Podcast appearances and mentions of lily chin

Forty years later, the anniversary of Vincent Chin's death reminds us Anti-Asian hate crimes haven't gone away. Filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña, who co-directed the documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and activist Helen Zia talk with Ray Suarez about the ongoing fight to recognize diverse Asian-American histories, challenging stereotypes and what justice means today.    For more information, check out Renee Tajima-Pena's documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and Tajima-Pena's docuseries, Asian Americans.   Guests:   Renee Tajima-Peña, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA   Helen Zia, activist, executor of the Vincent and Lily Chin estate, and author of books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me   Host:   Ray Suarez

Denise and Lisa talk with Lily Chin, well-known Crochet and Knit designer, teacher, and author about her career, training, and experiences in her career. You can find complete show notes at https://arcticedits.com

Chin estate trustee provides insight on how difficult it was to get justice for Vincent Chin. The Asian American community was small and reluctant to speak up. Even civil rights organizations weren't sure about Asian Americans in a black and white world. It may also explain why Asian Americans have reacted differently in recent years to hate crimes that should be considered as significant as Chin's but have failed to get traction with a now larger, divided and complacent Asian American community.   Show Log: :00 Intro, the basic factsa about the death of Vincent Chin, update from Helen Zia, and observations about the case.How the civil rights community was sometimes at odds with Asian Americans. 10:21 Audio portion of interview with Helen Zia 23:26 Emil reads from his 2012 column where Chin's killer Ronald Ebens apologizes for the murder. 34:04 End     Emil Guillermo: Lessons from Vincent Chin murder 35 years after; Podcast interview with Helen Zia; and thoughts on my interview with Chin's killer, Ronald Ebens June 18, 2017 8:40 PM We have now arrived at the 35th year of these essential Asian American facts: On June 19, 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin, 27, who was with friends at his own bachelor party, was mistaken for being Japanese by two white auto workers, Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz, at a Detroit strip club. Ebens told me Chin sucker-punched him. The fight was taken outside, but then broken up. It would have ended, but Ebens and Nitz pursued Chin by car and found him at a nearby McDonald's. In the parking lot, Ebens brutally beat Chin with a baseball bat.  Chin was comatose for four days and pronounced dead on June 23. For that crime, Ebens and Nitz, his accomplice, were allowed to plea bargain. They pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, were sentenced to three years' probation, and fined $3,720. There was no prison time for the murderers of Vincent Chin. The Asian American community was outraged, which led to a federal civil rights prosecution against Ebens and Nitz. Ebens was found guilty on one charge and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He appealed to the Sixth Circuit, and a second federal trial was moved from Detroit to Cincinnati. Ebens was acquitted by a Cincinnati jury that found no racial motivation in the killing of Chin. That's where the story has been for the last 35 years: The perps are free. And Asian Americans can still be victims of extremely violent hate crimes, like Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Asian Indian mistaken for a Muslim. This year in Olathe, Kansas, Kuchibhotla was allegedly killed by a white gunman who yelled, "Get out of my country." For the 35th year marker of Chin's death, I called to get an update from the writer Helen Zia, who is also the trustee of the Chin estate. Zia said the Chin family was awarded a $2 million judgment in civil litigation against Ebens back in the '80s, and continues to monitor Ebens, now 77 and retired in Nevada. "The judgment has been continued," Zia told me. She said that with interest and penalties, the judgment could be in excess of $8 million, but Ebens has "not paid a dime."   Zia said she's philosophical about recovery.  "The guy did what he did," she told me. "He's a killer. He got away with murder. But the things that need to be done on behalf of the community don't depend on him or his death. It will bring closure. But it doesn't mean hate crimes have ended." An edited portion of my interview with Zia is in my podcast, Emil Amok's Takeout. Besides being the trustee of the estate, Zia was right there in the thick of the Chin case in Detroit. A journalist with legal training, she wrote for the daily newspaper there, but refrained from writing about the case so she could be one of the founders of American Citizens for Justice, the group formed to fight for Chin. It was just a handful of Asian American lawyers and activists. At that time, there were few Asian Americans in the law or in journalism. And there was no one with the expertise to do a federal hate crime case. Thirty-five years later, Zia said that what strikes her the most are the things people don't bring up about the case.  The human stuff, like the late Lily Chin, Vincent's adoptive mom. "She died feeling that if she hadn't adopted him, he'd be alive," Zia told me. "It's so sad to me to think about it that way." But the human stuff also includes the human opposition to the case within the community and the backlash that existed at the time. "We had civil rights people who said, 'We'll support you because Vincent was Chinese and thought to be Japanese, but if he were Japanese, we won't support because he would've deserved it,' " Zia said. "I said 'What? You're kidding?' The Michigan ACLU and the Michigan National Lawyers Guild strongly opposed a civil rights investigation because Asian Americans are not protected by federal civil rights law. That was something we had to argue." Fortunately, the national offices of those legal groups prevailed and forced the state chapters to comply. "Here were some of the most liberal activist attorneys saying Asian Americans shouldn't be included under the civil rights law. Vincent was an immigrant. We had to establish he was a citizen, with the implication there might not have been a civil rights investigation if he had not been naturalized. All of this stuff...these were hurdles we had to overcome with major impacts today," Zia told me. "Can you imagine if the Reagan White House had followed the National Lawyers Guild's Michigan chapter and the ACLU of Michigan and said, 'Why should we look expansively at civil rights? We shouldn't include immigrants and Asian Americans.' And at that time, that would include Latinos too, because at that time if you were not black or white, what do you have to do with race? Those were the things people would say to us." Zia said after 35 years, a quick telling of the Chin case rarely discusses just how difficult it was to fight for justice. But she says those are the enduring lessons of the Vincent Chin case, because it has contributed to a modern sense of social justice for every American. "Every immigrant, Latinos. Every American," Zia said. "Hate crime protection laws now also include perceived gender and disability. It was the Vincent Chin case when we had to argue civil rights was more than black or white." Zia said the case was also more difficult because it was during a pre-digital, non-computer, pay-phone age. Communication occurred slowly.  But the case was also slow because Asian Americans were a micro-community. We're 21 million now and feel empowered. In 1980, the Asian American population was just 3.7 million nationwide. And most were timid, non-boat rockers. "In the Vincent Chin case, people were incredibly reluctant to become involved," Zia told me. "They had never gotten involved before. And I think that's what gets lost [in the retelling of the story]. Exclusion didn't end till about 1950, and so what that meant was Asian Americans of every kind, from Chinese to Filipinos, everybody, were pretty much totally disenfranchised till the mid-20th century." "So when Vincent Chin was killed 30 years later [in 1982], the communities had. . .I think of it as stunted growth. There weren't people running for office. If there were, it was a miniscule number. There weren't people standing up; we didn't have advocacy organizations." A right to justice, and a community's sense of empowerment, was a difficult thing to imagine for many Asian Americans. "Not only did we not have it," Zia said, "People didn't even recognize it was something we could have. The idea we all came together with the Vincent Chin case and sang 'Kumbaya' and took over and went to the Reagan White House and the Department of Justice and got all these things to happen. . .that's a mythology. And I think it's a disservice to the next generations to think this." Helen Zia knows what was happening in Detroit in the '80s as the fight began for Vincent Chin. More of her thoughts on Emil Amok's Takeout.   RONALD EBENS I don't know what Vincent Chin's killer did for Father's Day. I last talked to Ronald Ebens in 2015, around the June 23 anniversary of Chin's death. "I'm doing fine," he told me then, adding quickly he had a good Father's Day with his kids.; I asked him then if he ever thought about the anniversary. "Like what?" he said. "I never forget it." Never? "Of course not." It was 2015. "I'm 75 years old, and I'm just tired of all that after 33 years." He's 77 now, and Helen Zia doesn't want him ever to tire or forget the truth. "He will never spend a day of his life without knowing he has a huge debt to society and a huge debt to Vincent Chin's family," Zia told me. "And one day, he will pay for it." The very first time I talked to Ebens was in 2012, on the 30th anniversary of the Chin murder. On the podcast, I read aloud the column that I wrote on June 22, 2012. It has Ebens explaining himself and describing what happened that night. He was reluctant to talk to me, but he did. And during our conversation, he apologized for the murder.  "I'm sorry it happened and if there's any way to undo it, I'd do it," he told me in my exclusive interview. "Nobody feels good about somebody's life being taken, okay? You just never get over it. . .Anybody who hurts somebody else. If you're a human being, you're sorry, you know." But Zia, who read my column at the time, has never bought that as an apology. "I stood next to this guy in court, and I see his face, over and over, read his words, and frankly, I don't see a shred of sincerity," Zia told me. "[He's really saying] 'I didn't even mean to kill, why should I have to go through this.'" And then to me, Zia said, "It would take more than you interviewing him saying, ' I'm sorry, I killed him.' Let's see how sorry he is and set an example for future people who are thinking of killing a Muslim student in North Carolina, or a man in Kansas. These killers who kill out of hatred and go to justify their killings, it takes more than saying I'm sorry."   http://www.amok.com http://www.twitter.com/emilamok http://www.aaldef.org/blog    

Brainy Thing:   13:45                             Behind the Redwood Curtain 23:10 What we’re learning from our Knitting    Margaret is knitting a cowl out of Katia Temis or Colibri —she’s lost the ball band   There’s no pattern:  She just casts on 25 or more stitches and knits in garter stitch on very large needles (size 13) until she runs out of yarn.   This is her exercise bike knitting.  She also reports on how much she likes the Designing Vashti Yarn:  Lotus Z-twisted sport weight fashion yarns:  52 cotton, 48 rayon.  She knit up Kira K’s Belle Epoque shawl (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/belle-epoque-shawl) with it and has had a chance to try it out and she loves the mix of cotton and rayon.   After years, Catherine finished her first pair of socks.  She’s knit many since this first pair that she never quite4 finished.  She used a generic cuff down sock recipe that she got from the sock knitting class she took and used a Brown Sheep Fleece cotton and wool yarn.   Brainy Thing:  Lily Chin:  Teacher Extraordinaire Margaret analyzes why she thinks Lily Chin is an excellent teacher. Margaret recently finished viewing the Crocheter’s Toolbox video and also took a class in person with Lily on knitted closures.   Behind the Redwood Curtain:  ACV The Arcata/Eureka or the Eureka/Arcata airport (which actually is in McKinleyville) according to some people is the foggiest airport in the U.S.   Whether that is true or not, it has a fascinating history.   Knitting Tip:  SSK Catherine tells us about a neater, more “perfect” left leaning decrease.  

Catching Up: (0:25) Laura went to Disneyland for Dapper Day. We also talk about Galliday. She's been dying for both Mean Girls and Sunnydale Yarn Clubs. She's really enjoying Agents of SHIELD. And she did some family visiting. Jen has been working a million hours a week, cutting into her knitting time. She and Ron played two gigs, one at a wine bar and one at the Long Beach Art Walk. She visited her family and got to see her new baby niece and her other niece and her nephew. She's continuing work on her Firefly sampler from Watty’s Wall Stuff and spinning on her Threewatersfarm. Melissa went on a cruise with her knitting group and got a lot of knitting done, for the first time in a while (because she likewise work a million hours a week). She has a cold (not Legionnaire's Disease). She saw Kingsman and we talk about the violence in the film. And she's really excited for Furious 7. We also talk about inappropriate work emails. In the Knitting Bag: (11:05) As a note: Melissa is wearing her Customfit Featherweight Cardigan out of Dizzy Blonde DK in the Martha colorway. Laura passed the 2nd corner and on the 3rd side of her Yggdrasil Afghan by Lisa Jacobs out of Berocco Vintage Chunky Mocha. One more row until the second sleeve of Quinty by Bernadette Ambergen is done. She's making the XL size in Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash Sock, color Marie. She started on Swirl Hat (Crochet) from Patons for her mom for Mothers' Day out of Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in black.  She's all ready to start on Ink by Hanna Maciejewska in Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash Sock in Applegate.  She's also doing a magic ball preemie hat out of odds and ends of Knit Picks Brava and Berroco Vintage.  And she's planning to do a Yarn Baby Shawl KAL with her friend Cheryle of the Carson Shawl by Romi Hill in 3-color yarn baby from Forbidden Woolery out of Pride Fingering in Smoke Signal, Illium and Mo Duinne Jen is almost done with the second sleeve of her Customfit Tunic out of Cascade Heritage.  She's also working on her Bohus Cuff from her class from Stitches West.  She's swatching for the Four Season Summer Symphony Wedding Ring Shawl by Russian Lily out of Gossamer Weight Silk/Cashmere from Colourmart in a cream color. Melissa is doing a test knit for Customfit that is way overdue out Wollmeise DK in Erbse. She is also working on her Coracle in Sweet Georgia Trinity Worsted in Oceanside. And another Customfit sweater that she calls her Korl!!! Cardigan out of Cascade 220 in Coral (and yes the name is a reference to The Walking Dead. She is also preparing for a knitalong with a coworker that she taught how to knit. They are going to make an open-front cardigan from the book Knit It!: Learn the Basics and Knit 22 Beautiful Projects, which we recommend for the beginning knitters in your life. Finished Objects: (22:30) Laura finished one preemie stripy hat that she cast on for social knitting for Stitches West. She's made it out of leftover Berroco Vintage and Knitpicks Brava. Jen finished her second 15-color Rainbow Sock in The Fab Funky Fibres self-striping sock yarn of the same name and the heel was out of black Cascade Heritage.  She did the thumb joint top hat afterthought heel by Lara Neel and loves it! (You can find instructions in the Fork in the Road Socks pattern--which is free). We mention Lara's book Sock Architecture and her blog Math4knitters. Melissa blocked and seamed a sweater that had been done since December. She had a pile of stuff to block and seam, but she had a blocking block. All three of us have them. Devil's Tower: (25:37) Which segues to a boring Devil's Tower where we all have stuff to block. Frog Pond: (25:54) Melissa wants to do a shawl collar on her Korl!!! cardigan. She decided to wing it. She had to frog it one time. Then, history repeated itself, so Jen frogged it this time because Melissa just couldn't bring herself to do it...again.  What are friends for? This sweater also had an issue with the sleeves, because Melissa generated the pattern with straight sleeves instead of tapered sleeves. This sweater has been a lot of knitting. This sweater is cursed. We mention the films Snowpiercer and Dracula: The Untold Story. On Deck: (31:31) Laura added Bunnies "R" Us by Marken of the Hat and I to her list of usual suspects. Jen's planning on starting on the Hitofude, redesigning the Joshua Tree Cardigan, something for her friend's baby and a shawl for her to wear at her sister's wedding. Melissa will start the aforementioned cardigan with her coworker. She also wants to make the adult version of the Playful Stripes Cardigan by Alana Dakos, Charlie's Cardigan by Amy Herzog, and she might make a third Leah’s Lovely Cardigan. Jen and Melissa both love how the sweater fits although the find knitting it a bit of slog. Knit Culture: (36:50) Stitches West wrap-up! Laura spent most of the time in her booth, but she enjoyed it. Her haul included a lace-weight linen gradient yarn baby from Apple Tree Knits, another 3-color sparkly yarn baby from Forbidden Woolery, a Little Brother gradient set from Yarn on the House.  Sparkly "Exploding T.A.R.D.I.S." yarn from Steven Be and the book "Crochet so Lovely" by Kristin Omdahl. Jen and Laura got to meet Stephen West at the pajama party and he was very personable and funny (he judged the pajama contest) and he complimented Jen's Leah's Lovely Cardigan. Melissa got a ton of compliments on her Rainbow Sweater. Jen and Melissa had dinner with the Knitmore Girls and Maria from Subway Knits. Jen took a design your own Pi Shawl class and learned a new cast-on she loved. Jen got a mug and some stitch markers from Jennie the Potter, some lovely red fingering weight yarn from Jill Draper Makes Stuff for a sweater, some pink fingering yarn from Miss Babs for a sweater, and lots of vintage buttons, including Bakelite sets. Both Melissa and Jen got some rainbow yarn from White Birch Fiber Arts. Melissa enabled Jen to get some Indigodragonfly for a sweater (and Melissa got some too) from the Yarnover Truck. We love her colorway names. Melissa also got a Jennie the Potter mug and some citrus yellow Jill Draper Makes Stuff Yarn. Melissa got some new yarn babies from Newton's Yarn Country, one in hot pink and one in purple and they were a great deal. She also got several sweater quantities of yarn from Miss Babs in Perfectly Wreckless and Deep Sea Jellyfish and Funny Papers. Melissa and Jen took a six hour class on picking up stitches with Lily Chin and are now experts on picking up stitches. It was amazing. Jen took a class on Bohus Knitting with Susanna Hansson and it was amazing. She even got to see some of the original vintage garments, and even pick them up and handle them. They worked on a cuff in class as well. She wants to get a kit to make a sweater from Angora Garnet. And she also took a great stranded knitting class with Beth Brown-Reinsel, which was amazing, but her brain was seriously fried because it was Sunday. Melissa took color classes with Laura Bryant of Prism Yarns. Jen is not going to take so many classes next year; she is going to do more social stuff. Laura got to meet Marnie McClean in person. And Melissa and Jen got to reunite with a old knitting friend who surprised everyone by coming from England to attend Stitches (who also won the student fashion show). And everyone managed to have great food, including Psycho Donuts. We mention Exploration Station, Rockefeller, Enchanted Mesa, Green Planet Yarn, and Foxy Knits. Geek Culture: (1:05:00) "Goodbye Old Friend", we bid a bittersweet farewell to Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett. Jen shares her favorite Leonard Nimoy story. Upcoming Events: (1:08:32) Vogue Knitting Live, April 17-19 at the Pasadena Convention Center. Laura is taking Amy Herzog's class. Camp CogKNITive, August 21-23, Camarillo, CA. Yarnopshere, October 17-18 EXPO Art Center in Bixby Knolls, Long Beach.

We get a little bit of innuendo and silly in this one.  No bad language, but a little less clean than you are used to, so you may want to listen first if you have small ones. We sort of fly by the seat of our pants in this episode! We are joined by Special Guests Melissa and Erica. We are at Stitches West and are exhausted and overwhelmed and a little sleepy and maybe a little tipsy (but we're legal so it's okay). In the Knitting Bag (1:43) Laura has no knitting! Melissa is knitting on Leah's Lovely Cardigan out of Malabrigo Sock in a blue and the McIntosh Cardigan by Gudrun Johnson from Knit With Me out of Madelinetosh in Tosh Merino Light in Tern and Edison and Button Jar Blue. Erica is working on the Brier Island Sweater out of Miss Babs Heartland Worsted. She cast on for cowl in Skeindalous Buddy Sock, but had no time to knit. Jen finished her Sweetheart of the Rodeo Cardigan and her Barley hat and gave it to the Knitmore Girls for the Throwdown. She is also working on her Ravellenics project, a shawl out of Mean Girls Yarn Club. Melissa finished some shawls that had been long-term WIPs for the Ravellenics. Frog Pond (10:05) Laura frogged some of her homework to make hat tags--but there aren't sad knitting stories when you're not knitting. Melissa learned from Brooke Nico how to fix mistakes in lace in her Stitches class. Erica calls her mistakes "design decisions" and so does Melissa because "perfection is only for God." Devil's Tower (11:44) Laura is sick of hats, so she's not going to finish the hats she's working on for the Throwdown for later and donate them to Halos of Hope later. We're all a bit hatted out. Stitches Talk (13:48) Laura has been working at her booth and it's been amazing. We had our meetup, which was great. But she is so busy. She wants a little time to shop. Erica is glad she only bought one sweater quantity worth of purple yarn. But she's bought a lot of blue sweater yarn. She got some yarn from Verdant Gryphon, Sweet Fiber, and giant skeins of fingering weight from Miss Babs (yarn Babies). Melissa and Jen also bought yarn babies from Miss Babs. Melissa bought a lot of vintage buttons. And she continues to buy pink yarn, green yarn, and neon yarn. She might have bought and entire rainbown. Melissa took some classes. She took the Fixing Mistakes in Lace Knitting with Brooke Nico and Intentional Patterning with Hand-dyed Yarns with Laura Bryant. She loved them both and recommends them. We talk about the Pajama Party with Marly Bird. Jen got some laceweight from Terilyn Needle Art for a sweater (and so did Melissa) and some laceweight cashmere from Stitch Sisterz. She also got a Miss Babs yarn baby and some Miss Babs sock yarn, some Quince and Company Chickadee to make the Chickadee by Ysolda. Melissa and Erica both got measurements take by Amy Herzog and we talk about Amy's Custom Fit Software and the myth of Standard Size. Jen got a consultation with Amy as well and thought it was great. We talk about the Fit to Flatter group on Ravelry. Jen took Christine Bylsma's Design in a Day class, which was awesome. She also took Edie Eckman's Where Do They Get Those Numbers?, which she recommends for math phobic knitters. And she took Design Inspiration with Lily Chin, which was great. Laura took a class about German and Japanese lace with Brooke Nico and she loved it! Jen and Melissa both saw Myra Wood's keynote where she talked about her Knit in New Directions book. Jen's sweater (made with Laura's yarn) was in the Friday fashion show. We met Steve from It Takes Balls to Knit. Laura, Jen, and Melissa went to the pajama party, had fun, and Jen and Laura won yarn from Malabrigo and Fiesta Yarns. We also mention Skacel and Ben from the Fiber Hooligans and XRX. Jen and Melissa went to the student fashion show. We also had our meetup and got to meet a lot of our listeners. And then Jen and Laura went to the podcaster meet up. Shout outs to the Yarniacs, Just Another Bay Area Knitter, Knitmore Girls, Two Knit Lit Chicks, Hollywood Knitter, Dr. Gemma and anyone else we might have forgotten. We talk about Namaste and how amazing they are. To support the Podcaster Throwdown, they gave the leader of each podcast team a free Harlow bag and t-shirts. We can't say enough good things about these ladies and their products. They are wonderful. Melissa and Jen recommend audio books for their long road trips. We talk about fangirling Myra Wood, Amy Herzog, Brooke Nico, Pam Haschke, Ben Levinsay, Steve from It Takes Balls to Knit, the Yarn on Tap girls. (And Jen loves their sock kits). Melissa talks about a neon yarn baby she bought from Newton's Yarn Country. Melissa is very proud that Stitches is the first time she's bought yarn all year, since last year she bought so much yarn she became a Loopy Legend. We also mention Shalimar Yarns and Plucky Knitter. In closing, Miss Kalendar has the cutest baby ever!

Podcaster Throwdown: (0:34) Tub o' hats! It's crunch time! There is virtual way to participate. You can now donate for your favorite team. Click here and choose your team. $5 is equal to one hat for your team! Each $5 lets Halos of Hope to ship 16 hats to cancer centers and hospitals around the country. The board is all volunteer, so all the money goes to shipping. Check out Episode 8.5 for Throwdown information. Check out the Podcaster Throwdown group in Ravelry. There will be prizes for participating in the Throwdown group on Ravelry, courtesy of XRX. Check out the Halos of Hope website and Ben’s interview with Pam Haschke on Fiber Hooligans. The January incentive pattern is Assquack. Post your finished hats in this thread to get your incentive. There are prizes for donating to Team Knottygirls. Check out Episodes 10, 11, 12, and 13, as well as the Prize Page for prize listings.  New prizes include a custom-dyed skein of Dizzy Blonde yarns. Send your hats to Purlescence Yarns, tagged for Team Knotty. Shipping information is here. Purlescence Address: Purlescence Yarns your name & the name of your team 564 South Murphy Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Designer Brenda Castiel has all of her hat patterns and hat/mitt set patterns at a discount, just use coupon code HALOS. Also, thank you to Brenda for her generous donation to the podcast. Catching Up: (5:49) Jen stayed up way too late on New Years Eve, but she had a lot of fun. She's also been busy with work, especially since it's flu season (stay healthy everyone!). She's been playing Fallout 3 again, because she misses video games. And she's been drop spindling her pink corriedale, and cataloging her stash (except for the remnants and a few new things). Laura has been relaxing now that her family is gone. She has an adorable granddaughter (Jen can vouch for this). She's also been cataloging her stash.  And she's been watching Downton Abbey. And she will play one more tournament of Nerd Wars to groom a new captain. In the Knitting Bag: (15:14) Jen has been working on vanilla socks in very old Opal Sock Yarn (the Rainforest series, colorway Flamingo, which is pink). She is over halfway done with the California Poppy Shawl by Lydia Tsymbal out of Baah La Jolla in My Sweet Valentine for Melissa. And she's been swatching out of Wollmeise DK, for her Sweetheart of the Rodeo Sweater. Laura has been working on her man sock out of Lambie Toes in No Touching Guns, an Olivia’s Butterfly Hat in Knitpicks Brava in grey. She is also working on a Doctor Who-inspired hat in Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash DK in Smurfinator and Down the Garden Path by Michele DuNaier out of Lambie Toes in the Indefinable Allure Colorway, for a booth sample for Stitches West. Finished Objects: (19:17) Jen finished the Man Hat by Haven Leavitt out of blue Plymouth Encore Yarn and a Gerri Hat in Peter Pan Wendy Yarn in pink, both for Halos of Hope.  And she can finally reveal her Christmas project: a St. Brigid sweater by Alice Starmore from Aran Knitting out of black Cascade 220. Dragon Tail Hat Laura finished another Big Damn Hero Hat by Dryope out of Knitpicks Brava in Canary, Orange, and Paprika. She also finished her Dragon Tail Hat by Jen Spears for Nerd Wars in Knitpicks Brava in Asphalt Heather and Dove Heather, an Odessa Hat by Grumperina out of Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash DK in Jessica for her sister-in-law, with beads. And she finished the Spring Lacy Hat by My Hobby is Crochet out of Berroco Comfort in Copen Blue and Yellow. Devil's Tower: (25:34) Jen has Vanilla socks.  And Laura is pulling out her 22 Leaves Shawlette by Lankakomero. She’s making it out ofMean Girls Yarn Club in Heart in a Box. Frog Pond: (26:39) Jen did run out of yarn on her St. Brigid, as she suspected. She used a ball with a non-matching dyelot for the collar treatment. She was lucky she was using Cascade and black so the dyelots weren't too far apart and it's almost impossible to tell. Laura frogged her Sous Chef hat by Marly Bird because she didn't like how the colors looked together. We mention Sassy Gay Friend. On Deck: (32:41) Jen will be making her sweater that she's been swatching for, hats (including a stripey one out of the Delicious Yarns Frosting Worsted in Blueberry and Pistachio leftover from her gramps cardigan) and yellow hat using some leftover Encore Worsted. She will also look for more remnants to make some stripey. Laura will be actually starting her Who-inspired hat, a stripey hat for January, and she wants to do Ysolda Teague's Follow Your Arrow Mystery KAL out of Knitpicks Chroma Fingering and Gloss. Knit Culture: (37:54) Stashdown 2014! We challenge ourselves and our listeners to reduce stash as a year-long project. Knit from your stash all year long. Catalog your stash and find out what you have (however you want to). Then set goals for yourself. Each month will have a theme and a thread to post FOs along the theme and there will be prizes. Set some goals for yourself (these are personal, so whatever you want). Jen’s goals are to buy no yarn except for at Stitches West or if Wollmeise Lace becomes available and to knit/crochet/spin at least 20000 yards of yarn (this may be reassessed). Laura will only buy yarn at Stitches (as much as she wants) and only one skein of yarn at smaller festivals. She wants to knit at least 1/3 of her stash (or maybe this needs to be evaluated). She will check her stash before she buys yarn for projects. We recommend Knitmeter.com to help track your yardage. January's Theme is Stripe it Up! We take a page from Halos of Hope--use up your leftover Christmas project yarn (or other remnants) to make projects. Post your FOs on January's theme here. January's flash prize is to Flash Your Stash! Do it here for a chance to win January's flash prize (a digital copy of Doomsday Knits courtesy of Cooperative Press.) Fall down in your goals? No problem! Just go to the Confessional Thread for no judgement support to get back on that horse. Ravellenic Games! For the 2014 Ravellenic Games (this links to the Ravelry group) we've thrown our hat in with Team Sasquatch (a giant pan-podcast team). So join us! Geek Culture: (47:54) We review Doomsday Knits by Alexandra Tinsley and published by Cooperative Press. (This is where knit and geek culture collide). Digital retails for 16.95 USD and 29.95 USD for a print+pdf version (the print version will be available later). We love this book! The patterns are clever and lovely and it has a sense of humor. We love the styling for the most part. Some of the sweaters would be very unflattering for larger people, but that's okay. The accessories are fantastic. Four Thumbs up (and a toe!) Events: (58:53) We will be at Stitches West, which is February 20-23 in Santa Clara, CA at the Convention Center. Dizzy Blonde Studios & Skeindalous Yarns are sharing a booth (booth 906 and 908). The Dizzy Blonde booth is a collection point for Halos of Hope hats for Team KnottyGirls (the final collection point!). With prizes! Shout out to the Purlescence Girls (who have the booth across from us) and we are right next to Halos of Hope (Booth 904). We will be doing a meet and greet, time to be announced. We are taking classes. Jen is taking Design Inspiration with Lily Chin, Design in a Day with Christine Bylsma, and Where do They Get Those Numbers with Edie Eikman. Laura is taking Around the World: Japanese & German Lace with Brooke Nico. We have to cancel Knit 2 Together with Yarn on Tap due to scheduling conflicts. Our next milestone prize will be at 1000 members, so join the Ravelry group! And don’t forget to knit hats and donate.

Lily is the star of some fabulous new crochet DVDs and wants to tell us all about them. Please join us!

In this latest episode of our video web series, we chat with Lily Chin, knitting and crochet author, designer,

The always interesting Lily Chin will tell us all about her new books!

Actor-network-theory (or ANT) posits that the world is made up of forces, given physical form–it’s actually more complicated than it sounds. I gave a brief and inadequate explanation of how this theory applies to creative writing. (All brief explanations of actor-network-theory are misleading.) A better explanation of the particular point in ANT that I referenced is given in “Unscrewing the Big Leviathan,” a paper by ANT theorists Michel Callon and Bruno Latour. If you want to learn more about ANT, you can visit the Actor Network Resource. Tales for the Perfect Child is by Florence Parry Heide, with illustrations by Victoria Chess. Right now it is on sale on Amazon for a dollar or so. It is definitely worth the shipping costs, as it is a very light little book. Charmed Life is by Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite authors. She is no relation of Tim Wynne-Jones. You can buy fitting shell patterns from the major pattern makers, such as Vogue (the last two patterns on the page). Each fitting shell is customized for that company’s patterns. You may need to make other shells to give yourself baselines for working from patterns published by other companies, because their sizes may be different. Threads magazine has a library of excellent sewing tips and instructions; here is an article on fitting shells, also known as slopers. Here is another that briefly describes ease, and another really helpful one on evaluating the quality of a given pattern. It is about sewing, but has good ideas for a knitter to think about. Want to know how to measure yourself accurately? You may need a friend to help get the hard-to-reach measurements. This Threads article shows you how. Find out about darts! The VogueKnitting article on fitting is by Lily M. Chin, and came out in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue, on page 40. Also see Lily Chin’s Couture Crochet Workshop: Mastering Fit, Fashion, and Finesse. Adele P. Margolis wrote Make Your Own Patterns: A Primer in Patternmaking for Those Who Like to Sew. What is a gusset? Gibbs’ wrestling move is actually a martial arts move (silly me) known as a C-step. An “Ender complex,” as I have named it, is the tendency to hit back at an aggressor as hard and as long as it takes to destroy that aggressor, so that he/she/it will not dare or be able to attack again. I named this complex after Ender Wiggins, the protagonist of the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. (Hi, Kris and family, if you’re listening.) Rat aggression can be caused by many things, including an oversupply of testosterone. Note that not all male rats or even dominant male rats are aggressive toward humans. Most of them are very sweet, very bad boys. My McGee is totally dominant, must supervise everything and eat all the good stuff first, and he is a total cuddlebunny to my husband and me. A very active, toothy cuddlebunny. He pinches and pulls the other boys’ loose skin with his teeth all the freakin’ time, but he doesn’t pinch us. The most straightforward thing to do is get the aggressive boys neutered, since mine hate being separated, even when they are in a turf war. (This is so codependent of them.) I don’t know what to do for girls. Finding an appropriate vet to do the job can be tricky because rats have different physiology “down there” than dogs, cats, and rabbits, and if the surgery is not performed correctly, your rat can leak bad stuff and get infected and suffer a lot and then die. So do your best to find a good vet. The music in this podcast is included by permission. “Jim the Toothbrush” is from Eric Strom’s Daily Song archive. The lyrics are by thscientist1 — whoever that is. Kate McDowell wrote and performed “The Princess’s Promise.” You can find more of her work at http://www.katemcdowell.com/ The Vital Might wrote and performed “The Truth.” Find more of their work at http://www.thevitalmight.com/music/

This week's episode is sponsored by: New in: Tanis Fiber Arts fingering weight and a pattern written specifically for it: the April Showers sock. This week's special: Colinette Jitterbug (3/4-3/9, 20% off) On the Needles: Gigi is working on (mostly) vanilla socks this weeks. She has finished her Bulky Boot Socks, and has started a vanilla sweater, but ripped it out in favor of a new pattern. Events: Jasmin and Gigi discuss Stitches West. Jasmin and Gigi took the same classes - mostly. Colleen and Jasmin took Ergonomcis of knitting with Carson Demers, where they learned some stretches, life strategies for balancing knitting with physical health. Jasmin recommends standing up during commercial breaks. On the way to class, Jasmin was accosted by Cat Bordhi! Jasmin and Gigi, at Cat's recommendation, are going to try and get to Sock Summit. Thursday evening, Jasmin and Gigi went to the market preview. Using her wish list, Jasmin bought some batts (in Purr-ple and Tropical Fruit) and Wensleydale from Lisa Souza. Jasmin thinks it is going to grow up to be a Ribbi Pulli. Jasmin also got some Superwash merino in "Graphite". Jasmin got some interesting fibers from Tactile (babydoll, carbonized bamboo) and A Verb for Keeping Warm (targhee). Jasmin also ran into WonderMike, of YKnit notoriety. Jasmin bought a kit from Sheldrige Farms (the Inverted V top). Jasmin fell in love with Abstract Fibers. Jasmin bought a set of lace circular needles from Asciano Fibers, made of Cocobolo. Gigi fell in love with the Cocoknits patterns. Gigi found some Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a beautiful peacock blue and some red Kauni at WEBS. Friday: Jasmin and Gigi took Lucy Neatby's "Cool Socks - A" class all day. They learned the channel island cast-on, as well as loads of other nifty tips and tricks. (We will be reviewing her fantastic DVDs on the podcast, courtesy of Lucy Neatby and Sheldrige Farms.) Saturday: Jasmin and Gigi met Dr. Gemma of CogKNITive! Jasmin and Gigi had the meet and greet. Jasmin and Andrew went by the Redfish Dyeworks booth, where she got some mango colored 80% merino/ 20% tussah silk roving and Andrew picked out some 50/50 Silk Merino (project TBD). Jasmin picked up some replacement roving in Freestone Firecracker from the Royal Hare. After the market, Jasmin, Gigi, and Rosemary (from Designs by Romi) went to the party at Bobbin's Nest, which was lovely. Afterwards, we took a brief detour to get some AMAZING frozen yogurt, then went to the show-and-tell at Purlescence. Sunday: Jasmin and Gigi took the "Design Your Own Sock Architecture" class with Cat Bordhi, who we chatted with in September. Combined with the Lucy Neatby class, our minds were blown. Jasmin went to the show floor to pick up some Oak Grove yarn (to darn a pair socks) for Andrew. Jasmin went to talk to Cheryl Oberle, and while Andrew was waiting in line to pay, he picked up two skeins in "Stones". Jasmin also picked up some of the Creatively Dyed sock yarn to test drive, NOT in pinks and purples, selected by Andrew. Gigi bought some Silk/Merino from Tess Yarns in a beautiful charcoal grey, which will become a Cocoknits sweater. (Sweater TBD.) At the show, Jasmin and Gigi got audio with Lucy Neatby, Galina Khmeleva, Cheryl Oberle, and Lily Chin. Administrative stuff: Jasmin and Gigi are trying to get to Sock Summit, and they need your help. A donation of $5 or more gets you a logo magnet, and for a donation of $10 or more, we'll send you a logo pin (and a magnet). We will be adding a new segment called "Straw into Gold" about spinning! Until then, Meghan from Stitch-It has an AWESOME, regular spinning segment. We need ideas for contests! Send them our way.

Lily Chin! Need I say more? The first lady of crochet design comes on to get a little loopy with us. Email your questions to me and we shall see what happens!

Interview with Lily Chin