Autumn in the Morning; Summer in the Afternoon

The weather has cleared up quite a lot and apart from a little rain Saturday and more overnight into Sunday, it’s been very nice. It’s still very cool in the mornings though. My bedroom was 13 Celsius this morning which makes it hard to get out from the warm covers and a bit chilly getting dressed! (Nothing like an ice-cold bra to wake you up.) It warms up outside after noon to the low-20’s which is quite acceptable and the actual house temperature is not as cold as my bedroom. We aren’t planning on turning on the furnace for awhile yet unless we have to. I’m hoping this carries on into October. But I’m not holding my breath — just enjoying it while I can.

In other news, I’ve sadly deleted the Spindlicity button from my sidebar. There hasn’t been a new post since last winter so I figure the editor, Janel Laidman has other yarn to spin. There hasn’t even been a notice posted to the Yahoogroup since April. If she does get another issue up, I’ll restore the button. Otherwise I’m wasting people’s time with a link to a very old issue. On the other hand, there is a Lughnasadh issue of Anti-Craft if you haven’t seen it. (Their goth-y sense of humour cracks me up!) Also an August issue of MagKnits that was new to me. It’s still the older summer issues of all the rest of the online magazines. New ones should be coming up soon. Including one that’s not yet on my sidebar: Spindle and Wheel. Allena has done 2 issues so far and promises the next one soon. It’s full of great tutorials and has new extras weekly (or thereabouts). Do check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. I’m not sure if past articles remain because I can’t find any archives. Read it while it’s hot!

While I’m waxing poetic about online magazines, how about the podcasts that keep me working when otherwise I would either be bored or quit to go read something instead? My favourites (in no particular order depending on my mood) are Cast On, CraftSanity, Lime & Violet, Sticks & String, KnitWit, CraftLit, WeaveCast and Craftcast but there are lots more. I especially like interviews, essays and books read to me. Sometimes I even like the music, particularly the humourous songs, though it can distract from the point of the discussion so I don’t really miss it when there is no music included. Some podcasts are more serious and some (like Lime & Violet) are hilariously silly. All are a great entertainment when my hands and eyes are busy but my brain is not fully engaged. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have an iPod so I use my Palm T/X. If I work near my computer I could listen directly from iTunes through my speakers (but that’s not usually as satisfactory because of my hearing problems — it’s just as easy to wear earphones as hearing aids). You don’t even need iTunes if you have some other software on your computer that can play MP3 files. All the podcasts have links on their websites to download the shows directly. Subscribing through iTunes just makes it easier. If you haven’t tried podcasts yet, what’s stoppin’ ya?

So what have I been doing while listening to podcasts? Spinning some more for the Icelandic Shawl. Here’s the Ashland Bay merino colourway Mojave:


Pretty huh? It reminds me of the red rocks in Utah that I so love and though I’ve never seen the Mojave Desert in eastern California, the photos don’t show much in the way of red rocks. Personally I’d call the merino's colourway Capitol Reef instead, but I guess that doesn’t have the same cachet! Now I’m on to spinning the next colour and am aiming for 9 in total.

While we were out walking yesterday, I found an issue of Wild Fibers magazine for the first time in Chapters. I’ve always wanted to read this magazine but hadn’t had a chance to see a copy yet. I was not going to pay US $40 for a 4-issue subscription to Canada when the price for a US address is $28. That is totally out of line with exchange/mailing costs. I paid CDN$8.95 for the issue which is the printed cover price! And somewhat more reasonable I think. I always believed that you should be rewarded for your subscription by it being at least slightly cheaper than cover price. Obviously not in this case. I do hope the store continues to get this magazine in because it’s really quite gorgeous. Kind of the National Geographic for fibre-philes! The photos and articles are very high quality, not how-to’s but stories about the animals, people and lands that provide us with fibres and fibre tools. I’m kinda sorry now that I didn’t get in on the beginning when the mag started publishing in 2004. However US dollars were a lot more expensive for us Canadians then and I stick with my stubborn refusal to subscribe even now. I’ll be looking out for the next issue anyway on our usual magazine runs. Just what I need, more weight for my groaning bookshelves! But you know I can’t help myself.