photo: Lise Beauchesne

Things are taking a turn for the up in many parts of the world, in many aspects of life. And this upness comes at a lovely time.

It's a cool summer in Toronto so far. Is it wrong of me to like cool sunny days? I don't think so...it means more time to wear the knitwear! Not melting in my tiny house [just one window a/c unit for the whole 730 sq ft] puts me in a good mood. I feel up.

Other things, too. And the thing is that I can't really tell you exactly what's up. I can tell you that I've been thinking about these things a lot the last few months, and especially as I put this issue together. Jillian and I have been talking a lot about these things, too. And we'll be talking to yarn companies and knitting product manufacturers and yarn shop owners and publishers about these things at our big tradeshow in Columbus, Ohio, just after this issue goes live.

These things are all good. They're all up stuff. And we'll tell you all about it in fall, promise.

What's with all these snowflakes all over the issue? Is this not summer? Yes, it certainly is. But it's also our first Holiday Headstart issue.

Holiday Headstart projects are little things that you can start knitting now for gifting later in the year. No big afghans that you can't even imagine having on your lap as you work in the heat of summer. No sweaty mohair sweaters. Just little tidbits of awesomeness that you can knit when the thought of working on a larger project holds no appeal to you. At the same time, you'll be getting a jump on your gift knitting.

Holiday Headstart patterns are marked with a snowflake on the main patterns page. Happy holidays!

So many of you have been thrilled with our new printer-friendly pages and we're so glad to hear that! A few of you, however, have had technical problems. So our technical guru went back to the drawing board to find a better way to give printer friendliness to the largest possible number [dare we hope for ALL] of our readers. We'd like to thank our reader-testers who helped us with this project.

The buttons look the same, but what happens when you click them? You'll see it's a little different. The end result is that you should have no trouble printing the pages with or without images, whatever you select.

On my side, I also have made an executive decision to put large charts on their own page as I code the site. This means you'll click a link in the Pattern Notes [it's clearly labelled, of course!] for each chart and then print the resulting page. Each should fit tidily on its own letter-sized page.

What else is up? Well, it's time once again for the Knitty Calendar Contest -- this time for 2010.
2010.
Doesn't that look strange? Anyway, all the information is here.

Don't be shy. Read the rules and all the how-to-win hints. And then enter! It costs nothing and you could win some seriously awesome stuff!

Keep in touch!

Want to know when the new issue goes live, or if there's a new surprise? Sign up for the free Knitty reader list! The list is never shared with anyone and we only send out a few messages a year. We know our internet manners.

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Amy R Singer
[editor, Knitty]

	photo: Amy R Singer Jillian loves her Schacht Matchless

Didja see?

We're having our first Knittyspin contest [look up...it's just above this editorial]!

Spin and design a knitted project using Spunky Eclectic fiber. Entries in by August 15 [full contest details in the yellow box above]; Amy King, Amy Singer & I will be judging and the winning pattern will be published in Knittyspin’s winter issue. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

I’ve always been a fan of Amy King, her fiber, her sense of humor, her ability to get things done without killing her children. Her new book Spin Control: Techniques for Spinning the Yarns You Want (Interweave Press, 2009)
[Excerpted here, reviewed here] really spoke to me and inspired me to do something entirely radical. 

I’m going to start keeping track of my spinning. This summer, well, really, right now, I’m going to start a spinning log book with samples: fiber, finished and unfinished yarn; labels from fiber and project ideas. Amy, in her book, convinced me that keeping track doesn’t have to be an anal-retentive thing of torture, just a spot to keep everything together. And keeping track saves you respinning time, trial and error time.

Spinning has always been a relaxing and organic process for me. Whatever yarn comes, comes. I do not like the 'you must' school of spinning.  But the more I spin the more I can hear that mad scientist laugh in the back of my brain and the thoughts go running off like this: "what would it look like if I cable plied this?" or  "I want to make more yarn exactly like this" or "How would this look spun with a worsted prep?: etc.

I am going to take a relaxed , organic, summertime-and-the-living-is-easy approach to keeping track -- a few samples, a few measurements, a few words. I’ll see if I like it and  I’ll let you know how it goes. If it works, maybe Amy has an idea of how to organize my fiber stash.

If you have an idea for a project or article for Knittyspin write me . If you have fiber, spindles, books, or other spinny products or tools that you'd like us to review, write me for submission information. I love to talk about it all.

Have you seen the Knittyspin shwag? Check out the Knittyspin gear. Show your spinning pride and your love for Knittyspin!

Jillian Moreno
[editor, Knittyspin]