Loving cathing up with your show back ‘casts while cleaning out my folks’ winter house for sale, this month.

I’m still catching up with past podcasts, and don’t know if you’ve chosen a loom for yourself yet. There is a folding rigid heddle frame loom (the Harp) from the Gilmore company, whose second generation is going strong in Stockton, CA.
It folds, has a splendid carry-bag available, and is available in bigger (you can Do Stuff with them) sizes: 16″, 24″ and 32″ (that’s the beam size as per most rigid heddle looms, actual weaving width is a little narrower). One innovation that blows my socks off is that they’ve managed to design in a warping rack on the back side, so a person can wind a warp to prepare the loom without getting another set o’ tools for that task when one graduates from using doorknobs-to-chairbacks. The prices are quite reasonable as well.

As a second generation weaver who is finally dipping my fingers into knitting, I recommend looking around at all the different tools out there.

After all, once you’re warped, what’s weft?
love and stitches,

–Ru Temple

I love the idea of a wiki dedicated to knitting. However I had the incredibly good luck to hear Jimmy Wales speak a few weeks ago and I really think that doing what we *need* as knitters falls outside the scope of Wikipedia.

I think the best solution is to do both. We, as knitters, should routinely check out the Wiki site and edit it for accuracy and add appropriate content. That is an easy thing for us all to do.

Yet we should also have a separate more comprehensive wiki just for our craft, in which we can include *everything* – all the ways to construct a toe-up vs. cuff-down sock, information akin to Eunny Jang’s various tutorials, history, fiber stuff, you name it!! My experience with wikis is that the most important ingredient for success is COMMITMENT by a COMMUNITY. If the thing is set up and nobody contributes, then it will die. The contributory aspect of a wiki is far more important than most people have yet come to understand.

I also think that the concept of a knitting wiki is 100% in line with your philosophy of “saving the world from mass production.” A wiki is by its nature anti-corporate and pro-community. If done right, it is also the very best way to assure that the information you are reading is of the highest quality possible. Quality, anti-corporate, contributory – yup, there is real overlap with “saving the world from mass production!”

I love the podcast – thank you so much for all the work you put into it. One of the very best things about it (though there are many) is the music. I knew that there was great indy music “out there” but never knew how to find it before listening to your podcast.

I wanted to say I appreciated your comments and clarifications about Wikipedia in this episode. And upon your invitation to further this discussion I went back and read Nick’s comments from episode 39, looked at the knitting page in Wikipedia and read through the above comments to see how everyone was weighing in. I agree with Nick that we should go for expanding the Wikipedia page, as Gemma observes above, it is such a centrally located, and well known, site. And I agree, Brenda, that it is a great resource for those who do not have access to a wide range of information in various forms, such as in libraries. Let us embrace Wikipedia , recognize its limitations and acknowledge its possibilities far exceed its short-comings. Let us take it upon ourselves, as you have suggested before Brenda, to make the knitting page on Wikipedia the best it can be. And, as Jordon suggests above, lets explore the possiblities of what a dedicated knitting wiki could be. How can it go beyond the Wikipedia page (links to blogs, podcasts, local groups, events of interest)? How can it incorporate similar ideas? Would a knitting wiki need to be very structured in its organization or more organic and dynamic in how information is contributed and displayed to users? I think all this will be determined by those in the knitting community who choose to engage in such a project and how their ideas about what a knitting community is will manifest themselves in a wiki. Brenda, I’m very exicted that you have allowed this discussion to grow and am very interested to see what comes of it. As a very new knitter, I have only been knitting since May of this year, I lament at the fact that I have very little knitting knowledge to contribute, but rejoice in the fact that such easy access to information and knowledge from so many sources is possible. Thank you so much for all your efforts.

Carrie

Wiki How – http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

When you first mentioned the encyclopedia at the end of the last series, I was very excited about the idea of a knitting wiki. Then, when you instead proposed a major overhaul of the Wikipedia’s knitting section, I was awed. That’s a big, exciting idea. I know there are some problems with it, but it’s still a great idea.

So, why don’t we do both? As a knitter, one of the things I really want from a knitting wiki is a compilation of all the great info on people’s blogs. All the tricks and techniques that have been invented, or passed down from a blogger’s grandparent, etc. You know–there would be a page for each type of sock heel imaginable, and a page with nothing but links to each heel. Exciting!

However, the Wikipedia’s knitting section needs some help. It’s important for us to contribute to this resource. I think once the knitting wiki gets going (wikiknit? knit-a-wiki?) it’ll become clear what types of general knitting info can be ported over to Wikipedia.

Thanks for a great show every week!

Good luck – please let us all know how your weaving fun progresses.