i'm seriously koski welcome to ned on if you've been watching the show for a while you know that i like to give you some websites to refer to between shows and tierra peters township we decided that it would be a good idea to do a whole show just on the website that i have used and i have referred you to so we hooked up my laptop hopefully this will go well and i'm going to take you through some of the websites that i use some of them even daily hopefully some of them you're familiar with maybe they'll be some ones that you haven't used yet and you'll become more familiar with and see the features and not want to get on to those yourself and use those i think the internet has opened up so many more options intern there are great patterns and supplies and groups out there that you can become connected with and it makes life a lot easier as a net or so i think probably the the biggest question or the most often asked question that i get is how to see the show and what is the schedule and there's a really easy way now to see the show and that is that you can actually see it right on your computer so what we've done is we've pulled up the website and it is called geo cities and they're going to give you the graphics for it but it will take you directly to peter's township community television and you can see here that we've clicked on net on and it will give you the schedule for the shows you can see on thursdays what time it's on on fridays what have you and then if you go a little further down you can actually click on any of these shows and it will bring that up on your computer screen and you can watch the entire show that's actually how i watch the shows after we've taped them they will come up on here before i have my copy of it so i sort of watch that and see how things went and how things might be improved for the next show or or some ideas so these are some of the ones that are in the files there that you can you can watch over and over again or refer to if there's some information in there that you need to see again so we'll go to the next one this is one that i use a great deal and it's nitpicks dot com it's a supplier of knitting yarns but it also has some other great information for you you can see over here we have knitting community so i'll click on that and what happens in there is that they have all kinds of knitting groups middle longs which are very popular right now and that is where a particular project is chosen and then everyone sort of communicates about how their progress is going with it if everyone's doing a sweater  is it coming out the way they want to just this pattern is working for them or what have you there's also a blog in here the owner of the company has a blog and you can read her blog so it's a great way to get some feedback and some information they also have some tutorials if you watch the show when i did steaks you'll know that i got some of my information that i passed on to you through their tutorials and there are a variety of  topics that they had tutorials about so if you're looking for something in particular it's something that you've never done before and you have access to the internet on your computer you can get onto nitpicks dot com in their dinning community and check out the topics that they have available as far as the their tutorials so we'll go ahead to my next one which is going to be lion brand dot com and that is one that i use all the time they also have great knitting yarns but there again have some patterns available that are free will go into the patterned section of fat and you can see that it comes straight up to their featured patterns some of those are going to be crocheted some of those are going to be knitted so depending on what techniques you're looking for they're going to have something available for you as you can see they have a couple of blankets and disclose and then you can also go back in and search by category if there's something in particular that you're looking for they have what is called pattern finder where you can type in what it is that you want to look for say for instance a sweater or  you know whatever patterns that you might be looking for and they can be more specific with you then the featured ones that you have a lot of there's are going to be free which is nice because  you know of course they're promoting a specific type of yarn and they make those available to you for free another way to get some great you know our ends and we always recommend that you use your local yarn shop of course and here in peter's township that's going to be blooming yarns and you're going to go over and see michelle on the staff but if you're looking for something specific and you have your heart set on and name brand you aren't and let's say it's something that maybe michelle doesn't have or isn't able to order for you in time if you have a specific need there is a website that is all name brand you aren't and you can get into their you can do a search and do a specific you are and this happens to be a cascade two twenty in their tweed version and let's say that that's something that you're looking for for a specific project it's going to give you all of the information that you need to know about that yarn and here it is at the top you'll see the weight the yardage the gauge and it's a knitting worsted weight and then it's going to give you some more specifics about the colors that they have available in and exactly the quantity that they have in stock which makes it nice for you if you know that you need twenty skeins of something for a specific project it's very helpful to know that in that fuchsia they have fifty on the shelf and can get that to you so let's go ahead to our next website which is going to be one of my favorites and it's a blog and i'm very new to reading blogs relatively new to reading blogs this happens to me one of my favorites and she's a designer name is and hansen and she blogs really often and i enjoy her lifestyle and the things that she talks about and she coughs then she'll tell you what she's cooking but a great deal of her blog is also what she's knitting and what she's designing and you really get to see with and the design process as it's happening what it looks like when it's on her needles here some yarn that she's going to be using in a in a project that she's designing she also spins so this is some of the yarn that she's probably spun over the weekend i hadn't read her blog at this morning it's monday morning and she usually spends on the weekend so there's some yarn that she's going to be using there's someone modeling a cord again that she's going to be doing and here's actually her knitting on the needles of a project that she's going to be coming out with as a pattern and we'll go back up to the top of the page here and i will show you that she actually has a pattern shop within her blog and you can go in and see all of the patterns that she has designed she does a lot of lace a lot of  ahead into the i think she has some really exquisite patterns for instance here's her box leaf shawl really beautiful geometric lace shawl that she did and that beautiful blue to green color way she talks about the yarns really in depth she has a couple of friends who produce you know aren't and she uses there's a great deal and she talks about you know rather it's lofty rather it has a little bit of a halo to it so she really it's very much like having a conversation with her about her knitting about the design process about the knitting process you know and the staff that she has as far as her  the people who help her with some of the technical aspects of putting out the patterns with people who test read everything and math sort of thing so she's really i think really inspiring because of what she does she's an independent designer and can take you through the whole process another one of my favorite blogs is stephanie pearl mcphee and she writes knitting you more books some of you probably have some of those books like free range knitter and knitting rules she is the author of all of those and she blogs and i'm going to take you to a specific one here we're going to go over to her calendar and you can go to a specific day and i happened to know that on march seventeenth she blogged about being at an event where meg swanson was and of course meg is the daughter of elizabeth  so she got to see that sweater she happened to have with her sweater that she did in her size that is sort of a tribute to that baby sweater and that pattern is now being knitted all across the country it's called february lady sweater all have that on an upcoming show you can see the one that i did for myself but she was just so overwhelmed with getting to touch and see that baby sweater the little bits of them imran herself had knitted years and years is fabulous so to see those two sweaters together and to get to hear in her own words her reaction you know to to meeting meg to seeing that sweater was really pretty cool so she talks about the process of writing her books going on the book tours all of those things that we don't really get to know much about and less we know somebody who writes knitting books and i personally don't know any so reading her blog is like really being there and getting to know you know what that whole process is like and what it might be like to be on a book tour and see auditorium is full of people who are there to have use on their book and all of that and she talks about her reaction you know how much coffee it takes to get her through a book tour and all of those sorts of things one of the newest things that i have been using is called dot com it is in just a huge knitting community you have to have your own little what count they invite you and then you respond and you choose a username and a password and then you can get onto ravelry and there are so many really excellent ways to use this including  going to go ahead and log in with my password and we'll take you in and you can see some of the groups that i belong to in here they have knitting groups for almost any kind of specific interest that you might have you can't even begin to imagine so there's their pet and will go to groups and these are the groups that i happen to belong to i'll take it a couple of the but will also talk about finding some groups that might interest you as well since we were just talking a lady sweater let's go over to vac group and as you establish your own account with these things are going to come up on your pay so i've gone into the february lady's sweater it's going to show you some of the people that have just joined this group and of course you can put in your photos if you choose to and that's going to take you to what they call threads which is where they start to discuss some specific things about whatever is in that group rather you've used a substitution for the yarn for that pattern what have you how you did your increases all kinds of really specific information pertaining to this specific project so when we come out back after the break we're going to purr through ravelry a little bit more i'm going to show you some of the ways that i use it and some of the ways you might like to use that as well  water bottles clothes these forms of cost more to ship than you think trash donations provide immediate effect and relief to those who need it without the shipping cost america or because i want to change people's lives with the national endowment for financial education a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people just like you get smart about their money log on to smart about money dot org today and start taking control of your financial life welcome back we're going to go ahead and look at this rather repay a little more i had brought it up before we went to break and were on talking about the groups that i happen to belong to i see it wasn't even aware but i belong to fourteen groups and apparently  three of those have to do with elizabeth zimmerman so i think that's sort of you know a statement about how much i like her there are there's one that specifically about matters on the neck and that's a book that i've talked about here on the show it's at the one where she went through the twelve months of the year and had a different project for each of those months and what she was knitting and wanted to get everyone else the you know the directions for and and get you knitting as well there's one that's just about her in general and there's also the one that is about the february lady sweater which as i said before we went to break started out with that baby sweater that she did in february and then another designer did a tribute to and redesigned that as an adult pattern and people all across the country were were knitting the february lady's sweater and we have to bring to you in a future show there's also a website that has just to do with afghans for afghans that's another thing that i've talked about here on the show it's something that i love to do it's my favorite charity knitting project of the moment and there's a way for you to get on line with other people who do that talk about some questions that you might have about fiber or what things what other questions you might have questions that you might have about the restrictions of the things that they ask for when the next deadlines are that kind of thing what patterns might be appropriate for using for the things that they ask for for donation for for afghans for afghans all kinds of things that pertain to that particular project so any any almost any interest that you have rather even ones that are not related you can find a group that has similar interests this is one of my favorites i've never brought my dogs to the show they're a little camera shy and i don't think that they would be terribly comfortable with some of the equipment that we have here in the courts and what have you but i think some of you who've watched the show know that i have greyhounds and i just happen to stumble across the fact that there is a group that our greyhound owners as well as men are so i had to laugh about that because that was probably the last thing that i thought that i was going to find when i was on here but they tell stories about their greyhounds they also ask each other knitting questions you know everything that you can imagine as well as there happens to be a free sweater pattern on here that was designed especially for greyhounds and they sort of chat back and forth about having knitted that sweater for their greyhounds how it fit how much they love the pattern and you know how great it is that somebody made that available to greyhound owners and she has happened to also be a member of ravelry and obviously have a greyhound another one that actually monet and i both belong to is some starbucks addicks monet and i actually like to sit at starbucks that's like our a saying when we're together is to run over to starbucks and and sit net and have a coffee together so they obviously talk about some of the starbucks products there was a starbucks mug out a few months ago that looked like it was a cable mit sweater that everybody sort of is sharing comments about you know which starbucks still has it in stock has clearance thing it rather you know everyone has it already or where they can get it if they don't as well as trying to replicate some of the starbucks recipes that home some of the some of the ingredients that might go into some of those things if you're trying to do it at home i happen to think that you know doing it there and having the experience is part of the joy of starbucks so i don't i don't often try to do them at home but other people apparently do naughty miss which is having to do with cables some of you who know that i knitted for a long time a done a lot of cables and it's something that i love to knit as well as teach a whole group that does a lot of cables that's something that if you are looking for some information some advice and there isn't a class out there it's a great way for you to get some information about the products and the aaronson the patterns that are used for that let's go back and let's just say that we are looking for a group and i'll put something in that isn't in one of my already set up groups let's say we want to look for something in pittsburgh and we'll do a search for pittsburgh and see what comes up and it would help if i spelled pittsburgh correctly so we'll go ahead with that search you'll bear with me i hope and we're going to go see there we go these are the groups pertaining to pittsburgh and we're going to scroll down through the was there is one that has to do with the crochet knit and crochet festival that comes every february a couple of different shops a couple of different groups that sit and knit together in the pittsburgh area and then we're going to go down because there's one that i think you might like in particular one that has to do with people who love the steelers you know if you're if you're a steeler fan and you like to knit you might want to join that group but we also have one and it happens to have eighty four members and that's for your  township so if you happen to shop there a great deal you love their staff you love their shop you could join this group and they will also if we go over to view all projects you can view the projects that their customers have submitted in their ravelry accounts there's one for february lady sweater which we've been talking about and these are some of the finished projects that michelle's customers have been  ravelry pages and they will talk about the specifics of those projects there's a couple of lace projects as well as some soft projects so those are things that you can check out and then of course if there's something in there that seems  incomplete or you have a question about since this is something that's through your local shop you can always go over and ask the staff about it as well which is a is a really great thing you know nothing's ever going to take the place of your local yarn shop you know we we talk about web sites and  those things but nothing ever takes the place of you know i contact and a live person in front of you so let's go back and i'll show you another way that you can use ravelry and that is for  yards you can click on almost any yarn and see what people who have used them think of them if they purchased it and they were extremely happy they're going to write about that or if the office it is true and they were terribly unhappy with it you can see that as well their top used yarn at this point for specific projects happens to be cascade to twenty and that's the yarn that we've used here on the show over and over again it's great for felting we've had felt handbags on here numerous times and most of those bags were cascade to twenty so you could go click on that and go into what everyone thought of using that yarn you know that i'm a big fan of it here's a noro yarn and we've talked about those on the show as well and we know those to be those really great hand side yarns that have the very very long colorways to them that makes for some great fair omitting as well because you don't have to keep changing your color so you could go in and look at some of the things that people thought about that specific yarn another thing that you can do is to go into the pattern section and we all love patterns  know we thrive on the and there are patterns for sale as well as free patterns some of the designers on here share their patterns and put those available for free on a p d f file and then you can download it and use that they have specific pattern categories you can search as to category or you can search more specifically let's go into let's say a cardigan let's say the something that you're looking for and right away the first one that comes up is february lady sweater which we've been talking about and pamela when i made that available you can go ahead and click on that and you can see that one is free she tells you what you are and she used for it and what color way there's someone else's finished one and you can see that you can click on that and download it for free so that's a great a great one for you to have i think that's a project that a lot of people have enjoyed because it is so user friendly you can change it in as many ways as you can dream up you obviously not just the way that you'd use your yarn you can use different you know aren't and those things are all discussed on here as well but let's look at something else aside from the february lady let's look at another one that happens to be free which is called but me a sweater no that's not one that i've used so if i were interested in using that i would see what gage it was knitted out what you are and i might need to have available for it how much i would need of it see the results on other people's finished ones you can see about what can be worn a couple of different ways and then you could also go specifically to those those users pages and see what they thought of the pattern and how they rate whether it was really easy to you were rather there might have been some confusing terminology or any of that sort of thing would be in those specific pages another thing that people do with ravelry is to  keep a notebook and here's my notebook there really isn't much in mine yet i'm a pretty new user let's go to my project page which i have listed that i'm doing february lady but you can see at that point i was seventy percent finished and did not have a photo and for it i'm probably going to have it on the show actually before i have it on my ravelry page just because i'm sort of an organized about doing these things but i'm hoping that ravelry actually makes me a little more organized with my knitting you can get in and you can list your stash which is the yarn that you have sitting on the shelf waiting to be used those sorts of things so i think it's a great way to work a nice yourself as well as communicate with you know  there that have all sorts of specific specific interests that you might share as i said the internet is a great resource for all of you but nothing is quite the same as personal contact so you keep in mind that your local yarn shop is slim and you aren't they have great help over there anything that you might want to need you might need to know they probably are going to have the answer for in some way or another great way to get together with some  group i happen to have something coming up on april fourth for those of you who have signed up to do the prayer shawls that i've talked about on earlier shows if you want to email me about that my email address as always is cal at yahoo dot com i'd love to hear from you and i'd love to see you on april fourth if you're doing one of the prayer shawls for that work camp that is coming to the cannon spark area that's all coming up very quickly and we're going to be sitting together that morning and talking about that project i always love to have some charity knitting on line needles and hopefully you do as well so come on back next time i will be showing you my february lady sweater as long as doing it as well as doing