BEST DAY EVER.

A little while ago, I reblogged a silly thing on tumblr that said "REBLOG IF YOU WOULD BE LITERALLY 100% OKAY WITH FAN ART ABOUT YOU EVEN IF IT WAS JUST STICK MEN" and commented "*imagining a world in which knitwear designers get fanart, lulz*" because, well, that's not really a thing, as far as I know.

(and yeah, I have a tumblr- it's not even remotely knitting related though, so I don't really promote it. It's all dogs and Harry Potter.)

Well, Katrin saw it and made all my wildest dreams come true:

IS THAT NOT THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER? There's Forager and Northern Line and Zebra Crossing and RUPERT! and a coconut (I'm fanatical about coconut oil, hehe) and goggles and Pisky and Sonny and Flabbergash and Lutine and boots and tights and that's even totally my hallway! AHHHHH!!!!

I do fully acknowledge that this is probably less exciting to everyone else than it is to me, but it's really, really, really exciting to me, so I had to share :-) Thank you so much Katrin!! You are amazing!!

Anserini Patterns now available!

Woohoo! The exclusivity period for Anserini is over and now the patterns are available to one and all, and can be purchased separately or together:

The Hat
The Cowl
The Set

Originally Anserini was part of a kit by Black Trillium Fibres - I believe kits will still be available, though they're out of stock at the moment. (Btw if you're into gradients, you need to check out her kits. Swoon-diddily-swoonswoonswoon.)

Citric- Second Sweet Tooth Pattern!

It's been two weeks, and here's the second installment in the Sweet Tooth mystery ebook! Citric (as in citric acid, the delightful sour food additive) is knit in Malabrigo Worsted Fluo- a delightfully electric shade of lemon. Simple textures with somewhat concentric detailing accent the citrus-y feel. 

The price is now $10 for the series of 4 hat patterns - two more patterns are left to be revealed and the price will inch upwards each time, so if you're feelin' gutsy, grab it now for the best deal! You can find the ebook on Ravelry here. 

Or if you'd rather just have Citric, you can hit this fancy button: 

We've also got a Sweet Tooth KAL going on! 

There are fabulous prizes to be had, and anyone who participates with any of the patterns is eligible (though I'll be coming up with a sizable prize pack for someone who finishes all four hats!) Please do drop by!

Sweet Tooth KAL

I had some requests for a KAL to go with the Sweet Tooth mystery ebook... so we're doin' it! Over in the Dull Roar-ers Ravelry group. There are prizes. Perhaps more prizes later, as the mood takes me. Please do pop in! (And you can join right up until the end date, so if you weren't feeling Dragée and want to wait, that's a-okay.)

Knitflix

I do all my best knitting by the gentle glow of Netflix, so I thought it might be worth rounding up some recommendations. I have several simple rules for my knit-viewing:

1. Must be in a language I am fluent in (so, er, English. *shameface*)
I can knit plain stockinette without looking, but it's much easier to drop a stitch or split plies or otherwise make a silly mistake. Plus, I'm not often knitting only stockinette with no shaping for long periods. So subtitles just aren't going to happen. (Which is a shame, because I used to really enjoy foreign flicks and now I never get to watch 'em.)

2. TV Shows > Movies
If you pick a TV show, especially one with many seasons, you don't have to stop and find something new to watch nearly so often. Which is important when you're knitting several hours a day, and are terribly indecisive about movies, like I am.

3. It can't be too complex, or too visual
You want something dialogue-heavy with relatively little action-that-you-actually-have-to-watch. You want to be able to keep track of the plot without actually seeing every detail that happens on screen. This manifests in obvious ways (action flicks aren't great) but also less obvious ones- while I did watch Sherlock while knitting, their reliance on text messages was a pain in the ass and I did a lot of rewinding. Pretty Little Liars had the same issue, except that the characters frequently read the text messages out loud, so that helps. Knitting is a great excuse to watch guilty-pleasure tv, because you need your brainpower for things other than following the plot.

4. It must be available on Netflix Streaming
.... 'cause we cancelled our DVD plan and I ain't paying for Hulu as long as they insist on making you watch the same ad 10,000 times even though you are a PAID MEMBER, DAMMIT.

Without further ado, a few of my recent picks:

Once Upon a Time
Kind of low budget and the acting isn't great but somehow it's still SO GOOD. Basically, fairy tale characters in exile in Maine. Beloved Disney characters doing untoward things. Evil Queens being sasstastic.


Parks and Rec
This show is just objectively good. It's funny, it's adorable, it's feminist-friendly, and has the perfect balance of curmudgeonly characters and lovable idiots.



New Girl
Aww I know everyone kinda hates Zooey Deschanel a little but this show was kind of cute.


Don't Trust the B-- in Apt 23
This show is seriously underrated. It probably got cancelled because it has the WORST NAME EVER. But it features Krysten Ritter being amazing and James Van Der Beek as (an alternate version of) himself. If you watched Dawson's Creek as a kid it'll probably make you really happy.




Desperate Housewives
Okay fine it's not the BEST show, but it's addicting and it's like a million seasons long. It will entertain without distracting you for many, many hours.


My Name is Earl
Another underrated, cancelled-too-early gem. When this was on the air I assumed it was something dumb and trashy but it's actually pretty fantastic. Plus Joy Turner is pretty much my favorite tv character ever.

Also here's a song about eating crabs:

Respect The Meat from Livia Gondim on Vimeo.



Bridalplasty
However, if you ARE interested in dumb and trashy, I have for you the reality show to end all reality shows. Brides competing for plastic surgery! I'm actually not 100% convinced that this show wasn't designed to be a parody of other reality shows... it's just so unreal, and oddly engaging.


Skins
Do you like shows about fucked up teenagers who have way more dramatic lives than you do or probably ever did? Are you into sex, drugs, violence, and the folly of youth? Would you prefer it all with a side of Britishness? Step into my office.


I'm kinda getting all sentimental and feeling like rewatching them all now, man. There are, of course, many many more. I'm trying to avoid the obvious hits (OitNB, Whedon stuff, etc... Parks and Rec was pretty obvious but oh well) and the amazing-but-slightly-too-action-packed-or-complex-to-be-ideal (American Horror Story comes to mind) but I'm sure I can dredge up enough for a second installment.

How 'bout you guys? Any knit-able shows that I should definitely not miss?

Introducing Sweet Tooth, a Progressive Ebook

I am trying a little experiment - a "mystery ebook," you could call it.

I have in my (metaphorical) hands four knitting patterns- each a cheery-colored hat knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, each knit up on size US 8 needles. Some feature simple cables, others merely textures. Some are one-color, some are more (but there is no stranding.) One requires the use of charts, the rest do not.

Today, I release the first pattern (more on that in a minute). Two weeks from now, the second. Two weeks later, the third. And so on.

Each pattern can be purchased individually, of course. But if you choose to take the gamble and buy the ebook before the rest of the collection is released, you'll get a discount proportionate to the amount of risk you're taking. The price will go up each time a pattern is added, until all four patterns are released and it reaches its final price.

Like to live dangerously? Buy the ebook today and you'll get all four patterns for just $8. Rather wait and be sure? That's fine too, the ebook will still be a good deal even after it's all over.

The first pattern is Dragée:

Dragée features large (but simple) cables on heavily textured background (there's just something so delightfully... chewy, about seed stitch. Does that word make sense? Not rustic, exactly. Just...chewy. Maybe I'm just associating seeds with granola, haha.) The colors remind me of Jordan Almonds, hence the name (which is pronounced like this, btw- I had to look it up, heh. Been saying "Draggie" on my head for years.) 

You can find Dragée on Ravelry here (or buy now), and if you're ready to take the plunge and snap up the Sweet Tooth ebook at the lowest price it'll ever be, you can do that here!

ImagiKnit Trunk Show

If you're in the San Francisco area (luckyyyy), you can peruse a herd of Dull Roar samples over at ImagiKnit until the 15th!

Please tell 'em I said hi ;-)