Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Hello Everyone

I'm still not all of the way better. For the record, this is the sickest I've ever been, except for mono in HS and chicken pox when I was a kid. And, by far, the grossest illness I've ever had. If you're reading the comments, you'll notice that Plain(s)Feminist lives about 200 feet away from my house and is a very good friend. She dropped off my Christmas present, although I couldn't give her hers for fear of spreading this thing, so it will sit in my gift closet for another ten days or so until I see her again.

I'm flying away to see my family on Friday, so there won't be any podcast this week or next week. See you in the new year!

Meanwhile, my extra-cool Miss Violet's Pink Ribbon came, much faster than I thought. It's beautiful. I was going to do the sideways baby sweater from Greetings from Knit Cafe, but now I'm thinking an Elizabeth Zimmerman baby surprise and maybe some baby leggings if I have enough left over. This is great because I really needed some plane knitting and knitting I could do around my sister without ruining her birthday surprise. I've been feeling too sick to knit (ok, I am just tired of putting it down every 15 minutes and sprinting across the house), but maybe I'm just too sick to knit lace or finish in ends. I really should finish the ends, though, on the last piece of Christmas knitting I'm doing this year. You heard me. I'm DONE. Even nearly a week of incapacity couldn't stop me.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

What I get

Ok. so I was feeling all better Friday morning and then bam - awful, horrible no good stomach flu that had me up all night, not doing anything at all fun. I'm now sipping gatorade and enjoying my cat's loving attention, but I'm not up to the microphone. Sorry, folks.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Run, don't walk and buy this yarn

http://www.limenviolet.blogspot.com/

In response to Miss Violet finding a lump in her breast, the great and very cool Lisa Souza created a new colorway of her fantastic yarn.

This is what she said about it on her blog:
"This time it is different. When Lime & Violet asked me a few months ago, if I could create a sock color to help them to raise funds to keep the lights on, I was flattered and wondering exactly who these two young women were. Then, with the birthday I-pod, I got to know their voices and just fell into the fun and entertaining ways that they have about them. Along the way, Miss Violet has had some tough days and this week has brought her full on into the scary world of women who find a lump. How an insurance company can tell a person that there is a 1K deductible to be met before any help kicks in is more than a person with this stress should be able to endure. Once again I have been asked and have created Violet's Pink Ribbon, to help to generate funds to defray the costs of finding out what comes next. It will be a self striping colorway with the pink ribbon swirling with the party that is Lime & Violet...effervescent and full of life. No matter what happens, this colorway will be earmarked for Breast Cancer, with an emphasis on Life and the pursuit of happiness."

The sock yarn is here http://www.lisaknit.com/yarn/animalfibers/sock.html

The merino sock yarn is here http://www.lisaknit.com/yarn/animalfibers/sock-merino.html

The superfine, superwash sport yarn is here http://www.lisaknit.com/yarn/animalfibers/superwash-sport.htm

There's something there for everybody. I know it's the holidays and money is tight for many folks, but if you can scrounge together something I would be so grateful. No one should have to go through something like this feeling alone and this is a chance for us all to put our arms around a knitter we may not have met, but love just the same.

For just $6, you can also get this fantastic pattern
http://www.lisaknit.com/patterns/bp/twist-lace.htm
which uses just one skein of the yarn, and gives you short-row and lace chops to boot.

Monday, December 11, 2006

No podcast this week

I'm ill. I thought I'd be better enough to podcast today, but now I'm coughing and I don't want to edit those out. So, see you next week, folks.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Oopsie

Someone pointed out that the mp3 file in my last post was for the week before's show. I fixed it now. :)

Monday, December 04, 2006

Episode 24: shawls, scarves and spiral socks

This week I talk about a few new podcasts that I forgot to mention last time and you should really check out:

Unwound, with a relaxed, sweet-voiced host who asks questions she wants you to answer.

Beneath the Fiber Moon makes me blush, but in a good way.

Sticks and String makes me want to move to Australia, and not because I had a very bad day.

The Book of the Week:
Stahman's Shawls and Scarves makes lace make sense, and lace shawls look super-easy (I don't think they are, but they are achievable, with this book in my hot little hands). Also, an ideal way to work when you have limited or unknown amounts of yarn, as the shawls and scarves in question are all knit from the top down, in a way. Very thorough technique, well-drawn charts, clear instructions and diagrams and, best of all, an author who doesn't mind if people e-mail her with questions and includes her e-mail address on her copyright page.

Lara's Recipe for toe-up spiral socks:
CO 4 stitches
K in the front and back of each stitch, join.
Knit one round, divide stitches onto 4 double-pointed needles (it will be akward at first)
On every other round, increase either at the beginning or end of each needle until you have enough stitches to fit around your foot. (eyeball, measure or guess, but for goodness sake, if you want to try it on, move it to waste yarn first)
When you have enough stitches to fit around your foot, switch to 4 x 4 spiral ribbing:
work four rounds 4x4 rib; shift pattern by one stitch (p1, [k4, p4] around to last 3, p3) for four rounds; (p2, [k4, p4] around to last 2, p2)...savvy?

And so on until you run out of yarn or go mad or just decide you're done. I then worked about 5" in 2x2 rib to help hold the top up.

Download Episode 24

PS - until someone tells me a good reason to keep up the other feed, I will not. :)