Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

Day Seven:  Looking Forward One year from now, when the 5th Knitting & Crochet Blog Week rolls around, where do you hope your crafting will have taken you to? What new skills, projects and experiences do you hope you might have conquered or tried? This could be anything from mastering a technique (broomstick lace, entrelac, etc), trying a new yarn or skill, or a long term wish to crochet only from your stash, or knit every stitch in one of the Harmony Guides. Maybe you have no desire or plans for your craft at all, no new element of knitting or crochet that you dream of mastering, in which case write about why that might be. In a year's time participants will be asked to look back to see if they achieved any goals, no matter how general, and see which house conquered the art of looking forward.      I love this kind of thing.  After reading many other blogs this week I'm finding that my crafting is a rather organized and planned out process.  ...

Day Six:  A Tool To Covet Write about your favorite knitting or crochet (or spinning, etc) tool. It can either be a tool directly involved in your craft (knitting needles or crochet hook) or something that makes your craft more pleasurable – be it a special lamp, or stitch markers. Is it an item that you would recommend to others, and if so for which applications/tasks do you think it is most suited. Conversely, do you have a tool/accessory that you regret buying? Why does it not work for you?      If I look at everything I've either been given or purchased myself, I think I have to choose my swift and ball winder as the most valuable tools.  I use them quite often, even more now that I've become a yarn snob and I plan to use the more since I started dying yarn and have aspirations to spin.  These both will involve hanks which will then need to be caked before knitting can commence.  The usefulness is not the only attribute here, the swift is ...

Day Five:  Something A Bit Different It’s the annual challenge to blog in a way different from how you normally blog. You may choose to create a podcast, or vlog, create a wordless post or write in verse. You've already stretched your wings with an infographic, now it's time to freestyle. You can post on any topic you like, but be sure to post in a style different from your usual blog presentation. There's not too much guidance for this one simply because the more varied the posts are on this day, the wider the sources of information for other bloggers will be. Bonus points if you manage to work your house animal in somehow. Okay, since I'm writing these in advance I just finished looking at a whole bunch of Day 2 posts.  Many people used mood boards to plan/pick/design projects for the Mascot prompt.  I have been inspired by you people!  So today I bring you photo collages.  I found this free site on the webz.  Its pretty awesome, it does photo editing...

Day Four:  Color Review What are your favorite colors for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colors you seem to favor when yarn shopping and crafting. Only after writing this part of your post should you then actually look to see what colors you have used in your projects. Make a quick tally of what colors you have used in your projects over the past year and compare it to the colors you have written about. Compare this, in turn, to the colors that are most dominant in your yarn stash – do they correlate? Now think back to your house animal - do the colors you have chosen relate to your animal in anyway - if you are in the house of peacock, for example, are your projects often multicolored and bright? My favorite colors are blue and purple, generally speaking.  When it comes to knitting projects the order is purple then blue and gray makes its way in there.  (I don't know why, that's just how it is.)  I do also like a bit of green every now...

Day Three:  Infographic There are many ways of conveying information on a blog; text and images being the two most widely used. Many infographics combine both these elements to provide a visual way of presenting text information.      I used a simple pie chart maker I found on the inter webz.  The downside with pie charts and percentages is that the total has to equal 100, so I had to fudge the Acrylic number.  I actually have 15 yarns that are 100% Acrylic.  This is also only a representation of the yarns that are 100% of something.  I need to find a way to represent the blends.       For this one, I chose one particular yarn to represent.  I like how its called   Angora Bamboo, but Angora makes up the smallest percentage in fiber content.  Its great yarn to work with don't get me wrong, I'm just having too much fun with this pie chart maker.  You can find it here:  Piec...

Day Two:  A Mascot Project. Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that house/animal. It could be a knitting or crochet pattern – either of the animal itself or something that makes you think of the qualities of that house. Alternatively it could be a type or color of yarn, or a single button. Whatever you choose, decide upon a project and blog about how and why it relates to your house/creature. You do not have to make this project!  It is simply an exercise in blogging about how you come to decide upon what projects to make. Try to blog about the journey which inspiration and investigating patterns, yarns, stitches, (etc) can often guide you through. You may wish to make a collage or 'mood board' to present several ideas, or even sketch out your own design.      I play Nerd Wars, which my regular readers all know, so I often have to find projects based on some open but usually vague parameters.  I always s...

     Okay so technically all the Knit and Crochet Blog Week posts are interrupting my "normal" broadcasting posts.  I spent my weekend here in the city and I actually did some things!  Huzzah!  On Saturday the hubs and I went to a gun show.  I wont go into that too much because of the current political climate and all.  I want my blog to be fun and not make anyone angry.  All I'll say is we both had fun and learned some things.  Then we went to Texas Roadhouse (a steak restaurant chain) and pigged out on yummy cow.  On Sunday I got to do the shopping.  I picked up a skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's wool, in the natural colorway so I can do some more dying.  I plan to split it up into at least four skeins since its 400 something yards.  I just want to practice the whole dye, steam, cool assembly line thing.  I may do more than four skeins... hmm. I picked that up at Wal-Mart....

Day One:  The House Cup. A bit like Harry Potter, but not quite, this year’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is split into 4 houses. Don your favorite knitted or crocheted hat and let it guide you to which house you will be in. The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest. The House of Manatee: Manatees are gentle, calm and cuddly. Relaxed and unflashy they represent the comfort and soft side of knitting and crochet. The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting. The House of Peacock: Peacocks take something good and make it brilliant. Buttons, embellishments and a bit of sparkle prove that perfection lies in the details – like a Peacock's Tail.     

     As promised I have a new post.  I recently participated in the Team Stargate Command swap.  I briefly mentioned something about yarn and perhaps a cowl...  Now that its over and my partner has gotten her package I can talk about it.  This was a secret round robin style swap so I knew who I had but she didn't know I had her and I didn't know who had me.  My victim swapner was one of my co-captains LidiDi.  She was interested in some long color change self striping yarn so I used the two skeins of blue Mochi Plus to make a cowl.  I also got her a skein of Noro Kureyon.  LidiDi and her husband like to play board games and card games with other friends of theirs.  After I played Star Fluxx for the first time I asked her about it in our team thread, since she had mentioned regular Fluxx awhile back.  She had not yet played Star Fluxx so, remembering this conversation, I picked up a deck for her.  Once I knew she...

(Apparently the banners are no longer available...)      I just wanted to let everyone know, I'll be participating again this year.  The topics have already been announced, so I have some ideas brewing.  They sound fun.      If you want to participate or are curious about what this involves please go to www.eskimimimakes.com .         One of my "normal" blogs will also be forthcoming.  I have recently acquired more stash and finished an item for Nerd Wars.  I don't have any pictures as of yet though.  So back to your regularly scheduled crafting... TTFN -Q 

     So, as I've said I took the plunge last weekend and dyed yarn for the first time.  It was really fun.  I don't profess to know very much about all the difference techniques and processes but I will walk you through what I did and what I've learned through my research.      I used this tutorial, that I found on Pinterest, as my guide:  Kathrynivy.com.   There are several tutorials out there.  There is a group on Ravelry called "A Kool Way to Dye", they have an extensive list of tutorials in the four basic food grade dying techniques.  So I'll start here with my explanation.      There are four basic "dyes" that are food grade.  Koolaid, Wilton's Cake Gels, Easter Egg dyeing tablets and food coloring.  These dyes are non-toxic and because of this the tools and implements used in the dying process can still be used for food preparation afterwards.  This of course is an ass...

     I got a new laptop!  I got a new laptop!!!  I can type and see what I'm typing and link pictures and post from my own computer and not my brothers...  I got a new laptop!!!      Okay, so you've read the exciting news by now, on to brief knitting news.  I've started my first Nerd Wars project, its a Roasty, Toasty Coffee Kerrier .  I'm using my left over Malabrigo Rios.  Its nearly complete already and its taken very little yarn, so I may make two... or three.       I forgot to mention in my last post that one of my friends from work gifted me an old crochet edgings book called Elegant Edgings to knit crochet and tat.  It was published back in 1969 by Coats & Clark.  There are a few knitted edgings and some filet crochet.  There are some really beautiful hairpin lace ones in the crochet section.  These are designed for place matts, pillow cases and to...

This should prove to be interesting... since my laptop died earlier this week I am now depending solely on the Tab.  So Round Two of Nerd Wars ended back on the 28th.  I submitted a total of five projects to four challenges.  I've shown you two WIPs so on with the show.        I only got to talk about the infinity scarf I had been working on previously since I didn't have pictures yet.  Now I do and I have to say, I love how this one turned out.  I haven't blocked this yet and I don't think I'm going to.  I really like how the lace looks as is. I used this cowl for the Flexible Schedule challenge.  I started this the last day of February so it was a WIP on the first of March.  This round the FS challenge was the cross nerdery challenge.  We had to find a flashback or backstory as our inspiration from another nerddom.  It proved to be tricky for a lot of people, especially since this category focuses on projects...