Major Knitter

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

We have a winner ladies and gentlemen.  The Random Number Generator selected my 23rd comment as the winner... so blogless Theresa is our winner.  I think she deserves this as a perfect gift to the end of tax season for her.

Theresa - give me a shout and we'll settle up (e.g. mailing address, etc.)

Congratulations.  Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and comments regularly.  I really appreciate it.  

I know you'll love your new camouflage yarn.

RSS Feed Recommendations Anyone?

As many of you, I am very frustrated that Google Reader abruptly announced last month that it would be discontinuing its RSS reader service this summer.  That's it.  No suggestions about how to switch, or anything.  Just good bye.  Screw you.  We don't really care that you use our service.  We're going to take our ball and go home.

Grrrr.

I haven't decided what to do yet.  BF is switching to Twitter since almost all the blogs he read are also on twitter.  Only a fraction of my blogs have Twitter.  BTW, I'm majorknitter on Twitter if you want to follow me there.

What are your suggestions for the switch?  Which RSS reader do you like best and why?

I suspect readership will go down even more without Google Reader.  Sigh.

Please comment with your ideas and suggestions.  Inquiring minds want to know.

And Now We Are Nine

Guess what today is?  It's my 9th blogiversary.

On this day in 2004, Major Knitter was born.  I didn't quite know where I was going with my blogging then - I thought I might publish patterns, write books, etc. but somewhere along the way, I just enjoyed blogging and sharing the passion of knitting (and family, scouting, travels, food, and other adventures) with all my readers.  Even as blogging has waned, and fewer of my original blogging buddies are still around, I enjoy blogging.  Even though I've changed the way I blog over the years (BF and the boys prefer NOT to appear on the blog), I still like sharing bits and pieces of my life with you.

• 1,701,927 views  - which is an averge of  516 views per day
• 2,907 posts - which is nearly daily posting or 88% of the days since inception!
• 10,211 comments - which is barely 3 comments per day.  But I must be honest that I've started getting more comments on Twitter or Facebook but they don't get counted here.

I've been blessed by blogging - and I've said it before - so let me tell you how many wonderful things have happened in my life because of blogging.  I've made some great friends.  Some of them have become real friends that I've had the opportunity to meet in person for knitting or when traveling and get to them them in real life via yarn crawls or lunch or just plain fun.

• Jane
• James
• Jean
• Lorette
• Marcia
• KathyB
• Karen
• Mariko
• Rebecca
• Shanti
• Estella
• Elizabeth
• Michelle
• Julie

I'm sure I'm forgetting some.  Some friends from the early days no longer blog.  Others - many of whom are blogless - I've met at the LYS and have become my closest knitting friends.  I've been in Westport for 10 years and most of my friends come through knitting or Scouting.  I'm not sure what I'd do without either group.

So, in honor of my blogiversary, I'll be giving away one skein of Ti-Dy Socks yarn in camouflage green, brown and black + some other surprise goodies.  Leave a comment to THIS post and I'll pick the winner next week.  Tell your friends.  Tell your readers.  Only one entry per person.  The contest will close at midnight EST on April 15th, so after you mail your taxes, be sure to comment and try your luck for a lovely prize.

Here's to many more years of blogging and friendship.  I hope you'll stay along for the ride. 

 

Daffodils in Spring

I happen to have a nice warm sunny spot in the front of my house that is perfect for early spring daffodils to flourish.

Ah!  With temperatures in the high 40s and early 50s and a patch of gorgeous daffodils, I can truly say that spring is in the air!

Hoppy Easter!

From my peeps to yours.

For more entertaining Peeps Dioramas, check out the Washington Post's 10th annual Peep's Diorama Contest HERE.

Hacked!

UGH!

My email account associated with my blog has been hacked. I am not sending out unseemly emails to you this morning. I'm working on getting it fixed.  In the meantime, do not open any of these emails. Sorry!

I did NOT need this today.

Easter Is Nigh

Easter must be near, because my thoughts turned to chickens.  Last year I knit up nearly 30 chickens, but never finished them.

So I decided it was time to sew on some beaks and glue on the eyes.

I had some brightl golden yellow felt and used a quarter as my template.  I cut out the circles and then cut them again in half.  I made a beak by turning each semicircle into a cone and sewing it shut.  Then I continued with the same thread and needle and attached the beak to the body.

The process of sewing 30 beaks and attaching them takes quite some time, but after some dedication, I was done.  I went in search of my glue gun and googly eyes and was ready to finish them up.

Happy chicks with beaks and eyes!

I stopped at CVS to pick up a large bag of plastic Easter eggs for the bodies.

Voila!  A very large hen house with more than 30 chickens.  

I think my new favorite chicken is this Dominique using a black and white variegated yarn.  Isn't she a cutie?

Happy Easter!  How will you decorate? Click HERE for pattern if you'd like to make a chicken or two or thirty of your own.

 

 

And Knitting is in Advertising, Too!

My friend sent me a link with a note "Thought of you"

  

While I don't drink, I think Kilbeggen Whiskey - Tight Knit - did a fabulous job with this ad.  I can actually relate to a bit of it.  

Knitting is Everywhere!

It's true.  Knitting is everywhere.  And I don't just mean at my house where I have piles of knitting in every nook and cranny.  (What's a cranny by the way?  Does anyone really ever say cranny without saying nook?)

No, I mean that not only is it in your knitting areas by the sofa, or in your closet - it's in your home decorating, too.

My friend Kathy found these little balls of yarn at Home Goods this past week and shared them with our knittig group.  Guess what they are?

Did you guess candles?  I love knitters.

My Morning Cup of Joe

I got nothing knitting related for you this morning - so I decided to take a picture of my coffee.  

And then I realized - even my morning cup of Joe has a knitting theme to it.  This is a cable themed mug from Starbucks from 2008 or 2009.  I bought mine in February 2009.  I love how it makes every cup of coffee that much better!