Random thing the second...

...I am evidently not as good at updating my blog as I used to be. Huh. Whoda thought?

I've spent the weekend getting an old W-I-P ready for finishing,* going through my blog and adding labels to the all the old posts. The next step is to add all my FO pictures to Ravelry, since I've heard they've now implemented photo-upload now. I've been using the Ravelry queue over the past year, and I always check out what designs look like on other people, but other than that I don't really use it.

And then I guess I need to start some updates!

* including doing the kitchener stitch for the first time ever, and using it to graft live stitches to a cast-off edge. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I'm not sure that what I did was 'true' kitchener stitch, but it looks pretty and it works!

An open letter to designers of Mystery knit-a-longs

Dear Designers,

For the love of wool PLEASE stop running mystery KALs on yahoogroups and mailing lists. Seriously.

I admit it. I have a low tolerance level for email these days (consequences of two jobs where I have to deal with morons sending moronic email all day). But I can't be the only person turned off from these sorts of KALs because they're run via mailing list.

When KALs and the online knitting world were small then it wasn't a problem to run these sorts of groups via mailing list. However, with increased popularity - there are over 2100 knitters on the now-closed Secret of the Stole, and over 1100 on Spring Shawl Surprice already and that doesn't even start for nearly 2 months - it's becoming less and less feasible to run a group this way.

I suggest moving away from email-led groups into a more structured forum setting. Free forum software is very good, members can be required to join and messages can be kept restricted so that nothing appears on public view.

At the moment with the mailing lists one's choices are essentially receive everything (and I mean *everything*), or receive nothing but special notices from the designer. I feel that a forum would be a happy medium between the two.

There could be a special 'announce' section for those who just want to get the important messages from the designer & nothing else; there can be sections for advanced queries, and those for beginners, those for photos, as well as a separate section for people to chat about things in general.

Important posts can be 'stickied', and it would be a lot clearer when someone had already asked a question, avoiding unnecessary duplication. Those who want the full socialising atmosphere can hang around all the sections. Those that just want to knit the pattern can simply keep an eye on the relevant pattern sections.

I would like to keep up more with the lists, but there is just so much traffic that I just can't. And a lot of the traffic isn't always relevant immediately to the pattern - or it's very basic questions that have to be asked over and over because people don't tend to search the archives of mailing lists in the way that they would on a forum. I haven't been able to keep up with my email and I currently have over 100 unread *digests* (so 1000s of messages) solely from the past *month* - from only 2 KALs! It's ridiculous!

I think this problem is only ever going to grow as the online knitting world grows, and while mailing lists have their place - I'm on lots of other ones, so my problem isn't with the concept of a list - I think that the mystery KAL has outgrown them.

Yours grumpily,
TheKnittingBee

Where did all the time go?! - refrain

I have had absolutely zero time for blogging recently. I've basically had zero time for pretty much everything, but luckily have managed to squeeze in enough time (during mandatory breaks) for some mini-hat knitting. I do have some posts in mind, some updates, some mythical photos... ;)

However, in the brief break I've found today between preparing tea*, putting it in the oven and waiting for the buzzer to ping, I checked my email and discovered my ravelry invite has finally arrived! I'm not planning to list everything - certainly not in the next few weeks! - but I may use the 'queue' feature.

I've not used any 'social networking' site before, so I'm not entirely au fait with the whole concept, but my name on there is (unsurprisingly) 'TheKnittingBee', so feel free to find me, if that's what one does!


* ie., evening meal. Were I simply making a hot beverage, I would have much less 'free' time.

Crikey!

I haven't been blogging much this month, because I felt there 'wasn't much' for me to blog about. Of course, now I come to write a post I realise that there's loads and loads, and if I'm not super careful this will turn into one of my super boring posts with far too much text and not enough photos. I've been a bad blogger, I do apologise.

It also turns out - I've been tagged! It hasn't happened before, but I am going to try and combine an update with the tagging thing, and hope not to get too verbose ;)

I'm not going to tag anyone else, but if you want to do this, let me know in the comments!

I have been tagged by DarnCatCrochet.

So I'm it......

Here are the “official” rules:
1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of your first or middle name.

2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.

3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.

4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them ,they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

5. If I have tagged YOU, please join in on the fun! (Rules supplied by Hannah at bittersweet)

My middle name is MARY. My very Catholic grandmother was not overly impressed that I was named after a punk pop star (despite it being a biblical name!), so my parents opted for Mary as a consolation prize ;)

M - MONEY
Now, DarnCat (I love that film BTW, the Hayley Mills version) won't know this, but it is completely her fault that I've got my etsy obsession. Well, her fault via Harry Potter. See, I spent the week leading up to the last HP book reading all the previous ones, getting totally immersed in HP land (my 'tradition' is to read each one in a day leading up to the release of the next one). Then the following week we saw the fifth film. Then... I was having HP withdrawal symptoms!

So I started lurking on Craftster, because they often have threads about the costumes in the HP films (one thread had a link to a documentary all about costume in HP films; as an ex-wardrobe mistress I found it fascinating). Then I found a thread about a crocheted Harry Potter and Hedwig (I love Hedwig!) that were just fabulous. Utterly utterly amazing; the best knitted/crocheted toys I've ever seen. DarnCat was the designer, so I started stalking her blog, desperately waiting for her to release the pattern (can I crochet? Of course not ;) ). She also did a Hermione and a Ron, and now I reeeeeeeally need my crochet-ing friend to teach me (I think I can bribe her with goes on my spinning wheel).

Now, I was aware of etsy before, obviously. But having money in my paypal account mixed with Harry Potter withdrawal symptoms... Anyway, since my pattern purchase, I may well have bought stitch markers, bracelets and t-shirts. Not all HP related ;)

And the best part: it feels like it's all free! My 'rule' is that anything bought with money from paypal, has to be paid for with money already in my paypal account that I didn't put there. i.e., I have to sell some of my old crap on ebay, in order to fund my etsy habit. So I'm decluttering too ;)

A - ANTSY
Earlier in late Spring/Summer, I heard about 2 things. Ravelry, and Mystery Stole 3. I decided that I was both above taking part in things 'just because everyone else is', and - being aware of my injuries - better off not joining a website which would involve more typing, nor a KAL that would involve loads of knitting.

Doh!

Of course, I loooooooooooooooove MS3. If I'm honest, I've loved it ever since I first saw the first clue (yet I *still* didn't join, even though there were a few days left). I've been stalking Melanie's blog, desperately waiting for the pattern to be released. And today it has been! Hoorah!

So now I'm super antsy, waiting for my download email to arrive!

As for Ravelry, I've signed up, but I think there are still a couple of million people in front of me in the queue. I've realised that I don't *have* to actively type loads, but can use it as a resource. Same with every other Mystery project! Just because I'm getting the clues doesn't mean I HAVE to knit them! So I've now signed up for the Secret of the Stole and Secret of Chrysopolis as well, so I don't miss out again! However, I think MS3 is going to be my priority, once the download email finally arrives!!!

R - REALLY TINY HATS
My pledge has succeeded! Hoorah! It's still open until the middle of October, though, so you can still sign up if you want :)

I haven't started my mini-hats yet, but I have been unravelling crappy old acrylic WIPs that I'm going to use the yarn for hats instead. I've pledged to make a minimum of 5 hats, but I'm hoping that I get to use up all my old acrylic instead! (I have nothing against acrylic - the emphasis here is on old!).

My friends are holding a Knit-In to make hats, so I'll probably start when we do that. Or I'll start this weekend - who knows ;)

Y - YARN TO BE
I'm thinking for MS3 that I'll just go with Jaggerspun Zephyr, since that's the yarn used in the sample, and I can get that over here. I'm thinking maybe the darkest grey that I can get, and using lighter silver beads (I have no idea where to buy decent beads in the city I live now!).

There's a new Knitty, and I love Cherie Amour. I was looking at yarns to sub, but then realised that since it has a pretty short yardage, I could spin for it!

I've decided to get some dyed Corriedale combed tops, and make a 2-ply bulky yarn. My plan is to have one ply being all one colour, but to make the other ply multi-coloured (ie., spin a tuft of colour A, then B, then C, then back to A, etc). The two strands will barber-pole, but the knitting should appear to be striped, as the multi-coloured strand should stand out more. (Clear as mud, right?)

I'm thinking of using the following colours:
Plum Duff
Raspberry
Jelly Bean
Grape Jelly

They are all shown next to each other on this site:

http://www.pmwoolcraft.co.uk/html/view_product.php?ProdID=1092&CatID=&start=18

Bu obviously the colours in the photo might be off! I think they're actually darker in real life, especially the grape jelly, as this site has the same fibre with different photos, and there are slight differences.

So! The million dollar questions! Do you think I'm bonkers? Do the colours go well together, or should I rethink? Which colour should I pick to be the single-colour ply? I'm thinking Jelly Bean or Plum Duff (but that might have to depend on me sampling once I've bought the fibre).

I'd really appreciate any input, because Mr Bee is a) not really interested b) complaining I have too much fibre already, and why don't I use that instead (answer: I don't have enough of any one fibre!).

My MS3 pattern just arrived - hoorah!

(oh, and I failed on the 'not being too verbose' front: I'll do photos soon :) )

T-minus 15...

(what does that even mean?)

Today I took receipt of one batch of newly bought stitch-markers. They aren't the ones I'd planned to use for my shawl (yeah, yeah, excuses excuses), but it means that if the second batch don't turn up sharpish then technically I have no excuse not to cast on!

And talking of technical things - it has been brought to my attention that some of my old posts are turning up in RSS readers. I have no idea why this is happening, but I'm not editing old posts right now. I will be soon though - I plan to start using the label function in blogger - so that's a head's up.

Oh, and Gods of Knitting Fate strike again. In my Start-itis post I mentioned that the Corset Pullover is languishing in my unknitted pile, despite the fact that I have the yarn for it and I even swatched (though it was so long ago I'll have to do it again). I've just found out that this week on Knitting Daily it is the week of the Corset Pullover. Think someone's trying to tell me something?

Camera Obscura

Sadly no photos, since Mr Bee took the camera away with him this weekend, and has left it at a friend's house. We won't get it back until next Friday - and that's only if he remembers. Frustratingly I took some good photos of my present, but didn't have a chance to take them off the camera. Oh well.

In other news I dyed the remaining undyed fibre I have - less than 2 ounces of grey Jacob top. I used 3 sachets of blue Kool Aid, in the hope of getting a dark blue shade. It hasn't quite worked - it's more a mix of light-grey-dyed-bluey/green and dark grey, but I'll have to see how it spins up.

Oh, and I asked for information the other day on SpinList about Haldane Lewis wheels. No one else appears to have the same wheel as me (although others know others with one), but there are people with other Haldane wheels, and one woman with an earlier version of the Lewis, which has lots of exciting twiddly bits.

I also decided to contact Haldanes themselves to see if they had any bobbins. When I first got my wheel (in Feb 2006) the Haldanes website listed spare bobbins and whorls for the Lewis. I decided to buy 3 more bobbins and all other whorls when I finished my thesis. By the time I'd finished they'd sold out of both (they're discontinued)! Doh! But Haldanes have been very nice, and are selling me 3 'modified Ashford' bobbins, which should be fine, plus another whorl which they managed to find.

Because I'm in the middle of moving I'm having them shipped to my parents' address, so it will be March before I can pick them up...

I've had to move my blog over to 'new blogger'. There don't appear to be any changes except it's added 'GB' under my name. If it wishes to list my location, I'd much prefer 'UK'*, since GB is rarely used nowadays, except on car stickers. I can't actually see where it got 'GB' from either; probably my time zone.

I do want to try the labels/tags thing though. I may wait until I have a other-types-of-hand-movement free day to spend going through my old posts and adding them.

* 'Great Britain' is England, Wales and Scotland (i.e., the name of the actual island on which I live); the 'United Kingdom' is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland (full title is the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'); the 'British Isles' is the geographical term for everything, including the Republic of Ireland.

Is this thing on?

I am writing -- well actually, speaking! -- this post with the aid of my new voice recognition software! I am attempting to do the whole thing only correcting it vocally, so please ignore all the wacky extra spaces and stuff.

This is relatively old software, Dragon 6 (they are up to 9 or 10 now), but it still works with me using the in-built microphone on the keyboard. It is not that great for my posture, and it doesn't like working when the fan is on - and the fact I'm hunched over and speaking a tad too loudly is not good for the vocal cords - so I will have to get a proper mike ASAP. However, it is pretty impressive. (Thanks again Hope :) )

Actually what would be more interesting would be if I left it without the corrections (it thought 'impressive' above was actually 'Guinness'). I remember being at University in a computer science lecture, with a lecturer talking about voice recognition; she forgot to turn it off after the demo and so it wrote a lovely story during the rest of the lecture.

But hopefully - the threat of voice nodules not withstanding - using it will mean that I shouldn't have to pick and choose so much between computer use and fibre arts. I don't intend to use it all the time (certainly not without a proper microphone), but it will be great for taking notes (so that I can just talk, and then correct it afterwards from the text I'm reading. If I try to just talk while dictating I have to keep stopping all the time to correct it, otherwise I have no idea what I was trying to say).

And in knitting news... Ta-da! I've finished Branching Out. It is incredibly short, so I think the combination of short, varigated yarn, and lace, might be a bit too much, but I got the yarn in a sale in Germany 2 years ago, and so I'm unlikely to be able to procure any more!

Photos will follow shortly...

On the Needles

Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed a heap of pretty pictures on my sidebar - my progress pictures! I've been considering a status bar for my works-in-progress for a while, and when I came across these neat little pictures I was sold! They come courtesy of Indigirl, and you can check out the Knitting Tracker here.

I've added some extra pictures for items which I'm making which aren't covered in the 6 designs provided. Mine are the crappy ones with a thin outline ;) Hopefully you can make out what they are though!

I have to say that I did struggle a bit with the coding. OK, a lot. But luckily Mr Bee was on hand to rescue me before I screwed up any further. Thank you lovely :)

So at the moment I have 5 Ws-i-P. I'm counting Sonnet given that it still isn't finished because I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lazy - I only need to sew on one frog. The Alien Illusion scarf is half done, but I've run out of yarn. Same goes for my handspun project - I'm literally 10grams short of fibre, and am going to have to buy 100g to finish it: doh! The Leaf Motif is a scarf I'm knitting for my mum, it was supposed to be for Yule but my RSI put paid to that, so now I'm getting this Yule's presents sorted early ;) I started it last night as we went round to a friend's to watch TV and I needed some knitting that I hadn't run out of yarn to take with me. And finally there's Tempting. I didn't want to take that last night as I need to attach the sleeves before I can get started on the yoke (need to finish one sleeve first) and I just wanted something mindless. I'll probably work on that later while watching TV, but it's nice to work on the Leaf Motif since that isn't knit on small needles.

So, my procrastination for the day has been going very well. I think I had better go write some of thesis...

Technical Bee!

I have managed - flookily on the first attempt - to add a set of links in my side bar. I've put 'Completed Projects' in there, as a way to keep them all [two] of my, well, achievements together.

I've also had to turn on word-verification for comments. I was quite disappointed when I received 5 comments - my first ever! - in quick succession to find out they were spam. It's a bit of a faff, but saves me from disappointment ;)