fibers of mind

2007-11-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

I wish I remembered to blog more frequently!
I am straining my brain regarding the pi pattern on the knit and crochet along.The 48 row section went up yesterday, and I was staring at the computer, trying to get stuff ready for the 96 row section. I am SLOWLY coming up with ideas! I wish they were coming more rapidly! I have too much going on to come up with a designing block!
On a different topic, my son, who is subject to bouts of depression, tells me that sometimes, I should just tell him to look up and giggle. Now, if I tell him that while he is crying, I wonder if he can actually comply? (That's a mind question, as opposed to a fiber one.)
The same son has been wearing the mobias style vest I did for the Holiday Mystery Gifts, and loving it. I made a whole one for the knit, but didn't make a full one for the crochet version. When I get more time, I may make that one for ME! It is incredible how fast that thing was going, even though I followed my fall back method of starting it, and working a weird convoluted thing that leaves out all but the gauge, and the shaping sections. This makes for some strange looking items, but does test the directions!
I got a really nice Trick or Treat swap gift. It was a pattern for mitts, sock yarn to make them with, and the two sets of needles needed to make the pattern. There was also soap, lipbalm, halloweeny beads, some candy, and these thingys that you pull open, and they pop. Perhaps that was to be the trick, but the fact that it was anonymous was also a trick. There were actually two books in it. (One my DH snabbed to read.) All of this was in a felt halloween bag.
I made the witch's cauldron pattern for this swap, but then posted it as well. I waited until almost Halloween to post the trick that goes with the cauldron. I sent along some Lamb's Pride black, with some Hershey's extra dark chocolate sticks inside. Witch Miss Seaton, was the book that fit the Halloween themes, and I found some cool candy/toy combinations to send. At the last moment, I threw in some earrings that I had intended to make stitch markers with, but had never seemed to get around to it. Perhaps their new owner will do better! I also sent a silly Halloween bag, and a witchy looking rubber ducky. I forgot to get a delivery confirmation number, and sweated until my swap pal posted that she received it (On Halloween...almost two weeks in transit!) Whew!
Well, it is bedtime, so I had better get a move on here.
Until later...

2007-09-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

We are gearing up, now, for a Holiday Mystery Gifts knit and crochet along. It is its own Yahoo group, and there are, last time I looked, 120 members, so it will be a comfortable group. We don't begin until September 22, which gives the DesigningMinds group time to design. This one is a bunch of patterns, and they come from a bunch of folks, so it will be nice.
Meanwhile, I an signing up (where is my brain???) for a trick or treat swap, over on whoduknit.
musing may follow, if my mind is intact enough to muse...
Meanwhile, I have not taken the Spindlers CAL down, as the podcast downloads haven't stopped. I don't know what I'll be doing with that.

2007-08-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah! The Crochet Your Own Adventure tm Mystery Shawl has been posted in it's entirety, over on the Spindlers Yahoo group! And lots of folks are downloading the podcasts, as well. Something is going well!

Seriously, we have put more $$$ into the car in the last month than we spent for it, and had to extend our trip (Back from a conference we attended) four nights in doing so. Last evening we blew a tire! Does the car want to be rebuilt, totally????

I know I have to put things in order if I want to start selling patterns, as I have been urged to do, but meanwhile, I have had several suggestions for a Christmas KAL. I am also going to ask about setting up a Halloween KAL. I have the pattern complete, from last summer, and it would be fun to do it, but it is just a single pattern. Nikki W. did help me make up two sections where it can offer some choices, but mostly, it is a set pattern.
Oh, decisions, decisions!

2007-07-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well, The Crochet Your Own Adventure (TM) Mystery Shawl is officially underway. The first clue was posted on Tuesday, complete with podcasts for support. While this seems to be a small group, it is almost as vocal a group as some of the bigger knit-alongs. I will spend today (and probably part of tomorrow) getting the second clue and podcasts ready and posted. While there are still spinners hurrying to make their yarn, those who have begun are ready and waiting. I will be trying to space the clues in a reasonable pattern for those involved. At the same time, I am looking at my August travel plans, and hoping to tuck the clues around my absence.
There is a lot going on, just now, and so I will post this and get on with life, etc.

2007-07-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

http://cyoams1.mypodcast.com/2007/07/Introduction_and_test_file-28345.html

There you are! The first podcast for the Crochet Your Own Adventure Mystery Shawl!
I still need to get it submitted to iTunes, but it is a start!
This file is simply the intro and test file, as noted. I will be checking to find out how it seems to folks.

2007-07-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ouch! I see I forgot this for longer than I had realized!
I will attempt to make up for that.
This week I have sent my first charts to the design group for a crochet along shawl. I need to get some more there in the next couple of days. I am learning, and am being much more directive with the testers. Hopefully, this may help them make it through to the end.

I have spoken with a printer about selling some of the patterns. We will see if that works out. I have also begun to wonder if I should, in fact, set up a separate group page for these projects. The current one is still on EZasPi, and will remain posted for another couple of weeks. The next one is slated for the Spindlers group. The thing that I am realising is that I never have any notion how many people are actually involved.

I am doing a lot of juggling with computers, just now, but I think I can get a few more pics up. I did not (boo-hoo) get a pic of the latest shawl I finished, before belatedly giving it to my mil for her birthday. (Well, I gave it to her on her birthday...a year later than I intended.) It started life as the mystery shawl 3, but that didn't last. I think I actually finished clue two before I hared off and knit off the top of my head. It came out very well, if I do say so myself, with just one place that I consider awkward, though no one else has seemed to realize that I shifted gears so drastically! There was a good amount left on the cone, and so I am using it to play around with the crochet designs.

With the crochet along shawl, I had intended to use all traditional patterns, but I have already blown that! I got started charting, and before I knew it, I was doing variations.. There are so many gorgeous traditional stitch patterns out there that I will have to force myself to use some. (Wouldn't you think it would be easier to just chart out some instructions??? I don't seem to function that way.)

Well, enough for now. I got on here to set up a blog just about hypnosis, and where do I find myself??? Oh well, I seriously needed to update, and will try to do better.

2006-08-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

What a hot week!
I gave my sister her shawl, and my other sis took photos of both, and the beginning of the baby sweater. What baby sweater, you ask? The one for the shower in less than a week, of course!
I meant to make a blankie...much quicker, imho, but the yarn with the only hook i had taken with me to Cleveland came out hard enough to be a play mat, rather than a blanket!
We found these cool colors...pale tangerine, yellow, and this odd pinkish red...that sound bad but look good. I started with the hood, and am now doing the first sleeve. That may not be as good as it sounds, as I decided to get the sleeves out of the way, then do the body, since I am going top down.
Someday, when sis figures out how to set her soft ware, she will send me pics, and I'll get them up here.
Also while at Susan Yarns in Cleveland (Heights?) I found some lace weight wool, which I may use instead of waiting for the wool that may or may not be coming. It is turquoise, with bit of white through it. I got a half pound, at the yardage of1700 ypp, time 3 strands. I will have to look more closely (DUH) to see if I need to separate the strands, or combine them.

The kyo...2 has a little tiny problem... my helper had to unvolunteer. i put out an initial cry for help, and need to check as to wheter anyone has responded.

On other fronts, the whole housing thing may be going to work out in the end. Ds' school situation might settle down well, too. I even got directions from my recent student aide, to the picnic...looks as if it is actually over in Warren.

It is too hot to proof read. What is there is there, right now.

2006-07-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

KYOAMS 2 is in the works

I have committed myself to doing another Knit Your Own Adventure Mystery Shawl. Suzanne M. has volunteered to help, and I have already dumped a pile of things on her to play with. This will not be a straight pi shawl, but will be modified...but if someone actually reads this I don't want to give away the mystery! I hope that the first clues will be ready by no later than mid August. The first shawl will be coming down next week, and we will have space for the next to go up, but I will be headed for a conference, and won't be able to post. (Perhaps Suzanne can post.)
We came up against her dial-up, and so started a Yahoo group for ourselves. I invited the bat cape folks over, as well, as it just seemed reasonable. Designs of Mind Workshop is the name, and it sounds like it could be something a lot more interesting than it actually is!

The flooding in Cleveland has kept us from heading up to my sister's place this morning. I think we will leave around noon. I hope while I am there to get some yarn for my DIL's baby shower, since it is next week! I am debating between a little sweater, and a baby blanket. I need to see what I can find in terms of yarn before I make that decision.

On yet another topic, I am beginning to have a bit more hope about the house we have been looking at! Perhaps we will move this fall, after all! Still nothing on the resume I have sent, but that may be pie in the sky. (or PI?)

2006-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

I am waiting for the fiber from the Spindler's summer breeze exchange to arrive. I want to see if it would work for the mysterystole 2. I have some alpaca and silk which I have blended and will use if it doesn't ask to be the stole.
Meanwhile, I have gone back to the mystery Shawl 3. I THOUGHT I was finished with clue 1 when I stuck that lifeline in last March, but two rows into it, I realized that I had stopped before the end of the clue. So, after pulling out any progress, andpart of the lifeline with it, I eventually got things in gear and am almost ready to start clue 2 again.
The anniversary/garden shawl is blocked. I used a friend's blocking wires, and I hate to say it, but I was greatly disappointed. I used six wires, with 8 points on each wire. Perhaps 8 wires, with six points on each might have given a nicer stretch to the shawl. As it is, I didn't get the expansion I usually get, though it still looks nice. I will make sure my sister sends pics, once she gets it.

On another subject... I have a number of volunteers to test knit the bat cape I am working on. I hope to send the first part of the design to them by the end of the week. They should send progress pics, once they get started, and I hope will agree to my posting at least some of them. This is a lace plus texture design, which should make it an interesting knit. Once I finish it, and begin another, I think I will see if it is possible for me to do some in crochet as well.

2006-07-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Linda, for putting the msytery stole button on for me! It must have been going on even as I was posting, for there it was when I finished! I haven't a clue why it wouldn't work for me last night. I think I used a fine-toothed comb going through the help files, to no avail. Maybe it was the whole migraine thing that woke me after only three hours of sleep, and kept me awae thereafter.

2006-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

I so wish I had a camera! I finished the cap to send to afghans for Afghans, and need to send it today. Thank heavens for that period of time when i was determined to learn to spin bulky, as I was able to use a couple of balls of that.

I finished spinning my grey alpaca, but am not sure that i have enough for the msytery stole 2, so got some while alpaca, and some silk, and am working on blending them. It will be white with other colors running through. Unfortunately, it will set me yet further behind with the stole, and I have not yet got back to MS3, or blocked my combo anniversary pi/kyoamspi. In a week or two I think we will take that down, and then I may make it available here, as an ebook. Meanwhile, I am working on a pattern for a halloweenish cape, that looks like fun.

On other fronts, house hunting feels stalled, and I haven't heard back from the company that I so want to hear back from, though it is only a couple of days since I submitted my resume. My son's eschool is having technical difficulties, which means I am fighting to get any work out of him. I still have mixed feelings about changing his school. Things like this make me want to, though, especially since I have asked his special ed teacher the same question multiple times, with no answer. And to top it off, I still don't know if the who;e family is going to the Nationall Guild of Hypnotists conference, or just me. If it is just me, I need to make some arrangements!
Thus is life!

2006-07-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

I just noticed the cool halo effect on that last photo. Can knitting have an aura????

2006-07-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

A Simple Thing
Although nothing online is truely simple, I will begin here with the sorrowful note that I can't find my old blog (MindWeft) and so cannot recover the discussion of spinning thread on a drop spindle.
On the plus side, I do believe that I will be able to post some photos here, provided I can get some onto my computer! I plan to ask some of the knitters who completed the Knit Your Own Adventure Mystery Shawl if I may post their finished creations here, when I get the instructions into ebook form!

As a test, I have decided to post the pics my enthusiastic uncle took of the MS1 shawl that I knit for my mother's birthday.
Except for the fact that I didn't know which was which, and added that last one accidently, they came out quite well!

I really must get a number of things accomplished today, and so will return to this later.