Sunday, April 29, 2007

More of My Opinion on Stuff Everyone Should Care About, Kind Of

A good day was had knitting at Knit 1. I am least half way through the Prayer Shawl for the Brigade. I will post pictures when I finish it. We want to have it finished for a weekend church event. This will give us a chance to show some people in our denomination this new ministry.

Both Flo and our Mystery Male Knitter worked on icord for The Marley. We are a quarter of the way through the yarn for The Marley. Even at the rate we are going we will have The Marley done by the Fiber Fest. Life is good.

To ramble on a bit Knitting on the Internet. I am writing an article on Clown Knitting for the KnitWiki site. I hope to post the basic explanation tonight. After that will be sections on Long Scarves, Multi person Sweaters and Long Sweaters. I am digging through my old equipment looking for examples of each of these items. I am sorry to say I don’t have any of the sweaters any longer. Well I suppose that is a good excuse to make some up. I will have to check on my terminology and such to make certain I am presenting everything as it should be.

When I have a bit more time I will add a link to this site KnitWiki site. Never the less it is an important thing for the greater knitting community. I cannot go enough about how there should be this type of resource. This is the sort of thing that gives longevity to something like knitting. You may have heard me muse from time to time about whether knitting is a fad or making an honest come back.

Knitting like many things has gone in and out of fashion over the years. Still, there are things that were once unpopular that have made a permanent come back. I myself will always have to knit because I need unique items. Hobbies that last have an infrastructure that keep them going strong. At one point it was hard to find a good yarn shop in some cities. Now a city the size of Pittsburgh has several. We always had a couple. Yet the ones that we did have were a niche. Now they are a destination for so many. For many year I have always hunted yarn shops when I was in a new town or city. Many times I was disappointed because there was not one. That sort of disappointment is now rarely the case.

My point, as a wander away from my point, is that knitting is starting to get the depth that will maintain it over many years. It has always had an incredibly strong following of die hards. You simply cannot deny that. And they alone would make certain that someone would always be knitting somewhere. Now like NASCAR knitting is finding converts in places that it never did before. People who did not have parents or grandparents that knit are now knitting. Men who were told that it is girly as children are doing it. The KnitWiki is yet another layer of that depth. I encourage everyone to contribute articles and tell your friends about it. This is a good thing.

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

Welcome Uruguay

Well some more folks have stopped by from South America. Uruguay has stopped by and I am happy to have them around. Thank you all for your interest.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

A Long Day was Had Knitting

I put at least a foot on theprayer shawl and helped teach anothermember of our Corps to knit.At this point more than half our congregation is knitting. Life is good.

It is late and i got in late. I have to up for church and need to sleep. I will post a great deal on Sunday.

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

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Help Please

A good day was had but not much knitting was done. I spent the better part of the day redoing the locks on a commercial space. The glamour of the family business.

Tomorrow there is some church stuff to do and the second installment of Charity Knitting at The Army at six in the evening. Please join us. There will be a pot luck dinner and much fun will be had by all. We will be watching movies and much fun will be had by all. It is The Salvation Army at 104 E Ninth Ave in Homestead. We are just off the High level Bridge

Moving along other stuff happening there in a few month. We are planning a fiber festival in October. We are going to need a ton of help.

We need everything sponsors, teachers, vendors, Knitting Guilds, cooks, volunteers and tons of other things. We need suggestions, friendly advice and anything you can think of that we have not.

As always thank you for your advice. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens


Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Yet Another Pressing Issue

Have you ever had the desire to make everyone around you wear silly hats. I am sure like me you have this desire frequently. For some reason I have found that not everyone shares this desire. There are many things that I do not understand about the world. The fact that everyone does not want to wear a silly hat is one of the things that I do not understand.

I have found the people do not like the funny hat at churches. Well that is men are not allowed to wear the funny hat a churches. I could spend an entire day talking about women with big hats at churches. I love them. Nothing is greater than a huge red hat with fruit on it.

I also find that court rooms do not like the large hat. I do not know why. I recall the occasional large hat on women in Perry mason Movies. For some reason the world has gotten away from that. I suppose it is some sort of security thing. Yet another thing to be blamed on Al Queda.

Well another place that I have noted there are not large hats are Knitting Gatherings. Well today I decided to do something about that and strike a blow for large hats everywhere.

First we have our temporary fearless leaders. First is Melisa sporting a Little Brave hat. This is all the rage in Paris this year

Chemo cap in progress here.
















Next is The Steel City Knitter who is sporting a well...... I don't know what this hat is called. It is pink.


Boring sock in progress here.













We have Dehli sporting the inverted Flower Power hat. The leader in a new line of retro hippie hats.

She is also making a hat. I love the irony










We have Jimmy wearing the always popular half octopus hat. A hit above and bellow the waves.

Jimmy is working on Charity Knitting Scarf















Next we have the guy sporting the twisted unicorn hat. He is incredibly happy to have this hat. I think he was more excited about the project than I am.



This guy is making coffee













Yet another one of my clowns Wendy. She is showing support for a troops with the Yankee Doodle Braided Crown.


Wendy is also working on a scarf for Charity Knitting

The Baby Lion Killer is keepping watch making sure we do not get too far out of line.











And of course what would I be wearing but the full on Rainbow Connection Hat. This hat is popular everywhere except for places with low ceilings.





I am working on a prayer shawl.

Our real fearless leader will be back next week. I hope you like what we have done with the place while you were gone. Thanks Steel City Knitter for the pictures.

Savage Chickens


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A Quick Comment

I love the Internet and I love the TV Shows that are now on the Internet. I am settling back into my clown practice schedule nicely. It has given me time to blog and write my various books. As I type this thing I am watching an episode of Raines I missed. I am still awed by the whole internet thing. I love this show. It has Jeff G. a Pittsburgh native and one of the best crazy people actors ever. It also has Linda Park as a jr super detective. There are a lot of placed for this show to go.

Anyway back to the wikiknit thing I got several hits from it today. A couple helpful souls even added some Marley related icord projects. A clown wig and such things. I am impressed by how things get around on the web. I believe the phrase is viral. Well I am probably thinking about this too much. Still, it is cool how these things go around.

Work progressed on the prayer shawl today. I am pleased with what it. I hope to have it finished by the end of next week.

Well I just wanted to leave a quick post. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Who's your Mommy?

Does anyone know how to get in touch with the head Knitlist Mom?

I continue to be frustrated that they will not post my items half the time. I have read other posts about knitting groups in other area but they will not post items about the group at our church. In addition I have not seen a post for my last couple replies to messages.

In addition I have yet to see a rule page that prohibits me from putting up the posts that I want to. I understand that this is the Mom’s Page and not really a public forum. Still how much dignity and respect goes into something that will not share the rules? Also how much respect is there for male knitters if there are no Dads?

I am not angry I am just disappointed. It would be nice if I were allowed to post about groups just like other people.

Savage Chickens


Charity Knitting Book & Online Knitting Resource

Life is good in strange ways. I check the people who visit this blog mainly to see what other people are doing with their knitting. It also helps me to know that my mime filters are working. Anyway back to the point of my entry.

There is a site that I ran across called http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Main_Page. It is the beginning of what could be the Wikipedia for the knitting world. On occasion you have heard me muse that it would be nice if there was an all inclusive internet knitting resource. Well this looks like the beginning of such a resource. I browsed around it a bit and it is very good start. It may not be all inclusive yet. Still, with the support of the internet knitting community it will be some day.

Oh and I can across this page because The Marley is listed on the 101 things to do with icord section. The Marley is number 22. I am so proud. They did forget a p in Zeeppo. Which is the nice thing about this format, I could fix it. I am going to add a link to it on the side bar and probably add articles about all the clown knitting stuff the world needs to know. It is the only way we can protect ourselves from the Mime menace.

On the Charity Knitting front I have noticed that my last entry was vague. Actually the half dozen people the emailed me pointed our my last entry was vague. So here is a list of free uncopywritten patterns I am looking for. And if you made up the pattern or know who did let me know. I would like to attribute it to the person who wrote it. I am looking for Crochets and Knit versions as well.

Mittens, hats, sweaters, cardigans, socks, baby blankets, full sized blankets or any suggestions. I do have enough scarf patterns, unless someone has a cute matching set.

When I have enough patterns my Clown Brigade is going to publish this book. It will probably sell for a couple bucks and the proceeds will be used for our Charity Knitting Project. Since we just got into Prayer Shawls I will be adding a section on that as well.

I have been playing around with this for a year and it is time to get serous about it. Everyone in Pittsburgh has been so kind about donating items to Knit 1 for our Shelters. I only hope this book will in a small way will give something back to the knitting community that has been so kind to us.

You may be surprised to know that a group of knitting clowns is not always welcomed by polite society. I am just pleased that we have found a comfortable little place here in Western PA.

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

Monday, April 23, 2007

More Hive Knitting

A good day was had a Hive Knitting. A couple of the Brigade members were able to work on the Prayer Shawl and much fun was had by all.

On the lighting front at The Hive we have switched to painters lights that we are able to hang off the junk hanging from the ceiling. We are going to knock down the wattage on the bulbs because it was like sitting on the sun today. Still, it is good that we have solved the lighting problem there. It is really such a nice place to knit that it is a shame the lighting was so bad.

I always like The Hive because we are not an oddity there. Well I suppose a bunch of guys knitting is an oddity anywhere. Still, at the Hive no one notices. Or at the very least we don’t get compare to someone dead great aunt. I once had someone tell me their dead great aunt knit. And they referred to them as their dead great aunt. In addition she said that I had a slightly better beard than their dead great aunt. Perhaps the knitting is not the odd thing. Maybe I just attract odd people. Like a great magnate for the strange. Well what can one do? It does make life interesting.

As stated someday I may post pictures but not today. I probably should join the new millennium. I am just cheap.

On the sewing front I hope to have my Brigadier uniform done by Wednesday. It is more complicated than the uniform that I formerly used. It has a four piece back. It gives it a better shape but is a pain to make. Still, we have few clowns and hopefully some of them will be sewing soon.

I have been working on a couple writing projects in the last week. For some reason they take a great deal out of me. I am back to working on the beginning Charity Knitting Text that I have left along for a while. I still need a lot of patterns for it. My contribution will mainly be the writing of the how to section. After that it is all patterns.

By the way if anyone has a good pattern that is not copy written send it my way. I am looking for Knit and Crochet patterns.

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

Savage Chicken


Friday, April 20, 2007

Back at my Computer

I have been away for the better part of this week at a place that does not have computers. I am going to have to get one of those phones that you can send emails with.

Any way, I was watching a set of kids this week on last minute notice. They are good kids and it was fun. It did give me a chance to get fix a couple knitting machines and play around with my Bond knitting machine. I knocked off several squares for a blanket.
I have been out of the loop for a week and missed two knitting groups this week. I am a very bad knitter. I am going to go into Knit 1 today and set up some more classes. Dudes you need to get out and knit. I will post my classes when I have them put together. CarlaK found a sweater pattern for the knitting machine that is a lot nicer than the one I was going to use. It is one of the things I experimented with with week. It has inspired me to come up with my own MK sweater pattern. I wish it inspired me to come up with a good one. Still, what can one do.

I did figure out what machine I used in the Circus. It was an insanely expensive Brothers machine. I can see why I have a love hate relationship with the Bond. I was spoiled at a young age. Still, with the knitting of The Marley I have found a great deal of respect for Bond gizmos in general.
So far my Brigade has broken 1 machine and we have been given two machines for spare parts that were broken. Each of these broken machines was able to repaired and are currently working. There is some thing to be said for simplicity of design. With a little plumbers goop and gun oil these machines can be brought back from inoperative to humming like new in a matter of minutes. We thought we were going to destroy these things at an alarming rate.
Sure we have altered them a bit for this project. Still, they have proven that this little gadget is able to take much more abuse than they are designed for. And in my experience that is the sign of a good design.
I only wish the Bond people replied to my initial email. I should probably send them a testimonial.
Hello Bond,
I am clown that had to knit 200 skeins of yarn into icord. My friends wanted to commit me to a mental institution. But one of my friends {DDancer} sat me down and told me about what she did when she had too much icord to make. She assured me that this was nothing to be embarrassed about. It happens to people from time to time.
She told me about the Bond Embelishcord Knitter. Now I can live life with confidence that other knitters seem born with. Thanks Bond, you saved my knitting project and my marriage.
Sincerely
Zeeppo MC
Well I suppose my wife would not have left me if I knit all of that by hand on a knitty knotty. I think she has figured out that she got the thin end of the wedge in this relationship. Perhaps I have spent too much time talking to 2 year olds this week.
And did you see I used the link gizmo. I am really proud of my self. I know every man should be an HTML expert. I am a poor excuse for a blogger. And a terrible excuse for a webmaster.
Ahhhhhhh..... Glenn Miller just came on the Yahoo Radio. I have not listened to adult music all week. Not that there is anything wrong with Hanna Montana. Well actually I think there really is. Still, I digress. I do not want to disillusion the Disney fan that reads this blog. And I suppose I can not talk about people who have a secret identity. And by the way, Wishing does make it so. If you are a Glenn Miller fan that was terribly witty.
I am thinking about getting a camera. I have had lots of people ask me for pictures of finished projects. I have a web camera that does not get along with this computer. I suppose I have not put the effort into making them get along. Still, that camera is from five computers ago and was not top of the line a decade ago. Maybe I will stop by circut city and see what they have.
I am also going to have to do a pod cast for The Marley. Reworking the icrod machine is not hard but there is an order. In addition knitting with it is terribly hard if you have not gone through a month a trail and error. I suppose I could write out instructions. Still, in about twenty minutes I can show someone.
So for those that wanted to knit on The Marley long distance I have not forgotten about you. I just need to catch up with the times. I must admit I do not like cameras. I do not know why.
Ohhhh Boy........ Stevie Wonder....... mmmmmmmmm.......
Have I ever mentioned I really like the Yahoo radio. I do not know how I got along with only FM and AM radio. My wife grew up with only AM. I cannot understand how people of that generation are not damaged from the experience of living through disco and no FM radio. One or the other maybe, but not both. Nothing could be more horrible. I salute you folks I could not have done it.
Back to knitting. Or should I say blogging about knitting. I suppose if I move my Knitking near
the computer I could do both. Give me a minute......................
You see if I have a camera I could show you me blogging and knitting at the same time. All right I am being just silly now.
Everyone be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens


Hmmmmmmmmm... Chicken Cycplos

Sunday, April 15, 2007

A Good Day Knitting

First off it looks as if I have had my first visitors from the Emerald Isle. Nice of you to stop by.

Also I may be away from the computer until Thursday. If you do not hear from me for a couple of days I am not giving up on the blog. I am just going to be where there are no computers. I know I am very sad about it as well.

My mystery male knitter from knit one has acquired a Cord Knitter and is working on a double ball in his secret knitting lair as we speak. Good luck secret male knitter. Our hopes and prays go with you on this dangerous mission. I think I am going to call him SMK.

Also I have my first machine knitting class ever. First thing I learned is that I like my Knitting machine a lot more than the Bond machine that I was using today. Second thing I learned is that my friends who took the knitting class are very tolerant.

Well it is getting late and I do not have much time to post. Be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.

Friday, April 13, 2007

This and That


LaurieG send me a link to this button. I may be the only one that loves acrylic more than wool. Still, I will continue to fight for my beloved dinosaur yarn while the rest of you settle for wool.

Well to night is the first KAL at my Corps. We had originally hopes to do it on Thursdays. Perhaps next months we will be able to. These KAL will also become planning session for the Fiber Festival that we are planning as a fund raiser for our Clown Brigade. You will become sick of this subject over the next couple months.

Well for this evening we have some lovely homespun thank to CarlaK which is 100 percent Dinosaur. It does not get much better than that. That is of course unless you have a fine Red Heart. Seriously about the Acrylic, I have mentioned Dark Horse Yarn before. It came up at two different KAL this week so it bears mentioning here. Not only do they have the usual Wools and boring stuff like that. they also have a very nice line of Acrylic Yarns. They are soft and joy to knit with. They also have a line of gimic yarns. I'm sorry The Stitching Seminarian reffered to Novelty Yarns as Gimic Yarns. This is funny to me. In the clown world a gimic is a useful thing but often looked down upon. So I thought this description was especially apt.
Well, I have to go and do some plumbing. If I get home at a reasonable hour I will post about the KAL. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.


Savage Chickens


Thursday, April 12, 2007

Chicken Hate


New Flags

I have some more flags to add to the blog today.

The first is the flag of Nigeria that had it's first visitor over yesterday. It made me wonder how much knitting is going on in Africa. I imagine there must be some. Still, this is an area of the knitting world I know very little about.


Also to add is South Africa. Most of what i know about this nation centers around the Boer Wars and Apartide. This of course does not paint a very pretty picture. They do have a nice flag and I wish them all the best as they come out of a difficult period.

The last flag I would like to add is the Rampant Lion Flag or the Royal Standard of Scotland. My ancestors were asked to leave shortly after the act of Union with England. And even though James the VII did not turn out to be the best king of the new United Kingdom he was probably the last king that my Scottish ancestors lived under as direct subjects. the ended up in Ireland and later the United States. Well there is always the movement toward Home Rule in Scotland. Weill this i the reason I amputting upthe Royal Standard instead of the St. Andrews Flag.

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

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Another Good Day Cranking

Another good day was had cranking. We have enough double balls for another super ball. We should be able to know out another super ball tomorrow. I think we will have enough for our first Mega ball. The Double Ball is two skeins, Super ball ten skein and Mega Ball 50 Skeins.

This looked like an insanity daunting project when we first started. Now we know that it can be done in short order if we need to. I dare say we might be able to make The Marley in less time than it took to make The Judy if we had to. Fortunately we do not.

I continue to be pleased with the progress of the Apprentice Clowns in the Brigade. Most are close to finishing their basic clown Pro and a couple are almost finished with two Pro. This mean we could have a couple of Jr. Clowns by the time of the first full show.

This week will also marks the first time that we are going to extend membership in The Brigade outside of our Corps. We are going to send out a flyer to the other Salvation Army Corps in the area and see if anyone is interested in joining us. We will see how it goes. In order to keep up with the production schedule we want to do it will require 15 clowns by this time next year and 22 the year after.

After our most recently planning meeting we decided that we need to make a long scarf a year until we have four completed. We will also need to make 4 tandem cardigans and half a dozen long stocking caps. We currently have one long scarf, The Judy, finished. So we have a great deal of knitting to do.

Our ultimate goal is to be able to do two stage shows and send out two hospital teams at one time. Currently we can only do one thing at a time. This is partly because we have only seven clowns. It is also because we do not have enough equipment yet. Hopefully after this fall we can make dramatic progress on all of these fronts.

Beside the evangelism from out ultimate goal is to have a Clown on Call Service.Basically if a hospital has a sick person who needs cheered up they call a clown and we are there in 24 hours. This will involve pagers and and organising the Clowns in out Brigade to be ready at a minuets notice to go out and do a show. This is not the sort of thing that clown traditionally are trained to. Usually a clown show is arranged ahead of time and every thing is planned to the last action. This will definitely be a new dynamic and I hope we are up to. We hope to be able to offer this new service next winter. At least to the City of Pittsburgh Hospitals.

Well I know this did not have much to do with knitting. It is nice to go on about such things. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens


Failure to Communicate

Both of my long time readers will know that I do not generally do grumpy here. There is a lot for a male to be grumpy about in the knitting world if one gives into that sort of thing. Still, if you have sense of humor about some foolishness then it is easy to ignore or even find the quirks of the world around you.

Starting last Friday there have been a couple grumpy things that have passed through my corner of the knitting world. The first was a rather curt manager at the Barnes and Nobles at South Hills Village. The group there has around a dozen or so members that are very friendly. In the last couple months they have been moved around the store and have had their furniture changed several times.

Last Friday we were informed that these were subtle ways to tell us that we were annoying the rest of the guests and we were not taking the hint. Firstly moving furniture in a sales space tells me that you are trying to maximize your floor space. In no way would I take as a personal message from the staff. Wouldn’t it be more effective to tell the offending party that they are in the way. Instead it has convinced several of the group members that they need to talk to Boarders about holding the group there.

Well many of the group members are now calling the head manager. Being that it is not my group I would usually not get involved. Still, this assistant manage was especially annoying. In addition my wife attends this group with me so I am sure we have spent hundreds of dollars in this store. At the very least I am going to save my purchases for when I am at another Barnes and Nobles. I suppose that sort of thing does not effect a corporation. Still, if you annoy enough people there are consequences.

I will get back this later this week after I have talked with the Head Manager.

My next disappointment is The Knit List. At one point they were an integral part of the knitting community on line. Then they became very petty and had multiple on line arguments. It would appear that they have most of this under control now. It had been years since I gave them another chance last month. They did look as if they had improved a great deal. I am sure that had a lot to do with The List Moms laying down the law.

Yesterday I tried to place a post about our charity knitting even at The Army this Friday. It is as follows:

Ø This Friday we are having a Charity Knitting Event for The Salvation> Army's Family Shelter in Pittsburgh. Doors open at 6:00PM and there> will be a Pot Luck Diner. So please bring something. We will make> blankets and other items.> We will be meeting at The Salvation Army 104 e. Ninth Ave. in> Homestead PA, just off the High Level Bridge. For more information> call 412 431-0579.>> My Blog www.zeeppoville.blogspot.com>> Zeeppo

I was informed by a Mom that this could not be posted because they were burned in the past. This is another situation were communicating in an adult manner could save hurt feelings. This is not posted in the rules. Actually the rules are fairly vague about many things on The Knit List. Many people post about KALs on The Knit List. So it would appear that it is up to what ever Mom is on duty.

As for being burned. I understand that there are dozens of no name charities out there and some take advantage of people. Most of these little charities that you have never heard of are great. Still, in this situation that does not apply. If one wanted to check if we were really doing something they have all the information they need to confirm it. With a little effort you could call The Salvation Army in Homestead and speak to the person in charge. Or if you did not trust them you could call our local headquarters in Pittsburgh.

What is at the root of this on The Knit List? I don’t know. I do know that there are no List Dads. Most of the snarkiest situations I have noticed in knitting have been around women who feel threatened by a male knitting. This is often just someone that has not seen a male knit and they do not know how to take it. This usually disappears when I have been around an area for a while. At least it goes away where I am concerned. It may still happen to other men. My LYS , Knit 1, had this to a very small degree when I first went thee a couple years ago. No one threw me out or told me that I should not be there. There was simply one or two comments from staff that is no longer there. I have noted that there are now a handful of men shopping there. For the most part I and my clowns are the only ones that knit there. I am sure that this has something to do with the stigma that men fell around knitting in public.

No one wants to have someone tell them they are a weirdo. Clowns take this as a mark of Honor. So I can see why we are not phased by this. Still, at most the groups that I go to I and the males in my Brigade are usually the only men there. Oh I am sure this will loosen up over time. I do find it interesting that only group I go to that has men who have attended from outside my Brigade is my knitting group on the South Side. Perhaps men need ownership of knitting. At this point we are at best an oddity. In no way do we have control of our knitting destiny. This is especially true on The Knit List and the average LYS.

I have noted something very interesting. Men will buy yarn at Walmart. As they pick up the jumbo packet of tubes sock and 50 pack of batteries they will cruise through the yarn isle and throw a few skeins in the cart. This could be them being good husbands and boyfriends. Still, on more than one occasion I have watched them compare colors. This is the action of a person creating something not someone that has an item to check off a list.

Men are still left out in the cold in the knitting world. And anyone that wants to attract male customers has to listen to men. Anyone that wants to be relevant in the Knitting World in the future is going to have to include men. Sorry to say that is not The Knit List. Oh it has lots of interesting posts and neat stuff is going on there. I just wonder how relevant they are going to be as long as they stick to the female dominated thing.

I have been digging around in my library about knitting as well this morning. I have come across several book by EZ, Debbie Stroller and The Yarn Harlot. A few years ago when Debbie Stroller’s first book came out it was a slap in the face to male knitters ever where. I own it and it is a fairly good beginner book. It is not my taste as far as technique goes. Granted I strayed from the conventional path a long time ago. I understand than males have been unfair to women for the lion share of history. Still, I am not even thirty. I have not been alive long enough to have taken part in most of these sins against women.

I will say that The Yarn Harlot’s books, or the ones I have read, are respectful of men. Still, they are more concerned about knitting and don’t appear to have a political axe to grind. And I am not just saying that because she gave me some nice PR recently. I was past basic knitting when both of the first books came out. The Harlot’s books have continued to grow and have included increasingly more difficult techniques. And I have found some interesting stuff in her books about her travels and knitting culture in general. For the most part the Stroller’s books are all beginning knitter books.

What does this have to do with there not being more men in knitting. These two authors are a microcosm of the fight in the knitting world. On one hand you have the female dominated knitting world. On these other you have one that is open to change. Men may not be fully integrated into knitting yet. Still, I may see it in my life time.

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

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Malta And An Open Question to Knitting Bloggers

Some folks from Malta stopped by over the weekend. It is always nice to have a new flag to add to the side.

My Clown Brigade, that you have heard me ramble on about, is looking to raise some money. We are thinking about doing a Fiber Festival in Homestead at our Corps {Church}. I figure we know most of the people that we would need to pull something off like this.

It would be in mid October. This keeps us away from the Knitting Festival and does not interfere with other Army events.

We would need people to volunteers for everything from serving food to greeting people. We will need Knitting, Crochet and Spinning Teachers. Sponsors, vendors organization that want to pitch in. I am also looking for advice. I am going to need a lot of advice.

So please comment, give me your ideas. And thank you for your time.

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

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Warp Them While They are Young - Charity Knitting


This young lady is in training to crank on The Marley. Are You Ready to Crank on The Marley?

By the way we are getting together this Friday at 6:00PM for a pot luck Diner at The Salvation Army 104 E Ninth Ave. If you would like to drop by send me an email. Or just show up with a pot full of food. I am thinking of making some nice manigotti.

Any way in addition to Charity Knitting. Which is the stated purpose of this gathering. We will be experimenting with knitting icord off a balcony. We just want to see how it goes in our own building before we do it in someone elses'.

By the if you are a machine knitter you can bring it along to help us make blankets. Good times will be had by all.

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

Mixed Reviews

I had a good day with the people in the South Hills Yesterday. We did have a very snarky manager who claimed that we have been causing problems there for months. This was the first that we heard of it though. I am truly annoyed by this. I have been kept out of more than a couple knitting group because of my gender of the years. So it truly annoys the living day lights out of me when a group that can actually tolerate me is getting the business. I will grump more about this latter.

Friday, April 06, 2007

A Good Day of Knitting & Cranking Exspected

It will be off to South Hills Village again after a day of the work type thing. I have two machines going well and more than a dozen skeins to take with me. Hopefully we will be able to knock out a super ball today. For the new found fans of The Marley I hope to not only have more information up on The Marley Scarf Blog but also to have some of the other clowns in the Brigade posting about it.

For those that are just tuning in my Clown Brigade is celebrating it's one year anniversary this month. With the exception of my wife {who crochets} every member of the Brigade knits. Since there are only seven of us this helps us produce things. We will be doing out first full stage show Sunday the 20th of May. There will be a special ceremony before the show to commemorate our first year and the accomplishments of the apprentices thus far. This is very exciting time for us.
By the way this is the working version of our logo. It is a bit different from most Army logos. Still, I suppose we are different from most Army ministries. Still. it is fairly simple and should translate easily into a patch. Which is the main place that we are going to see this thing. It may look like a lot of white but it will really stand out on a clown uniform. And since our hospital uniforms are all different colors white is the only way it will match everything.
It will also be cheap to reproduce since it only has three colors.
Well I have some more blogging to do. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.


Savage Chickens


Thursday, April 05, 2007

Savage Chickens


Supporting The Marley

I have had several people ask me how they can support what we are doing. We will be putting together a booster badge and that sort of thing. I must say I am a bit surprised by the support that everyone is willing to offer on this thing. We didn't really have a way for people for help out. We are working on it and will have something soon.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Hayfever bad hope rapture is in the next thirty seconds.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Marley Badge

This is the actual finished version of The Marley badge. I am working on getting it to a size that will fit on the side bar of a blog. It has a darker green section than the first version. The picture has also been cropped and is a bit larger.

There will also be another version for those that knit on The Marley. It looks as if we will knit the entire Marley on one 24 hour period. To the best of my knowledge this is the only time that a long scarf has been hand knit in such a short period of time.
We did knit a regular long scarf over three days with people knitting 24 hours from both ends.
We did have two other versions of The Judy Badge. A portion of one of the braids on The Judy was Crocheted. My wife does not knit. And as a member of such a small clown group we wanted everyone to participate. Also LaurieG crocheted on The Judy. So there are two people who have that badge.
There is also The Baby Lion Killer's badge. She protects the Long Scarves of the Steel City Clown Brigade from Lions. For some reasons Lions like a long scarves. I personally think it is a mime conspiracy to train lions to attack clowns. I could spend all evening on the evils plots of mimes so I will digress.
Any way that cute little bundle of joy likes to chew on yarn when she is not hunting lions, tigers, bears, wolves, gorillas, sharks, alligators and other vicious animals. Here she is protecting The Judy making sure that unauthorised people do not touch her. After all of the effort we put into her we will stop at nothing to protect our long scarves.
So don't mess with our long scarves or else.
Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A Couple Visitors

A couple new countries stopped by over the weekend.


The first was Luxumburg. Most of what i know about Luzumburg I learned from the episode of MASH where they lost the body of a soildier from Luxumburg. It turned out that he was not dead only mislabled. When they had his funeral he stagger out from his sick bed to attend. I know i am not exactly the Mobil Guid Book here.

Iceland was never featured on MASH so I do not know very much about them. I dod know that it is a lush and green place. While Greenland is mostly covered with an ice cap. And they have really cool sweaters.

Well I just wanted to note this. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Good Morning Knitters

Well good morning everyone. I spent the better part of the night working on the Knitting Machine. I am trying to come up with some felted bags to sell on Etsy. I should probably put some effort into getting an Etsy shop. Well chick or the eggs stuff.

It is a warm day here in Pittsburgh or at least it is supposed to be. We are looking forward to a frosty Easter. Pittsburgh is one of those cities that has a variety of weather. Often times in one day.

We had a good practice with the Brigade yesterday. I figured out how to make the firing pin for our confetti cannon. We will see how it goes. We only have two props that still need to be built for the show. So we are doing well on getting ready.

We finished another super ball for The Marley. So that is twenty skeins done. Not bad we would like to have the icord done by the end of the summer so we are on track for that as well.

Well I have to go out into the world and do stuff other than knitting. I know, it is a terrible thing. But what can you do.

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

Savage Chickens


Monday, April 02, 2007

The Date, Time & Place are Set

Everything is set for the first full stage show of the Steel City Clown Brigade is set. It will be atout Corps in Homestead 104 E. Ninth Ave. The date is May 20th at 6:00PM. This is what you would call an important date in the history of any clown troop. This will also be our first event with a decent sized PR push.

I do want thank the members of The Brigade that have worked very hard for a year to get to point where they can do this. It is hard to practice something for so long and not be able to share it with others. Now they are ready.

In addition to them I need to thank those outside our little group that have been helpful and supportive with what we are doing. The connection between knitting and clowning may not be apparent. And I may be one of the last clowns that still knits so avidly. It is odd though that a new generation of apprentices have taken so well to such an old regiment of making people laugh.

On actual knitting news we are planning an event where we will knit as much ircord as we can in a 12 hour period. As soon as I have a place and time set I will let you all know.

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

The Date, Time & Place are Set

Everything is set for the first full stage show of the Steel City Clown Brigade is set. It will be atout Corps in Homestead 104 E. Ninth Ave. The date is May 20th at 6:00PM. This is what you would call an important date in the history of any clown troop. This will also be our first event with a decent sized PR push.

I do want thank the members of The Brigade that have worked very hard for a year to get to point where they can do this. It is hard to practice something for so long and not be able to share it with others. Now they are ready.

In addition to them I need to thank those outside our little group that have been helpful and supportive with what we are doing. The connection between knitting and clowning may not be apparent. And I may be one of the last clowns that still knits so avidly. It is odd though that a new generation of apprentices have taken so well to such an old regiment of making people laugh.

On actual knitting news we are planning an event where we will knit as much ircord as we can in a 12 hour period. As soon as I have a place and time set I will let you all know.

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

Savage Chickens


Sunday, April 01, 2007

Sunday Cranking

Another couple people cranked on The Marley at Charity Knitting. And most of the Brigade was able to attend Charity Knitting today. So a good day was had all around.

A photographer from the Point Park News service stopped by to take pictures for an article they are working on about area knitters. I hope they run it. More information about locals knitting would be nice.

On unrelated stuff I did get a Leather Bound Edition of Great Expectations and Huckleberry Fin. This brings my budding collection of Leather Bound books to six. I know that has nothing to do with knitting. I hope to someday have a nice library.

Not much to say tonight it is late. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.
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