Mandy Moore's Blog, page 46

Jillian’s Spinning: Getting Through a Big Spinning Project

It’s Fall and the spinning is easy. I want to spin all of the time and knit simultaneously these days. I’m finishing my samples for my book’s photo shoot which is this week. I have more to do than I thought because while I have a lot of teaching samples, some of them are a little worse for wear after traveling around the country and being petted while I teach, so I have a few respins to do. I am resisting the urge to spin a new sample for every single photo in the book, it’s hard but I am doing my best to be strong.

I am spinning up to four hours a day along with my regular computer work and have come up with some strategies to keep my body happy. I thought I’d share them and maybe you’ll find them useful, especially with Spinzilla coming up.

Get up and move – this one is hard for me because part of my brain screams, ‘you are away from your wheel, get back and keep spinning’, but if I go for a walk in the morning and get up regularly, every 45 minutes or so when I spin, I can actually spin longer and more consistently.
Stretch – I stretch my hands, arms, back and shoulders before and after a big spin. When I feel especially stiff, I have a back and shoulders yoga dvd I use. Stretching keeps all of my spinning muscles unkinked.
Switch it up – I change the types of yarn I spin and the wheel I use regularly. My positioning and movements are all a little different for each yarn and wheel and that cuts down on repetitive motion soreness. My most favorite change to my spinning routine is to spin standing up at a wheel. Lately, I spend half of my spinning time spinning with my Hansen miniSpinner on a bar stool. That alone keeps me spinning for more time than just sitting to spin.

Bar stool spinning! The pretty blue fiber is cjkohoDesigns merino in the Castiel colorway.

What tips do you have for spinning for hours at a time?

 

Resonator

One hesitates to choose favourites in an issue, but I must confess I do think I have one for our latest issue…

These are great.

I love a good fingerless mitten, and I love a good cable, and Resonator wins in both categories! I adore  the seamless transitions between the ribbing and the cable pattern – a lovely detail which makes all the difference. 18

The designer, Cynthia, writes on her blog about the process of being published by Knitty. She’s very polite about being put through the wringer by a demanding tech editor (me!)… Actually, her pattern was in great shape, but every pattern usually needs a few tweaks to conform to our stylesheet, and to have the charts put into our format.

As she hints in the post, one of the changes I demanded, demandingly, is more than one size. Sizing is one of the things that’s important to us at Knitty – even amongst the editorial team, there are many shapes and sizes, and we like to be as inclusive with sizing as possible. Even for something like mittens, we like to be able to appeal to as many knitters (and wearers) as possible.

Cynthia has kindly provided some additional charts, for the thumb gusset. You can download them from her blog.

WWW: Cast off Chemo; Largest Knitted Doll? Keeping brains fit

The best of causes.

Coming up in October, Cast off Chemo is holding an online auction through EBay to raise funds for a clinical trial for a cancer treatment that doesn’t involve chemotherapy.  Big guns like Skacel, Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts, Berroco and more have donated items towards the auction.  This is your chance to enhance your stash, get some cool products like Denise Interchangeable or HiyaHiya needles, yarn totes, crochet sets and many others.

“We are grateful to have such generous sponsors and contributors from the craft industry,” said Susan Sullivan, Auction Coordinator.  “All the funds raised will go to the goal of raising $1 million for a clinical trial that could make a huge difference for those with breast cancer and other cancers.”

In addition to the online auction, there are currently patterns available on Ravelry. Over 50 knit and crochet patterns are already available for $5 each, with all proceeds going to the cause.  New patterns are uploaded weekly, often daily.

Keep your eyes open for the auction coming up October 2-11, 2015 on EBay.  For a great listing of additional ways you can help, check out the How-To-Help section on the Cast Off Chemo site.

Love it!

Over in New Zealand, a woman originally from Zimbabwe, has created a doll that stands just under 10 feet tall.  Faustinah Ndlovu created the doll to raise funds for the primary school in her home village.  The doll is knit in one piece, stuffed with over 180 pillows and weighing close to 200 pounds; the clearly strong and clever knitter  is waiting for confirmation from Guinness if she has the largest knitted doll.

Something we all already knew, according Cardiff University in the UK, knitting and other yarn crafts can “activate areas of the brain that are good for generating a sense of calm, (and contribute to) improved emotional processing and better decision making.

Keeping the hands and the brain cells active.

Following up on this research, Neural Knitworks began holding knit-ins for broad selection of communities, including students, university staff and scientists.  Expert guests hold seminars while participants create neurons out of yarn.

“Yarn craft, with its mental challenges, social connection and mindfulness, helps keep brains fit by solving creative and mental challenges, developing eye-hand coordination and fine motor dexterity and increasing attention span”.

Jillian’s Spinning: My New DVD – 12 Ways to Spin Handpainted Top!

 

My new DVD!

 

 

My DVD 12 Ways to Spin Handpainted Top is available now! I filmed this last April when I was in Colorado for Yarn Fest. That week was a crazy blur of fun, I filmed two DVDs and taught a whole host of classes.

If you feel stuck spinning your handpainted fiber the same way every time, this DVD might nudge you to try something a little different. I show ways  to keep colors the same, ways to mix up a single braid and ways to combine braids. I show how to prepare the top, how to spin it and what it looks like as yarn and as a knitted swatch. This DVD is based on a favorite class of mine to teach and it almost always sells out when I offer it.

 

 

Interweave is also offering my DVD as part of a spinning kit. The kit includes the DVD and 4 ounces of handpainted top, dyed by the wonderful Felicia Lo of Sweet Georgia Yarns. We collaborated to make a colorway exclusive to this kit based on the work of Sonia Delaunay. Felicia sent me a braid of the fiber to play with and it is exactly what I imagined, vibrant and exciting.

Delaunay spun flipped

I spun the fiber as a flipped 2-ply. I divided it in two vertically and spun one ply from the top end and one ply from the bottom end. I like how it mixes the colors.

If you do decide to check out my DVD, let me know what you think and what you make!

WWW: Silk from a Clam, Taylor Swift’s Sweater and the Stocking Forecast

Sea silk photo by Andrea Pasquali

 

 

A lovely article about Chiara Vigo the last woman thought to be able to harvest and spin sea silk or byssus.

 

 

 

A super fan, knit Taylor Swift a sweater of a Polaroid of Taylor Swift. Her response makes her definitely knitworthy.

Taylor Swift on Instagram

 

As colder weather approaches it’s good to know that a statistician, and former Robin Hood, has developed a formula to help calculate what thickness of tights is appropriate for the weather. The Stocking Forecast will be broadcast on BBC Radio Nottingham’s breakfast show each day.

 

Need to learn to knit socks before the cold winds really blow? Kate Atherley’s How to Knit Sock for Beginners class on Craft U starts on Monday.

 

Have you started your Rhinebeck sweater yet? The New York Sheep and Wool Festival is 38 days from today.

Jillian’s Spinning: The Joy of Finishing

I am thoroughly a process spinner and knitter, my happiness is in figuring things out, sampling and swatching.

magical mattress stitch

 

I only finish a few things a yearthat are wearable and those are usually accessories of some kind, hats for the kids or scarves and shawls for gifts.

For the spinning book I’m writing I wanted to design a sweater, spin it and knit it myself. I finished it yesterday and I had forgotten the joy of finishing. Not the being done part, but the act of finishing. The magic of the mattress stitch, the satisfaction of a smoothly sewn in sleeve or the giddiness of picking up the right amount of neck stitches the very first time.

the last stitch

But there is nothing that compares to that little swoop of glee when you bind off that very last stitch. Sure there is still the blocking that needs to be done, but that last stitch really signifies completion, the end, woot I’ve finished something! It is a unique feeling, a glow.

I’d forgotten just how good it feels. Now if you will excuse me, I have a bunch of ends to weave in.

Are you a process or product crafter?

“Custom Socks” book giveaway

As you may have seen in the Cool Stuff column, our own Kate has written a book.

Kate got her start at Knitty writing about socks, and as our sock technical editor. She’s measured a lot of feet. She knits a lot of socks. She’s edited a lot of sock patterns. She’s designed a lot of socks. She teaches a lot of sock classes.

And this book is the culmination of all that work. It brings together all her knowledge about socks and sock knitting and sock designing.

In her own words…

I’ve taken my Plain and Simple Sock patterns – both Top Down and Toe Up versions – and created a book all about how to make them actually fit your feet.

I’ve provided the basic formulas and templates for both directions, and created the numbers for you for gauges from 4 to 9 sts/inch (including the important 6.5 and 7.5!), for finished socks from 5 to 10.5 inches in circumference. That’s covering feet from 5.5 to 12 inches in circumference, and pretty much any possible yarn you might ever want to use. Oh yeah, and I’ve got tables of foot sizes by shoe size if you can’t measure the feet you’re knitting for. And a table of yarn requirements by gauge and foot size, for when you’re stash-diving.

And then. THEN. I’ve given you a ton of info on how to measure your feet properly to determine your fit needs, and how to customize the socks for those needs.

Oh yeah, and there’s some fancy patterns, too. Texture stitches, cables, lace, colourwork. All sorts of socks for every knitting mood and every style whim!

Nice comforting ribs, very wearable.

Easy colorwork! Really

Inspired by a favorite aran sweater from childhood.

Estonian lace.

Secrets & Lies – Cables and Lace, for days when you can’t deicde what you want to knit.

The Fitzcarraldo Knee Sock.

The book also has all my sock knitting tips and advice and wisdom from nearly 20 years of sock knitting, and 10 years of teaching sock knitting. Trouble with joining the round? Plagued with ladders? Struggling with needles? Uncertain about gauge? Holes at the tops of the heels? Holes elsewhere? Legs fall down? Ten years’ worth of questions from my sock classes questions.

And if you’re looking to design socks, it’s a great reference, too, providing lots of info about how to add pattern stitches into socks and create your own gorgeous Custom Fit socks.

And we’re proud of it – and her! Order it from your LYS, your fave indie bookstore, or online.

Of course, thanks to F&W Media/Interweave Press, we do have a copy to give away, too. The usual rules apply – leave a comment below by midnight EST Tuesday September 8th to enter. If you’ve won one of our giveaways in the past year, please give someone else a chance.

Obsession Thursday: How to ask for help

The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer

Hopefully by now, you’ve heard about our Patreon campaign that’s changed Knitty from a struggling ad-only supported magazine to one supported by both advertisers and our readers. We are now able to count on a stable future full of opportunity, as we will be able to pay our staff and contributors fairly! And we’re working on our next goal, which is redesigning and recoding to bring this 2002 magazine visually and functionally up to date with the 2016 (and beyond) internet.

One thing I haven’t talked much about through this process is what got me to a place where I felt brave enough to let people know our current financial state and to ask for their help. This book is what did it. I bought it when it was released last fall and absorbed every word, because I was a fan. And because I liked the message the author was spreading.

Amanda Palmer is an independent musician who’s been in the business longer than Knitty has been around. She spent her early days atop a milk crate as a Living Statue, and transitioned into music as a singer-songwriter on piano and (yes) ukulele, where she’s slowly, steadily built her fan base by being intimately connected to her fans, in person and on the internet. Whether you like her music or not (I happen to love it), the way she conducts herself and her business is inspirational. And when I saw that Amanda had launched a Patreon earlier this year, I realized that perhaps this could work for Knitty, too.

It’s easy to read the title and assume it’s all about asking for help. Just ask, and everyone will give and poof, worries over. Except it’s not like that at all. The book shows, in great detail, that building a community first is a key element to establishing a relationship in which the creator can ask for help and the community will want to provide it. Ravelry proved that point when they asked for our help in categorizing their huge library of patterns and supporting them financially. They had already provided so much to knitters that we were glad to help and as a result, we have a robust, super-useful Ravelry available to us today.

But Knitty was my business, and we all know about the demons that sit on our shoulders and tell us we’re not good enough. (Amanda calls them the Fraud Police.) Sure, asking for help worked for Ravelry, but would it work for Knitty?

As we have seen in just 48 hours, it has worked. 

There’s so much more I can say, but I’ve got Patreon work to do. Read the book. I think you’ll find a lot to think about in there.

Bonus: Knitty’s Patreon Campaign

Since March, I’ve been working on a new funding model for Knitty. The backstory is here, but the short version is that advertising-supported businesses have been taking a hit over the last 7 years, and Knitty was no exception. We put out the official call for our readers to help, and HOLY COW, did they ever!

Our Patreon Campaign has only been live for less than 24 hours, but already it has reached its first and most important goal: we can pay the staff and contributors to the just-released brand-new Deep Fall issue at market rates. We are beyond thrilled. There really aren’t words to express the feeling of love we have gotten from the community since we let down our walls and asked for help. Jillian and I have been teary multiple times over the last 24 hours. It’s okay. I’d just stocked up on tissues.

Our next big goal is a redesign and recode of the entire Knitty site, including the back issues, and that takes money too. I’m working out exactly how much we’ll need, and will post it on the Patreon page as soon as I have it. In the meantime, please do help us spread the word to keep the pledges coming. The more people we have contributing, the lighter the load for each, and the more good we can do for the worldwide online knitting community.

Much love,

A+J

Jillian’s Spinning: It’s Spinzilla Sign Up Day!

Go, go Spinzilla!

Spinzilla is October 5-11, 2015. It’s a fun, friendly spinning competition that benefits The National Needlework Association’s NeedleArts Mentoring Program that teaches kids needle arts. The cost to join a team is $10 and 100% goes to the mentoring program.

This year there are 67 teams to choose from. Sign ups are today through October 2 on the registration page.

Knitty does not have a team this year, but I am co-captaining the Storey Publishing team with Beth Smith.

Beth and me, always causing trouble.

There will be prizes and silliness and mostly spinning! How much do you think you can spin in a week? Join a Spinzilla team and find out!