Oopsie

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

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. :)

Both Feeds

Both the old and the new feeds are available on iTunes now. The new one has a freaky-looking, non-blue interpretation of my little knit ipod logo. Don't forget, the old feed will still have all of my new episodes on it. The new one is still catching up and has limited space, so episodes may cycle in and out, in order.

Episode 23: All Grown Up

In this episode I talk about website and download issues, a new website, and a book: Knitting Vintage Socks. Also, if you check out the knitpicks website, you can see what one of the socks looks like in a Knitpicks yarn. As always, I encourage you to go to your local yarn shop and check out their book selection before you buy online.

Here are the corrections for that book.

I forgot to mention three fabulous new podcasts I found recently: Sticks and String, Unwound and Beneath the Fiber Moon. Please look them up and I will actually talk about them in the next show.

I sat down and did a shortrow toe demo for you!



Work to where you want to put your next turn.


Move yarn to other side of needle.


Slip unwrapped stitch to rh needle.


Turn work.


Move yarn to other side of work (working side for the row you will work).


Slip that wrapped stitch (see the wrap? It looks like a purl bump).


Observe pretty wrap, get ready to work to next turn.


When you are finished making short rows, work to first wrapped stitch (as you are working, in other words, the most recently-wrapped stitch).


Knit (or purl) the wrap and the stitch it wrapped.


Toe of sock after short-rows are completed.


Pick up stitches from cast on to make toe of sock.

For heel, the principle is the same, make your short rows and then continue merrily along with your sock.

Download Episode 23

Ok, for now...

The new supermac way of doing the podcast does not have a lot of storage space (about half a gig), so today I'm publishing all of the old episodes that will fit on that space. Then I will leave them up for one month. Then I will clear them off and put up the next set. Those of you who can get it to work (I've already heard from someone who can't) will enjoy the fact that I should be able to put in chapter markers and nifty art to display as you're listening to the podcast. If I don't hear from anyone who can make it work, I will stop messing with it after today.

My to-do list today:
-put up old episodes
-clean house
-do the books/pay the bills
-bake bread (in bread machine)
-make baking mix for biscuits
-finish making turkey soup
-go to bellydancing class at 6

Whoo hoo.

Now I Don't Know What to Do

I just heard from a listener that they did manage to get my old episodes off iTunes, but I do like the new software's ease of use, although I'm not crazy about the format the blog comes up in.

I will keep this site open with a link to the new site if I bail for the newer software. My only concern about the new website is that it has a fairly low storage limit.

I may do the next show both ways. Please let me know if you prefer one over the other, or one works better for you. I want this podcast to be as easy to get as possible.

Starting Over

I have commandeered another computer (there are as many in my home as cats and cars, now that I think of it). I am trying out mac's new snazzy iWeb software, which builds a total website including the RSS feed.

The new site is here.

Please someone let me know if it doesn't work absolutely perfectly for them. If someone who has been having problems says that it works, I will re-publish every darn one of the episodes.

Downloading Woes

My laptop, as far as I can tell, stroked out and died for no reason on Monday. I ended up crying in my basement (because my shower was still backed up after I poured nasty chemicals in it and, well, I was at the end of my rope). So, my promise for a better, very cool software for my podcast has ended for now, until I can get my lovely tibook into the shop and hopefully get it fixed.

However, I did download a new version of the software that I have been using and updated a few settings. Would someone who is having download woes please try to download the very most recent podcast and let me know if it still doesn't work? If it doesn't, I will try something underhanded, which may make everything better.

Holy Mohair!

I just logged into my hotmail account all blase and down about not having time to podcast this week, when I saw this message:

"Greetings from the Amazon Honor System.

We wanted to let you know that we have initiated transfer of the
balance of your Amazon Honor System account to your checking account.
It may take your bank several business days to record the transfer.

$48.25"

That brings the Math 4 Knitters Buy More Books balance to $52.80!

I know at least one super-duper lace book that I'll have to mosey down and snag this week.

Thank you all for supporting my show and the book section of my local yarn store.

I'd Rather Be Podcasting

:( Hopefully soon.

Knitting the Edging

I'm knitting an edging right now - literally and figuratively. The edging is for my grandma's sweater (the yarn finally came!!). The figurative edging is the final touches/production/burning DVDs on my graduate project/thesis. If I get it all wrapped up and mailed out on Monday, I'll be able to do a show. Otherwise, it may still be a little bit. Sorry for the podgap, but I can't help it. :) I do want to thank each and every one of you, because I have really honed my audio skills which gave me the confidence to finish this project which has been hanging over my head for two years. Couldn't have done it without you.

Slight Tweak

I did a slight tweak of the XML code today. Would someone who has downloading woes please try again?

Episode 22: Lucky and Unlucky

Not any math this week, just me rambling about my bad and good luck. I am cooking up a cool pattern that I will hopefully have ready for the next show.

Meanwhile, I found this page about spit-splicing. A good skill to have.

Also, a listener told me that magic loop is one of the methods taught on knittinghelp.com. Maybe I'll try it soon. If you haven't it's under the advanced techniques tab.

Download Episode 22

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.