Announcements

A week ago, a colleague and I went on a business trip that lasted from Monday to Friday, and I've just been getting back on a routine from that.  We are converting to a new general ledger at the office, and it's been a bumpy ride.  Both of us in our little accounting department are going home worn out at the end of each day.  I joked about this; borrowing freely from the Red Green show, my pledge is, "I am old, but I can learn...if I have to." 

The little bit of knitting I managed to do on my business trip was in the hotel room on my LK150.  I used the machine a little bit to play with cable ideas. 

It's quite portable, especially if you purchase a gun case!  I bring a tote, too, with tools, yarn, and a roll of anti-slip shelf liner, which makes clamps unnecessary.  By the time my friend snapped this picture, my practice yarn had been knitted and unraveled for reuse.  (Did you know you can make perfectly wound center-pull balls using a stick, if you're traveling without a yarn winder?  I used a disposable salt shaker to rewind my yarn.) 

Here's a silly picture of it posed with my co-worker's Beanie Baby bears, Fuzzy and Groovy. 

I should have time to blog a little more now.

Here are a few general announcements:

1.  I'm proud of the new book, which was well-received at the last seminar.  Wouldn't you like a book filled with tidbits picked up over my 35 years of machine knitting?  Part of the delay was figuring out how we're going to do the shipping.  We have to send it Media Mail or Priority Mail in the United States, and we had to raise the postage internationally (again).  It's 109 pages, has no DVD, and it weighs too much for First Class mail.  Media Mail seems to add 2 or 3 days to delivery time.  I actually investigated other formats, like Kindle, but decided that the very best product to own and use as an MKer is the big, lie-flat spiral bound format. 

2.  The upcoming YouTube video demonstrates a good-looking contrasting color cable you can use to join sections of knitting.  I also have a couple of videos ready to go for future months, so maybe I can make my goal of getting one new technique video up each month in 2013! 

4.  I had the very disconcerting realization, after all these years of blogging, that some of my blog feeds had a signature with an incorrect email address, which was terribly frustrating and annoying to people.  Sorry!  It's fixed now. 

5. Need to reach me?  Simply click on the envelope icon down on the left-hand side of this page.  Asking questions at YouTube, in the comments, or in other Web places doesn't work nearly so well.  If I happen to see the question and answer it, how will you see the response?  I do try to answer email questions.  If I can figure out a fairly helpful answer, I'll give that, and if I don't know an answer, I'll say so.

6.  John and I are currently preparing for the Ohio seminar.  Last time I checked, they still had some spaces, and I seldom see such a great seminar value, especially if you live close enough to drive.  It's a one-day, and you wouldn't even need a hotel room.  We're going to have video and sound systems, a fun freebie, and good handouts.  I will have to talk very fast, though, to try to get in everything on the agenda!  We're packing up merchandise and goodies to mail ahead.  Lucky me, Cathy and Larry Reaume (who put on the wonderful, annual Monroe seminar in Michigan) are helping me at the seminar!  Come, say hi to them, take in a full day of demonstrations, and I promise to send you home itching to knit. 

7.  A note for commenters:  I love getting comments, but have to delete comments with links of any kind!  If you want to comment, please don't include a link, even a safe one.  I get lots of comments that contain very suspicious links, and if my readers click on them, they'll have problems with spam at best and viruses at worst.  I can't test links for fear of ruining my own computer.  Please clean links and email addresses out of your comments.