Mandy Moore's Blog, page 34
July 13, 2016
WWW: Faroe Sheep Cam, Kate Davies interview, visit to LYS as alibi?
You’ve probably heard about Google Sheep View, which helps you locate all the sheep in Google Street View images…
The Faroe Islands has launched a slightly different initiative: tired of waiting for Google to come and officially map their island, they’ve harnessed up five sheep with 360-degree cameras, and are gathering the results to submit to Google.
A lovely BBC radio interview with designer extraordinaire Kate Davies. She talks about her recovery from a stroke, and her career change from academic to full-time yarn professional. Well worth ten minutes of your time.
This looks really interesting. The Great British Wool Rampage: a TV documentary on the British Wool industry. It’s a Kickstarter page, but even if you’re not up for a contribution, it’s worth visiting to read about the project.
On the Classic Elite blog, an interview with knitwear designer Tonia Barry. A fascinating insight into the design process.
Interesting: a woman uses a drive to a knitting shop as her alibi in a road-rage case in Scotland. The judge has asked that she prove her knitting ability, as part of her sentencing…
A lovely little memoir of sock knitting for the war effort in Australia: a story of a very old FO and a decades-old acquaintance renewed.
July 12, 2016
Llamas Block Tour de France Route
I can’t tell you how much I love this.
Llamas chillin on the Tour de France route (Photo: Joel Adages/Facebook)
Last week llamas blocked the route of the Tour de France in the Pyranees mountains. They did not interfere with the race however.
Other animals including sheep (!) have caused trouble during the Tour, here’s an article about the recent history of animals interfering with the Tour, including a flock of sheep causing a slow down on a climb. I know it’s dangerous to both the animals and the riders, but I can’t stop giggling.
July 8, 2016
Craftsy Sale 50% Off of Best -Sellers
It’s hot outside and maybe you’re sick of binging Netflix. How about a new to you Craftsy class? Craftsy has a lot of their knitting, spinning and crochet classes 50% off this weekend. You could hang out and learn from Lucy Neatby, Amy Herzog, Kim Werker or Jacey Boggs Faulker for just a little less dough.
The links are part of the Craftsy affiliate program. When you use them to buy a class, Knitty gets a little money from the sale.
July 6, 2016
WWW: Canadian Red Cross booklet, Cliche-free Shop Profile, Knitting as Classical Music Score
I rather like the “if I hold them like this they won’t hurt me” look on his face…
A nice profile of The Sheep Shop in Cambridge UK, notable for having been written by a man, and yet without a single use of the old ‘granny’ or ‘ooh look men can knit too’ tropes.
An older piece, but it’s been making the rounds again recently: an Icelandic composer uses a knitting pattern as inspiration for classical music.
the score, for symphony orchestra and piano respectively, are completed — an ethereal soundworld with pauses where the knitting pattern has holes
Although the composer confesses that neither the score nor the knitting project are complete…
A little off-topic, but an excellent longer read for your lunchtime break today… “The True Price of Fast Fashion“.
New York Public library offers a weekly knitting and crochet gathering, 10:30am on Tuesdays.
Image from the Canadian Red Cross website.
A post on the Canadian Red Cross website about knitting patterns distributed to civilians during the two World Wars. The purpose of these booklets was not, however, what you might initially think… it wasn’t about teaching knitting, but rather establishing standards for the items to be made and donated.
Knitting booklets like this one also serve as a reminder that although the wartime Red Cross relied primarily on voluntary labour, it still had high standards. All items produced were carefully inspected, and any that did not meet the exact specifications outlined in the instructions were rejected. Knitting booklets like this one enabled women volunteers across Canada to produce items that they knew were needed and made the grade.
July 5, 2016
Why I’m Not Spinning for Tour de Fleece or Spinzilla This Year
Cjkoho Designs BFL, Maya colorway with natural added.
I love both the Tour de Fleece and Spinzilla! I get as excited about getting ready for them as I do for buying school supplies in the fall. You know I love making plans. Even though I’ve never hit my lofty spinning goals, I love the process of dreaming big and tossing my stash for the right fiber.
But I decided not to spin for either big event this year. Why? I want to spin how I want and I want a break from deadlines. The past 18 months have been really busy for me spinning-wise. I loved every second of it, but now I want to just float. I’m still spinning every day, but I want to follow all the spinning things that interest me right now, waiting for my next spinning obsession to carry me away. I wonder what it will be?
I am excited to see what everyone else is spinning and how much they are spinning! Sometimes it’s even better to spin vicariously, all the beauty and inspiration, none of the deadlines.
Tell me what you are spinning for the Tour de Fleece!
July 1, 2016
Knitty Friday: A refreshing design!
Or, rather, refreshing our design!
One of our first stated goals with our Patreon campaign was to pay our staff and contributors better. Thanks to our Patrons’ enthusiasm, we were able to do that almost immediately. And so we moved on to the second goal: bringing our website up to date.
We launched our first ever responsive issue last week. What’s responsive? That means the site is coded to automatically resize to fit every screen from cellphones to huge monitors. It’s about as fresh from the code monkey as is possible…and we’re releasing it in Beta. That means there might be bugs to fix, and things might change in appearance from day to day as we fine tune how the site looks and works. We beg your indulgence during this time. Wanna report a bug? Write to me with the subject heading “BUG REPORT”. Thank you!
simulation…the best way to see how this issue works is to view it on your different devices!
The back issues in our Library will be getting a facelift as well, though a much more subtle one. We want our whole Library to be updated so that the back patterns are still useful to you, and so we’ll be continuing to responsive-ize issues until they’re all done. It’s going to take a while. We’re talking about 55 back issues. But now we know where we’re headed and it’s exciting!
Also long overdue is the addition of metric measurements to patterns. This is now standard operating procedure going forward.
This redesign project has been a huge undertaking in partnership with Philip Chatterton of Marblehead. We’re thrilled with what he’s done for us. (Need something like this done for your website? Drop him a line.)
June 29, 2016
WWW: Yarn Documentary, Knitted Windows, On Copyright
Knitter and actor Kirk Dunn creates phenomenal large-scale knitting projects: full-size stained glass windows. You can watch a documentary about his work online.
A few weeks ago we mentioned the upcoming release of the documentary “Yarn”. It’s been released in the US, and the New York Times has reviewed it. You can watch the trailer here.
Love this: knitter Farzana Chaudry has created a woolly display for the front window of her house, commemorating the return of International Space Station astronauts Tim Peake, Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra. She lives near a school, and enjoys creating these types of displays, “for the joy of the kids”.
Phenomenally useful: a guide to copyright for crafters and artists, in easily understood visual form. I promise it’s not boring or laden with legalese. With a hat-tip to KnitHacker for bringing this to my attention, and Ginger Davis of Blue Bottle Tree for putting it together.
June 28, 2016
Sheepspot Fiber Club, Wool n’ Spinning, Little Looms and Zingerman’s
It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve been curious about everything, everything is shiny! Here are a few things that excited me this week.
My June Sheepspot shipment
The Sheepspot Fiber Club Today is the last day to sign up for the Sheepspot Fiber club. I’ve been in this club for a year and really enjoy getting every shipment. I don’t always spin my fiber, but I always spend time fondling the beautiful fluff and reading all of the breed and spinning information that Sasha sends with her club. This year she has a number of options so you can customize the club. There are payment and quantity, options, but my favorite is choosing between colors every month. This is a great club for spinners who don’t want to prep their own fiber, but still want to try their hand at spinning some hard to find breeds.
Wool n’ Spinning Blog So I’m a little behind, I just discovered this spinning blog and it’s fantastic. Rachel is an obsessive spinner and knitter. She has a Vlog, that I haven’t watched yet and a Patreon campaign going now to help support her work. Somehow she does all of this and is raising two kids.
Are you weaving yet?
Little Looms If you are interested in weaving a little this summer check out this special issue from Handwoven Magazine. It’s full of projects and instruction for weaving on rigid heddle looms, pin looms and weaving small tapestries. All perfect take along projects for the summer. And of course Knitty’s Liz Gipson makes an appearance. I found a copy at my local Barnes and Noble.
A class for iPhone and Android
Mobile Photography – a Craftsy class Sometimes I feel like I don’t get out much. It never occurred to me that there would be classes on photography with your cell phone. I am in the midst of this one from Craftsy and I’m learning all kinds of ways to make my phone pictures better. I desperately needed this class since I’m generally too lazy to get out my big camera. The class covers both iPhone and Android. (The link gets you a 20% discount and gets me a little affiliate tip.)
Zingerman’s Food Tours I just read about Zingerman’s Food Tours. I’m buying a lottery ticket.
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June 22, 2016
WWW: Travel (with) Knitting, Vintage Films, Life-size yarny replicas
Two fantastic videos posted by the BBC in honour of World Wide Knit in Public Day:
Shetland Lace Knitters, filmed in 1964, working at a remarkable pace. Their language is absolutely fascinating, an almost Scandinavian lilt, to my ears. I adored the answer the one knitter gives about how she feels at the end of a long project.
And this gem from 1972:
Lightning fast needle skills from the 1972 International World Knitting Championships #WorldWideKnitInPublicDayhttps://t.co/bCOOpOT7op
— BBC Arts (@bbcarts) June 18, 2016
In life-size-replicas-of-public-figures-made-out-of-yarn news, we have two stories:
A yarn shop in Devon won a competition for their amazing shop window display, featuring a pretty-close-to-life-size figure of the Queen.
And in the US, a crochet model of Bernie Sanders is out on the election trail…
It’s vacation season! Do you have your travel knitting prepared? Some tips from us here at the Knittyblog for travelling with knitting. And check the Knitter’s Review events list to see if there’s anything yarny going on near your destination… or to help you decide on a destination…
Heck, knitting can even help you work through a language barrier, when you’re travelling. On that note, I enjoyed this little vignette from a friend’s trip to Italy….
1/2 Knitting in public apparently NOT common
June 21, 2016
Thank You for Making Yarnitecture #1!
My new spinning book Yarnitecture: A Knitter’s Guide to Spinning: Building Exactly the Yarn You Want that’s coming out in September from Storey Publishing is now up for preorder. Look what you wonderful spinners did yesterday!
Number one!
Last night when I went to bed I was the number one book on both the Amazon Knitting and Fiber Arts lists. Thank you all for ordering my book and for giving me a once in a lifetime thrill!
Why yes, I am very interested
When I woke up this morning I found this email from Amazon.
Today calls for some celebratory spinning!
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