Blog Broke 30,000 Views

Overnight this blog broke through the 30,000 views mark. Woo-hoo, I can’t believe it. Here’s a brief recap of the numbers:

Date Posts Views

Oct. 2, 2012	133	5,894
Dec. 7, 2012	157	10,000
Apr. 23, 2013	202	20,000
Aug. 6, 2013	243	30,000

So it took a year to get to almost 6,000 views and then only 2 months to hit 10,000. After another 4.5 months the numbers doubled to 20,000 views and in just over 3 months it hit another 10,000. I know I have talked about this a lot, but this is a self-indulgent enterprise, these numbers just fascinate me and overwhelm me at the same time

Unlike many other bloggers, I have a silent readership, which is fine with me. (I know I very much dislike the fact that Blogger requires that you have an account with them to comment. I wouldn't like it either if I didn't already have such account. And many of you respond on Facebook or to my personal e-mail so I know you are out there.) The lack of comments on the blog means there’s little need for me to read and/or respond to them. Contrast this to big name knitting bloggers who often have 200-300 comments to review daily. I am thrilled with the lack of chatter, but it leaves me begging the questions: why people are tuning in and how they are able to find my blog, so I’ve done some investigating.

For example the Earworms and a Sanibel Cowl post is #2 when you search the name Sanibel Cowl on Google. I think because it was knit quickly after the pattern came out meaning the post has been up for a longer time than others, causes it to have more views. A similar analysis can be made about the Little Arrows Shawl where the post Little Arrows Down comes up as the 4^th listing on Google. Again I believe being early into the pattern helps with readership. Someone recently was searching for help knitting Little Arrows (I get to see what my traffic is searching for when they find me). It is hard to tell if that reader got much help from my ramblings, but perhaps the life line idea may have been beneficial.

As you can tell this last weekend, even though I had three entire days off, I didn’t write. Partially this has to do with my taking a bit of a knitting break so there’s not much to write about; but additionally, I do have other interests and sometimes they prevail. The numbers above seem to motivate me and I like that it is taking less and less time to add another 10,000 views, so write on I will as the spirit moves me.

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Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

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I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

Flagel Knitting Files

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