Things to Read, Things to Buy, Chi McBride

Good morning and welcome to another week. This weekend was mostly dedicated to weird little tasks (buying new hamper, fixing insane printer which has been plaguing me for the better part of a year), but I did do some sketching of pattern ideas.

Not-So-New Discovery: drawing is not my strong suit.  When I was in high school, I so wanted to be able to draw, paint, sculpt, whatever. Many of my friends were visual artists, and we spent lots of time in the art room at school, and you know how that is: one wants to belong.  At any rate, I did not throw any artistic materials at the wall or the cat or into the garbage, which is a mercy.

On to the update.

I Knit London (which I look forward to visiting this summer) has posted their Knitting in Film and Television Awards (KNIFTAs). Of course, Nick Park of Wallace & Gromit fame cleaned up big for Gromit the knitting dog and others – he received the Outstanding Contribution award (akin to the Oscars’ Lifetime Achievement, evidently). Aardman Studios supplied some clips from Park’s knitting work to be shown at the Awards Ceremony (flickr photoset). Chi McBride won “Best Knitting Scene” for his Knitting P.I. Emerson Cod of the sadly-canceled Pushing Daisies.

There are lots of fun knitting books on my list this year, and Joanne Seiff’s Fiber Gathering: Knit, Crochet, Spin, and Dye More Than 20 Projects Inspired by America’s Festivals (amazon, powell’s, indie) made the cut. She’s writing on Amazon.com’s Amazon Blogs and contributed to Powell’s Books’ PowellsBooks.Blog. She has a wry, witty voice and knows how to explain what many of us feel about fiber festivals: that they’re our modern time of “gathering in the market square.”

Finally…an intrepid knitter has invented a nifty TSA-friendly Knit Kit (just in time for my trip this summer; it’s all about me). It looks like a little Swiss Army Knife for knitters, with a stitch counter, thread cutter, and a tiny crochet hook in place of that toothpick thing that always fell out and got lost. The back pocket has scissors, point protectors, and stitch markers…there’s a tape measure coming out the bottom…what more could we want? I have yet to see one of these in person, but I am mightily intrigued.