She isn't on ITunes right now, but you can find her on YouTube, at her website and she also has a Ravelry Group (search for Knitting in Stitches Podcast). She's very much worth watching.
Weeks in Review
Unfortunately the main thing that's been happening lately is influenza. I had some friends over Friday night to knit and to teach a friend from work how to drop spindle, and by the end of the night a sore throat and stuffy nose had settled into my body. I was really hoping that huge doses of ColdFX and vitamin C would keep the inevitable from happening, but no such luck. I've been a mess since Saturday morning. This meant that I missed Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and didn't get any of my Rhinebeck prep done. I also didn't clean my garden OR plant my fall bulbs, so I'm really quite irritated with the flu. I'm starting to come out of it now and plan to work tomorrow night, so hopefully I can get a few things done tomorrow day to make up for the weekend.
I did manage to get a couple of things done while I was out of commission - including signing up for two classes at Rhinebeck (the First 90 minutes of Spinning Cotton and Spindle Longdraw), and making myself an itinerary and checklist. I'm having ridiculous anxiety dreams and flashes of dread as my trip approached. This is so typical of me, but it seems to be on a slightly bigger scale this time around (probably because certain people in my life had me believe that this is the craziest most deadly risk a person could take). If I survive this trip I may take up base jumping. I'M A WILD WOMAN! But seriously, I've had a recurring dream that I forgot my passport so they wouldn't let me into the festival, and last night I had a dream that I was driving a Ford Focus over ski moguls down a 20 lane highway full of speeding traffic. It was terrifying. Add to that that today I was giving serious (and sad) thought to the fact that if I die at Rhinebeck, Jeff will never have the sweater that I'm knitting for him. I almost cried. Fortunately when I listen to podcasters talk about Rhinebeck, and when I look at the festival schedule online, all I feel is giddy excitement. I'm also giving lots of consideration to anti-anxiety medication.
F.O.s
I finished my Rhinebeck sweater! I settled on Eased by Alicia Plummer since it's bulky, so I knew it would knit up fast, plus I'm familiar with the pattern. I used KnitPicks Swish Bulky for this and hand-dyed the yarn myself. It came out lovely, but a tad bit too big for me. I plan to wear it at Rhinebeck anyway, and I'm kind of excited to have it for a really comfy cozy winter pull-over to keep me warm this winter.
I also finished that bit of fuchsia superwash merino I was playing with and it turned out LOVELY as well. It's so soft that it feels like a cloud. I made a centre-pull ball and plied it on itself and it came out to a more-or-less DK weight 2-ply, and I have about 160 yards of it. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I'm thinking of making A Noble Cowl with it, but that wouldn't really take advantage of it's springiness. But I really want something that will be seen, felt by my skin, and worn lots and I think a hat would be a poor choice since I'm not really a small hat wearer. I think I'm going to do the cowl :)
W.I.P.s
I started a new spinning WIP! I just finished spinning two spindles-full of cashmere that are to be plied with my Buddy-fur/alpaca rolags. I'm doing this as part of a "New to You" spin-along that's being hosted by Malia of Yarnraising Podcast fame. I'm using a new tool (my pink Russian-style supported spindle), two new fibres for me (Buddy-fur and cashmere) AND a new technique (supported spindling). The cashmere was a breeze to spin since supported spindling lends itself well to influenza crafting - since you can do it in bed, so I'm already finished with that part of the project. I'm waiting to start my Buddy rolags until I get my new Golding spindle (EEeeeeeeeee!) in the mail. That'll be a second new tool!
I've also been doing some more work on Jeff's sweater. There's no way I can have it done before I leave since I have approximately 2 more hours of knitting time before I go, but working on it almost makes me feel like I'm snuggling with Jeff (sorry! Way too sappy/TMI) and makes it seem unlikely that either of us will die as a result of me going to Rhinebeck. Anyway, I'm at the point now where I'm adding in the next two charts. I have one chart for the back and one for each of the front panels, so it's going to start getting more complicated and I think it's going to be limited to couch knitting and no longer make the trip up and down the stairs... We'll see. I certainly am learning an important lesson about the value of sometimes knitting flat. I figured I would knit it in the round, then steek it ('cause who doesn't want to cut months of knitting on a sweater that they've designed from the ground up?) This was stupid for so many reasons, but I'm almost half-way through the colourwork section, so I'm going to plough ahead. Doing it in the round (aside from having to cut it) means that I have to sew in billions of ends. If I were dealing with a non-superwash yarn I might be able to count on the colour stitches to stay put, but as it is, I can't. I cut the end of my contrast colour on one side of the centre-front then reattach it on the other side. If I was knitting it flat, I could just purl back and keep on trucking. I hope the adrenaline rush of steeking is worth it. At least I know Jeff is worth it. That being said, if he loses this sweater and I have to re-knit it, I'll either do it flat, or use a sticky yarn.
On My Screen/In My Ears
I'm adding this new segment so I have a place to talk about what podcasts and audiobooks have been powering my knitting for the last week.
Obviously I've been watching Knitting in Stitches and I've been giving a lot of thought to something Moira was talking about. She borrowed the topic from another podcaster and was talking about what knitting has brought into her life. So I wanted to share my knitting story too :)
I started knitting initially in Brownies when I was a mini-person and I don't know if I finished a project at that time, but over the years I would take a notion to do it again and my mom would teach me to cast on (again) and off I'd go! My grandmother was an epic knitter and kept knitting long after she went blind from Glaucoma, but unfortunately my knitting timeline didn't really cross hers. I picked knitting up again when I was 28 years old and homesick and heartbroken in Calgary. When I moved back home I kept knitting and was posting about it on facebook when a friend from Calgary sent me a message to tell me that there was a cool new website called Ravelry that's like facebook for knitting (this was in 2008), and the rest is history! I often wonder if I would have taken to knitting in the same way if it hadn't been for Ravelry, and I'm not sure that I would have. Ravelry gives me a way to make my knitting social, and it's where I first connected with the women in my knitting group! As an introvert, knitting is a way for me to escape a little bit into myself while being with other people, and it makes socializing a lot less intimidating! I also escape into knitting when the world around me is overwhelming. Stressful tasks to complete? Too much housework stressing me out? Thinking about driving in New York by myself too much to handle right now? Knitting provides an escape from all of that, and for that I'm so grateful. It also brings me in contact with really wonderful people! I don't know what it is about knitters, but we certainly are different. Even when I don't initially know that another person is a knitter, I find them kinder, and when I later find out, it totally makes sense. I don't know if it's that we tend to be more patient and open minded about other people or what, but there's something special about other knitters and I'm glad that I have a reason to be part of such a wonderful group of people. Now I'm really getting sappy. OH - and I like soft fibres! Superwash merino and cashmere fibres are something wonderful that knitting has given me.
Aside from Moira's wonderful new podcast, I've also been listening to some audiobooks. I'm embarrassed to confess this, but I LOVE cozy mysteries that have a knitting theme! The cozier and cheesier, the better! I especially love it if it's part of a series, because I adopt the characters into my life as though they are real people I know and knit with. Oh, and if there are witches and/or ghosts it gets bonus points. Right now I'm re-listening to the Seaside Knitter's Mysteries by Sally Goldenbaum. I'm currently on the third in the series called Moon Spinners. Yup. One of my favourite things about these books is that within the first couple of hours somebody usually either threatens somebody else, or somebody makes a proclamation like "over my dead body", so it's easy to tell who the victim and suspects will be. I'm not going to lie - it is fantastic to knit by!
Show and Tell
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| Lucy in a basket. Yeah, she really is that cute |
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| My finished Rhinebeck sweater on the left. I don't yet have a photo of it on, which is a shame, because sweaters always look better on a model and this one is no exception. I washed, blocked, and de-pilled my Owls sweater as well, in case I need a back-up at Rhinebeck. |
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| I forgot to mention this in F.O.s. This is my Rhinebeck tote! I made it out of scraps of fabric I had laying around and I LOVE it! Its roomy and sturdy and the patchwork colours make me HAPPY :) |
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| This is my superwash merino. This photo doesn't do it justice. I absolutely love it and wish it was big enough that I could use it as a pillow. |
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| The beginnings of my New to You spin-along. |
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| I'm counting myself as 40% finished since I've spun half my singles. I'll spin the Buddy/alpaca on my 1/2 ounce Golding, then ply one each of Buddypaca and cashmere on one of my bigger spindles. I should wind up with two two-ounce skeins coming in around a sport weight. |
That's all for now!
