Episode 25: Fox, Geese and Thank Yous

This show features a thank you, an attempt to explain how to change the size of a hat and a new book.

The Book of the Week:
Favorite Mittens by Robin Hansen.
This is the description from School House Press
"Two long out-of-print books, Fox and Geese and Fences and Flying Geese and Partridge Feet, have now been combined into Favorite Mittens, which, after considerable delay, has finally appeared. The patterns are The-Best-Of from those two wonderful old books. and, as anticipated, it has been worth the wait. The new title contains dozens of historic mittens from 'Up North and Down East'. Softcover."
In my opinion, it's worth it just to look at it, but it's also rich with the history of mittens and traditional techniques that you could glean from somewhere else, but they're very well described and illustrated here.

Download Episode 25

Handywoman

I am not a handy woman. In fact, you pretty much have to say "saw" or "ladder" to get me completely off of doing any given household project. I don't love to dust or vacuum (although I seem to have, belatedly, latched on to a fomer lover's extreme joy in putting objects in boxes to go to Goodwill), but I will do them since I'd rather not live in filth.

So, the long and the short of it is that I, just now, really do want to fix up my house. I also lack any skilled, free labor. So, I have to take my big, over-educated brain and apply it to actually doing things that involve ladders (I will probably pay someone to do the sawing).

Does anyone out there know any good blogs or podcasts about overcoming fears/ignorance like mine?

I'm already madly in love with the Toolbelt Diva, but I don't think she's coming to help me.

About the name post...

I should point out that I did try out an extremely unusual last name of a friend of mine and it wasn't even in the database. So, he should stop being so cranky when people can't spell it.

I'll make no promises

about when I will do the next show. I am going through a large personal upheaval.

But, I did just find this on the internet.

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

It's nice to feel unique.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?