http://www.masondixonknitting.com/archives/2009_02.html#002613
Although we have fun with all our books, recording Mason-Dixon's Knitting Outside The Lines was especially entertaining: at some points they had to re-record, because Kathy was laughing so hard that you could hear her in the background!
friend Jesse gives it a spin 
Evan is just covered in mustaches these days 
My mother made the hat--isn't it fab?
Covering up frigid chickens:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254021/Knit-cluck-Somerset-craft-club-keeps-bald-rescue-hens-warm-knitting-woolly-jumpers.html
Not to mention these two amazing outfits, one via Digg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45033009@N07/4412526754/sizes/o/ and one at Cute Overload: http://cuteoverload.com/2010/03/09/when-yarn-isnt-cats-best-friend/
Anyone else out there have a favorite sciencey knit?
-Katherine Jane
From Katherine Jane in New York City:
Goodness, can it really be February already? I think I'm personally having a hard time admitting that 2010 is well underway because (shame!) I'm still working on my last two Christmas presents--a hat and a pair of socks that just didn't get done before the December deadline. Luckily my loved ones are very patient, and also quite accustomed to presents that arrive a little past due.
I recently read an article that explained that mittens will keep your hands warmer than gloves, because they allow your fingers to touch which helps maintain warmth. Whether that's true or not, I am using the information as a perfect excuse to make these gorgeous little morsels:
Deep In The Forest mittens
©Tuulia Salmela 2008, photo used with permission
At the moment, though, Donna is doing a blog tour promoting her Alaska knitting cruise. She is co-hosting this cruise with the fabulous Lucy Neatby. And oh my goodness, doesn't the sound of that just fill you with joy? Donna and Lucy, a beautiful ship filled with knitters, cruising through the gorgeous landscape of Alaska, knitting all day in like-minded company, and taking knitting classes and going to knitting mixers… and there are apparently non-knitting activities as well, so you can even bring along your non-knitting friends (i.e., those you haven’t managed to convert yet) and they’ll have something to keep them busy while you are knitting. By the pool. On your way from one beautiful location to the next. While someone else takes care of the food and dishes.
If that isn’t a description of Heaven, then I don’t know what is.
For more information about the May 2010 Musk Ox and Glaciers cruise with Donna Druchnas, click here—and keep an eye out for the KOL release of Arctic Knits later this spring!
- Katherine Jane
a perfect autumn day
I also love the knitted door handle covers (click here for the full picture if you can't see it). But seriously, doesn't that look like the greatest job ever? Getting paid to sit and knit and look charming--sign me up! The woman in that picture, Tracey, also teaches classes at the Studio, and says that they all take turns sitting up in the window.
After a happy while poking around the store I ended up buying a skein of fingerweight self-striping yarn to make a pair of wrist warmers for my sister's birthday, which was exactly what I came for. Success!
-Katherine Jane
Maybe we could get together for a stitch-and-bitch some time?
From Katherine Jane:
I tend to approach most aspects of life with what my loved ones refer to as "a complete lack of moderation." So when in May I came across a series of podcast recommendations on the delightful blog Charminglochie, I immediately signed up for the ones she mentioned: Stash and Burn, Yarncraft, Knitting Nora's Knitting Natter, Doubleknit, and Berroco.
But then, as with many such endeavors, there came the sinking realization that I had bitten off more than I could chew. I suddenly had hundreds hours of unlistened-to knitting chatter sitting on my computer--and every day more episodes were added to the list. It was a little overwhelming.
At the Sock Summit earlier this month, Kathy was interviewed by Sherrill for the Belle of the Ball Podcast.You can download the episode directly:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/belleoftheball/Belle_of_the_Ball_Podcast_Episode_68.mp3
or get it from the blog:
http://belleoftheballpodcast.blogspot.com/2009/08/episode-68-road-to-sock-summit.html
or simply search for "Belle of the Ball" on the iTunes store.
I'm still so jealous that I couldn't go to the Sock Summit, but hearing people's stories has been lots of fun. Hearing the crazy hubub in the background of these interviews makes me all the more determined to go to the next Sock Summit (there must be a next one!). The interview with Kathy's starts at 39:17; tune in to hear her talk about our newest releases, and discussion of how the company came to be. As Sherrill says in the podcast, "Never underestimate the idea of a knitter." Hear, hear!
Now, at least to start with the party guests were predominately male, and as a single girl I suppose I ought to have been smiling and flipping my hair and taking people's cards like I was giving away a prize at the door at the end of the evening. But I have no particular deadline for filling my boyfriend ("boyfriend!") quota, and I most certainly have a deadline for when I need to finish the two Baby Surprise Jackets I'm working on at the moment; their intended recipients are being born in August. And so I did what I often do at parties: found a comfortable-looking chair, plunked myself down, and pulled out my knitting. As I'm sure most of you know, knitting at parties can have mixed results; sometimes people consider it anti-social, but for the most part it generally makes for a good conversation starter with knitters and non-knitters alike.
Antisocial? Me? Perish the thought!
Sure enough, within minutes of me pulling out my knitting, a stocky, muscley guy with frosted tips came charging over. He introduced himself as Tom, and then said, "I see you're knitting." Impressed that he knew it was knitting and not crochet, I agreed pleasantly that I was in fact knitting. "I can knit," Tom continued with confidence. I blinked--this was not where I had expected the conversation to go. Tom sat down in the chair next to me and proceeded to tell me with great enthusiasm all about the scarf he had knit. He was well-informed on the subject and intelligent, and we had a very pleasant chat.Now, I know men knit. I have coached at least one guy through his first hat, and follow two men's knitting blogs (no prizes for guessing which ones). But even though my conversation with Tom served to remind me that you can't judge a book by its cover, the party continued to surprise me. Next up was Kevin's co-worker Loc. "My wife knits," said Loc, sitting down next to me. I made some appropriate noise of interest, and Loc continued, "She's really into it. She's at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival right now, that's why she couldn't come here today." Suddenly I felt a little defensive--maybe if I was a real knitter, I'd be at that festival too? "How big is your stash?" Loc asked suddenly. I stammered that my stash was on the small side, and started to explain about size limitations of New York apartments, but Loc was having none of that. "My wife's stash is huge!" he said with a chuckle. "It's so big! It takes over an entire room!" And, watching his face, I stopped feeling defensive as it became clear: Loc was bragging about his wife and her knitting, in the best possible way. He was proud of her, proud of her crazy obsession and the lengths to which it took her. Though he didn't seem to have much interest in knitting himself, he knew all about it, because he liked his wife and his wife likes knitting. She knits! She spins! She's the most amazing knitter on the planet! I made a game of it and started throwing knitting terms at him; he knew what a UFO was, knew all about Ravelry, and so on and so forth. Knitting osmosis had done the trick; Loc could not be phased.
And then, just when I thought my knitter's heart couldn't get any more full, two more muscley Long Island men approached the table. "Oh, you're crocheting?" asked one of them. Before I could open my mouth, the other one interjected with great disgust, "Ugh, she's knitting. Crocheting is with one hook; knitting is with two needles. Don't you know anything?"And this is the point where I decided I needed to consider moving to Long Island some day.
So what does it mean, oh knitting brethren? Are Long Island males just extremely advanced and in-touch with their crafty side? The fact that Loc and his expertly-knitting wife live in Manhattan contradicts that theory. Maybe American men in general are becoming enlightened? Maybe knitting has become so mainstream that even non-knitters have a basic understanding of how it works? Maybe Kevin just has exceptionally cool friends?
- Katherine Jane
Only moderately daunted, I started going through all my old photos from college and from post-college traveling. And, sure enough, although I had never made an active effort to photographically record my knitting progress, by dint of the fact that I wear hats a lot I was able to find quite a few pictures that I could crop down to size and use.
After my initial triumph at having found the pictures, however, I ended up even more depressed than I was before. Although some of these projects were made to practice a new technique when I was just getting started knitting in the round, many of them were hats that I had loved with all my heart and soul, hats that I had worn day-in-day-out, hats that had been my go-to solution when my outfit was blah or my hair was being cantankerous; hats that I could rely on to be waiting faithfully at the bottom of my bag when it was cold. They were hats, in short, that I had a relationship with—and hats that apparently I could not keep in my possession. And it’s not like this was an issue from when I was young and careless; at least two of those hats had been lost in the past four months, presumably abandoned to the cold cruel streets of New York!
But then I remembered wisdom that my favorite jewelry shop owner had given to me once: “Wear your jewelry, and wear it a lot. If it gets broken, stolen, or lost, at least you will have happy memories of the times you wore it and how much pleasure it brought you.”
And so I took a more careful look at those photos, looking not just at the hats themselves, but at the girl who was wearing the hats. And oh, the happy memories those pictures brought back! The hats that became favorites were part of so many experiences. I used one to keep the bees out of my hair while tilling soil on an organic farm in Ireland; a different one while I stomped around the hills of rural Wiltshire with a best-beloved cousin.
Another, less fortunate hat got vomited into on a subway in London when I had the flu, and later (after a thorough wash) kept me warm while I helped my aunt clean out the moldy apples from her cider shed.
I wore the hats while falling in and out of love; I wore the hats while hanging out with my family. I’ve worn them in two different hemispheres, three different continents, in a multitude of different countries. I wore them while Thelma-and-Louiseing with a pair of disgruntled koala bears, and while fulfilling a lifelong dream of holding a wombat.
In short, my hats have been part of a thoroughly enjoyable existence. Looking through my record of lost hats was a visual presentation of all the risks I’m now so glad that I took, and reminded me to be grateful for the life and experiences that I’m lucky enough to have had. And, in the end, if my only legacy is leaving a trail of well-worn, well-loved knitted caps strewn across the face of this planet—well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing, after all.
-Katherine Jane
