Mandy Moore's Blog, page 105

WWW: World Record Broken, International Knit Shop Finder, "Knitting in Tripoli"

Come and say hello!

Team Knitty – that is, Amy, Jillian and Kate – are making a special trip out to Shall We Knit in Waterloo, Ontario, in mid January for a special weekend of fun, fiber and frivolity. We're each teaching classes, and there will be other fun events, including a signing for Kate's new book. If you're nearby, come and say hello!

More info in the Shall We Knit newsletter.

If you're travelling over the holidays, KnitMap can help you plan your trip. Enter a city name or postal/zip code, and get back a list of the yarn shops in the area.  There is basic categorization – does the shop sell spinning supplies, do they have snacks and coffee, do they have a seating area availability of wi-fi.  The user-contributed reviews are helpful to give you a sense of the store. And it's not just North America!

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Fully legible version at the link. Image copyright DitzyPrints.

Not sure what that single ball of unlabelled mystery yarn at the bottom of your stash is made of?  Unsure how about to wash something? Sorting through through donated stash? Every fashion student knows about the burn test: set a small bit of the fiber on fire, and see what results. How the fiber burns and the residue it leaves tells you everything you need to know. DitzyPrints has provided a helpful chart in downloadable and printable format.

Rana Jawad: knitter, resistance fighter, war correspondent

BBC World Service recently aired a documentary, "Knitting in Tripoli", chronicling the life of a BBC Foreign Correspondent living in Tripoli during the Libyan war. She was forced into hiding, and took up knitting and baking to help her cope with her underground life.

The program is available for streaming worldwide, and as a downloadable MP3.

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1,805 knitters at work!

The competition is getting fierce: a group of 1,805 knitters in Taiwan have broken the record for the most knitters working simultaneously in the same place. The even was part of a cultural festival, and the knitters were all working to complete scarves that will be donated to local groups for the under-privileged.

The Knots of Love campaign has proudly announced they have hit a major milestone: over 100,000 hand-made hats donated to cancer patients in the US. There was a ceremony yesterday at St. Joseph's Hospital Cancer Center in Orange, CA, to donate the 100,000th hat.

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Spinning Tuesdays: Sometimes Simple is Best

I'm going for simple gifts this year.

So far this one is my favorite

Chunky woolen Polwarth, 2x2 rib on US #11 - cozy and fast.

Chunky 2-ply Polwarth, spun woolen. The colorway is Hopworks from Abstract Fibers. The color was inspired by a line up of different beers at a local pub and this hat is going to a friend that's a brewer.

I love connections like that.

 

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Deep Fall Surprise WIPs

It's always fun to see the projects underway….

KarlaJ's cat George is helping her knit the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan.

Excellent color!

We love MMA's version for its classic wearability.

Just perfect.

And Elizabethtm's "Shapely Girlfriend" Boyfriend.

Well on the way.

Lisajoswe has a brilliant top-down variation of the Uzu sock.

Love!

And just look at how much fun Lyme's are…

Fab!

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Wrap up…to come

When last we left our intrepid traveller [that'd be me], I was in Dublin. Next stop, London.

that's telling 'em. (spotted just outside of Dublin)

But that's going to have to wait till next week. Because it's Knitty production time for our Winter issue, and I figure you'd rather have me doing that than pleasantly reminiscing over the last leg of my journey in words and pictures.

I will, however, do exactly that. Next Thursday. Right here! See you then!

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WWW: Socks in Public, Knitting Behind Bars, Knitted Periodic Table

The winner of our Flügel yarn pack contest is Ginger from Oregon. Thanks to the lovely people at Blue Sky Alpacas for the prize!

Image courtesy Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun

A wonderful article about knitter Lynn Zwerling, who has launches the "Knitting Behind Bars" program in Maryland, to teach inmates how to knit. Although prison staff were initially skeptical about the program, it's proven to be very beneficial. Participants find it soothing and calming, and there has been a marked improvement in their behaviour, mood and attitudes.

Ms. Zwerling maintains a blog about the program, and you can purchase specially dyed limited edition sock yarn to help support the program.  (The colorway is called "I Fought the Law and the Law Won".)

Six teenage boys enrolled in a high school entrepreneurship program at a school outside of Philadelphia have started a business selling hand-knit hats to their classmates.

Wool is an element, isn't it?

Chemists in Wellington, New Zealand, have just completed a project to knit a replica of the periodic table of the elements. The project was unveiled at the University of Waikato during the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry conference starting last week.

The project was initiated by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and took over three months, with 162 knitters using over 12 miles (22,500yds, 8km) of yarn. The project has Facebook group with lots of excellent pictures!

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Image courtesy Matthew Sherwood/The Star

Our own Kate is featured in a punny but fun article in The Toronto Star about knitting socks in public.

A nice little piece from a knitter about colors and how you see them – and how knitting with Koigu is changing that. (Bonus: the slippers are Kate's design!)

This article about a winter clothing collection campaign in Winnipeg reminds us that, as the cold weather approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, there are families in need of warm winter clothing. Consider making a contribution to a program in your area.

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Spinning Tuesdays: I Bought a Fleece and Something I'm Excited About

It started in August.

During Deb Menz's class at The Spinning Loft I noticed a fleece. A Babydoll Southdown, short, fine and sproingy bouncy. Unwashed it was the color of spilled pepper. When I washed a lock or two it turned to a gorgeous taupey brown.

I decided against buying it because, well, I have other fleeces just sitting and waiting for me.

But this fleece has been on my mind for months! During the Dream Wheel Weekend I couldn't stand it anymore. I bought the whole thing, almost four pounds.

I washed and carded some right away.

Washed Babydoll Southdown

I even remembered from my spinning along with Deb Robson's Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, not to over wash the fleece.

Springy!

I carded it on my Patrick Green Deb's Delicate Deluxe drumcarder. I ran it through four times.

All ready to spin

I'm not sure what I want to make with it. I have an idea about a cabled shawl. Woolen spun of course.

What do I want to be?

I'm going to start spinning and swatching soon.

 

Now you can listen to me go on about spinning

I will be a little bit busier in the future and I am so excited about it!  I am joining Sasha at the SpinDoctor podcast. Starting in December, I'll be talking with her about what we're both spinning and I'll be doing an interview or two. More time to obsess over spinning.

Come over and give us a listen!

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If it's Thursday, this must be Dublin

I actually got to the point in my super-amazing birthday trip that I was saying things like this in my head. I started losing track of who'd told me that really neat thing about that really neat yarn and had to start combing my brain for landmarks that would remind me where I'd been when I'd heard the thing. It was disorientingly kind of neat, in a weird way.

Anyway, when we left off last week, I was saying farewell to Glasgow, after a much-too-short visit. There's a whole country of green highlands and beautiful country that I never got to peek at because I scheduled myself too tightly. Have learned lesson.

My new BFF, Sharon, drove me to Glasgow airport, where I cursed not having asked my brother-in-law his historical family name [Christian isn't on the list, but he's got strong Scottish roots] so I could have snagged him something cool at the airport shops. Like I said, next time.

On the other end of this flight, I met the smiling faces of Lisa and her mama, Jacqui, of This Is Knit. One Irish smoothie later [I have a thing for crushed frozen fruit when I am super tired] and I was on my way to downtown Dublin, settled in a lovely attic-style room in hotel where George Bernard Shaw once lived [!] and passed out for the night. It was late and I had a big day coming up.

My knee had started to recover, so in the morning, I slowly ambled to the shop. Look at my neighborhood:

Harcourt street

I love the street light fixtures in Dublin.

The blue sky had me fooled…I didn't bring an umbrella.

Stopped for what would be a favorite breakfast: a simple bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket. [You could put rocket -- aka arugula -- on anything and I'd be the happiest girl in the world. Why don't we do that in North America? So much better than boring lettuce.] And a proper latte. And free wifi. Many of the Twitter posts I made while in Dublin came from those breakfast stops. Then onwards, to the Powerscourt Townhouse, which I imagined to be a weeny building, based on the name. Couldn't be more wrong, me. It's a beautiful, huge, soaring historic building that takes up a good part of a city block, with a large central atrium open all the way to the roof, filled with perfect little jewels of shops, including the aforementioned This is Knit. What a fabulous place.

The view from the upper level of This is Knit's new shop

Clever, beautiful yarn display on the upper level balcony

I taught some serious lace design knitters my Plug+Play technique all day, and that night, fellow Canadian but now Dublin resident Lilly made sure I had some authentic Irish pub experience. And cider.

Irish pubness. Happy me.

bacon and cabbage for dinner! ooh, and more cider!

Of course, by this time, the skies had opened and it wouldn't stop for two days. It got pretty bad in Dublin.

Next day, I had a late start, which meant I could saunter slowly to my new favorite breakfast spot, have my rockety bagel and coffee, tweet and then get on with the afternoon's teaching. Siobhan, a This Is Knit patron and clever photographer, was too good a brain not to pick, so I asked her to give a few extra photography tips to those learning about putting their best design foot forward. I learned stuff, too — thank you, Siobhan!

That night, an absolutely delicious Thai dinner, and a quick [ha! in Dublin? where all the streets go the opposite way you want them to?] cab ride home and boom, sackout me again.

Tuesday was walkabout day for me, as the knee continued to feel like it was improving. I went slow and explored galleries and museums, and took illicit pictures:

Acres of 79 euro Aran sweaters. Oh, the humanity.

Perfectly lined up doorways look like a mirror illusion, but they're not

"]looking up inside the museum of history i think…i can never remember museum stuff

I am, to the dismay of my friend, Jillian, not a museum girl. I saw a freaking HUGE dugout canoe the length of one hall in this museum and though, "oh, that is a BIG canoe" and walked on. So it was pretty neat that, the next day, I'd decided to take one of those touristy bus tours I usually avoid like the plague, just to see some Irish countryside  and learned something interesting. The canoe will return in a moment.

The next morning, I got in a big bus driven by a nice guy, and he gave me the Peter Ffrench seat [aka the seat for the tour guide, if there is one. in this case, HE was the tour guide]. So I had a prime spot. The bus filled right up, and off we went to county Wicklow, to see the green hills and movie filming locations, right on Dublin's doorstep. Here's some of what we saw:

there is a tiny dot in front of the garage in the middle of the photo...that dot is an older man (70?) diving in to the VERY chilly ocean for his daily swim. he was not the only one we saw.

beautiful green hills fly past my window

not really anywhere, but it's pretty (even with all the heather dead for the winter)

oh, I found some heather still alive! very pretty. must come back when all the hills look like this wee spot.

Around here, the driver told us about the bogs, and how they dug up strips of peat to burn in their houses for warmth. And that big dugout canoe? Was found in the bogs! How cool is that?

me, a big bus, a lot of strangers, and a bridge made famous in a movie I haven't seen (PS I Love You). surreal.

gorgeous scenery overlooking the Powerscourt estate (where The Tudors was filmed), and some random guy growing out of my head

A torrential downpour goes well with a walk in a graveyard (@ Glendalough Monastery)

ruins of the monastery

As everyone on the bus headed for the Upper Lake at Glendalough, I realized something had happened to my knee some time that day and turned back. I had walked too much, or I jumped down from the lowest bus step too hard and now something new hurt in the same bad knee. Unhappy, I headed back to the pub to wait for everyone to return so we could head home.

That night in my hotel room, I could barely limp to the bathroom and resigned myself to more  slow moving on the rest of the trip. An exercise in patience, this all was. I had had such great plans for walking and walking and walking, and it just wasn't to be.

But I was having a blast anyway, and next on the itinerary was London…on my 50th birthday.

Which I'll write about next week.

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WWW: Black Friday Sales; Save Calmer!; The 'Delit Maille'

This Friday in the US, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, is traditionally a day of big sales – the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season.

Some of our fibery friends are getting into the spirit and offering deals and discounts that day…

Spunky Ecelctic is offering 20% off of all handpainted fiber and yarn. And be sure to check back December 3 for deals on wheels and other equipment!

The Spinning Loft is offering a 15% discount on every bit of fiber, dyed and natural. Use the code "skeins2011″ at checkout. Friday November 25th only.

Black Trillium is offering 25% off all day Friday, November 25th. Please use the coupon code BlackFriday when you check out through Etsy.

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a wonderful, unique, unlike any other

Save Calmer! If you follow Amy on Twitter, you will have read of the petition to save Calmer. Calmer is a cotton-blend Rowan yarn much beloved by non-wool knitters (like Amy herself), for its amazing softness and stretch, with a construction unlike any other yarn available to knitters. "Yarns do get discontinued all the time," says Amy, "but this yarn has no equal on the market from any vendor. Those with wool allergies or sensitivities and those who choose not to use wool for whatever reason — we can't afford to lose it!"

Lucy Neatby and Wendy Johnson have blogged about their support for this movement.

Sign the petition!

Witty and woolly satire.

A knitter and blogger in France is creating knitted dolls of French politicians to satirize and comment on the French political situation, as the election approaches. Her website, the "Delit Maille" ("knitting offence" in French, but say it out loud to be reminded of a UK tabloid) has become incredibly popular amongst both knitters and newshounds. Video story.

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Oooh!

Adorable alpaca (& fiber) pictures in this piece from the Maryland Examiner about the Second Annual Maryland Alpacas and Fleece Festival held this past weekend at the Howard County Fairgrounds.

Pop-culture blog Jezebel features a tutorial on knitting a Burberry-inspired cowl.

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Knit your very own!

And following up on news of the amazing sweaters worn by character Sarah Lund in the worldwide hit TV series The Killing, the Radio Times in the UK has published a pattern for the sweater featured in the second season. (Spoiler-free for those of us who haven't seen the it yet!) There is also a contest to win one of the original sweaters.

Nifty!

A small gallery in downtown Toronto features a rather fab knitting-themed display. The knitter's arms even move… (Thanks to Sarah Fay for the pic.)

This is the work of a local artist. She'll be doing a display in a shop window  – a different one every month.

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Spinning Tuesdays: Dream Wheel Weekend

Julia Farwell-Clay of Takoma fame came to The Spinning Loft with Kelly (who makes those spinning wheel cup holders that are on every wheel you see) for a Dream Wheel Weekend.

On Friday night Julia gave a talk with slide show that expanded on her wheel maker article in the most recent Spin Off.

It was called "I'm Not Dead Yet" or Custom Wheel Makers Alive and Well in North America. It was fun and informative and just primed the pump for what happened on Saturday.

We got to spin on a whole bunch of wheels by custom wheel makers. Yes, we did. I have the proof in pictures.

Alden Amos wheel - thank you for the loan Marcy!

Reeves Norwegian

Pat Russo wheel

Jenson Production Wheel

Jensen Gossip Wheel - Kelly spinning 2 singles at once

Watson Norwegian

Sasha spinning on the Watson

Carson Cooper Sierra

Julia helping Erica adjust the Cooper

Magnus Drudik 28" Castle Wheel - I tried to keep it, but Kelly said no

It was an amazing experience! I fell deeply in love with the Drudik wheel, the Cooper and the Watson. Thanks to Julia and Kelly for sharing their treasured wheels with us.

 

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Knitting Mondays: Gift Knitting and a Flügel Giveaway

It's Jillian with a bit of knitting.

We got a new a roof for our house this fall so I am knitting quite a few gifts for winter birthdays and various holidays.

Here's what I've done so far:

Briar Rose infinity scarf

I knit a long (80″) infinity scarf for a friend for her birthday. I used Briar Rose Charity, doubled.

 

Tweedy Hat

This hat and I have had many words. It's an easy pattern, a cable rib, but it took me four tries to get it right. Now it's going to be a hard gift to giveaway.

I've still got mittens, 3 scarves, a pair of socks and 4 more hats to knit. Go knitter go!

What are you knitting for gifts this winter?

 

Do you want to knit a sweater this winter? How about Flügel from our current issue?

The generous folks at Blue Sky Alpacas  have donated a Techno yarn pack for Flügel for a giveaway. If you'd like to see this sweater on your needles, this giveaway is for you. Prize Value $138 – $253. One lucky knitter will win this prize.

Flügel!

The usual rules apply for our giveaway: Leave a comment on this post before midnight, eastern time, on Sunday, November 27, 2011. A comment will be chosen at random to answer a skill testing question. If s/he answers correctly s/he will win our prize.

 

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