Yarn matters - for a change!

I haven't really been posting much about my knitting habits recently, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the curse of the Curse's jumper is hanging over me. I have committed not to start anything else major until it is finished, and although I think this is a good discipline to impose, it makes for rather dull yarn blogging. The next stage is to knit the bands down each side of the front, onto which the zip will eventually be fastened. For this I need a 3.75mm circular needle, which I do not possess and which will require a modest amount of retail therapy.

It did cause a little confusion when I tried to work out how I'd done the ribbing at the bottom of the sleeves, which also require a 3.75mm circular - however they were small enough to knit on regular needles. The front bands are not, sadly. In the meantime I've been knocking out a few socks from my huge stash of sock yarn - I'm delighted with my new-found confidence in toe-up socks, and am looking forward to getting my Sock Pal match in the Sockapalooza 4 group that I've signed up to. Thanks to Nicola for the inspiration!

But just cos I haven't been writing about it doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it! Oh no siree! Thinking, dreaming, talking, musing, planning, yearning... oh I should stop now before it all gets embarrassing. So here's a few of the things I've been enjoying lately...

Podcasts: since Christmas, and the arrival of my beloved Ipod, I've been exploring the world of podcasts - and not just about knitting but art, music, and so on too. I have a few favourites, having listened to about ten different knitting ones; on the list at the moment are Lixie Knits It, and Sticks & String. These two are poles apart - quite literally as Lixie is a recent arrival on the scene, and is London-based while David Reidy, of sticks and string, has been broadcasting for some time and lives in Australia. But they are both a good mix of reviews, ideas, comments and humour, and both mastered the technology admirably, making their broadcasts very pleasant on the ears. David is an astrophysicist who loves knitting. For some reason this fact is pleasing in its randomness. Lixie meanwhile has a partner, Pooch, who seems to display the same level of interest in her hobby as the Curse does in mine - and an inversely-proportional interest in football. I can thoroughly relate to that.

I've tried quite a few of the other podcasts, but some are too long, some too freeform, and others I just can't identify with the podcasters for whatever reason (ie they get on my tits). I thoroughly admire their determination and tenacity - it must take a lot of hard work to put these things together so I am in no way criticising the effort they put in, I just think we need EVEN MORE of them out there! I have about an hour of walking every day in my journey to work, and it's great to have an alternative to music!

Take a look at the new edition of Crochet Me magazine, it's just out. This article could prove useful inspiration for how to use up all that leftover yarn. I estimate that at least 25% of my stash falls into this category, so I need to get serious about doing an afghan or something. I really like the idea of having some kind of 'patchwork' equivalent that would have lots of different yarns from previous projects that would remind me of all my past glories/disasters!