Gift knitting aids: the classic movie link list

Everybody has their favourite environment for making stuff, and for me, it's absolutely a comfy chair with a classic movie playing in front of it. If you can relate, read on!

Before the KnitFrenzy I could just flip on Turner Classic Movies whenever I wanted to get to work on a project, but quite often these days when the time is right for me, the movies are not.  And let's face it - sometimes twenty minutes spent rooting around for a DVD is a good third of the only knitting time you had.

M. Boyer is trying hard to convince me this cowl is meant for him

Obviously the screen quality will always be better with a proper disc, but for emergencies, and hopefully for your entertainment as well, I've put together a list of eight films which are in the public domain and freely available on YouTube.

I've included a mini synopsis and the running time, as well as a link to TCM's data page, the better to help you match one to your immediate needs.  In all, this is about 12 hours' worth of knitters' companionship.

So: I know what I'm doing this weekend - what about you?


Movies as Knitting Aid

Algiers, 1938: 75 minutes of romance and suspense with Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer = yum. Click here for the TCM review.

D.O.A.: 83 minutes of classic suspense as a murder victim refuses to curl up and die (until he’s caught the guy who poisoned him.) Click here for the TCM review.

Kept Husbands, 1931: a 75-minute comedy that features a young Joel McRae.  Need I say more? Click here for the TCM review.

Meet John Doe, 1941: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck give us 2 hours in the wonderful world of Frank Capra. Click here for the TCM review.

The Outlaw, 1943: With two hours to fill, there’s so much more to this western than Jane Russell, no matter what Howard Hughes has to say about it. Click here for the TCMreview.

 

Rain, 1932: Joan Crawford is young and scandalous, for about 90 minutes. Click here for the TCM review.

The Royal Bed, 1931: In this 72 minute comedy, Mary Astor is in demand as the daughter of a very busy king (and no, this synopsis has nothing whatsoever to do with the title.) Click here for the TCM review.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 1946: 2 hours of film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck, plus Kirk Douglas in his first movie role. Click here for the TCM review.

Hope this list is a help to you and I will see you again on Monday, and with some finished knitting to show you to boot because if I don't make some serious headway soon I am totally doomed.

(to that end: the latest Churchmouse newsletter came out this morning and with it, another superfast cowl recipe aptly called Last Minute Cowls.  So timely!

Tea and knitting, and other odds and ends

While tidying up the other day I found this card with a picture of a knitted tea cosy on the front:

That's what I saw this time, at least.  When this was given to me I was on a break from knitting and probably only saw Tea And Cookies, which is what I see a lot of the time anyway.

(Did I tell you that when I reorganized my kitchen a few weeks ago, I assessed the different work areas and what they're used for, and realized all the prime cupboard space over the prime work area is given over entirely for the production of tea and plates of cookies? 'What your kitchen says about you', oh dear.  If I find I'm storing my biscuit pantry in the oven I'll know I have a serious problem.)

* * * * *

Yesterday Kate put a link into the Comments for a page of tips on running in ends from verypink.  This site is such a great find I wanted to bring it up into today's post.  I spent ages looking around at things Staci has posted there, including tips on crochet for knitters (how timely!)

The big thing there is the videos, of which this is one:

And from there you can see lots of others: something for you (by which I also mean me) to do while lingering over a cup of tea when it's very important not to notice other less interesting but more urgent things on the To Do list.

* * * * *

I got a little sample skein in my last package from Twisted Fiber Art, and I was instantly besotted:

It's called Sherwood, and it's a colourway I've passed over more times than I can count when considering new yarns at Twisted, for some reason I am having trouble comprehending now.  I guess sometimes you have to see something in person?  Or maybe, have something in mind?  (I'm visualizing socks, which I am pretty sure will surprise you.)

Anyway: besotted, obsessed, determined-to-purchase.  And guess what?

This colourway is not currently being dyed to order.  Which means I have to wait.  Which is what happened with the Dapper, and you know how that came out... when it was finally available again I bought a bunch and then knit two pairs of socks with it and am a bit jumpy about wanting to knit more.  Le sigh.

* * * * *

I got another cute card in the mail not long ago, with this sweet seal on the back of the envelope:

The cover looks like this:

And if you ever needed a reminder of what to drink with cookies while knitting, this would solve the problem.  (my favourite is the blue cup with flowers growing on it.)

What this card is missing though is a cosy for the pot - also missing - and that reminds me of Kate Davies' Sheep Carousel, which I'm sure you'll agree every knitter who drinks tea should have in their most convenient kitchen cupboard. I really need to sort out some yarn for knitting that with.  Obviously not Sherwood though.

* * * * *

Another thing I'm reminded of, this time by that verypink video about knitting socks on two circular needles, is that I have been thinking of learning how to knit socks that way.  It looks overly busy to me and though I know some people swear by it, I've never been tempted.  But now that my trip is getting closer, it seems less and less realistic that I can get through two weeks without working on a sock.  Circulars just make more sense for the places I'm going, if I can figure it out.

Another motivator: the Addi Needle Shop is selling Sock Rockets.  I'd never heard of these before - they are new, just out - but now they seem essential.

Or maybe I just love knitting tools?

* * * * *

I think that's it for me for today: lots of running around to do and sadly, none of it yarny.  I hope your weekend is lovely, with or without tea, but definitely with knitting!

Knitting in film: The Man Who Knew Too Much

The other night I was watching the 1934 version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

If you're not familiar with it, this is the original one, made when Hitchcock still lived and worked in England; the Doris Day/Jimmy Stewart version that put Que Sera Sera on the map was a (very fine) remake. 

The original movie is very, very good - very tight plotting, great camera effects, all that stuff you want to see.  But of course, being me, I could not get past the hat and mitts - seriously, they were that jumpy-outy - on the English couple's little girl. 

(in the remake, it's an American couple with a little boy and instead of vacationing in a snowy resort, they are someplace very hot. same story though.)

I missed a lot of plot points because I was trying to figure out whether her elaborate mitten cuffs were in fact cuffs that fold over the sleeve of her coat, or very large wrist warmers, but eventually they all went inside and I was able to focus on the friendship between the essentially adorable couple and a gentleman they had met on their holiday.  The wife and the gentleman were pretending to flirt, and the husband was pretending to be terribly hurt by it all, and then - as the wife and gentleman danced in the dining room - he asked his daughter...

"Is that mummy's knitting?  Chuck it over."

Alfred Hitchcock, you old dog.  The husband not only takes the knitting off its needles, he actually winds the loose end around the button on the back of the gentleman's jacket just before he and his wife dance away, with hilarious results.

A few seconds later though you're reminded that this is an Alfred Hitchcock movie after all.  Bump.

If you want to check it out, I would love to hear what you think about those mittens at the start.  The dancefloor shenanigans start at about the 7 minute mark, and they're all over by 8:45 minutes in.

I do love when knitting turns up in film, don't you?  Like when Nora Charles is knitting at the end of another Thin Man movie, and Nick finally notices and asks her, Aren't those slippers a little small because they would just fit a baby, and she doesn't say a word.  Heh heh heh.

Chicken Heart and some holiday boogie woogie

An odd bit of trivia that came out of listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is that Chicken Heart was real.

Yep, 'Chicken Heart'.  Maybe I was just sheltered, but when I was a kid listening to Bill Cosby's Wonderfulness, lying on the carpet in front of the stereo set my dad had built (the actual record-playing part had the same footprint as a loveseat, and the matching speakers on either side the same as a set of rather large end tables - to say music dominated our family life would be literal) I assumed he was making up everything about those stories in his jokes.

But there it was in the audiobook - a reference to the real-life chicken heart on which was based the Lights Out radio show presentation of Chicken Heart (click on track #9, at the right of the page) which, as I knew in spite of its not being mentioned there, later led to Bill Cosby smearing the floor with Jello so the Chicken Heart would slip on it before it could eat him.

Naturally, this discovery sent me to YouTube.

It is truly amazing what people will upload.  And also: how many phrases I still use daily without realizing they came from listening to Bill Cosby.

In only partially related news (the link being listening to Henrietta Lacks), I mentioned I finished my Holiday Boogie Woogie socks, right?  Still haven't grafted the toes shut yet, of course, but miracles can't always happen.

Leslie was so right about this being the most fun colourway to knit.  I am pretty sure I don't have enough left over to do much more than a palm on a pair of fingerless gloves, but I have enough of the other colours in stripes from other Vesper colourways to piece something together if I'm willing to put in the work (we'll see.)

I am especially in love with the cute green heel I got on this sock.

Possibly somebody is going to wonder about the safety pins so I'll just mention that I use them to help me make both socks match.  The pin closest to the heel marks where I finished the gusset, and one closer to the toe marks 10 rounds short of where the toe should begin.  I use them for the leg, too - first to mark ten rounds short of the heel flap, and then where the flap itself actually begins.

Life: make it easy.  and as fun as possible!  Enjoy your day and I'll see you tomorrow with some yummy new yarn.

Making magical yarn, and other excitements

I'm so excited to tell you about a new project I'm hoping to finish by the end of 2012:

which started with spinning the yarn I want to use for it.  How sad is it that it took me two months to connect my new white boots that don't match anything with the undyed, lusciously soft Polwarth fiber I've had forever?

Here is the plan:

1/ spin the yarn (done)
2/ ply the yarn (done)
3/ skein and Soak the yarn (done)
4/ once dry, cake and gauge the yarn
5/ knit a cowl
6/ knit a hat with what's left(ha)
7/ black down coat, white accessories, Mary all matchy

But there is more.  The goal here is to make magical yarn, with calming properties.  And for that, this fiber is perfect.  It's true that no artist touched it with colour, but the soft, pretty scent it came with has never left it.  And I mean never; I made a hat with some of this fiber a couple of years ago and even though it's been Soaked and set out on a shelf and worn in all weathers it still smells sweet.  Plus, it's soft and fluffy like warm snow or non-sticky marshmallow, were such things possible.

When you're making a magical thing, it's important that every step be full of magical elements.  So for the spinning, I watched some favourite British programs - which I mention because they are posted free on TV Ontario's website, here in Ontario at least (scroll down once at their site):

Lost in Austen

Foyle's War

And that is pretty much all there is to tell about the Magical Yarn Project today.  Updates next week!

* * * * *

Earlier this week I heard from Caitlin at All Free Knitting who wrote to tell me that two of my patterns - my Escapist Shawl and Milkshake Scarflet - were among the 100 most popular at the site in 2012.  So I get a button!

and I'm on a special list now at All Free Knitting (and you should check out that list by the way, because there are some really fun free patterns in it.)

* * * * *

It snowed here:

I had to take pictures, because last winter we had I think three snows of which just one looked about this deep before melting, and this winter Ottawa has had tons of snow for ages.  Toronto is never as cold as Ottawa, but we are supposed to get snow on a regular basis between December and March (inclusive) so that's a little weird.  Though now that I'm a driver, I am deeply grateful and kinda hoping any snow we do get over the rest of the winter will happen either on days I don't have to drive, or enough hours away from said drives to allow clearing up at a civilized hour, which I can tell you right now isn't going to be 5:30 am.

Because the snow started on Boxing Day and I was therefore staying up very late to milk every last minute of my special day, I can show you what it looked like at 1:30am through the lens of flash photography:

In real life, it was somewhat whiter and the brightness extended right out to the lawn owing to the reflective nature of snow under streetlamps.  sooooo pretty.

Also pretty, the next morning:

My fence.  Insert happy sigh (because it is still a holiday and I don't have to rush to clear a path to anything for any reason, as long as I don't run out of hot chocolate.)

And that is me for this week.  I hope you have something fun lined up for this weekend, and I'll see you again Monday!

Knit chat

A couple of days ago I found a Very Exciting Parcel in my mailbox, from Stoddart Family Farm.  Turns out there was one more installment of the woolshare program I'd joined last winter, and I just didn't know, so it was a nice surprise.

Or do I mean, a spectacular surprise?

(the blue is a Corriedale blend in laceweight; the autumn shades are more of my much-loved Romney/mohair blend.)

Of course I wrote Silvia right away to tell her how much I love these colours, and we got chatting, and she mentioned a really nice pattern for fingerless gloves she wants to knit, and I looked at the link and thought Wow, that looks like something Kate Davies would wear, and if you follow the link too you'll notice that duh, it's Kate Davies' blog.  (they are great gloves, you should think about it.)

Well, once I was there I thought I'd browse around at the other new patterns and fell pretty hard for a tea cosy with sheep on it.  I don't have time or even a teapot-shaped teapot, but I decided to buy the pattern anyway because I do have a teapot-shaped teapot at my cottage, and come spring I'm not going to be thinking of much but being at said cottage, plus the weather will be warm enough not to have me cranking out warm socks, so I'll probably be willing to make time for a seriously cute tea cosy.

And once I'd done that I also bought Kate's two installments of Textisles.  I haven't read them yet, but I know I will love them, because hello, it's Kate Davies.

* * * * *

Speaking of people whose work you know you will love because they're basically awesome, I gave Jill one of my tinyhappy bags to hold her hat-in-progress.  She loved it and wanted the link to Melissa's shop so she could buy more, but oddly enough, when she got there, there were no little bags to be had.

Ahem.

(sorry Jill, I swear I bought this before I knew you wanted to buy one too!)

* * * * *

Last night while I was getting out my pattern for Turkish Bed Socks - next week I'll show you whether or not Carol's 2012 pair are going to look great or not - I looked at the Diagon Alley hat pattern Louise designed  for her Biscotte yarns.  I love that hat pattern, and I don't have a speck of wool the right weight for it.  I think I need to put a Biscotte shopping fest into my Christmas plans, don't you?

Meanwhile, as the cowl I mentioned yesterday dries out from its blocking bath (YAY), I'm eying the second skein of the same yarn and thinking I should make a matching hat in case the handspun hat I'm working on turns out to look horrible.  The self-striping yarn won't work for the cables on Diagon, but it would look great knit up as Louise's Flight of the Phoenix, which is easily the most flattering winter hat I own.

Or in other words, I keep having to remind myself that Christmas is soon and I still have a lot of stuff to make for people.  Wouldn't it be great if I got the whole Christmas break just to knit as a reward for getting those things finished?

* * * * *

This past week I've been working my way through The New Yorker's food issue and marveling at the artists who love food enough to make it for a living.  I can appreciate the passion because I feel much the same way about textiles, and I can definitely appreciate the luxury of a really good meal, but I can't at all relate to the willingness to dirty every pan and cutting board in the kitchen all in one go.   

(I should though, because right now my work area looks like an entire shipment of multicoloured yarn and knitting tools exploded out of an air cannon and landed, not so neatly, in that room alone.)

Anyhow, somehow all that reading led me to a look at Hubert Keller's well-reviewed book Souvenirs, which I'm thinking about buying for the story even though the recipes are unlikely to inspire me to get cooking.

I mean, if I could resist the recipe for apple cider caramels at Smitten Kitchen....

Okay, that was uncalled-for.  Just because that blog tortures me with its sumptuousness, there's no reason to make you suffer too.  Heh.

* * * * *

I decided to take that Pilates class, in case you were wondering.  I've never done Pilates before so within a few hours of the end of the first session yesterday everything pretty much hurt including muscles I didn't know existed.  I'm not sorry I signed up, but I think I need to do a whole lot more stretching before and after the next few classes while I adapt.  Or not... because when you're that sore, nobody is going to argue with your need to sit on the sofa with a heating pad and some knitting.  Including yourself.

* * * * *

I think that's as much chatty as I've got today; time to go do productive helpful things so as to earn more knitting time.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that I see you again on Monday, with luck to look at things I actually finished.  (a girl can dream!)

Feel-better tips for creative folk

You will probably not be surprised to learn that, although I am pretty successful at resetting myself however briefly to 'chirpy', I'm feeling pretty crummy these days.  Let's face it: it's no fun to lose your mum.  But there are lots of things in life that aren't fun, unlike the clever things we find to compensate for them.

Here are the tricks I tried over the past couple of days - next time you feel miserable or just plain bored, maybe one of them will help you out.  

1/ I watched the spoof western Support Your Local Sheriff and put in about 8 rounds on a sock.  Then I realized I'd done a superfluous yarn over on the last round before I started those 8, so I unpicked the stitches one by one for all 8 rows plus another half I didn't notice till too late.  And: I didn't care.

DK weight cashmere-blend yarn, people.  The best friend of the emotionally needy.

2/ I revisited a tutorial on how to use an Ashford Knitter's Loom.

It was nice.  I really like the music and how down to earth Kate is.  I also took my Knitter's Loom out of its bag and looked at it.  And then I put it back again.  Even though I've owned this loom since May and have been longing to find time to play with it, it felt too much like work.  I figured that was  a sign it wasn't going to help just now.

3/ I watched the next video recommended by YouTube, even though I don't speak or comprehend the language.

I love this clever use of buttons.  And the rest of this artist's work, which is all posted on her site, is also fab.  You don't need the language to figure out how to make this bracelet, but it was enough for me just to watch it being done so I stopped there.

4/ Instead, I cleared everything Not Autumn out of my closet and played with ideas for wearing my new not-handknit socks:

Not pictured: the short, felted wool skirt that goes with this combo.  Later I went shopping to fill in the gaps exposed by the loss of all those out of season things.  I've come home with a black pair of skinny jeans with a sort of snakeskin sheen I don't know whether I can carry off, but hey: it's new and different.  New and different is a good idea right now.  Clear uncluttered spaces are also a good idea.  It's a win-win.

4/  Continuing on the decluttering track, I wound some skeins of yarn I spun in July into cakes ...

and then a skein of Stoddart romney/mohair fingering I got in April ...

and when I was putting them safely into moth-deterring bags I noticed this nice fiber I spun a while back ...

and thought about knitting with it Right Now.  But I didn't do it.  That wasn't really what I wanted either - I was just grateful to have more neglected work out of the way.

5/ When I realized I have no excuse not to spend the hour between appointments I have tomorrow on either side of a much-neglected-by-me gym, I finally did something about the fact that I don't use the amazingly effective elliptical trainer there because it bores me clear out of my mind and, frankly, cooking shows on mute aren't much help.

Yes: I charged my very old iPod and bought an audiobook for it.

I wasn't too worried about which audiobook - when I started my break from writing fiction I started another from reading fiction, so most things are new to me now - but then I remembered loving the way the words are assembled in The Graveyard Book.  So I bought Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  Which is read by Neil Gaiman, apparently over the course of twelve hours.  If I make myself stick to listening to it only while on the elliptical machine twelve hours has got to be good for something, don't you think?

(seems a bit unjust on Neil Gaiman, doesn't it - not only writing the book, but then having to record his reading of the entirety of it.  I've listened to a bit of it already though and I must say I'm grateful for his commitment.)

6/ While I was clearing up the closet I found some roving I got in a Twisted Fiber Art Club, called 'Festive'.  Just what I needed.  After thinking about it overnight I decided to go ahead and divide it into sections, which would not in itself commit me to spinning it right away ...

... but it turned out this was something I did want to do, so as I write this I've just finishing spinning all the singles.  I'll show you pictures later in the week because they are so pretty and it's too dark now for my camera to work any magic at all.

I feel a lot better tonight than I did on Friday night when I started all this.  It was good to get closure on a few things, and move a few things into their next stage.  Nice to exert some control over my surroundings.  Nice to eat carrot cake in between ideas.

I wonder what I'll do tomorrow?

I know what I hope you'll do tomorrow: something that makes you happy.  See you then!

Ten Things: rainy day knitting

My knitting brain is bouncing all over the place so I've decided to give you a mashup of crafty thoughts chez Hugs:

1. I browsed through some fall fashion pictures yesterday and I thought my head would explode from all the design ideas unfolding in there.  I lost count of all the Lookit This! notes I sent to Trish.  One fashion picture we agreed was Just Silly: a dark-coloured cardi with a smaller, brighter, but otherwise identical cardi shape sewn over top, by way of making the model appear even tinier.

2. Trish also popped by with some knitting tool news the details of which I'm not going to share but maybe she will, in the comments.  Suffice it to say my face is a bit green today and not from nausea.

3. I've been wearing the little Turkish Bed Slippers I knit for mum.  They don't make me feel better, but my feet are warm, so there's that.

4. Because there is a handknit hat (alpaca with shiny stuff) involved, I watched a video of Amanda Seyfried appearing on Ellen:

in which Amanda says she knits on her elliptical trainer.  Is this possible??? Will my gym kick me out if I try it??? Because if I go to Italy without getting my super-industrial-grade walking legs back in gear, I am going to have to pre-book chiropractors or massage therapists in every city I visit.  Yet I have no wish to give up knitting time.  You can see my dilemma.

5. I am completely, utterly, and totally besotted with the orange mohair socks I started striping the other day.  I want them to be done so I can wear them but who am I kidding? I may never graft the toes shut.

6. Why am I not grafting any of these toes shut?  Seriously, I am starting to think there must be some deep emotional meaning to my not finishing all those almost-finished objects.  Like, I'm not ready to let go of anything right now.  Or maybe I am just obsessed with working my way through the pile of mohair stuff I bought in May as quickly as possible, without taking time to run in ends, so as to conquer something. 

7. Though I am definitely obsessed with working my way through the mohair sock yarn, I have also realized I will need not too hot, quick-dry socks for springtime in Italy and that probably means bamboo.  I am pretty sure I have no bamboo sock yarn.  Maybe this means I can go shopping even though I didn't work through all my mohair stash, because hello, it takes me a month to finish finer-weight socks and I should probably have more than three pairs in rotation.

8. Bob is coming over tomorrow so I finished his socks last night.  HA.  Yeah, Trish may have a cool new knitting tool, but she's also got a whole sock left to knit in the very same very plain yarn as the Bobsocks.  Actually I shouldn't gloat because if he tries them on and they're still the wrong length I will have to rip back two sets of toes to fix them.  Won't have to unpick any grafting though, heh.  (are you surprised?)

9. I am going to a wedding this weekend for which I was partially prepared several months ago, then made another bit of progress on about three weeks ago, and for which I am now entirely stalled.  I need to decide on the other part of a partial present.  Wouldn't it be nice if I had a loom I knew how to use so I could make a very special table runner or something?  I think I have to go non-crafty this time around.  Though a trio of mittens with the middle mitten set up for hand-holding would be awfully cute.

10.  There's one more course (realistically, there is always one more course, but this is the one right now) I was supposed to have done for the new job and I've been putting it off because I just wanted so badly to sit and knit for a few more hours.  I started today and guess what?  Turns out it requires me to sit in a comfy chair near the computer, knitting and listening and reading and occasionally clicking to the next screen.  I can so be done this thing by the end of Thursday.  But I'm not going to hold up the knitting till then because YAY, it's been my orange stripey socks.

Okay: that's me, and now I will bounce off and get on to the next thing.  I hope you are all having a fabulous day even if (or do I mean because?) you, like me, are looking out at a whole mess of rain.  Love love love rainy days for knitting!

Knitting (or crocheting) without tools

There are a lot of things I would change about myself but one thing I really like is that I am a problem solver.  Admittedly, most of the problems I face come up because of the rest of the person I am, so if I could just fix up the other stuff I wouldn't have to be a problem solver, but still.  Lucky I am so tenacious about fixing things, instead of just living with them as they are, right?

The current big problem is that I am planning to visit Italy in the spring.  I know, I know, Italy! how lucky I am to be in a position to go to Italy.  Yes.  Except I will have to fly there, after not flying for about 15 years because I got so frantically nervous on a plane I couldn't face getting on one ever again.

Fortunately, this is a problem I can (and will) tackle from many different angles.  One of them, naturally, is to bring really good, super calming and distracting knitting on the plane.  Except... it's an international flight, and the rules aren't fixed for what sorts of sharp metal needles you can bring on flights into different countries. 

At first I thought I would just bring easily replaceable needles and yarn so if my stuff was confiscated at customs I'd be 'okay'.  Then I read about some people being separated from their fellow travelers (in my case, they are more accurately called 'security blankets') in the case of such confiscations.  That would make me freak out before I even got onto the plane.

Also, I would be left without my calming, distracting knitting en route.

So over the weekend, I looked up some YouTube videos on how to knit with your fingers, so as to avoid needles altogether.  The clearest one was this:

You will notice though, there's really no way to have more than 4 stitches.  Plus, your fingers are all tangled up.  If I suddenly needed to do something for safety reasons, I'd be a mess both literally and figuratively.

The latter objection is sadly true for this variation as well, in which you knit using your arms:

Plus, it's super quick - not practical for my purposes - and your arms are always tied up.  Cool though!  I'd like to try this one just for everyday life.

Then I spotted a video for a knitting fork, which is made of wood and possibly not pointy enough to be confiscated:

Sadly, all you can make is a cord.  I just don't think that's enough to keep me quiet through turbulence.

So I gave up and looked at some videos about crocheting with your fingers.  BINGO:

These are the clearest ones - they show not just the technique, but the fact that you're never really tied up in the yarn - and if you need more convincing the possibilities really light up when you watch this:

Translate the bulky acrylic blankie to a lacy silk/merino stole and: yeah.  This is the fix.

True, I don't actually know how to crochet.  But I've got a few months, and I'm a motivated student.  I'll figure it out. 

Hope you figure out a great Monday.  See you tomorrow!

Audio to knit by

Before I share links to some great audio accompaniment I've found for knitting, I want to tell you:

I passed my exam!

(with a pretty strong mark too, a reflection of what a awesome teachers I had.)

Also, I wanted to thank Pauline for commenting yesterday that her other friends in financial planning have creative backgrounds.  I'm pretty sure that is not true of anybody in the office I'm joining, and I've feared that I'm saying goodbye to that part of myself for a while with this change in my workday.  Your telling me that has really helped.

And Gina, you really helped me too by normalizing the notion of stashed yarn as an end in itself.  I really did buy my loom to help use up stash!  It was making me feel SO guilty.  Just that one small anecdote made me feel like it's okay to have a lot of yarn around, especially if I have less time to knit it.

(of course this is less comforting if the moths I keep finding around the house the last few days are raising young to feed on the stash, but that's a problem to sort out after I finish writing this.  I expect to find two or three around this time of year, but I think I'm up to six already, and they seem extremely attached to folded-up clothes and towels. Cotton ones, but still: GAH.)


Audio Links

The last few days, between moth rescues and tests, I've been consumed by a need to hear insightful people share their life experiences. 

It's that old wise man/wise woman thing - as a kid, I loved the stories where a mysterious adult had all the answers but simply guided the child protagonist(s) on his/her own path to their objective.  These days the Wise Person has taken the form of people who know a lot about how the world works from some angle or another, and share their knowledge with wonder, as though they too are enchanted by what they see.

And that is why I cannot wait to sit down with the rest of the 9-part interview I found posted on YouTube with Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  I was the wrong age for that show so I didn't know much about it, or him, and the thought of a 4.5 interview with him would not have made me sit up and take notice until I clicked on Part 1 yesterday when I should have been doing something else.  What a loss that could have been!  And the interviews run in 25-30 minute segments so there's plenty of knitting time before you get up to click the next instalment.

Fred Rogers Interview, Part 1
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 2
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 3
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 4
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 5
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 6
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 7 is missing for some reason, if you find it let me know!
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 8
Fred Rogers Interview, Part 9


In sort of related hunting, I found an 18-minute video of neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor describing the stroke that revealed how humans relate to each other and how to make our lives more loving and happy.  If that isn't what Hugs is all about I don't know what is, so I had to share it even though it's been out a few years and I'm pretty sure I'm the last to hear it.

Jill Bolte Taylor's Stroke of Insight, via TED


This last one is a sad/happy mix.  Colin Firth reading (happy!!) The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (sad-ish.)  I read this book SO many times when I was young, and while I don't know whether it will play as well for me today after rather a lot of life experience - hello, Colin Firth's voice while I knit?  He could be reading an ingredient list.

The End of the Affair, via Audible.com


Have a great weekend guys, and please accept my best wishes for no moths in your house!

Subscribing

My friend Trish and I have been plotting about knitting magazines.

Specifically, knitting magazine subscriptions, as in: let's accept our addiction and save money for yarn by starting some.

For example, Interweave Knits? Totally need that turning up in the mail every season. Here are some other contenders:

Vogue Knitting

Knitter's Magazine

KnitSimple

Debbie Bliss

Rowan

Cloth Paper Scissors
(okay, this isn't a knitting magazine, but it's so cool)

Piecework Magazine

Yarn Forward

Verena Knitting

What am I forgetting here? I hope nothing, because choosing one or two out of all that would be tough. And I for one have negative space available for magazines, much as I want them anyway. (it's true isn't it, that you can stack them into end tables and nightstands?)

While I'm at it, can I mention the gorgeousness that comes out of Classic Elite Yarns headquarters? No subscription required.

Weekend frolics

Some fun places to spend weekend downtime when not actually knitting:

Knitting History, which includes patterns and links to other historical sites.

Vintage Purls, which features - oh my - instructions for 1940s and 50s patterns whose copyright has expired. It's got me thinking about knitting placemats, though, which means its collection is Highly Dangerous.

Knitting-and.com has a page sharing stitches and patterns from Home Work (1891), and hosts the KnitWiki.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (which really is the most lovely place) has its own knitting pages as well...

including one that led me to The Hook and The Book, which looks at the history of both knitting and crochet in the U.S. My fave!

Knitting lace

Do you guys know about the 1884 Knitted Lace Sample Book? I love this blog. Vintagekathleen, its author, found a scrapbook of lace patterns and samples in a used bookstore and she's posting entries from it with photographs and instructions. And her knitting is perfection, so all the samples look really pretty.

Every time I see a new entry I think not only about all the work she's putting into this for the benefit of other knitters, but about what knitting was like in 1884. I also think a lot about the woman who collected all the news clippings and patterns from friends to make up the book in the first place.

Back then, she'd have been knitting decorative things for her home as well as trimming for her clothes, and her children's clothes, don't you think? There would have been a lot of things to make and mend or replace, and perhaps even gifts to create, and over time a longing to keep it all fresh. She was probably excited by all the new possibilities presented by each pattern she found, the way knitters are now, even though today we knit so much less from necessity.

Unless, you know, you count satisfying an obsession a necessity. And I do!

(Long) weekend reading

When I'm not sneaking off to knit, I'm a writer, and as a writer I love a good book... but the past few years, my favourites have been nonfiction. And what better nonfiction than a really good blog that takes you straight into the best of somebody else's world?

I've been lucky to find more than a few and I've posted them on the right, under You Might Also Enjoy, but I have to make special mention today of What Housework? not least because that might as well be my own catchphrase.

Here is what makes Jessie's blog so wonderful:

She writes about her cat, with pictures, which makes me miss my old friend Buttons O'Reilly less sadly.

She writes about living in the country, which is something I sometimes imagine I would like to do someday. I get all the fun of country living paired with the calm acceptance of the city's being a better fit for me, and knowing I can play with the idea without having to entertain the remotest thought of packing is just so pleasant.

She writes beautifully and knits even better and spins and dyes yarn and shares photographs of her lovely work and even makes yarn and roving available for sale.

Shopping, escapist reading, and an athletic cat: does it get any better than that?