You can still hear it online on demand at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radiowales . Just go to Listen Live or Listen Online on the page, click one of those links and then scroll down until you find Wales in Stitches. It should hopefully remain there until Wed 21st March.
Just a reminder again that the programme is available via streaming Real Media, not as a podcast, so you'll need Real Player to hear it.
This has been a knackering and stressful week for me. I finally finished my radio programme on Wednesday. I expected to feel relief at finishing it and instead became quite ill. I think it was perhaps just the tension of the week really. I'm a lot better now thank goodness.
"Wales in Stitches" is being broadcast tomorrow, Sunday March 11th, at 12pm GMT. It'll be repeated at 9.30pm on Wednesday March 14th. It features interviews from a hen party in a yarn store, artist Kelly Jenkins, hand dyer Jeni Brown and fellow podcaster Brenda Dayne.
It won't be available as a podcast but you can listen live via Real Player www.bbc.co.uk/radiowales
At the moment it looks like KnitCast will be returning in April.
I'm hoping to get back to my knitting very soon! I recently decided to have a break from the Noro cardi and picked up my Kyoto top down cardi instead. I'm now down to the garter edging on one sleeve and once that's done I'll move to the other sleeve. And by then it'll be too damn warm to wear it!
In lieu of a knitting pic here's one of my new mac!
Polka Dot mac from Marks and Spencer
Thanks for all the lovely comments about Jake. I really appreciate them.
Well I've done a bit of travelling since I last blogged. I went to London from Friday 9th until the 11th and stayed with my aunt. Managed a visit to the V&A and looked at some of the fashion exhibits. I avoided the Kylie one. I could have booked tickets in advance but I just didn't really fancy it.
I also saw Patrick Stewart in Anthony and Cleopatra with my friends Sarah and Andy and Sarah's sister Rachel. And met up with my old uni friend Mel, she of the fabulous yarn gifts from Tokyo. I became a bit ill during the second act of the play and managed to faint in my seat. I'm ok now though, I think it was a combination of flu lurgy from the previous week and the temperature in the theatre.
On Wednesday I went to Stratford for Valentine's Day with the bf which was only slightly marred by discovering peas at the bottom of my lasagne at an Italian restaurant. I'm sure it's a traditional thing in some parts of Italy but for someone who dislikes peas as much as I do it was a bit of a shock! The desert in the form of a deceptively small yet very filling lemon tart - it nearly killed me! - made up for it though.
In fact the lemon tart got me thinking about making one sometime. Although I enjoy cooking I had over the years got into the very lazy habit of just letting Andy cook everything, so now that I'm living on my own I'm of course cooking again. I've had some experiments with soups - one butternut squash soup was just too sweet so I won't be making that again. A mushroom soup, and they can be so bland sometimes, was much more successful. In fact, dare I say it of my own cooking, but it was the best I'd ever tasted.
I used a variation of this recipe but I left out the rosemary, sage and shitake mushrooms. I used 250g of brown cap mushrooms, sliced them very thinly and simmered them for about an hour. I also used Emlea not cream and Marigold stock. The most time consuming part of it was slicing the mushrooms but it was worth it. I ended up with two small portions so next time I'll have to bite the bullet and use 1kg of mushrooms and make a big pot of it to freeze.
But I digress...back to the lemon tart. I have yet to google for recipes but I do like lemon tart. It's very fresh after a main course and can be quite light. I haven't baked or made any kind of desert since I moved so I have to do that soon. Although I may wait until I've freed up some space in my already packed freezer. That's the problem with cooking in large batches, you end up with a full freezer!
But where's the yarn and the knitting I hear you say? Well I'm still knitting away on the back of the Noro Kureyon cardi. I hope to finish the back this weekend since I've already started the left front as travelling knitting.
I've been very good and haven't bought any yarn since San Francisco last September but I've had severe yarn purchase cravings recently despite the fact that I don't need any! I also really want to cast on for a sock even though I have so many other things to finish! Let's see I still haven't finished my Art Fibers Kyoto cardi or a Noro Silk Garden cardi. Both are really close to completion too. I just can't seem to get the urge to look at them. Even the Kyoto one which is gorgeous. Perhaps I need to try and work on it for a little each day or something. Yeah like that'll happen!
As some of you may be aware I have four cats. One Pushkin, lives with me and the other three Sabre, Jake and Tiger live with my ex Andy. Andy and I first met Jake and his uncle Harvey twelve years ago when they were both kittens. They were part British Blue, Harvey was the most blue looking and had delicate stripes within his coat, Jake was mostly white with some blue. Harvey died when he was two and I remember Jake morned him for a long time.
Sadly Jake passed away a couple of days ago. He'd gone out and didn't return and last night someone contacted Andy to say that they'd found his body in their garden.
I've had a lot of cats over the years and it never gets easier when you lose one. It's such a shame that they don't live as long as we do and yet they enrich our lives so much. Jake was a real star of a cat, Andy and I used to joke about sending him out to earn his keep by making adverts. He never failed to enchant all who met him. Even those who didn't like cats were won over by him! He'll be remembered very well.
Well since it's nearly the end of January I thought it was high time that I posted! I've also had a couple of "are you ok?" type emails, so I want to assure everyone that yes I'm fine and everything's well. I'm very busy putting together my BBC radio programme on knitting, that'll be broadcast in mid March. So for the moment that's my priority over KnitCast - sorry guys.
I'm also busy househunting - I rent at the moment but am looking to buy my second house. I'm having to work overtime to stop myself from thinking about future decorating plans. Best to leave those until I have an actual home to decorate again!
But in the midst of all the programme making, house stuff and my day job I'm still knitting. I cast on for this on Xmas day
Sorry about the poor photo quality - it was taken on my phone in very bad light, but I wanted to prove that I have been knitting! I used some small candles to hold the fabric down.
That's the back of "Lizzy" from Jane Ellison's "Naturally Noro" it's knit in Noro Kureyon 153 which is a mix of purples, greens with an odd bit of peach and brown in there too. But who can understand the Noro colour choosers! And ummmm four stitches of it were knit by my boyfriend...:)
I saw these Mary Jane style knitted slippers on the Victoria's Secret website. They wouldn't be that hard to knit would they? To me it looks like, and remember I knit toe-up socks, knit to heel and then cast off. Pick up stitches for the strap and knit until it's long enough to fasten comfortably and make a simple button hole.
Hmmm I really fancy making some of those right now but I have to brave the city centre for Xmas shopping. :(
But when I do get a chance to knit them, and I'm thinking possibly worsted weight yarn or a little heavier I will post the pattern. They'll be for tiny feet though, I'm a UK size 4 which is a US 6.5 and European 37. But I think you could adapt any sock pattern for them.
Well I'm still busy with unpacking and yet still have more to pack at my old house. In fact I've been so busy that I actually forgot that there was a four part series called "How to Knit a Poem" presented by the National Poet of Wales Gwyneth Lewis starting today. (Big Thanks to Heather for reminding me!) In fact it's starting in less than an hours time on BBC Radio 4. Oh and I'm interviewed in the first one I think....:)
You should be able to listen online here
In the meantime thanks to everyone who's left a comment here. I really appreciate it and will try and write back when I can.
So I have today and tomorrow off but have I any time to just doss around and do nothing? Of course not! Back to the grindstone...
Oh and new rented house is smaller but I have a huge room for all my yarn!
I don't like to get too personal in my blog but I'm aware that people have been wondering where I've been and when the next edition of Knitcast is coming out etc.
This year I sort of went into hibenation for a while, I was going through some problems with my relationship and I spent a lot of time trying to hide from those problems thinking they'd just solve themselves. Well they didn't just solve themselves and I've had to admit that my relationship has just come to a natural end. Andy and I are very amicable about the split but it's still a big deal. Fourteen years is a long time. I'm moving out in about a week and half, I'll be renting a small house and Pushkin will be coming with me. It'll be a bit strange at first but I'm looking forward to having my own place.
Unpacking will take a lot of time so things will be quiet I think on the blog front and certainly on the podcasting front, for a while. I have a lot to pack, especially the yarn! I'm trying not to think about all that yarn...but my new yarnroom will be twice the size of the old one!
So apologies all for my silence and know that I'm ok. I'm also still knitting! have a pair of Trekking socks in a fab purple nearly finished and a sleeve and a bit left on my Art Fibers Kyoto cardi. Let's hope I don't misplace them in the move.
Well we've just got back to the hotel and are having a little rest. And as you can tell from the titel of this post - I got yarn! :)
Yes my first visit was to ImagiKnit in the Castro area of the city. Now I remember when it only occupied one storefront, now it covers two, it's big! If you haven't been there before it's well worth going. They have everything from novelty yarns to worsted weight wool for felting. Plus patterns, knitting bags etc.
So it was tough looking in there and deciding what to get, in the end I bought six skeins of Cascade 220 - four in a royal blue and two of the quatro in a blue/green mix. I'm not sure if I'll be mixing the two really. I always try and buy enough yarn for a sweater especially with worsted but then well it's nice to have basics like that in the stash. Let's see I also picked up KnitScene, new Vogue Knit1 and a fab dragonfly shaw pin. I saw it and decided to ask how much it was and was prepared to hear that it was very expensive but it turned out to be just under $19! A snip!
Then to Art Fibers where I spent ages picking out a surprise for Jeni, so long that I think I changed the colourway twice! I also got some Kyoto for me in a purple shade, plus one balls of a handpainted silk in red and black and two balls of a lace weight silk and wool that will apparently make a sweater. Now of course i'll probably get really bored less than halfway through making that but what the hell, I may pick it up again in say five years and finish it! :)
Off now for dinner in Chinatown!
I'm not a fan of time differences. I know we need them but I always have difficulties adjusting to them. For example, San Francisco is eight hours behind Cardiff, which is why it's 2.55am here and I'm awake. Meanwhile back at home it's 10.55am.
But it's a good time to blog as any. I was going to blog when we came in from the cinema but I was too tired. Too tired even to knit! Yesterday was our second full day in SF and also Andy's 42nd birthday. I was going to buy him one of the new iPod shuffles but we hadn't realised that they won't be out for a month. So after a failed visit to the Apple Store we went and paid pilgrimage to Andy's favourite place here, Amoeba Records in the Haight. Andy looks for CDs there while I always go straight to the DVD section.
I picked up season one of Project Runway after Rachael's suggestion as well as the seond season of Lost. Now we do have PR in the UK but we have our own version presented first by Elizabeth Hurley with the new one apparently to be presented by Kelly Osbourne. In fact I'm not entirely sure which channel, if any, shows the American version. But anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing it from the construction point of view.
After that we went to see "Hollywoodland" at the cinema where basically every one acted Ben Afleck off the screen. It was an interesting movie though and better than the mixed reviews we'd read about it.
Now a few blocks from the amc cinema is the Village Pizza and we always go there either before or after seeing a film. I had lasanga which was good and Andy wisely only had two slices of pizza - we've had too much pizza issues there before!
And then back to the hotel where I tred to watch Bones and then fell asleep during Justice. All those American shows and no energy to watch them! :)
So today, well later today, it'll be time to hit the yarn stores. I tend to always visit Art Fibers and ImagiKnit and I have an idea of what I might get but it's still fairly open. I'm also picking up a surprise for Jeni, I have something in mind Jen and hope you like it!
Ok, I'm starting to wind down again so time to sign off.
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