Sunday, August 21, 2011

Harry's Home Movies: Concluded

The last of Harry's travel trilogy–highlights of Sock Summit 2011–is now up and running on our YouTube Channel.

Before you click over, I feel compelled to warn you that some scenes of this installment may prove disturbing to very young children and anyone who doesn't quite understand the whole yarn thing.

But that's their problem, innit?

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Yeah, I'm Working on Another Column For Knitty

Dear Anonymous Nineteenth-Century Designer,

Often, as I wend my way through your patterns, I wonder who you were and where you lived.

I imagine what it would have been like to meet you face-to-face; and ponder what you might have tried to say to me as my fingers closed firmly around your throat to choke the life out of you.

Love,
Franklin

The 19th Century Knitting Pattern Designer

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Harry's Home Movies: Transatlantic Intermezzo

The first episode of Harry's video chronicle has shot past 3,500 views in just a few days. Very gratifying. Thank you.

In editing the rest, we discovered there's so much weird good stuff from Sock Summit that it's best to give the centerpiece of the trip–our voyage on the Cunard liner Queen Mary 2–its own installment. No knitting in this one, but there is a hint of what's to come near the end.

If you would care to experience the luscious filling of crème chantilly that separated our two gooey, high-calorie layers of fiber festival, please click over to my YouTube Channel and make a young ball of sock yarn very happy.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Harry's Home Movies: Part One

Harry took his new video camera (a gift from my parents) everywhere during our long, strange trip.

Herewith, the first part of what he saw. Aside from the out-takes which largely feature me in various states of undress.

As the movie's a little too large to show properly here, kindly visit my YouTube Channel to view.

Friday, August 05, 2011

Culture Corner with Dolores

Hi, it's Dolores.

Franklin "Stop Calling Me Frodo" Habit is still stuck in the video editing suite (which if you ask me looks a whole lot like the kitchen table) with Harry. After three days, they're still only halfway through Harry's 10,000 hours of footage showing mostly carpets, ankles and Franklin screaming, " I told you to keep that thing out of the bathroom, dammit!"

Not to point hooves, but I was the one who said at the outset of the trip that giving the camera to somebody who needs a ladder to see over a speed bump was perhaps not the brightest idea.

So Franklin chucked the keyboard at me and said to show you my contribution to the team travelogue. It was supposed to be a series of photo studies highlighting hand-embroidery and block printing in the textile collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but that was completely boring and the sun was in my eyes and don't tell me what kind of art to make so I went another way.

Naked Tushes of the V&A

Study 6

Study 5

Study 4

Study 2

Study 3

Study 1

Whoops, how did that last one get in there?

We at The Panopticon thank you for your kind attention to our educational programming. Please exit through the gift shop. I'm going for a drink. Bye.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

10,000 Uses for an Ocean Liner

Use #8,247: Sock Dryer.

Ocean Liner/Sock Dryer

When using an ocean liner as a sock dryer, it helps if you happen to be traveling with your entire collection of old wooden clothespins. Keep an eye on the weather: It is undesirable to find that a sudden gale has soaked your sock anew or–worse still–blown it away entirely. Should rough weather arise during dinner, you are advised to leap up (even if dessert is on the way) and waste no time in effecting a rescue. You may find it helpful to shout, "My sock! My sock!" all the way to your cabin in order to warn passengers and crew that they need to clear a path.

If you were in my Knitted Tessellations classes at Sock Summit 2011, you'll recognize this as the new "Feline" sock–fresh from a long soak in the bathroom sink (Use #8,246) after being knit up in the Spa, the Britannia Restaurant, and the Coffee Bar (Use #8,245). Paired with "Canine," it'll be online for download in a few weeks.

We of The Panopticon are home from Sock Summit and in the midst of the usual round of mail sorting, laundry, unpacking, and trying to find space for all the new books. (Space for new yarn is easy. Yarn squishes. Books squish not.)

I'm also helping Harry to edit all his home movie footage. Turns out the little dickens is quite the budding cinematographer.