This week Chicago writer, Franklin Habit, shares a Secret Life – Advice from a Poncho.

If you haven’t done so, you really must read Cold Comfort Farm. It’s for your own good. There may be a pop quiz, and I wouldn’t want you to be embarrassed.

Catch the Jitterbug! I’m knitting Elfine’s Socks in Velvet Moss. Of course Bother Amos’ socks should only be knit in Fire .

Check out the new knitting podcast, Stitch Stud and his Bride.

Join at the Sunday Spin Along at Needles on the Move.

Soay sheep are cute, and you gotta love a sheep who gives you free fiber.

Wonderwool Wales was fab! Join me next year. You can find out more about Wonderwool Wales, and the Bowmont Project at Glasu. Bowmont yarn will be available soon, through the website. It’s not there yet, but I fondled this stuff, and it’s wonderful. Keep checking.

Sincere thanks to the many musicians who allowed me to record their music at the festival.

KniTunes:

• Ingrid Michaelson – Breakable
• Enter The Haggis – Echo of a Whisper

Download Episode 49

Thanks this week to Ardmore, Pennsylvania writer, Marian Birkeland, for her wonderful (perfect for Mother’s Day) essay, and to reader, Heather Ordover, whose dulcet tones can be heard on Craftlit:a podcast for crafters.

It’s time again for Eurovision! Learn more about it, then vote with me (if you’re in Europe) for Serbia to win!* Check out Turkey’s answer to George Michael, and Switzerland’s DJ Bobo, whose single Vampires Are Alive did not, sad to say, make it into the final. I think they were trying too hard to be Lordi.

Not officially “open for business” yet, but do check out Ravelry, the new home for knitters on the web.

Two new knitting podcasts have joined the podcasting family – Knit Picks Knitting Room and Changelings Knits and Stitch. Visit their websites and give them a big howdy.

I am always happy to pass along information on charitable knitting projects, and few have touched my heart like this one. I am Casting on for Kenya, and would love for you to join me in sending knitted love to children living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Visit lovely Hay-on-Wye for great used books, knitting and otherwise.

As promised a picture of the Sunrise Pullover, in progress. The finished sweater will appear in my new blog next week. When it’s ready, there will be a link in the sidebar.

[Edited: Now Serving! Tasty knitting exploits, on a bed of social commentary, garnished with lime wedges.]

Thank you, my knitsibs, for listening.

KniTunes:

• Tom Waits – You Can Never Hold Back Spring
• Adrina Thorpe – Fly Fly Fly
• Bishop Allen – Thing Are What You Make Of Them

Download Episode 48

* Serbian singer, Marija Serifovic, won the hotly contended Eurovision Final, with her song, Molitva!

Thanks to my guest this week, crochet and knitwear designer, Annette Petavy, for helping to free my Inner Crocheter. Read her excellent article on combining knitting and crochet, and see more of her work at Crochet Me.

Very special thanks to Sage Tyrtle for her brilliant contribution to a brand new feature – The Secret Lives of Stitches, and for sharing “Click” – a regular feature on Quirky Nomads podcast – with Cast On listeners.

Yes, I know. I did promise pictures of the Sunrise Pullover Sweater, by Nora Gaughan. I can’t do it. It’s a great sweater. It deserves a full blog entry. Watch this space.

Check out the wonderfully fast to knit Smoke Signals Hat Pattern. Knit one, or several, for Dulaan.

Moebius Madness! Knit one on two circs – and please, do leave your moebius tips and tricks!

It’s that time again… WorldWide Knit In Public Day!

Discover (or rediscover, in my case) the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers and check out their workshops.

Help these knitters raise money! Support Tricia Crockett’s Walk for Hunger in Boston. Support Kat McCaffrey in the Lincolnshire Race for Life.

Want a world-class instrument? Buy one from my Uncle Rob.

Lastly, mega apologies to Maria, whose new knitting podcast, called Knitting Time Together, I forgot to mention in this episode. Go listen.

KniTunes:

• MixMasterMandy – Warm
• Seu Jorge – Life On Mars
• Samantha Farrell – Keep Moving
• Gregory Morris Group – Bay Light Lullaby

Additional Tracks:
The lullaby, “Dilelol – Sleep My Child”, was performed by Iraqi artist Amel Kytherand Halla Bassam, from the CD Lullabies from the Axis of Evil.

Download Episode 47

In this episode Amy R. Singer, editrix of Knitty.com, and author of the new book, No Sheep For You, is our cast away for Desert Island Knits. I’m going to Wonderwool Wales! The Knit Wiki is now open for business. Check out ChristaKnits, the new knitting design-focused podcast. Decipher your knitting dreams or let Zabet do it for you. Many thanks to Ruth Homrighaus for this week’s fabulous Today’s Sweater. As always, more indie music than you can shake a pointy stick at. We got Steel drums AND Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, and … I feel human again! It’s good to be back.

KniTunes:

• KNAPSACKHEROES! – My Tubesocks
• bill – Slow Motion
• Elizabeth and the Catapult – Golden Ink
• Enter The Haggis – One Last Drink

Additional Tracks:
Intro – Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry
Zabet’s Dream – Baja Taxi by Brain Buckit
Desert Island Knits Theme – Brown Skin Girl by Steel Groove, from their cd Islands

Download Episode 46

You know you want to. Knit a Snatchel, I mean. Check The Anticraft’s Not Safe For Work Issue. Got stash looking for a good home? Interem House needs your unwanted yarn. Please contact Kathy Duffy for more information. If giving yarn to a good home feels good, just imagine how great you’ll feel when you unload the rest of your unused stuff! See how it’s done at The Seven Things Project – a year-long experiment with getting rid of stuff. Unload swatches, at The Walker Treasury Project, if you’re so inclined. They are gathering high-quality, color photos of all the patterns in all the Treasury books (including Mosaic Knitting) and making the photos available on the internet as a visual aide to Walker’s wonderful collection. If you can knit a square or three to help out, do get in touch. Special thanks this week to writer Judith Kelley, reader Heather Ordover, and guest designer Lily Chin. Buy Lily’s new book, and stalk her for an autograph at these public appearances. My apologies to those unable to download Episode 44. If you’re on dial up, and missed the last episode, you’ll find a smaller file of Epi 44 here.
KniTunes:

• Kimo Watanabe – Here With You
• Samantha Farrell – Shake
• Anne Davis – Get Lost
• Lee Coulter – Photograph

Finally, thyroid information is available from these resources:

Broda O Barnes, MD Research Foundation – Dr Barnes dedicated more than 50 years of his life to researching, teaching and treating thyroid and related endocrine dysfunctions in the US and abroad.
Stop The Thyroid Madness – An international patient to patient support and information website, with a busy community forum.
Thyroid UK – a non-profit organisation campaigning for, and providing information and support to those with Thyroid or related disease. You’ll find a full list of symptoms in the sidebar, under “Thyroid Conditions”.
Your Thyroid and How to Keep it Healthy, by Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield. Clearly presented information that you don’t need a medical degree in order to understand.

Download Episode 45

And we’re back!

See my smiling face and count my sexy nose hairs on the BBC! This week’s Yarn Pr0n: La Lana Wools. Bust that stash! Here’s how: Join Wendy’s Knit from Stash-a-thon or, make a pledge at the Stash-a-Long. Already busted stash? Then buy more and join the Briar Rose Fibers KAL. My project is the Tilt Jacket, in Briar Rose Colette. Check out Knit Along and Swaps and never miss a KAL again! ADORE. DESIRE. COVET. Knitting-themed ceramics, by Alyssa Ettinger. Many thanks to Charles Voth, whose knitting journey begins in South America. Special thanks to our first Desert Island Knitter, Lucy Neatby. Enjoy hours of thrilling knitting action on her Knitter’s Companion DVD’s! Got CSS skills and want to share? Sarah needs you!

KniTunes:

• Jonathon Coulton – Skullcrusher Mountain
• Birds of Wales – Life
• Kate Rusby – Game of All Fours
• Natives of the New Dawn – A Good Day

Additional Tracks: Shelly Neiburh – Andean Dreams

Download Episode 44

Special thanks to this week’s guest writers, Maria Therese Carrington and Kirsty Hall, and readers Kristen Lamoyne and Kara Shallenberg. Hear the original agricultural storyline, six days a week. How artists use Creative Commons Licensing, a report from Open Business and the Arts Council of England. Knitting Pattern a Day Contest deadline approaches. Did You Dulaan? Check out these photos on Ryan’s blog! These will warm your heart. These will break it. Special thanks to Nancy Woodhouse, for showing me how to use knitting as art. Great idea!

KniTunes:

• David Ippolito – Tom Cruise Scares Me
• Now is Now – Sail Away
• Phil Belzer – Between The Lines
• HamHorta – Penny on a Railroad Track

Download Episode 43

This week Chicago writer, Franklin Habit offers his (always) unique perspective on holiday coping strategies. I wax poetic (again) about the fabulous Clapotis (see image), by Kate Gilbert. I am clearly not smart enough to get on with the Felted Clogs pattern from Fiber Trends. Knit a Hug for Hope, or your favorite needy tree. Don’t miss Interweave’s Holiday Craft Patterns, and if you’d like to read the text of the Gnu Free Documentation Licence you can do so here. Or get the jump on next week by reading the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Comercial Licence here. (There will be a test.) Huge thanks, as always, to Dave. You can follow the progress of the Dink Dolls here. And don’t miss We’re Almost There, the new podcast from Marty, and Dame Candle Company’s own candle-maker extraordinaire, Wendy. Warning – it’s rated R, (for rockin’)!

KniTunes:

• Craig Cardiff – Emm and May
• Steve Stellavato – Thanksgiving
• Buddy Woodward and The Nitro Express – He Who Drinks Alone
• Parlour Dames – Aron
• Dave of Chub Creek – D Day
  Download Episode 42

After vacillating for several weeks over whether to repaint the living room, or live with it through the winter, we decided to bite the bullet and resigned ourselves to living in less than ideal circumstances while the Very Big Job was being carried out. This is a state of affairs that Tonia refers to as “a bit untidy”, and that I insist is akin to abject squalor. Furniture askew. Bewildered dogs prowling the floor in search of a few inches in which to lie down. Dinner in bowls on our laps. Anarchy. I have done extensive reading on the fall of the Roman Empire, and am convinced it could not have been worse than my living room at present.

While prepping the room prior to painting, we discovered that there were some areas of the room where the job was going to be less than straightforward. This is owing to the previous owners who (we know from experience) didn’t just cut home maintenance corners during their tenancy, they hacked away large chunks for the sake of expediency and a few pence. They apparently never sealed the plaster in the living room before they painted, and this latest layer of paint, our layer of paint, is just that one layer too many. In short, the new paint has come away from the old plaster, and is peeling off the wall like birch bark. So what was a Very Big Job, is now that much bigger. The project has eaten up most of my week, and threatens my weekend with more of the same. And now you know why it’s a short podcast this week.

Nevertheless, my adorable baby sister, Pam, shows up this week, to tell you about knitting her first sweater. The raglan sweater pattern that Pam and I talk about (with the Noro yoke) is from Shannon Okey’s new book, Spin to Knit. One of my favorite patterns, the Easy Head Hugger Hat, is also up for discussion. This darling little pillbox hat uses short rows in a clever way, and takes just one ball of Noro. Unless your head is freakishly large, like Pam’s, in which case you should buy two balls of Noro. Finally, this week’s guest writer, Patricia Zaballos, proves that there are some people who lead full lives and knit interesting things, without blogging about it. Kindly leave all those nice comments about her essay here. And when you’re done with that, you can help shop for the home that will one day hold all there is to know about knitting.

Download trouble? Over the past two weeks Libsyn, the hosting company for the podcast, has been experiencing some problems – downloads timing out, 404 errors, and related hiccups. If you are subscribed with iTunes, and have encountered difficulties this past week or so, you may have to unsubscribe and then re-subscribe to the podcast in order to correct the problem.

KniTunes:

• Josh Woodward – I Hate You
• Curiosity Shop – Sisters
• The Rainbow Chasers – Knitting Song
• Paris Combo – Living Room

Download Episode 41

Thanks this week to Syne Mitchell, for tempting me over to the warp side (Those weavers. They recruit, you know.) Special thanks to Toronto writer, Sage Tyrtle, of Quirky Nomads Podcast for her wonderful essay, and for a ritual I’ve come to value so much – teatime, every weekday morning. Sage’s fundraiser this month benefits a school in Abbeville LA that was hit hard by Hurricane Rita, and is one of many such projects you’ll find at Donor’s Choose. You can also help the Fiber Arts Avengers help support Nat and his family. Submit your designs, see your pattern in print, and you could win some cash! A new voice joins the Knitting Podcast Family. Welcome, David, and great job on your first ‘cast! The Age of Innocence podcast will continue to be available through the month of November, and contains music that has not been included onthe Librivox.org project (due to copyright issues). In other words, now would be a good time to download it, if you’re so inclined. Check out the Ashford Knitter’s Loom. Special thanks to the kind people at Haldanes, for making my review possible. Read the source material for the first World Wide Web: Enquire Within Upon Everything. Finally 9and I really should say it more often), eternal, grateful thanks to my partner, Tonia, for dog wrangling, and for being Engles, so I can be Marx.

KniTunes:

• The Eisenhowers – Novelty Act
• Curiosity Shop – My Jacket
• Quinn – Autumn
• Gecko 3 – Donkey’s and Elephants

Download Episode 40