Confessions of Fidgety Fingers

December wasn’t a good month for my writing. I wrote once for a grand total of 18 words. I had many distractions that allowed to get me…distracted.

It was about a week ago that I decided to look back and I realized that my last posting was in February 2012. Fiber I have knitted and crocheted many things in these missing years. Some of these were for myself, but most are for other people. I started working on a “marathon of fiber” project where I tried to knit or crochet 26.2 miles of yarn. This was good and bad for me. I had completed 44 items, the vast majority being hats and had used about 5.36 miles of yarn. The shear amount of time that I had spent on these projects burned me out. I have done little fiber work since December of 2014. Writing One of my avocations has been writing. I started a high fantasy novel years ago and I have been working on it more off than on since then. I have officially participated in one NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). That novel/novella of a little over 55,000 words is in its editing stage and may stay there for eternity. This last fall I entered a competition for a short ...

I was able to finish the last of the hand painted rovings that I did in class. I liked the way that most of them turned out, but i'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to do with the spun and plied yarn. I do know that one of my cats tried to eat/swallow the roving, so I really am thinking of turning them in to cat toys. I have been listening to the Iron Druid Chronicles on Audible.com. My wife first started listening to the series, and I picked it up on a lark. It it a very well written series, and the narrator is quite excellent. I still need to re-cast on the socks, as that is the next item that I want to knit.

Hey look it is February again and I'm doing a post. It seems odd that i feel the need to try to blog about the same time every year. I had another successful year knitting Christmas presents, but I believe that was the last year where I'm going to try to knit something for everyone.  There is just only so many hats, scarves, mittens, etc. that one group of people can have. I went to a winter retreat in Ashville, NC, and learned to hand pant roving.  It was a roving sampler with angora, llama, white wool, and brown wool.  I have spin up two of the samples, and I have started the third.  I also took a class on cardboard looms, and did a small sampler. I started my first pair of socks, and they failed.  I tried two at a time on two circulars, but my yarn ended up going in all of the wring directions and at least one of the socks was having some bad laddering.  I'm going to try them again soon, but I think I want to finish spinning up the hand panted roving...

Well it has been a year since i have posted. I would say that time flys, but I know that I could have made the time to be better about posting. As a quick catch-up, last spring I did some knitting, and freelance work. In June I got a contract job, which I’m still working. Starting in October I knitted my fingers off trying to get all of my holiday knitting done, and I was actually mostly successful. And now for more details. While I did enjoy some of the freelance work, there were many parts of it that were frustrating. I think one of my biggest problems was that I accepted too many projects, so I had to work longer hours than I wanted to make progress on the projects. Also I found out that communicating with international clients proved to be more challenging than I was initially expecting. The contract position that I got is working for A.D.A.M. I was initially brought in to finish out another person’s contract, which was supposed to expire at the end of June. The contracts a...

Well I have finished my first skein. I still have a lot of the roving to spin, but my first spindle got too full for me to spin any more. I Andean plied it. I think I may use it to knit a hot water bottle cozy. Before I get to the ugly pictures, I was out walking around the house and saw these crocuses. They are about a week and a half old now, but it has been really nice outside lately, and I couldn't resist the picture. So earlier this week I tried to step over a chair and struck my toe in it. I got a nasty bruise, but my wife and I don't think I broke it, it was still rather sore for that day. The first picture is what it looked like a few hours after I hit it, and the second picture is what it looked like the next day. We have five cats, so I figured I would introduce some of them. First is Dewi. She is the smallest of our cats, weighing in at only twelve pounds. Next is Hammie. He is the youngest of our fur-kids and quite often hyper. Pala is our fat kitty. She l...

My knitting has been progressing.  I have finished the red band that was in my last post, as well as the white band and I'm starting on a black band.  As I get further along  will take another picture.  I am about halfway through the broken rib scarf.  I have started another scarf, a 3x3 rib, that will be a Christmas present for a another extended family member. I was putting away some of my Christmas presents and found a book on spinning yarn that my wife gave me.  This got me to want to try my hand at spinning again.  I have taken a few classes in the past, so I grabbed one of my spindals and some roving that I bought many years back.  I'm still having some issues with a consistant thickness, but it should be some interesting yarn when I'm done.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the yarn, but practice isn't a bad thing. I got my first freelance project done.  I was having trouble maing sure that I was working on the project effectively, so I started moving...

I was listening the the Cast On podcast today and she played a song that I liked called "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton .  I find this musician very funny, but admittedly I have a rather twisted sense of humor.  Some of his other songs that I like are "Re: Your Brains", "Ikea", "Mandelbrot Set", "Bacteria" and "That Spells DNA".

I have gotten a bit done on the baby blanket for which I was commissioned.  It is turning out rather nicely I think.  It currently measures about 10.5 inches across, and the request was for it to be about 48 inches square. The other project that I'm working on is a scarf for a friend of the family.  It is the first present that I'm knitting for Christmas.   It is an early start, but I have a few small, easy travel knitting projects for Christmas presents, so I'm using them as filler knitting, when I have only short periods of time to knit.

It has gotten cold down here in Atlanta.  For the last two days we haven't gotten out of the mid 30's (F).  Thats has made me think of hot drinks that I enjoy.  I'm currently sitting with a nice hot cup of cocoa, but I just finished making some Spiced Tang Tea mix.  I didn't quite follow this recipie, as I looked at the spice rack and added in some allspice and cardimon. As I sip my plain hot cocoa, I'm wondering what I can add to spice it up.  I know I could add some flavored booze, or some cinnamon, or nutmeg.  I have to go looking and see what I can find for suggestions.

For those of you have who read this blog in the past, you may notice that I have added in ads to the right.  I'm not sure how I feel about them yet, so I'm going to play with it for a while and see what happens.

As promised the commissioned baby hat.

Many months back I decided I wanted to try Twitter . While I was working, and had things to say, I did good at posting my 140 or characters or less. Since then I created a Plurk account. I haven't been as good about posting to my Plurk account , as I don't have as many followers there. For those of you who don't know, microblogging is a way to just put a short, 140 character or less, posting to a site, where others can see what you are doing at the time. A few posts back I mentioned a baby hat and blanket that I was commissioned to do. I just finished the hat this weekend. I haven't taken the time to take pictures of it yet, but I will get a picture soon, and I will post it as soon as I do. I'm pretty happy with the hat. I started the blanket today. It will be concentric squares, starting with black, using narrow bands of white to separate the black and red sections.

My lovely wife bought me a takadai for Christmas.  OK actualy this is a Christmas, birthday, anniversary present combination.  It arrived shortly after Christmas, as FedEx wanted to hold on to it for a little while.  I haven't had a chance to warp it up yet, but as soon as I get a few projects taken care of, and figure out what i want to braid, I will have it warped up.  i ahven't taken any pictures of it, but she bought it from www.lucets.com .  You can find a picture of it here .

Well it has ben an interesting year.  There has been good moment and bad monents.  Overall I have to say that it was a good year.  I got several projects done, and learned new things.  I maybe out of work, but I had been wanting to leave that job anyway. I have been wanting to post thing for a while as I have finished the folowing items before christmas.  The last present I had to knit was a hot water bottle cozy for my wife.  It was done with a hand dyed worsted weight wool.  This project knitted up nicely, but the neck of it seems a bit long and a bit tight.  This is good to know, as I will be making another one for my great aunt in-law for Christmas 2009. Hammie looks so cute looking over the chair. The other project I knitted was a Checken Viking hat.  I have to say this is my least favorite item that I have knitted.  The overall size of it is good, but the earflaps are a little forward for me, as the back of them come to about the back of my ears.  The legs on the side are rather ...

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 ...