SpiDev - spi.xfer([xxx]) -> Invaild argument error -> what?

Question

I got trouble with a seemingly dumb-proofly simple code:

import time
import pigpio
import spidev

DS = 17
STCP = 27
SHCP = 22
MR = 5

spi = spidev.SpiDev()
spi.open(0, 0)
spi.xfer([0b10011011])

Running the code gives error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "shiftreg.py", line 12, in <module>
        spi.xfer([0b10011011])
    IOError: [Errno 22] Invaild argument

I tried using spi.xfer(0b10011011), throws

TypeError: Argument must be a list of least one, but not more than 4096 integers

Using list(0b10011011) does not work, of course:

TypeError: 'int' object is not iterable

As you see, I am only at the very beginning of the code (yust waned to try out how the default SPI setup works with a shift register), so there are unused variables and imports. Since all my parenthesis are okey, the code complies well, I am pretty much in a WTF state now.

((unrelated, but if I am here with this code...) Oh, and if you know any good rescource for controlling a shift register via SPI, please let me know.)