Before I was a knitter, I was a beader.  In many ways, the attractions were similar - beading is a hand craft; it involves lots of wonderful colors and can be used to create many beautiful effects.  I have a huge storage bin full of beads and beading paraphenalia that has been encroaching on my thoughts more and more these days.  I’m going to have to get down to the basement sometime soon and do some serious prowling around in that bin. 

The notion of combining the beading with the knitting has also planted itself in my fervid little imagination and I need to let that simmer awhile before I can tell if anything interesting will come of it.

In general, beading is the process of linking beads together with needle and thread in various ways to create various patterns and effects.  About.com has a pretty good beading section and there are many resources on the web that teach the particulars of various methods: peyote, brick, square and looming.  These are the basic stitches.

The wolf head here was done in square stitch and graced the front of my work computer for years.  The pawprint was done in two-drop peyote stitch.  As Myria mentioned in her Wednesday post two weeks ago, wolf is one of my totem animals so it’s something I often represent in my crafts.  Wolf is a teacher and, as I often see my life as a long process of lessons, it seems a most appropriate symbol.





The Green Man was one of the first loom pieces I did and remains one of my favorites.  He is associated with Celtic mythology (though this may not be entirely accurate) and with nature and green, growing things.  To me he represents the beauty and the wild unpredictability of nature. 

This piece was done with translucent beads and is meant to be hung in a window so the sun can shine through it, highlighting the colors.  It has been in a cedar box on my dresser for quite a while now and I’m thinking it’s about time I put him back into the sunshine where he belongs.

Aside of decoration, beading has practical purposes as well.  I don’t wear a watch often - makes me feel like I’m chained to a clock.  But, sometimes, there’s no alternative so I do own a watch that I wear once in a while.  The bracelet is done in square stitch (which is extrememely sturdy and so a good stitch for something that gets vigorous wear).





Of course, beading can be - and most often is - used for jewelry.  I find something enormously appealing in the idea of making my own jewelry.  It’s more personal and represents something besides adornment.  It is also great fun as you can work with colors tailored to your wardrobe and customize as you like.

The above necklace is strung, not stitched, but it is beading all the same.  The strand is composed of pearl and mother-of-pearl and the large trio at the bottom are amber.  The earrings, made in a traditional Native American style are glass beads and citrine quartz.  I like these earrings on grey, nasty days because they are so sunny and cheering.

The above assortment are all pieces I wear frequently.  The white ones in the upper left I think of as my winter solstice earrings because that’s when I made them and the colors were chosen for their reflections of snow and ice.  These were done, mostly, in brick stitch and the dangles are terminated with black pearl and hematite.

The pair below them are made from iridescent beads, blue-dyed pearls and sterling charms - wolf and moon.  Also mostly brick stitch.

The pair on the right use materials I don’t usually find attractive but, somehow, the combination worked for me.  The faceted beads are red tiger-eye (an iron component is what changes the color from the usual yellow-brown to red).  I was fascinated with the idea of faceting an opaque stone.  This was the first time I had run into it and I thought it worked very well.  The lighter pieces are lace agate.  These beads were strung on a silver pin, the end of which was bent into a loop to attach to the earring hook.

Most cultures have beading traditions.  While the ones we often employ here in the states are related to Native American design, there are many others.  The design for this necklace is Russian and is worked along the length in two passes.  It is surprisingly light weight.  The technique is simple and, depending on the beads, can produce a necklace that is totally funky or sleekly elegant.

The earrings are mother-of-pearl and carnelian and are a seat-of-the-pants design :)

This is a beading loom.  It is strung with thread and the beads are attached by weaving them between the threads.  This can produce some amazing effects but it is not a very sturdy technique.  For this reason, loomed work is usually attached to a backing of some sort to give it a little more strength.

The piece on the loom is a portion of Picasso’s “Don Quixote” that I had adapted as a beading pattern.

Beads come in all shapes and sizes.  There are the ordinary seed beads that you can find at Wal-Mart.  They’re fine for stringing but unsuitable for weaving because of their size variations.  There are the Japanese “delicas” which more resemble tiny, colored tubes and come in every color of the rainbow - and probably a few more than that :) These are wonderful to work with because their sizes are so uniform.  There are beads as big as your thumb and as small as a grain of salt and beads are made out of every material imaginable.  Most are glass, but there are amber, precious stone, bone and horn beads as well, not to mention wood, gold and silver.

I really have to think seriously about getting back into this.  As I’ve typed this post, I’ve been remembering what fun the process was and how much I enjoyed the whole thing.  I never intended to abandon it - but you know how it is when another notion (knitting) comes along and knocks you upside the head - for a while, it’s all you can think of!

Well, I guess that’s not entirely accurate.  You think of dragons as being somewhat difficult to deal with and this sweater has been very simple so far.  But it is a kimono-type style and the Orient has many dragon associations...I know - more than you wanted to know :)

This is one of the fronts of the sweater.  A 28 inch overall length is what the pattern stipulates.  When I arrived at 28 inches, I held the piece up to see how it would fall on my body.  Right - the seed stitch border hung mid-lump, emphasizing and enhancing.

Nonononoooooo…

I sat down and did some calculations to see if I had enough yarn to increase the length by a couple of inches.  I did.  So I continued to knit until I had a length of 30”.  Check that in the mirror...ahhhhh!  Lumpiness covered - much better!

The directions say to cast on 72 stitches and work two inches in seed stitch before completing the rest of the length of the piece in stockinette.  I cast on 73 stitches so that each row would start the same way (ie: K1, P1, etc...).  On 72 stitches the rows would have alternated between K1, P1… and P1, K1.  A more astute individual than me might not have any trouble with this.  But when you’re inclined to be absent-minded, this is a recipe for unwanted ribbing.  Casting on that extra stitch saved me from all kinds of unwanted frogging, tinking and cussing.





A method note.

I had tried the Bella sweater from Knitty which is started the same way and had no end of trouble with the seed stitch border folding up along the bottom of the garment.  I tried everything I could think of to get it to lie flat and had zero luck.  The Bella pattern uses the same size needles throughout - both for the border and for the body of the garment.  The kimono pattern has you do the seed stitch on size 6 needles and then switches to size 8 needles for the stockinette part. 

Guess what - no folding up problems!  It’s border lies nice and flat and is a border - instead of a textured cuff.  I really like the Bella sweater and am going to give it another try using a smaller needle on the seed stitch to see if it makes a difference on that pattern.

Back to the kimono…

The Tahki New Tweed is really nice yarn to work with (spit splices nicely too!), smooth and not the least but rough on the fingers.  I keep holding the fabric up to my cheek because it feels so nice and non-scratchy.  My father, a textile designer for most of his working life, says the fabric has a nice “hand”.

This is a pair of juncos that showed up yesterday afternoon.  We finally figured out that they’re ground feeders, not “feeder” feeders, if you know what I mean.  Throwing some seed directly onto the porch roof makes them happy and we’ve had as many as 8 at a time.  They seem to travel strictly in pairs; even if you can only see one, there’s another lurking around the vicinity somewhere.  These guys are a little smaller than sparrows and more sleekly designed.

Hope your week is going well and that you’re staying warm!

Well, I finally made it home.  Having been in transit from 8:00 AM on Saturday to 4:00 AM on Sunday, I had some doubts that I would ever make it back.  It began to feel like a Sisyphus thing, you know?  You’re almost there and then something else happens and you’re thwarted again.  Eventually I did make it through my own front door - sans luggage, though.  Due to a customs error, it was all (save my carry-on) still languishing in Costa Rica.  Eh - the airport delivered it, finally, at 11:45 last night - so the luggage got a bit more vacation than I did :)

My profound thanks to Myria for her beautiful and excellent posts in my absence - a round of applause, please?  Don’t know what I’d do without her :)

I don’t intend this to be a “cruise” entry, but I will mention a couple of things. 

For the beginning of the trip, the moon was full and my stateroom had a perfect view of it.

This was taken just as we were pulling out of Ft. Lauderdale.

I have always loved the moon, a typically female reaction, I suppose, according to myth and lore.  I highly recommend it (and a couple of identifiable constellations - Orion is what I always look for) as a traveling companion.  It lends a sense of grounding.  You may be on the other side of the earth from your home, but the moon is there, just as it ordinarily is, so you’re not lost.

The night skies are truly splendid at sea because there’s no ambient light to get in the way.  On a cloudless night, there’s no perceptible division between the sky and the sea and the stars are just amazing.  I don’t know the last time I saw Orion shine with such splendor.  We even got close enough to the equator for me to pick out the Southern Cross!

The other thing I wanted to mention is the food.  There’s a joke about how you get onto a cruise ship as a passenger but you leave as cargo. It’s reference to the weight you’re apt to acquire as a result of the splendid and unabashedly rich cuisine most cruise ships serve.  I don’t think I smuggled off many more pounds than I boarded with, but it wasn’t thanks to any of this:

See that line of stuff in the center, the croissants?  I practically lived on the things.  They are just about the most perfect bread form, in my opinion, and I can’t get enough of them.  Fortunately, at home, there’s expense to consider and that works to keep me in check most of the time.  I can get English muffins, a dozen for $1.00 around here.  But a half dozen croissants will run $3.00 or more.  On board a ship though, it’s a different story.  As the food is part of the price of the trip, I can indulge in as many as I want, as often as I want.  I got into the habit of smuggling a couple of the crisp, buttery darlings (along with a bit of fresh pineapple or strawberries) into my stateroom to have as a midnight snack.  Heavenly!

Caviar?  Overrated :)

Knitting Knews

I did get my kimono cardigan started and have finished one front.  It is still packed, however, so more about that tomorrow.

I also worked on this…

...in airports, in transit and when I was bored with the cardigan.  As you can see, it’s grown some and in another few inches, I will be ready to start the increases for the body.  I’m thinking about doing some ribbing for an inch or so at the neck to kind of snug it up at that point...any suggestions?

I had brought a bag of fun yarn with me and looking through it one night, realized that I had the makings of a gorgeous and fancy scarf/stole sort of thing.  Some periwinkle Phildar DK chenille, a couple of balls of Binario railroad type stuff in blues and lavenders and a ball of deep blue-violet Fun Fur.  As I sat gazing at these gorgeous colors it occurred to me that the perfect showcase for them would be the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf (see post for 12/21/03 in the old site archives).  The chenille and railroad yarns would be paired for one set of trangles and the fun fur would be used for the opposing triangles.  It would be gorgeous!

I ran to the laptop and pulled up all my stored knitting patterns.

It wasn’t there!!!

Oh well… Now that I’m home, the urge has passed somewhat, but I may still try to put it together.  I have another trip coming up in March and would like to make something a little fancy fot it.  I’m ambivalent about it and though I deeply appreciate my father’s desire to share his cruising passion with me, it’s always a seriously mixed blessing.  I’ll talk more about this some other time.  The March trip should be the last one and that suits me just fine.

Can I just tell you how much I missed you all, missed the blogging - both the doing and the reading?  Internet access is available on board the ship, but it costs $30 per day for three hours of access.  I simply couldn’t afford that.  So I’m really glad to be home and back posting.

Tomorrow, the tale of the kimono cardigan!

One Piece Slipper

Slipper

Materials:  Worsted weight yarn
Size 7 or 8 (US) needles

Terms:  inc - increase
dec - decrease
K2togB - Knit two stitches together through the back loops.

Cast on 2 sts.
1.  Increase in both stitches (4 sts)
2.  Knit
3.  K1, increase in both following stitches, K1 (6 sts).
4.  Knit.
5.  K1, inc, K2, inc, K1 (8 sts)
6.  Knit.

Continue like this, increasing 1 stitch at each end (just after the first and just before the last stitch) of every other row until you have 20 (22, 24) stitches.  Your last two rows would be:

K1, inc., K14 (16, 18), inc, K1
Knit.

Now begin decreasing.

K1, K2tog, K14 (16, 18), K2togB, K1
Knit

Continue like this, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (just after the first and just before the last stitch) of every other row until you are back to your original 2 sts.

Now begin increasing again and this time, continue increasing until you have 40 (44, 48) stitches.
Your last row for this section would be:

K1, inc, K34 (36, 38), inc, K1.
Knit.

Begin decreasing again, only until you have 20 (22, 24) stitches on the needle and then increase back up to 40 (44, 48) stitches.  Now you’re going to begin shaping the heel.

1.  K1, K2tog, K15 (17, 19), K2tog, K2togB, K15 (17, 19), K2togB, K1
2.  Knit
3.  K1, K2tog, K13 (15, 17), K2tog, K2togB, K13 (15, 17), K2togB, K1
4.  Knit

Continue this way until you have 4 stitches left - this goes quickly because every decrease row eliminates 4 stitches.  Then:

Sl2 tog knitwise, K2tog, pass slipped stitches over.

You have one stitch left.  Cut your yarn leaving a 4 or 5 inch tail.  Draw the end of the tail through the last stitch and pull tightly.

Schematic

Now comes the fun part :) Referring to the above schematic, sew A to B, C to D, E to F and G to H.  Then sew I to J and K to L.  And there you have it!  I recommend sewing thing together in the order given because it’s easy to get a bit confused - but, of course, you can sew it in whatever order appeals to you :) Using different colors for the various sections makes it a bit easier to see which side gets joined to which.  You can ignore the two edges at the far right of the diagram.  That would have been the heel seam, but you’ve already taken care of that during the last set of decreases.

Sometime I’m also going to try picking up the stitches around the opening and knitting a thick, fold-over cuff to keep the ankles snuggly.  I’ll update this pattern if I’m successful with that :)

Addendum

Cuffed Slipper

I picked up the stitches around the opening to work a fold-over cuff. I wound up with 40 stitches and worked 2×2 ribbing for about 3”. Then I switched over to stockinette and worked another 3.5 – 4”. The ribbing lies under the fold-over and is there mainly to keep the cuff snugged up to the ankle. What shows is the reverse stockinette of the fold-over. You could show the front side of the stockinette by purling every round instead of knitting, as I did.

Guest Blogging Part II.

Hello again and welcome to my second round of guest blogging here.

Robbyn, for those of you who are curious, will have left Aruba by now and be cruising the Caribbean. On Thursday they will be going through the Panama Canal, on Friday cruising the Pacific, and Saturday arriving in Costa Rica. She will be home very late Saturday evening/Sunday morning and, I assume, normal knitting blogging will resume early next week.

On to today’s subject…

I’ve always loved animals and loved having pets. Over the years I’ve had just about every kind of pet imaginable… Save snakes.

I hate snakes.

Can I hear a “I hate snakes!”?

Thank you.

Anyway, one of the easiest pets to keep, yet one of the most confusing to most people, is fish. Fish are, of course, not exactly the most affectionate of pets, but a well-kept aquarium can be very decorative, provide a lot of entertainment, and not require a lot of time, energy, or money to maintain. Aquariums can also be very instructive, as well as be a good pet for children with a little care and adult supervision. The problem is most people have no idea how to set up a tank. What generally ends up happening is someone gives their ten-year-old a small tank and a fish. The fish goes in the tank and rather rapidly goes belly-up. This can be very discouraging, to put it mildly, especially since it’s often not really clear what went wrong.

Well today I’m going to talk about fish and aquariums a little and hopefully explain away some of the confusion. I’m not going to go into the nitty-gritty, mind you, just hopefully tell y’all enough so that you could set up your own aquarium if you wanted to.

The first thing you need if you want to keep fish is, of course, an aquarium. When you go into a pet store you’ll see that there are dozens of choices ranging from hundred gallon (or more) monsters down to little one gallon tanks. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to aquariums is that smaller is not better. The smaller the tank, the harder it is to keep things balanced. Realistically I wouldn’t look at anything smaller than 5 gallons, and, if you have the room and funds, ten to twenty gallons would be better.

This is a 5 gallon Plexiglas bow-front tank. These have become fairly popular and you can find them at pet stores, Wal-Mart, and such for very reasonable prices. These generally come with some extras, typically a filter, light, and some fish flakes.

These are two different kinds of filters that typically come with these sorts of tanks. They both work on the same basic principle, water gets sucked into the chamber and run through a filter media. The difference is that one hangs on the outside of the tank and the other on the inside. My preference is for an external filter, but either will work.

These are types of bulbs that can go in the hood to provide light for your tank. The bulb that comes with these tanks, the one on the left, is generally an incandescent. I recommend, especially if you’re going to have live plants, replacing it with a florescent like you see on the right. The fluorescent bulbs cost a little more, but they last a very long time, use far less electricity, and, most importantly, provide a light that is more natural in that it’s closer to sunlight.

You’ll also need to get some gravel. Make sure that what you get is safe for fresh water aquariums (some of the stuff used in salt water tanks is not suitable for fresh water). You’ll need enough to fill the bottom of the tank to a depth of about an inch and a half or so. It’s generally a good idea to rinse the gravel first in order to get rid of any dust, though that generally isn’t an issue with gravels you’ll get today. Gravel comes in all kinds of colours, and you can add in fun little pieces of decorative coloured glass or whatever to liven it up.

You’ll also need a heater. Fish, especially the commonly kept tropical fish, require a fairly narrow temperature range, usually in the 75 - 80 degree F range, to be comfortable. The heater must be powerful enough to keep the tank at the proper temperature. The heater’s power, measured in watts, will be on the box it comes in and there should also be advice on how many watts are required for a particular sized tank.

To monitor the temperature of the tank you’ll need a thermometer. There are a variety of thermometer types available, everything from floating ones like in the picture above to liquid crystal thermometers that attach to the side of the tank. It doesn’t really matter which you get, but generally I prefer the liquid crystal ones.

An air pump is also useful, if not absolutely necessary. Contrary to what most people think, the primary benefit of having an air pump is not to oxygenate the water. The bulk of the oxygenation actually occurs at the surface of the water, the air bubbles from your pump aren’t in the water long enough to make a huge difference. The main reason to have an air pump and air stone in your tank is to keep the water in constant motion so that no ‘dead zones’ develop. For this reason an air wand, as in the picture to the far right, is generally preferable to just having an air stone because the wand creates a wide curtain of air bubbles and moves the water more thoroughly. It’s also important to have a check-valve in the tubing between the pump and the air stone. The one in this picture is that blue thing on the air line towards the bottom-right. The reason for this is that if the power goes out that airline can act as a siphon, sucking water out of your tank, making a big mess, and possibly killing your fish. A check valve allows air to go one way in the line, but nothing to come back the other, preventing any such potential problems.

These things are not essential, but are very helpful. The first bottle on the right is Stress Coat. Stress coat acts as a water conditioner and it helps to replace the coating on fish scales that is often lost due to handling and the stress of being transported. You use Stress Coat whenever setting up a new tank, whenever adding new fish, or whenever fish are, well, stressed.

The middle bottle there is Cycle. Cycle contains bacteria that are essential to an aquarium’s proper running. I’ll get to that in a bit, but for now just say that it can help immensely in setting up a new tank and ensuring that an established tank runs well.

The last bottle there is EasyBalance. EasyBalance is one of a number of products that simplify maintaining water chemistry. It helps to stabilize pH and other water characteristics so that you don’t have to spend a ton of time and money on water testing.

The little carton there is salt, basically just plain ol’ kosher salt. Adding some to a tank, as per directions, can be beneficial to most fish and help ward off illnesses. You only have to add it when you’re adding new water, do not add salt to replacement water.

The last thing you need is, of course, water. Depending on where you live, your tap water might work perfectly fine once it’s conditioned. Among other things, conditioning means getting rid of the chlorine that is added to tap water but is deadly to fish. Using a product like Stress Coat, you can basically do that instantly. You can also condition tap water by leaving it out and uncovered for 24 hours, the chlorine in the water will simply evaporate away. Since products like Stress Coat do more than just get rid of chlorine, though, I recommend using them.

If the tap water where you live is very hard you probably know it. Washing clothes requires more detergent than it otherwise would, you get a white film on the bathroom tile, you know the symptoms. While some fish like hard water (some like soft), water that is too hard can be a problem. Where I live the water is extremely hard, so I don’t use straight tap water to fill aquariums. You also can’t use straight distilled or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water, fish do need some minerals in their water and some of those minerals (expressed as KH) provide a pH buffer. What I do is use about 1/3 tap water and 2/3rds distilled water to get a mix that is just about right.

So you’ve got all of these things together, what do you do? First rinse the gravel, then add it to the tank. Now fill the tank about halfway up with water. Attach the filter and heater to the tank. Attach your air wand to an air line, a check valve (make sure you have it oriented the right way) to that airline, and a short piece of airline from the check valve to the pump then attach the wand (generally they come with suction cups) to the back of the tank down near the gravel line. Add any rocks or other decorations. Fill the tank the rest of the way. Turn on the filter (it may need to be primed by pouring a little water into the filtration chamber), the heater, and the air pump. Add in or attach your thermometer. Add Stress Coat, salt, and EasyBalance to condition the water.

So now what? Now we add the fish?

No!  Nonononono! Now we definitely do not add fish. Adding fish immediately after a tank is set up is why most first time aquarists end up with dead fish.

For an aquarium to work and support fish life there must be a working nitrogen cycle. Putting things simply, fish, like every other creature on earth, produce waste. That waste creates ammonia, which is deadly to fish. If the ammonia levels build up in a tank, and that can happen very rapidly, your fish are going belly up. Fortunately there are little bacteria called Nirosomonas that eat ammonia and convert it to nitrite. Unfortunately nitrite is still dangerous to fish, but another set of bacteria called Nitrobacter like to eat nitrites and convert them to nitrate. Fortunately, these bacteria exist everywhere, and given time and the food they seek they will colonize your tank. But it takes time and it takes a biologic load that doesn’t change too rapidly.

The operative word here is time, it takes a fair amount of time and the right conditions for the necessary bacterial colonies to establish themselves. Fortunately, thanks to modern science, we can short-circuit some of that time by using a product like Cycle. Cycle contains a lot of these bacteria just waiting to establish themselves in your new tank. By using something like Cycle as per directions you can greatly shorten the time it takes to get a new tank up and running.

Shorten, but not make instant. Now that you’ve set up your new tank let it run for about a week. Adjust the temperature, make sure nothing is leaking, and add Cycle as the directions on the back of the bottle say, and think about what kinds of fish you’d like to have.

Once the tank has had some time to run and become stable and any kinks are worked out, it’s time to start adding some life. The trick here is to do it slowly. Those bacterial colonies I spoke of earlier will grow depending on the biologic load, but they do not adapt overnight—sudden changes in biologic load can overwhelm them quickly. The first creature you add is going to be the riskiest and it should, in my opinion, be pretty hardy. Some good choices are snails, useful creatures to have in any tank and not nearly as icky as their land-based counterparts, or an air breathing aquatic creature such as a Betta or a frog. Snails are pretty hardy, and Bettas and Frogs, since they don’t breath water, are somewhat less sensitive to water conditions than many fish would be.

So you’ve got your tank up and running and your Betta has been in there by his lonesome for several days to a week, what now? Add fish and other life slowly. Add a catfish, let the tank adjust for several days or a week. Add a couple of tetras, let the tank adjust for a couple of days or a week. Keep doing that until your tank is stocked.

So what kinds of fish should you add? Well for our small five gallon tank we don’t want anything that will get very big, nor do we want anything that is particularly aggressive towards other fish. We also want to think about what role a particular creature might play. We want some creatures that are going to clean the tank, Snails are good both for helping to keep the base and the sides of the tank clean. Cory catfish tend to be very hardy, and are tireless bottom cleaners. African Dwarf frogs are also good bottom scavengers. For more ‘looks’ fish, there are a variety of tetras—especially headlight tetras and cardinal tetras—that are relatively easy to keep and very attractive. No tank, at least as far as I’m concerned, would be complete without a male Betta. For all but the larger tanks fish that get very large—plecos, Jack Dempsey, to name two—and fish that are generally aggressive (generally these tend to get large as well)—Silver Dollars, Angels, ect.—should be avoided. It is definitely wise to search the ‘net on any fish you’re thinking of buying and finding out what size it gets to, how well it gets along with tank-mates, and if it has any particular needs.

A couple of things need to be said about some of the creatures I suggested above. First, snails. A little care is required in choosing a snail because some varieties get very large indeed. Apple snails are called that because, well, they can get as big as an apple. The other problem that can crop up with snails is that they can breed very readily. Some are even hermaphroditic. This can be a problem, as snails can quickly over run a tank, though if you’re careful about watching for eggs and/or have fish in your tank that like to eat eggs it generally isn’t a problem.

The next thing to mention is Bettas. Bettas are beautiful fish that come in a variety of bright colours. The males generally have large fan-like fins, the females much less finnage and generally less bright colors. Bettas are sometimes called Siamese Fighting Fish, and they’re called that for a reason, Males are especially aggressive towards any other male and will fight to the death. Females aren’t a whole lot better about it. Never, ever, put more than one Betta in a tank. And these tanks with dividers where the two Bettas can still see each other? Bad idea, it stresses them out to constantly be in a ‘want to fight?’ mode. You typically see Bettas in little cups because they can’t be mixed. The reason Bettas can survive this is that they breath air, not water. Those little cups still aren’t very good for them, like any other creature Bettas like to have room to move around. The fact that Bettas breath air is important to remember. If they can’t reach air they will drown despite the fact that they are fish. Their aggressiveness can also sometimes be a problem. They will go after another fish that isn’t a Betta if they think it looks enough like one—this usually means fish like male guppies with lots of colourful fins. Bettas like to be the king of the tank, and they will tend to harass any new fish that comes in. They quickly settle down, though, and after an initial acclimation usually make very good community fish. Bettas are both top-feeders and carnivores, in the wilds of Thailand, where they come from, they live in rice patties and eat insect larva. A betta diet has to keep this in mind. There are specific foods for Bettas, small pellets designed to float on the top of the water, but Bettas also particularly love live or frozen foods—especially frozen bloodworms.

Frogs also require special consideration. There are two kinds of aquatic frogs one commonly sees for sale in pet stores. The first are African Dwarf Frogs, the second African Clawed Frogs. African Dwarf Frogs make a good addition to most small community tanks. African Clawed Frogs, which tend to get relatively large and can be quite aggressive, do not. Unfortunately many pet stores confuse the two, as it’s not clear which is which when they’re young unless you’re paying attention. The easiest way to tell the difference is that Clawed Frogs, as their name suggests, have claws on the ends of their front fingers and do not have webbing. Dwarf frogs have webbed front and hind feet. As far as African Dwarf Frogs go, like Bettas they breath air so the same warning applies—they must be able to get to the surface periodically to breath or they will drown. African Dwarf Frogs can occasionally be aggressive, especially towards small crustaceans (ghost shrimp and such), but in general will not bother anyone if no one bothers them. African Dwarf Frogs are also carnivores. There is some belief that dried foods, pellets and such, are not very good for them and can cause intestinal blockage so live or frozen foods are preferred—like Bettas, they love frozen bloodworms. They are also pigs, will eat any bloodworms they can get their paws on, and can sometimes be aggressive about defending “their stash”—generally not an issue as long as the food is broken up before being put in the tank.

Okay, so you’ve set up your tank, checked out what kinds of fish you’d like, added them, and everything is going great. What do you feed the little buggers? Well, it depends. What it depends on is what zone they like to live in and whether they’re carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. Fish tend to be either top feeders—Bettas are one example—bottom feeders—a cory catfish would be an example—or somewhere in the middle—anything that isn’t a top or bottom feeder. The food has to reflect this. For top feeders it must float, for bottom feeders it needs to sink right down, for everyone else it needs to slowly sink down so they can eat it as it goes by.

Here you see some common types of fish food. On the right is flake food, a kind of all purpose diet that is good for most kinds of fish. Next we have Betta pellets. This food is formulated to float on top of the water and give Bettas time to eat. Next we have shrimp pellets. This food sinks right down to the bottom and is for carnivorous bottom feeders like cory catfish. There are also sinking pellets made of algae for herbivorous bottom feeders. Lastly there are frozen bloodworms (the name is because they’re red, not because they’re bloody), which just about every kind of carnivorous aquarium dweller seems to love.

A note about the bloodworms. For some reason I find that I am highly allergic to them. Or, more accurately, my eyes are. If I have even touched a frozen cube of bloodworms and, with no discernable sign of residue on my fingers, rub my eyes, my eyes will swell up bigtime. I have no idea why this is, it really doesn’t make any sense, nor if it’s common or just me, but I always wear gloves when handling frozen bloodworms in order to eliminate any chance of such a reaction. Just something to be aware of.

As for how much and how often to feed your fish, that depends on a number of factors but overall less is better. Fish will over eat, most can be real pigs, and any food that isn’t eaten adds to the biologic load. I generally feed my tanks a little pellet and flake food in the morning, some frozen bloodworms at night. I generally skip feeding once a week. Not feeding a tank for a couple of days—say, if you go away for the weekend—is not a problem, any longer than that and it’s best to either use an automatic feeder of have someone come over and feed them every day or two.

Okay, so you’ve got your aquarium set up, stocked, and you know what to feed your aquatic friends. What about upkeep? Aside from the various chemicals, which should be added as per their directions, tanks need to have some water changed, the gravel vacuumed, and the filter changed on a periodic basis.

This thing is a godsend, it makes remembering when to do tank upkeep easy. Basically it’s a countdown timer for categories like filter maintenance, water changes, and all the rest. It counts down the days since you last performed these tasks and then, once the number of days you’ve set have passed it beeps at you to alert you to the needed jobs. I have mine set to beep once a week to tell me to add chemicals, once every 21 days to tell me change the filter media, and once ever 28 days to tell me to vacuum the gravel and change water.

Your filter media will most likely look like this, a kind of sock of floss and some charcoal. The frame should be re-used as beneficial bacteria will grow on it and you don’t want to throw those away.

This is a kind of gravel vacuum cleaner. You start a siphon and then push the end down into the gravel. Junk stuck in the gravel is sucked out. When you’re done, I usually siphon out about a gallon of water or so ever 28 days, just replace the water with freshly prepared conditioned water.

The only other upkeep task aside from these and feedings is that you have to periodically replace water that has evaporated out. I use distilled water for this so as to not add to the mineral content of the tank—it’s only the water itself that evaporates, the salts, metals, and minerals are left behind.

Well, that’s the basics. There is, of course, a whole lot more one can do and a whole lot more one can learn about aquariums and fish keeping, but hopefully that gives you enough information to be able to successfully start your own aquarium.

And that’s it for me. I’ve enjoyed guest blogging here and thank you to everyone for the kind comments on last week’s post. I hope everyone is doing great and I’ll see y’all in the comments section where I generally haunt in these parts :).

Myria

Guest Blogging

I heard from Robbyn yesterday, she and her father successfully made it down to Florida, spent the day with her Uncle (her father’s brother) and his wife, and are by now well out to sea. As promised, I am here to do the Wednesday “And now for something completely different...” duties. I would fill in for the rest of the time as well, but unfortunately I know very little about knitting. About the closest I’ve ever come to knitting, aside from going to an endless number of yarn shops with her, was crocheting baby blankets many years ago.

I can see why these posts sometime take Robbyn so long to do, you’d be amazed at how long it takes to get the pictures ‘just right’ and resized for web use. I’m afraid this post is going to be very picture heavy—my apologies to those of you on dial-up. I also somewhat lack Robbyn’s skill where photo-manipulation is concerned, you’ll have to forgive me if the pictures are only so-so.

I grew up in Southern California, within walking distance of a gorgeous beach. One day I was at home laying out on the front lawn—I don’t remember what exactly I was doing, probably just catching some rays—and I noticed something moving in the middle of the road. I sat up to look at it and it turned out that it was a California Desert Tortoise walking down the middle of the road. This was, to put it mildly, a bit of an unusual sight! I walked out to the street and picked him up before he could get run over by a passing car, and brought him to our back yard. I assume he was somebody’s pet and he’d either got loose or they released him. Though I made some effort, we never did figure out who he belonged to. Taking a California Desert Tortoise from the wild was illegal, but I figured taking one from the middle of a residential street probably wasn’t, so I kept him as a pet for years and years.

‘Pet’ is perhaps a bit of a stretch, a tortoise not being like, say, a dog. We had a big back yard that was fenced in, and he really didn’t need any particular care. He just wandered around eating plants—keeping him out of the garden could be a nightmare—and scared the cats, who never did figure out why this big rock could move. About the only real care he required was that every winter he’d dig himself a hole and hibernate, I had to figure out where he’d decided to do this and mark the area off so no one would run a lawn mower over his hole or something.

He didn’t mind humans, he just didn’t really care one way or the other if you were there. Except when you presented him with some good greens he couldn’t otherwise get, of course. I got in trouble more than a few times for bringing him in the house and giving him a lettuce core. He loved them, but the problem was that as soon as he started eating one he’d empty his bladder. Apparently he realized the lettuce had tons of water in it (tons by his standards, anyway), so it was out with the old and in with the new. My mother was not amused when this happened, and the turtle was eventually banned from the house. Not that he minded much or, I suppose, even noticed.

Though I’m not big on most reptiles, I utterly despise snakes, I’ve always had a soft spot for turtles. Along with rabbits, a much more personable pet I also had as a child (in fact there were very few pet animals I didn’t have as a child), turtles show up in my life in weird ways. I have dreams about turtles sometimes and I seem to be drawn to turtle images. I don’t entirely know why this is, it just is. Robbyn believes that we all have totem animals, often two. For her it is the wolf and the spider, for me she believes it is the rabbit and the turtle (note the hostname of this site...). This seems as good an explanation as any to me, even if I don’t entirely know why or what exactly, if anything, it might mean.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been practical for me to have a turtle for some time. New England, unlike where I grew up, doesn’t exactly have a climate turtles like. Under such conditions a turtle would have to be an indoor creature, would require more room than I could give it, and hibernation would be something of an issue. As far as rabbits are concerned, we had rabbits before Robbyn got ill, but decided that under the circumstances they required more time and energy than we could give them so we found them new homes.

I’m not entirely turtle and rabbit free, however. As I said, I am attracted to turtle images for whatever reason, and for years now have been collecting carved stone turtles.

This guy is one of my favorites for what are, hopefully, obvious reasons. Carved out of a single piece of stone, he looks so grumpy trying to get out of that shell!

Here he is from another angle. I think it’s the hooked beak, which a lot of sea turtles do have, that gives him the grumpy look.

Aside from the guy above, these two are two of my largest.

And here they are from above. Some of these carvings get amazingly detailed.

This is a bunny and turtle set, obviously. I picked them up at different places, but they’re carved of the same material and in a similar style.

A somewhat less matched set, but I think they go together :).

Here’s a small herd of some of my other carved turtles.

Not all of the turtles or rabbits I collect are carved of stone. Here’s a couple of examples.

Of course no turtle fanatic would be complete without some turtle jewelry.

This is my pride and joy. It’s Russian, Robbyn got it for me during the last cruise she was on. From the outside it’s an egg, though the pattern is that of a turtle’s scutes. But on the inside…

A beautifully detailed tiny little turtle!

I’ve got more turtles I could bore you with, but instead I figured I’d bore you with one of my other collecting obsessions.

I have the kind of hair that causes people to come over in stores, restaurants, and such just to embarrass the hell out of me by telling me how beautiful it is—I kid you not. It happens often enough that even I, lacking in anything remotely like self confidence or self image, know I have very nice hair. My hair is extremely long, down to the small of my back. Thanks probably to my Native American heritage, it’s very thick, very shiny, very healthy looking and vibrant, and has just a hint of wave in it. In indoor light it’s a dark brown/red, in sunlight it practically glows a deep flame-red. The degree to which lighting changes its colour surprises people and annoys me—I wish it was the colour it is in sunlight all the time.

In any event, given that even I accept that I have very nice hair and that, frankly, as far as I am concerned it is my one and only notable point, the only thing about me that isn’t ugly as sin, I feel it deserves a little dressing up. A little something to highlight it, call attention to it, what have you. So I collect things like hair combs, scarves, barrettes, and such. Especially barrettes, and not just any old kind. No, the kinds of barrettes I covet are not easily found.

This one is probably my favorite, though it’s fairly close between the top five. I’m not sure what the stone in the center is (Robbyn would know, she’s an expert on stones, crystals, and minerals, but unfortunately she’s not here for me to ask), but the two stones on either side are topazes. Unfortunately this barrette has a habit of pinching some of my hair in the corner, but I still love it.

These two are also bigtime faves.

These two Robbyn got me whilst on a cruise, the hand-done floral work is absolutely gorgeous. Unlike all the others, they’re wood rather than silver. This can be an advantage. The others, between the silver and the stones, can be quite heavy—especially the three above. Add in the weight of my hair and it can be rather headache inducing. When I’m feeling ‘off’ or whatever I wear one of these instead of one of the silver ones.

I probably should have shot these against something other than a black background—I used a velvet skirt as a background, if anyone cares to know—but hopefully the picture is good enough to at least give you an idea of what they look like.

These two are somewhat smaller than the other three silver ones, which are quite sizeable (I should have included something to give a sense of scale :( ). Unfortunately the place where I got these isn’t around anymore.

And here’s a couple more.

Well that’s pretty much it for today, I hope I haven’t bored people too badly.

I’ll be back next Wednesday, god knows what I’ll think of to ramble on about then :).

Myria

Remember this?

It’s been languishing in my UFO pile for quite a while now, postponed by the necessity of getting Christmas presents completed.  And there it lay, woefully calling to me, pleading piteously not to be left unfinished.  Let me let you in on something; guilt trips are not the way to go with me :)

Well, last night I put it out of its misery :)

I’ve been seriously considering a poncho.  I’ve always loved this type of garment but haven’t had one for years.  I know there’s a poncho knit-along going on somewhere out there in blogdom so maybe that’s where the idea came from.  I dunno - feels like I’m playing the favorite :)

The original shawl idea seemed like a hot one when I started it.  But the longer the project languished, the cooler I felt towards it.  So, a couple of nights ago, I cut the yarn and started this:

This was a triumph on a couple of levels (Headline: “Knitter breaks arm, patting self on back!”).  First, I had to figure out what kind of gauge I was getting with this yarn on size 10 circular needles.  Then I had to take a couple of measurements to figure out how many stitches to cast on.  Then I remembered that this piece - a sort of cowl/hood combination - should probably be done in ribbing to enhance its ability to stay where I want it!  Okay, so I’ll need more stitches that I thought…

I removed the circular from the shawl piece and got a good look at the length of the cable.  Oh boy - that will be wonderful when I’ve knitted down to the point where I’m going to need to be able to hold a gazillion stitches but it absolutely, positively, emphatically and categorically was not going to do for the cowl.

Get out the bag of circulars, fish, fish, fish…

Ah-haa!

I found the size 10 Addi Naturas I had purchased a while back.  I’m not sure of the length, (rummages for tape measure...hmmmm...24") and it fits the diameter of the cowl perfectly!

So I cast on. 

Now, I have never, ever been able to join circular knitting (on a circular needle - DPNs have never been a problem) without twisting the stitches.  I have approached each effort with hope and optimism only to find after working a few rows that I had something that resembled a fuzzy pretzel.  So I fussed and straightened and smoothed for quite a while before actually joining the ends of this thing.

(Trumpet fanfare) Ta Daa!!!!

It worked!

So I set off in K4, P2 ribbing and am, so far, pleased with the results.  This part wil need to be at least 20” long to do what I want and I may add a couple of inches just so that when the thing is pulled up over my head, there’s some residual length that can pool around the neck - the better to keep out those nasty winter chillses, my dearses!

The idea is to work the cowl to the right length and then start increasing for the body of the poncho from there.  I’m still working that part out but I have a fair idea of how to proceed.  See, I don’t want something snug and I don’t really want something circular either.  This should be loose and long and, ideally, diamond shaped - points in the front and back and at the sides.  So I need to figure out how much and at what rate to increase.  More math - yay!

A couple of things…

I had tried using the Addis before in the knitting of a scarf - just 36 sts worked back and forth.  It was uncomfortable and made my arms ache as the cable is quite stiff.  But, I’m not having any difficulty using them now in standard circular fashion.  Is it possible that they work better one way than another?  What a shock, eh?  A circular needle that is easiest to use when knitting circularly! :)

This yarn is Lion Brand Homespun.  It’s a bulky sort of boucle looking acrylic yarn.  I’ve had nothing but trouble with boucles in the past, but this isn’t bad to work with and it works up nicely into a wonderfully textured fabric.  The color is “Modern”, a sort of royal blue/medium teal/black kind of thing.  While I would dearly love to add a few cables, the in-your-face color and texture of this yarn probably would obscure any cabling to the “why bother?” point.  So I’ll just work out this piece without anything fancy and maybe consider doing another one at a later point with a different yarn.

Oh yeah - that shawl?

I am leaving Sunday for a cruise with my father (a gift from Dad).  While I’m looking forward to it, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish I could bring all of you with me.  I’m going to miss the blogging.  It would be possible to do it from the ship, but internet access is king’s-ransom expensive, so I’m afraid it’s out of the question.  Myria has kindly volunteered to produce a couple of “And Now For Something Completely Different” posts for the two Wednesdays that I’ll be at sea - so check back then.  She is a wonderful writer with a superb imagination.  I have no idea what she’ll come up with, but it will be worth reading :) Regular posting will resume on Monday, January 19th.

Take good care of all your dear selves.  I’ll see you when I get back :)