Some good news that's been revealed recently, which you may or may not have heard: January wil see the launch of a brand new UK knitting magazine. Yes, I know we've seen a few of those in recent years and frankly, most of them have been disappointing. (Honourable exception here goes to Yarn Forward; after a pretty rocky start, with lots of production hiccups etc, I think it is really starting to come into its own. If you haven't read it recently, go pick up a copy - they're in Tesco and WH Smith now, even, every month! I think you'll be impressed, though I still want to see more challenging projects.)

Anyway, so you may be a little cynical about yet another new launch. But I think we have reason to be optimistic. It's from Future Publishing, the stable behind Simply Knitting, which means it is well-resourced. Unlike SK, though, it's targeted at advanced knitters, and styled to be rather more sophisticated than its sister mag. (I've had a sneak peek at some early pages, and the layout and art direction look beautiful.) I hear that designs are being commissioned from top, top names, who are being given free rein to do more challenging work than most magazines allow. And the editor, Juliet Bernard, happens to be a Purlescence customer, so you know she's got taste. (She's also been a great friend of Purlescence in her professional capacity as PR, by the way; although we never officially worked together, she's been very helpful to me. We like Juliet, and are very pleased that she's at the helm.)

Want to know more? Lookee. I can't wait.

Posted by Robynn at 12:56 PM | Permalink | 2 cups of tea on the table

Wow, what happened there? "See you Monday," I said. And that was... some time ago. Hm. Well, you see, I was... abducted by aliens. Yes. That was it. So I couldn't possibly blog, on account of the weird experiments they were doing on me. And the lack of wifi out there in space.

Luckily I'm back now, and I can report that aliens have yarn! Yes! They may be strange and sinister creatures with an unaccountable fondness for beaming up hapless humans and practising Science on them, but they are not so cruel as to deny one life's necessities. I was able to lay my hands on some Silk Garden Chunky, and lo, it was good.

Yes, another Noro scarf. (Two, in fact.) I am a sheep! (Don't tell the aliens. That could knock their research data all over the place, and we don't want them coming back for more any sooner than necessary.) But in my defence, (a) Dad really wants something brightly coloured to see him through the grey British winter, and (b) look! I did stripes on the bias! That makes it, like, totally different. Totally. (The red/brown one is just plain straight ahead, but then it's for a more conservative guy.) I have to admit though, this Noro striping action is highly addictive. I hear there's a new Noro sock yarn on the way, softer than Kureyon (possibly Silk Garden Sock?). I do have my doubts about Noro on my feet, but I don't think I'll be able to resist a pair of stripy knee-highs.

I also happened to have my knitting bag with me at the time of abduction, so I was able to finish Alhambra. All done, rather pretty, and promised to Eszter the Needle Elf, who likes the yellow flashes.

Well, when I say "all done"... see, the aliens had Noro, and knitting needles, but no darning needles. Apparently on their planet, ends hanging out are all the rage. And no blocking boards, or pins, or anything. So Alhambra is only mostly finished. Same for one of the stripy scarves above. (The other is only half done, the aliens ran out of yarn. More's on the way. Hurry, postie!)

But soon, I will get over my fear of finishing abduction-induced traumas and lack of equipment, and will have some actual finished gifts to add to the rather small tally of this year's knitting. Hurrah! You want a sneak preview of one of the big things I plan to finish early in 2009?

Can you see what it is yet?
No?
Just as well.

PS. With the aliens and all, I hadn't seen what was happening in my comments box till today. Wiped out a lot of spam - a LOT - and found that Jacqueline wants to know how things are with the pregnancy. Hi, Jacqueline! Everything's going well. I'm just past 6 months, getting beeeeg, and baby is very wriggly. If anybody wants regular pregnancy updates, you might want to check in at our sprog blog, springonmars.wordpress.com. I will keep you all informed of the main events here, but if you really want to know more! more! more! - well, you'll find it elsewhere.

Posted by Robynn at 09:37 PM | Permalink | 4 cups of tea on the table