There are things you just shouldn’t do

And one of them, believe it or not, is knit every waking moment. Oh, sure, you can knit while riding in the car (back of a bike is difficult, especially if you drop your yarn… don’t ask me how I know), you can knit during meetings, lunch hours, or odd bits here and there. You really shouldn’t knit while driving. I’ve been guilty of this, on a really nice day, on a back road, going slowly, and knitting stockinette stitch. Scuba diving and knitting aren’t really compatible. But you know what else?

Knitting while exercising is totally doable! Unless you happen to be totally uncoordinated like I am, and keep falling off of the treadmill and eliptical. It’s just such a waste of time, walking or elipticalling, thinking about everything you could be doing, so I tried it. Not so good, but I’m getting the hang of it. Keeping it simple, it’s just a scarf for my granddaughter, but I fear the exercising part of it is falling by the wayside. Especially when I have to keep stopping to pick up my yarn. I’ll get there, took me awhile to get to where I could knit and walk at the same time too. And, yes, I do have one of those awesome Port-a-Pocket pouches, that helps.

And Podcasts! Who thought up that little time waster? My palm/phone/camera/portable brain has a large sd card and while it’s not an ipod, I can download podcasts and listen to them while I’m doing just about anything (again, the port-a-pocket pouch is great!). So now we have 3 things we’re doing. Elipticalling, knitting and listening to podcasts!

Check out podcasts, you can download and listen to them right on your computer. I’m not going to recommend any in particular, they’re all great, and most of these folks are just plain zany. Go to itunes and search for knitting podcasts. You’ll be hooked! Or needled. Or whatever!

So where do you knit? And what is the craziest thing you’ve ever been doing while knitting? Keep it clean folks.

I rarely understand why something becomes a trend in crafting. Gnomes and geese are both cute I guess, but I never thought we’d be making them for all seasons. (See, for example, this collection of gnome knitting patterns, or these knit geese.)

Another one I don’t totally understand is sardines or little fish more generally. Sure, they’re cute, and the shape is fun, but I had no idea when I was sharing this pattern for a fish-shaped pouch last year that it would become a hugely popular pattern that people are still searching for on the site. It is pretty cute, though, so if you weren’t around then or don’t remember you should got check it out.

Recently another fishy knitting pattern crossed my monitor: the little knit fish from Classical Songbird Designs.

Just as the name suggests, these fish are little, about 4.5 inches or 11 cm from end to end. They look like little sardines and take about 12 yards of sock yarn to make.

You can even make a two-tone fish and use just 6 yards of each color.

This sounds to me like just about the perfect use for the yarn that’s left over after knitting a pair of socks, or a mini skein or several that have been sitting around unused in your stash.

The fish are knit flat in one piece, which makes it easy to stitch on the eyes with more yarn or embroidery floss before stuffing, and you can stitch up the sides while you stuff (though it’s not a very big piece so you could probably stitch and then stuff, finishing with the end of the tail).

Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one wondering, I measured an Altoids box and as the pattern is written the fish are a little too big to fit in it (the box is about 4 inches/10 cm long). But you could make the fish a little smaller if you want to make a box of them. Or just make a fishy bag to put them in!

You can grab the free pattern for the little knit fish at Classical Songbird Designs.

[Photo: Classical Songbird Designs.]

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