Knitting Pipeline is sponsored by my Longaberger home businessn and Quince & Co.

Knitting Pipeline is sponsored by Quince & Co. and Knitcircus Yarns

Friday, September 27, 2013

Episode 146 Knitting Faster by Sprinting

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.




This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.
Quince & Co has introduced 8 new colors into their American sourced wool line.  Chickadee, a springy sport weight, is the first base for the new colors.  Poppy, Slate, Wasabi, Came, Malbec, Sedum, Fjord, and Belize.  The colors will be phased into Quince’s other wool yarns: Finch, Lark, Osprey, and Puffin.  Find Chickadee and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.



You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.  Please send me a personal message or visit my web site to sign up for my customer email list.
I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.  I’m on Instagram as knittingpipeline.


Bronwyn and Sarah are visiting for this episode which will include Prize Drawing, Events, Fall Nature Notes, Needle Notes, The Blethering Room, and a few outtakes.

Announcements
Drawing for Topsy-Turvy Inside Out Knit Toys by Susan B Anderson
Artisan Books 2013  $17.95
Thanks to Artisan Books for including me in the blog tour and drawing.

Winner of FREE copy  out of 135 entries is #82 KathNits who is Kathleen from Michigan.  Kathleen wrote
I love your idea of sending one a month to a special child. They’re marvelous designs!

Kathleen, please contact me by email or on Ravelry with your mailing address so Artisan books can send out your free copy of Topsy Turvy.


Events
Some spots have opened up in both retreats!

Maine Retreat November 10-14, 2013  includes field trip to local knit shops including Knit Wit, flagship store for Quince & Co.  $420 all inclusive.

Cornerstone Inn Fall Retreat September 23-26, 2013
Includes some surprises and an afternoon of knitting on Paula’s porch.

We talk a little bit about our retreat philosophy. We thank Jackie of the KIPing it Real Podcast for all the wonderful friendships we formed in the two years we attended Camp KIP.

Nature Notes

Fall is here in Central Illinois. Leaves are starting to turn on some trees. Hummingbirds are still at the feeders and migrating through.  There are loads of Painted Lady butterflies on the zinnias out front.  Pumpkins abound at farm stands.  Temperatures are in the 50’s at night and 70’s in the daytime.  We all love fall.  Who doesn’t?

Sarah read a passage from Hal Borland.

Needle Notes

Bronwyn: commission knitting scarf in locally raised alpaca

Sarah: slogging away on Leap of Faith Cardigan by Nicole Montgomery

Sarah asks how she can learn to knit faster.  Bronwyn reveals her sprint method.  Paula likes the sprinting idea and thinks it is often a matter of experience.

Paula: Point of View Vest in Sparrow (organic linen) Little Fern colorway by Quince & Co
Paula’s project notes on Point of View Vest



Blethering Room

Pinterest now has boards that you can share.  Pinterest also has private boards now. You can follow me on Pinterest as Paula Fuessle.

High Note/Low Note  (no low notes this week)




High Note Paula and Sarah: Pumpkins and Farm Stands

High Note Bronwyn: Fall

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte by Farmgirl Gourmet.  Also pinned on my Pinterest Board Fall Recipes.  Sorry for a little bit of slurping.

Haste ye back!


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Episode 145 What Pipers Wear


 Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.

This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

Quince & Co has introduced 8 new colors into their American sourced wool line.  Chickadee, a springy sport weight, is the first base for the new colors.  Poppy, Slate, Wasabi, Came, Malbec, Sedum, Fjord, and Belize.  The colors will be phased into Quince’s other wool yarns: Finch, Lark, Osprey, and Puffin.  Find Chickadee and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.

You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.  Please send me a personal message or visit my web site to sign up for my customer email list.

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.  I’m on Instagram as knittingpipeline.

Kevin visits Knitting Pipeline today to talk about what pipers wear. We play with Celtic Cross Pipes and Drums.  See videos and read about our band on our website.

Latest band portrait.


This is our official uniform which is what we wore when we played with The Chieftains.  Glengarry, oxford style shirt with black tie, wool jacket, belt, sporran, kilt hose, flashes, and ghillie brogues.

Events
  • I’m going to postpone the drawing for the copy of Topsy-Turvy Inside Out Knit Toys by Susan B Anderson until next week’s on Wed morning.
  • Knittyknitknits is donating all proceeds from her design The Pearl Tower to Relay for Life/American Cancer Society.
  • Quince & Co Scarf Call
  • Craftsy Sale until Sept 21st—please click on link in sidebar on this page.


Philibeg means little kilt.
Sometimes we "dress down" for a good cause.  Walk for Alzheimers 2011
Wearing Dutch Pipes and Drums sweatshirts at Walk for Alzheimer's 2013.

Glenn is my piping teacher and friend of 17 years.

Have a great week, haste ye back, and hold your knitting close.


Friday, September 13, 2013

Episode 144 Topsy-Turvy Episode

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.

This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

Quince & Co has introduced 8 new colors into their American sourced wool line.  Chickadee, a springy sport weight, is the first base for the new colors.  Poppy, Slate, Wasabi, Came, Malbec, Sedum, Fjord, and Belize.  The colors will be phased into Quince’s other wool yarns: Finch, Lark, Osprey, and Puffin.  Find Chickadee and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.

You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.  Please send me a personal message or visit my web site to sign up for my customer email list.

Instagram: knittingpipeline

Twitter: knittingline

There are many ways to participate in the Knitting Pipeline Community.  You can comment on the show blog, jump in to the discussions on our Ravelry Group, or you can just download and enjoy the show. 

My good friend and fellow piper, Heather, is visiting me this morning along with her 3 year old who supplied sound effects.  As you regular Pipeliners know I am quite particular about sound quality on the show but I had to let that go today.  If you want to smile today be sure to stay after the theme music at the end for George’s singing.


Heather and  George

 Book Notes

Topsy-Turvy Inside Out Knit Toys by Susan B Anderson. Artisan Books 2013  $17.95

Susan brought copies of her book to our Knitting Pipeline Retreat in the spring and of course she sold them all quite quickly.  She was so gracious to sign copies of all her books and we had a trunk show that included all these designs plus some of her other popular designs.

Susan B Anderson Trunk Show at the Spring Knitting Pipeline Retreat, April 2013


That is the Dog in the Dog House in the middle of the table.



In the Pipeline
Black Isle Crafts by Sheila (audio podcast).  Sheila lives on a farm on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands.  Highly recommended.

Needle Notes

Heather aka Tulip1014 knit Vertical Stripes from Itty Bitty Hates by Susan B Anderson.

Paula

Desert Vista Dyeworks Socks

Tip: Matching stripes perfectly. When using the Long Tail CO or any variation of it, start your co where two colors meet.  I used where a red stripe met a brown stripe.  The result is that I have a very thin line of red at the top of the sock and I could easily match that on the second sock.

Beyond Puerperium by Kelly Brooker

My Project Notes on Beyond Puerperium

Unwind Yarn Touring DK in Graphite.  Great yarn and LOVE the color!


George got into modeling the sweater.

Beyond Puerperium by Kelly Brooker, modeled by George





The Blethering Room


In the Piping Circle

Heather plays with Grade 3 Chicago Celtic Pipe Band and Celtic Cross Pipes and Drums. We have a big day of piping tomorrow, Saturday September 14.  We march in the Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade and then play with St. Andrews Pipe Band in Springfield IL.

Have a great week, haste ye back, and hold your knitting close.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Episode 143 Momentum

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.

This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

Chickadee is a little darling—soft, plump, springy, and eager to loop into intricate color patterns or delicate textures. Its three plies, spun from softest American wool, are twisted together firmly enough to be sturdy, yet gently enough to be soft and cushiony.  41 beautiful colors to choose from and at just a little over $7 per 181 yd/50g skeins…you will find Chickadee a great value for your sport weight knitting.

 Find Chickadee and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.

You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.  Please send me a personal message or visit my web site to sign up for my customer email list.

Ravelry: PrairiePiper

Instagram: knittingpipeline

Twitter: knittingline.


Pipeliner Notes

Thank you for the star ratings and reviews on iTunes. There were new reviews from skunk box, sparker29, and MizPurl.  I really appreciate your encouragement and 5 star ratings.

On last week’s show a lot of you liked the information about the needles from China.  One point I forgot to mention is that the joins are extremely smooth and have held up well.  We took the 16” 000 out of the case after we recorded last week and were marveling at the small size of the needle and the smooth cable.

Knitting Dish with Mary Woolybear368 

Events and Announcements

Maine Retreat waiting list started.  Deposits are due and balances due at the end of September.
October 23-26, 2013 Wed late afternoon to Sat morning
Cornerstone Inn Bed and Breakfast/111 Washington Square, Washington IL 61571
5 openings left.  Email me and I will hold your spot for a week until I get your deposit.
Spring Retreat will be March 14-15, 2014 with optional yarn crawl fun day on March 13.  Feel free to make overnight reservations now.
To book Sleep Inn call 309-481-0450.  Ask for a room in the Knitting Pipeline Block. (Do not book online).

Nature Notes
The activity has settled down quite a bit at the feeders because we needed to take a break at the platform feeder and safflower feeder.  We do this once a year to give the vermin a chance to move elsewhere in our neighborhood.  We had been considering a feeder break and then one day I saw a groundhog outside nibbling on some vegetation.  That did it.  I do not want to deal with groundhogs!  Bob still fills the hummingbird feeder and niger thistle feeder so we still have lots of hummingbirds and goldfinches.  We also have a fountain on the patio which is used by birds and squirrels and possibly others.
The hummingbirds have been exceptionally territorial lately.  We had a few aerial battles on the weekend when we could actually hear the collision of the birds.  There is plenty of room at the feeders for several hummingbirds but they didn’t learn to share in kindergarten.
We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost. --Henry Rollins 

Needle Notes
From the Fields by Larissa Brown
Gift Pattern from Maureen/ScrappyDoo.  (Dec 2012) Thank you!
Fat Squirrel Fibers Hazelnut MCN Medallion Red 600 yd
Unwind Expedition Sport Graphite Colorway. 4 skeins. Purchased from Dana at SSK.
Mods:
Added garter stitch length to sleeve so they are still short sleeves but come down a little further.
Did not mirror mesh lace.
Tip: Made a spreadsheet to keep track of cables and mesh pattern.
Plain Socks with Desert Vista Dyeworks Goo Goo Cluster Colorway
The Blethering Room
In Episode 141:  Zugunruhe from the German “zug” meaning a pulling or move, and “unruhe” meaning anxiety or restlessness.
MiddleagePearl wrote:
Well, as predicted, Paula’s podcast has spawned a feverish internet search for a previously unknown topic, “Zugunruhe”. And not surprisingly I found a NY Times article by James Gorman on the subject and a study funded by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology on African stonechat birds that confirms this behavior even in non-migratory birds. In reference to knitting, I think of Zugunruhe means that we knitters feel the end of summer approaching in the slant of the sun, the change in day length and cooler morning temperatures. Those seasonal changes make us want to cast on hats, sweaters and all wooly, warm manner of knitwear. The same could be said about springtime as our knitting habits evolve then too.
Momentum
My DIL Stacy is working on her PhD Thesis and when I recently asked her about it she said, “It’s all about momentum.”  I said, “I know exactly what you mean.”  I’m not exactly a monogamous knitter but I also don’t like to have a lot of projects going at the same time.  If a project languishes for too long it seems to lose its energy and momentum and then it is harder for me to pick it up and get moving on it.  That has happened to my Kindness of Knitters Blanket as I put it away for the summer.  I did take it to SSK thinking that I might be energized by other sock blanket knitters but that didn’t work.  I know I will finish it.  I just need to get the momentum going again.  It is a lot harder to get a stale project going than to keep going on a project that has lain dormant. Probably the only thing I remember from the meager physics I learned is the law of inertia: “An object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest.” Seriously.  That is all I remember from physics.
Momentum is one of the reasons that Knit Alongs, otherwise known as KALs work so well.  As others knit the design along with us we feel the energy of all the knitters and it somehow encourages us to keep up.  It is a bit like bicyclists who benefit from drafting.  Momentum is perhaps why we tend to buy more yarn when we are with friends than alone.  We are caught up in the energy of the moment and what seems good for someone else might seem good to us too, until we get home and look over our purchases.
So this energy, this momentum, is the reason I decided recently to knit down to zero projects with the exception of the Sock Blanket which is going to get some knitting on it as soon as the weather cools off.  I had started on the Point of View Vest by Hannah Fettig in Sparrow, Quince & Co organic linen before Stitches Midwest in early August.  Soon after starting that project I started losing interest.  I seemed to have forgotten how slowly it went with size 1 needles and fingering weight linen.  I was so tempted to put it away until next spring but I knew that would not be a good idea for me. I set a goal to knit down to zero before starting any new projects. I was finishing the socks in Desert Vista Dyeworks, finishing work on The Old Man and the Sea, and had the From the Fields Shawl.  I know that doesn’t seem like a lot to some knitters but it is a lot for me. Finally I was down to just the Point of View Vest.  It only took about 3 more days and I finished it off with a great feeling of starting fresh on September 1.
We all have different tolerance levels of the number of projects we can handle at one time.  For me I need to keep it down to a few so I can keep the momentum going on those projects.  It is a bit like juggling balls to keep them all in the air and active at the same time.  Some of you can handle a lot of projects at one time and cannot imagine having just one or even a few.  When zugunruhe comes on and you feel like migrating to another project you can do that with no problem even if you have 5, 10, or 15 projects going.
In the Pipeline
Listening
EweUniversity.com audio cast by Kris
Yarns at Yin Hoo is an audio podcast by Sara who is Sarapomegranate
Come into The Piping Circle for a Bit
Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade Saturday September 14, 2013
September 14, 2013 with St. Andrew’s Pipes and Drums in Springfield IL
By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer's best of weather And autumn's best of cheer.~~Helen Hunt Jackson

Have a great week, haste ye back, and hold your knitting close.

 

About Me

My photo
I play the Great Highland Pipes, knit, observe nature, and read. My name on Ravelry is PrairiePiper. Find me on Instagram as KnittingPipeline.