beautiful things

Stash as 401K

I think the latest episode of Stash and Burn, Things We Learned From Stephanie, might just be my undoing.

Of course I've heard of the Yarn Harlot - I mean, who hasn't?!!! I'm even familiar with "the Harlot effect" where Stephanie mentions a small company's yarn or other knitting product and they get completely and utterly swamped with the deluge of orders. I believe she now gives vendors advance notice of a mention just so they can stock up!

However, I've never read any of her books or been to any of her events, not out of any deliberate boycott, but I guess I am a little wary of the hype...

Well, I really enjoyed the interview and I was especially taken with the idea of your stash being an investment for retirement! So now I've been thinking about stash as 401K!!! Ok, so retirement is a little bit down the road for me (unless I win the lottery, which is pretty unlikely given that I don't even play the lottery) but obviously the idea of stash as investment is a very appealing one. I like the idea of building a collection that will continue to "give me a return" over the years. I don't mean literally, although I wonder, does yarn hold it's value or increase in value over the years? Is there such a thing as "collector" yarn? But even aside from that, a yarn purchase now can give great enjoyment over many years, even if you don't knit it up right away.

So much for that yarn diet, eh?!!

I posted about this on the Stash and Burn Ravelry Group and Tara of Creative Idyll and Blonde Chicken responded with the wish that companies would "match funds" for her stash - dollar for dollar or skein for skein! How awesome would that be?!!! What is even more funny is that just a couple of hours ago, before I read her reply but encouraged by this idea of stash as investment, I was over at her etsy store drooling over some of her latest yarns.

And here's the other thing. Stephanie also talks about spinning on the podcast, and how while it's not necessarily the natural progression for every knitter, a lot of knitters who want to have more control over their yarn (I'm paraphrasing greatly here) end up spinning as well... and in combination with Jared of brooklyntweed's recent tutorials here and here along with the usual stunningly beautiful photos... I think that I am going to end up spinning one day. A friend of mine who turned out to be a knitter called it over a year ago. "Oh," she said. "You're not spinning... yet."

I don't know when it will happen, but I have a feeling it will.

In the meantime, well, maybe I should set aside funds on a regular basis for yarn so that I don't have to go on a complete yarn diet but I don't go too crazy either.

Adding to my queue

I've been itching to start new projects lately. I've been working on the lacy hooded tunic but the impending end of summer has somewhat squashed my momentum. I usually mourn the end of summer and the inevitably fleeting passing of fall and view winter as a time of doom and gloom to be endured and survived... except that this year I have winter knitting to look forward to! Not only that, but we are hoping to put in a fireplace so I will be able to live the dream/fulfil the cliche of knitting by the fireside!

I think I might finally be catching the sock bug. Three things have conspired towards this:

1) a recent episode of the Knitpicks Podcast (which is fast becoming a staple podcast for me) where Kelly Petkun interviews Ann Budd about, amongst other things, her new book Getting Started Knitting Socks

2) the Tyrolean Stockings in the new Interweave Knits Fall 2007, which I've just realized were designed by Ann Budd!

3) of course my recent lovely KVVS gift of Socks that Rock which I am just dying to try.

I realize that the Tyrolean Stockings are probably not the best first project... well, I'm not even sure if I can tell if they're a good first sock, but they look so cozy! I can imagine wearing them at home (curled up by the fire with my knitting of course). And I wouldn't knit them in STR either... I think I need to do more sock research. Any suggestions?

The other project foremost in my mind is the Pinwheel Baby Blanket which I found via my "friends activity" section of Ravelry (my favorite way of getting new ideas). This would be an easy but, as some have commented on Ravelry, a potentially incredibly boring project. But look how pretty it is in my beloved KPPPM?! (And cute!)

I also really like this (I've been eyeing Katia Jamaica for a while too), this and this version (I didn't look through all 176 versions on Ravelry though).

Could I survive knitting this? Some knitters had a pretty hard time with it as visible progress really slows as the circumference increases. I think that with a yarn to die for, perhaps in several different colorways, and a long timeframe, it could be good to have some mindless knitting to fall back on.

Knitting podcasts

It has to be said that another one of the factors at play in my sudden uptake of knitting on a "whim" was Cast-On. Well, let me back track a little. The first podcast I ever listened to was my friend Kymm's podcast, Tales of a Brass Hedgehog and it was through her that I discovered Cast-On, under her recommendation that you don't have to have the slightest bit of interest in knitting to enjoy it. And as an at the time non-knitter, it wasn't that I didn't have the slightest interest, but still, I probably wouldn't have listened to a knitting podcast otherwise.

And she was right - Brenda has an amazing voice and quite a way with storytelling. I could listen to her voice all day, no matter what she was talking about, plus the first episode has an absolutely hilarious clip, even though at the time I listened to it, I had absolutely no idea what Clapotis or felting was.

Brenda started podcasting in October 2005 and just uploaded episode 46 so there is plenty to listen to. I started out from the beginning, but then realized it would take me forever to get up to date, so now I listen to the most recent ones and in between, am working my way through the archives (which is handy as the frequency of episodes has slowed down lately due to illness). One of the most amazing things though is just how professional the podcasts are right from the beginning - there is very little difference in production quality between the beginning and now, and I mean that in a good way in that the early podcasts are just as good as the later ones. She's developed themes and structures and techniques and depth but she nailed the quality and feel right from the start.

And now that I actually knit, the podcast has taken on a whole new meaning! I didn't take up knitting because of Cast-On but it certainly made me feel at home right away and that I wasn't entering a complete unknown.

Brenda is a passionate knitter, and comes across as a professional one. I don't think she makes a living knitting, but she does write for knitting magazines and is very knowledgable and well-connected in the field - she has guest writers and guest readers and interviews and everything. Her podcast is filled with philosophies and ideas and beautifully crafted stories and essays that support her belief that knitting is important, yet you also feel like she is so accessible and you are pretty much chatting with her over a cup of tea and some "pointy sticks." Oh yeah, did I mention that she's an American transplant in Wales?

One thing I have definitely come to appreciate since becoming a knitter is her phrase "knit, knit like the wind!"

And then there is Stash and Burn. This podcast is only a couple of months old, hosted by Nicole and Jenny, two avid knitters in, I believe, San Francisco (I haven't checked out their blogs yet actually). So far they are on episode 8 (The Math of Stash, thus the calculator image to the left) and have been posting pretty regularly. This podcast is dangerous because it is chock full of ideas and references to different yarns and patterns and the show notes always have tons of links and basically for a new knitter, or perhaps for any knitter, it's kind of like overload because, argh, I must knit everything they talk about!

My "knitting fantasy life" as they refer to it has been greatly enhanced/enabled by this podcast (that will be another entry entirely to itself, plus many more to come I'm sure).

The concept of Stash and Burn is that both Nicole and Jenny have massive yarn stashes (and by massive, I mean really massive - as a new knitter I was previously unfamiliar with the concept of a stash but wow! and wow!) and they are committed to significantly reducing their stashes. One thing I like is the way they toss the names of different patterns and designers and yarns around like they are well known celebrities ie with little introduction or explanation - I'm not always sure what they are talking about but there are always links in the show notes, or you can do a google search. It feels like a good crash course to getting in the "knitting know" especially in the online world of knitting. Plus they mentioned Purl in the second episode!

I guess because they were bloggers first, Stash and Burn is more like an audio blog where Cast-On is more like an audio magazine. It's hard for me to tell how this podcast would be if you are not a knitter, but Nicole and Jenny are a lot of fun to listen to - they are smart, bubbly, dorky-but-cute (they have excel spreadsheets for their stash!!!). Although it's like comparing apples to oranges, they are sort of like 3 Fast 3 Furious (another non-knitting favorite of mine) but about knitting and with more of an informative bent. But mostly they are just a lot of fun to listen to.

Oh yeah, Stash and Burn also has a flickr group for posting finished objects for others to drool over. This is the first flickr group I have joined!

The other knitting podcast I listen to (what, only three so far?!) is Sticks & String, a podcast by Australian knitter David (there is no Sticks & String image so hopefully David doesn't mind that I nabbed this cute photo of his instead). Yes, that's right, a male, Australian knitter. David is very "blokey" as he would say, and he's been podcasting since about October 2006. He's on episode 18 and has also posted pretty consistently. I would say Sticks & String is more on the audio magazine side of things too, with essays, reviews, interviews, and multi-episode themes. Because there aren't too many episodes, I've been working forward from the start and have not quite caught up yet. Of course it's interesting to get a male and Australian perspective but David is also a good writer with a nice voice and he puts together a well thought out podcast.