Knodcasts



What's better than knitting? Knitting while listening to someone talk about knitting, of course! Now that I'm an official subway commuter I've gotten more into listening to knitting podcasts, or "knodcasts" as I like to refer to them (Ok, I just made that up but am going to start calling them that from now on!)

My favorite knodcasts currently are Sticks & String, Knitpicks, Knit Science, and Stitch Stud and his Bride. I'm going to do a brief review of each one in upcoming blog posts.

Sticks & String is hosted by David Reidy, a teacher and knitting enthusiast who lives out in Australia. While the content is decent I'm a bit ashamed to admit I mostly enjoy listening to his accent. It makes it a little more interesting to hear him talk about "blokes" rather than men and "jumpers" instead of sweaters. He manages to strike a good balance between discussing his personal knitting projects and general knitting content. I especially enjoy the "essays" he reads on air about his opinions on knitting topics. The only slightly negative thing is the offbeat instrumental songs he includes to break up the first and second part of the podcast. The music is often hit-or- miss but you can always speed through that part if you want to.

Rating: 4 out of 5 DPNS's.

Mystic, CT



JF and I went up to Mystic, CT over Labor Day Weekend for our engagement party. We tried to visit the LYS, Mystic Yarns, but it was closed by the time we got there.



All I got to see was what I could make out through the window. It was a very sad moment :'-(



On the bright side JF's parents put out "engagement toys" for us alongside the cake. (No, sicko, it's now what you're thinking.) As you can see JF got a little NASCAR model car and I got this Ty sheep stuffed animal. On closer examination it looked a bit like a rabbit so I named her, of course "Sheeprabbit." Every now and then she likes to strip off her dress and run around the apartment yelling "Naked sheep! Naked sheep!" but that's a story for another post.



Speaking of sheep I have an amusing ancedote. In one of my wedding magazines they had a photo shoot with a bride holding a little lamb. That got me obsessed with the idea of having "wedding sheep" at the ceremony. Where would you go to rent one out? Anyway, I called a florist today to try to make an appointment to come in. The lady on the phone was like you'll have to call back because "the owner is out with the wedding sheep." I got all excited and exclaimed, "OMG, I was just saying that I really wanted wedding sheep at the ceremony! That would be awesome if you could provide sheep in addition to the flowers!" It was later that I realized she had said "wedding sheet" as in the piece of paper where they wrote down all their appointments. Oopsy.

Oh Baby!



I finished my Feather and Fan Baby Cardigan last weekend just in time for my sister's baby shower. It was up to the wire with me sewing on the buttons, weaving in the ends, and blocking the sweater the day before the shower. I used Tess' Designer Yarns baby/fingering weight yarn and adapted a pattern for a basic baby cardigan to include the feather and fan edging at the bottom and cuffs.



I found these beautiful lavender pearl buttons at the store Tender Buttons on the Upper East Side. Thanks A-M for telling me about this store. I put off my button finding expedition for weeks since I never could found time to trek over to the Garment District. It's a lovely (but pricey) store that has thousands of beautiful buttons all neatly organized. I had heard the staff could be a bit snobby. I found the older woman working there was helpful and seemed interested in helping me choose the right buttons for my project. They're sticklers for closing on time though and will not hesitate to tell you they're closing soon and you need to make your final selection.



Here's a close-up of the feather and fan edging. It's not too hard to do. The most difficult part was figuring out how to work the pattern repeat into my stitch count.

You know what that means....time to cast on a new project!

Pretty in Purple



I picked my long forgotten second Hedera sock up last week in order to have some circular knitting to work on for my knitting group's theme: DPN's & Decaf. I had abandoned this sock at the beginning of the gusset because I was finding it difficult to keep track of the moderately complicated instep along with the gusset decreases while using 2 circular needles and stitch markers. Switching to DPN's along with faithfully using my row counter did the trick. In fact, I became so addicted to working on them that I nearly missed my subway stop on 3 separate occasions! I was trying on my WIP and thought my lavender toes went unexpectedly well with the sock yarn and thought I'd take a pic and share it with my few but faithful blog readers.

New Shop Additions

Drumroll please....



Spooky Halloween Stitch Markers



Magical Stitch Markers

Now how come whenever I need a stitch marker there's none available??

Another One Bites the Dust

I'd been meaning to check out Knits Incredible! a LYS on the UES. I'd heard it was on Lexington Ave somewhere between 68th St. and 70th St. on the 2nd floor. It was strange that I had never noticed it on my own but I think I spend most of my time in the area either below 68th St. or above 77th St (where the 4/5/6 stops) so I suppose there were 9 blocks of uncharted territory there.

Anyway....I found the place and pushed a bunch of buzzers until someone let me in. A sign said the store was in apartment 1A. When I got up there I was a little taken aback to find the door unlocked revealing an empty dusty room except for a cash register. A sign on the front of the door indicated the landlord now owned the property. I got the feeling the owners must have left in a hurry because the awning on the street was still up and there was no real notice of what had happened. I tried calling the phone number and got a message the number was no longer in service but to try a different number. That number instructed me to leave a message for Ann of Knits Incredible as if the store were still in existence.

When I got home I Googled the store and found out that the store had, in fact, closed suddenly likely sometime in June. Apparently the owner had been having a lot of personal problems and would often close the shop sporadically. A couple women on the Knitters Review forum who had left sweaters there to be finished (they offer this as a service) were now fretting that their sweaters had gone AWOL. I can only imagine!