The movie episode. I manage to mention, quote, or describe scenes from no less than four films in this episode, none of which contain knitting. This week’s Moments (yes, there are two) of Ritual Humiliation – MoRH ™ – happen early, and one will only be apparent to geeks, thank god, who will undoubtedly notice the typo in the ID3 tag. Also in this hour, we pass the torch, both metaphorically and literally – There’s no such thing as too much storage – Who’s your buddy this week? – Life not challenging enough for you? Knit for Wales! – Apologies and thanks to Sage Tyrtle – Worthy Cause of the Week – and Happy Birthday, Mom!
KniTunes:
- Bread of Heaven – Various Artistes
- DaVinci’s Notebook – Enormous Penis
- Slackstring – Sun Again Will Shine
- Linsay Rakers Band – Moment
Best How-To Books for Beginning Knitters
Stitch and Bitch Handbook
Kids Knitting
Knitting For Dummies
The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits
Jordana Jacobs
Best Inspirational Books for Beginning Knitters
Knitting In America by Melanie Falick
Any Alice Starmore Book (Most are out of print, but patterns and yarn are available on her website.)
The Barbara Walker Stitch Books
Lace From the Attic by Nancie M. Wiseman
I am really glad you are keeping the sweater song. I like it, too! And Mr. Roger’s sweater was handknit after all…
You make me want to join Team Wales for so many reasons. I intend to resist the temptation for as long as I possibly can. I must NOT join one more thing. But hear me cheer you on. GO TEAM WALES. (Yes I am Welsh/Irish)
Wow!!! We loved your show. Again! You just seem to get better and better at this. Anyway, my husband appreciated the song about penises, but so did my friend Aimee and I. As always we loved the music and appreciated the essay, especially the bit about swatches.
We appreciate your effort and hope you continue to ‘cast every week. After all, what else would two knitters and a crocheter do with their Friday night?
I teach how to knit classes in the small town of Hood River, Oregon, USA and I have found that The Vogue Knitting book is really awesome for beginners. My husband really loved it when he first started knitting and I think it is a great resource for any knitter. Plus, there is now a condensed version that is smaller and much easier to carry around.
Brenda, this was awesome! You did a great job wordsmithing the advice for beginning knitters. Smart, helpful, kind, passionate, confident, loving. Thanks for sharing the joy that is this fine craft.
Due to the fact that I’ve just moved to Brittany, have a 7 month old baby and am still catching up on Christmas knitting, I can’t be a part of Tîm Cymru but I will be cheering you all on from the sidelines. (Born in Bridgend but also lived in Bangor where I started but didn’t finish a degree in Welsh.)
Ewch tîm! Cymru am byth!
I knew that was Michael Ball singing the Anthem!! I am a huge geek for knowing that but there it is!
Hi Brenda! Nope, haven’t listened to the episode yet…but just wanted to comment right now! (I’ll do a proper comment when I’ve listened).
OMG, you took “Knitting for Dummies” as the recommendation???!!! Reading the comments from the last post/episode, I was the sole person telling you about that book! *Wheeee!* Feels kinda special. *LOL*
Okay, I’ll go back to knitting my Meilenweit Fantasie now. I’ll get back to you again after I’ve listened to the episode. (BTW, didn’t find anything wrong with the ID3Tag…I mean, the fact that you started naming it Episode 8…but you correct yourself anyway). Take care!
I love your criteria for joining Team Wales for the knitting olympics. Under those even I could join, but alas I am unable to, as an english rugby fan (fan of AN english team not necessarily THE England team, but come the six nations I’ll probably be rooting for them) it would just not be possible. Good luck to you tho’
Sigh… The only problem with your show is that it’s over TOO SOON! Guess I’ll just have to listen again and again. My husband thought the penis song was hilarious. Have a great trip with Tanya and congrats on the nuptials. Can’t wait to hear all about it.
Here’s my variation on recording which needle size was used to create a particular swatch: I rarely estimate the length of my cast-on tail successfully (and I usually do use the longtail cast-on), so I make a series of knots in the tail to represent the US needle size: one knot for each digit 1-9, and a looped knot for each “10”. It works like a charm, and doesn’t affect the gauge of the finished swatch, the way a purl ridge might.
Love the podcast!!! I love the stuff for beginners (me) and the books that are must haves. But can you tell us books that aren’t worth having – EVER. Its hard enough for newbies to learn, without trying to figure out crappy books. Know what I mean???
I spent last night listening to the Quirky Nomads podcasts while knitting. Thanks for introducing me to yet another great source of entertainment!
I’m also really glad that you’re keeping the sweater song. I love it, and feel it fits the character of the show really well.
I look forward to next week’s on the road podcast. Happy nuptials to both of you!
Brenda,
Loved your comment on apologies. My husband and I lived and worked in the UK for 6 years, and we used to say that it was time plan a trip to NYC when we started aplogizing to inanimate objects – backing into a shopping cart or table and automatically responding with “Sorry”.
Please, I’d love to knit for Wales because…
I have actually slept two nights in an underheated inn in Anglesea (It was cold, wet, and breathtakingly beautiful)
I now live in Lyme, CT, where the only spring flower we can grow that the deer don’t eat is the daffodil. If we were a country, Lyme’s national flower would also be the daffy.
I own many skeins of Colinette yarn and I have knitted Magggie Whiting’s shell vest from 21st Century Yarn.
Go Wales.
Janis in Lyme, CT
Am I the only one who downloaded two versions of episode 9–one that was only three minutes long that got cut off, and then the real one?
No, you’re not alone. About a hundred and twenty people got that first version. In the first upload the file looked as if it was all there on libsyn, with the correct file size, but when downloaded it was only two and a half minutes long. Luckily an alert listener caught it and let me know right away. I was able to delete the bad file before too many people had downloaded it, and replace it with a new one in less than half an hour.
Damn, I only got the 2-minute version. Imagine my disappointment when I sat down to spin, earphones in place, and only got the intro. *damn*
Brenda — I’ve been a listening from your start & am so impressed with how professional your show sounds! I truly enjoy it and learn something new every time! Please, please, please keep it going and encouraging others to start-up their own podcasts! Mary
Well done! Your show gets better and better each week. I always download it at work before I leave on Friday so I can listen over the weekend (it takes forever for me to download at home on our dialup connection). So glad you are keeping the sweater song, it’s just perfect. Your essay this week was inspring, not only for beginners but for those of us who sometimes get too wrapped up in the knitting and forget to relax and find the enjoyment there. We should take time to crouch we here awhile and lurk.
Congratulations on your union. Safe journeys where ever you end up going.
Had to laugh at your description of Groundhog day. My birthday is the 3rd, but as a kid, people were always calling me groundhog thinking my birthday was a day sooner. I’m from Pennsylvania and actually have known some of the folks who organize a local the groundhog/shadow thing. I’ve never participated though. It’s winter until it’s over, regardless what the rodent says!
i LOVED this show! it was fan-damn-tastic! the davinci’s notebook song i’ve heard before (i believe on bob & tom, it’s a syndicated morning radio program), and it made me laugh uproariously. i will say this though. with 11 year old & 13 year old boys, i’m glad my habit of listening after they’ve gone to bed has been firmly entrenched by this time, lol! can you imagine the “MOM!”s and the red faces? maybe i should play it (i’m evil, they know this, lol)
and i’ve actually thought about joining team welsh. while i have no welsh blood, and i live in nebraska, i am of gaelic heritage (i’m irish & scottish, i understand 800 years of subjugation), and, as i’m sure you can tell by my email and blog name, i have a particular fondness for dragons. what say ye?
and i’ve actually thought about wriitng a piece for you (i love to write, and i’ve actually been published (in annie modesitt’s “cheaper than therapy”), but i don’t have the equipment to record it and there’s the small thing that i HATE my speaking voice. i sound about 12. my 11 year old has a deeper voice than me. would you consider reading a piece, if i wrote one?
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
I loved your advice about letting problematic projects marinate! I was surprised by your reference to A Midwinter’s Tale (as it is called here in the States) because I thought that only a dozen people had ever seen it. You are now just that much cooler in my eyes.
Its cold and I was thinking about Groundhog day. it shows on my calendar but thanks for the explanation. I loved the Da Vinci notebook song ( am usually a bit prim and proper like but felt liberated!) My hubby is a bit averse to your voice so I play it often whilst I am knitting, he stays away and I have a perfectly heavenly relaxation as well as usually a good laugh. This week was no exception. Managed to finish my Elizabeth Zimmermann ( should be fitting sweater) but it has flaws….or is it simply that my body is flawed. Cosy though, and am putting it on as thats what its for! Keep podcasting and congrats on tomorrow.
I finally had to comment. I love your podcasts they are the best. I to was able to connect with Pulling a Geographic. It tends to hit me every 4 years. It has been six years now in this house and I am so itching to go somewhere.
OMG I was ROFLMAO actually I was quite hysterical over your explanation of Groundhog day. I was extremely in tears laughing so hard thinking of someone who really doesn’t know imagining us eating the poor small rodent.
P.S. Early congrats to you and yours.
Okay, I’m back! Yet another GREAT episode! I love it!! (listened to it twice already *LOL*) Gosh, Groundhog Day sounds horrible for the Groundhog….or maybe it could turn yummy, Haha. No.
Joined the Welsh National Team and plugged your podcast on the website
http://www.justafewskeins.blogspot.com/
I too would like to roast the Groundhog.
Alice
Astronomy a Go Go! Podcast
I just started listening to podcasts, so I am still playing catch-up. I was just thinking today while listening to Episode 2 or 3 that I wondered if you had heard of DaVinci’s Notebook because I thought you would like them. I am *thrilled* to come here and see the link to Enormous Penis! They are such a great group – and wonderful in a live concert!
I guess I could join Team Wales. My colonial US ancestors were Welsh Quakers. Would it be cheating if I finish the shawl I barely started last summer? Or would the IOKC (International Olympic Knitting Committee) repremand me? 🙂
Happy Groundhog Day. I hope your union is full of laughter and conversation and of course that silly thing, love.
Hi Brenda! Well, I am taking up your call to create a podcast too! I’m wrapping up site issues, getting the RSS feeds ready, and doing soundchecks. I will have my first knitting podcast online by this weekend.
Thank you *so* much for your inspiration and encouragement (in your podcasts). If you have any advice, I welcome it. Thank you again!
CONGRATS on your “civil union” !!!!!!!!!
Happy Groundhog’s Day !
I just wanted to drop by and say I’ve been listening to all your episodes (out of order, don’t ask.) and I just love your show. Thanks for putting it out there.
Happy Groundhog’s Day! And good wishes for your Civil Union!
[it’s a super special day, indeed, as it’s my kid’s b-day, too]
Happy Groundhog’s Day. I live about 10 miles from Punxsutawney and it is nothing like the town in the movie, which was in Illinois!
Your first sweater took me back to mine. I have no idea what happened to it. I knit it just before I turned 13 & wore it to see JFK when he came to Great Falls Montana in September of 1963. It was green and white intarsia, I guess. I just thought of it as knitting a cool fleur-di-lis design.
The main thing I remember that day was how cool it was to actually see the President and that it was way too hot to be wearing that sweater!
Happy Nuptials today!!! And since you’re gettin’ hitched it looks like six more weeks of winter here! 😉
OMG! I only saw “In The Bleak Midwinter” once, in NZ around 1996, and would love to see it again. I’ve never seen a DVD to rent here in Aus. It’s a wonderful little film – full of cliches and stereotypes but so warm and clever.
I really enjoyed your “essay” on this Episode. I saw myself in the “I don’t want to take time to make swatches”. I HAVE finally been convinced these are good things and not time wasters. Thankfully, I did not have to make any major mistakes to come to this realization!
I’m SO enjoying your Podcasts….you voice and music soothed me to sleep last night.
Penny
I know I’m late in commenting but I’m just catching up on your past podcasts. I am really enjoying them! I am going to have to make a “heard on cast on” playlist on my iPod because I keep buying songs and/or albums of the artists you play. I love the music you pick.
Keep up the good work! 🙂
I’m new to podcasts, and, after trying a half dozen or so, have realized that you and The Creative Mom are my two favorites. I listen to you two first and am so sad when I’m done. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a mom-of-boys-thing; I have two of my own. My current theory is that mothers of sons are just a different breed of woman. 🙂
While you are on hiatus, I am randomly catching up on past podcasts. This is one of my favorites!!! I will admit to squealing like (as my 4 year old says) a little girl when I heard Michael Ball’s voice. “We really are knit-sibs!” I’ve been in love with his voice since I heard a recording of his Marius from Les Mis. Bravo for artistic integrity.
I also loved the penis song and shared it with my husband. I’ll wait on playing it for my two little boys, tho. They’d be prone to sing it at Nana’s….
Thanks for all the great music, ideas, and not-at-all idle chatter.
I wonder if any one had heard of DaVinci’s Notebook because I thought you would like them.
I dont know but why i don find such informative and profitable blogs so often,I suspect blogging world is becoming so small that we cant find such lucrative blogs like this one.
Your first sweater. So was there!
I don’t know if you read these from so long ago, but I just found you – and it’s great – thanks!
My first sweater was a disaster. But my dear mother. She wears it. Over everything else she owns no less!
I picked out a pattern, got some yarn that I loved for her and set out. I had lots of help along the way, I worked at a small craft store. The main problem I found was that I could only work on it for about a half hour at a time. My fingers would come away red and aching. But it was working and I was determined. . .
So there I sat on christmas eve knitting the collar on 4mm needles when my manager looked over at me. “Why are you using such small needles?” (me) “That’s what the pattern says”
(her) “That’s not the right yarn though. . .”
I was trying to knit a pattern written for a dk weight yarn with chunky yarn. Absolutely no modifications. I did everything they suggested.
The sweater could fit a 300 lb. man – my mother is a mere 125 lbs.
Live and learn, right?!
Just to clear up any confusion amongst listeners – ‘Bread of Heaven’ (Cwm Rhondda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cwm_Rhondda) is not the Welsh National Anthem – it’s Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (‘The Land Of My Fathers’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_Wlad_Fy_Nhadau).
How neat… Am listening to this ‘cast 6 years and some months after your mom’s bday, and it happens to be my mom’s bday today, April 29. Well wishes to all your listeners’ moms! (hope I put the possessive apostrophe in the correct spot!)
That Enormous Penis song is hilarious! It reminds me of Jimmy Buffet’s “Pencil Thin Mustache”.
I do not still have my first sweater… I ripped it out because it had a third boob in the back 😉
Thanks for your wonderful podcast. Looking forward to listening to the next seven years! Keep those nods to Canada coming!