Lots of stuff going on at knitty Central. Like my move due to a change in marital status*. Right in the middle of production for this issue.
As I type, I am surrounded by the clutter of moving. Coding this issue, retouching images in Photoshop and all the other countless tasks that go into producing an issue of knitty, have been a welcome break from packing and culling. Something familiar when all else around me is swirling change.
This is the last issue that will be produced in the smaller bedroom of this little house. The place where knitty was born. The Winter issue will come to you from a sparkling-clean 2 bedroom apartment smack in the heart of Leslieville in Toronto (about 15 minutes closer to downtown than my current home). The larger bedroom, this time. I'm sharing the office with the rabbits. I will be employing the best rabbitproofing practises possible.
I feel a little like a parent who wants to take the door jamb with me when I move to show the milestones their kid has achieved. Instead, I'll just take my yarn stash and the computer that makes knitty and all my reference books. That's all I need. And this chair. And this paddle game. And...
*It's a good change. Don't worry about me. I'm awesome and so is knitty.
This issue is filled with lots of delicious yummy. I love the wit of our cover pattern by the witty Mary Scott Huff -- owls wearing horn-rimmed glasses! We have more colors than just purple this issue, a riot of everything to keep your needles occupied as leaves begin to turn color themselves and then...gasp...fall.
Meanwhile, where I sit, the breezes coming in my window are cool and refreshing. Feels like fall to me. I love fall most of all.
I hope you enjoy the patterns and learning we bring to you this issue. We're awfully proud of all of it.
Like to win stuff? Who doesn't? Stay tuned to the knittyBlog where all our contests happen. Watch our Twitter feed just because it's fun and silly, and because if anything spontaneous happens, it gets announced there first! Join in the fun on our Facebook page. And tell new knitters, whenever you meet one, about knitty. And imagine the look on their face the first time they sit down and click on our Library.
Now that this year is winding up, I'm looking for places to teach in 2015 and beyond!
Check out my personal website to see what kind of classes I offer. If you're in Toronto, I've got something up my sleeve that will launch soon...I hope you'll be as excited about it as I am! Sign up for my mailing list to be the first to know when it launches! Space will be limited!
Amy Singer
[editor, Knitty]
photo: Amy
Singer
Day of doom
Fall is back to school time around my house. I have 5th and 10th graders this yea. How did that happen? I always love the idea of going back to school and back-to-school supply shopping.
What I realized this year as the day of doom, as my children call the first day of school, approached is that my learning year starts with their school year too.
More than the turn of the calendar year when I seem to make a laundry list of things I want to try or get better at doing (worsted spinning every year!) with a ton of pressure because everyone is doing it. The fall sets me thinking about learning and knowing in a deeper way.
If I were to gather together ideas of skills I want to have deeper knowledge about, the one that keeps popping up is things woolen. I am a devoted woolen spinner, but some aspects of woolen I'm lacking in knowledge, and mostly, practice. So for my fall learning project I want to card. I want to card in every way and make batts, rolags,
punis -- sedate and sublime but also wild and wonderful. I want learn more about drum carders and hand cards and a blending board. I know how to make all of these things work but I want to swim around in the deep end with them, the why.
I'm excited and don't feel the pressure to perform like I do in January. Will you learn something new this fall?
In this issue of knittyspin, we have three patterns: Viburnum by Jennifer Leigh, a collection of three cowls in three different weights of yarn from laceweight to chunky all using the same stitch pattern -- the effect is wonderful. Venetian Blind by Vicki Robinson is a fun, texturey short poncho that happened when the designer let her art yarn talk to her. Twist Again by Agnes Kutas-Keresztes is the lovely result of not letting a spinning error stop you from making beautiful yarn.
Hopefully at least one of these patterns will hit you in just the right spot of must knit and must spin.
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I love to talk about it all.
