Sorry...Technical Difficulties

I figured out how to list all the old epiosdes in iTunes. In the meantime though, it reposted Episode 1 and it may download again as new. Sorry! Hey, I just realized that it's our 1 year anniversary in 3 days! WOW!!!

Episode #14: We're not worthy - Part 2 (Show Notes)

Download Episode #14: We're not worthy - Part 2

Ms. B could finally pry herself away from her new addiction that is called "Spinning". Yeah, blame me and the Wollmeise who got her into it. :-p

We're carrying on with our conversation with the Wollmeise. It's Wollmeise Striptease Time!!! LOL

Wollmeise tells us about herself. We started off by talking about The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, which she has attended. She doesn't like her photos taken, so we ask everybody to not take photos of her. In fact, she's just afraid that her third-eye will show in the photo. :-p Naaaaaaahhhh..it's the fact that she reckons that photos steal parts of your soul. Her mum doesn't like photos taken either.

The only way out? Take "backside" photos of the Wollmeise! And we promptly veered off to talk about the Rubber Ducky Crafters Group on Ravelry. Wollmeise is very against this.

Cashyie presented the Wollmeise with some "Red Hot" Lollies. She also asked Wollmeise, which lolly would she be if she were one? The answer: The old version of the green Gummibärchen, which is Waldmeister or Woodruff in English (you can also check out the Wollmeise's Woodruff Sorbet Recipe!).

• We found out who taught the Wollmeise to knit. How her mum sewed her clothes for her....which she of course didn't appreciate. Her mum even put creases on her jeans! Wollmeise used to wear wooden clogs...and no-one wanted to dance with her, so she had to take the "left-over".
• We also found out about Wollmeise's Husband, Rohrspatz! They met in a public swimming pool...well, Rohrspatz stole her sandwiches! I'm not going to tell you the whole story here...so you need to listen to the podcast! ;-)
• Find out how the Wollmeise came about dyeing yarns!
• Wollmeise used to spin. She crocheted some window blinds. She also reveals the fact that she's a learnt dressmaker!
• We then talked about Dirndl, Landhausmode and Trachten....and do you know what "Balcony" is? :-p
• Find out how Wollmeise feels about her popularity.
  
• Wollmeise also knits stuff out of other yarns. She tries out stuff from other dyers. And Cashyie promptly promotes Hobbledehoy yarn.
• Differences between German knitters and knitters of other countries.
• We also find out about some of the Wollmeise colourway names! E.g. Poison No. 5 was inspired by the movie Love Potion No. 9.
• Secrets of the Wollmeise smell: Perwoll!
• Blue Suzanne, how it was "discovered"! And how she comes up with new colourways.
  
• We tried to get the Wollmeise to start dyeing up rovings.
• She explains what a Schultüte is.
• Future plans for Wollmeise: An expansion?
• Who would play the Wollmeise in a movie?
• Wollmeise not dyeing yarns?
• Why are a lot of Indie Dyers in Germany named Claudia?
• Wollmeise smokes!
• Wollmeise's favourite food!
• She's also planning to do a SOCK CLUB!!!!!
  
• The Wollmeise hymn: "You can't get what you want (till you know what you want):
  

Announcement: The Ram Club - a sock club for men! Collaboration between Stitch Stud and the Unique Sheep.

Contest winner: We decided to ask the Wollmeise the questions and see what she thinks. Anyhow, congratulations to Phoebe from Knit Happened! Please email us your snail mail address, so that we can send you your prize.

Last question to the Wollmeise: Which podcasts she listens to?


This episode's music is American Heartbreakt's "Last of the Superheroes (of the 1970's)", and it is brought to you by:



Until next time! Keep Knitting!

Yours,
Elemm

Download Episode #14: We're not worthy - Part 2

Episode #14: We're not Worthy! (part 2 of 2)

Episode #14: We're not Worthy! (part 2 of 2)

This is the second part of the episode. Sorry it took me so long to get this out, spinning has taken over my life. We are with the Wollmeise again and she reveals some interesting details about her life. Don't want to give anything away, you just gotta listen. Ok, one teaser - did she say something about a sock club???

Also, we reveal the contest answers and who the winner is!

Music: "The Last of the Superheroes of the 1970s" by American Heartbreak

Check out our blog at: http://knittersuncensored.blogspot.com or write us an email at: KnittersUncensored (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or check out our group on Ravelry called "Uncensored Knitters"

Detailed show notes and polls can be found at the following URL: http://knittersuncensored.blogspot.com/

Episode #14: We're Not Worthy - Part 1 (Show Notes)

Download Episode #14: We're Not Worthy - Part 1

This is a very special 2-part episode!!! It's a very long one and poor Ms. B has to edit it. The session went for about 3 hours and so she decided that we need to break this up into two parts.

So why aren't we worthy? That's because the Goddess of yarn, the Wollmeise has graced upon us with her presence in this episode! It's a long one, so let's get started!!!

Welcome and introduction done by the Wollmeise herself in German: "Herzlich Wilkommen und herzliches Grüßgott aus München von der Wollmeise. Ich darf heute hier mit bei der 14. Ausgabe von Podcast, Knitters Uncensored, mit machen!"

Yes, finally we got the Wollmeise to come on the podcast. It was quite a task getting her on the podcast. She was so nervous that both Ms. B and Cashyie had to hold her hands. Wollmeise took some times off her extremely busy schedule to come over and podcast with us. And her English is great, don't you think?

Package from Charles was finally brought out. And the Wollmeise ended sharing the stitch markers from him with Ms. B and Cashyie! ;-)

What's on/off the needles?

• Elemm:
• Mystic Light KAL Shawl that turned into Juno Regina, which the Wollmeise suddenly claimed for herself...I was taken by surprise...but hey, what can I do apart from just bow to her wishes?

• Raku-Clapotis (FO):

• Opal Socks (FO):

• Icarus Shawl (FO) for my mum's birthday:

We veered off a bit here and it seems that Cashyie might be pulled into lace knitting soon. :-p

• Interlacement Tiny Toes "Canyon Lands" Toe-up (I won the yarn from a contest over at Esoteric Knitter)
• Emil-Clapotis
• Ms. B:
• Cobblestone Sweater (FO) for Rockstar-Husband

Promptyly Cashyie took on the tangent about hiding mittens in the hat and leave the whole package in the mailbox, so that she doesn't have to wear it to school. When she comes home, she could just take the whole package out of the mailbox again and pretended that she had been wearing it. :-p Wollmeise was perplexed by this and told us a better way: Just leave them on the tree and lose them! She then reminisced about how her mum told her to always wear her hats out and not to go out with freshly washed and damp hair. But well, who likes hat-hair?

Ms. B started discussing about the fact that Germans tend to "pack up" themselves, or especially their kids in really warm clothings, so that no skins would be exposed to the coldness.

Wollmeise reckons that German mums put on too much clothes on their kids and they end up losing them. Her own kids generally come back home with only one shoe because they play boat with one of their shoe. :-p

• Firestarters and a pair of socks (FO) for her neighbour and her kid
• Several Saartjes Booties and a pair of simple socks for her son from some hand-spun by Thing4String
• Embossed Leaves socks
• Baudelaire Socks (Wollmeise complained that the socks were too small for her! LOL)
  
• Wollmeise:
• Regenbogen plain socks
• Pearl Shawl
  
• Blue-Suzanne plain socks

We also found out that the Wollmeise knits with her own yarns, too...but only with skeins that have knots in them. She also has SSS (Second Sock Syndrome)! We also talked about the socks that she was wearing, which were knit out of her own hand-spun (you can see the picture above)...they're her lucky-socks.

Cashyie ended up comparing Wollmeise to Prinzregententorte. We also found out that Wollmeise's younger son did an apprenticeship as a Pâtisserie Master at a place that sells their stuff to Dallmayr. Wollmeise then thought of Bienenstich (Wiki entry in German)..hmmmm...yummy!

Wollmeise then shared her family life with us and talked about her kids. We found out why she doesn't knit for her kids, but at the same time throwing away her husbands white socks and giving him only hand-knit socks instead. ;-)

• Cashyie is still on sock-knitting mode and she's knitting up another pair of Hobbledehoy socks! She showed us another pair of socks that she was wearing...and Wollmeise noticed that Cashyie haven't even weaved in the ends yet!

We then talked about knitting on the plane. And Cashyie showed us some yarns that she got from her trip to New Orleans.

A report from me about the Handarbeits- und Hobbymesse in Cologne that I got to go to the week before with my boss from Lanaiolo. I got some Lanternmoon Rosewood DPNs to try and my review of it is that I really like them! It was the first time for me to knit with wooden needles and to my surprise, they're pretty sturdy and they feel nice in your hands. Thank you very much to Jo from Lanternmoon!

I saw my friend, Daniela from Maschenkunst. I also went to see Kelley Petkun from the Knit Pick's Podcast.

I also got to meet Miriam Tegels, the person who holds the current record in Guiness Book World of Record as the fastest knitter in the world! So, I took the chance and did a small interview with her! (CORRECTION: I said that Miriam knit English style, but now that I go and have a look at the videos again, she actually knits continental.)

Sauerlach Market, 18th-20th April, and the Wollmeise is there with her yarns! She has hardly anymore yarn though....and she still needs to get used to her new dyeing-station.

Spinning!!! I enabled Ms. B into wanting to spin her own hand-spun. And so, she got a Louet S15 lent out from the Wollmeise...plus, Ms. B has already managed to build up a fibre stash. We talked about what's special about hand-spun and got to hear the Wollmeise's take on it.

That's the end of Part 1. Keep a look out for part 2, it's coming soon!

Download Episode #14: We're Not Worthy - Part 1

Episode #14: We're not Worthy! (part 1 of 2)

Episode #14: We're not Worthy! (part 1 of 2)

This session was soooooo long that I had to break it up into two parts. We have a special guest today - the Wollmeise! She was kind enough to take a break from her busy schedule to sit with us and chat. We also have a short interview with Miriam Tegels - the world record holder for fastest knitter! wowowowowow!

Check out our blog at: http://knittersuncensored.blogspot.com or write us an email at: KnittersUncensored (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or check out our group on Ravelry called "Uncensored Knitters"

Detailed show notes and polls can be found at the following URL: http://knittersuncensored.blogspot.com/

Episode #13 Contest is now closed

Thanks to all who participated, it was a hard one! We will announce the winner on the next podcast, but in the meantime, you should've gotten your score. The average score was 5.54 and no one got all of them correct. There were 24 entries and here is how everyone answered:

Questions	Elemmaciltur	Cashyie	Ms. B
Who has a coin machine and put coins in wrappers?	11	7	6
Who played High School Football?	4	15	5
Who has freakishly small baby toes?	5	7	12
Who has grey hair since childhood?	10	3	11
Who moved around a lot and lived in 16 different addresses since birth?	21	0	3
Who has the most handbags?	1	9	14
Who has a sibling married to an Asian guy?	3	5	16
Who has a Titanium plate in the hand?	9	9	6
Who love cleaning their ears?	16	4	4
Who prefers sharpened regular pencils over mechanical ones?	5	16	3
Who boycotted fast-food for 3 years?	7	10	7
Who doesn't like German food?	2	5	17
Who drinks about 12 litres of Diet-Coke a week?	7	13	4
Who likes brussel sprouts?	14	3	7
Who tried to pay for a person's meal at a drive-thru McDonald's as a random act of kindness?	4	14	6

Episode #13: Lucky Number 13! (Show Notes)

Download Episode #13: Lucky Number 13!

After quite a bit of an absent due to scheduling difficulties (yeah, sorry, I've got a bf and Cashyie has to work). Anyway, we're BACK!!! And we got a whooping long episode for you and a fun contest! Just a warning that we went off constantly on tangents in this episode. :-p So this means a lot of interesting readings! (Hey, I took time linking all these, so you better go read them all!)

Anyway, big thanks to Charles Lifestyle and Knitting, who sent us rolled paper stitch markers and art papers...and I was a dork and forgot to bring it to the recording.

Shout out to WonderMike and hizKnits in their podcast: YKnit! Very professional and great contents!

We went off on a whole loads of tangents here about hairpins, shawl pin, my being a crybaby, hair-clip....

Anyway, don't you think that Ms. B's kids would look great in emo? :-p

What's on/off our needles/hooks/spindles/wheels:

• Elemm:
• Firestarters (FO)
• Mystic Waters Shawl (FO - warning about the man-bikini picture...we went right off the tangent about European men and Speedos...and I'm bulge-obsessed. *LOL* *OhmygawdIcan'tbelieveIjustannouncedthattothewholewideworld* We also talked about FFK FKK = "Freikörperkultur" and Cashyie's got a colleague who's a nudist! And he also enjoys science-fiction!)...and here's a picture of me sporting the shawl:

Elemm sporting his Mystic Waters

• 2 Saartjes Booties (I also still need to knit more the Bockstark Way! Then we went off to discuss about the perfect gift for a new baby.)
  
• Flowerbasket Shawl
• Raku-Clapotis
• Icarus Shawl
• Hemlock Ring Blanket
• 16 microns blue merino on mosaic paua shell from Butterfly Girl Designs
• 50 g of singles of Galway by Yarn Wench
• 50 g of black Merino-Mulberry Silk: Midnight Stars (FO)
• Some hand-spun yarns I showed and my Rustikal neckwarmer
• Cashyie has been going crazy knitting socks:
• She's got 6 pairs off the needles already! And she's knitting one with Hobbledehoy yarn! We need to get Cashyie to follow a pattern properly. Then we just went off on a tangent about Cashyie's dating....anybody interested to go with her? Coz I won't pass as a hetero. :-p
• Can you believe that she knit a pair of socks out of Noro Silk Garden (Ravelry link)?! We went on discussing about sock yarns and sock patterns (seen the Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn review on Knitty, yet?)
  
• She's also contemplating about knitting a sweater.
• Ms. B:
• Falling In Love Socks from MagKnits
• Birthday socks for Rockstar-Husband out of STR
  
• Hand-spun hat (hand-spun swapped with Cauchy09 and now Ms. B's crazy on hand-spun and is now dealing out her Wollmeise for hand-spun. Rockstar-Husband reckons that he likes spinning more than knitting....because "spinning is like Gandhi")
• She also starts knitting stockinette socks with yarns that she hasn't knit with before in order to try out new yarns. She's knitting one with Violet Green Yarn.
• Countless Saarjtes Booties (okay, okay...7 pairs! Too many ends to weave in that she ended up finding her own way to knit it in the round. You can also find it on Ravelry.)
• Cobblestone Pullover for Rockstar-Husband.

Wollmeise colourways:

• Amazonas = The Amazon
• Türkis und Karneol = Turquoise and Carnelian
• Drachenblut = Dragon's blood
• Dani (we've met her!)
• Koralle im Meer = Corals in the sea
• Feuerwanze = Firebug, June Bug
  
• Flower Power
• Poison No. 5
• Birkenrinde = Birch Bark
• "Zenzi" is a name that a lot of Bavarian milk cows (in the brown and cream/white variatons) are usually given.
• (We veered off to Pappedeckel and Batzn)
• New colourways:
• "Boboli" is named after the Boboli Park in Florence (read about the Wollmeise inspiration HERE).
• Artists Series:
• Vincent (inspired by Vincent van Gogh's "The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, At Night".)
• Paul (inspired by Paul Gauguin's "Ta Matete")
  
• Emil (inspired by Emil Nolde's "Wilder Mohn: Rot, rot, rot")
  
• Franz (inspired by Franz Marc under "Der Blaue Reiter")
• DebütantInnen Series:
• Miss May
• Bob
• Versuchskaninchen = Guinea pig
  
• Salamander
• Johannisbeere & Brennnessel = Red currant & stinging nettle
• Mitternacht = Midnight

Speaking of Wollmeise, she's going to be having her Sauerlach Spring Market on 19th-20th April in Sauerlach near Munich. We'll very highly probably be all there. If you're around in the area, you're welcome to join us there! And you guys can look forward to our interview with her in the near future! ;-)

Life in Germany: Cashyie has fallen in love with German movies....or rather with Til Schweiger. *LOL* The movies that he has been in and we mentioned are:

• Was tun, wenn's brennt? = "What to do in case of fire?"
• Der bewegte Mann
• Barfuss
• Keinohrhasen
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

We also talked about other German movies:

• Good Bye, Lenin!
• Napola - Elite für den Führer = "Before the Fall"
  
• Die Welle
• Lola rennt = "Run Lola Run"
  
• Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tod
• Das Leben der Anderen = "The Lives of Others"
• Das Experiment = "The Experiment" (with Moritz Bleibtreu)
  
• Im Juli = "Im Juli"
• (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 = "Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1"

I veered off plugging the Todd & Pony show....and then Cashyie started dreaming up the ceremony between me and Dr. D....just for the bridesmaid dress! :-p

Katia & KylieMac asked us about phone numbers in Germany...we share our confusion when Germans tell you their phone numbers in full numbers. The complications of how to ring up a phone in Germany.

CONTEST!!!!!

You can win a skein of hand-dyed sock yarn from Handgefaerbt.com, another indie-dyer in Germany....and I'm throwing in the 50 g skein of my own hand-spun: Midnight Stars!


Elemm's Hand-spun: Midnight Stars
For each of us, we have 5 pieces of information. We've mixed them all up. All you need to do is to guess and match up the pieces of information to each of us. The person who gets all or the most correctly will win. If several gets it correctly, then we'll do a drawing. For the time being the deadline will be on 1st April 2008. Please email us the answer or PM us on Ravelry, do NOT post the answers here in the comments. You can find our contact information towards the end of the show notes.

Here goes:

1. Who has a coin machine and put coins in wrappers?
2. Who played High School Football?
3. Who has freakishly small baby toes?
4. Who has grey hair since childhood?
5. Who moved around a lot and lived in 16 different addresses since birth?
6. Who has the most handbags?
7. Who has a sibling married to an Asian guy?
8. Who has a Titanium plate in the hand?
9. Who love cleaning their ears?
10. Who prefers sharpened regular pencils over mechanical ones?
11. Who boycotted fast-food for 3 years?
12. Who doesn't like German food?
13. Who drinks about 12 litres of Diet-Coke a week?
14. Who likes brussel sprouts?
15. Who tried to pay for a person's meal at a drive-thru McDonald's as a random act of kindness?

Good luck!!


The Yarn Wench: Galway

Spinning!!!!

As you've heard earlier in the episode, Ms. B is dreaming of having her own league of spinners, so that she can get hand-spun to knit. So, here's a Q&A about spinning between Ms. B and me (Disclaimer: I'm still a beginning spinner, so what I tell you here might not be a 100% correct and they're all based on my limited knowledge and understandings about spinning.)

• Ratios in a wheel depend on what kind of yarn you want to end up with. The higher the ratio, the more twist it can put in the yarn. You can achieve a high twist in the yarns with lower ratio, too...but you'll end up treadling your wheel like a mad man.
• Single or Double Treadles don't really make any difference. It all depends on taste and your comfort.
• Bobbins, you can actually never have enough. But I would suggest about 6 bobbins to begin with if you're considering about spinning up some singles and plying them together...which also means that you'll eventually a tensioned lazy Kate (which can also be constructed easily at home).
• Setting the twist depends on what you find easier. Some people set the twist on their singles already before plying.
• Rovings: Combed, carded, batts, tops, rovings, slivers!
• Drafting: Pre-draft, stretching out, etc.

Go listen to the latest SSK Podcast episode! Rockstar-Husband did their theme song for them!

So now the truth is out, I've been interviewed by quite bit of media about my knitting! The first one was done by Brigitte.de, then follows the Jetzt article...and then I was interviewed and went on TV with ARTE. SWR also did an interview but it hasn't aired yet...and the latest TV interview was with "La Vita" on Bayerisches Fernsehen, which will be aired on German television on 03rd April 2008, between 7-7.45 p.m.). Oh, and the magazine Glamour also just did a small interview with me and it will come out in the April issue. :-p

And with all the interviews I got, I suggested that this episode's music should be "Famous" by The Lascivious Biddies, and it is brought to you by:


You can leave us a comment here or contact us via email:

KnittersUncensored (at) gmail (dot) com

or come and join us at our Uncensored Knitters Ravelry Group! And if you're around in Munich and want to come knit with us, you can find the MuKnit: The Munich Knitters Group also on Ravelry!

Until next time, keep knitting!

Yours,
Elemm

Download Episode #13: Lucky Number 13!