World Tour Report Denny's in Monroeville

One of the problems with visiting all of the local knitting groups is that I have already visited many of them. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit a agroup that I had not been t yet.

This was the Knitting Group that meets on the Fifth monday or Wednesday at the Denny's in Monroewville.

This is another fairly exclectic group with people from various backrounds. The discussion went everywhere from knitting to religous and there was not the slightest friction within the group. Aubjects that would often cause fist fight were taken with a grain of sand and even made light of.

This always a pleasant thing to come across. I have come across groups that are not welcoming to outsiders. And I have also come across groups that claim to be and are not really. This group truely is a nice surprise for a stranger.

Something else that I noted about this group was the experince level of the average. Not to boast. But generally when i go to a knitting group I feel that I am in middle to upper half of the knitting groups as far as experince goes. At this particular group most of the people there were much more experinced than I am. I always enjoy hanging around more experince knitters. One can learn so much.

One of the reasons we have our knit together at The Bee Hive is so that we can haave food while we are knitting. This was the first Knit Together that I got a Hamburger at. What is not to like about that. Granted most there had salads. Fortunately being male I am not quite up to my idea weight yet and don't have to worry about such things.

Well if you have the time make sure you get out there and visit these folks a fun time is had by all.

As always visit the folks at www.pittsburghknitting.com for a complete list of local knitting groups.

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

Have You Ever Wondered What Clowns do at 2:30 in the Morning?

Apparently they sit up writing something pointless like this. As usual I do not know why I cannot sleep. I usually can when I want to. For some reason the last week or so I have not been able to.

By the way this a random Savage Chicken thing. I do not who what it has to do with anything. Still, it includes a long scarf and what more do you need in life?

I suppose you need food, water, shelter, love well never mind. I personally feel that my life has been enriched by this cartoon I hope you feel the same way. Actually if you are in my time zone I hope you are sleeping. Sleeping is nice.

Fortunate for you I will hopefully drop off soon. If I fall asleep on the keyboard I will publish all of the letters I accidentally push.

I have slowed down on the chemo caps for the moment. They are easy to get sick of after the first dozen or so. Much like episodes of Full House. After the first dozen or so you want to chop you TV into pieces with a reciprocating saw. Someone told me the Olson Twins are going to be the next Bond girl. Maybe they will duck tape them together so they make a normal sized adult. Well I have not read anything reputable saying they have been signed to anything. Lets hope this is just buzz gone wrong.

I was sort of hoping the next Bond would be of remake of In Her Majesty's Secret Service {Bond in a Kilt and Married}. If they are going to restart the series it is the only way they can properly frame his character.

Well I digress. I know none of this has anything to do with knitting. Well be good out there and keep your stick on the ice

Viewer Mail

Today I wanted to get back to a popular segment around the Knitting Blog Viewer Mail. The old mail coming in has been a bit slower than usual so it took a while to get a few questions.

1} How come we don’t see pictures of your pets? My pets are in the witness protection program. I have web camera that I do not work well. And I am not going to tie them down to take a picture of them. Then every one would send emails to animal friends to have them come and take my animals.

2} Why do you have a Clown Brigade instead of a Troupe? Have you ever noticed people do not ask me knitting question on my knitting blog. Anyway, it is a long standing tradition that small groups of soldiers, officers and cadets in The Salvation Army are named Brigades. In our Training College {Seminary} the cadets are broken up into Brigades for field training. Our Brigade is a special purpose group within the Army. Also keep in mind The Salvation Army’s system is based on the British Army of 150 years ago and not the modern American Military.

3} Is that your real hair? Yes

4} Do you enjoy clowning? No I do it because it makes me sick. Of course I enjoy clowning. It give me an opportunity to be sarcastic without hurting people’s feelings.

5} Do you dress up your dog as a clown? By the way most of these clown questions came from one email. I sent them the number of a good therapist I know in their area. And no I do not dress up my dog as a clown. Firstly she is my wife’s dog. And secondly makeup and fur do not mix.

There were a couple more question with the email that I will not answer because this is a family blog. Not that I think any children are reading this. Still, I would not want to harm them is they were.

6} Have you ever knit a normal sized scarf? Finally a knitting question. First off it is very rude to suggest that The Judy, The Barry or The Marley are not normal. They are normal for long scarves. Actually The Judy and The Marley are not normal for long scarves they are the only two long scarves that I know that are made like they are. That does not make them freaks it makes them special. A lot more special than any other scarf out there. And yes I have knit length challenged scarves.

7} Do you prefer toe up or cuff down socks? Well I was taught that the only proper way top make sock was toe up. It goes back to making clown socks. They were usually stripped and just bellow the knee. We striped them the old fashioned way. So it was easy to knit two of them at once and make sure the striping matched because you could try them on as you went.

I actually go some knitting question. I am as shocked as you are. Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A Quick Note

A good day was had working on knitting related stuff. I am still working on the text for the web site for the Fall Fiber Fest. I have most difficult time with logo. I think I have come up with something passable.

Moving along good stuff is happeneing onother fronts. I didn't get to go to Charity Knitting today. I would have liked to see the Mystery Male Knitter. And with family stuff I did not get to see a performance he and his sister were in this week end.

I have not had much time to do anything let alone blog. My wife and I are going away in a week or two for a church thing. I have to make sure I have everything squared away before I go. There is Hive Knitting tommarrow. Hope to see you there.

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

Fall Fiber Logo

This is the new version of the Fall Fiber Festival. It has the year and needles and a hook. Well the hook looks a little funny but you get the idea.

As always I am looking for feed back. I had someone email me that they thought I could use a photo of Pittsburgh or something like that. We are going to have to put this thing on tee shirts. And if it works out we will make them ourselves. To that end we want the design to be as simple as possible.
This one will take us three passes with the silk screen. Still it is fairly simple other than that.
The Steel City Knitter suggested that I put on some fiber stuff. Hence the needles and hook.

Festival Logo

It has been a busy weekend. Well this is the Logo I came up with for the Fiber Festival. let me know what you think.

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

Knitting in Homstead

Knitting at the Water Front in Homestead was fun as always. I knocked out another Chemo Cap and started another.

Today I am working text for the web page for the Fiber Festival. It is amazing the detail that goes into planning an event like this one. I think we have the classes that we need and I am playing around with fitting them into a schedule at this time. After I get the class schedule together we can start taking registrations. With luck we will have something up and going in early June. At the very least we should have posters and fliers at local yarn shops.

We are still looking for helpers with the classes and some other general volunteers. So far the response has been better than I would have expected. And I'm happy that things are moving along better than I expected.

The Kittens are continuing to grow and are still noisy and annoying. The little fur balls are not on solid food yet. Still, we are trying to get them changed over. After that we can give them away.

Well like I said it is a busy day. I will have to go now. be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Tuesday at Knit 1

A good day of knitting was had. I finished a chemo cap and and working on one as I watch the new Jessie Stone Movie. My new keyboard is working well and I have begun on the second chapter of the backstory book. all and all a busy day.

Planning on The Fall Fiber Festival also continues. I have had another offer to teach clasess.
If nothing else I do not think there will be a problem finding people to teach classes. I am very please with the quality of people who have come forward to teach classes.

Dirty Vegas is playing on the Yahoo radio and it puts me in mind of the story that I have been working on. Well really it has nothing to do with the Vegas dirty or other wise. In the first chapter of the book one of the main character is knitting a sock while they are talking to another character. It is odd that something simple can have so much meaning.

Well anyway. I could go on forever. I will be calling it a night. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Monday Knitting & Mystery Male Knitter Update

A good evening should be had knitting. I have had a couple people contact me through the Yahoo group and another through the email thing. I am glad to see that rather than slowing down in the spring we continue to get new members. We still have a core of half a dozen members. Now the folks that come every so often is growing again as well. Last week we not only had a new person but the Mystery Male Knitter stopped by as well. I look forward to a good evening of knitting.

We did another show yesterday and the children and other enjoyed it. We had many people there that I have not seen before which is the point. As always we continue to make progress. By the end of the summer we should have a very good performing unit.

Th search for new clown goes very slowly. We have done very well with the people that we do have. We have done much better than I thought we would be able to. We do need a few more. We have sent flyers to the other Army Corps in the area and have had no reply. I am sure it would all work out in the end.

James was promoted to the rank of Jr. Clown at a short ceremony before the show. He has worked very hard for the last year and I am pleased that he has accomplished it. The first step is the hardest they say.

Chemo caps continue to pot out at an unnatural rate. I should finish up another one tonight.

On other knitting fronts The Mystery Male Knitter is working on his third double ball. If he does four more skeins than he will be the third person to make a super ball of icord all on his own. Oddly the only people to have achieved this are all male. this may be another male female knitting thing. I wonder if male are more likely to use a gadget than women. Well what ever it is there is also a contest going on between the Mystery Male Knitter and Flo at Knit 1. They are seeing who can make the most icord. At this point MMK is ahead in the race by a couple of skeins. If he does venture out from his secret lair tonight for Hive Knitting we will have more Marley yarn waiting for him.

I have not had enough to to respond to the tagging from the Steel City Knitter. I should have time for that on Tuesday. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Insainly Busy Day

I have been out and about all day. There was a carnival for my Corps. And when you are the only Corps in North America that has a clown Brigade there is no way to get out of it. There were not droves of children still, we all had a good time and I think a good time was had by the children. Which that is the important thing.

Our feline house guest continue to eat and get bigger. We are now convince that the black one is a girl and the grey one is a girl. So grey Boy is still small and Black Girl is still bigger. Grey boy must have been the runt of the litter.

Someone sent me an email asking if everything is alright with me. They thought because my posts have been shorter that something is wrong. Oddly they have been shorter because things are going well. I have been writing a set of books for several years now. I now have parts of seven books and not a single finished one. They are science fiction complicated and have been giving me heart burn for years. I have come to think of them as a sort of silly hobby that will never amount to anything.

In order to do the plot line justice it involves too many character and a great span of time. the only way to do it is in multiple parts. The beginning of the story has always been very dry. I have used it as the back parts for the other books. Still, it was never what I thought could be a book on it's own. Two weeks ago I started mapping out the back story just so that i had the time line right in my mind. The arc of the back story is simple and revolves around only a hand full of character making difficult decision that involve many others.

Last week I scribbled out some dialogue and the description of the place where the back story starts. A week later I had the first chapter. It has a clasic story arc and is doable in under three hundred pages. I have not be able to tear myself away from it.

On other fronts I was tagged by the Steel City Knitter for a bloggy thing. I will do it when I have figured out the seven people I can tag in return. It involves random facts about one self. And if my blog is this random by design it would be truly interested to have me attempt to be random.

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

Promise of a Good Knitting Day

Anyway today looks like it is going to be a great day for knitting. My first order of business is to build a knife throwing board. Ahhh it is good to be building clown stuff again. I know that it is not like the old days, still, it is nice. My only regret about the up coming show is that we will not be able to do the cannon act. Like many church stages our has a modesty screen. This little wall has been hammered into the stage and cannot be removed without destroying it. At the moment the church does not have it in the budget to build a new removable one. So we are stuck with this old one. And no one can see the cannon over the wall.

Of well, what can you do? As for the great day of knitting, my Chemo cap obsession continues. Also there is the South Hills Knitter this evening. My wife and are bother going our there and a good time will be had by all. I will also get a chance to meet with most of the rest of my knitting teachers for the festival. At this point I figure I have about two thirds of the classes nailed down. My post on The Knit List produced several new teacher And their class lists. Well only one has sent their class list at this time, but I am not picky. Even if it yields only three new teachers I am happy.

Also I Am looking for the Crochet and Spinning equivalent of The Knit List. If anyone has ideas of where I should post let me know.

Well just wanted to put up A quick post before I go off on the day’s gallivanting. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

It is Really Hard to Find Title for These Posts Sometimes

The last week of knitting has been busy with preparation for the show this Sunday. By that way our show will be at 6:00 PM at the Salvation Army in Homestead PA. If you are interested email me and I will send you details. It is a free show and fun should be had by all.

Well the chemo Caps keep coming. I have finished five since Sunday. Not bad for a fairly full work week just before a show. A couple double balls were cranked for The Marley and there is at least one super ball to be stitched together. What more could one want?

I continue to to be edited on The Knit List. I put up another post about the festival to see if they will allow it to be posted. Anyway I was posting that we are looking for more teachers and volunteers for the Fall Fiber Festival.

We are also going to need Yarn Angels to help with Knitting Crochet and Spinning Classes. We are looking to have around Thirty classes so we are going to need an awful lot of help. Yarn Angels with assist the teachers with students who need extra help during the classes.

I am very happy with the way that the teaching staff is shaping up. We have several excellent teachers already. I only wish I would have the time during the festival to take a few classes. That is the only draw back or organising such a thing. One does not get to enjoy it as much as someone that bought a ticket would.

I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely a project knitter. I have note that many people have to knit on a regular basis and are constantly hungry to do something new. Myself I am knitting the most when I have something that needs to be done. I am sure that it is a point that means very little in the grand scheme of thing.

I am pleased to note that The Knit list people finaly posted a comment that I have left. Granted I did have to leave out the location and what the Fiber Festival would benefit, still, it is a start if nothing else.

It does make me curous why religion is such are hand thing for some people. i understand that most of the death and distruction that has taken place historically has been in the name of God. Still, that does not explain why it is such a hard thing for so many people in this country. I also realise that we are for lack of a better term involved in a sort of Holy War.

None of this explains why a group of people would be so picky that they could not even have the name of a church listed on their site. If I had another alternative I would take it. I even tried to join the Christian Knitter to find a like minded internet group. It turn out that I am not Christian enough for them. I really wish I was Christian enough or secular enough to be in one group or the other. What a weird place to be in.

As stated more than a year ago part of the reason I started this blog was to look at the knitting world on the Internet. The role that sub groups play in the whole enterprise is fascinating. I am always amazed at how something as simple as knitting can be used and transformed in so many ways. We may all be kniters but we bring the distinctions we have in life to our craft. That may sound like a simple thing to say. It may even be an obvious.

Well the wonders of internet aside this is a valuble asset.The festival that we are trying to set up would probably not be possible without the internet.

As I continue to ramble on about this an that I also have a kitten update. The critters are doing well. My wife has found homes for the kitties. They will probably be ready for their new homes in a month and a half or so. Back kitten is much larger than grey kitten. Grey kitten is eating well enough and if growing and healthy looking. Black kitten eats so much more than gray kitten though. She is much larger than grey kitten.

I am think about opening a Kitten Orphanage. People could come to my house and the little fur balls would line up hoping for a family to tak them. I would be like something out oliver twist. Cute little critters would waddle up to my chair waiting for their bottle. I would let them have as much as they wanted. a small herd of happy little kittens would bring me my slippers and the evening paper. And I would read my little freinds bed time stories.

Maybe I am thinking too much about this. Well that tends to be my way. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Short Posts

It is less than a a week before out first full show. I have been practicing with every spare moment. That and making chemo caps. Anyway life moves alone.

My brigade is think about doing the male version of the race for the cure. We would only have a month to make caps. Still, those are the punches.

Another odd twist has entered my journey in knitting. My mother has asked me to teacher her knitting. Time and time again the narrative of people learning to knit includes their mother teaching them. Not learning from clowns and then teaching their mothers. Still what can one?

I would like to note that classes at the bee Hive are plugging along and interest in classes at Knit 1 is growing even if slowly. We have several guests to the Hive Knitting group. A new woman who lies in Mt. Oliver and the famed male mystery knitter stopped by to work on The Marley. All and all an eventful day was had.

The Hive Knitting group is also another odd twist. With the addition of Tom and the male members of the Brigade who come regularly this group is now mostly male. To the best of my knowledge this is the only time I have been part of a group that is mostly male. I know there are male knitting groups in other larger cities. Still, I have never heard of a group being open to all and being mostly male by accident. Not that i am saying that male knitting groups are closed to women. the only male knitting group that i attended was in Toronto years ago. And even though it was billed as a male knitting group girl Friends and wives often out numbered the men. I don't know how that worked but it.

I would like to note that we will still be meeting Monday the 28th. Also we will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary party at The Hive. There will be a cake what more can you want. I would like to invited every one that come sporadically or who has not come for a while to come. i good time will be had by all.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Answer is Yes on Both Counts

the Fidling Fool asked me is Knit 1 carried jameison Yarn and a book. The answer is that they have them both. I hope this is of help.

race for the cure

once again i am posting with my disabled keyboard. knit 1 was at the race for the cure this morning handing out chemo caps. my brigade was able to get a dozen or so done last week end. so at least we were able to contribute in a small way.

it is late and i am tired. some pictures were taken and i hope to post acouple when i have tracked them down. be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice

More Chemo Caps

I am sick of Chemo caps. That is all I am going to say.

The Marley made some progress as another couple balls of yarn were transformed into icord. If our hope is that have it done before the Fiber Festival it should not be a problem. The only problem that i am having is that it takes signifigantalteration to the gizmo to get it to work. I was hoping that people from elsewhere could work on The Marley.

Well it is a busy day. I will post later if I get home before midnight

be safe out tehre and keep your stick on the ice.

Fall Fiber Festival Planning

Serious planning for the Fall Fiber Festival in Pittsburgh has begun. We have eight teachers and several volunteers. Our first step will be to find sponsors and vendors. By the way if you own a shop in Western PA and would like to come let me know.

I am still working on Chemo Caps and may even have pictures from the event this sunday. My self and one of our clowns will be attending the race for the cure. Being that clown are not much of runners we will be kntting chemo caps on the side line near the bagel stand. If you are going to part of a race sitting near the bagle stand is the way to do it.

Moving along I am typing on another computer today because I have still not picked up another keyboard. There is no computer store down town. And busrider like to shop down town. Being that i am working yester today and saturday I will not have the time to bus it out to a store in the suburbs. Still, life goes on.

the prayer shawl is being worked on by the other members of the brigade. It was a dozen or so rows away from begin finished when I last worked on it. So it should be done soon life is good.

Well as i said i am busy working and must retorned to doing something lucrative. between practice and meeting plumbers my wee is full. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

a rather curious thing

for some reason my shift key is not working. i am thinking about reinstalling windows to see if that is the thing. or perhapses my old keyboard is dying. either way i just wanted mention it so that you did not think i have given up on grammer all together. if you have been reason this blog a while you may think that i already have.

anyway a good day was had at the water front yesterday. carlak worked on the marly and i did another chemo cap.

we are having the first planning meeting for the fiber festival this evening. it appears that thursday may have been a bad day for it. several of the people have said they cannot come. we will try a friday for the next meeting. anyway the business of mapping out what what we must do needs to get started.

well just a short post as i must face the day. be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

savage chickens

Hello

It has been a long week end. I was away at our camp for a retreat. When I came back I found that my internet was not working. And when my ISP led me through fixing it they killed something in my Service pack 2 that let something else go wrong and so on. I am will spend the better part of this evening arguing with the people at verizion telling me that this prblem is not theirs. Well what can one do?

Over the week end we cranked on The Marly and knit Chemo Caps. We have a dozen or so Chemo caps done and another superball of Marly icord. Life is good.

We had a good evening at Hive Knitting. Much icrod was made and another cap here and there.

We are going to be having the first planning meeting for the Fall Fiber Festival this thursday. If you are someone that i talked to and a forgot to email you let me know. I don't want to miss anyone but it appears that I have lost several email addresses. As before we are looking for volunteers to help.

Our first date appears to be the same week as Rhinebeck. I would preffer not have our festival the same week that they do. It looks like it would be the last week end in october or the first week end in novembers. Suggestions would be helpful as always.

On other subjects my wife and I are looking after a couple of three week old kittens that were abadon on the South Side. They are cute and cudly as well as really noisy. Still. they are eating well and will probably be able to be adopted out in a month or two. The no kill shelter here in Pittsburgh is full so wer can be certain they will be alright if we take care of them ourselves.
For some reason blogger is not letting me post pictures. I do have pictures of the kittens and will post them when this thing is working again.

Also back to crazy ideas clowns have. We are think about making a giant Chemo Cap and filling it with Chemo Caps. I am not sure how one would make a giant Chemo Cap. I am thinking some sort of rope. And no we are not going to make more icrod. The Marley will be enough ircod made for a lifetime. Any way i will post later if this thing is still working.

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

Knitting at the Waterfront.

A great day was had knitting in Homstead Yeasterday. I am on the run today so i will have to wait till this evening to put a decent sized post up.

I will also have some class times at KNit 1 to post.

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

Savage Chickens

Random Knitting and Intenet Things.

Yet another good day was had knitting. i spent the better part of the day fixing some plumbing. Still, i had time to work on chemos caps.

I have been playing around with a 1 piece vest pattern to teach in a machine knitting class. It is like a sweater vest pattern that we used to use in the circus. making it into a vest gives one a chance to use several different functions on the machine as well as button holes. There is strange sort of satisfaction starting a project during the evening new and have it done before prime time tele. I know I know the hand knitters would say that this is going to the dark side. Still, what do I care?

Anyway this week will be a good week for knitting. I will have to meet the South hills village knitting group. I will get to go the Homestead Waterfront Knitting group though. So that will give me my fix for the week. We had a good day at hive Knitting Yesterday. There were eight of the usual suspects and great fun was had by all. We are now finaly up to the point that with some extra lighting we have solved all of the drawback of that location. And now with the smoking ban going into effect even the most sensitive knitter will not be bothered to attend our group. I had a lovely day eating at a Primantti brother during the lunch rush down town. I almost always avoid this place during peak hours because of the tremendous amount of smoke. Most of the patrons were complaining about the fact that they could not light up with their heart attack sandwiches.

For those from outside the area Primantti Brother is a Corner Stone of Pittsburgh Cuisine. It is a giant fried sandwich on white bread with french fries and Cole slaw. The french fries and Cole slaw are placed directly on the sandwich. If you ate one of these for lunch everyday you would be dead inside of two months if you are lucky. These restaurants also have a bar in most of them. So in addition you get heart failure you used to get enough second hand smoke to send smoke signals all the way to California. I usually go into this place at off times because I like the food. Anyway I am happy.

Back to Hive Knitting I good evening was had. The class as the Hive are also going fairly well. I have had half a dozen students that have come for at least two classes. We are doing basic stuff, knit, purl cast on cast off and the like. It is odd to be teaching knitting outside a clown setting. Firstly when you make your first scarf you stop after a couple skeins. A clown would keep on going until that have use all the yarn in one color from a yarn shop.

Also the sleeves on your first sweater would be six the twenty feet long. Well I guess I will have to settle for normal mundane knitting items.

I am still working on the knitting book. I was trying to put together simple how to pamphlet with a few projects. Then again last year I was trying to train a couple clown to visit a hospital once and while. Now we have a clown troop. Well the knitting book project has been getting a bit more complicated. It is become an actual book. I will finish it by the end of May or chop it down to something usable by then,. Still it would be kind of cool to write a book in this area.

Well i will keep you posted. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Clown Knitting

A good day was had a hive Knitting yesterday. I finally started on chemo caps and our prayer shawls made much progress. I am confident it will be done for this week end.

I added my first article to KnitWiki yesterday. I stuck with a subject that I know mainly clown knitting. This article will have several parts starting with long Scarves. There are fewer than a couple hundred articles on this site so they need a lot of work. I have notes that are several blogs that I visit that have people who have written books. Myself I keep threatening to write books and have notes and research on many. This is a worthwhile project.

At the end of May we are going to celebrate the first anniversary of Hive Knitting. For some reason I thought it started in May. Others have corrected me and told me it started in Mid April. Well, a cake is a cake and it is just as nice in May as it is in April. So the last Monday in May will be the party. It will be at the Bee Hive at 7:00PM as usual. everyone stop by there will be a big cake.

Well I have to get going. I will post more later. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Savage Chickens