I’ve Really Been Around – Honest!

I’ve been playing with a fairly new obsession recently, and my blogging has suffered as a result. I got an Ipod! A 60-gig video Ipod! Now, if you know what’s coming, you can just cruise on away – you won’t hurt my feelings a bit! There will be some fibery content below – but mostly just unbridled enthusiasm for a very old idea (everything old is new again…and if you’re old enough to remember that line, you may think I’m nuts to have joined the digital music revolution)!

Not only do I have my 1000+ (and growing – ITunes is almost as good a budget-wrecker as a fiber festival) collection of songs all in one place now, along with all of my photos for the past 3 or 4 years (I can’t believe there are more than 1,500 edited photos), but I’ve discovered podcasts! There are actual, honest to goodness knitters and spinners putting out regular shows, complete with some wonderful music - all about fibers and knitting! These have me completely addicted. Now instead of knitting while watching whatever my DH has on the television, I’m putting on my earphones and knitting away to the dulcet tones of different podcasters!

These podcasts take me back to the days of radio. Yes, Virginia, there were still a few radio shows broadcasting when I was very young, and I must admit to a fondness to the re-releases of many of the old shows on CD’s these last few years. I love listening to the old Jack Benny shows, and have heard many of the Burns and Allen gems for the first time on these CD’s. My DH loves “The Shadow” and several other shows, too, and we put these in the car CD player and thrill or laugh the miles away as we travel.

Which podcasts do I like best? I’m still exploring. I admit that I’ve downloaded all the Cast On episodes, and love Brenda Dayne’s voice and choice in music. But I’m also working my way through ‘samplings’ of several other podcasts, and love seeing what’s new on ITunes and in other places from week to week.

What am I working on while listening? Ah, now we’re getting into the interesting stuff! The alpaca and silk shawl is coming along – more slowly than I would like, since I’m having trouble right now getting either podcast-listening, spinning OR lace-knitting time (work is intruding on my play-time), but I am trying to get at least a few rows done each day. The leaf design is lovely, and while it requires attention, still moves along at a fairly decent clip.

My mindless knitting project right now is an EZ Fair Isle Yoke sweater for myself from the pattern reprinted in “The Opinionated Knitter” – simple stockinette stitch until you get the body and sleeves knit, then Fair Isle patterns in the yoke. I had 2600 yards (six skeins) of lovely, creamy fingering-weight wool and dyed two skeins a beautiful variegated purple, pink and blue colorway. I’ll use at least one of those for the Fair Isle patterns, and the cream wool as the main color. I considered dyeing the main color a very pale pink, but decided against it before starting. The longer I work with the yarn, though, the more I’m beginning to think that a pale pink might be really pretty. I may put the body and sleeves on a ribbon after knitting and kettle-dye the already-knit portions with another skein of yarn to finish up the knitting. I’d rather not over-dye the variegated colors – they’re exactly what I want right now. Although the dyeing may be a little tricky, I’m too far along to happily rip out, dye and re-knit the cream yarn now! I really don’t want to do sixteen rows of K2P2 rib on size 0 needles again! I’ll get photos up when it actually looks like something other than a large mass of cream stitches. As for what I’ll do with the leftover wool…I’m thinking a hat to match the sweater might be fun, as might gloves or mittens. We’ll see what inspiration strikes when Christmas is over!

Time to run - supper is going to burn if I don't!