Listening and Knitting

Ravelry had a forum topic regarding favorite knitting podcasts.  I investigated podcasts this week as a result.  When one is knitting or cleaning the house or any kind of mindless task, it is fun to listen to things.  I have always enjoyed listening to the many talk shows on NPR.  One thing I miss about living in Georgia is the Jacksonville public radio station which broadcast talk most of the time.  Here in the PNW, the public radio station I have found broadcasts jazz for much of the day.  Sometimes I use my phone to pick up the beloved NPR shows.  They are mostly available as Podcasts!

Ahhh, podcasts.  I've long enjoyed them from the days when I relied on my iPod.  I mostly listened to those related to my old profession of being a teacher.  I think it is great that so much that one would like to learn is just a podcast away.  I also attempted (and sometimes still do) to stay current on the music scene by tuning in to podcasts.  I got involved with a murder case by listening to the Serial podcast.  I'm hoping the boy will finally be found innocent as he seems innocent to me.  Now I'm getting into knitting podcasts.

I sampled one called The Knitmore Girls last week.  It has mother/daughter knitters as the hosts.  It was quite fun to listen to and kind of motivating.  Both women are terrific knitters and very personable.  With this kind of podcast, you can put on your headphones and get a number of chores accomplished while listening.  Also you can sit and knit while they talk about their world of knitting.

Somehow I got on Youtube and discovered a mob of podcasters!  The first I watched (and I binged the entire series) was Knitting in the City.  The narrator of this little program is a young woman who lives near Rotterdam in The Netherlands (Europe).  It's done in English which is not her first language so there are some little glitches with pronunciation and choice of words, but wow, I don't speak any other language nearly as well as she speaks English.  She is an avid yarn collector.  She also enjoys dying yarn.  Most of her projects are on the small side though:  shawls and socks.  In 2016, she will be getting married and house hunting.  I imagine that there will be a baby before too long, so I anticipate baby clothes on the needles.

Next I watched all of  The No Name Knitting Podcast where a nice young Danish woman is the host.  She speaks English a little better as she was once a nanny in the USA.  She tackles sweaters with confidence.  She is just getting into sock knitting, but the ones she made were very nice. She likes shawls too.  She mostly uses yarns from her LYS and the brands are Danish, but that is not a negative.  Similar yarns are available here too.

Because these two podcasters love Stephen West shawls, I saw episodes of podcasts he did.  He can be very humorous.  He is an American from Oklahoma (with a noticeable and lovely southern twang).  Also he is very gay.  He lives in Amsterdam.  I know he is very popular among knitters and now I'm more knowledgeable of his patterns.  He mostly designs shawls that are hyper-colorful and in nontraditional shapes.  I think I may attempt to knit something he designed one of these days as it would not only be fun to knit but would create a very destinctive FO!

Today, I watched a married British couple's podcast, The Bakery Bears.  From what I understand, the wife loves to create "softies" or knitted stuffed animals.  Her ravelry page has possibly 100 examples of her softies. She also makes hats and shawls.  Her husband knits too.  He makes hats too.  I didn't take time to look at his Ravelry page so I don't know what else he does.  Their podcast was okay, but maybe too long, if that is a criticism!  I think 30-45 minutes is really quite sufficient.  They are charming though and knit while podcasting.

I saw an episode of Come Knit with Me too.  I liked this one because the host gets out of her house and the program is not as static as some of the others.  She was at a yarn and sheep festival.  She participated in a knitting fair and won 2nd place with a shawl made from yarn she spun from buffalo hair and silk.  It was lovely.  She shot footage of various events like sheep judging and a dog playing with frisbees.  Also she interacted with other patrons of the festival including other podcasters and bloggers.  Very entertaining, so I will look for more of her work.

I'm sure I'll watch many more as time goes by.  I have learned how to put my YouTube from my phone onto my television, so I am sure to watch more!  Knitting with these little programs is great as they are not so absorbing that you lose focus on your knitting.  It is enjoyable to hear and learn about knitting while knitting!

January 27, 2016

Projects now and in the future.

I am inputting for the first time in 2016!  I continue to knit.  Mostly I think about knitting and read about knitting and watch knitting podcasts.  I wanted to make a particular hat in the Vogue Knitting Hat book I checked from the library.  I attempted to buy the proper yarn at a yarn shop I visited with my friend Deb when she was in town late last year.  The proprietor did not have the specific yarn suggested by the pattern and then said that the yarn suggested was not really "lopi" but only called that.  I told him it said it was Icelandic.  Now, a person that knows their yarn as I thought this man did (he had an aura of expertise), would know that Lopi means pure wool suitable for felting.  I only had the pattern on my phone/Ravelry page and not the actual book so I was going by what he said.  So he sold me some acrylic and led me to believe that I would get the correct result.  I proceeded to cast on and knit according to the specs of the pattern and the project was pretty big and I knew it was not going to felt/shrink.  I had also bought a bulky weight acrylic/wool yarn at Joann's and that was the wrong stuff too.  So this fiasco got me off my knitting mojo.  I don't have a big budget for yarn so this was a disheartening chapter.

I researched on Ravelry where I could get the actual yarn and pilgrimaged up to that store in Stanwood.  The colors that I wanted weren't available, but she ordered it and called me today to come pick it up.  Hooray!  I have decided to get a different contrasting color to go with more of my other projects.  But this whole journey was a PITA.

I got interested in a lot of podcasts.  One is Never Not Knitting hosted by Alana Dakos, who is a designer.  I requested her books from the library and enjoyed perusing them.  I didn't want to purchase all the fancy yarn when I didn't have faith enough to complete a big project.  Luckily, I have a good quantity of KnitPcks sport weight yarn so I have managed to start a hat.

I am not experienced with lace knitting techniques and for some reason, I had a lot of problems getting this project going.  Here's what I learned:

1. Use stitch markers!  I find it very helpful to place markers between repeats.
2. Count stitches for each repeat.  Use a calculator to determine the stitch count for the repeats.
3. Mysterious stitch notations can be demonstrated on YouTube!  It's so convenient!
4. Place a sticky note under the line of instructions you are on.  Move it for each row.  My memory is not what it once was.

Since I restarted 2-3 times, I got pretty familiar with some of the stitches. Now that I finally have it working out, the knitting is going pretty well.

Tomorrow I go get the Lopi yarn.  Tomorrow I am going to visit a different knitting group too.  I hope to have a knitting friend go with me.  I hope that these projects get finished pretty soon.

Future plans:

1. Socks!  I want to make socks toe up style preferably!
2. Cowl or stole.  I was in love with a particular large cowl from the cover of Knit Scene that I never found the yarn for and couldn't make myself order the kit ($$).  Now I like a smaller one that employs colorwork which would be a new technique to me.
3. Stephen West shawl.  Saw one on a podcast (Knit 1 Heart Too) that seemed easy and makes a bold statement (Spectra).  Thought I had one kind of yarn and looked for a companion yarn but at my LYS, I did not see what I was looking for.  I'll keep looking.
4. Sweater.  I have a lot of alpaca that has a variegated colrway.  I want to make a very easy boxy sweater that shows off the colors without too much in the way of texture.