Chicagoland Craft Collective Meeting - 12/16/09

Wednesday was another great Chicagoland Craft Collective meeting. I learned how to make a really cool papercraft - an ornament that was 3D! Its on my tree now.

As you can see above, there are some very talented people in the Chicagoland Craft Collective that I highly recommend people come and meet. They have talents across the board from fiber crafts to paper crafts to sewing to embroidery to beading and jewelry, and there are professional sellers that are part of the group as well as the head of Craft Critique and talented crafters a plenty!

Next month we are going to do needle felting and I'm super psyched for it! I've had a kit at home and wanted to know more about how to use it, but I was going to wait for the class in April at the Westmont Public Library - so this is a lot sooner!

I'm working on a test crochet for a friend-designer on Ravelry that's turning out really cute. I horribly had to start over due to poor yarn choice on my part, but its starting to come together again. Anyway, will update more when I get the Black Raspberry Hat done - its about darn time I released that pattern! ;-)

Festive Winter Bonnet

Festive Winter Bonnet Front
Originally uploaded by roostercf

My new pattern! This was a fun one. It actually started as an idea for a jacket, and then that didn't work, and it sat in my stash on the needle I left it on for months. I was starting to get out my Holiday things and found that the 2002 Holiday Teddy ornament has this adorable bonnet. Then I got thinking, and...

This is a simple drop stitch pattern that has minimal finishing and would be suitable in any fun, furry and nubby yarn. Lion Brand's Fancy Fur would be a good example, since the yarn that I originally made this in, Yarn Bee Playful, was discontinued. Sirdar Valentino might also be an interesting yarn to try.


Find the Festive Winter Bonnet in my Ravelry Store or here.

The Pavement Neckwarmer

Front

SSPX0146
Originally uploaded by roostercf

Back

SSPX0147
Originally uploaded by roostercf

A quick project, a neckwarmer for the husband. The pattern only has two lines across a five row repeat, and then a switch in direction.

Worsted Weight Yarn (I used a mystery grey wool I had laying around)
Yarn Needle
Size F Crochet Hook

(US Terminology)

Chain 30.
Chain 2 at the beginning of every row.
Extended single crochet across row.
Every five rows (as in, 1,2,3,4,5 then this one), do one row of front post extended single crochet.
Stop when desired width is reached.

Extended Single Crochet down width side of project.
Every five rows of Extended Single Crochet, do one row of alternating front post extended single crochet and back post extended single crochet.

Stop when desired length is reached. Leave a long tail.
Sew together and weave in ends.

Simple, tidy, just enough ornamentation to make me not want to go crazy but simple enough the man still likes it.

Crochet Ruffle Scarves

Crochet Ruffle Scarves
Originally uploaded by roostercf

Testing out the new instablogger for photos from Flickr!

Ruffles!

I've been working on stuff for the Xmas sale of the Knitting Guild, and the thought occurred to me that this might be a great chance to use up my smaller stashes of LB Homespun (1-3 skeins) and Fleece Lite (2.75 skeins, really, I started a hat and had to cut it off my loom because it tangled so much). I started with my favorite pattern,
Ruffled One Skein Scarf by Liz Laferty, but had to stop because my knitting needles were bothering my hands. So I started crocheting them and had a very prolific trip to Minnesota this past weekend. I should have brought another project, but oh well, I forgot it.

Anyway, the crochet ruffles are fun because I changed them up as I completed them. Some have more rows, some have more increases, the one I'm working on now has less increases and more rows, etc.

Flickr looks like it got done automatically posting my picture of the scarves, so I'm going to go check it out!

New Post

Just checking in and letting people know I'm still alive LOL. Lots of work at work to do, and I haven't done a whole lot of new stuff.

Genealogy and History: The Military Convoy comes to Wheaton

Hi all! I promised a genealogy entry and I found the perfect topic.

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Transcontinental Motor Convoy, a reenactment took place. One of the stops on the tour was practically on my doorstop, at the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park.

Different from the first and second tour, the convoy had vehicles from many wars, all the way up to Desert Storm.



What's that? You never heard of the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy from 1919 or the second in 1920?

Do you have any idea what they accomplished? Well, I didn't either. So I had grabbed a knowledgeable comrade (who's intending to get a Masters in military history), and started some research.


A photo from the original convoy. Source: http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/arch_results_detail.jsp?&pg=27&si=0&st=b&rp=digital&nh=27

The first one was done to raise awareness of the state of the Lincoln Highway. The road was in such horrendous shape that they found bridges collapsing under the weight of the 81 military vehicles, and they barely got 60 miles per day!



At each stop, the convoy was greeted with barbecues, dances and very well received.

Most people agree the first convoy was a success in that they got a world record for the longest distance traveled by a motor convoy, public support for the military and repairing roads was higher than when they left.

The second convoy, done in 1920, was done to raise public support for a national highway system. It was a bit smaller, about 50 vehicles, and found issues with the Mississippi flooding, and impassable desert sands in the Southwest.



Its debated the effect the second one had - while the crew was again greeted with parties and press, they failed to garner support for a national highway bill (though a bill passed in 1921).

Longterm, these convoys did have an effect on the future of America. President Eisenhower, a rider on the first convoy, supported the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 (which created many of the highways we know and love today), partly because of his experiences with the first ride and even told some stories about it in his book, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends (Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1967).



This new convoy, as we were told, has more than a single purpose -

1. To celebrate the anniversary of the 1st convoy
2. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of President Lincoln
3. To celebrate the fine work of the US military.

In all, I think that it succeeded. They visited Cantigny on the same weekend as the Fine Art Fair, and seemed to have quite a few visitors. Many were little kids who hadn't seen anything like that before.



Anyway, getting back to the genealogy of the convoy...

1. Learn more about it. NARA has a section on their website under "America on the Move".

2. Search the newspapers for the local community. ALL of them would have covered this, as it was a big deal when the convoy came to town.

For example, the Fort Wayne Gazette from Fort Wayne, Indiana on July 19, 1919 discussed the aspect of H. S. Firestone donating vehicles, and the Reno Evening Gazette from Reno, Nevada on September 6, 1919 discussed statements by Lieutenant Colonel C.W. McClure, the leader of the convoy, and the efforts of Captain J.H. Murphy, who was in charge of recruiting.

An article from the conclusion of the trip on September 7, 1919 in the Oakland Tribune, gives a list of official observers from the trip. You never know what you might find!

I suggest if you try Ancestry.com, to search 1919 for keywords "Transcontinental Motor Convoy" and see what happens.

3. The Eisenhower Library has quite a few records about his time in the convoy.

4. Check out more about the new convoy at the MVPA website.


This video was taken by the MVPA as the convoy was going through Iowa.

Sources:
Ancestry.com - Copies of the Reno Evening Gazette, Oakland Tribune, and Fort Wayne Gazette.
MVPA.org
AmericasLibrary.gov
Eisenhower.archives.gov
History.sandiego.edu

New Pattern from Berrocco - HOT! I love it!

I know I've been hard on Berroco before on my blog. They have created new yarns for the fall and reawoken my interest in them.

Cirilia Rose sent out an awesome KnitBits this week getting us excited for Sundae yarn!

It looks gorgeous. But that's not really why I'm posting :-)

Check this out: Bolt Legwarmers

Aren't those incredible? They look like they might be one of the few and proud legwarmer patterns that STAY UP of their own accord and HUG, not slouch.

And the cables make me think they'd be a sexy knit, rather than a poke-your-eyes out stockinette field like so many other legwarmer patterns.

More news to come later this weekend!

Poor missing Bear!

Things are quiet in Yoohooville...

...I haven't being doing much crafting lately. Too much working!

I am designing a new blanket that I hope to be done with after my summer vacations. A couple good trips and I'll have all the crochet I need LOL.

I also officially started my etsy store, though nothing is listed in it yet.




I'm also working on these, to help raise money for my knitting guild. The pattern is Dainty Earrings.

Please sign this petition regarding gardening at the White House

Subject: Tell Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama's organic garden.

Dear Friend,

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama. MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that - wait for it - Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.

I am not making this up.

In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals -- or what they call "crop protection products" -- in her garden.

Michelle Obama and has done America a great service by publicizing the importance of nutritious food for kids (she's growing the garden in partnership with a local elementary school class) as well as locally grown produce as an important, environmentally sustainable food source.

I just signed a petition telling MACA's board members to stop using Michelle Obama's garden to spread propaganda about produce needing to be sprayed with chemicals. I hope you will, too.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?r_by=-1982793-oaoVC5x&rc=paste

Thanks!

Construction Marketing

Those of you who know me well know how much I enjoy working in the A/E/C industry. One of my favorite sources for outside-the-normal RFPs/RFQs is the RFP Database. This is one of their press releases for the week, and I think such cross marketing is awesome!

Its nice to see an RFP database that isn't a front for another website, charges you a reasonable cost and has an astonishingly high quality community. If you haven't joined, I encourage you to do so.

---

Wanna Get Dirty? The RFP Database is Proud to be Featured on MikeRoweWorks.com to put America Back to Work

Northampton, MA (PRWEB) April 1, 2009 -- The Request For Proposals Database is proud to be working with Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" to put America back to work! In honor of Mike's site going live last month, the RFPdb Team scoured the web to add more than 100 new construction RFPs. Visit http://www.mikeroweWORKS.com and go to the "Job Site" portion of his site for the RSS feed of all our construction projects on his site and a link to the "RFP Database".

"We share Mike's values and celebrate the businesses that land the dirty jobs that build our country," said David Kutcher, president of , the creator of RFPdb.com. "Our goal is to enable businesses to find work and help their employees, as Mike says, 'go to work clean and come home dirty.' That's what RFPdb.com is all about."

The demand for skilled workers to rebuild our country's infrastructure has never been greater. Areas of opportunity listed on RFPdb.com include construction, engineering, architecture, advertising, marketing, web design, computing, management, manufacturing, and other fields - basically any work brought to RFPdb.com by its members. The RFPs range from small projects in the thousands of dollars to large projects running into the millions. Project solicitations are issued by municipalities, state and federal agencies, major corporations, small businesses, non-profit organizations and others.

Membership on RFPdb.com is free. Got time on your hands before your next project? RFP Database wants your labor, and we'll compensate you for it! If you help the rest of us by uploading projects you aren't bidding on, we'll stock your account with credits that enable you to download your next RFPs for free. Need more incentive? There are no registration fees, no subscription fees, and no commissions. If you'd rather purchase the project leads without uploading projects they cost a mere $2.

For contracting officers looking to attract competitive bids on their projects, RFPdb.com offers an easy-to-use and active marketplace to list your project with over 38,000 registered users from small, mid-sized, and large businesses. The listing cost per project? Free.

Join us and discover for yourself why thousands of people, representing diverse businesses and organizations, are registering each month.

RFPdb.com offers:
An exceptionally affordable and high-return resource for businesses seeking new work.
No fee for joining -- you get the first 2 projects free, and you can be selective in the projects you choose to bid on.
No registration fees, subscription fees or commissions
$2 per project lead -- free if you help by uploading projects
Free sign-up to daily or weekly customized alerts of new projects
200+ new projects uploaded every week
A community of more than 38,000 registered users
A LinkedIn group for members to learn, collaborate and discuss

About the RFP Database (RFPdb):
The Request for Proposal Database (http://www.RFPdb.com) was created to facilitate the submission and sharing of RFPs between organizations and contracting firms/independent contractors. This goal of the RFPdb is to provide a public site for organizations to post their Requests for Proposals (RFP) to a centralized location that will garner them the most responses and a destination for companies seeking projects to bid.

About Confluent Forms LLC:
Confluent Forms LLC (http://www.confluentforms.com) is a boutique branding, graphic design, web design and custom software development firm based in Northampton, MA. Incorporated in January of 2002, Confluent Forms has provided technology consulting, branding, graphic design, web design, PHP and MySQL development, Web 2.0 software development, application development and hosting services to customers from the Fortune 100 to local non-profit organizations, startup businesses and academic institutions.

For More Information:
David Kutcher
President
Confluent Forms LLC
+1-413-303-9612
http://www.confluentforms.com

Genealogy and Sources

Earlier this morning, I read a blog entry entitled "5 Bad Genealogy Sources".

I know there is a war between the "new" generation of genealogists that use Internet sources and the "old" generations of genealogists who supposedly only use non-Internet sources.

This seems to be on the "old" generation side. My problem with it is thus:

"Where is the idea of critical thinking in this entry?"

Genealogy is all about critical thinking. New people will take sources and use them blindly without thinking of the following factors:

-Where did it come from?
-When did it come from?
-Who did it come from?
-What is the evidence?
-How many degrees is it removed from the primary source?

And it is up to us more experienced genealogists to teach them this. NOT to tell them to blindly take sources off the list - because for every "bad" source, I can think of an exception.

1. Wiki Sites - Wikipedia is obviously not a great source of information but there are many focused, centered Wikis created by people with a knowledge of the field. I consider http://medievalgenealogy.org.uk/index.html to be a "wiki" of sorts considering its format - and its got more sources than any other website I know.

2. Personal websites - again - you have to READ what the site says. My site contains hundreds of sources and when possible, links or images of original documents. There's a good list of a hundred associated with my family that I can come up with that I know are well sourced as well. I can come up with, sadly, dozens of sources that aren't good sites. But you have to READ and make that decision for yourself.

3. Blogs - I think most of these are about techniques in genealogy. I rarely see any regarding information. I can only think of one site where sources are posted and she's affiliated with USGenWeb. If I saw more personal blogs with sourcing I might think otherwise about them.

4. and 5. Well -- I'm with you on that one. Movies and Stories are great inspirational tales but aren't necessarily accurate. There are a few storytellers that take great pains to do research and be accurate for their stories, though. Alison Weir, for example.

In the end, please apply the critical though process to the use of any source. And keep track of the unsourced ones as well, but don't build your portfolio around them. Many "stories" of my family that were unsourced turned out to be 100% accurate.

-Where did it come from?
-When did it come from?
-Who did it come from?
-What is the evidence?
-How many degrees is it removed from the primary source?

If you think about that each time you read a new website, blog, Wiki, book, newspaper, microfilm, database, etc. - your genealogical project will be something to be proud of!

an Institution is ending in Chicago ...

...

For Immediate Release 25 Mar 2009

For confirmation contact Mary Beth Sheehan (773-393-8687)

RE: SOUTH SIDE IRISH ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE PLANS FOR 2010

Let this release serve as notice that the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee is not planning to stage a parade in its present form in March of 2010.

This decision was not arrived at lightly. For 31 years, this parade was a staple of the Beverly/Morgan Park and Mt. Greenwood communities – a celebration of faith, family and heritage that was cherished by thousands. Founded in 1979 by the Hendry and Coakley families, it was intended to instill in this community an appreciation for the Irish heritage that so many of its residents share.

This parade was an eagerly anticipated annual event which celebrated families, many of whom have created decades long traditions that we hope will endure. But what began as a neighborhood parade is now an event of international proportions. More than 300,000 people typically flock to the Beverly area each year, and the sheer volume has become more than the neighborhood can reasonably accommodate. With these numbers comes a collection of issues that strain both the host community and those individuals charged with effectively managing the crowds. Additionally, the amount of resources required to launch the event has become overwhelming to the community.

The Committee would like to thank the tens of thousands of parade faithful who supported this event for more than 30 years. The multigenerational families who turned out along Western Avenue each year, along with the fine organizations featured in the Line of March, were the essence of what made this parade so special. We would also like to thank the Chicago Police Department for the effort they put into managing the ever-growing crowd while working to maintain the dignity of the event.

While we regret the need to alter such a fine tradition, the Committee feels that suspending the South Side Irish Parade in its present form is the just and responsible thing to do. It is our hope, however, that this will not mean an end to the neighborhood’s annual celebration. The Committee will work to create a series of alternate events that will return us to what the parade’s founders had in mind – a neighborhood-friendly celebration of Irish heritage. Please look for news of our plans later this year.

Thank you for your support,

The South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee

Happy St. Patricks' Day! New Alltop Feed

(This adorable photo is by dalcrose at Flickr under a Creative Commons license)

I have but a wee bit of unproven Irish ancestry in me. My grandmother's family always carried the story that their ancestor Robert Perry was Irish. So far I've got the tree back to 1700s Virginia and hit a dead end. He may have been Irish, English, or possibly Welsh.

So I'm not sure. If it was true, my share of the Irish bloodline wouldn't be large, but enough to celebrate today! :-)

One of my favorite sites to use for mass amounts of news - Alltop - released customized URLs and personal sites. Hurray! If you would like to learn more about what I like to read, feel free to check out the

Crafting in Yoohooville Alltop

Essentially, its a hybrid list of many of the blogs I read that's kind of like looking through a magazine rack, only its online stuff (though a couple blogs are missing, namely Bargain Babe and Retire at 40).

Please check it out and enjoy! And feel free to create your own Alltop and let me know where it is so I can check you out too!

Help BlueAvocado Get 1 Billion Plastic Bags Off the Street!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MbTVC1BWaY



Change the way you shop - for good. Watch this video and make the pledge to use fewer plastic bags. Together we can keep one billion plastic bags from polluting our streets this year.

Monster Mini Golf - the countdown begins!!!

We are inviting you to the 5th Annual Monster Mini-Golf Pub Crawl to benefit Berwyn C.A.R.E.S!

Sign In is from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Windsor Bar
Tee Off is at 12:30 pm
After Party is at 6:00 pm at the "19th Hole" at Windsor Restaurant featuring pizza compliments of Berwyn's own Salernos!

Drink specials will be available at every bar and there are plenty of prizes to be had!

Registration is $50 and is due by April 13, 2009!

Bars include:
Cabin Fever
George's Tavern
Quan's Oasis
Windsor Restaurant & Sports Bar
The James Joyce Irish Pub
Salerno's Pizza
Garv Inn
Cherry Lounge
Olive or Twist
Over the Rainbow

For more details and our registration flyer, visit, our http://www.berwynjaycees.org or our Facebook Group

Social Media - how much time does it take? (or the #1 question I get asked)

This is probably the top question I get asked, so I thought I'd list my time out here:

-Twitter: I check in a couple times a day, and scroll maybe the first page of tweets in my newsfeed. I post tweets more frequently, but those take maybe two minutes to write. - Total: app. one hour per day

-Facebook: Err...I spend a lot of time on here On days when I have to help the Jaycee groups I spend an extra hour - probably two hours a night and an hour spread across the day.

-Blogging/Reading Blogs: I don't blog as often as I should (guilty!), but I do spend a lot of time reading my favorite blogs (Frugal Dad, Retire at 40, Sustainablog, Construction Marketing Ideas, Seth Godin's Blog, Blog Maverick/Mark Cuban) - probably an hour a day total. If I write something for my blog make that an hour and a half.

-Ravelry/Craftster: I peruse at my leisure. I will go weeks without going on at all, and then stay on for hours a day. It all depends on that weeks content or if I'm looking for something. - probably fifteen minutes a day

-Email: I still spend a LOT of time on email - I run the mailing lists for my USGenWeb sites, interact with people on the Canadian ones and am an the National Advisory Board for USGenWeb - which translates into a ton of email. I also get a lot of newsletters sent to me because I'm terrible about checking websites. - Total spent across the day, 3 hours across 3 email accounts.

-Google: I've set up alerts for my name and my maiden name to see what comes up. Sometimes I have to play defense, but most of the time its a pleasant surprise to see my name in the news (even if its not me). - total spent: 10 minutes a day

-Flickr: I still post pics when I have time, but rarely do I do it when its not associated with Ravelry somehow. - maybe ten minutes or less each week

That being said, its not the majority of my day spent on the SM circuit. I still make plenty of time for working, knitting, eating and working out.

Anyway, what reminded me of this was the latest batch of emails I had received expressing wonder about how much time it took to do this and then there was a beautifully written piece at Museum 2.0 about the topic of how much time they spend doing things and what they recommend for time crunched museum peeps.

Alton Brown and Company in the FN Dish

Guys,

I am so excited! One of the photos I did for Ravelry was found by Food Network, and they're in the FN Dish.

If you haven't already read it (since its a very cool blog, you should read it regularly!), here's the link

Food Network Action Figures

Twittering Again

More followers or Better Followers?

I have this problem ALL the time. I have to clean spammers out of my Twitter regularly. I would rather have a network of experts and interesting people to read than watch my counts go up or down. As long as people aren't twittering on something really stupid, I never defriend them. A great many people I follow just because something catches my eye, or Mr. Tweet says they're interesting so I start there.

Twitter's a hard little critter. I'm somewhere in between its totally useless and a timesink like Facebook and its interesting because of its totally lack of boundaries to people I really admire. I'm still working on it.

Valentines Day - or why I hate reading articles about it

Here's the latest example:

"How Not to Gain Weight on Valentine's Day"

I don't hate Valentines Day. I rather enjoyed as a kid handing out the little cardstock cards saying "Bee mine" with a little picture of a bee for example. The act of stuffing a homemade mailbox full of cards was fun, to say the least.

However, when you grow up, Valentines Day becomes all about gifts, chocolate and flowers.

I bucked that trend a long time ago. My boyfriends quickly learned that I wouldn't be happy with a gi-normous bundle of flowers. All I wanted was a single rose with a pretty velvet ribbon. On occasion, a cute stuffed animal. The man who married me even gave me a bit of jewelry one year.

That's as far as it goes for me. I think its idiotic that people have Valentines Day "arms" races to see what guy can spend the most on his lady. Or lady spend the most on their lady. For that matter, Sweetest Day in October is the same thing.

My husband and I have declared Valentines Day and Sweetest Day null holidays. We'll say Happy X Day to each other, but there's no gifts, no fancy meals, no insanely expensive things, etc.

We prefer to show each other love on the date of our union - our anniversary. This makes much more sense. And we don't go crazy and buy tons of jewelry or anything. We spend the day together and enjoy some time. Sometimes we pick up a bottle of wine. We also tend to go on vacation around our anniversary since its right by Memorial Day, so there's a paid day off.

Why people make such an insanely big deal out of two days a year and then treat each other like crap is beyond me. My husband shows love by cooking dinner and fixing my scooter. I show love by making him things and cleaning the house. Its that partnership that shows love, not either of us spending mega bucks (or not) on the holiday.

So I encourage you to think outside the box and plan something nice for your anniversary - even if its just taking your spouse to the park and then Pizza Hut for dinner. That would show more love than anything the press is suggesting.

Even in the darkest times, a light emerges...

David Tree Shares His Water with an Injured Koala

Can't get onto Yahoo, but I can get on Youtube!

Slip Stitch with yarn in front on a loom

*You might have to crank the sound - no matter how much my video editing guy worked with it, we're still having trouble with it.

This is driving me crazy! I still can't get onto Yahoo!!!

ARGGHH!! I must have 500 messages built up by now. I can't access groups, I can't access my mail - nothing but the home page and that's IF I haven't signed in.

Our home computer is down so I've been accessing things on the work laptop - and its locked down otherwise I'd download Firefox immediately.

Curses! I apologize if anyone is trying to get ahold of me - use cfbandit at gmail dot com instead.

LoomClass Yahoo Group -

If anyone sees this, please let them know I have not been able to access Yahoo since about 12 noon yesterday. I've made all the updates to my browser and added all the shortcuts that Google suggested, but all I end up with is an endless spinning circle in my browser and nada for any Yahoo site.

Yesterday I was able to get on for short periods of time (a minute or two) before it would start that bit.

My computers from work only have Google Chrome on them since IE was deemed too much a security hazard and FF too resource intensive.

The video for "slip stitch in front" is in processing now and should be up tonight.

I've also updated my twitter status, facebook status to reflect this in the hopes someone sees it!

Great Marketing!

River Pouch - Final Information

The final versions of the two patterns have been uploaded as well as the conversions lesson PDF. Enjoy!

River Pouch - Final Needle Knit

River Pouch - Final Loom Knit

Conversion Lessons - River Pouch - Knits, Purls, Slips

Chart for the River Pouch

For the Slip Stitch Portion, here is the chart of the stitches. All white boxes are knits, all black boxes are slips.

The dark blue lines are the outer edges of the design - 15 stitches per row, 22 rows.

Edit: I'm going to add here a question that was asked in class since it would clarify things.

Yes, you do need to add a row of purls for the needle knit version or a row of knits for the loom knit version between each row. That will give you the correct amount of rows.

Vroom! Motorcycle Handle Covers

I hate when I forget to make a post!

I made these this past fall. They're super easy to do -

1. Measure the circumference and the length of the handle being covered.

2. Multiply that by the number of stitches per inch from your normal crochet gauge. In Jiffy Print, the yarn these are made of, that's 3.5 stitches/inch. With a 1.25 inch circumference, that's about 4.2 stitches around, rounded to five to make sure it slides on and off when needed.

3. Using an J hook, chain 5 and join to make a circle.

4. Do single crochet until you have reached the proper length of the cover. In this case, about 4 inches - 4.5 inches.

5. Bind off and go slip them on!

River Pouch: Class on Needle/Loom Conversion, Post 1

Hello all!

In this post are two pictures of the same project. One has been loom knit, the other has been needle knit.

Can you tell the difference? Leave a comment in the comments section with whether the dark blue or the light blue projects have been needle knitted or loom knitted.

First, take a look at: Conversion Tips. Then you can check out River Pouch - Needle Knit and River Pouch - Loom Knit on Ravelry for the patterns.

Funny!

Someone very creative on Facebook made this up:



(I do agree, though I shamefully went through a I heart Nickelback phase)

Cooking

Hi all!

I've been doing a bit of cooking lately. Here and there, a bit now and then. Nothing too fancy. I love making soup - adding lots of different things together to make such a great comfort food. My husband made the comment the other day that he should send my info to Gordon Ramsay's campaign to bring women back into the kitchen (no, not that way, stop your outrage in its tracks). I was a little teed off, then I started looking through my recipe files.

And realized part of the reason I didn't want to cook is that the recipes I have are exactly what I don't want to eat - too many carbs, too high fat, and too complicated.

So I've been searching the blogosphere looking at different people's blogs and recipes. One particular one popped out at me (while I was ...ahem...searching for a martini...picture) as looking really intriguing.

Dr Mary Dan Eades

I don't often spend time going back and reading past posts (save for the Bittersweet blog, but that's partly because I enjoy the recipes and partly because she's a damn good writer). This one I went back and read them. And found another writer that is refreshingly good with the English language, cooks a lot of interesting stuff, and BTW, happens to be the author of a best selling book. I like when people are like that - they may be celebrities, but they are refreshingly down to earth and seem like they understand the struggles of us little people out there (err...should I say not so little?).

I have been extremely busy lately, so no cooking as of my newfound discovery. The husband's been experimenting with low carb, though - Sunday's meal was a "pizza" frittata that I absolutely adored and sincerely hope he makes again.

Aside from the stress of putting a proposal together and suddenly finding your CFO forgot to do the cost estimate, I've been putting together a design for my class on the 25th. I need to get that photo over there...

I've also been going to the gym three nights a week since early December (yes, I beat all the stupid New Years resolution people in and I'm still going where they are not). I had been winning the stupid incentives - free water bottles, a tshirt, etc. Two weeks ago, however, I won a personal training session. I had two goals: 1. to lose weight and 2. to gain abdominal strength (of which I've had none since the cancer treatment).

What an eye opener when I went last week! She had me do things I swear I haven't done since high school. Push ups, weights, etc. and a few things with a new twist - lunges and crunches on a ball as well as my work on the extension machine to help my legs. And I'm embarrassed to say I got on the elliptical machine for the first time and am wondering why the heck treadmills exist now. Seriously? I can do 2.7 mph on the treadmill and be able to do 20 minutes. 8 minutes of elliptical and I've burned the same calorie count at 1 mph. And its a LOT more of a workout. I have to say I've been enjoying my workout sessions more with this new plan. I was a bit bored before and now the workouts are back to being interesting.

With the new(ish) diet and the extra exercise, I'm at least hoping to see either the weight or the inches go down (I've been having issues with water retention) soon. My membership at the gym is through February, I'm hoping to have enough money to renew it.

We shall see!

Architecture: 5 cents

Great post at Treehugger. I know, I cringe at the name too - but I think this is a very creative, inventive way to get out there and market his business.

My parents have hired architects on a few occasions. Even if its for a tiny project, it tends to be worth it to get the expert to lay down all the issues instead of going in and having to spend weeks, months, years figuring it all out yourself. The four season porch at my parents, for example - the architect helped Dad out with the roof issues.

I love it when humor, education and marketing all come together :-)

Urgent Notice to My UK Residing Friends

CareNews just posted a notice about this on Twitter.

Maggie's Law Petition

I read through it and am truly saddened that anyone could hurt a poor creature like that.

I can't sign the petition (I'm not in the UK), but I urge any one of my friends in the UK to sign it.

Hopefully the attacks will stop and life will be happy for the animals once these horrendous people are brought to justice.

Exciting New Things Ahead

Image via a Creative Commons License from Flickr User cursedthing

I know I've been promising a new pattern for awhile. Well, I'm signed on to teach a Loom Class at the LoomClass Yahoo Group so I'm gonna have to do one now :-)

The twist on this one is that it will be a needle knit pattern I design, and I'm teaching how to make a conversion of it on a knitting loom.

So far I've picked what I think might be an interesting stitch at a large gauge but have not tried it yet. That's for this weekend.

The Blackberry trio (hat, scarf, mittens) is taking me longer than I thought it would to do - my circs have been giving me a little trouble, poor vintage things that they are - and I've been sidetracked on genealogical stuff.

Anyone have ancestors named Joel Graves and Adelia Root? :-D

I've also got an idea in the works for a new project that I'm going to try and have done for the next Loom Knitters Circle.

For those of you who are relatively new to my circle of friends, Lycanthropile has taken the Supernatural Impala Dishcloth chart and made an awesome Metallicar Illusion Scarf out of it! I have to give her some props - the scarf looks awesome and I'm thinking about trying my hand at illusion work since I can actually see the image in her design!

I've been doing a lot of updates on my genealogy site since there have been so many new pieces of original data posted to the Family Search Labs, to HQ, etc. I've been itching to go back to my local FHC since I know they have a World Vital Records subscription but they closed for the holiday.

Did I mention my husband got a job just up the street from it? :-D Now I can have him pick up film order forms and drop off the cash to order them so I don't have to make a special trip out there just to order something (I swear, with all their changes I wish they'd implement online ordering of those darn things!).

Let's see...what else is going on? I got pissed off and left the kniftyknitterlooms yahoo group for the first time in almost five years because of a nasty note from the moderator. Its okay, though, the KK&LK group is a good replacement and the mod Helen is totally awesome (and prolific! You should see some of her designs! Ravelry user: myheartexposed).

I've also been editing a lot of photos taken over the summer and plan on starting to upload them soon for the Evergreen Cemetery in Lake Orion. I've also got a disc of ones from Ogle County, IL that I should upload...hmm...

I've got to get my Canadian GenWebs up to speed though. I've been trying to work on them quietly and replace a few links at a time, but my customers are demanding better and I'm going to try and get it to them. I need to develop a contact up there to start helping me develop some new stuff. I feel sad that I can add all this new exciting stuff to my USGW sites but not the Canadian ones.

Anyway, its back to procrastinating on filing for me!

Access 2007 - the Label Error

Okay, because this really annoyed me you're all going to have to suffer though a short post on MS Access 2007. Sorry!

Those who know me know I can't stand the program but that I have to use it at work in a multitude of functions.

Today's issue really frustrated me. I open a database, click "create labels" and then I get a label report that reads

"#error"

Huh? Searching the internet didn't give me any answers. I tried it three times before deciding that since it didn't work the first time, it was probably not going to work the 4th time.

So then I decided to go back to typing entries for my proposal log. And I see the "create" tab is available. So I click "labels".

This time, it gives me the SAME field options but it WORKS. It gives me a label listing I can export to an RTF and open in MS Word to edit the formatting (little blips here and there based off of how people entered titles.

So that's my big exciting thing of the day. The next thing I want to try and figure out is how to get it to do only entries done after a certain day.