Local Knitting Blogs

Knitty

Martha

Blue Blog

Mind's Eye

The Mind's Eye is located right across the street from Star Market, in this pretty pink house. Their classes are very reasonably priced and they're very friendly.

Tracy: Mind's Eye has a surprisingly large selection of yarns spread through the two rooms of the store. Most of the needles I saw there were wooden, except for a few very large guage ones in plastic. I prefer metal needles personally. They also have some knitting magazines. I bought some neet yarn from the sale basket (25% off!!). We should definitely go and sit in on an hour of their Wednesday knitting group sometime. It starts at 7pm.

Looking for links, I found this site reviewing a lot of yarn stores in our (general) area. I also found another local knitting blog. And a Massachusetts knitting and spinning blog.

Newly discovered random facts

I just found out yesterday that my dad used to be a pin boy! When he was about sixteen, but only for a few months because he claims the job was very dangerous due to flying pins. Like being a fighter pilot or spy. Not for the faint of heart.
He also told me that duckpin is different from candlepin and was the most popular type of bowling in Rhode Island when he was a pin boy. They use the small balls but the pins are fatter on the bottom half - like a squatting duck. Seems like I should have been able to figure that out, but I always thought candlepin and duckpin were the same.

Magpie moves to Davis

from many of the creators of Bizzare Bazar, Magpie is moving from Huron to Davis Square!

loose bind-off!

I (finally) finished my sweater! Very exciting, very warm, not entirely flattering, but quite wearable... I will post pictures tomorrow! I did learn a very valuable lesson in the finishing though: the magic of the loose bind-off... as the bind-off edge has less stretch than a regular knit row, this comes in handy for neck edging and waist seams:

loose bind-off works like this: knit your two stitches, and slip the first over the second, as with normal bind-off. Then, slip the single stitch back to your other needle: you will knit it again, and then knit a second stitch, slipping the first over the second as before. You can alternate regular bind-off with this loose bind-off (every other stitch or so), or do it ever stitch for extra stretch!

supercool!

news baskets

some very neat recycled product/building ideas here... I was thinking of having a paper mache party, but maybe basket making would be better?

Knitanon

I finally got around to adding the blog of my knitting mentor Heather Lester to the links.

Rehabilitated Crockery

A craft that combines thrift store shopping, graphic design, and printing. It's very appealing.

Needles on the Cheap

I made a couple pair of experimental homemade needles from dowels I found in the trash a while ago.

I got the idea from my sister-in-law Iris and from the Crafty Vixens Tribe. Of course, I had had the idea myself before, but all this talk about it in the space of only a few days made me want to try it. And I had the dowels.

Non-Bowling Event Ideas

1. Teach a Man to Knit

Brian and Aaron are interested in this. It could be cool to do it in a public place. Maybe the Someday or the Diesel or somewhere else. I'm thinking take the participants to the yarn store and then settle in for a knitting lesson. Women also welcome, of course.

2. Clothing Exchange Brunch, End of March/ Early April

Spring cleaning clothing exchange party. Knitters and non knitters all welcome. Friends and friends of friends. All leftover clothing donated to the Goodwill. Non-clothing also welcome.

3. March 4: opening of the documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill at the Kendall Square Cinema.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

hiding places

I just discovered yesterday that palimpsest has a corollary in the art world - pentimento.

Minutes

Seminarwhal



Yesterday we were all so tired that we skipped bowling and went to check out the Spark Craft Studio. We sat around in their lounge area eating cookies and drinking tea and talking. Most of us helped support the local yarn trade.

We talked about the beautiful narwhale and it's unicorn tusk, and how much such a treasure sells for on the internet. (Generally not available in the USA.)

We agreed that the so-called craft of rubber stamping, as it is currently practiced, is really pathetic. (These look kind of cool, though.)

We discussed the meanings and pronounciations of the words "solipsistic" and "palimpsest."

There were a lot of other very interesting topics of conversation, but I don't have any more time to hunt for links. Anyone remember anything else? I know I had said I would look for something I had posted on my other weblog a long time ago, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was now.

Knitting Xtras

So for those of us who sometimes need a little extra help during the week, or just want to learn some new things I present to you Knittinghelp.com. It is a really cool site because it actually has videos! Plus I love because it shows all of the stitches Continetal style(the flipped around way I learned to knit) as well as English style (the way most people knit). Enjoy.

yarn grab bag...

anyone want to have a yarn scraps exchange? like an old lady hoarding her tea cups, I have lots of leftover yarn from over the years -- most of which, I am not sure what I will do with! So I will bring along my leftovers crate next week, just in case anyone is interested in using a new color for a cuff or stripe... Please be kind and adopt these lonely scraps! no trade necessary!

tonight? 05.02.02

is it a knitting/bowling night tonight?

I am out of the loop, the loose stitch, slipped of the needle, so to say... so I feel a little lost with our weekly gathering... are people planning on tonight? should I bring snacks?

see you soon!

the knitting room

I think we were all talking about it before, but...

I found a super cute new knitting store this weekend, near the capitol theatre in arlington... take a left just before the theatre, and on your left will be "the knitting room." it is pretty small, but they are quite nice, and run evening classes... and have reasonable prices on bamboo needles, yarns, and so on...

crotchet my heart

http://www.thekitchen.org/k04_lectures.html

Actually, it's "Crotcheting the Hyperbolic Plane". I think this piece is gorgeous, swirling and twirling. Where are these lectures in Boston? I was homesick for NYC and did my visit this last weekend and picked up the 88 sparkly blue camry wagon activity-mobile.

Walking over the Manhattan bridge to Brooklyn from the Chinatown bus town was the highlight of my trip. Lot's of ice chunks filled the river and the steamers pushed through them. The lowlight was witnessing a disintegration of my girlfriend circle. I have a list there called NYStudettes through which I connected a bunch of cool, independent minded gals. We hung out a lot and had a loose circle connected through activity postings to the yahoogroup. I went back for brunch and coffee shop hang-out in DUMBO and saw the distance between them and between myself and some of them.
That's the way the cookie crumbles.

On Sunday, I did a dumpling/dessert run through Chinatown-Lower East Side with good friend Page. Eldrige dumpling house to Il Laboratorio del Gelato, where I saw Jon Snyder, the entrepreneur extraordinaire was working away in the back. He started Ciao Bella when he was 19 and sold it, and now it's one of the most prosperous loveliest dessert companies. He's off doing another indie project. I feel like I have to meet this fellow and get inspired! He's a cutie too.

http://www.laboratoriodelgelato.com/press.php

Party Favors

Brian and Aaron suggested last weekend that they would be interested in Pins and Needles doing a "teach some men to knit" party.

Chupacabras

This one is for you, Trixie. An eight-part online documentary about the Chupacabras.