Flagel Knitting Files

Yesterday, I thought I wrote a clever post where I used a word that means one may have more than one love with regard to knitting.  Blogger did not take well to that "m" word that I did in fact use several times in the post.  So I was blocked from adding anything to my blog by what I understand to be a type of robot word cop.  Apparently only a human from Google could actually read what I wrote and determine if the blog could be freed up for me to use again.  (That would be quite a job, wouldn't it?)  Or at least that's what I think happened.  It is unclear exactly when I was given permission to resume writing because I logged off for the night and did not return until this morning, when I did have my blog back. In the meantime I was able to ascertain that the URL is blocked but not my unique user ID number which is specific to me for this blog.  Using that information and the help of an advice column I was able to continue to write even though the URL was blocked.

Now that I have your attention,  I'll admit it, I am not monogamous when it comes to knitting.  (Oh, you thought I'd write about something more interesting, did you.  Not a chance, this is a family friendly blog. Oh, oh and now I hear the collective groans and clicking of readers closing this post.  Please read on if you're still interested, though.) First, let me define what I'm talking about as a non-monogamous knitter.  I do not stay wedded to the idea of working on and completing one project at a time.  I often have several, and I do mean several , projects started at once.  They are called WIPs (work(s) in progress).   It is important if one is going to leave projects unattended for any period of time that the directions, exactly where you are in the project and the appropriately sized needles stay with it/them. (I have practice with this so I know.)  As you can imagine, this can bring on its own problems.  I have several sets of some of my most favorite sized ne

I now have 100 posts so I don't remember where to look for something I wrote even if it's only a month or so ago since it was written.  For instance, someone at the end of the work week on Friday came into my office to talk about her knitting project, and of course I had to talk about mine.  I mentioned the wall flower project and she asked if I had a photo on my blog.  I knew there was one, but for the life of me I couldn't remember the title of the post or when I posted it.  I did find it eventually but the process took far too long. Part of the reason for writing here is to help ensure I can remember where I found patterns, store the photos of my final projects after they have been shared, and to have a tool to show others what I'm doing.  Yes, indeed, it is a very selfish endeavour.  Bu t what good is any of this if I can't find what I want when I want it.  So I took a quick trip through Blogger's help section, and even for me, with my limited tech skills

I am openly an impatient person.  Ask anyone who knows me and they will attest to the fact that I am not as patient as I need to be sometimes, OK maybe all the time.  Any patience I have developed has come from knitting, and perhaps aging, but we'll stick with the knitting theme for the purposes of this post. Knitting teaches one that by manipulating two (or three or four or five) sticks and some string it is possible with persistence and patience to create beautiful things.  I have had to start with small projects, scarves, mini socks, toques (caps), and sweaters before I was patient enough to tackle bigger projects, like an afghan or two.   Throughout the last 10 or more years of near obsession with knitting I have learned that taking one stitch at a time and staying persistence does result in a completed project, even a big one.   But you'll note I continue to tend toward smaller projects, so perhaps I have yet to completely learn the lessons knitting has to offer.  Purs

Some friends asked me to join them last weekend to go to a music festival out of town.  It was a wonderful offer that would get me away from home but having been out of town just a week ago, I declined with at least the thought, although I didn't say it, I should stick to my knitting at home.  Now I didn't literally mean knitting, I meant I had things at home to do.  But then I wondered what that colloquial phrase really means. The truth about where "sticking to your knitting" originated is not easy to find.  It is often linked to a  similar idiom:  "smoking your own cigar".  Some suggest each is gender specific which explains why we need two of them.   On the personal level it generally refers to one not sticking one's nose into other people's business or that one shouldn't act as if they know something about something that they don't.  In short, don't be a busy body. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's 1982 In Search of Excellence,

A few days ago I wrote about the kind people at Chapman Antique Mall in Orange, California who helped me secure a cab.  I asked readers to offer ideas about how I could thank them and several good suggestions came in.  Thank you all for informing my decision about what to do. I decided to knit a thank you.  (Jami, thanks for asking the question about whether a thank you could be knit.  Apparently, yes it can.) This is a relatively small item that I made with the help of an alphabetic graph designed by Julie, a knitter from the UK, found on her blog   Little Cotton Rabbits .  My Mom, someone not known for her great skills in using technology, turned me on to this lovely site.  I strongly recommend looking around her entire blog rather than just the alphabet graph I've linked.  You'll find adorable patterns to knit, some free, some not, or just lots of happy knitted projects. Now that I have my knitted portion of the thank you complete, I have to secure the rest

This post has been in the making for months.  There's been combinations of Science Fiction characters made in yarn by Trekkers and  those who love Star Wars, (apparently they don't have a name like those who love Star Trek) popping up on the web for some time.   So let's start with Star Wars.  Here's a local something from just south of Vancouver, in lovely Bellingham, Washington: Bellingham, Washington's Yarn2D2 Sarah Rudder, the creator of this yarn bomb, or Yarn2D2 as she refers to it, says she couldn't quite figure out why such ugly bollards were placed at crosswalks on Railroad Avenue.  She set out to make one pretty, but only for a short time.  Apparently knitted R2d2 was up for only a few hours in June 2012 and now resides in Sarah's home waiting to have it's/his arms completed and attached.  Want to see more photos with people's reactions, go to google +photos .  It seems this adventure created quite a stir not only in Bellingham but

Oh, a story from California.  It is worth sticking with this because there is a happy ending and a question to be answered.  It seems to me when one is not sending off bad vibrations into the world, the world holds your hand and guides you and so it was for me the last day in California.  I wanted to travel from Anaheim to Orange.  Orange is a small city for Los Angeles standards, about 135,000 in population.  It is located about 6.5 miles south and west of Anaheim.  Orange is unusual for a California city because many of the homes found in the Old Town District were built prior to 1920 and remain standing and in use today.   Orange boasts of having many of its buildings listed on the National Registry.  So I decided I'd catch a cab from Disneyland to check out this Old Town District. Getting a cab in Anaheim, especially around Disneyland is no problem.  All one has to do is stop by any major hotel or just wave your hand at a passing cab and you're good to go.  In less than

Yup, I have been away for a week attending a professional conference in sunny Anaheim (you know Disneyland), California.  I've come back to work ready to roll all revved up with new ideas.  I did take some knitting with me, but at 30C or 90F degrees or so, it was just too hot to knit.  Perhaps a few photos from my adventure will show up here, but it was a business trip not a personal trip, so interesting photos are scarce. Hot dog with Relish and Chips  Just before I left one of the blogs I follow showed the picture above.  It doesn't take a genius to recognize that this hot dog looks a lot like the one I posted last year.  I knew it had to be Susie Johns ', Knitted Fast Food  and sure enough it was.  I knit a second hot dog recently and  added ketchup, easily made of red yarn and relish, made with green yarn with beads sewn to it with black thread.  Great minds must work together because the Lenox dog added relish, not something Susie included in her pattern, like I

In order to honor the 4th I thought I'd try to find something appropriately big related to knitting.  How about this: An Exhibition by David Cole This knitted U.S. flag designed in 2005 took time to prepare as the designer, David Cole, stood in a cherry picker knitting one stitch over one another with a fishing gaff until he had a flag over 20 feet wide.  It was located at  MASS MoCA  (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art)   The needles are two aluminum telephone poles.  Should you wish to see more of his work check out his gallery .  He creates remarkable works, most quite large.  Further details of how the project was prepared can be found here . Just as for Canada Day I think I'll post the words for the Star-Spangled Banner all 4 verses.  (I didn't know there were 4 verses for this anthem either.  Luckily I attempt to do a bit of writing otherwise I'd still be uninformed.) O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the

You know where this is going, right? Ok, I have the day off and I'm busy looking at all the sites that come to me about knitting and this image shows up.  It is just great.  Should you have spent any time with a cat you know this boy (he has only two colours so he is the appropriate gender) is being tolerant, but clearly not all that enthralled with his "mane."  It is this photo that really says it all: I win! He finally got the thing off his head and he's contemplating where to hide it so he doesn't have to go through that whole ordeal again.  Am I right or not, I think in this case I am a cat whisperer. Unfortunately or is it luckily for Mike, my cat, there's a free pattern  to make this on Ravelry.  The designer Mer Almagro lives in Belgium, just began knitting in 2009 and is already designing some mighty fine items (our furry friends might disagree with the mighty fine attributes for the mane, but her human stuff is mighty fine indeed).  Just

July 1 is Canada Day, the day Canadians celebrate the coming together of three colonies into one country within the British Empire in 1867.  It is celebrated in many of the same ways the U.S. celebrates its 4th of July with family picnics, fireworks and time away from work. As someone who has been a Canadian citizen for nearly a year, I thought I should do something with yarn to commemorate the day.  (Sure yarn can be used to celebrate anything from my POV.)  And recently I found a shadow knitting washcloth designed by someone very close to home.  The Maple Leaf Illusion Dishcloth is a free pattern  designed by Audrey from Abbottsford, BC.  Here's photos of my finished product: A Maple Leaf from the Side to Emphasize the Leaf Looking at the Maple Leaf from the Top This very simple project uses a technique of shadow or optical knitting.  It seems to have been a type of knitting that originated in Japan.  Using colours that are high in contract, the right side ridges cast