Wow, a lot has happened since I last wrote in this space. And it all has to do with the magic man on the cover.
That magic man, if you haven't recognized him already, is Neil Gaiman. The man who wrote Coraline, Stardust, Neverwhere, American Gods and many, many other wonderful, transformative books as well as the legendary Sandman graphic novel series. He's been the author of my heart ever since I let him read Stardust to me in bed, night after night, in 2008 (okay, it was an Audiobook).
Wait, back up. How did an author who has nothing to do with knitting end up on the cover of a knitting magazine?
Last summer, I finally got face-to-face time with author Joan of Dark at the knitting trade show in Indianapolis. (She runs a coffeeshop there. You should go.) We talked about her upcoming knitting book and made vague promises to do something together. I had a similar Twitter conversation with photographer Kyle Cassidy, who shoots outstanding pictures of Neil and his wife Amanda Palmer, among many others. This conversation also ended with, "We should do something together."
Earlier this year, I was really pleased when Joan offered me the chance to feature one of the patterns from the new book in our First Fall issue. Coincidentally photographed by Kyle Cassidy. Paging through Geek Knits, I couldn't help but stop dead at our cover picture. Because that's one handsome man there, wearing a simple-but-gorgeous scarf. It was clearly the most perfect cover shot. Kyle had outdone himself. And so it was decided.
Because we're Knitty, we couldn't just leave it at that. We let Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts have a sneak peek at the pattern and she was instantly inspired to design a brand-new Raven colorway that was all Gaiman, all the time. It's called "Say Nevermore" (quotes included, and yes, that's an American Gods reference), and by the time you read this, you'll be able to grab it at the Blue Moon webshop on Tina's delicious Gaea worsted base. Take a peek at the pattern page to see how it knits up, and how Tina's genius resulted in a new Raven colorway that's almost not black but not not black, either.
There's more to this story. Because Neil Gaiman has 2.2 million Twitter followers, I knew our server needed some work to get it ready for the potential onslaught. We all know how truly sucky the server is on a usual launch day. Can you imagine how it would explode and then melt with even a fraction of that kind of traffic? We needed a System Administrator.
What we got, in fact, was a System Admensch.
mensch noun /mɛnʃ/ : a person of integrity and honor
SysAdmensch noun /sɪsˈadmɛnʃ/: Someone who dedicates himself wholeheartedly to a difficult task well beyond the compensation he receives for it and makes technological poetry happen.
Meet Christopher Gernon. He's on the staff page and he puts an end to our history of female-only staff. That's cool with us. If you can read this page, it's because of his tireless efforts since early this year. He has helped us move to a properly configured server with load balancing, people. He has found problems buried in our code that have been contributing to the bottleneck that slows your viewing of Knitty pages on launch days (and beyond!) and fixed them. He discovered a massive bug in our advertising tracking software that was undercounting visits to pages and clicks on ads and solved that too.
I can't begin to tell you what he's done for Knitty since he joined us. He is a gift from wherever exceptional System Administrators (that are also good people) come from, and we are so lucky to have him. Oh. And he's a knitter, too. (Many thanks to his lovely wife for sharing him with us. We owe you.)
You can thank Christopher for his work by tweeting him here. Send him love and cookies. He deserves both.
More news! Our beloved Franklin Habit needs some time away. He's a busy man! We miss him already, and look forward to the time when he can return to us. We're keeping his spot warm.
We have a new columnist starting in our Deep Fall issue, and something else really big for Knitty will be happening then, too. Though we may never top this issue's cover.
So -- patterns! Wanna talk patterns? Sure we do! First Fall is about thinking ahead to coolness. Though where I am in Toronto, it's been a delightfully cool spring so far. I'm not complaining. This issue has something for all tastes, from a bundle-up pullover you'll want to start now so it'll be ready for September and lots of lighter sweaters, as well as sweet knittable treats for gifting.
Like to win stuff? Who doesn't? Stay tuned to the knittyBlog where all our contests happen. Watch our Twitter feed just because it's fun and silly, and because if anything spontaneous happens, it gets announced there first! Join in the fun on our Facebook page with 101,000 of your closest knitter friends!
I'm looking for places to teach in 2015 and beyond!
Check out my personal website to see what kind of classes I offer. (Some new dates will be announced soon, but there is room for more!) I love to meet knitters all over the place, and would be thrilled to come to you! Sign up for my mailing list to be the first to know when new teaching dates are announced.
Amy Singer
[editor, Knitty]
photo: Amy
Singer
It's all about the attitude.
Summer! I love summer, not the heat, but the attitude. The world slows down a bit, especially if you have kids in school. Time shifts with the light, staying up a little later and sleeping in a little longer. Spinning and knitting don't stop, but they change. For spinners we have the Tour de Fleece to spin like crazy. Both spinners and knitters have approximately 50,000 summer fleece fairs and fiber shows to choose from, even local farmer's markets are getting into the fiber action selling local fiber and yarn.
For me summer is simultaneously about spinning down and acquiring. I always go through my stash in the summer in time for the Tour, rearrange and pull out what I want to try to spin. On the flip side are those many fairs; I buy fiber tucking it away for the fall and winter.
Knittyspin this issue has a lace shawl, Ridge and Furrow, that shows what beauty can come from not giving up on a fleece that's, shall we say, less than wonderful.
Knittyspin the column shows what happens when I start experimenting with twist direction and knitting style.
Have a splendid spinning summer and leave me some of that fiber at those fairs!
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