What timing! Amy tagged me in this meme.

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?
I love so many types of yarn!

It’s probably my age showing, but I’ve come to believe it makes sense to work with good quality yet reasonably priced yarns. These tend to be in the mid-price range– not el cheapo, but also not the most expensive stuff in the store.

I’m really liking the Plymouth Galway I’m using now. It’s smooth, elastic and cables stand out well. For machine knitting, I love JaggerSpun coned yarns, but they are finer gauge than I would generally use for hand knitting.

Your favourite needles?
Denise circulars, hands down.

The worst thing you’ve ever knit or crocheted?
Your most favourite knit or crochet pattern? (maybe you don’t like wearing it…but it was the most fun to knit)
I’ll show pictures of both and let my clever readers guess the answers to both questions!

I once created a crocheted top following a pattern from a periodical I bought in France; I dug it out of storage to show you.

I also once knit a multicolor intarsia drop sleeve pullover and lovingly bestowed it on the person who requested it.

Most valuable knitting technique?
Short rows. You can use them to create sock heels, bustline darts, shape curved hems, ponchos, and whole sweaters!

I’ll admit, I don’t expect this to become everyone’s favorite technique, but I love looking at strangely shaped small items and figuring out how to work it with short rows. My most recent short row items are my pumpkin and the rat toys.

Best knit book or magazine?
There are so many good books and magazined, both new and old. Having recently remenisced about the wonders of the ’80s, I almost hate to say this, but I guess I might as well mention one other bloggers aren’t going to remember: Mon Tricot.

One of my favorite “books” is a worn out, coverless copy of a Mon Tricot’s booklet; unfortunately, the title is lost. This book illustrates most techniques is pictures. That’s where I got the idea!

(My excuse for pretentiously naming is foreign language periodical is that I was exchange student when I took up knitting seriously. So, that’s what I own.)

Your favourite knit-a-long?
I’ve discovered I’m incompetent at knit-a-longs. I like reading them, and I’m following the Josephine’s Knit-a-Long right now.

Your favourite knitblogs?
I like lots and lots and lots of blogs for tons of reasons. So, I’m going to highlight some of the lesser known blogs.

Many people skip over the machine knitting blogs, but you really shouldn’t. There are great things, and ideas over there. I love Sonja’s Fusion Knitting because she does such beautiful work combining hand knitting, and machine knitting.

From time to time, I sneak over to Croatia, where I find Sandra’s “Stay at Home Knitter”. I never know what I’ll find. Once she knit a spaghetti dinner!

I also like to visit local friends blogs. Knitter Gail lives not five miles from me. She younger than I am, tends to knit more fashionable projects, buys the newer magazines and often reviews them. And she’s funny too.

Your favourite knitwear designer?
Christine of Knitting for Boozehags.

Christine has a talent for creating garments that are fairly easy to knit, can be knit in a wide range of yarns, and flatter many figure types. (Note: Christine recently switched blogging platforms and is setting up a full site at the new address. For the time being, you’ll find some of her designs at her former blog.)

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)
A machine knit poncho, which is shaped using. . . short rows! (See photo at the top.)

I knit this just before taking an overseas vacation. I really enjoyed wearing it during the flight; unlike a blanket, it didn’t shift. I didn’t think I’d wear it much afterwards, but the fact is, I work at home. It’s comfy; and I’d rather answer the door wearing that than my bathrobe!

Now, as Amy said, for the fun part… Tagging!

I’ll tag bloggers I haven’t mentioned: Nona, Billi-Jean, ccrfuzzy and Jen.

As regular readers know, I proposed a “Blog Carnival”. Naturally, a reader emailed asking what the heck is a Carnival?

Reading that, I remembered that the word “blog” itself was unfamilar to readers in 2004. So, it is hardly surprising that the concent of a “Blog Carnival” is also new. “Better explain that”, thought I!

Ok, so I patiently explained that it’s sort of a method of “running a simultaneous meme.”

My answer was so immensely clear that a curious reader emailed to ask this:

“..for those of us who don’t really understand even the basics of carnival, what is a “blog meme”?

(I find myself asking myself: It is possible to describe one “blog thing” without describing another equally mysterious “blog thing”? Well, lucky for me she didn’t ask me how to pronounce ‘meme’, because I don’t know!)

Ok… here’s my attempt to answer “What is a meme?”

First, the term “meme” is short for “me, me, me, me”. It captures the concept of “me too”.

Because speakers of English like to create new words, blogs are fairly new, and bloggers often decided to write “me too” responses commenting on other people’s articles, bloggers coined a new word.

This new word is “meme”.

It describes a blog topic every blogger jumps on after reading another blog article. It is as though, bloggers are collectively saying, “She had her say. Now listen to ‘me, me, me, me, me’!!!!”

So, for example, if “Michelle Malkin” (currently the #1 blogger as rated by The Truth Laid Bear), writes an article on “fish sticks” today, tomorrow, we might read 1000 bloggers all writing about fish sticks.

That’s the type of memes often seen on political blogs.

We also sometimes see this type of meme at knitting blogs, but it doesn’t spread quite so rampantly. Although Wendy and Carrie are widely read, and bloggers are influenced by their articles, other knit bloggers do not necessarily decide to write about “fish sticks” simply because Wendy or Carrie do so.

Knitting blogs do memes a bit differently. What happens with knit blogs is this:

Someone creates a subject, and writes a blog article. When they finish writing, they “tag” three other bloggers and ask them to write blog about that subject. Often, at least one of those blogger writes on the subject and tags others.

This is called a “meme” because each blogger is providing their opinion, or spin, on the same exact subject.

Now, in a normal “meme” situation, the topic gets discussed serially. Blogger A discusses, then a few more bloggers, then other bloggers. You can all read my entry for “The Days Of Our Lives Meme”. Jussi tagged me. I took her up, but I tagged no one. (This was because every blog I read at the time had already been tagged!)

But, let’s get back to the whole Carnival issue. In a blog a Carnival, Blogger A suggests at topic and invites any and all bloggers to pretty much give their spin on the topic at the same time. If loads of people participate, this means we can all read everyone ideas at nearly the same time.

As a general rule, this can be both more entertaining, and informative. Each blogger gives their spin without reading anyone else’s idea first. A Carnival is “me too” in the sense that we all discuss the same topic, but no blogger is entirely influenced by someone else’s post.

I don’t think Carnivals will replace the other sort of meme, but they are fun. I’m hoping to run one every other week. If they catch on, that will be great. If, after trying to launch a few, no one is interested, I’ll just bag it.

So, once again, I suggest you participate in the The Carnival Of Knitting.

And why shouldn’t you participate. Let’s face it, you’re a blogger. A blogger needs to blog. So, why not hope to post your opinion and later read other peoples. That’s the fun of a Carnival!

Create your custom slipper pattern.

A few people emailed to tell me the pop-up window for my slipper pattern wasn't popping up.

I couldn't figure out why it doesn't pop-up, but I have found pop-ups are stubborn. So, I edited the program eliminating the pop-up feature, and I'm posting it here. I hope this works for people here. Good luck!

If you have questions, enter them in comments and / or problems. The problem might be you-- but it might be my program. Questions help me figure out what I did wrong; so ask in comments. That's the great thing about the blog.