Thursday, 23 July 2009

Pastures New

If you'd like to keep up with the Sheep, please head over to the new website www.hoxtonhandmade.com

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Episode 16: Tea & Sympathy

This week we're talking about the nation's favourite drink. Plus we find out who's won the plinth competition and some lovely Koigu yarn, and the comedy delights to be found in town, in podcasts and in essays.

Tea & Sympathy

The UK Tea Council

Eddie Izzard - Tea & Cake or Death?

The Girl & Dean

The podcasts: BBC Friday Night Comedy; This American Life

The books: A Point Of View by Lisa Jardine; Letter From America by Alistair Cooke; Ex Libris and At Large And At Small by Anne Fadiman

Where I'm off to...

Sunday, 12 July 2009

Episode 15: One And Other

This week the Sheep comes over all artistic, looking at Anthony Gormley's One And Other art project for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Plus there's a competition, a handmade film review and a seriously cool bit of yarnstorming.

One And Other

Ravelry - Knitters on the Plinth

Bunny And The Bull

Knit the City


Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Dudecraft Review

I was delighted to discover this morning over on Dudecraft that Electric Sheep was Friday's post on the blog! Here's what he said:

Recently, Hoxton Handmade from the Electric Sheep podcast asked me for a short bit of writing regarding my thoughts about gender and crafting for her podcast. I just listened to the resulting show and I gotta say, it's fantastic. She's got a great voice, great delivery, well thought out ideas and made a half hour fly by. Head here to check out the episode on gender and crafting: Episode 12 - Slugs and Snails



Monday, 6 July 2009

Episode 14: Mad Dogs & Englishmen

This week London has been sweltering in the heat. Noel Coward had a point and we’ve all been out in the midday sun a little too much lately. So it’s time for Britain’s favourite pastime, as we talk about the weather and what to knit when it’s hot. Plus another crazy knitted ensemble, courtesy of Sacha Baron Cohen; a fantastic animated short film featuring a knitter with whom I’m sure you’ll empathise; and the Rowan sweater that’s becoming the Sheep’s nemesis.

Of course by the time of going to press, the temperature’s back to normal and the rain has started up again, but I guess that only proves the unpredictability of the English climate…

Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Noel Coward

Farah (scroll down to see the Sweater)

Bruno in Berlin

The Last Knit

Holy Moly Batman!

I'm in the Stitch & Bitch newsletter! The Sheep's first ever bit of publicity, I feel very honoured.

I'm not very good with the random questions, attempting to be witty and interesting in the space of six words and probably failing at both. Nevertheless if you have made it over here thanks for taking a look and I hope you enjoy what you find.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the link on the right, where there are various options to play, download or subscribe. You can also choose to subscribe through iTunes.

A new episode will be coming soon....

Monday, 29 June 2009

Episode 13: Heroes & Legends

We’re going back a few thousand years in search of fairytales, heroes and pagans. As you do. Plus I tackle a creature of mythical proportions and we bid farewell to a modern day legend. Fortunately the latest issue of Knitty, and one of our lovely listeners, bring the Sheep back to the knitting.

The Jabberwocky

President Obama vs The Fly

Stonehenge

Eddie Izzard – Stonehenge

Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers

BGT – Signature

BGT – George Sampson

Knitty

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Pastures New

Apologies if you can't find the new episode in the iTunes Store. Boring tech stuff means I have to resubmit the podcast with the new server/feed details. Once it's back in there, you may need to re-subscribe to the show to get the new episodes to download automatically. You should only have to do this once now that I have lots of lovely bandwidth on the new server.

In the meantime, you can still listen to the new ep, and all the others, by clicking the Listen Here link on the right.

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Episode 12: Slugs & Snails

The Sheep is back! Apologies for the delay in getting this episode out, but Hoxton Towers had to be seriously re-vamped. We now have enough bandwidth for the Sheep to frollick merrily in pastures new.

In celebration of Fathers’ Day, this week it’s all about the boys. I’ll be venting my wrath over gender stereotypes, celebrating some crafty menfolk and taking a look at fellow Men Who Knit. Plus get the lowdown on the subject from the talented Brooklyn Tweed and DudeCraft, who both kindly contributed their thoughts to this week’s show.
With a little more beef than usual, it’s a bumper episode:
Brooklyn Tweed
DudeCraft
Troon Tweed
Lanark Tweed
The Panopticon
iKnit
It’s a Purl, Man
Sticks and String
Look who’s coming…

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Sheep Unplugged

To the 127 people who have downloaded the latest episode in the last 36 hours, I thank you. To the 169 people who have listened to the episode before that, I thank you too. However, you have slightly overwhelmed my humble podcasting system.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled, it's wonderful, really, but where in god's name have you all come from?! I thought I had about 50 listeners per episode and was jolly pleased with that, and now it's tripled in the space of a week!

In April, the little Sheep used 3GB of bandwidth. In May it was 13GB. And in June, it's 24GB in the first two weeks. 25GB is the limit of my current system, after which alternative plans must be made to save the Sheep from falling silent.

Hopefully, none of this should interrupt your listening pleasure, but if you have any problems downloading the show, this will probably be why. I'm sorting out some emergency bandwidth, so it should all keep working fine (I hope).

So please bear with me. I am beyond lucky to have a brother who is, well, brilliant generally, but also a tech-whizz who does this stuff for a living, so he's helping me sort out a slightly more grown-up website and some mega storage and bandwidth for the podcast.

But seriously, I'm thrilled and I thank all of you for listening.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Ep. 11 London & The Crawl

World Wide Knit In Public Day, and what better way to celebrate than with Stitch'n'Bitch London's Knit Crawl.  Debating knitting alone versus knitting en masse, I report back from the tashtastic adventure. Plus a rundown of what other knitters have been up to in public.

And the Crawl inspires a look around town at some of the quirky attractions on offer if you're in search of an alternative tour of London.






Saturday, 6 June 2009

Ep.10 Colds & Blasphemy

Sounding a little different this week as I speak to you through a heavy cold.  So bear with me through the first few minutes as the sound equipment gets confused by the change in pitch.

Anyway, this week, knitting blasphemies and negative knitters, followed by some seriously stylish older folk and the latest issue of the Twist Collective.



100 Greatest Movie Lines


Monday, 25 May 2009

Ep.9: Copyright & Wrong

Apologies again for the chaotic iTunes listings.  iTunes lists episodes by publishing date, I had two episodes out of sequence and one episode ended up with the wrong audio file attached. Correcting this meant re-publishing everything.  But then that meant subscribers kept getting previous episodes downloaded.  So I've stopped trying to fix it and am going to credit listeners with having enough intelligence to find the earlier episodes they want - they're all clearly labelled and, in any case, can be listened to out of order.

Anyway, back to this week.  We're talking about copyright.  In case that doesn't get your needles clicking, we're also taking a look at a new man-made fibre from Rowan and yet another unbelievable YouTube knitting video.

This week's links:

Holiday sweater (Ravelry)




Wednesday, 20 May 2009

iTunes Listing

Just to say I know iTunes has the episodes listed in an odd order.  I had issues uploading one episode, then another somehow got replaced with the wrong audio file.  And in replacing that everything has gone out of sync.

I'm going to start from the beginning, and completely re-upload the files as iTunes lists them by their publishing date and after that you can't change it, so hopefully there'll be a bit more logic to it, although all the episodes will then have the same date.  Sigh.  Joys of technology.  But I'll sort it out eventually....

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Ep.8: Hunting Words & Telling Tales

This episode is all about words, language and stories.  Plus miniature knitting making appearances in film and performances on Eurovision that could be works of fiction.  

This week's links:











Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Ep.7: Whales & Guerrillas

Arghh, the perils of technology. I've spent the past two days trying to upload this episode. Clearly the internet pixies are having a good old laugh at my expense. Th irony being, of course, that this week's show is all about failure. 
Along with the Fail Whale are creatures of a different ilk - the Craft Guerrillas and their happenings around town. Plus Failure Magazine, some crochet with a worthy cause and a journalist who may have to go into hiding from a band of angry knitters...

This week's links:




Monday, 4 May 2009

Ep.6: May Day & Morris Dancing

It's the May Day Bank Holiday so this week we're talking about Englishness and a few of the more eccentric traditions of Britain.

Also, there's a quick look at the two sweaters I'm working on and a few knitting eccentrics on the web.

To listen, click on the button to the right.  From the next page you can opt to download via iTunes. I'm working on getting the podcast listed in the iTunes Store.

This week's links:







Sunday, 26 April 2009

Ep.5: Fact & Fiction

This week we're talking about fantasy knitting, when the project in your head isn't quite the project in your hands.

Then, if your grasp of your finances is more fiction than fact, here are a few places to find some credit-crunch friendly yarn.

Plus some ideas of free ways to enjoy London and a village in Kent that's been celebrating a fictional version of itself.














Sunday, 19 April 2009

Episode 4: Winifred & Kathleen

In this week's episode we're talking about grandparents, the Victoria & Albert Museum and some alternative night's out around London that mix the old and new. 

To listen simply follow the link on the right.

This week's links:








Saturday, 11 April 2009

Episode 3: Anarchy & Chocolate

Happy Easter - hope everyone's enjoying the long weekend and eating lots of chocolate.

This week we're looking at Guerrilla Knitting, handmade courses and the best online shopping for something a little more original.

This week's links:

Knitta Please - graffiti knitters



Questionable Content - comic strip

Sunday, 5 April 2009

Musical Sheep

Those of you who have listened to both episodes will have heard that the most recent has a rather more polished soundtrack. I found it incredibly difficult to get a good, podsafe song that had the sound I wanted. But thanks to the wizardry available through Garageband I was able to make one of my own. 

The lovely Hello Knitty was kind enough to say how much she liked the music and was disappointed it wasn't a 'proper' song that she could download. Well, who am I to disappoint my generous (and at this stage rather select) listeners? So, the full-length version has been uploaded to the podcast feed and you should be able to download it through iTunes by following the usual subscription link on the right. Enjoy!

By the way, if you're having problems accessing the first episode, my apologies. It was recorded and uploaded through a different computer and although it's set up correctly with the host website, I haven't quite straightened out Feedburner yet and sometimes it seems you get the second episode instead. The first is around if you have a hunt/follow a couple of click-throughs, but I'm working on fixing it. 

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Episode 2: Knit & Be Damned

I meant to upload this yesterday but it's taken my little dongle an hour and forty-five minutes to manage this Herculean task. 

But here, for you listening pleasure, is episode two. This week I'll be sharing my frustrations at some people's perception of knitting, and talking about knitting in public. I'll also be taking a look at the latest issue of Knitty; some great online knitting tutorials for those tricky techniques; and having a bit of a giggle at some Welsh sheep farmers who have a lot of time on their hands...

All thoughts, comments, feedback and suggestions welcome - just drop me an email.

This week's links:







Friday, 27 March 2009

Episode 1: Twitter & Kitsch

Welcome to the first episode of Electric Sheep, a podcast that takes a look at all things knit on the web and around London.

Still something of a prototype, so bear with me as I iron out the technical glitches and try to find some interesting stuff to waffle about. Hopefully the sound quality will improve as I get the hang of things.

This first attempt is at least brief - about 20 minutes - so consider it a taster to whet your aural appetite.

To listen, simply click on the subscribe button to the right. You can also download it through iTunes.

Hope you enjoy and please email me your comments and suggestions.

This week's links:

Hoxton Handmade

Twitter

What Not To Knit

You Knit What

Museum of Kitschy Stitches