Pumpkinspun’s Musings

Hey Knitters…  confused on how to search for other knitters, or other things happening in the “Twitterverse”?

There are LOTS of neat tools out there that can help you find other knitters,  find out what other folks are knitting, find out about the latest knitting videos folks are talking about.    I took a few screenshots of three helpful tools you might want to start with. You’ll want to click on

Twitter Search - here I took a screen shot of two searches I did,  one for the word “knitters” and one for the word “knitting”:

Maybe you’ve heard of folks “tweeting” about words with a # before the word..  perhaps a discussion of something like #Stitches… what to do?  Throw it into the Twitter Search and be part of an ongoing conversation.   This is a great way to find other folks to follow as well!

Another Twitter search tool that you can use that updates itself in real time after a number of seconds is TweetScan

Here’s a sample search I did with this service.  Once you do a search, hang out a bit (on the real search, not the picture)  and watch it update itself:

Now.. ready to ramp it up?   Try TweetGrid!   You can follow 4 or more searches at a time, and see them update live…  in this example I put in 4 separate terms related to knitting.   It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but this is a great way to follow a bunch of search terms at once -  it’s a big picture so I’ll give you the direct link:
http://www.pumpkinspun.com/musings/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/twitknit-tweetgrid.jpg

(added 1/30/09) I found this interesting people directory of folks on Twitter by interest areas, profession, all sorts of categories: Twellow A search on knitters here yields pages upon pages of very detailed info.. great if you’re looking for folks to follow:

So knitters (and spinners and weavers and you name it..) - don’t be afraid.. dive into Twitter and start poking around! I’ll follow this up in a week or so with some more suggestions on how to get the best bang out of Twitter.

My custom ordered/designed Golding Spindle arrived today. A treat to myself, for being smoke-free for over 9 months now.. I wanted something that I would use, and be beautiful, to remind myself of the hard work I put in the days following February 25, 2008, when I quit the habit. As I have an affinity for the fiddle, and my Ravelry name is fyddlestyx, I thought it would be just wonderful to have a fiddle design with a celtic band. When I visited the Golding’s studio in June with our elist’s KnitCamp I was admiring the various rings that Tom Golding showed me. I think that’s when I started imagining the fiddle spindle.

It spins like a dream, and the painting that their artist Jan Elliott did to make it just like I imagined was perfect.

Details, as per the card that was included:

• Whorl: 2 3/4″ Cherry Whorl, finely scrolled.
  Style: Vintage Ring, signed sterling silver celtic design
  Shaft: walnut, 5/16″ x 8 3/4
  Weight: 1.6 oz
  Handpainted by Jan Elliot

This will be a cherished spindle, a well used spindle, and an ongoing reminder of another step I took towards better health.

Thinking of quitting smoking?

• Set some goals for your self, realistic ones.
  That includes WHY you’re quitting. For me, I was successful only when I wanted to quit for ME, and not for loved ones.
• Ask for support from your family, friends, co-workers and even online buddies. One of the most helpful tips I got was from an e-list buddie, who gave me a very useful acronym to remember for addictive triggers: HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired). Every time I got a craving I first sat and thought it through.. which one is it this time? Usually by the time I’d figured it out, the worst of the craving had passed for that moment.
• Make an appt with your local state run quit tobacco group (mine was at the local hospital). Often times they have funding which includes 3 months of the patch or gum or meds. I went with the patch, with the gum as backup. When I finished the patch after 3 months, the gum was more of a mental crutch for me.. knowing it was there. I hardly used it, but still carry some with me — knowing it’s there helps me enormously. I liked the orange-flavored gum.
• If you are a social networking/media type and enjoy online contact, join QuitNet. I found some support in the forums there and I appreciated all the emails I got from them reminding me of even the tiny incremental anniversaries. While I didn’t join the paying level.. they have a lot of helpful stuff at the free membership level. Knitters might also find the Ravelry group Knit & Quit helpful as well!
• Plan ahead for some other things you can do with your hands during the really stressful times. At work, I had a squeeze ball and drank ALOT of tea! At home I spent hours upon hours unravelling thrift store sweaters to turn back into yarn for future projects. It became a slight obsession that I even took with me to cafes at times. But that’s for another post.
• Stay strong.. the first three weeks are hard work.. then the next couple months less so. It doesn’t mean I still don’t get the occasional craving, but I feel SO much better, and after just a month, I found walking upstairs easier. Have a buddy or two who have been through it but are NOT the preachy types that you can count on to call occasionally.

Lastly.. good luck and if it helps.. share your quit tips and quit rewards here!

A question was posted on Ravelry asking about the use of Photoshop to sample over-dyeing yarn. As I’m always looking for new ways to show my Photoshop students to play with colorizing images, I took this challenge up and came up with a method that seems like it might be useful in doing actual over-dyes.

In the example below, I used Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter: I checked the color box and click the color to change to the overlay color I wanted to simulate, in this case a deep blue, then cranked the density up towards 100%. I selected a blue to overlay over the pink yarn in the example below:

Of course, real over-dye results will vary depending on the yarn, fiber type and dye you actually use, but this seemed like a way to get a ballpark look or play with color if you have an idea you want to experiment with. If you’re familiar with using masks you can also mask out certain areas or use selections to colorize parts of a skein of yarn for a variegated yarn design.

Your thoughts?