New Words & Music to Knit By

This week I suffered a tragedy: my trusty (old, very old, and cheap) MP3 player bit the dust. It’s tragic because I absolutely must have something to listen to while I do my day job – I’m currently under-employed as a public library page.

(Note: A library “page” is the lowest form of library life, I put books on the shelves all day long. Some days I take books off the shelf, too. For this I got a master’s degree? Yes. So you can see why I need audio input.)

Anyway, my husband gallantly gave up his iPod <insert sound of celestial choir here> to get me through what would otherwise have been a horrifying week. Wow! It’s a whole new world! Now I’ve finally, belatedly, at long last, discovered podcasts.

I started at the iTunes Store in the Podcast department, and just for grins, entered the word “knit” as a search term. Lo and behold, more than 100 entries! And interestingly, some are identified as “clean” and others “explicit”. Hmmm.

Next day on the job, I listened to Knit-Pick’s “To The Point” podcast (clean), and the Knitters Uncensored podcast (explicit). Enjoyed both, and now understand why a knitting podcast might be labeled explicit!

Knit-Pick’s podcaster, Kelley, is planning to work her way through Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac: a full year of knitting with a different, distinctly “Elizabeth-an” project each month. You can knit along with her, if you like. I have since ordered the book from Amazon as there is not a single copy in the entire Bernalillo County library system, but I’m a little nervous as an Amazon reviewer suggests that these are projects for intermediate to advanced knitters – which I am not … yet.

Knitters Uncensored are three ex-pat pals living in Munich, an American gal, a Canadian gal who only knits scarves in garter stitch, and a guy from Thailand who speaks 7 languages including, he says, Elvish and Esperanto. The ex-pat perspective really interests me after my years living & working in Belize.

While I can’t say that I learned much about knitting, exactly, from Knitters Uncensored, other than a couple of German words for yarn and color, I discovered new music, which is almost as important and sometimes more so.

At the end of their podcast, the uncensored knitters played The Bridesmaid Dress song by Deidre Flint, from her album The Shuffleboard Queens. It’s wonderful! I had to have it! And I can’t wait to hear one of her other songs called “The Boob Fairy”.

Here’s Amazon’s album review, as I’m not feeling especially articulate at the moment:

This Philadelphia singer is in love with language. Verbiage spews out of Deirdre Flint as if she were a caffeine-addled linguist. Unable to resist good fun and the choice pun, Flint trips and traipses through life's little indignities with unabashed zest, addressing everything from cheerleaders to footwear to large bosoms (or the lack thereof). One particularly delightful couplet: "I'm well-bred and you're, well...not." Seven words, seven syllables...devastating. --Steven Stolder

Hurray for new music!

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Website,www.LocalGringos.com
Sandia Park, NM