Scavenger Hunt

Erin is having a blog contest for yarn, and to be entered, you have to find items on a list, make a blog post and comment on her post with the link.

I decided to do it all with pictures that were already in my flickr account before the contest was announced, and as many as possible are from my travels. Enjoy!

A Knitter, knitting in public:

From Arcadia's 7th birthday party

An ice cream cheese truck:

Wednesday Market, Odense, Denmark

A sock:

This pair of socks is in a museum!

A library card:
This is the only one I didn't find a picture for that already existed in my Flickr! account, so I am leaving it blank. If my Australia pictures were more organized and up, I probably have one of my temporary membership cards for either the Bowling Club or Beach Lifesaving Club where we ate dinner.

A ball of green yarn:

Wednesday Market in Odense, Denmark, April 4, 2007 (there was lots of yarn shopping on my birthday!)

A bicyclist:

in Malmo, Sweden, Sunday, April 1, 2007

A street sign:

A Swedish street sign

A flower:

Orchid in Maui

A public work of art:

Go to the description page here or click through to the Flickr page for a bit more description.


A gargoyle in Arhus, Denmark, either on the corner of the theater or cathedral

Your reflection in an unexpected place:

Arhus, Denmark, Good Friday 2007. My reflection in the window isn't exactly unexpected, but the place itself was unexpected. We were just out wandering Arhus while everything was closed for the Easter holidays, and came upon the one yarn store I had found information about before we arrived. My wool-dar was on full blast for this trip, and it paid off. I have many wooly treasures to remember my wonderful 25th birthday travels.

Someone in a catalog pose:

for a hat catalog


I feel like I've seen this picture in a catalog, but with a family more svelte than mine.

A funny billboard or sign:

Copenhagen, Denmark, March 31, 2007
Books and Ale, now that's my kind of business establishment! The only way to improve it would be to have a drunken knitter's night, like they do in Toronto.

Clean Design, Meta Search

I just found this site through an ad next to an email exchange on my gmail account, and well, I really do like it. It is Kayak.com and it searches all the travel sites. My favorite part though is how you can tweak the results on the side panel, so that it will just show you, say, the flights that are in the price range that you are actually interested in, or if you want to try adding one of the other airports nearby.

Another nice thing is that it shows you the price on Orbitz and on the airline's direct website, so that you can once and for all know that its a better deal to go direct. I think that I will be using Kayak instead of Orbitz from now on. It satisfies my inner geek more.

its amazing

what a difference two columns can make in an Excel spreadsheet.

tomorrow is another day.

Calling all Knitters!

This shirt is out of print at Threadless, but if enough people ask for it to be reprinted, they just might. So make a difference, make some argyle sheep!

Via Theresa

GoogleAds on the sidebar

About Us: "we have the largest selection on white shirts in Eastern Idaho."

I received an email from Eddie Bauer and one of the ads on the sidebar was for missionary clothing. I couldn't help but click to see what that could be. It turns out, Mormon (LDS) missionaries all look like they buy their suits from the same place because they do.

Really, if I saw this website as a joke, I would believe it, except that if it was a joke, the non-Saint jokester would have made the company based in SLC. Instead, you know its for real because they are in Idaho.

Should've been released on 3-14

How many different kinds of pie can you think of? Mr. Dobson seems to have come up with quite a few. Does anyone know what pork pie is?

Is this me?

If you play with it (and someone obviously did because it changed), please leave a comment, because I'm curious about how many people will do that.

The Mother's Day Project

Anne at ThreadingWater is organizing the Mother's Day Project to remember, memorialize and honor the female Coalition members who have died in the Iraq War. I'll let her say it herself, since it is more eloquent than anything I can come up with:

As another Mother’s Day nears, I started wondering how many women soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq? How many mothers, wives, lovers? How many women who would have been mothers, wives, lovers, friends?

As of today, the answer to how many female soldiers have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war is 79. I know their names.

Here is my idea for The Mother’s Day Project. You know the sort of fiber-arts work I’ve been doing lately. I would like to make a tote bag and incorporate the names of these soldiers. I want to hand-stitch the names on muslin fabric, but I’d like to have many different hands contributing to the stitching.

Today in the mail I received my swatch of muslin fabric with a name. I want you all to know this name, and as I find out more information about this young woman (all those who are sent to war are both too young and too old) I will be posting it on my blog, as well as some progress photos.

Jaime L. Campbell
born: 1980
died: January 7, 2006

I will be embroidering over the iron-on transfer to put her name in thread, as well as some other handiwork on the fabric to contribute to the tote bag.

Here are some other things I have learned about Jaime L. Campbell:

1. She was the student body president at Ephrata High School in Washington, class of 1998
2. Jaime was the Washington State Rodeo Queen in 1998, showing superior horse-handling skills.
3. She joined the ROTC to help pay for college.
4. She attended Washington State University and earned her degree in Interior Design.
5. Jaime stayed with the National Guard after college to pursue an aviation career.
6. Jaime's husband Sam was also stationed in Iraq at the time of her death and her father had recently returned from duty there.
   
7. She was piloting a Blackhawk helicopter on January 7, 2006 when it crashed in a non-hostile situation.
   
8. She attended Washington State University and earned her degree in Sales.
9. Mr. Sam Campbell is her widower.

Here are links for reference:
http://iraq.pigstye.net/article.php/CampbellJaimeL
http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/campbelljl.htm
http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/jaime_campbell/index.htm
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/1464126.html
http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/campbelljaimel.html
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/dates/2006/jan/07/jaime-l-campbell/
http://legacy.com/WashingtonPost/Soldier/Story.aspx?personid=16299924
http://www.legacy.com/GB/GuestBookView.aspx?PersonID=16299924

Must.Knit.This

Ingeborg modeled, 2
Originally uploaded by bowerbirdknits.

I did the "red yarn" search on flickr! and sorted by interestingness and this beautiful piece of knitting craftsmanship and art came up, once again reminding me that I need to knit a Dale of Norway cardigan, and that Ingeborg would be a very good choice.

Found on Flickr!

Close up + 10!!
Originally uploaded by Rafael Araújo.

Theoretically, this photographer has the same camera that i do, and somewhat similar taste in subject. This is a great photo and someday, maybe I'll grow up to take nice pictures too.

Map of Online Communities by XKCD.com which is very amusing. Some thoughts that this map brings to mind: How are there more people on Xanga than on LiveJournal? Are there really that many teenagers in the world? Who actually uses Windows Live? I wonder what a chart that showed all the overlapping memberships would look like... SourceForge totally belongs in the SE corner of the map, right where it is, in the Focus on the Web-Focus on the Intellectual area... how big of a geek am I that I knew that WoW was World of Warcraft? (thanks to Lisa and Roger, btw)

Found on Threadless

Sandra of I May Be Knitting a Ranchhouse is coveting this as a hoodie, and I don't know how I missed it in the Threadless newsletter, but, well, now I'm coveting it too. I may be a follower, but so are sheep, and I like sheep, so its ok.

This one is also quite fun (and new too!):


This is one that I might consider picking up for a sock knitting pal:


I know another sock knitter who this would be great for (but not because she knits socks):


And this shirt is pretty much showing the reason that I don't play Scrabble anymore:

Its not that I hate getting shitty tiles, its that I cheat when I get crappy tiles towards the end of the game, and that just isn't a good way to play the game.

This is one that I should get for myself:


Mr. Peoples probably said this more than once in school, but he is super with the camera. Maybe this is the shirt for him:


That is all the Threadless fun I will torture you with today.

You should know about this guy

My friend Charlie told me about this guy, Mike Gravel, former senator from Alaska, who is quite the man to listen to speak. He seems to actually be speaking clearly and logically about the issues of the war and defense spending in this video, and now I'm off to read more about his other views at his website.

Wool into yarn, industrial style

P1000068
Originally uploaded by Trapped Manufacturer.

This flickr! member is apparently a carpet maker in China, and he has some very neat pictures of wool turning into carpets. I love seeing how the industrial process works to make stuff, especially things that I also can make at home on a much smaller scale.

He has a few good "red yarn" pictures.

Dangerous Water

Dangerous Water
Originally uploaded by pominoz68.

The best part of this photo (besides the fact that multiple people were probably involved in making/approving this sign and it still got installed) is the comments, so click through to read them.

Knitting Meme

I got this from Erin at My Best Friend's a Dork who got it from Molly Knits Sweaters.

Here are the instructions:
Mark with bold the things you have ever knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

I am adding: Strikethrough the things that you don't see yourself ever doing again/more than once/you actively think are a bad idea. If you started, but did not finish an object, bold it but then put * next to it

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl*
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk (blend)
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns (mosaic knitting? or am I missing something and I've done it?)
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)*
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments (do socks count?)
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art (knitting as art or knitted replicas *of* art? I would totally knit a replica of art, but not as art)
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO (if you'll start my socks, I'll be happy to graft your toes)
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting*
Knitting a gift
Knitting clothing for pets
Knitting toys/accessories for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public (there are people who don't do this? the mind boggles)

Copenhagen 128

Copenhagen 128
Originally uploaded by tdgirl.

I just wanted to show this one. In the thumbnail, I thought it was a bowl or plate from a meal or shop or something. I clicked to see what it was, and it is the staircase of an office building that we wandered into because we thought it was a bank. It was not, but it had this cool staircase or balcony (hard to tell from the ground floor)

Found On flickr!

Vital Clean Parasit
Originally uploaded by Andrew Huff.

What is this? Who buys a product with pictures of parasites on the label? Well, anyway, thanks to Andrew for taking a picture of it.

I love the silly useful-ness of this product

Fling - ONELESSBAG canvas bag: Its a standard canvas tote bag with a picture of a blue plastic bag screen printed on it. The intention is to use it instead of plastic bags, and considering the mountain of plastic bags in my house, and how bad they are for the environment, I think that this spring, I will be trying to switch to reusable bags. I used to use them all the time at Trader Joe's in CT, but have somehow strayed from the strategy.

Double Geek shirts

Afrayed Knot on Cafe Press has some good shirts, on dark colors, with amusing phrases, (especially if you are a computer geek as well as a knitting geek...you know who you are) and you should go and buy a shirt or two. $5 from every purchase goes to Doctors Without Borders as a part of Knitters Without Borders, so you win on so many levels.

Does anyone know how the cafe press shirts fit and hold up? I've never actually bought anything from there, and I'd like to know.