Knitting Daily Second Season

Well, it's over. Ahhh... I can breath again.

On Sunday, Jan and I drove up to Cleveland to shoot another nine episodes of Knitting Daily TV. This time, I appeared in four episodes and Jan (thank goodness) appeared in five. This was a good deal less stressful than the previous season when I had to prepare for eleven segments of "Getting Started." This is the TV series developed by Interweave Press and Shay Pendrith. We're corporate sponsors of the program. Neat, eh?

Now, if you've never done anything like this, you'd likely be surprised at how much preparation it takes. Not only do you have to plan all the dozens and dozens of yarns you're going to present, you have to learn everything you can about them (and stuff that you'd never imagine -- like that nylon was developed by DuPont in America in 1935 and was originally used for toothbrush bristles and then during WWII was used for parachutes and stockings). And you've got to pull together several wardrobe changes, get a manicure because they'll be doing close-ups of your hands, and figure out how to hide the wrinkles, circles and bags you normally can't see because your vision isn't as good as it was forty or fifty years ago.

Oh, yeah...and you have to lose twenty pounds.

Last time I went on the show, someone told me that the camera doesn't really put 15 pounds on you. They said that the problem is caused by the curvature of the TV screen, and with the new flat screens I wouldn't look like Porky Pig. Living in the joy of suspended disbelief, I bulked up on cookies and ice cream and all those other wonderful reasons for living, and went to the shoot not worried at all that I'd look the size of a planet. When the CDs of the shows arrived and I saw that all 15 pounds were on my face, I committed to losing 20 pounds before this shoot.

Okay. I lost eight or nine. But it helped. A bit.

Jan and I had a great time with Eunny, Kim, Liz and Shay. Shay brought her homemade cookies and I was so delighted with my weight loss that I celebrated by feasting on, oh maybe a dozen or so of her deliciously fattening delicacies.

I screwed up a couple of times but won't tell you where I did it because I'm hoping it will be edited out. (Let's just say that my mind went completely blank when it was supposed to remember the word "alpaca.") Jan was a real trooper and did her demonstrations on camera a few times so they could capture everything she was showing. (She gave me a great mnemonic device for the Kitchener stitch...but I forget what it is.)

Jamie, Kathy, Marilyn and Annie were all wonderful to work with on the production. They're all such lovely ladies, and they're all so knowledgeable that I'm humbled in their presence.

Thanks to all our friends at Knitting Daily TV for giving us this great opportunity. Thanks to Alex for forcing me to take on this "stretch" exercise. And a million thanks to Jan for taking on a huge chunk of the work this time around.

Now we're off to Texworld in Paris to see the new yarn fashions. And then we're meeting with the wonderful folks at Anny Blatt/Bouton D'Or. Our good friend, Jean-Christophe, has arranged for several meetings in Paris, Avignon and Nice. I'll be sure to post pictures of their mills.


Oh! I almost forgot! If you want to see the yarns I presented on the episodes currently airing, go to Knitting Daily or to Yarnmarket.