New Stuff

Well, a belated update... Christmas vacation has been fine so far, and I have been especially productive on the knitting front, if not so much on the writing.

After I finished the garter rib sweater, I wanted to do a small project and so I taught myself the brioche stitch from EZ's Knitting Without Tears. It's incredibly quick and fun once you get the hang of it, and I love the fabric it produces. So I used that to whip up several watchcaps for presents and for personal use. Later, I discovered this website, which sparked my imagination even more with ideas of what to do with this stitch.

I have also been working on two sweaters: one Wonderful Wallaby hoodie in orange, for a friend, and another Lopi-style seamless yoke in fall colors for me. They are both proceeding apace. I expect that the Lopi will probably be done by the second week of the new year and the Wallaby hopefully by the end of January.

After I finish those, I have another sweater project lined up -- a Celtic Aran, but I haven't yet worked out the design or calculations for that one.

While working on the sleeves for the Lopi, I had a little bit of a brainstorm for a way to do mittens and gloves, two at a time, seamlessly. I haven't seen the method that I am thinking of described anywhere in the literature, so I want to research a little bit to see if this is really original or not. I also want to do a test knit to verify that the method will work, but it seems like it should.

My other knitting resolutions for the new year? To clear out some UFO's lurking in my project area... in particular there are two hats that I need to finish, and a pair of socks. Plus, I want to start exploring Cat Bordhi's books. In non-knitting but still fiber-related resolutions, I really want to learn to weave, both on the traditional loom as well as card/tablet weaving. I think that non-fiber resolutions should probably go into a separate post...

I guess that that's probably enough for now, so I will sign off and wish everyone a very Happy 2009!

Mail2Blogger Test

This is a test of the mail to blogger gateway service, so I can easily
post updates while we are away. I mainly want to make sure that the
formatting works alright, without spurious line breaks and such.

I know that the blog has not been very active lately, and for this I
apologize. The last couple of weeks have been very busy. I did
successfully finish NaNoWriMo '08 though!

NaNoWriMo update #2

I have broken the 5000 word mark, so I am more than 10% of the way thru this crazy project!

NaNoWriMo update

So far so good with the writing. I am at 2128 words after about 24 hours and have a good idea of what writing I want to do tomorrow. I am trying to build up a cushion for later in the month. The widgets over in the sidebar have been kind of sketchy, because the main site is working under quite a load at the moment. That's why they don't always reflect the most up-to-date word count.

Bring On The Craziness!

NaNoWriMo 2008 has officially begun! I am at 403 words so far; 49,597 to go!

Go Crash, Go! A Retro Gamer's Delight (was a treasure-guarding dragon)

Hi again everybody! Well, I am glad to report that I have taken another step towards my goal of a car, and the dragon has found a new happy home. He was last seen heading towards his new abode with wings unfurled in the brisk October breeze...

In his place I am now pleased to offer you a retro video gamer's delight! Up for trading is an original Sony Playstation, complete with all cables and a controller. The system is in excellent condition; very clean. In addition to the console, I will include a copy of the "Greatest Hits" edition of Crash Bandicoot (which I am told is semi-rare). See how Crash's story began! Defeat the evil Doctor Neo Cortex and his henchmen! Save your girlfriend Tawna from nearly-certain doom!

All this can be yours! Just contact me via email with your offers to trade. I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,
Jon

A Fierce Treasure-Guarding Dragon

Hey again everybody. Well I am happy to report that I got an offer for my brand-new pack of gum and so I am one step closer to my goal of trading up to a car! I was offered a solid pewter dragon statue for the gum by a guy who had heard about both my project as well as one red paperclip and wanted to help out.

So, today I swapped the gum for the dragon, which is pretty sweet, I gotta say! It's a hand-carved and hand-cast figure of a dragon guarding his gold with a sword and a bad-ass sneer (see pics).

In other circumstances, I would keep him and feed him the charred remains of all who dared trespass our domain. But, I am a man on a mission and so the dragon's gotta find a new home with anyone who loves dragons and is willing to trade something bigger and/or better for him. Contact me thru the same means as before.

Thanks!