• The Swedish Heartwarmer Shawl - I suppose you could call this my ‘bucket list’ project. I’m stalled at the first chart, after an intarsia/fair isle debacle. This project is from Handknit Holidays, and I am using the recommended yarn, Mountain Colours Bearfoot.
• Cara’s Socks - birthday present for my friend Cara (Date of Birth: April 10). This project is from Favorite Socks, using All Things Heather Yarn.

My Food:

What can you make in a crappy staff accommodation with just a hotplate?

• Apricot, Walnut, & Quinoa Salad - very very tasty, and very fresh. Fruit man comes to Banff every Wednesday with fresh fruit from the Okanagan, which made it even better.
• White Beans in Creamy Sauce

Fibre Fun:

• Make 1 Yarns - My LYS
• Ravelry link to the scarf that contains my first handspun
• Hobbledehoy Batt Club - the club I joined.
• Ladybug Wheel - the wheel I am currently lusting over.
• Olds Fibre Week - my very first fibre festival! A bit smaller than I thought, and of course I was too late to get in on any of the classes.
• I bought undyed silk hankies from Legacy Studio
• I bought 80% Merino/20% Silk in ‘Midnight Magic’ from Aurelia Wool & Weaving
• Shuttleworks is near to my home, I hope to get out there some time soon.

Etsy Revue:

Scotts Mountain Crafts - The makers of my wonderful new swift, which works like a dream. If I put a towel down on my uneven countertops, that makes it perfectly stable

Music:

Today’s music is Drunken Sailor by Blaggards.

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

Both pieces are from the Podsafe Music Network.

But a quick update: my job is wonderful, I love the opera I am currently working on. I also loved the one that kept me so busy in March. Right now I’m living at my parent’s house, which is part of the reason for not podcasting. I just don’t want to have to explain why I’m talking to myself, it’d just be awkward. I will some time, I just don’t want to deal with all that now.

I’ve updated Wordpress, so when I do get to podcast next (maybe I’ll do two in May to make up?) everything should post smooth like butter.

No pictures because I’m not home in daylight.

I’ve started one new project, and the first moment I have when I get home, I am casting on for a big one.

A Bloglines Revue!
For starters, Bloglines is a great website that helps you read blogs. You add ‘feeds’ (blogs) to your list, and read them all in once place.
I have 113 in mine, but don’t worry, I didn’t mention all of them! Please go visit these blogs, and read the other entries too! Comment, it’ll be fun, I swear.

• And She Knits Too - Earth Stripe Wrap in Kidslik Haze. Yum.
• Close to My Heart - Chocolate! The Norwegian Woods Shawl, and Roza’s Socks. Both done in yarn from Elann, a wonderful online yarn store with amazing prices.
• CraftyGrrrl.ca - is spinning yarn for an ENTIRE sweater! I bow down before teh skillz. She might be using fibres from Enchanted Knoll at Etsy. Yummy.
• Domesticrafts - Domesticat is making Rambling Rose in very saturated, squishy-looking Socks that Rock. I’ll have to get my hands on some of that when I’m off the yarn diet.
• Grumperina - is making pretty striped socks, with NO jogs! The technique takes advantage of the fact that knitting in the round is technically knitting in a spiral.
• Hello Yarn - Baby Surprise Jacket in such cute yarn. I love these jackets, and want to make one.
• Diversion - I need to get my hands on Romantic Handknits. If someone gives me the book, does that get my out of my no buying patterns rule? I think so!
• Knits a Beautiful Life - Artfibres yarn. Coned yarn is almost as cute as yarn cakes, especially with photos as good as these!
• Knitting Philistine - an entry full of single socks, all appropriate for the current Project Spectrum.
• Lolly Knitting Around - Hexagon Blanket is already cuddly and warm-looking, even though it is still on the needles.
• SlippedStitch - Messy Tuesdays! So much more do-able than Eye candy Fridays, I think.
• Through the Loops - Cute, simple, pretty hat. I love the colours, and the garter brim looks so cushy and squishy.
• Yarn Storm - Simple socks in rich, rich Kaffe Fasset Regia Caribbean yarn.

Here’s a tutorial for for making your own light tent. I vaguely followed it; as much as I could the materials I had at hand.
Zen Yarn Garden - The Semi-solid sock yarn club I’m in. I love it, wish I had the money to continue.
Flickr group for yellow knits.

My Stash Count is at: 17km (10.5 miles). My goal is 10km, and I’m not allowed to buy yarn until I’m below that mark. sigh. Have a look at my stash on Ravelry, and let me know if there is anything you want!

Music:

Today’s music is Bah Hamburg by Junction Pool.

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

Both pieces are from the Podsafe Music Network.

Zen Yarn Garden - I’m in the semi-solid sock yarn club.

News

• I am in Vancouver!
• In Audacity, go to Preferences, and choose your microphone. Make sure it isn’t on Built-In Audio. Yes, I feel dumb.
• My Etsy Store! Home of a new generation of stitch markers. (Is that too pretentious? I suppose this is my podcast, so I can talk about myself how I want…) Also home to the iCozy, keep your iPod warm, cozy and protected, all while using recycled materials.

My Travel Knitting…

(if I can get over the whole motion-sickness thing)

• Cara’s Socks (Embossed Leaves in All Things Heather yarn)
• Millicents (in Louet Gems Pearl)
• Eyelet Rib Bandeau (in Rowan Cashsoft DK)

…And Travel Books

• Terry Goodkind
• Under the Black Flag
• First Among Sequels

The Knitator!!

• Knitting is Fun. No Crying Over It.

Etsy Eloquence

• I believe I have mentioned my Etsy store?

Yay Stuff!

• In which I admit my obsession with graph paper.
• And Post-It Notes.

Knitteth Thou?

• Did Shakespeare leave us an encoded message about the type of stockings he wore? Discuss.
• If you haven’t seen it, rent Rome. It’s a great series, plus you’ll learn some history too!

From Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc 2:

To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would be tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would, each to other and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.

Music:

Today’s music is River Driver by Great Big Sea.

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

Both pieces are from the Podsafe Music Network.

Millicent Socks - still working on ‘em.

All Things Heather - the yarn I’m using for my friend Cara’s socks.

Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks - the pattern I’m knitting for Cara

Elfine’s Socks - a pattern I still want to make, just not right now.

Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series - this has been keeping me from knitting. SO. GOOD. Do you really need these show notes? I need to go finish book 7…

News

My 101 things in 1001 days list is here. Remember to yell and scream if I don’t have a podcast out every month.

And here is the site that started it all. But the Ravelry group is where I found it.

THE KNITATOR!!

Amazon. Use it, yes. But check your local independent bookstore first, and buy there if possible.

Etsy Eloquence

Cabin & Cub Design - Wonderful service, great product, and they still have some bulletin boards in stock…

Yay Stuff!

TransGlass - recycled, good for the environment and chic! What more could we ask for? Well, I suppose I did get mine for 50% off.

Knitteth Thou?

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, sc 2:

O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie

Late-Breaking Knitting News!
3 socks with holes! Even more thinning!

Hopefully with the help of this tutorial, I’ll be back in business (and warm toes) soon.

Music:

Today’s music is Good Ol A Capella by Danny Fong’s A Cappella Quartet.

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

Both pieces are from the Podsafe Music Network.

My Knitting Progress:

• Yes, “stashbusty” is a word.



• The Bright Leftovers Scarf is done!
• Pattern: The Bright Stripes Scarf from Scarf Style
• Using: Cascade 220 Heathers (2441), Dream in Colour Classy (Wisterious), Fleece Artist BFL (brick), orange handspun from Yarn Ahoy, my own handspun.
• Millicent Socks are still going…
• Places to find knitters in your area: Meetup.com, Ravelry…

My Socks:

• My Fleece Artist Olympic Socks
• My Lorna’s Laces Bee Stripe Jaywalker Socks by Grumperina
• Simply Lovely Lace Socks in Kool-Aid yarn (Interweave Knits Spring 2006)
• My Roza’s Socks (IK Spring 2007) by Grumperina in Lorna’s Laces Somerset
• My Monkey Socks by Cookie A, in Colinette Jitterbug
• Vinnland Socks from The Anticraft in Fleece Artist Sea Wool (these socks were proclaimed “gorgeous and terrifying all at once” by Lime and Violet on the Daily Chum!)

THE KNITATOR!!

• Don’t worry if the sock pattern you want to knit is written for two circs, but you just have DPNs. Knit how you want, it’ll still work. There are different ways to knit a small circumference, but you’re still knitting the same thing.
• DPN tutorial
• Magic Loop Tutorial
• Two Circs Tutorial

Etsy Eloquence:

• Yarn Ahoy: wonderful customer service, and gorgeous yarn
• PiddleLoop: amazing knitting project bags. See mine below! I think I want a collection, all in different black and white prints

Yay Stuff!

• Monty Python’s Flying Circus in one compact DVD set
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD

• Weavettes - teeny handheld looms, perfect for those sock leftovers. You know you have them. (Also available on eBay, search for Weave-It too!)
• eLoomanator has a great website about these looms. Check out the Weave-Along too!

Knitteth Thou?

From The Tempest, Act III, sc 3:

Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Perform’d, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these mine enemies are all knit up
In their distractions; they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown’d,
And his and mine loved darling.

Music

Today’s song is Beer, Beer, Beer by the Brobdingnanigan Bards.

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

Both pieces are from the Podsafe Music Network.

My Knitting Progress:

• just the Millicent socks (which, by the by, I failed to finish before October). I have started the decreases though!

Secret Pal Parcel!!

• from Jen at Picture My Knitting
• Baywood Yarns sock yarn in Sierra Forest (yummy greens!)
• Artfibers Golden Chai, 607 yards in colour #35 (yummy silk!)
• Knitting Vintage Socks - by Nancy Bush

The Quest for the Golden Chai:
Please, help me decide what to use it on! I talked more about this on my personal blog in this entry.

My little Westie:

THE KNITATOR!!

• In which I explain the etymology of the word (knit+dictator=KNITATOR!!).
• The gist of this episode: Beginners - Don’t be scared! You can knit anything!
• My first sweater, and cable project? Rogue.
• By my side was Debbie Stoller’s Stitch & Bitch, which is still a favourite reference of mine.
  

YAY Stuff!

• Onesole.com - wonderful sandals with tops that snap on and off for many pairs of shoes in a fraction of the space!
• Put your favourite FO on your shoes

Knitteth Thou?

• Why did I call it The Scottish Play? (with an aside about Blackadder)

From Act II, Scene 2, an excerpt from Macbeth’s speech:

Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast,—
Music

As always the theme music is Greensleeves by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets, from the Podsafe Music Network.

Our closing music is The Chemical Worker’s Song, by Great Big Sea. I love this band, and was very happy to see their work on the Podsafe Music Network.

(pressing that pink play button doesn’t seem to work, but clicking ‘download’ does)

A little explanation about “Half an hour later in Newfoundland”. Canadians will find it funny. Promise.

My Projects:

1. Cookie A’s Millicent Socks

2. Fiery Bolero - Interweave Knits Summer 2005

Bloglines, CraftLit and Ravelry got me through my boring temp job.

Wondering how much stash I have in miles? Here’s a website for you: km to miles conversion

My Hibernating projects:

1. Dollar and Half Cardigan - about half done or so.

2. Sidewinder Sock - needs ripping, sigh.

3. Simply Lovely Lace Socks - if it is a UFO after a year, I should rip it, right? Why haven’t I?

4. The Infamous Capecho - arghl.

If you haven’t heard of Knit Wars yet, check out Lime & Violet, they’ll get you started.

The music is from the Podsafe Music Network, and is by Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets.

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-a4e6ca614c9bc67ccd140242f5a48609}

Your host is Rycrafty, of rycrafty.com.

Watch this space!

(still watching? here’s a photo for you!)