Three week’s progress: 86 fish for a total of 176 fish completed at this time.

Fish Joining the Fishbowl
3 chocolate brown, 6 grape, 6 dark country blue, 6country blue, 6 gray heather, 6 berry blue, 6 violet, 6 blue mint, 6 autumn red, 6 pink, 6 orchid, 6 iris, 6 sundrop, 6 sping (green), 6 aqua mist

Previous Fish
90 fish: 2 red from stash, 6 orange from stash, 5 yellow from stash, 1 chocolate brown from stash, 1 purple from stash, 6 cream/off-white from stash, 6 watermelon pink, 6 limelight green, 6 lemonade yellow, 6 dark sage green, 6 forest floor green, 6 mango orange-yellow, 6 truffle heather (brownish-purple), 7 soft blue, 5 red, 6 light country peach, 6 bone (khaki), 3 chocolate brown

This post was supposed to appear December 4th, but I was too busy knitting fish, laying them out and knitting more fish. I have pictures, but again, I need to finish this by Saturday, ACK!

when public add tags: tessellate, fish, blanket

Tags: blanket, Christmas, fish, knitting, tessellate

This week’s progress: 29 fish for a total of 90 fish completed at this time.

Fish Joining the Fishbowl
29 fish: 2 truffle heather (brownish-purple), 7 soft blue (oops), 5 red, 6 light country peach, 6 bone (khaki), 3 chocolate brown

Previous Fish
61 fish: 2 red from stash, 6 orange from stash, 5 yellow from stash, 1 chocolate brown from stash, 1 purple from stash, 6 cream/off-white from stash, 6 watermelon pink, 6 limelight green, 6 lemonade yellow, 6 dark sage green, 6 forest floor green, 6 mango orange-yellow, and 4 truffle heather (brownish-purple).

when public add tags: tessellate, fish, blanket

Tags: blanket, Christmas, fish, knitting, tessellate

Fish count Friday?

It’s still not Friday, but it is time for a fish update. As previously stated, this post is protected until after Christmas so the recipient won’t accidentally spoil his surprise.

This week’s progress: 29 fish for a total of 61 fish completed at this time, not quite the halfway point, which concerns me. I needed to be at least halfway through the fish making process by now. I need to find my muse earlier in the year or choose quicker knits. On the brighter side, I have the fish pattern memorized and I almost doubled my total. After 52 fish one would hope so.

New Fish (29)
1 more limelight green, 6 lemonade yellow, 6 dark sage green, 6 forest floor green, 6 mango orange-yellow, and 4 truffle heather (brownish-purple)

Previous Fish (32)
2 red from stash, 6 orange from stash, 5 yellow from stash, 1 chocolate brown from stash, 1 purple from stash, 6 cream/off-white from stash, 6 watermelon pink, 5 limelight green.

when public add tags: tessellate, fish, blanket

Tags: blanket, Christmas, fish, knitting, tessellate

Threaden (a.) Made of thread; as, threaden sails; a threaden fillet.
Yarn (n.) Spun wool; woolen thread; also, thread of other material, as of cotton, flax, hemp, or silk; material spun and prepared for use in weaving, knitting, manufacturing sewing thread, or the like.

Threaden Thursdays are a review of my knitting, however, I can’t write too much because I am exclusively Christmas knitting right now. I can tell you that it’s coming along nicely. I like that in these initial stages, the project is entirely portable. Since the weather is cold, I’ve been wearing my hoodie nearly all the time. A skein of yarn fits perfectly in the pocket and I pull the yarn from the center and walk around knitting. I’m sure people think I’m a bit weird, but I’ve been weird most of my life. While visiting with friends in GR who understand my quirks, I was able to make a little progress.

My second post for today will have Christmas knitting updates, leave a comment here if you’d like me to email you the password. Please don’t post your email address in the comment area, just fill it out in the name/website/email area of the comment form.

I designed a coolie yarn ball graphic for Threaden Thursdays and that’s about it for today. Well, actually I designed it twice, I had it near perfect and forgot that my computer doesn’t like to multitask. GIMP hung and I lost most of it, but I had enough saved to try again. I liked the first one better, but I couldn’t remember what I actually did. .I tried to find a tutorial online, no such luck. Then I tried to find a nice clipart type graphic, no luck there either. I did find a graphic that I could purchase the rights to for almost $8, but I can’t rationalize purchasing something because I’m too lazy to do it myself. Have I mentioned how wonderful GIMP is recently? A simple circle, then a few paths converted to curves and ta-da!

Tags: graphics, knitting, threaden

I would much rather title this post “Festive Fish Friday,” but that would give away the project to someone and it’s not Friday. Here are some current photos of fish.

I have a total of 32 (35) fish in the following colors: 2 red from stash, 6 orange from stash, 5 yellow from stash, 1 chocolate brown from stash, 1 purple from stash, 6 cream/off-white from stash, 6 watermelon pink, 5 limelight green, & 3 too big and armor-like burgundy fish. I am not going to be using those last 3 burgundy ones, but they still count ’cause they’re fish.

when public add tags: tessellate, fish, blanket

Tags: blanket, Christmas, fish, knitting, tessellate

My goal is week is to start checking off my 101 things in 1001 days. While the list itself is not posted here, there is a 101 in 1001 category attached to any post discussing my adventures. In November, I plan to tackle reviewing websites, reading/reviewing biographies, reading/reviewing classics and any art/craft ones I can reasonably complete. I say reasonably complete because I am heavily into Christmas knitting, which I am unable to blog about much because my Christmas Elf recipient has been known to read here. I may post anyway, but mark and private/password. This will allow me to let non-husband-family to track progress. Please leave a comment if you find a password/private post you would like to read. Use a valid email address in the email box and I’ll gladly send it over to you.

101 in 1001 progress:

• #25 on my art/craft list: calculate number of yards in stash ~ this was complete until I purchased yarn for Christmas projects, but that is Christmas/Charity stash. I don’t want that mixed in with my everyday stash.
• #23 on my art/craft list: sort Ravelry queue, prioritize into realistic time frame ~ I haven’t attached a time frame, but I’ve cleaned up the queue and tagged it to make it easier to find projects.
• #18 finish and document instructions for R2D2 beanie hat modifications ~ completed!
• #21 I frogged the blanket I wasn’t going to finish, but I haven’t made the hoodie yet.

Tags: 101 in 1001, Christmas, knitting

After knitting an intarsia project, I am actually excited to find that I enjoyed it. While working on the hat, I was contemplating what to make for for my family Christmas Elf project. I have settled on an intarsia something that I will have to create a pattern for myself. I have searched high and low for a pattern to no avail. Rest assured, I will document my progress in vague terms so that all will be surprised for Christmas.

Vague progress question number one, did you know you could knit a circle? I didn’t, but I found a way. It’s not half bad. It looks a bit odd, but it’s a circle nonetheless and should work out just fine.

Friday evening, we went to town and I picked up some yarn, I needed a lot of colors of yarn for my project. Sadly, I won’t need much of each color, I think. I really don’t know. I may be making one for every Christmas Elf project for the next 10 years if I’m not careful. Now, how to store 14 skeins of new yarn. This project was supposed to use up some of the yarns in my stash, not add more to it!!!! Oh well, better luck next time I suppose.

Tags: Christmas, intarsia, knitting

My mother taught me to knit when I was a teenager. I had lofty goals of knitting my new baby cousin a blanket. I think I successfully learned how to cast on from her and the knit stitch, English style. She let me raid her stash, since I knew the baby was going to be a boy, I chose brown, not a warm brown, more dark. I started knitting a blanket, not quite wide enough, in brown yarn using only the knit stitch, also called garter stitch. I didn’t finish it, ever. I couldn’t even tell you if it still exists somewhere, I think I may have taken it apart (frogged/ripped) and made pom-poms out of it. I didn’t think much about knitting again until my early twenties. I found a pattern in a magazine, bought some needles and yarn, then tried to teach myself from the pictures in the back of the magazine. My fingers refused to connect. I found a friend of the family to show me, again and again, how to cast on, and slowly my fingers worked again. The sweater fell by the wayside when I couldn’t make quick enough progress, it’s now an unfinished blanket, but I am going to turn it back into a different sweater (I think). Four or five years ago I started knitting again, this time to stay for a long while. I’m finally motivated enough to complete projects. Most of that motivation comes from choosing projects I am capable of finishing, with only one or two new strategies per projects. I have retaught myself knitting, this time Continental style as it is easier on my arm and hands. I started think about what kind of knitter I am, process or project. Do I knit for the fun of knitting or for the final work? Everyone I have ever heard analyze him/herself was one or the other. At my current level of expertise (or lack there of), I have to be noncommittal and say I am both. I knit for the process when I learn new techniques and rip back until it’s correct. I knit for the final project because I won’t/can’t finish something that I or another won’t value.

Why do you craft? Why do you knit? Why are you passionate about your hobbies and activities? What keeps you going?

Tags: knitting

In April, I sat down and listed all of the knitting related podcasts in recent subscription. Many of those are still in my list, a few have gone by the way, several are on summer hiatus. Due to a nearly empty iPod, I have subscribed to a few more with the hopes of education and entertainment. To make the cut the podcast had to be currently recording and related to knitting. I present another list and will add critique as applicable with a standard disclaimer and a twist. You may find objectionable content at the following links, I cannot attest as I have not previewed. Just sharing the wealth of knowledge currently at my fingertips.

• Craft Mentality | iTunes
  After giving it a month or so, I can’t listen anymore. While the content is intriguing, I can’t take all the “um,” “a,” “like,” and “ya’ know” anymore. 9/2008
• Double Knit | iTunes
  The volume varies so widely that I have to constantly adjust. I finally just deleted it. 9/2008
• Dyeing to Knit | iTunes
• Knaked Knit | iTunes - This may sound picky, but I don’t like some of the personal values I hear. She wanted more yarn money, so she admits to acting more upset than she really was so her husband would let her spend more than the agreed upon amount. She made reference to not being able to do everything she wanted to do, after listing all the things she had just wasted a bunch of time doing. No sympathy here, spend time as you wish, but don’t act as if time is not there when you have already admitted you wasted it on other things.
• The Knitter’s Wading Pool | iTunes
• Knitting Rose | iTunes
  The volume varies so widely that I have to constantly adjust. I finally just deleted it. 9/2008
• The Manic Purl Podcast | iTunes
  The volume varies so widely that I have to constantly adjust. I finally just deleted it. 9/2008
• Never Not Knitting | iTunes
• SockTart! | iTunes - Too much World of Warcraft, at first it didn’t bother me, but the amount of time spent talking about it has increased.

Tags: iTunes, knit, knitting, podcast

My mom, dad and stepsister came for a visit last week. Everyone had a good time, until stepsister got sick. She’s better now. Dad P found a pontoon for us to borrow and we spent time on what I thought was a lake. It turns out it’s the river. It was so calm and fairly empty during the day. I need to kayak on it. We had Granny over the other night for waffles and cribbage.

I’ve been working on the slipper sock for Granny’s friend. It’s slow going because I am not happy and rip out my work. I made a lot of progress two weekends ago at Big Ticket Festival in Gaylord, MI. I need to write about that, but I’m not sure what to say other than I enjoyed a flexible weekend of wonderful praise and worship music. Next year I am going to spend some time researching all the bands so I know what I want to hear. I had only heard of 10 of the 40-50 bands.

The garden is doing well, lots of green and flowering things. I’m fighting with bugs and caterpillars eating stuff. This morning I woke to find 50 or 60 birds on the roof stalking the garden. After they left the roof, they raided the garden, but I think they were eating the bugs.

Tags: big ticket, garden, knitting