What’s not to love about Austin? For the past two years, I’ve headed to Texas for South by Southwest. People’s eyes light up when I say that until I qualify it with, “the nerd one, not the music part.” Last year, I met Jenny of Stash and Burn there, but, alas, she wasn’t there this year.

Julia, of yarnmaven.com to the rescue! I also met her last year, but this year she took me under her wing and we ran all over town and the conference. Thank you, Julia! (and happy birthday, one day late) It’s sad that I don’t have a picture of us together!

Conference-wise, the first few days weren’t impressive. Maybe I picked the wrong panels, but by the end, I was glad work sent me. The most interesting thing I saw was GetSatisfaction.com. Go forth, knitters, and let’s take it over!

Sadly, the High-Tech Craft: Why Sewing and Knitting Still Matter panel, moderated by Natalie Zee Drieu from CRAFT magazine was a disappointment. At least on the knitting front. It was more about sewing technology onto garments or toys, not how technology is changing knitting and sewing or how knitting and sewing hold their own in this modern age. Hear for yourself: .mp3 of the panel.

It just so happened a good friend from high school was presenting at the conference. Mike Essl was a year behind me, and I used to mock him for wanting to be a graphic designer, only we called it commercial artist back then. Who knew copying heavy metal album covers would result in becoming a ? When I wasn’t with Julia, I pal’ed around with him and his girlfriend, the lovely Mia.

This is getting long, but I couldn’t recap the trip without mentioning eating. If you’re ever headed there, be sure to snack on queso, try migas for breakfast, drink Lone Star, and get your vegan on at Veggie Heaven.

Finally, there was knitting. A lot more knitting than I get done at home. I was working on a secret sock the entire time, test knitting an INSANELY handsome design. I dropped in to the Sunday morning Hill Country Weavers where I met all the Texas knit bloggers last year. However, on Monday, Julia and I went to the Knitting Nest, my new favorite Austin LYS. Stacy has a fabulous shop. Her talented daughter Amanda took the photo of me above (Thanks for the shirt!). And I met some cool kids, MissKate (on Rav), pickardhuff (on Rav) and TwistedString. Next time, I’ll bring something easier to knit, so I’m more chatty.

Phew! That’s it. If you want more, check out a few more photos.

Finally getting around to cleaning out my camera. Pictures for Austin are up at Flickr, as are photos of this hat drying. I finished knitting it long ago, but it sat unblocked, ends not sewn in, for months. Finally, it’s been given to its intended recipient, the very talented Jeff.

I highly recommend this for a first time stranded/color knitting project: Hello Yarn’s We Call Them Pirates.

But, heck, I’d pretty much knit anything she puts out there!

Episode 4 was just posted at yknit.com.

iTunes has been pinged, for all of you who get it that way. It should be up tonight!

Enjoy, and (if you do) thanks for listening.

I haven’t gotten around to writing about my Austin experience just yet, so here’s so shopping to keep you busy. Threadless (who threw a party in at SXSWi) is having another sale!

Here’s what I just bought:

Prices start at $9. Enjoy!

Happy birthday, Flickr.com!

Thank you for providing a place for me to put my photos, and making it simple to put pretty pictures here in my blog-a-doodle thing.

And, thanks for a great time tonight. I’m glad you invited everyone to your little party.

Although I didn’t enjoy one of the multitude of cupcakes, I really liked the two Hoegaarden‘s (Hoegaardeni?) Oh, and the free t-shirt! That was kind. You didn’t have to…

It was fun to stand in a packed bar with other geeks… I felt like I was in Austin all over again. Like a SXSW after-party!

Keep up the great work. I wish you another 44 years of flickr-y goodness.

I finally succumbed to the juggernaut that is Facebook.

Yes, I signed up. For work research purposes… I don’t plan on spending much time there. It’s no Ravelry!

Perhaps it was a little too much Web 2.0 at SXSWi this past week. Perhaps it was just inevitable.

Feel free to ignore my friend-vitation is I spammed your inbox.

Also, feel free to sing the praises of this application, ’cause I just don’t get it.

Remember when it was all UNIX chat rooms, USENET groups and IRC?

My sxsw mini summary was eaten by my phone. I’ll update more in-depth when I have my laptop.

The short, short version includes old friends, lots of knitting and delicious migas and queso. (Look it up.)

I’m missing home, the man and the dog.

So, I had the best intentions to write up a big Stitches recap, including who I ran into, podcast audio drama and thoughts on the entire weekend. Then, there was my company trip to Tahoe and my paltry attempts at snowboarding (It only lasted one run.) after those two posts, there was going to be my rah-rah Austin-let’s-knit at SxSWi! rallying cry (after much research and ravelery-ing).

But best intentions aside, I never sat down and wrote. Now I’m in Texas and panels have begun (and I haven’t eaten yet). I’m just gonna roll with it.

For now, I need something edible.

It was a super-duper yarn-filled weekend, thanks to Stitches West.

I need to take time to compose my thoughts and detail what happened, but I wanted to give you a little bit of this yumminess: me making out with Cookie.

Y Knit was out and about recording and talking with our knitting brethren (and sister-ren).

More later.

The second episode of Y KNIT was posted today, but the RSS feed has a bit fiddle-y. It hasn’t shown up in iTunes yet, but after a visit to Feedburner and poking around, the second episode suddenly appeared on our feed page. So, it’s probably just a matter of time until it’s on its way to your poddy-doodle.

If I may brag, due to how we’re listed in iTunes’ Design category (as opposed to Arts or Games & Hobbies), and perhaps a dearth of Design podcasts today, we were today’s #3 podcast! Let’s hear it for meaningless rankings in obscure sub-categories. Look for a screenshot when we hit #1.

In episode 2, we talk about art vs. craft, inspired by an interview with Sabrina Gschwandter, artist and founder/curator/publisher of KNITKNIT. And to thank you for listening, there’s another contest!

Tomorrow, I’m venturing off to STITCHES West. I’m not sure what to expect other than being overwhelmed by long before I’m ready to leave. I’d like to keep up my embargo on buying new yarn. I have more than enough to last me for years (like many of you, I assume). However, I am interested in seeing what’s out there in natural colors… pure animal fiber, no dyeing, minimal chemical processing. Is anyone make sock yarn like that?

We’re hoping to grab audio from whomever will be kind enough to chat, especially the fellows! I’m going to focus on having a good time with the people, friends new and old, and not let the buy-buy-buy-sell-sell-sell trade show aspect get me down.

I won’t be naked in a tub, as in my Ravatar, but imagine a guy like that, with more clothes on and better lighting. I’ll be the one with the bouffy hair and a microphone.