Knitting Podcast Review: Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep: The Knitting Podcast from Hoxton Handmade

As many of you are aware I am a total audio geek. I love music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. I am not saying I have great taste but that's not the point :o)

So when I read on Ravelry that there is a new British knitting podcast called 'Electric Sheep' well I just had to have a listen. What Islander wouldn't when it's got a name like that??!

I will start off by copying her bio from her website 'www.hoxtonhandmade.com' for you:

Hoxton Handmade is a Knitter, Blogger, Electric Sheep Podcaster, & General Rambler who roams the urban jungle of London Town. When provoked, she has also been known to play the ukulele.

I seem to have come to this podcast late and it is already on episode 27 on iTunes so I decided to go back to the beginning and listen from episode 1. And it's been good fun too. I am now on episode 6 and I am thoroughly enjoying listening while getting the housework done or knitting. So I thought I would share my thoughts of this gem of a podcast with you all.

Firstly, it's great to have another British knitting podcast finally out there, and although I love all the Americans that podcast it is nice to hear a (seriously) English accent on a podcast. Her speech is clear and soothing and her use of the language is appropriate. The essay part at the beginning of the podcast is really good and it feels like you are listening to one of the knitting humour audio books out there as it tends to be pretty funny as well.

Hoxton Handmade also likes to explore the online aspects and community of knitting which for those of us living remotely is great. We don't all have access to iKnit London or Loop in London so it's great to hear that we're not the only ones not shopping at our Local Yarn Store.

And when she talks about things to see and do in London it's actually really good even when you are living at the other end of the country. Her enthusiasm for visits to places like the Victoria and Albert Museum is totally infectious but it's also great for me as I am hoping to visit London next year and now I know all the arty crafty things to do while there :o)

The sound quality of the podcast is excellent as is the jingle/intro music and the fact that new podcasts seem to be uploaded on a regular basis is a nice change from some which disappear for months on end!

All in all I totally recommend this podcast (so you have to listen!!) and you can subscribe through iTunes as well as on the website at http://www.hoxtonhandmade.com/. I will also link to the website under my podcast list on the right hand side of this page.

Happy Listening :o)

More Amigurumis

As well as knitting socks during October I also had two amigurumis on my list. The first was for my nephews birthday and was a lion to go with a book I was giving him. Apparantly it was well received and I was really pleased with how he turned out. He was made with cheap acrylic dk from my stash and was super quick to crochet up. The mane was a totally new technique for me and I was really pleased with how it turned out.










The second was a monkey for little1. He saw me crocheting the lion and took it upon himself to have a quick flick through the book and choose something for himself which was the monkey. Again, he was made up with cheap acrylic dk from the stash but took a little longer as he was a little bigger.













The book mentioned is Amigurumi World from Ana Paula Rimoli. She also has Amigurumi Two out now as well as having patterns available to purchase from her etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/anapaulaoli .



I absoloutly love her patterns and really hope Santa is bringing me Amigurumi Two for my Christmas. I may cry if he doesn't!!! I've put the amazon.com links on here as they have good reviews but both the books are available to purchase from http://www.amazon.co.uk/.

These cute creatures are the reason I persisted in learning crochet and they really are rewarding to make. Try it, you might like it :o)

Socktober Is Over

Although I didn't take part as I was running the competition I still knitted some socks just to show solidarity. That and the fact I had a ton of socks to knit up for gifts and actually still have at least 3 more pairs to complete before Christmas!! Anyway, Socktober is now officially over and the winner of the Stornoway Knit N Natter competition was Cheesybabe. There will be more on that after the prize presentation at this coming Wednesdays knitting group (including photos). So for now you will have to put with some pictures of my completed articles :o) These are all my basic plain vanilla socks. Which means it's a 2x2 rib for the cuff followed by straight stocking stitch leg and foot. I love having these socks in my handbag for portable knitting as they are so easy to do while in the car, waiting for appointments or at knitting group where I am talking (ummm, lots usually!) and so can't concentrate on a complicated pattern. I currently have two more pairs of socks on my needles.

One is the hot pink spider socks which are too complicated for my brain to work on while out and about and the other is a vanilla sock in the lovely Opal Harry Potter yarn that I bought from a fab shop called 'The Wool Shop' in Alnick in Northumberland while I was away. I absoloutly loved that shop as there was so much choice and the lady in there was lovely. The yarn is in the Harry and Ron colourway and they are going to be slouching socks for eldest child.

Hopefully I'll manage a few more blog posts this month and will definately post some pictures of our prizewinner and her prizes this week :o)