Savage Chickens

Have you Ever Been Attacked by an Eight Arm Giant Squid

We I haven't been either. Still, making a octopus balloon feels like it.

The Knit List & Black Yarn

Once upon a time when the only knitting thing on the Internet was the knit list I joined it. No one was working on the sorts of things that I usually work on. In addition there was a lot of sniping at one another. At one point I don't think you could go through a day with out some one saying something incredibly rude about someone else.

Well no one is knitting things like I do. I wasn't really expecting anyone to be knitting sweaters for three people or knitting a scarf you can tie up a tug boat with. By the way no one better trying tethering their ship to a dock with one of my long scarves. There are some things that clowns will fight over.

Any way I have received sixty or seventy messages from the Knit List. Each one of them was polite and about knitting. The knitting world has either grown or they have a really good group of List Mom's.

Also after my first post visitors to this blog jumped. This is a good thing as well. I have not seen many knitting blogger with a link to the Knit List. Do the List people not get along with the blog people? For a while I thought The Knit List had gone away.

And is it The Knit List like The Salvation Army with a capital The or just the Knit List?

Also I have been knitting some black socks on 2 mm needles. I have been using a nice wool and acrylic mix. It is a supper wash wool so I don't have to worry about washing it.

Anyway Ewe can Knit Down Town Pittsburgh carries it and a nice cotton sock yarn as well. It's great to have a source for the yarns you like.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

At least I was not the only school kid that made that mistake.

Savage Chickens

Is This Creepy

Is this a creepy picture to change my Blogger profile picture to?

The Knit List

I have been excepted onto the Knit List. What this has to do with Diana Trent I do not know.

I think I will have to a link to the Knit List some where on the Blog.

Happy Sticking. Be safe out there and keep your stick on theice.

Hats at the Hive

This is a finished hat and one that will be finished soon.They are knit from Galaxy by Elle. This is a bulky acrylic that is staple at Charity Knitting. I really like this pattern. It is an old Circus pattern I am working up a version for circular needles.

The Baby The Marley

These are the five finalists for The Marley. Two are Red Heart, two are Pattons and a forget what the fifth was. Each took around an hour to knit using the Magicord Machine.

We sat around the Bee Hive on Monday trying to decide which one reminded us the most of Bob Marley. It was really amazing to be giving the pot heads a run for their money in being the strangest people in the Hive.

A weighty decision, what kind of scarf would Bob Marley be reincarnated as.

This is me knitting the skein of Pattons. We made seventeen test swatches. You can also see a short orange scarf that was knit for one of the plastic flamingos in the Hive. By the way this is the fun that you are missing by not coming to the Bee Hive on Mondays.

By the way it is not cold in the Bee Hive. The Plastic Flamingos in the Bee Hive are just panzies.

I would also like to take a moment to thank Ddancer forgetting us the yarn to make the test swatches. There is not much money in performing for sick people. By the way the people at the Bee Hive really like us.

On the up side now that we have someone in the Brigade that can actually take pictures I may even have pictures of stuff from knitting groups.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice. Oh and we are going to be using the Autumn colored Pattons in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

Way off in Left Feild - Your All Wrong - I Want to be Knit List Mom

Today was a moderately busy day. I worked on my socks some more and the dialogue for a couple routines for the Brigade. I also made some little paper furniture for Sunday. It is odd to be teaching Jr. Soldiers again. For those outside the Army that is a training program for young people in The Salvation Army. We mostly do Jesus stuff, although there is some Army tradition and history in there as well. We are doing the Tabernacle



Our men's club is also getting ready to do some open airs. This is another Army tradition that we do not see enough of today. Basically it is holding a church service outside. We do not hold Sunday service outside we hold an additional service outside. It is nice to be doing them again as well.



Any way onto some knitting stuff. One thing that I noticed the last couple months is that people who have free pattern sites have links for one kind of item. I have not noticed a single site that has all forms of knitting in the same way that there are a couple good juggling sites. Perhaps I am just missing them. If anyone knows about one of these mega sites let me know. If not does anyone know a good free website service out there. I was even poking around at Yahoo's Geocities today considering building my own super site. If there is such a thing I would like to link to it.



Also I have noticed a strange tendency I have when knitting socks. Firstly I was taught how to knit them toe up. It was not until I went out into "The Real World" of knitting that I found that most people knit socks backwards. How do you all try them on? You have much more faith than I do. The truly strange thing I do is that I shift the stitches from one needle to the next when I am only using four needles. For some reason this feels and seems right to me. I cannot find any reference any where why one would do this.



It has been a couple years since I have knit socks and I do not know why I was taught to do this. Over the last couple years I have started a couple pairs of socks but have not gotten above the toe where I start doing this. I do not recall being taught this. Still, this is just how I do it and always remember doing it this way. I even emailed a couple of the clowns I know who were taught me to knit. I asked them why we do this and the one that emailed me back just said it is the way it is supposed to be. This is truly weird I think. Although I have nagging feeling that everyone else on the planet is wrong. This must be how EZ felt about English Style knitters. Fear not I will not+ begin going around telling everyone that they are wrong. Even if everyone is wrong I will keep that opinion to myself. And if anyone has a good reason why I am knitting socks like that let me know. It is nice to have reasons to be right.



Another thing I have forgotten about socks is that they are an obsession nearly as great as a good hundred foot long scarf. Although on smaller scale. That is of course unless you have really big feet. I do have big feet for a person under six foot tall. Still, they are not so big that they rival a long scarf in knitting effort. I should probable digress at this point. And if I think I should stop now that probably means I should have stopped a couple paragraphs ago. Like I probably should not compare myself to EZ or say everyone on the planet is wrong.

Also I have asked to join what I think is now what The Knit List used to be. It appears that it is now a Yahoo group. I don't imagine they have any more clowns on The Knit List than they did years ago. Still, I have some fond memories of it. I also have a couple not so fond memories of it. Still, since I can't join all of those inactive rings that you see in the right hand column. I might as well join something I think is fairly active. It is like the KT Tunstall song. Suddenly I do see why it means so much to me. I once had a great connection with the knitters around me. They were all just like me. Now when I go out to a knitting group they are not like me.

It is not that anyone that I now knit with is not a pleasure to be around. For some reason on an uncontious level it was important to be a part of something. I suppose that I am too far out in Left Field to be an integral part of any group. That is the odd thing, I have always thought I played well with others. The whole knitting thing does have me a bit down. In clowning I did well. Not being able to find a place to teach knitting I suppose has been more of a blow to my ego than anything else.

And how come no one told me Kt Trustall is from Scotland? There should have been a memo or something. It there are any other cool Scottish singers out there? Let me know. Just so I make sure I haven't missed anyone. Oh an go see her My Space page:

http://www.myspace.com/kttunstall



I imagine I am about seven years behind the times. Still, I always knew that the My Space thing was there. I also knew there were music people on it. I really like going to websites that have music embedded in them. If I made music I would embed it in this blog. That is if I knew how to do that. By the way she does a really cool version of "I Want You Back".

I just got the automated email from The Knit List Moms. Wow, I wanted to be a Knit List Mom when I first started looking at knitting on the Internet. It looks as if all Moms are still women. Well I imagine they were always women. I mean that none of them are men. From their form letter they still look fairly exclusive. I will probably not be able to become a Mom. Oh well.

If anyone that reads this is a Knit List member let me know if I have a chance.

I am beginning to think that I should write an out line for some of these entries. As I sit here looking at my card stock version of the Ark of the Covenant It makes me think about Charity Knitting at Knit 1 on Sunday. If you happen to be in the Squirrel Hill area stop by. I do not know why my mind make that leap it just does.

I should probably bring this entry to an end. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

A Couple new Flags

Just a couple notes about some new countries to the list.

The first is Romania. Besides having a flag that is Army Colors they also have some really nice pastries that I like. Welcome aboard Romania.


Serbia and Montenegro also recently stopped by.

Water Front Knitting

A great day was had knitting at the Water Front. The Brigade picked the yarn that will be used for The Marley. We will be using a Patton Autumn colored yarn. When I get pictures I will post them. I do think that this yarn will live up to it's namesake.

It is late and I am sleepy. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

Too Many Choices

I have too many choices and no way adequately describe my dilemma to you. I am afraid this may be a long and involved ramble.

Our Clown Brigade has been doing quite a bit of knitting. We knit items for our church and items for the Brigade. Knitting has become a mild obsession with us. One of the most impressive things that a clown troop knits it their long scarves.

We have settled upon a design for 2008 that would be knit from icord. This design has affectionately been dubed The Marley by Ddancer. Dadancer also wanted to be helpful with picking a yarn. To that end she has assembled a couple boxes of yarn that we have been turning into icord and knitting up swatches. This appeared to be a strait forward task.

The clowns and I picked out what we thought were the best candidates and then knit them up. We have been using an cranking icord machine to do this. It is basically a knitting spool on steroids. It is a nice little machine although it does have a couple of little quirks. To deal with those quirks I have been making a lot of icord to figure out how to deal with those quirks. To that end I have been turning some of the colors were not enthused about into icord. This is where the delimma comes in.

A couple of the colors we did not like have turned into great swatches. And horror of horrors the one I think I like the most is not Red Heart. With The Judy it was simple. We used what was at hand. Now that there are choices it is almost too much to bear. We did take some pictures of the swatches on Monday. When they are emailed to me I will put them up on the Blog.

Well I am sure we will persevere.

I would like to thank Ddancer for her contributions to this process. All kidding aside The Marley will proved to be nearly indestructible. In addition it will be more ridged than The Judy and take more abuse than she can.

We have had so many fires recently that I have had very little time for knitting. Hive Knitting was very good this week. We have a little visitor who was there with her parents and thought what we were doing was fascinating. Granted we were working on Balloon Animals as well. Nothing attracts kids like a table full of balloon animals. She also helped feed yarn to me what I cranked. She even cranked on a couple of the swatches. It did go to show us that even with four ply yarns once you get them going they are not that hard to crank. All and all a lot of experience was gained.

I could go on all evening. I don't think it would be very interesting if I did so I will leave this where it is until I have some pictures.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

Knitting What Might be The Marley

The Brigade and I spent the better part of the evening working on swatches for The Marley. We even had the help of a cute little kid this evening. I am supper tired and want to go to sleep. The Brigade has a photographer. So I should have some pictures tomorrow.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

Bob the Squirell Racheal Ray Tribute

My wife is a big RachealRay fan. I also noted the Bob the Squirell comic make more sence with the back story. So here is my impromptu tribute to Racheal Ray via Bob the Squirell. Enjoy

Good Day at Charity Knitting

A great day was had a Charity Knitting. Not only are there several things at Knit 1 there were several new people there today. I always like to meet new knitters.

On the up side the young man who has not wanted to knit publicly completed his first scarf today. He finger knit three strips and knit one set of ends together. He then braided them and knit the other end together. All an all a good first project.

I would say more about this young man. Unfortunately he is part of the ever growing male underground Knitting World. One day we will all rise up and retake the knitting world. Remember I warned you.

Today I received some more yarn from Ddancer for Marley test swatches. Some of it was so exciting that I have to make up a swatch right there and then. The new batch is mostly acrylic and has some very exciting possibilities. I am even considering one that is not Mexicana. I know I am surprised as you are. We will make up a few more swatches tomorrow at Hive Knitting. We should have a decision on what we are going to make The Marley from on Wednesday. I may even have pictured of the swatches by then.

I am also fairly sure which Icord Machine from Bond has taken the place of the Magicord Maker. I have still not received a reply from the Bond people. Still, what can you do? Everything is coming together. The Marley will be super cool and that is all that really counts.

Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

AMessage From the Strong Boy Reader

Sunday Comics

F Minus

Helpful hints for our Troops from WWI

Rose Is Rose

Mr. Coffee Nerves

Bob The Squirel

A Message From Somewhere in South Seas

Lots of Stuff Going On

Another day spent working on knitting but mostly writing clown routines. The Brigade is getting ready for it's first showing of part of our stage show. We will be putting on half of our routines for various Officers (ministers) in our church. It is the first step in getting permission to do a tour of several Corps in the Allegheny County Area. At this point we just need to build a couple props and do some more rehearsing.

It is odd to be getting ready for a show like this again. Granted this will be nothing like the circus and nothing like my old troop. Still, I am impressed by how well these new volunteers are taking to the training. We have even started talking with The Children's Institute about volunteering there. Just some paper work to do on that front.

Had a busy day at work yesterday. The average ho hum day was int erupted by a fire part of the way through an orientation with a new volunteer. Fortunately the young man was able to go on a fire call. Still, no better training for a new volunteer than going out on a fire. Even better no one was hurt.

I did not get much time for knitting in the last couple days.

I have spent my spar time working on this blog. I think this gives a bit more order and reflects the inner me a little better. The inner me is actually purple with yellow polka dots. You should hear the grief I get when I see a new doctor.

Well anyway have a good evening.Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

New Layout

The new layout is up an running. I hope you like purple. I do.

I don't imagine anyone really cares about the minutia of putting together this blog. Still, I will ramble on about it any way. It is after all what I do best.

The only problem I am having is that the template is that I did not have the code for the nav bar in it. My old template was almost unreadable. I have not be able to figure out what line of code was the code that put the nav bar into the blog. If anyone from blogger is reading this I am not trying to slight you. I simply have not figured out how the put the bar back on.

The Witting and Speaving web ring also threw off the new template. I will have to find the picture to complete it and plug it in. So that Wed Ring gizmo will work again.

There are a couple little kinks with the size of the comment box. Still, those will work themselves out over the next week or so.

Savage Chickens

Savage Chicken

Savage Chickens

New Pittsburgh Knitting Stuff

If you are from Da Burg and you knit this site needs to be on your computer memory menu gizmo thing. It needs to be right at the top of that list thing what ever it is called. Unless you list is alphabetical. And if it is you should rearrange the alphabet so this site it at the top of your list. By the the team monkeys and a rather pudgy hamster that run my blog think this site is really cool.

By the way www.pittsburghknitting.com is the web address thing you should all be visiting.

They also have a new picture thing. You know me I am not much for the circular needles. Still, this is a cool logo. The monkey that is typing this does not think my graphic artist Hedgehog could create such a cool logo. Something about opposable thumbs.

Well my Graphic Hedgehog may not be able to draw the sky line of Pittsburgh. Still, he is good at polka dots, which is what I am looking for in a blog layout.

Going back to knitting type news I made some mittens today. I have forgotten how much I like making mittens. Mittens are like knitting sock with a really weird toe. Well maybe they are not that much like knitting socks.

I am not sure what the point of this entry is. Still, if this entry had a point it would be the first.

Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

No Public Knitting

I have come to realise that the new format is Lawrence Welk's worst nightmare. Well what can be done?

There was no knitting at the Water Front today. I am sad. I had to miss last week for a funeral. I did get a lot of work done on the new blog layout. If you have a chance take a look at it. There is a link for it down bellow.

Well not much to say today. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Still Messing Around with the Format

I am still messing around with a new format for this blog. I want something that is uniquely me.

Since I don't want to destroy the blog to do this I am playing around with the Format on another blog. Once I have it perfected there I will graft it onto this blog. Hopefully I will not loose any thing in the transition.

Firstly I would like to thank CarlaK who threw together the test swatch I am using for the back round. She has graciously offer to make it the proper size when I figure out what that is.

I found the free html template thing on a site and have been playing around with it on and off. There is a link at the bottom of the right column. I am not sure they are going to want to take credit for it when I am done. Still, what can you do? I will probably email them and see what they think.

By the way this is the link to the experimental blog: http://zeeppoexper.blogspot.com/

If you take a look tell me what you think so far. I am interested in feed back. I am never going to restore the male dominated knitting empire that once existed if I do not have a cool blog. I have even figure out how to put a link to my Yahoo radio station on the blog. You could have the entire Zeeppo experience in your living room. All you would need is a ginger beer or Cherry Coke and a ham and pumpernickel sandwich and you would almost be me. By the way I do not encourage anyone to become me. You would really annoy your spouse if you did, especially if you are female. The beard is not a good look for most women. Although I do know a couple ladies, well I digress.

I am definitely deep sixing the Russell Crowe picture. Perhaps Viggo, I am told I favor him in the right light. Anyway moving on. I am going to use a recent clown picture of myself. The one I posted was too big and have not had the presence of mind to shrink it to the proper size.

Well that is it for me for the moment. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens

A good day was had knitting. I finished a couple hats to go with some scarves and mittens. When I sit down with the technical support people and get my web cam up again I will post some pictures.

CarlaK sent me plans for a cigar box spinning gizmo. The parts list is pretty simple and inexspensive. I will have to make one.

The knitting festivalwas nice overthe weekend. Unfortunately no one signed up for my class and it was cancelled. Oh well what can you do. Some times you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.

Hive knitting was a little sparse this evening. I suppose the threat of snow kept people away. Anyway we got a little knitting done and got alot of work done on the Stage Show for the Clown Brigade. The entire line up is written and all that is left to do is to practice some more and perform the shows. Simple

Not much to say tonight. Besafe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens - Barry Tofu

Savage Chicken - Love Stinks

Rabbit Day

Yet another Rabbit Day.

I cried when the little boy got Scarlet fever and had to go away. I aslo cried when he go his wish and became a real rabbit.

The Velveteen Rabbit should have left pellets in their house because they were going to burn him.

Viewer Mail Again So Soon

I got a ton of emails in the last week or so. Of course that means another viewer mail.

Question 1 - Where do you buy clown noses from? Personally I buy my clown noses from the Coo Koo's Nest a magic shop right here on the South Side.

Question 2 - What kind of nose do you use? I use a Scnatlacher. They are made in New Castle. They are a great noses. I never thought I would get one question about my nose let alone two.

Question 3 - Do people really send you these questions? Yes

Question 4 - What is your favorite ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip - Cotton Candy

Question 5 - What Country are you from? Ummm... The United States. Do I type with an accent or something?

You know I have noticed that people do not ask me knitting questions. This is a knitting blog, more or less.

Well if you have a question post it here or email me at zeeppo_the_great@yahoo.com

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Some New Countries

We now have a regular from the Ukraine. I have always wanted to vist Kiev


Egypt has also had a few people stop by. I have not had many African nations stop by. Maybe there is not much knitting in Africa.

Macedomia I know nothing about this country. I will have to yahoo it.

China, yeah I have gone when McDonald's and so many others have gone before

Savage Chicken

Savage Chickens

Rambling Ramblings

It has been another busy week. I did not get a chance to go to knitting at the Water Front today. I did work on my wavy scarf some more. I also started some socks. I really need to make something more complicated than scarves. Even if they have been of gigantic proportions.

We had a water pipe break in the house and that has taken some of my attention. I am ready for my class this Sunday and would encourage all the youth reading this to tell your parents that you want to take my class on Sunday. By the way, parents you should not let your children read this blog. It is not that any of the material in this blog is offensive. It is simply a terrible waste of time. Children should be out playing or exploring the world not reading this.

My quest for gainful employment in the Knitting world is still not going very far. I am considering walking around with a sign that says will "Will Knit For Money". I have been taking the time to study up on knitting. In particular I have been reading about the various fibers out there.

With the exception of some wood and bamboo brands that I did not know about there have not been many surprises. I am finding more questions about knitting. Like can you felt with wood fibers. I know you can felt with most natural animal fibers. Although I would imagine plant fiber does not react like animal fibers would. It's fiber would have to be constructed differently. I will probably have to pick up a ball and see what happens next time I am at Knit 1.

Well thanks for tuning in. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Sunday Comics

Between the computer dropping dead and other minor things I have not been able to keep with my regular schedule. Anyway here are some of the Cartoons.

I would like to note that LaurieG won the Lance Lawson Sweepstakes last time. In due time I will post the customary entry praising the attributes of her blog.

Lance Lawson

If you have the answer to how Lance cracked this tough case write it in the comment section of this post. The winner gets a coveted post in The Lance Lawson Sweepstakes section of this blog.

Mr. Coffee Nerves

Jerry on the Job

Bob the Squirrel

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.