Sheepish is on iTunes! WOOT!

I just got the email from iTunes that Sheepish has been approved to be on iTunes! Hooray! The first episode should be up in a few hours, but I won’t be able to be searched for a couple of days. I’m okay with that.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen the little rant I had about blip.tv last week. Apparently, blip doesn’t consider this a “series”, but won’t elaborate why. No problem. I ranted about it on Twitter and a friend pointed me to Podbean. They will do exactly what I want them to do: host the podcast, provide an embedding code so I can post the video here, and provide a feed for iTunes to pick up. Unfortunately, my file sizes are too large for their free account, but by giving them a little money (less than $50 a year), I can host and archive on there. I think I’ll still upload to my YouTube channel for a little while, just as a backup, but eventually, I’ll just host on Podbean and iTunes.

If you live in the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, please stay safe, even though the worst is behind us. I’m actually working from home today due to the storm and will have a crazy day tomorrow to catch up on phone calls. Luckily, I didn’t lose power, but my heart goes out to all those who did and are in much worse situations than here.

That being said, I won’t get a chance to record until this weekend – possibly when I’m up in PA, but more likely when I get back on Sunday. (This just gives me more time to finish my socks… we’ll see if I get to the sleeves on the sweater, lol.)

I hate it when things go pear-shaped

Unless you watched the podcast sometime today, this might not look familiar… and even if you did, you might not be able to see what went wrong.

I was on a webinar tonight at work and was knitting happily on the body of my Owls sweater and was getting to the last set of decreases when I realized the math wasn’t going to work. Ummmm… I re-read the pattern and realized that I had only been doing two decreases on the back instead of four. Damn. I tried dropping down and seeing what would happen, but that didn’t work, obviously. The stitches were way too loose in that area.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to rip back, so I spent the last half hour of the webinar ripping back and getting the stitches back on the huge US10.5 needles. It’s back on the needles and happy again – with the correct number of decreases in the one decrease row so far. That’s what I get about being cocky about knitting a sweater in a bulky weight yarn. I am confident, however, that I’ll be at least on the sleeve by the next time I record. (Setting expectations low, heh.)

About recording, I still haven’t decided when I’m going to record next week. I’m headed up to PA in the second half of the week to spend some time with a friend and see a concert. Wednesday will probably work best, but if I’m too busy running around getting things done, I might try to record up there. If not, I’ll record on Sunday when I get home. Either way, I’ll tweet and plurk about it before I record.

Okay, procrastination time over. Must get back to work and knit up what I ripped out. 🙂

 

Episode 1: Wait, How Do I Do This?

Wow, this ended up being a much longer episode than I had expected, but that could be due to the stash enhancement… Next week should be MUCH shorter. Thanks for watching!

On the Needles/Current Roster   (I haven’t decided just what to call it yet…)

• Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder. Knit out of Another Crafty Girl‘s Strong Sock yarn in the Mel colorway (from Flight of the Conchords). If you don’t know Sarah’s yarns, you need to take a look! They are gorgeous. I am using US1.5 (2.5mm) Signature 6″ DPNs with the Stiletto tips. This pattern is a wonderful mindless knit – without getting boring!
• Owls by Kate Davies. Knit out of Plucky Knitter Bulky in the Narraganset Grey colorway (which is more of a blue, really). I am using US10.5 Addi Turbo needles and adding length to the pattern. I forgot to say this, but I am a bad knitter and am not alternating skeins. Bad knitter, no cookie.

Finished Objects/Alumni Roster

• La Vie de Bois by Heather Kinne (of Highland Handmades and The Fiberista Files fame). Knit out of Ellen’s Half Pint Farm Merino Tencel sock. Used US1.5 (2.5mm) circulars. This is the first toe-up pattern where the gusset heel actually makes sense! Heather wrote a great pattern, easy to follow and to wear. The yarn, I was not thrilled with. While beautiful, it was a pain to knit with and has already started felting after only a couple wears. 😦

What’s New to the Queue/Scouting Roster

• Nothing new this week – I really need to get the Ravelry queue under control.

To the UFO Bin/Sent Back to the Minors

• Arm Candy by Amy Herzog. Knit out of Miss Babs Yowza! Whatta Skein! in the Teal colorway (no clue what the actual name is). I don’t know what my mental block is with this yarn, but there is one… Must break through the mental block.

What’s New to the Stash/Just Signed 

I visited Windy Knitty in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood at the beginning of the month… Oh my, a gorgeous shop and lots of stash enhancing went on there. My bank account was crying when I left. Always the sign of a good yarn expedition. 🙂

• Signature 6″ DPNs with stiletto tips. Oh so pointy, but really nice in the hands. I like them more than the circs… but that may mean I just need to give the circs another try. Love these!
• Madeline Tosh Tosh Sock in the Seawash colorway and the Tosh Merino Light in the Grenadine colorway.
• Fleur de Fiber’s Atlantis Silk in the I Didn’t Wear White colorway. Love, love, love!
• Three Irish Girls’ Glenhaven Cashmerino Fingering in the Irish Sea colorway.
• Interweave Knits’ Holiday Knits magazine. (Retails for $14.99 – available in print and online. I’ve linked to the digital download.)
• Slipped Stitch Studios pattern holder.
• Stitch markers. (Sorry, I don’t know which ones they are… they’re just really pretty!)

Book and Magazine Review/Scouting Report 

• Nothing this week, there should be something next week, though!

What’s Making Me Happy 

• I got a promotion! Woot!!
• MadTosh Magnolia Society Sweater Club
• Gap’s return policy. Thank goodness I can return online merchandise in the stores with so little hassle!
• Starbucks hot chocolate. Om nom nom. Just a few more weeks ’til Gingercrack, though! 😉

What’s NOT Making Me Happy 

• The NHL. *sigh* I love me some hockey and it’s looking like we’re not going to get a full season. Makes me a sad panda.

Let me know what you think! Email me at sheepishpodcast AT gmail DOT com; my Twitter handle is @sheepishpodcast; my Plurk handle is sheepishpodcast (though I have no clue how to use it); and I can be reached on Ravelry as knitgirl.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Sheepish Podcast! This will be a podcast about knitting (naturally), but I’m also going to talk about life – what’s making me happy and what’s not (which, right now is the NHL). I will try to podcast each week, as long as life allows it and, if I can convince/bribe my friends, I hope to occasionally have guest-hosts. Who wants to join me??

Every podcast seems to have a theme of how things will go, so this one will be no different… for now. 🙂 Each week I’ll cover:

• What’s on my needles (just what I’m currently working on)
• Finished objects!
• What’s new to the queue
• What’s been sent to the bin
• What’s new to the stash
• What’s making me happy this week.

Sounds simple, no? 🙂 Let’s see how it goes. Once I record, I’ll need to upload the video to somewhere – blip.tv seems to be the site of choice for most bloggers, but their “application” to produce seems a little too much. Eventually, I want to get the podcast on iTunes, but first things first. I’ll probably use blip or Vimeo to host for awhile and use that to feed iTunes. (Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with either?) Perhaps I’ll upload to YouTube as well, but that I’m a little iffy about. We’ll see. I’ll embed the video here and include show notes for each week as well, in case you want to get your hands on what I’m knitting/buying/making me happy.

I can’t wait to hear feedback! I can be reached via email as sheepishpodcast AT gmail DOT com, via Ravelry as knitgirl, via Twitter as sheepishpodcast, and via Plurk as sheepishpodcast. (I’m still not sure how to use Plurk yet and if it’s a better option than Twitter, but I’m trying it out.)