It’s Wednesday!

Have you been wondering if an iPad is worth buying? Read what knitter/designer Amy Swenson has to say on the subject. [Neither of us have any financial stake in Apple or iPads, by the way. We’re just geeks who like toys.] O-Wool has new owners — the Tunney Wool Company. Glad to see this brand continue! What is this TNNA everyone’s talking about? It’s The National Needlework Association, and people in the industry use the abbreviation as shorthand to refer to the semi-annual tradeshow. The biggest one of the year happens next weekend in Columbus, Ohio, and yarn companies, manufacturers of bags ...

Spinning Lessons

I have a bunch of Abby Batts in my stash and I won’t spin them because then they’ll be gone. What if I want to use them for something better later? What if I totally suck spinning them? Abby herself would laugh her ass off knowing her batts had hit Most Precious Status in my stash. “Just [expletive] spin them” she’d say, and she’d hand me a beer. So I did. And it was good. Lesson: There are no precious batts.

Travel Knitting; WIPs on a Plane!

In the northern hemisphere, the summer travel season is upon us.  My friends and rellies in the southern hemisphere are planning their winter ski vacations. And every traveling knitter, no matter where you are in the world, has one key question in mind: can I take my knitting on a plane?  The answer is an enthusiastic but qualified yes. Within North America, the TSA clearly states that “Items needed to pursue a Needlepoint project are permitted in your carry-on baggage”.  Read their post for a bit more detail.  The Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority agrees. Within most of western Europe ...

Introducing Obsession Thursdays!

Around the KnittyBlog, Thursdays are for obsessing. There are four of us here, and each of us have our own obsessions. And they change, so this could be the most interesting-weird day of the week. Only time will tell. Today, I’m obsessing about online beauty shopping. I saw a link on a post by one of my favorite bloggers and it sent me off to investigate. Jane Brocket has excellent color sense.  So when she recommends a list of colors, I look. In this case, it’s nail polish made by a company [from California?] called butter LONDON. I know, silliness. But their colors are awesome and the names even ...

What’s What Wednesdays returns!

Did you miss us? WWKIP day, which seems to frustratingly coincide with the big knitting convention [TNNA] every year*– well, this year is going to be a big one! Let’s look at what you can do on June 12th to share the knitting love! Toronto, Canada: Another attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for most knitters in one place [currently held by the knitters at Sock Summit 2009] will take place at Junction Square (2945 Dundas at Pacific) between 1 and 4 pm. Enjoy entertainment, refreshments and prizes. The count for the world record will take place at 3 pm, so please come early to register. Dublin, ...

What Happens In My Backyard When It’s Warm

As the weather gets warmer spinners head to my back yard like wild birds. Check out this photo from this Spring. This was the inaugural spinning in the backyard day. Carla (she of the orange pants) came over to spin. Then neighbor Katherine (she of the green, dyed by her own hand fluff) looked out her window, ceased whatever she was doing in her house and came to spin. Then Amy (she being the Knitty Goddess) after driving five hours from her house to mine came to spin (she stayed longer than the afternoon). The warmer it gets the longer the spinners stay and the more spinners come. There is always fiber trading, ...

when last there was knitting content on this blog…

which wasn’t that long ago, I was working on my Shalom cardigan. Well, I finished it and I like it! I spent a day or two knitting and ripping the same 4 rows until I got the armholes to open at the right spots for my body. As written, the armholes go way into the back, which I didn’t find flattering. I’d love to show you how this looks on me, but there’s no one around to take a nice FO pic, so that’ll have to wait. I have to find permanent buttons, too. The ones there now are an amalgamation of a few things that function, but don’t suit the sweater. By the way, I am grateful to ...

Join us at a Yarn Roundtable!

We’ve just announced 4 [yes, four!] new Yarn Roundtable dates, for May, June, July and August! If you’re going to be coming to Toronto this summer, check out the dates and maybe you can join us…we’d love to have you! What’s a Yarn Roundtable? Think wine tasting, but with yarn. And prizes. And nibbles. And good company. All free. You can see the results of previous evenings in Knitty here, here and here. You want to come, don’t you? Well, sign up now, then!

You canna escape the math.

So yesterday’s glib I don’t need no stinkin math post wasn’t entirely sincere. I knew I’d gotten pretty far without any significant math. But I also knew there was no way I could accurately place the sleeve openings without pulling out the calculator. Backstory: I hit my math wall in the middle of grade 10. I just stopped understanding the concepts in any way that would allow me to get even a passing grade. Word problems tie up my brain so that it cannot function at all. And math wasn’t important enough for me to get a tutor. I just wanted it to go away, so my parents ...

100% knitting content. Don’t faint.

So hopefully you’ve all seen the latest issue of Knitty. On the cover is a gorgeous sweater in a really neat yarn. But it’s probably not the best choice for the deeply boob-endowed such as myself. But I still love the yarn. It’s a bulky lightweight cotton [not a common thing to find]. Since before the Knitting Olympics [which I miss so much and cannot wait another 4 years for it to happen again!], I’d wanted to knit Shalom. Thanks to the goodness which is Ravelry for bringing it to my attention. I’d missed it in 2008 when the designer put it up for free on her blog. It’s an awesome ...
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