Confessions of Fidgety Fingers

My knitting has been coming along well.  I have finished the pink ribbon illusion scarf.  I'm not completely happy with this, as after I finished I realized that the pink ribbon is on opposite sides of the scarf.  I also feel that the ribbon itself is streached out a bit long.  Both are things that I can correct if, or when, I make another one. I also finished the tea cozy for my MiL.  I think it is a bit big, but my wife says that it should fit because the tea pot that my Mil has is bigger than ours.  I'm thinking about possibly making a pad to go with the tea cozy, but that will depend on the amount of time that I have. I have finished one of the mittens for my BiL.  I made a couple mistakes on it, but I think overall it went well.  I have just finished the thumb gusset on the second one, so this project is comming a long well. Speaking of time, I should have a lot.  I was fired form my job on Wednseday.  While I have been unhappy there for quite a while, I would have preffer...

You Are a Colon You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Well the month of October is over, and I can't say that I'm sorry.  October was a busy month for me.  The kumihimo class that I had went well.  I had 7 studnets and all seemed to enjoy it.  I had to give up the volunteer work, as it was too much of a workload for me to stay sane. As for my knitting, I have almost gotten to the second ribbon on the pink ribbon scarf.  I have finished the thumb gusstet on the first mitten for my BiL.  I determined that the tea cozy that I was going to knit for my MiL was too complicated, so I have picked out a crochet pattern.  I still need to find the yarn for that project, but it calls for worsted weight, and I have a lot of that.  I am going to make a hot water bottle cozy for my wife.  I have ordered and recieved the yarn for that, but not started it.  I was going to start the mittens for my MiL, but I can't find the size 4 double point needles that I bought.  I may just need to buy a new pair and go from there.  Well since I have less th...

Wow.  I didn't realize that it has been so long since I posted.  I have been super busy, so I'm just doing a quick list of statuses on projects and life Kitchen Set - I still need to try felting the two pieces.  I have a pair of jeans that I want to throw in with them, but I just haven't taken the time to do this. Pink Ribbon Illusion scarf - I have gotten past the first ribbon pattern and I'm working on the stockenette (sp?) between the two ribbons. Mittens for BiL - I have gotten past the cuff on the first one, and I'm working on the thumb gusset increases.  This is my first colorwork project and it is proving interesting. Tea Cozy for MiL - I have cast on, and that is it.  THis required a tubular cast-on, which was interesting to work. My class finally finished on 9/28.  Wow did the class drag on, and on.  Now that it is finished I'm thinking of getting my Microsoft Certified Professional certification.  It won't make much of a difference for my current j...

Well I have been keeping busy enough that trouble has stayed away from me.  My work has been sending me to a .Net programming class for 5 nights a week and two hours on Saturdays. This doesn't mean that my knitting has completely stopped though.  Just before Labor Day I was able to finish the cabled mitens for my great aunt-in-law. During Labor Day I was at my in-laws for a family reunion, and I was almost able to complete the kitchen set for my sister.  I was using Noro, and I realized that it wasn't 100% wool, so I have stopped on that project, which needs about 100 more stitches.  I'm going to try felting the two pot holders (below) and see if it is worth me finishing the last piece, or if I need to frog the whole thing and find a different yarn. Since I have t two projects so close to being done, I have started on a pink ribbon illuson scarf  (below) for my cousin, who has brest cancer, and a pair of mittens for my brother-in-law (no pictures yet). My class is going on ...

As much as family events can be stressful, I was able to get a lot of knitting done over the holiday weekend. We had a family reunion over the weekend, and I took my sister's christmas present to work on during the slow times. I had most of an oven mitt completed before I left, and I was able to finish that off while I was there. I also knitted all but the last thumb of the casserole mitt. I believe that I'm going to have to buy another skein of the yarn, as I doubt that I have enough of the yarn left for the thumb. Once I have everything knitted I'll take a picture of the the prefelted items and then the pieces after they have been felted.

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I have gotten rather busy lately. My work has provided me training for a programming language. It is Monday through Friday from 6:30 to 8:30, and then Saturdays from 10:00 until noon or 1:00. This has reduced my knitting time quite a bit. I have started to exercise daily, and due to the class, I am exercising during lunch, which is one of the times that I was knitting. I have put my wife's sweater jacket on hold, so that I can focus my time on Christmas presents. I'm still working on my great aunt-in-law's mittens, but I'm in the middles of the last repeat of the cables in the hand. I'm working on my sister's kitchen set while I'm at home, and I'm most of the way through the oven mitt. I'm not sure which project I'm going to work on after these as I bought some sock yarn while i was on vacation, as well as some bulky weight yarn. I was able to post the pictures from my vacation to my Flickr account. As well as from the wedding I went to...

I got a new car today. It is going to be a bit of a change since I'm use to driving a Ford F-150. And now I'll be driving a SmartCar . Isn't it cute.

Yea for vacation. For me vacation is a two week camping event called Pennsic . This is very similar to many of the other SCA events, but just on a larger scale. this year, due to the economy and gas prices, there was only 10,500 attendees, and we have been running close to 12,000 and 13,000. My vacation started off with a bang. We had picked up a good friend of our, and her two kids, as they were going to ride with us. After getting most everything packed, and having dinner, I decided to clean litter one last time. As I was taking the first litter box out a small bird, a wren I believe, flew in to the house. It took us close to an hour to get the very frightened bird out of the house. At one point we had to move the cats out of the main section of the house, as two of them (Hammy and Dewi) were very interested in the bird, and one of them, Hammy, had actually caught it in mid-air and brought it down to the floor. He then didn't know what to do and let it go. The followin...

big surprise there.

I'm going to diverge from my normal topics for this post,a nd discuss the podcasts that I enjoy. I'm going to stay away from the standards for knitters, like Knit Picks' , Cast On and Diva Knitting . I listen to a few National Public Radio (NPR) podcasts. I daily listen to Marketplace . I find the commentary that they provide very insightful. I follow that up with the weekly recording of Marketplace Money . To help keep me up-to-date on the science front, I listen to Science Friday . Just so that I don't feel overburdened and heavy from all the serious stuff, I listen to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! , a humorous political quiz show. Lastly, for a bit of quirk there is This American Life . I'm a fan of all sorts of fiction. Unfortunately, I have problem finding time to actually sit down and read. The first of such podcasts I found was Escape Pod , which plays mostly science fiction stories, but was also has created two spin-offs of Pseudopod for horror ...

I'm almost done with the first mitten for my great aunt-in-law. I have less than an inch to knit on the thumb and then I'm done with the first mitten. I would have been much further along on this, and possibly done, but my wife and I spent a long weekend over the 4th of July with her parents. The recipient of the mittens live with my in-laws, so I couldn't work on that present while I was there. So I decided to work on a kitchen set that will be the Christmas present for my sister. We stopped at Joann's on the way out of town, as I knew from the pattern that i needed a bulky yarn. I found a nice variegated yarn and we headed to the mountains of North Carolina. When we got there and settled down I pulled out the pattern. I then noticed that this is a felting project. I checked my new yarn, and it was only 20% wool. I knew there was a yarn shop in town, so the next day I headed down to town and picked up some nice 100% wool yarn. I got the two pot holders knitt...

There isn't too much to report on my knitting. I'm still working on all three of the projects from the last posting. I would be done the first of the mittens, but one day when I was working on them while my wife was having some oral surgery, I wasn't sure if I had the cabling in the body, so I ripped it out to the ribbing, and had to rework the body. I'm working on the last 4 rows of the body, and then I'll be decreasing for the top. I would love to work on them over the upcoming long weekend, but the recipient will be around. I'm thinking about starting the kitchen set for my sister, but I need yarn. If I can't find anything that I like, then I'm just going to work on my wife's sweater jacket. We had another yard sale last weekend (6/28/08). This was a rather poor yard sale, as we made less than $500 for the cause. The weather wasn't too hot, and we didn't have any rain to speak of. The only reasons that I can come up for how poor w...

My wife's sweater jacket is coming a long. I'm not spending as much time on it as I would like, but that is partially due to the increase in exercise that I have been making myself do. The exercise is effecting the progress on this project because it is my TV knitting. I was at the hair salon the other day and when the young lady was finished and showed me the results for my "approval", I noticed that the bottom of my face looked fat, at least to me. This has encouraged me to increase the amount of time I spend on the tread mill. I also want to start some stomach flattening exercises, as i have a little bit of a belly. My truck/travel knitting, the cabled mittens for my great aunt-in-law are coming along nicely. I took them to a medieval event this last weekend and got to where I'm to make the thumb opening, but had to stop, as I needed some scrap yarn, which I didn't have with me. I do have to admit that I had to change the yarn I was using on these mi...

The fiber fun continues. I have finished the fingerless mittens. I think they would have looked nicer in a yarn with more of a sheen, as I feel this would show off the twists for the faux cables. The sweater jacket for my wife is coming along. I have about nine inches of the body knitted. I hope that I have enough yarn. This is a new pattern, and I initally had to restart as using one strand was too light and wouldn't weigh enough, so now I'm using two strands. The yarn in the pictures is actually lighter than the actual color. The yarn is actually a dark teal. My next project is a pair of mittens for my great aunt-in-law. They are cabled, and the first of the many Christmas presents for this year. I'm hoping to not be knitting every spare minute in November and December this year, so I'm starting early in my holiday knitting. Since my last posting, my wife and I participated in a community yard sale. It was nice and relaxing. We sold a whopping $3.00 of stuf...

There have been a lot of things going on since my last posting. I forgot to put in my last post that I have gotten yet another book on knitting. I received "Cables Untangled: An Exploration of Cable Knitting" by Melissa Leapman. I had seen this in the book store before, but had decided not to buy it then. I had really liked the cable sampler afghan/blanket. It is in my Ravlery queue, but I know I have some other knitting to complete before I can start that. Two weekends ago (April 26) my wife and I had a yard sale to help fund raise for the breast cancer walks that we do. The yard sale was fairly successful. We earned over $900. There was a few issues with the weather. We had a downpour just after lunch, and then a nice rain storm as we had closed up and were packing up. We would have not been able to do as well, if it was for the help from a good friend of ours, and her son. I'm slowly making progress on my two knitting projects. I have almost finished one of t...

Well it was a productive weekend, fiberwise. On Saturday, I bound off my sampler scarf, and weaved in the few ends I had. Once that was done, I finished off the kumihimo braid I was working on, and wrapped the end. I measured it, and I have a total of 17 feet. This should get me about 8 necklace cords, which isn't too bad. Since I had finished projects, that means I need new projects. After pondering the items I had queued in ravelry, and came up with a sweater coat for my wife, and "wristers" (think fingerless mittens) for me.

It has been a good weekend for me. My wife and I went to coronation. In the medieval recreation group, we change kings every six months. This isn't true for all kingdoms, but it is for the kingdom in which I'm currently living. During the second court of the new king and queen, I took over the position of Kingdom Waterbearer. It is now my responsibility to make sure that there is water, and other refreshments available to the fighters at all kingdom level events. I will also be asked to help with providing this service to many other events. The other good thing that happened is that I had gotten a late birthday check from my in-laws. I bought two things with the check. One is a new knitting needle set . The wood is so pretty. I can't wait to cast on a new project and use them.

I'm slowly making progress on my scarf. I have finished the first skein of yarn, and if I'm only doing three repeats of the patterns, then I'm on my last repeat. Once I get through this repeat, then I will test the length, and see if it is going to be long enough. I had my kumihimo class. It didn't go as well as I was hoping, but it was a learning experience. I have picked up a few things that I will want to do for the next time. The discs I made for the class were a bit rough, and I'm sure I can improve the quality of the discs, with a few simple changes in the process of making the discs, and in the tools that I used. I was using embroidery floss for the strands of fiber, and I had them wound on the paperboard floss bobbins. Even though it will cost more, I really think that if I provided EZ-bobbins instead, then a lot of the issues with tangling fibers will be solved. I also know that if I had given myself more time in prep, and had set up the first braid ...

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I last posted. Unfortunately I can't say I have gotten a lot done in that time. I did finish the glove-mittens for my wife. She has used them during several mornings in February and a couple in early March. My only issue with the pattern is that I think the pinkie is a little tight. I think this can be fixed by adding a stitch, at most two to the pinky, and therefore the whole hand. I'm still working on my scarf. I would have more of it done, but it is still my away from home project, so I get any where from one to five hours of work on it a week. I have been using my home time to work on a class I will be teaching for my local SCA group on kumihimo . This has been good, because it has gotten my butt in gear on a project I have been meaning to do for a while. I mention in a posting back on September 23, 2007 that my wife and I had gotten an award called the Red Raven. We received them on elastic cording. I have ...

It has been a while since I have posted. I would like to say that it is completely because I'm too busy, but I have been rather lazy about posting. I did receive the book of 25 sock designs by Interweave press. Several of them look wonderful, but I have yet to even cast on a sock yet. I have one of my wife's glove-mitts done, and it is looking pretty nice. She had picked a wedgewood colored yarn with dark blue, white and red flecks. It knits up quite nicely. I'm also working on a scarf for me. It is a sampler scarf with four patters (basket weave, sugar cubes, seed and divided square). It is in a gray, slightly, shiny yarn. It is coming a long nicely, as I'm in to my second of four sets of the pattern. The directions call for three pattern sets, but I think I will want it longer than that. After I'm finished these items, I'm going to start on my wife's sweater jacket. I have started this twice already, but I think the pattern is bit beyond me at th...

I have finally finished my wife's scarf. I would have wanted it longer, but my wife seems quite happy with it, and it is long enough for the way that she will be wearing it. Now that the last of my Christmas presents are done, I have started on a sampler scarf for me, and I will be making a pair my wife a pair of fingerless gloves, that have a mitten "flap" to cover the fingers when they get cold. I got a couple books over the holiday season. I had bought "Knit Mittens" by Robin Hansen before I knit the mittens for my father in law, but I haven't had a chance to do any of the projects. I had gotten some christmas money, and with it I bought "Knitting Circles around Socks" by Antje Gillingham. This describes how to knit a pair socks on a pair of circular needles. I'm still waiting for "Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Tinterweave" by Ann Budd and Anne Merrow. I'm hoping that it will arrive soon as I would love to try...

Yea!!! The holidays are over, mostly. I have presents to exchange with some close friends, but I'm done with the family units. I don't have any more knitting pictures to post at this time, as I didn't knit anything for my family. I'm still working on my wife's scarf. It is taking a bit, and it is using up yarn faster than I was expecting. I'm working on my 4th 65 meter ball of yarn and it is only 3.5 to 4 feet long. I bought 6, so I'm hoping that I don't need to go back and buy more.

I spent Christmas week with my in-laws. I had a great time, even if work did call me multiple times. Everyone seemed to like their presents. My father-in-law loved the mittens, and said they fit perfectly. My mother-in-laws hat and scarf looked good together , and it is amazing how wide the 4x4 ribbing on her hat can stretch. My brother-in-law's hat was a bit small , but he was able to stretch it out enough to get it on his head. After a good dinner and great company, we noticed that it was starting to snow. This made the company hurry out and down the road, before the roads got bad. When we woke up on Boxing Day, we were greeted with these scenes. Here is a closer view of our truck. I did get a message from my sister, and she licked her scarf, and wondered how I did it. Unfortunately I won't be getting a picture of that one.