Needle Exchange
Hey guys, check it out I found this really cool site. It’s by this girl named Eve who runs a knitting blog called Needle Exchange and it’s totally AWESOME.
My knitting blog is now located at the Needle Exchange!
Music While You Knit
Erin sent me a link to this music video by Steriogram. It’s basically the White Stripes’ Hate To Say I Told You So except for knitting.
EDIT, Wednesday, 1:13 PM: It’s actually “Fell In Love With A Girl” that I’m thinking of.
Bunnies!
There’s a Bunny-along being hosted where a bunch of crafty folks make bunnies together. It’s all very cute. I don’t have the time, of course, but I did find some great patterns that I may knit later:
I also found some non-bunny toys: Benny the Bear, Lucy the Lamb, Molly the Mouse, Monty the Monkey. Lots of alliteration here.
Bumpf!
Les looked at me for a second a few nights ago and said, “you look radiant for some reason.”
I was about to get all mushy, but then he punched me in the stomach and made a punching sound: “Bumpf!” He said he was doing it “just in case.” He makes gentleman’s abortion jokes consistently now.
I was in a meeting today where a Lieutenant Colonel made reference to blogging. Just offhand, you know: “we’ll get together, set up a blog, and get ‘er goin’.” I was rather impressed.
I’m only a few rows away from finishing my One Skein Wonder! I think I’m getting cold lace feet. I really want to start the Spectator Grand, but I also can’t put down the needles for this project. It’s going so fast!
One Skein Wonder: In Progress
I finally figured out how to photograph red (sort of)! The trick is to add a green photographic filter. Neat!
I know I should be working on the Spectator Grand, but this was calling out to me. The need for a shrug to round out my dress was too much. I swatched it last night and I’m knitting it on 4.5mm instead of 5mm needles because cotton stretches a bit. Hopefully it’ll work out, this will be a yarn test for the real thing!
AUGH! My needles!
I bought a set of 3.75mm needles less than a week ago to knit my Spectator Grand hat for The Amazing Lace, and I’ve already lost them! Eek! I blame congress, rising gas prices and to a lesser degree the messiness of my room.
I managed to pull out my 5mm needles (the next-smallest size I have, as my 4.25mms are occupied with a secret project) and practice a few stitches. No time to upload a photo, as I desperately need to get some work done this evening.
… Right after dinner.
EDIT, 10:27PM: Oh dear. I saw this image of Orangina and it just looks so glamorous that now I want to knit it. It’s all, “please, no paparazzi, I am too busy with my car remote to put on an undershirt.” I didn’t really like it before because I don’t do well with boat necks, but maybe I can adjust it according to my preferences.
Needle Freaks
I can’t resist blogging about a new Google Tool without discovering its applications to knitting. I did a Google Trends comparison between knitting and crochet and came across some really interesting things.
First of all, check out the sinusoidal activity. (That means “waves,” for lay-knitters.) There’s a much higher search volume in the winter than the summer, and it’s a lot more pronounced for knitting than it is for crochet. That’s probably because crochet has more year-round applications, whereas knitting tends to see a decrease in the summer months. More people need to knit with cotton! And maybe a little nylon to make it stretch. (This means you, Bernat!) There might also be an increase in interest for knitting because everyone’s cooped up inside for the winter and you can only watch The Notebook so many times.
The biggest news boom looks like it was in the beginning of 2005, when the papers suddenly discovered that ovaries aren’t required for the needle arts. The most interested regions are commonwealth countries (aside from the United States, Germany and Ireland, which left in 1949). The country most interested in crochet (aside from the US) is France. The UK has little interest in crochet because, of course, they don’t like the French.
Conclusions: the best time for blogging is during the Winter, in English, about knitting. Logically, the best time to post knitting or crochet patterns is during the last half of the year, when people are planning their upcoming winter projects.
I wish we could see more into the past and check out the rise in knitting/crochet popularity over the past few years.