Music That Crawls Into Your Bones, The Sounds of Knitting

As promised, a playlist to fuel the sounds of knitting.  If you are looking for rated G playlists, "these are not the songs you are looking for, move along."  They're not full of filth and irreverence, but a few song lyrics might make you turn your head and do a, what now?  For your listening pleasure:

The Sounds of Knitting

The songs are varied and not at all homogeneous.  I have been fortunate in my life to have been exposed to multitudes of different places and people and my lack of roots is probably most reflected in my music choices.  I have moved 12+ times, lived in 8+ cities in 6 states and was weaned on a careful diet of Johnny Cash, the Oakridge Boys, Patsy Cline, John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis, the Big Bopper, etc.  Mom is country and Dad was city but they met in the middle at folk.  So in terms of nature, my love of guttural, gets in your bones and haunts you music is straight up from my parents.  If you've not heard Elvis' In the Ghetto or Simon & Garfunkel's anything, you are not living.  Thanks Mom & Dad!  If I had to pick a knitting publication that fit this mood, I would check out Knitting Traditions or Jane Austen Knits.  Earthy, period work yet somehow still timeless.

Nurture. Nurture.  What about the nurture.  Weeeelll, let's blame my 80s penchant on my birthdate, my 90s grunge on my days emulating Dead Poets Society in the suburbs of Chicago the first half of high school and my Caribbean, reggae vein on my second half of high school in the much more diverse suburbs of Atlanta.  And my love of jazz and blues, the standards, Michael Buble, Sinatra, Jonny Lang, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Nina Simone, well that is just simply taste.  Knitting publications that would rock this music might be Twist Collective, Knitscene, or a pattern from Drops.

You will find a lack of my punk/guitar pulse, also from my Chicago days, which would normally feature the likes of Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Muse, Sex Pistols, The Dead Milkmen, etc. This music I reserve for angry house cleaning, getting ready to head out for a night of revelry, or having the "right" kind of company over, if ya know what I mean *wink wink*.    For rebellious knitting, I recommend, oh, ANYTHING from Anna Zilboorg (she's 83!!), Son of Stitch n Bitch,  Underground Knitwear or my absolute fave for steampunk patterns, Needles and Artifice.

Hopefully this will cushion your mental musings whilst you knit and maybe inspire you to build some playlists of your own for work, play, just general life things.  I would love to hear playlists that are out there, feel free to leave a link to your public playlist in the comments down below. Happy Listening!

New Year, New Me. BS, Knitting Blasphemy and Mobile Apps

Ah, the New Year.  The time for gyms to burgeon with hopefuls, bookstores to see an increase in self help sales, and for the general populace to reboot their good intentions. For those who actually achieve these goals, I applaud you.  My guess is these folks are goal setters, list makers, and achievers in general.  I, however, hold no such self delusions.  I am still the same mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, fumbling through life person I was on December 31st. Bully for me.

If I really want to get some shiz done, for example finishing knitting projects, I don't need to set out all these new things to learn and do, I just need to change HOW I do things currently.  Do the same things, but different, ya ken?

Why do I have so many unfinished knitting projects?  Probably the same reasons anyone does.  I have knitting ADHD and want to feel all the new yarns and get shiny wide eyes at all the pretty pictures that accompany the patterns. I too can look like a Vogue knitting model if I just make what she's wearing, right?  No, Paula, NO.  You will NEVER be 5'10" and weigh 120lbs.  Heck you'll never weigh 120 lbs at your current height unless you get sick, so let's avoid that.  How about quit looking at all the new yarns and patterns, like, just don't start new projects?  Mind blown.

No new projects.  Check.  So, what do you do while you actually knit?  If you're anything like me, you probably put on your fave show, get situated in your cushy chair with a comfort beverage, and click away at the needles.  In my case my fave show is usually binge watching Netflix for when I didn't bother to watch when it was airing live and 1 show turns into like, well, TOO many and then it's like midnight and I'm frogging because I forgot to yo or m1L three rows back during the big chase scene.  Maybe, just MAYBE, I won't need to frog if I'm not half watching something or actually kinda focusing on my work.  BLASPHEMY!  So replace TV with....music in the background?  Hint:   next week's blog might include a knitting playlist.

In addition to half-arse binge watching Netflix, my phone or tablet is always handy because I do digital patterns in an effort to not actually kill my planet.  This leads to email notifications, app notifications and general mayhem and sensory overload.  The only fix I can think of here is to ignore said notifications and actually apply discipline to my attention span.  I do NOT need to go check that email immediately for the Bath & Body Works Clearance sale, I smell just fine!  There are actually some decent knitting apps out there where you can import your pattern, check for yarn gauge, keep inventory of your needles and all sorts of handy gizmos.  Some of my faves, I'm an Android user so if anyone has recommendations for Apple or Windows phones, leave a comment down below and I will add them!

Stash2Go - app for you Ravelers out there:



Knitting Stash - Very simple app for keeping track of needles and hooks, nice little counter feature:


KnittingCalc - Simple app for calculating gauge when doing yarn substitutions, only does calcs but does them right!



So in short, don't start new projects, quit watching tv while I knit, and filter out what I don't need.  Really, if you look at it, it's just filtering period - projects, tv, ignoring emails, etc.  Off I go to get my filter on.......