Until recently, I didn’t really “get” the podcast thing–what are they, talk shows? Radio? But then my favorite ghost hunters started TAPS Para-Radio, so I had to download them. I’ve been known to play my Ghost Hunters season 1 DVDs on repeat. I’m actually surprised they still play at all.
So lately I have been listening to podcasts while knitting. And assuming there are podcasts on everything, because everything seems to be on the Internet, of course you know there are knitting podcasts. I think the first one I listened to was Pointy Sticks, which I subscribe to. Then I searched on iTunes and some of the popular ones that I have since subscribed to are Lime & Violet and the very popular Cast-On.
I really like Lime & Violet because they’re so natural and (I mean this in the kindest way) not professional. It’s like listening to two knitting friends gabbing and blabbing about yarn, etcetera, and it is so fun, and funny.
Cast-On by Brenda Dayne, which I have been listening to a few episodes back-to-back because I just discovered her and she has 31 episodes, or something like that, and I’m catching up, is really growing on me. Honestly, I didn’t like the podcast very much at first but I really enjoy it now. And I have her to thank for inspiring me to make a fourth Clapotis.
Brenda is also a really, really great writer. I love her essays. Couple that with her velvety voice, and I’m knitting pretty for hours at a time.
Which leads me to the real subject of this entry, I suppose, a long-abandoned and neglected scarf I started around last Christmastime, I think. I can’t even remember when I started it, that’s how long it has been. It is the Misty Garden scarf from the Scarf Style book–a really great book, by the way. I am actually using the yarn called for in the pattern, Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Infusion Kid Mohair. I bought three balls, the required amount, when the husband and I went to Albuquerque months ago. In the yarn store, I really had to debate between the colorway used in the book and this lovely purple colorway that kept talking to me, really begging to be petted. So I ended up with color 614, Jasmine Tea. This lovely mohair has been sitting atop my stash (alongside my Edgar Allan Poe doll), unused and neglected.
I amend my earlier claim that my stash is yarn prison; it’s more like an orphanage, I think, where all the neglected yarn children go, in hopes of being adopted into a loving, stable yarn family.
Anyhow. Listening to Cast-On has kept me knitting, allowing me to combat my crazy knitting attention deficit disorder (aka, knitting ADD). I have terrible finishing issues. Case in point, poor Misty Garden has sat on my work in progress chair for SEVEN months. I think I had started it, knitted about five or seven inches of it, and put it down. I just got bored with it.
As an aside: what is it about being a new knitter that allows you to have so much patience, that a scarf is usually your first project ever? Then when you get into the world of sock knitting and lace knitting and cables, you just dread doing another scarf? Scarves are so easy! But they can be boring. That’s my main beef with them.
In the past few nights, knitting while listening to Cast-On, Misty Garden now measures approximately 17 inches and I’m about to add the second ball. The scarf is one-third complete. Amazing!
Whenever I’m about to finish a ball of yarn, it’s always interesting what feeling I have about finishing it. Sometimes, it’s utter DREAD. I do not have enough yarn to finish the project, so I am knitting very slowly, attempting to somehow…abracadabra ***…make more yarn appear? Magic? (Recently I started the Minisweater, and I know for a fact that I am going to run out of yarn. So that project is on hold. Indefinitely. Until I will myself to purchase more Rowan Summer Tweed in Summer Berry. Maybe by next Christmas?)
But with other projects, it’s a thing of glee to finish a ball of yarn, like with this scarf. Closer to being finished. I know I have plenty of yarn, so running out right now just means that I’m almost there. And that’s a small accomplishment.
If I have waxed poetic or philosophical about YARN, it is all Brenda Dayne’s fault. She gets me thinking about the act of knitting and what it means, and all that.
(And if you aren’t listening to her podcast by now, why the heck not?)
*** Trivia: the word “abracadabra” is Aramaic for “As I speak, I create.” I learned that from the show Cash Cab. 
[tags]knitting, yarn, knitting podcasts, cast-on, brenda dayne[/tags]
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I’ve been listening to more and more podcasts too - they are growing on me, as well. Definitely good for knitting background-noise
My WB keeps asking me about them, I swear everyday! He’d never heard about them until TAPS started one. Eventually it came out that I listen to knitting podcasts and he thought that was the dorkiest thing ever. Hmph!
But anyway, another knitting one I listen to is Pixie Purls, have I already told you about that one? I started listening to Lime & Violet after you linked them… at first I didn’t really like it, but I feel like they are getting more comfortable and I find myself laughing with them and thinking “yarn porn!” when I see good stuff now, hehe. The one where they did the experiment and exposed the yarn stores was interesting - I know I have been treated very snottily at yarn stores before, where other people have been treated really nicely. Go figure! I guess I just look like a crazy person
And have you listened to the Cast-On, I think it’s called The Muggle Episode? Where Franklin is the guest host? I liked that one 
When I saw those knitpicks bags I thought ‘Tiffany will like those!’ You get all of those for fifty bucks?!
Then WB is a dork for thinking knitting podcasts are dorky!
They’re awesome! I guess a lot of non-knitters think that anything knitting related is kind of dorky, so whatever.
Thanks for the link to Pixie Purls, I will download it!
I know, at first (as with Cast-On) I didn’t really like Lime & Violet, but they definitely grew on me and now I think they’re hilarious. Kind of my substitute SnB 
I really like the episode about yarn shops; it’s weird, there is one yarn shop in Lubbock where the level of customer service I get is dependent on who is working there at the time. Sometimes the ladies/girls aren’t very nice at all, and one time I spent a LOT of money and the girl who rang me up literally went, YAY YARN! after I paid. Like a yarn cheerleader. I think I blogged about that, but I’m not sure. 
I haven’t gotten to the muggle episode yet, but I will soon! 
I realllllllly want the KP bags now. I covet the Jordana Paige satchel, but it is TOO expensive.
I recently discovered podcasts, too. They’re great to listen to while diving. They’re the perfect length for my commute. I like Cast-On, Knit Cast, Brit Knit Cast, and Pixie Purls.
ooh, there’s a Brit Knit Cast? Thanks for the heads up, I’ll check it out!