Friday, June 29, 2007

Knitting without Tears!



It is hard to take a book for learning knitting after you have already knitted sweaters , scarves and hats, to go back to the basics of understanding a craft.
I became a knitter by chance and necessity. It was 1988 and I have gotten sick and needed to be in bed rest for 30 days. I could not imagine what I would be doing for 30 days, it was December 1988. A friend of mine accompanied me to the Doctor's Office, which was at the French Hospital here in San Francisco, now part of Kaiser Permanente. I think that I told him that we should go to Woolworth's ( Remember the Good Olde Woolworth's?) and get some knitting needles, yarn and a booklet, because I was going to teach myself to knit. I was going to make myself a sweater for New Year's Eve Party and I did! I taught myself to knit.
Since then I have made at least two sweaters, with and without cables, hats and scarves, but I never thought that I had properly learned the craft, maybe I did, because as one of my blogging friends says, (LadyLinoleoum) knitting is one of those crafts that is embedded in our genetic material as a basic need or as part of our genetic make up.

That is the reason that I have been busy reading this book. "Knitting without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmermann, is the book that I have been reading. So far this book is a nice read, easy to follow and I am expecting to learn or re-learn how to knit.

The lady is very funny and I agree with her in the perception that many people have of knitting. If you are looking for perfection, perfection meaning rows of flawless stitches, then you need to purchase a knitting machine. The art and hobby of knitting is about fun and about the ability of taking two sticks and using some thread to create something to wear.

Her advise is sound and it goes into details of explaining the different materials that needles are made of and subsequently the materials that you will use to make things. I will go along and make the projects that she has for practice along the reading.

For those people that knit very tight, as I have done from time to time, this books teaches the need to allow yourself to relax your gauge. In all reality, as she says, get a different pair of needles to reach a comfortable gauge, do not force the knitting to reach the gauge. Your hands , neck, ,back and wrists will suffer the consequences, plus you will be frustrated beyond belief and to the point of giving up knitting.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Happy Pride 2007!

Sometimes a picture is worth a Thousand words. Rebel in Diversity!
Diversity is the Spice of the Universe!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

A Jointed Bear is Born















Here He is at last. I thought I was going to be able to make a little movie. but I am afraid it will not be this time. Madison A jointed Bear will give you a show in still frames lol! Oh my he is tired from all the dancing and has to take a break. He is adorable.



I guess I wanted a larger Teddy Bear, but that is from the adult perspective. For a child this is the perfect size. This Pattern took about One Skein of LionBrand Chenille for the main color, ( using G size Hook), and probably less than five yards of the black chenille for the other parts. If you want to make an interesting and inexpensive Teddy Bear, I believe the Madison model will be a great asset for your needs. I used a very tight gauge and my model came out different than the model from the pamphlet as you can tell. The material has also something to do with the fact that it looks different, but all in all it is adorable in both views. Fiberfill is used to stuff it.

If you want the details of where to find the pattern and stuff, just click on this previous posting or click CrochetAndy: A Crochet Bear Head is born, Madison if you prefer to read more about the construction of this Beary Cute Bear. The owner of the Pattern allowed me to use it for a Crochet Along in the Crochet Depot Website. This is a great pattern for doing your Charity Bears. I want to thank Carolyn Christmas Savage for allowing me to have this pattern in our Crochet Along. THANK YOU!
Click on the picture below , it will take you to the page to order the pattern book, I get nothing from this, but satisfaction, no monetary compensation is intended from this; so wether you go directly to her website or click from my page, it is still the same deal for both of us. CraftyuAndy justs thanks you for stopping by!



Monday, June 18, 2007

Pizza A la June 07



Once in a while, between a Knit and a Purl stitch, or while my crochet hook is resting, I go for the making and enjoying of Pizza at home. I prefer not to eat out if I can help it. Maybe it is one of those pet peeves that I have to work on, but I do prefer to eat at home with fresh vegetables, meats and such. I see my clean hands and my clean kitchen, and I will leave it at that.

It is an almost whole wheat crust, with flax seeds and almond flour added for fiber and texture. This Pizza has proscuitto, fresh spinach, turkey sausage. mushrooms, black olives or kalamata Olives or black olives , which are olives from the region of Kalamata or California in this case. It also has purple onions or what I call Bermuda Onions, sweet peppers, pesto basil sauce, red marinara sauce and plenty of cheese of course.

I put the crust of the pizza pie to cook for 10 to 15 minutes before I put the toppings. This ensures that the crust is cooked and ready for the toppings. Well thanks for stopping by and come back later on when I will have my little jointed teddy bear making his debut.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

An internet Bully , His name is Matt


I write this on 06/13/2007. His name is Matt . He is from New Hampshire. He will not stop, he will use different names, but don't be fooled. I have tried so hard to not allow him in my group at msn. He continues to apply and disguises himself. An Internet bully is a low life being that hides behind an email address or a nickname and acts in a cowardly way. It has taken me around 6 months to decide to report this in my blog, because if someone googles his email or his MSN Nickname they will find what kind of trouble he is. He wants you to feel sorry for him, but don't be fooled, you will feel sorry about letting him in., He is a coward and has been very mean to a lot of people. Mean people Suck...! He is an embarrassment to the Gay community, an embarrassment to the Crochet and Knit community. He will definitely go to Gre'Thor!


This guy is trouble in any group that you have, he comes from MSN,and it is in MSN that he is causing problems. As far as I know he causes no problems in yahoo.

76.19.53.118 this is his latest IP Address if you show full headers on the email application it will tell you the originating email IP. He tried to report me to msn and then I turned it against him ,because his last email as Matt and as Theo Lost were from the same IP Address. Busted
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Someone said that it was breaking privacy laws, the fact that I published his emails addresses. I do not think so. Why does he wants to join a group with multiple ids? Is he trying to do something? Email addresses are public domain and you can get them easily, specially from hotmail. Everything can be bought in life, but Love. Even you, who visited my page, I know the IP Address from which you enter. Do you think it is Useless? Who knows if that is his real name, but at least is the one he uses most. I am sure the Great State of New Hampshire is big enough to have at least 10,000 Matt, Matthew or whatever ,if that is his real name. The IP is real and I go for that. How do you think that they track Children Predators? In my opinion that pataq'h falls in the same category, a troll and an Internet stalker. By IP ADDRESS!!!!! I don't think so, besides I can assure you that Matt Does not go to the Library, he is a classless lowlife pataq'h. This was the only way I had of really making a difference, as you can attest by the comments, I am not alone. Life will make its karmic imprint on him some day!
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All these are his MSN Nicknames. Well he disguises himself as women and as other people and disrupts your groups. Well if you do not have message approval on your group, turn it on. I think that the approach to this bullying has to be approached from a different perspecitvie. You can not keep them out forever, but when you allowed them in you can monitor their messages forever. Yahoo provides such a tool and MSN does as well, with this tool you can have a member on moderated status forever. This is the solution in my opinion!
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So if you feel like giving this person an opportunity go ahead, but moderate his messages all the time. Is the only way for him to behave. Thanks for all the suggestions to my inbox and all the group managers who have contacted me.
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I managed to keep him out by being diligent and creating a questionaire and a rule for the group. If your applicant does not have an active Blog, they will not be approved. He will not give up. What he can not do is have a blog for each of his personalities.
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_Justin1Ruben1_
AllThe0therz
CKTV4EVR
Crochet4Knitting
MattMarkAnt
Cronky13
MM--AP
Mark13Anthony13
m_m_a_p7 (Yahoo ID)
Winnie1Pooh1 (MSN )
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cronitelly13@msn.com ****New ID as of June 21, 2007
junglegrrrrrl@hotmail.com New as of 08/26/2007
winniepoohbare@hotmail.com New as of Sep 14, 2007
If you have the ability to see the Originating IP address of the email you can do a seacrh here at this site http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/lookup-ip
Last IP Address 71.232.187.150 as of 08/26/07, 09/14/2007
This is from an email he continues to send to people will he ever stop?

"From: "Matthew Provencher" cronitelly13@msn.com
Subject: GOODBYE!
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:00:26 -0400

By midnight tonight, June 30, 2007, I will have deleted all email and contacts from this address, and will stop accessing it. Any mail received here after midnight tonight will be filtered as junk and deleted w/o reaching me, EVER! I've tried several times throughout the month to re-establish contact and a possible friendship with you, but you have not replied to any messages."
WE CAN ONLY HOPE!
Update 08/30/07
I have committed myself of exposing this guy for who he is. He will keep on trying to get into everyone's group, just because he is mean and wants to be an arse. If you let him join to ease him and moderate him, he will try to get in with a diffenrent name, but the same attitude lol! He is so crystal clear in his application, and he has a problem, he can not avoid being Matt, sooner or later he will reveal himself. Remember don't answer his email asking you why is so difficult to get into your group, he will report you as spamming. Ignore him , he can't stand that, but will quit eventually. I just block his emails.
Today this is what he wrote on Sept 14, 2007 after I did an IP search and it was the same Ip as the Junglegrrrrl
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Update 09/14/07
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"What does where I'm from have to do with anything? Do you have a problem with NH or something? Where are you from? Don't you have a busy enough life to not bother looking to find out where every email comes from? Pathetic, and rather invasive IMHO. Thanks for accepting me and banning me immediately. Why don't you get off the internet you sick weirdo? BTW, I looked up your blog when I got your email. You're fuXXXXg ugly dude."
It is you who is UGLY in the SOUL Matt!
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These Links to help you with Newbies:
You need to belong to this group to use this
Great Resource
This is where you can get information on IP Addresses very accurate, people think they are anonymous , think again, it can pnpoint your address very accurately.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Tote Bag in the working!

In case you have been wondering about what I am up to well, I have been making a Tote Bag. A forst for me and it is lots of fun.

So where in the world is this happening? Well if you thought Crochet Depot you guessed right. At Crochet Depot we are having a Tote Bag exchange. No pictures yet. I have created a nice pattern and I think my partner will like the colors that I have chosen for her. I am using Lion Brand Chenille. Today I purchase the fabric for the lining of the Tote. I bought two pieces of fabric so there are Two possibilities. I think that any of the two will be perfect for this bag. Later on I will post the pattern I created.

On the other hand I am still working on my Teddy Bear, I think that maybe by the end of next week I will be done with the rest of the Jointed Teddy Bear. There have not been any challenges so far that I have not been able to overcome. There will be more pictures later , I just want to keep you updated on my crochet and knit world. Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

The beary Legs have it



Here is another step in the construction of the jointed Teddy Bear. In my opinion this is a great experience in toy making and construction.
Next week I will be making the Arms and the final stuffing of the Teddy Bear. There are some details that I will be adding to it, but that are not crucial for it's construction at this time. I will be making a big collage at the end with all the pieces together. Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Knit in Public Day June 9th




World Wide Knit In Public Day (aka w.w.k.i.p.d), is a once a year event where young urbanites, hippy chics, grandmas and snags alike can put their differences aside and revel in what they have in common - knitting. Knitting is undergoing a huge resurgence as it is discovered by a new generation looking for something more out of life, trying to get away from the slick western lifestyle full of conveniences and technology and make sense out of our modern life. Many knitting communities use knitting as a peaceful way to demonstrate their anxieties about government policy, poverty and the environment. Check out a knitting club near you or meet some fellow knitters at w.w.k.i.p.d. The website has a listing of local meet ups http://wwkipday.com/

Saturday, June 02, 2007

It's all in the Ears, a Bear View

So here you have the the view of the Bear's Head. The picture on the left side shows you the 18 mm animal nose, before it is put together. As I hold the head you have two views of the head.

I really enjoy making these stuffed animals. This is Bear number One, there will be a second bear, but with a different pattern and material. I think that I will create my own pattern in the next month or two as I see what it is that I am missing from each pattern that I have encountered so far. All these patterns, that I have seen, do not have the ears that I am showing here. These ears are made by creating 2 pairs of ears. (Four in Total) The dark color pair of ears (Any Appropriate Contrasting Color will do) uses the same pattern as the regular colored ears, minus one row. By the same token you can add a row to the pattern with one extra stitch at the beginning and at the end of such row. It all depends how big you want the ears. the trick is to have the inner portion of the ear to be smaller, so that it is easy for you to sew and give it a more natural look.

I will keep on working on this model and will have pictures for you next week. This bear will be finished by next weekend and you will be greeted with a great picture of this model. I am thinking about what kind of show will Madison do for you. I will also be working on a Tote bag for a Tote bag exchange and I will have pictures of the process as well. Thanks for stopping by.

Almost two years without blogging August 2020

Life can be a bowl of strawberries when cheries are not available.   It has been almost two years since I have been in this blog.  I have s...