Another Kind of KAL.

Maybe it was Stitches South. or maybe it was the weather. or maybe it was just luck, but at 2:30 last Friday afternoon, when I am usually knitting along at a table full of other knitters, I found myself knitting alone. OK, yes, I was in a yarn shop, surrounded by knitters - and stitchers :-) - but I was the only one knitting. I had fun chatting with folks, and got Marci to take my photo.

me and Holly (of course!) and my clapotis!

And then I thought about turning this into a blog post. Because I'm sure most of us end up knitting (or stitching) alone - KAL for purposes of this post! - at some point.

How do you keep yourself company when you find yourself KAL? Of course there's TV, and with DVRs, that's maybe all you need!  But you can watch TV with other people. What I like to do when I KAL is listen to knitting podcasts - and I've often been asked about my favorites, so I thought I'd share:

Electric Sheep - hosted by Katie, aka "Hoxton Handmade", who lives in London (yes, I love listening to her accent, too!), this is a thoughtful, well-produced, typically weekly podcast. She begins each cast with an essay and those essays might be my favorite part.  Most have made me laugh, all have taught me something, and one even made me cry (in a good way :-) She also talks about knitting and the knitting scene in Great Britain.

Doubleknit - hosted by Erin & Jessica who live in Seattle. They are avid knitters, readers and TV/movie watchers; and they talk about all those things on each show. Their casts aren't quite as frequent, maybe once every three to four weeks.

Never Not Knitting - hosted by Alana Dakos, aka "Never Not Knitting". Alana is also a designer; she has published patterns for accessories and sweaters for both adults and children. She podcasts semi-monthly, in series of ten and then takes a break. As I type this, she's on a break; I think new episodes will resume in May. She talks about her knitting and designs, reviews yarns and books and occasionally interviews designers (like Debbie Bliss, Hannah Fettig, Kate Gagnon-Osborne). Each episode also includes a story submitted by a listener; one of my favorites was a story submitted by Kirsten Kapur (who is also a favorite designer of mine).

Stash & Burn - hosted by Jenny & Nicole who live in San Francisco. This podcast started in early 2007 - pre-Ravelry! as Jenny & Nicole attempted to get their sizable stashes "under control". They talk about knitting and life and yarn and patterns and stash. Lots of stash...

You can download these (and many other!!) podcasts - for free! - on iTunes.

If you have recommendations to share, please join in - I'm going to open up a thread in our Ravelry group and of course you can also comment on Facebook.