Episode 21: Magic Eight

In this show I talk about how the number eight simplifies your knitting life, at least when you are making hats, shawls and other round things you want to lie flat.

Scroll down to episode 20's notes to see the photos of my temporary cast-on.

The yarn amounts leaflet last week is printed by Interweave Press. You can find the leaflet here, or, I hope, at your LYS.

Download Episode 21.

Downloading Woes

I've gotten another comment about downloading troubles. I just bought the new mac software for podcasting, I hope to start using it either with my next show or the one after that. Hopefully, that will fix the problem. I'm so sorry to anyone who is having these problems.

PS I'm not answering comments directly as much now because the moderation thing really slows me down. But I do really, really appreciate them and read every one.

Episode Twenty: Fibo Five

After almost a whole month, I dust off my microphone to bring you a longer-than-usual show.

- I review Knitting From the Top by Barbara Walker, a must-buy made possible by a listener's donation.

- Temporary Cast-On in Five Photographs (why 3 steps, in my mind, and 5 photos? No idea.)

This is the starting position for me when I do this.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

um, step 3.5 is taking your left thumb and swinging its yarn back over the top of the needle, bringing everything into place.

- I talk about this pattern, which I wrote in 2001 for a gift for my sister.

- I point out this awesome website, where a lovely helpful lady explains how to figure out exactly how much yarn you need, anyway. Don't be intimidated, her site is written for spinners, but will work for commercial yarns as well.

- I tell you about Warm Woolies which will take extra wool yarn off of your hands (if you send it to them).

Enjoy. Things should settle down here soon. Have I said that before? Is that doom sneaking up on me or is it just the cat?

Download episode 20.

Another donation!

The current fundage for the Math4Knitters Buy More Books fund is $4.55. (Amazon keeps a little bit) Thank you, whoever you are. Does anyone want to vote on what book I should get?

A comment about yarn amounts...

I just moderated a comment about amount of yarn needed for a pattern-less garment. This is when I confess that the main reason I still use patterns as starting points is because I have such a hard time doing this. My local yarn shop has little booklets that estimate sweaters for you. If I were making a vest, I might be tempted to use the sweater amount as a starting point, or possibly 20% less, but I get nervous about running out and that's why I often end up with enough to make 2 sweaters out of the same yarn. When I go by there, I'll look at the booklet and tell you all, hopefully, where you can get them online. Of course, you could get them from my LYS, but that might not be very practical for everybody.

There is a math-measure-gauge swatch way to determine this, too. In fact, there are probably many. A quick google search just found me a very well-written article that explains it better than I can, and I am e-mailing the author to see if I can point you all there and/or talk about it on the show.

Hopefully I'll have a show up in the next few days.

Zipper madness

I went to pick up a sweater for my db from the shoe repair place who kindly sewed in a zipper for me. (I found out that a zipper would cost me $15, if I could find one long enough, and the entire service cost $18, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Especially when the baby sweater I've been trying to add a zipper to is not going well.) She said the called and asked if I wanted the zipper to go all of the way up the collar. By the time I called her, she had already sewn it in. She says she tried it on herself and decided the collar would be too tall with a zipper all of the way to the top, so stopped short. I pointed out that the sweater is for a man who is taller than her, by about a foot. She said to bring it back if he didn't like it the way she did it.

Why this long-winded story? Pleasant ending? Not sewing my own zipper? In other words, freedom from zipper heck? This sweater is enormous. It is so big it ougrew my knitting bag, which is no tiny thing. How did she look at this completely gigantic and looooooooong sweater and decide it was for me? Sigh. Must join a gym.

Thank You, Whoever You Are

I received a donation this week that was left for me on the 21st, so I'm sorry this thank-you is so late. The Amazon system seems to work great. The only problem is that it doesn't tell me who donated money to the show! So, thank you, whoever you are. I used the money toward a purchase of Knitting From the Top by Barbara Walker. Don't be scared off by the (dated to say the least) cover art. Inside, you'll find seamless shoulder shapings very much in the Zimmerman mold, only FROM THE TOP. Not just raglans, oh no, but also set-in and other sleeve constructions. Also, skirts, jackets, really just about anything, explained in a neat way that makes you want to leap up and design the cute little bolero, bedjacket and perfect around-the-house pants you've wanted for years and just haven't found in the right yarn/design/seamless construction.

Makes me breathless. And all due to you, my generous listener.

On the next show (maybe next week, maybe the week after):
- review of this book, in detail, probably still thrilled and breathless
- Proper Thank You to mysterious benefactor
- 5 = 3 + 2 = Invisible/temporary/really cool cast on
- pattern for convertible gloves

When I run out of books to buy (ha!), I will start a little till for donations to buy the new snazzy apple software that is supposed to make podcasting even easier and might even make it so that those wierd downloading problems some of you are having will go away.

Also, I received a kind e-mail from a new listener this week that thanked me for the show but also gently kicked me in the butt about photos of the toe-up socks. On to-do list. Has been for months. We'll see.