Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Sock Wars 2

Sock Wars 2
The story from the Wall Street Journal.

There's even a video.

And who said that knitters were sedate? And he always uses the feminine pronoun (which I've come to expect.)

Bookmark this site

go to it regularly so you can feel smart (or get smarter) and help feed people. 

FreeRice

Thank you. 

Monday, December 17, 2007

12 days of Christmas

KnitMary (who hasn't blogged since October because she's been busy getting a 4.0 in college!) sent this to me. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Nice T-shirt

I think I like this idea.
Don't you? A Wifi Detector T-shirt. I don't work in IT, but I think everyone who works with a wireless network connection should have one of these. Can't you just see it?

"I don't have a wireless connection!"
"Yes you do, see my shirt."

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Overheard at knitting

Noro Sock yarn arrived and I bought 10 skeins. Gifted to KnitMary was this skein. She was excited and opted to CO immediately. She was working nicely on the ribbing. While she was pulling yarn out from the center, she had a bit of trouble. So she yanked it out and look what happened.
Noro Sock Yarn...interesting

Songferret was heard commenting about the pulled out part "gee, my mom usually puts that to the side and uses it to make gravy." That made us all laugh!

Nice photo

Check the Dave & Bry flickr images.

I want one of some yarn that I have.

( 12/12/07) I corrected the link to the right set.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Stripes resource

Found this stripe generator online. Don't know where I found it but its a nice resource if you need help. It's from Kiss Your Shadow

Monday, December 10, 2007

That Was Quick

I visited Amaz0n on friday and did a bit of "feel good shopping." We've all done that, right?
Almost all of what I got was knitting related. 4 dvds and two books.

Knitting Around with Elizabeth Zimmermann & Meg Swansen. Own the book and like watching EZ and MS knit.
Knitting Lace with Meg Swansen. Getting lace obsessed and thought this might be a good watch.
Knitting a Guernsey Pullover. I've not done one and thought it would be fun to see this being knitted.
Knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket. Yep. I've got to make a few more and this will be fun to watch. And it has extra stuff on it!

I must admit, I like watching knitting videos but not knitting what they are showing in the video. These items will probably be viewed when I need to escape. I'll report back on them after the holidays.

Knit Kimono has been one of those books that I heard about on L&V Podcast and thought "I should really take a look at it." And I got it from the library and thought, "There are enough patterns that I would knit in this book that I should just buy it!" So I did.

And KnitMary brought her copy of Kaffe Knits Again: 24 Original Designs Updated for Today's Knitters and I saw a few sweaters that I might consider knitting. Truth be told, intarsia scares me more than it should so I should probably put intarsia on my to-do-list.

Those are my additions. I like them. :)

This is not currently on my to-do-list

But it's kinda funny.
Go here.

A new way to discover music? And knitting?

It amazes me (but it shouldn't after all these years) that things come across my life in interesting sets. 
The library just changed its catalog searching using a new technology called AquaBrowser.  I like it because it give great visual options that aren't always linear in thought.  I'm s u r r o u n d e d by people who are linear thinkers.  I'm not, usually a linear thinker. 
I happened upon this site musicmesh that also uses the same display for its searching.  Nice way to lead into new music, isn't it? 
I wonder if there is anything like this for knitting? 

Is there something out there that does the visual representation between projects and offers different ideas? 
Raverly may be able to help me and to be honest with you, I've not spent much time exploring?  Are you on Ravelry?  I am.  Did you "friend" me yet?  I think R does this...but I've not put enough information in yet. I am scared I may not be able to stop adding stuff...it looks like a lot of fun


Sunday, December 9, 2007

Christmas Knitting?

*gasp*
Christmas is coming up quickly. I've got quite a few items on my 2007 Christmas list and many patient people waiting for socks, house slippers, a shrug and three shawls. Yes, I've had enough notice to get all of this stuff done in a timely fashion. And I've made choices not to knit on things because of what was going on in front of me. I often don't knit when I'm under a grea deal of stress. I don't want "that stuff" in knitting, do you?

My in-laws are coming to our house to celebrate Christmas on Tuesday, the 18th. (yes, that was my heart that was stopping because this removes 1 week or 7 days or 168 hours or 10,080 minutes or even 604,800 seconds. *sigh* And on top of the knitting, I need to declutter my dining room. It seems that knitSB would like to be able to have family sit around one table for a meal! Imagine. :)

Tonight, I've been able to clear out much of the "junk" that needed clearing in the dining room. What's left is really a good cleaning and rearranging. it will be fairly easy because we'll work together.

In-law gifts are almost done. MIL house socks done. They've been washed and dried. I have yet to take photos of them. I knit them using three strands of Rowan Calmer. I don't remember the colors but I will when I post the pictures. I knit them from toe up with an afterthought heel. I created a cable pattern for the top of the socks. I like them.

My BIL (knitSB's brother) will receive a Peruvian Alpaca K2,P2 hat taken from Hip To Knit by Judith Swartz. I like this book. It has some great designs including a cabled vest that I would enjoy knitting. knitSB finished the knitting on Wednesday. It's a wonderful feeling hat. I helped knit it because I cast-on the sts and completed several incidents of forensic knitting.

Now for my future SIL's socks. I'm doing toe-up holding two strands of Wildfoote Sock Yarn. I wanted to use a larger needle to have the knitting go faster (elderberry and bluegrass are the yarns). They are knitting faster on a size 3 than on a size 1 needle. I'm glad. I am doing two-at-once on one circular needle. I think I'm going to try to do some lacy pattern on the leg to get the socks to be taller. I just don't know what pattern to use.

Songferret purchased some wonderful alpaca yarn from Swisher Creek Alpaca. It's a yummy yarn that will be very nice house slippers. Thanks for your patience, Songferret. The goal is by New Years.

N-cubed has been waiting on some socks knit using a wonderful Cider Moon glacier in Casablanca color. (no word about Cider Moon, btw.) I has a nice pattern from these socks and I need to sit down and cast on!

Then I was going to make a shrug inspired by the Knitscene shrug. (click here if you want to download). It is going to be colorful and artistic. I just wonder when I'm going to get to it.

I guess I should be knitting. :)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

he still exists

Been a busy time.
Let me give you a bullet list of details:
  • After John died, knitSB and I went to England. You can see pictures.
  • Work continued without me and therefore piled up.
  • I finished my shawl for my sister. See?
HPIM2782.JPG
  • I think I might be hooked on lace knitting.
  • My family celebrates "Thanksmas" on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It's a good thing.
  • My mom missed Thanksgiving and "Thanksmas" because she was in the hospital with intestinal pains. This on top of her continual heart problems.
  • She was in a lot of pain. They ran lots of tests. Painful tests.
  • She had a heart cath that showed no serious blockage. (A good thing!)
  • They "cleaned her out" and then did they did the hernia repair. All the kids were there to support mom.
  • She's much better and should be released soon.
  • I attending a training session last week on instructional design. Amazingly great workshop that I'm already starting to apply the skills learned.
  • I finished my MIL's house socks. I'll take some pictures later.
  • I'm working on my (future) SIL's socks. They're going well.
There you have it. Updates more regularly including knitting content.