this case, size did matter :-)]. so now it lives with me.

you may be able to guess what it is, but i'm not telling until next week. i've been working with it and am not ready for my debut just yet. i won't be ready next week, either, but that's just part of this whole new attitude to life thing i'm feeling lately. if i wait for everything i do to be perfect before i share it, i'll never share ANYTHANG. and life is too short for that crap.

i'm not getting reckless. i'm just going to stop preventing myself from doing stuff i really want to do because i think i might look silly doing it.

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*yes, the Conchord-titled blog posts continue. what are you gonna do about it? eh?

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i've also been beading, but since almost all of it is for gifts, you won't see it here for a while.

and prototype knitting has begun on the Blue Moon Luscious Silk sweater, which has resulted in two swatches, both frogged. this design probably requires alternating 2 balls to make the best use of the gorgeous colors. variegateds are kicking my butt lately.

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okay, back to work. and then the mystery thing. woo!

oh, and did you know? one of those magic erasers can make your computer keyboard look like new [just make sure every bit of the water is squeezed out first]. the trackpad, too. i wonder if they're nuclear or magical something. how do they do it?

you're so beautiful, you could be a waitress

[scout on the left, me on the right, wearing our karmically linked zulugrass.]
image shamelessly stolen from scout's flickr

when life works out like it did earlier this week, it's hard not to believe in the power of external forces. i choose to believe it's karma. and good timing.

jillian and carla are my roomies for Rhinebeck this October [Rhinebeck! wooooo!]. they're driving direct from Michigan, which is a long enough trip on its own. they ain't sweeping past Toronto to pick me up this time, and i don't blame them a bit.

i have been agonizing over every possible route and method of transport to Rhinebeck for months. don't want 12 hours on the train. don't want to drive 7+ hours alone. no affordable flights from here to the closest airport to Rhinebeck.

then Scout -- who i stayed with last June when i visited Albuquerque, and have missed ever since -- blogs [in a rare blog post] that she's going too. i tell her she'd better come because i'll be there.

next thing you know, we realize we're both going to be in the same 20-mile radius at about the same time both before and after Rhinebeck, and the result? Scout's picking me up at Newark airport [cheapish flight, yay!], we're driving to Rhinebeck together. and back again on Sunday after the show.

scout and i on the road. in her daddy's car [!], with my GPS and her satellite radio. oh, you *so* would want to be in the back seat for that trip, but you can't, so there. we're both so excited to be able to have time to hang out together, you should have read the chat transcript as we made the plans. lots of vowels strung together with exclamation marks at the end of 'em.

you want beads? i got yer beads right here.

the first FO. these are shimmery delica beads in a pre-mixed assortment i bought at a great bead store in Chicago a few years ago. the contents of one tiny tube JUST made a band long enough.



here's the clasp from the pretty side. it's sterling and was $6 [i think] at Arton Beads on Queen West in Toronto. here's how i attached it:



is that the right way to do it? it's the only way i could think of, and it's very strongly attached to the band, so i'm leaving it as it is.

the clasp is rather brilliant. easy enough to get on but a bugger to get off, which means i don't have to worry about it coming undone like toggles do.

and the peanut is a little thing i've been wearing on a simple chain for a while. i just like it.

can somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?

and now, i end the teasing. look what arrived in my mailbox last week.





4 skeins of sex brand-new Blue Moon Luscious Silk in the colorway Gypsum. i had no idea it was coming. so i opened the package and then i had to sit down because all the blood drained out of my head. i rubbed it all over the public parts of myself [don't get gross now] and made soft moaning noises.

if you haven't been stalking the Blue Moon website [or the new development, Tina's blog!], you might not have noticed the new additions to the site. silk. one or two-ply and worsted-weightish. can you stand it? more stunningly, 360 yards of this gorgeous hand-dyed-by-Tina silk is only $28.

then i ran to the swift and turned the first skein into a cake and started swatching.

jillian has taught me that long stretches of color aren't going to work so well horizontally on my bod, but if i knit side to side...



and when i think side to side, of course i think of kristi porter, which is why a lacy variation of Sonnet is going to be the next thing on my needles. lace because it's cooler [and silk is warmer than wool, so coolness must be factored in to the design plan!] and because 4 skeins of this sex gorgeous 2-ply silk = 1440 yards means it needs to be lacy if i want it to be long-sleeved. and i do.

i'm knitting something for fall Knitty as well, and it's damned hard to concentrate on deadline knitting with this stuff looking at me and winking seductively. oh, my life is so hard, isn't it?

got an hour to kill?

Yup, I done opened my mouth again. This time, the podcast was CraftSanity, and what you'll hear is me sounding more like me than any other interview I've done.

You know how sometimes you know stuff but you haven't had to articulate it so the stuff just floats around your head, all nebulous? Well, in this podcast, Jennifer, the host, got it all out of me.

I'm not one for Mission Statements. I think they're kind of pompous and usually pretty generic. But this podcast is about as close as I'll get to stating Knitty's mission...so if you are interested in why Knitty does things the way we do, give it a listen.

And then come back and tell me what you think, will you?

knitting math

+

+

+
a mystery ingredient =
the newest thing on my needles.


how's that for a weekend-eve teaser?

music that's making Knitty go today

[his website makes me giggle. listen to all the stuff he's done for each of the pages. don't click too fast!]



keep your hands off my teevee boyfriend -- jemaine.
[hey, j, the mustache could go, but don't you dare touch the sideburns]

lather, rinse, repeat.
um, yes, please.

My sweet Vespa

Doods. Today was my first scooter rally -- The Twisted Wheel Scooter Rally in Toronto. Rallies are basically a reason to ride together, compare and compliment scoots and get ideas for what you might want to do to yours next.

There was also a raffle for a brand new vespa [I didn't win], and contests in all sorts of categories. Surprisingly, I *did* win one of the judged awards: Sweetest Modern Scoot. I guess everyone was won over by my pink leopard seat cover and matching pink sparkly tassels. There's also a pompom hanging from my rear rack in sparkly purple. Clearly, the sparkle appeals.

Take a peek at my photos for the day if you like Vespas too. There's a purple one in there that I will wager you have never seen the likes of anywheres. [And it won for Sweetest Vintage Scoot. You ain't kidding.]

you can't take me out anywhere, but someone's gonna try.

hub brought me this last night as a little present.

a pink baseball.

for what reason?

why?

i guess it's well-known enough that i am fond of pink, but that's not the main reason.

it's a baseball, after all. what is it doing in my house?

perhaps a closeup might make its purpose more apparent:


dudes. i'm gonna throw out the first pitch at the Toronto Stitch & Pitch game on August 5th.

i am simultaneously thrilled, horrified, terrified, excited and a little giddy. the baseball is in our house because i don't just throw like the stereotypical girl. i throw like a 4-year-old girl. hub says we're gonna train before it's time for me to stand on the pitcher's mound in the middle of SkyDome the stadium in front of, like, lots of people, and try [desperately] to at least get the ball as far as the catcher.

meanwhile, my friend Dawn tells me this Training ball is the same type of ball 5-year-olds use to play t-ball. and i bet they can all throw the ball better than i can.

---

garden update!

so the fence was in when i last wrote about our troubled backyard.

last fall, we planted two apple trees and lots of shrubs in the border to begin filling it out.


well, the lawn is scraggly and there are tons of weeds, but there is also a brand new raised bed! we bought a raised bed kit from Lee Valley Tools, and i searched out patio stones that weren't butt-ugly for the sidewalls. these look like slate. hub built the thing with great care, ensuring there was anti-weed cloth under the box and sifting the soil to get out as much of the wild violet roots as possible.


foody things are now growing in there! we transplanted the tomato, and planted arugula, parsley and endive seeds for the buns -- everything but the parsely sprouted in 2 days! we're too late in the season for much else, but i will go seek out some overgrown seedlings at the garden centers that are still open around here.

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!]

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?]

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!

---

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.

---

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.]

---

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.]

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

what I did during Earth Hour

I was reading the latest issue of Spin Off by battery operated lantern light and realized that if I didn't pull out the wheel right then, I was clearly missing a strange anachronistic opportunity.

So this was me, spinning by candlelight [and a little battery-operated Coleman lantern], and it was very nice. I'm working on filling a bobbin with aqua-blue bamboo, and got quite a nice bit done tonight. Remarkable how much of spinning is touch-based, so not a lot of light was needed. Then again, I haven't really looked at what I spun in the dark. :-)

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my Schacht Ladybug? I do. I will elaborate in the next Knittyspin column.

p.s. in case you somehow missed it, Earth Hour details here. sure it's a gimmick, but anything that gets us to remember to turn off the lights is a good gimmick imo. our whole neighborhood is pretty much still dark and it's 10pm. really cool.

a winner!

it's damned good i didn't have to choose a winner based on why you wanted the discount, because so many of you told stories that made me all warm inside. you guys are good people.

instead, i did as i said, and went to the random number generator. plugged in 57 as the total (inclusive, of course) and the number it chose?



so the 12th comment gets it...and that's Sarah! [what's your e-mail address?]**

thanks to everyone who commented. i knew there were more lurkers hanging about. hi to you all!

**p.s. Sarah is currently unreachable. If I don't hear from her by Friday morning, I'll pick a new winner! Because dangit, this code needs to get in the hands of another bag ho. :-)

a contest!

Okay, so I recently entered the Moo cards Egg Hunt contest [multiple times] and got one of the prizes, but I just can't use it. So I'm throwing it up here for you guys!

It's a 20% discount on anything at the Timbuk2 shop, and the code is good till May 30 this year.

How can you win? Simple. Leave a comment with the name of the thing you'd buy if you got the discount code. I'll use a random number generator and pick a winner! Make sure you're contactable in your blogger link or with an e-mail address so I can get the code to you if you win!

Comments entered before midnight Pacific time today are eligible. Go to it!

perfect after 17.5 years

my husband's nickname for me is Mrs Fussy. because i am. honestly.

here's the story behind this gorgeousness and how it came to be.

in 1989, my beloved presented me with a lovely engagement ring. the setting was very nice, but i really wanted to wear the ring next to my wedding ring on the same finger, and the design wouldn't permit it. so we had the diamond put into a standard claw setting.

i am a bit of a klutz, and hit my hands hard on things. as a result, the claws kept coming loose from the setting, meaning the diamond might be lost at any moment. after having this ring fixed 3 times, i took it off my clumsy hand and put it where i thought it would be safe until we could afford to put it in a sturdier setting.

and then our house was burgled. only two things were taken: this ring and a computer my husband had been given for a work assignment.

it was bad, people. took a long time to feel like i could even leave the house again. but we did have insurance, and with the money, hub went and bought an even prettier diamond [if that could be possible]. this time, we were stubborn and chose what we thought would be the most durable, unbreakable setting. something a lot like this one. done by richard booth, a very posh jeweler in yorkdale.

when i went to have the ring re-appraised [our insurance company makes us do this every 3 years], a little surprise awaited me in the appraisal. "Diamond is chipped". WHUTTTT??? leave it to me to whack my hand so hard, exactly on the unprotected spot in the setting, that i chipped the diamond. unbelievable. i hadn't seen the chip [i don't see fine detail very well], but now that i knew it was there, i found easily it with a fingernail.

vainly, i'd also been bothered by the yellowness of the setting, since i don't wear any yellow gold any more. white metal, that's it. so now with the excuse of a damaged diamond, i started to dream of getting it reset, once and for all, after the diamond was recut.

then i took silversmithing classes from Sarah at The Devil's Workshop and began to admire her work with gemstones and gold. i signed up for her lost wax class next, hoping to remake the setting on my own under her expert guidance, and soon realized that i was in way over my head. instead, i asked Sarah if she would make the ring for me and she agreed.

sarah handled the recutting of the diamond for me, carved an exquisite wax model of the setting exactly as i wanted it, cast the wax in 18k palladium white gold [palladium is the alloy that makes it as white as possible] and had the diamond set magnificently.



it fits perfectly with my anniversary band and i absolutely adore it. possibly my favorite thing is how the diamond sits low in the setting and the bottom of the diamond shows in the little opening above my finger. if she'll have me, no one else will ever do any jewelery work for me besides Sarah Wan. go look at her gallery of finished objects. she is an extraordinary treasure and i'm so glad to have met her. she's also really good people.

---

p.s. feeling much better today. the cold seems to have vanished overnight [which is very weird] and i'm just a bit tired now.

blueberry love + flaaaaridaaaaah

way back when my gall bladder and i broke up, the Purlescence girls sent me a get-well love package. it worked! :-)

the sparkly stuff on the right is Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in the deliciously named color Blueberry. i've had it hanging in front of my desk since it arrived and last night, a little lost without a quick-knit sweater to work on, i cracked it open and cast on for the simplest thing ever: a triangular shawl in garter stitch based on the Tuscany silhouette. perfect travel knitting and so beautiful to look at.

---

travel knitting? why, yes. this is very odd to me, but i'm going to florida. this is something many people do every winter, but i've never gotten to be one of them. until this year, when my chicago-based parents got all, "winter is too cold! we must escape!" and rented a place on the gulf side for the whole month. the whole fam has been invited to visit sometime during the span, and my week starts tomorrow.

luckily for me, the house has wi-fi, because i'm full-on into spring Knitty mode and can't stop. but it will be mighty nice to take breaks and such by the pool in the backyard. wow.

so...i'm not into touristy stuff, but is there some amazing fibery thing i can't miss that's gulf-side, an hour or so south of Tampa?

---

hub's staying home to concentrate on programming, watch many boring documentaries and fuss over the bunnies.

---

psst:


yup, that's color accurate. can you stand it?

buns

time for rabbit photos, i think. Boeing first, Squeezle second.




that is all. have a good day!

Shazam! with extra pinkness at the end

When I visited Scout on her home turf last year, we had a massive dye party and the result was a new colorway we called ZuluKnitty -- a collaboration between the two of us. She offers it in her shop, and I've seen many skeins pass through her Flickr stream, so I know people are ordering it, and that makes me happy and proud. :-)

Well, someone special was having a birthday and I wanted her to have some Scoutness, so we put our heads together again and here's what Scout came up with: ZuluKnitty Shazam [it's the skein on the left]! The same basic color palette as the original ZuluKnitty, but with extra shazam, oomph and general joie de vivre.

You'll also notice that the yarns look different. That's because, when Scout painted the first skein of ZuluKnitty [on the right], she didn't yet offer silk in her shop, so we bought retail stuff. You can now get this gorgeous 2-ply cascade silk directly in her store, in whatever colorway you choose. And she has a lot of them. Power couple is my new favorite.

Thank you, Ms Scout! This skein will be the one I use to teach my special SeaSocks class with.

---

I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did. Apple released a new pink [peeeeeeeeeeenk!] version of the new Nano just in time for Valentine's Day. And I might have walked around, squeeing "peeeeeeeeeeenk!" for an entire day. Okay, I actually did.

So when a small box came from Apple today, addressed to hub, I should have known, but I didn't. This little pink jewel was inside. He spoils me, my boy, and I am very grateful.

The first thing I listened to was Cast On. It's fabulous, and now holds my favorite playlist, a few choice movies I've yet to watch and lots of Neil Gaiman.

Life, she good.

perl grey makes my head hurt

what kind of deranged mind comes up with sweater construction like this? why, Perl Grey, that's who!

i'm not saying it's not brilliant. it just makes my head hurt trying to envision this sort-of-closing-in cocoon turning into anything wearable. EXCEPT that, before i picked up the sts for the front section of the sweater, which is the part that makes my heart beat faster [not kidding, i love it that much], i tried it on and it fits. so i will trust in the Perl and in Jacquie B who told me, "just keep going. it'll work out." and i believe it will.

can you even tell what you're looking at? it's a side-to-side knitted cardigan with integrated sleeves. i'm just now knitting the fronts and the collar at once, with short rows. [for those who will ask, and i don't blame you, this is discontinued Artfibers Gypsy, colorway 11, which is knitting up at exactly pattern gauge, and doesn't that blow my mind? yes, it does. [Kira tells me that Artfibers Bambusa or Sumo would make good subs.]

i am also driven with the fire of a well-trained team of dragons to finish this baby and get it on me! finishing the duvet covers has reminded me of the pleasures of the FO, and though i do love a good knit as it goes along, i'm all about the FO.

all done.

folded vertically for pretty. each duvet is about the size of the top of the mattress, so we both have enough for ourselves and quite a bit to hang over the edge of the bed. yes, they're wrinkly. why bother ironing duvet covers when you'll just crinkle them as soon as you get into bed?

besides, i'm having trouble getting up in the morning. :-)

fabrics include Amy Butler's Belle, Lotus, Charm and maybe even Ginger Bliss, and some choice Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass. very glad they're done.

oh. oh. ohhhhhhhh.

i was as a house afire last night. the top was together, and all i had to do was [oh, how simple, right?] overlock the remaining raw seams, attach the top to the twin sheet i bought for the purpose and sew 'em together.

it was as i was struggling with the latter that i remembered why i don't quilt much any more. sewing anything large-scale isn't fun for me, not at all. BUT! this isn't a quilt. it doesn't have to lay perfectly flat front to back. it's simply a big pillowcase for a fluffy duvet. fluffy is forgiving.

so i forged on ahead. discovered some shortcuts to make it easier, and also discovered that they don't really cut sheets on grain [do they? except where else do you get a piece of super-soft 70" wide fabric without a seam, so i sucked it up and kept going].

unwashed, i slipped the cover on the duvet and admired my handiwork. but it wasn't enough. so i slept under it. and i haven't slept that well in ages. there's something about the puffiness of a good duvet [our last one WASN'T a good one] and the inticing crackle of the high-thread-count cotton the duvet is made out of as you move in the night.

it's all mighty, mighty fine. and very, very pretty.

in order to keep motivated, i post no pictures and will not until the second is made and the bed is dressed properly. you want to talk about second-sock syndrome? how's second-duvet-cover syndrome sound??

going! bye!