Knit Once, Purl Forever

Brain Explosion?

That's how I feel tonight, so don't expect much here. And I'm not sure if I will get much knitting accomplished because we have plans to go to a dinner party later this evening.

In the absence of any real knitting or personal information, I have a question for all of you.

Have you checked out Blog Explosion? What do you think? Are you using it? And how is it working for you?

I'll be back with a real entry tomorrow. I promise!

P.S. In case you're wondering, I'm not working for Blog Explosion. I just like the site.

I Heart Blog Explosion

I back AGAIN. I’ve been knitting and everything, but I keep thinking of things I want to say here. I just had to stop by and sing my praises for Blog Explosion. I cannot say enough about it. It’s simple to use, it’s free, and it works. It significantly increases your site traffic and provides an excellent opportunity to find new blogs.

Not that I need more sites to read each day; however, I’ve found some really cool, new to me sites. Very cool.

Okay, I’m off to bed now. I want to get up early and head to the gym. But before I go, I have one more thing to say:

I heart Blog Explosion!

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

What is the best thing since sliced bread? I’m sure you want to know since sliced bread is one of the best inventions ever, and I’m more than happy to tell you. My best thing, for the day at least, since sliced bread is Bloglines! The person who invented RSS and news aggregators deserves special recognition. I, for one, would love to give them a kiss! Actually, it might be even better than sliced bread.

I can’t believe I didn’t jump on board with Bloglines sooner. It was not the most intuitive program that I’ve ever used, but it’s not that difficult either. And now that I’m used to it, I’m completely hooked. Tonight I was able to breeze through my blog reading in no time. With the help of Bloglines, I imagine that I will have more available knitting time. One can hope.

There is one thing you need to keep in mind when using Bloglines. Have you noticed that you can read the full posts on some sites, but others seem to cut off after a certain amount of characters? I’m not an expert by any means, but I believe that it’s because those sites do not have RSS feeds. Scriptygoddess has great information about RSS. And I’m sure there’s a lot more on the Internet.

Next New Thing

It looks like Blog Explosion is the next new thing for bloggers. I found it over at QuirkyChick's. It's a free service that promises to increase site traffic. Not that we really care about site traffic, but it's free, and all the cool bloggers seem to be doing it, so why not. Check it out. It seems pretty simple, though I'm not sure about some of the advanced features such as banners.

Who am I?

Seen over at Yarn Envy. What kind of knitter am I? I think this sums it up nicely:

You appear to be a Knitting Adventurer.
You are through those knitting growing pains and
feeling more adventurous. You can follow a
standard pattern if it's not too complicated
and know where to go to get help. Maybe you've
started to experiment with different fibers and
you might be eyeing a book with a cool
technique you've never tried. Perhaps you
prefer to stick to other people's patterns but
you are trying to challenge yourself more.
Regardless of your preference, you are
continually trying to grow as a knitter, and as
well you should since your non-knitting friends
are probably dropping some serious hints, these
days.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm a (Beginner) Babe!

I finally hit bottom with my allergies and went to the doctor’s again. My allergies had progressed to a point where my eyes were itchy and watery daily, my nose ran constantly, and last night it was actually difficult to breath. The new meds seem to have kicked in and I already feel much better. Ahhhhhh, to breathe easy again! It really is about the little things in life, you know!

And while I’ve been taking it easy today, I stumbled onto a web ring for knitting newbies such as myself. I was so happy to find the Beginner Babes that I signed right up, of course. I must say that I was a little surprised to find that there are only 39 babes currently in the ring. Surely there are more than 39 knitting bloggers that consider themselves new to knitting. I wonder if the ring is a well-kept secret. If so, I hope the secret gets out. I know that it made me really happy to find it. It helps to know I’m not the only holey-moley booga bag-making newbie around!

So please spread the word about Beginner Babes if you can.

First Knit Along?

Since I’m new to knitting and blogging, it’s probably not a surprise that I’m also new to knit alongs. I’ve seen the Knit Along buttons and read the excited updates from those participating. And, while I find these entries interesting and I enjoy seeing photos of the Knit Alonger’s* progress, I’ve never been tempted to join in because I’m such a slow knitter.

Until today, that is. I’m tempted to join the Hallowig Knit Along. The Hallowig looks fun. I'm sure my nieces would enjoy a crazy yarn wig. I envision a furry pink wig, but the options are endless. And the best thing about this knit along is that the knit object of the Alonger actually looks easy to knit. In fact, it looks like a quick knit. That makes participating in the Hallowig Knit Along right up my alley!

I haven't signed up yet, but I'm seriously considering doing so.

* I'm making up words today. Just for the fun of it.

Happy Thoughts

I've been participating in a month of happy thoughts on my other site and today's entry was about knitting. I couldn't resist double posting. So, here's my happy thought for the day:

Today, I'm happy for my knitting hobby. I recently read an online article (found at the K1 blog) that declared knitting as the new yoga. The author likened it to meditation. And it’s definitely relaxing for me. It keeps my fingers busy. It can be relaxing or challenging depending on the pattern you chose to knit. It definitely makes me happy.

And it kept my mind off the eye thing for most of the day.

Knitting is the new black.

Secret Pal II

While I have another personal blog, The Lesson Learned, which I've maintained for the last year, I'm relatively new to knitting and keeping a daily, or in my case not so daily, journal about my knitting. As I've mentioned before, I kind of feel as though the two hobbies conflict with each other as you can only do one or the other at any one time. If I could wish for three or four sets of arms and eyes I gladly would. Just think about it: with octopus arms I could read a book, surf the Internet and blog, watch TV, and knit—all at the same time.

Alas, that is just not possible, without turning into Doc Ock. When I signed up for Secret Pal II, I hoped that the person whose name I drew would have a knitting blog as well. I was happy to discover that my Secret Pal does have a blog and quite an excellent one at that. In fact, it has inspired me to do better here, so that future Pals, and other knitters as well, won't feel as though they wasted a click finding their way to my site. So, expect more updates here.

I'm quite the perfectionist, by the way.

Which brings me to the latest update on Banff. I've been knitting away; however, I've realized that there will be some ripping in my near future as I made a mistake while decreasing stitches on the back piece. So, I will have to rip out more than half of the back and start over. **sighs** Maybe one day I will learn to study the pattern carefully before beginning. Or maybe I should start with a sleeve next time.

Been Knitting

I haven’t been posting updates here, but I have been knitting. I’ve spent quite a bit of time knitting as a matter of fact. I finished the back of the Banff sweater. And I’ve come to realize that blogging and knitting don’t quite go together as you can only do one or the other at any given time. Wonder who thought of mixing the two? And I wonder what they were thinking?