Knitting project bag

 Recently I have been looking for a project bag for my knitting and crocheting projects that I can use when we are travelling. I am finding it difficult to find something that I think that will work for me. If I could find something that works, I think it would help me want to work on my knitting and crocheting projects a little more when we are travelling.

Here are some of the things that I would like to have in my project bag:

• Self standing bag with at least 4 or more internal pockets for 100-gram balls of yarn each
• Central area for the project
• Closed top
• Area for the extra supplies, scissors, etc
• Handles, shoulder or backpack
• Grommets not needed, would prefer not having them (won’t be pulling my yarn through the grommets as how do I put the project into the bag and close it with yarn looping back into the bag)
• Black, grey or navy preferred not floral or bright colours
• Doesn’t look like a cooler

Yes, I know that the list is rather long of what I would like my project bag to be. One of the things that I want to be able to do is have all the yarn for a project together or at least a large percentage of the material all in one place. Right now, when I am working on a shawl with multiple colours or skeins, I find it difficult to keep them all in one place unless I throw everything into a shopping bag.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking for a bag that I like and currently haven’t found anything that really looks like what I envision for me to use on a regular basis. Being able to have a current project organized and ready to work on would be great and maybe seeing that everything is all in one place would be nice.

One of the reasons I am looking at begging a knitting project bag is for when we are travelling and I can everything organized in a way that I can keep things in the bag and it is easy to carry. The other reason I am looking for a bag like this is I would like something that I can use to help me manage my project. Yes, I know having a project bag like I am looking for is something that isn’t absolutely needed but it would mean that maybe I would be a little more organized when on the go.

Be aware of emails you get from your own business

Are you receiving emails that don’t seem to make sense because they are from accounts that don’t exist in your company? These are emails that you need to think about but not open and especially not reply to. Normally the display that is showing has nothing to do with your business and it is just away to try and get some credentials.

How many times have you received an email from an account that you don’t remember being part of the list of users that you have for your business. If you are a small business, you probably don’t have a bunch of accounts that maybe some larger business has such as:

• accounting@
• hr@
• helpdesk@
• invoices@
• finance@
• IT@ 

These are just a few examples of account addresses that you might receive an email from and those are probably not accounts that you use. So, if you are receiving an email from any of these accounts the first thing you need to do is not open the email and the second thing is if you happen to open the email, DO NOT REPLY to the message.

Even as a small business I have received emails from those accounts and I laugh because there are only two of us in our business and we definitely don’t have email accounts such as the ones listed above. Quite often when you dig a little deeper it is someone trying to get you to do something like provide them with personal information such as date of birth, address and even your social insurance number.

So, when you receive an email that looks odd make sure that you DON’T REPLY to it and if possible don’t open it at all. These emails need to be reported to IT when possible. If you are a small business and don’t have an IT department, make sure you report them to the individual that is responsible for the email account set up.

My membership

There are times when we all have to think about our personal membership on a YouTube channel and what are we spending to keep that channel active. Lately I have been finding that I have been spending some money on a channel that hasn’t been the best for me so now to figure out is it worth me continuing to support this channel. 

I have been a member of this YouTube channel for over three years and now I am looking at what the community is like and what I am getting for the price that I pay each month. We were told that there were going to be member exclusive posts, but I haven’t seen any of those for over the past two years. I wonder why that is happening, that could be because we aren’t getting the revenue to support those special exclusive feeds. People need to know that the exclusive feeds aren’t going to be part of the benefit that we were told we would get.

The chats that are included as a member benefit has now become only part of when departures happen and that is very limited to actually when the ships are departing. There is no extra chat because that isn’t encouraged and it just isn’t happening now matter when happening in the group. I know that I have tried to encourage different chats, but people show up for departures and immediately after departures they disappear. This doesn’t help with the overall community and even the moderators don’t encourage chatting outside the very small-time window of departures.

The other issue we are currently dealing with is either a slow feed or a buffering feed so that doesn’t help to ensure communication in the group. If we can’t see what is happening in or around the port it makes it rather difficult to have a conversation. If there are going to be issues that are going to take some time to resolve people need to know what is happening. Just seeing a stream disappear when it is part of a bigger channel doesn’t help at all.

As members we should be able to find out what is going on with the stream/channel and have an idea of a timeline but when we don’t we start to think about the money we are spending and is it worth the cost versus when we are actually receiving as a paying member versus what we could get as a free member?

Crafting - don't tell me what I need to do

There are so many times when I have been watching either YouTube or looking at Instagram or Facebook and I read “you should/must do it this way”. Well, I am going to let you know that your way might only be one of multiple ways of doing something, so it isn’t the only way. 

I have taken multiple cross stitch classes and the first thing the instructor says is if my way doesn’t work for you, please figure out a way that will work. I love when the instructor’s say that because I am a lefty so that means some of the instructions don’t work for me, so I need to figure out a method that is going to work for me. I have also run into instructions that have said their way was the only way and everyone must follow that method. Well, I didn’t and my piece turned out just like what the instructor wanted but I did it my way.

I know that when it comes to some crafts there are right and wrong ways to do something but the right and wrong also need to allow if you are a right-handed or left-handed individual. I might turn my piece clockwise while everyone else turned it counterclockwise, but what is the issue. There are so many things that it doesn’t matter what way something is turned as long as it is turned consistently in the same direction.

When it comes to scissors, I see way too many people pick up their scissors in their right hand and just start cutting. Well for someone like me I will be picking up my scissors (which are lefty-scissors) and I will be cutting things out probably in the opposite direction, but the overall outcome will be the same. Don’t tell me I must cut the right side first because for me that doesn’t work so you need your instructions to accommodate people that are both left and right-handed.

For someone that wants to craft, those around you need to understand that you might be different. In my family we have three females that are left-handed, so we all do things a little different, but we are still lefties, so we need to be accepted and accommodated for.

Time and Cost of Fabric

I have recently joined a couple of English Paper Piecing (EPP) groups on Facebook and what I have found is, so many people think saving a little bit of fabric is worth so much of the cost of the production. I know that for me I am the happiest when I can cut a 2.5-inch strip of fabric and then make it into 2.5-inch squares. 

I have seen too many people show that how they cut their fabric is laying out and tracing each template, including seam allowance and they put each of them up again the next one and trace around each of them. I know that might save a little bit of fabric but now much time are you spending tracing the motifs and cutting out the motifs versus maybe waiting a little bit of fabric.

When I do English Paper Piecing, I cut 2.5-inch stripes of fabric and then I cut each of them into 2.5-inch squares and that works for me. I am not going to waste the time to make sure that each side only have the 1/4 -inch seam allowance because then I need to ensure that I have placed the template in the exact right spot. For me I have my squares and I can quickly fold the fabric around the templates, and I am ready to do. 

For me I might have to buy a little bit more fabric to accommodate what I want to achieve but the cost of the fabric is a lot less than my time and that is what is important. If I wanted to spend hours tracing templates, sure I would do that but that isn’t what makes me happy. For me making sure that I can get the squares cut out and then start making the motifs is what makes me happy. I know that there are going to be some people that want to spend the hours cutting out each piece of fabric separately but that is me. If you tell that is how EPP must be done, I will tell you that isn’t how it works for me.

For me making my motifs using 2.5-inch squares is what makes me happy and I haven’t found an issue so far, so why should I spend all the extra time making sure that I only have fabric a specific size. I thought EPP was something that was to be relaxing and fun to do, but making me ensure that every piece of fabric that I use is a specific size, doesn’t work for me and I have a major problem with that.

For me, EPP is about enjoying the time making my motifs and attaching them to a project that I want to make, so maybe for some people it won’t be perfect but perfect isn’t what I want. My entire EPP journey, is good is good enough, and that is what makes me the happiest.

When tapping to pay when you get on a vehicle doesn't work

There are quite a few times when we have been on transit and see how see people that just simply just get on a vehicle especially on the back door and don’t pay. People wonder why they have transit security around and I totally agree with it. People get on especially transit with multiple doors (more than at least 2) and think they will never get caught 

Recently we were on a streetcar here in Toronto and there was someone that got on one of the other doors and clearly didn’t pay for him and his bike to ride on the transit. Once he got on, he was taking a wheelchair area, and his elbow hit the call for getting off the streetcar. He never realized that he had hit this button and of course that meant that the driver had to get off the streetcar and open the door and tell this guy he had hit the button. Of course, he had no idea that he had hit the button and of course didn’t understand what he had done. So, this is a clear example of something being able to get onto the transit without paying and in a lot of cases never being asked to show proof of payment.

What really bothers me is that these people are the ones that mean that transit costs are going to go up for the individuals that are honest and tap every time they either board a vehicle or transfer between vehicles. It is hard to accept that the individuals that are honest have to deal with the individuals that are cutting the costs.

I do know that one of the ways the people are cutting the costs are when drivers open the back door and they trust that the passengers will tap and pay the fairs. I have watched so many people just simply get on and never tap their car therefore they are riding for free. It doesn’t matter f you are at a transfer point you need to ensure that you have tapped your card to ensure your route has been tracked.

The overall enforcement doesn’t seem to be working and all we keep hearing is that there are more enforcement officers, but I have yet to see one of them. We travel the lines during some of the busy times, and you think we would at least seem them sometimes. So here we are paying our fare each time we use the transit but watching too many others that don’t. I think there is a problem, but the other problem is that they cannot or don’t want to confront something as the issue doesn’t turn out well.

Being someone that is honest that the taps everything they are transferring between vehicles can be a bit of a challenge, but we also have know that we are doing what is right and what is expected of us and only hope the ones that are trying to cheap the system get caught.tr

Hotels and their service

Something that I have started to notice and maybe this is the hotel chain that I have been staying at is there are times when customer service and just service in general seems to be going downhill while the price of staying at the hotel is going up. Maybe we are just getting the hotel when they are having a bad weekend but that seems to be happening more and more.

• Breakfast area – not keeping items stocked so that the guests can grab their food and coffee and be on their way. This time at the hotel the coffee was running very low when we got ours and then I think it ran out not long after but it took a while for it to be restocked. The sausages were low (only 2 left when we got our food), so none left after we got food and the plate area was empty in one section for empty. It took quite a while to get any of these items restocked and some people did without sausages and probably coffee as they were in a hurry.
• Cleaning staff – they were very impatient with the elevator. One of the elevators was out of order so it meant only one was working. One of the cleaning stuff was constantly pressing the button to call the elevator as if that would make it come faster. This is just after 8am and lots of people would be leaving at that time. When the elevator finally arrived it was full of guests leaving with their luggage so that is why it took a while. One of the cleaning staff walked by us and I thought she was going to try and get on the elevator before us but she waited otherwise she would have heard me.
• Cleanliness of the room – when putting our shoes in one of the closets discovered a part of a cracker on the floor. Have no idea how long it has been there but it shows that the floors of the closets are not cleaned on a regular basis. We didn't have crackers so it was there before we arrived.
• 
  Recognition of being a member of the chain – this is something that has happened a few times. Yes, we are recognized as a returning guest to the hotel but not as a gold member of the hotel chain. When you get the survey that is one of the questions that you are asked and again this time I will be stating not recognized as a gold member. Sure, when I get into the room it welcomes me by name and as a gold member.
• Caution pylon - this pylon was in the one elevator that was working the entire time we were in the hotel. The floor wasn't wet as it wasn't raining out and we didn't see anyone washing the floor at any time we were around the elevator.

These are some of the issues that we saw on our latest stay and something that chains need to understand that can impact of a guest continues to start with a specific chain of hotels or is it time for them to try a different chain and see if that chain has better service.

Something that we are going to be doing is trying a different hotel chain to see what they are like. Being able to have the flexibility to try and different chains and not just stay with one does help quite a bit. We will see how that stay goes as we have already booked a trip and I will make sure that I write up about that experience.