still here!

thankfully!......as I haven't finished Lorelei yet, although I am making progress. I can get a lot done as I listen to podcasts and the weather has been too horrible to get any tidying up done in the garden.

I'm flitting through a lot of knitting /crochet podcasts today and I'll mention those that I like ( and draw a veil of those that I don't*).

Stash and Burn is a big favourite and Nicole & Jenny have a good balance of personal knitting and other trends/reviews that are out there.Their tone is light and friendly and they do reply to comments too. ( Just downloaded this week's ep and I'll be listening later!)

Craftlit is wonderful. Heather is bright, funny, warm and interesting and I love my fix of classic fiction.

Faeryknitting is unusual in that it includes goat farming along with faery stories and knitting/spinning updates. Erin is such a lovely young woman and her recent goat imitations (when the males are fighting over the females!) have been the funniest thing that I've heard in ages. She describes it as a spicy narrative! Some people might not want their children to listen to it, but I think most children would find it very very funny.

I enjoy Cast On too with Brenda Dayne and while I wish she could podcast more often, (I appreciate that she has had health problems this year.) I'm grateful that she is still producing an ep each month. The sound quality is excellent, and believe me that that is not common amongst many 'casts.

David Reidy in Australia has a fab podcast Sticks and String. That man has such a lovely voice and an amusing take on knitting. His "essays" are a great listen.

Knitpicks with Kelley Petkun is very practical & useful. I respect the fact that she doesn't use it to plug her company. I think Knitpicks needles are available in the UK but I don't think the yarns are. She does some great interviews with knitting luminaries.

Two wonderful UK knitting podcasts are Knitty Nora and Lixie Knits it.

Knitty Nora has done some very practical discussions about cabling and blocking, and I love listening to her 'Boro accent. Its such a long time since I worked in Stockton ( 20+ years) and it takes me back. I also love the opening music from the late great Arthur Askey.

Lixie Knits It is charming and funny and I hope she comes back to 'casting. I know it takes hours and hours (20, 30, 40?) to put a 'cast together well, and again she does a great job, well organised, interesting, no umming and aahing, good sound quality. Hopefully the feedback she got from the recent I Knit day will encourage her.

I wish I could find more UK casts while its interesting hearing about what's going on over the pond, it would be good to hear more about British ( & Irish) events.

New on my mp3 today are The Yarn Thing. Marly is passionate about crochet and is warm and funny. her blog is interesting too. Her designs are very funky and contemporary and I love the Fino long gloves.
Its a purlman with Guido is a delight. He seems like such a fun guy, I'm def listening to him regularly.
Knitting at night is a really good practical look at knitting, done in a very friendly style. I've learned so much more about circular needles by listening to ep.39. Thanks Casey!
Stitch it by Meghan is a delight and also another to visit often. Her son giggling was charming!



* some of the casts have had poor sound quality, hissing on the mics, odd echoing, one voice OK but the partner sounding like they are down the hall, too much giggling, too much umming and ahhing, not much structure, and the worst I heard was whiney and complaining.

I realise that these are ordinary people having a go at something new, and that's great, I'm all for that, they are doing this unpaid, and that's wonderful, & its free for listeners, but some, I feel, are jumping on a bandwagon or using it as a form of therapy (one person complained that she thought it would be a good earner and was giving up because it wasn't!!). That just doesn't appeal to me, in the same way I don't watch soaps because they are too depressing and have ridiculous plot lines, I won't listen to 'casts that are irritating.