I named out a number of things I wanted to complete two days ago.

• Finish the first ball of the yarn for the entrelac.  Since I only have two balls of this yarn, it will put me more than half-way done.  Once the first ball is done, I will do the strap for the bag by doing a longish piece of I-cord & then doing a twist back on itself – as in making rope.  (I’ll post pictures when I get to this point so my meaning is clearer)
• Well, I finished the first ball of yarn, and you can see the entrelac in the picture.  While I’ve started the I-cord, I figure I have a few more feet to knit for the way I’m planning to do the handles.
• Work on the Lace Hedgehog Mitts & get them to a point of photographing, so I can show progress there!
• Started, but my first effort wasn’t satisfactory, so I’m back to the beginning.  It’s lovely yarn.
• More fun with the glue gun!  I have my blocking board / idea wall to finish and four more fabric covered boxes to go.
• Still in progress here – the part(s) below took precedence!
• Income time online also!
• On top of all this is some cooking and cleaning chores.
• I did get a bunch of seeds started in flats for my gardening efforts this year, however.  

What is I-Cord and why would it need defending, you ask?

I-cord – or Idiot Cord –  is a term popularized by Elizabeth Zimmerman in her “Knitting Workshop” book.  It is a way of making a narrow tube of knitting that can be used in myriad ways.

A common tool for the same purpose is known as a “knitting spool”, “knitting Nancy”, “knobby knitter”, etc.

These take the form of a thread spool with a few small brads or nails stuck into the top around the hole.  The long rope of resulting knitting is truly something that can go on and on and on.

It can be churned out so mindlessly, in fact, that if you have any tendency to get bored by plain knitting then spool knitting – or I-cord knitting – would be positively stupefying.

In I-cord’s defense, it can be very useful!  The yarn rope snaking across my keyboard will be the straps on the bag I plan to put together from the entrelac knitting.  I-Cords can be the drawstring of a hoodie, straps on a tank top, sewn into position as embellishments, applied to the edges oF a garment as finishing, and more.

Since I’m not using a spool, I use two double-pointed needles.  The method is super simple.

I cast on six stitches and knit across.  Instead of turning the work and purling back, I simply slide the stitches to the other end of the needle, stretching the yarn across the “back” (what will be the inside of the narrow tube) and knit across again.  I repeat, sliding the stitches instead of turning, again and again and again.

Every once in awhile, I will pull down on the knitting.  This tightens the float yarn across the back and closes the tube.

I have about another five feet of I-cord to make for the way I want to do the straps, so the way I’m finishing and using them will be covered in a later post.

Today is a work day!

Ameda spinning in South Park, CO with Marbles the kitty looking on

I plan to:

• Finish the first ball of the yarn for the entrelac.  Since I only have two balls of this yarn, it will put me more than half-way done.  Once the first ball is done, I will do the strap for the bag by doing a longish piece of I-cord & then doing a twist back on itself – as in making rope.  (I’ll post pictures when I get to this point so my meaning is clearer)
• Work on the Lace Hedgehog Mitts & get them to a point of photographing, so I can show progress there!
• More fun with the glue gun!  I have my blocking board / idea wall to finish and four more fabric covered boxes to go.
• Income time online also!
• On top of all this is some cooking and cleaning chores.

And yes, the day is young – as in 12:30am.  I may be able to take care of the first ball of the yarn for the entrelac before I go to bed.

Well, I put down the entrelac for a few minutes today and cast on with the multicolor merino laceweight yarn in a lace revisit of hedgehog mitts.

I also went to visit a Farmer’s Market in the nearby town of Coppell, TX.  Had a great time, and came home with a bunch of locally-grown produce, spices, olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

Doing some writing today, so my attention has been on that.  Did do some more on the never-ending entrelac.  I plan to finish it this week!

Today may be subtitled “Fun With A Glue Gun!”

The other day, I was thinking of how I can set up my studio space so it can be fun and effective as a work space.  I had the brainstorm that I talked about to do storage boxes in a much more cost-effective way than buying them all finished.

Here is a picture of a file box and my first covered one -

And here is a closer look at the first finished one -

I have more boxes to do, and some other ideas.  All sorts of other items for the studio need to be appropriately contained: knitting needles and tools, my pens, colored pencils, other hand tools, etc.

Here are the first six done!  They’re fast and easy.

Since I’m working with my fabric stash rather than fabric purchased directly for this, it’s going to be anything but matching!

Today was mostly life chores – grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning – and while I did do a bit on the entrelac, most of my creativity went towards how to eat healthier on a very limited amount of grocery money.

I like the way the grocery store I go to has specific areas that they put mark-down items.  I check these first thing.  I’m skipping the bread products for now, but the mark-downs on the meat and in produce are worthwhile to check out.

They had winter greens on sale – kale, collards, and green cabbage – so I’m spicing up some ground turkey with hot pepper, garlic, black pepper and cilantro, sauteing the cut up greens with more garlic and olive oil, and then layering both with ricotta cheese and beaten eggs and baking. ( And no, I didn’t forget to mention adding salt – that’s one of the things I’m skipping! )

I have to admit that I didn’t get much done today aside from a couple rectangles of entrelac!

I had to get a tire fixed and had an appointment today, so I was Knitting In Public – KIP – while I was waiting in both places.

The entrelac is a lot of fun to show people.  Each rectangle is so quick, even a short conversation can show a distinct change for the person that knows nothing about knitting.

It’s also a great answer for the “I never would have the time” comment that I would normally get.  I simply show that even the five minutes they’ve been talking to me show measurable progress, and mention that I use these bits and pieces of what would normally be wasted time.

I did quite a bit of admin work on the site today!  I moved all the posts from the one big file they were in to individual posts on the blog page.  I still have a fair amount of work to do – adding tags and categories, but now it looks much better!

I also had a great idea today.  I’ve been wanting to organize some real studio space here in my apartment, and I was looking at the organizing options at Target.  I like the various boxes, bins and baskets they have.  However, the amount and variety I need to store would not match up with the funds available (let me give you a clue – I have to go way-y-y-y-y beyond frugal), so I needed to come up another option.

I did – I got the items below, and I’m going to put them together in the next couple days.

ITEM                                                                                 COST

10 cardboard banker’s boxes letter & legal size             $15

mini glue gun & 70 glue sticks                                         $11

various fabrics from stash                                               on hand

For comparison, one fabric file bin without a lid at Target is $9, and lidded fabric covered boxes start at $13 for one.  I’ll have only $26 invested in the first ten, and will still have plenty of glue and the glue gun for other projects.

I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon that will put a crimp in my day, but I should have the seeds planted, at least.

Photos tomorrow night!