How do you explain Twitter to a non-Twitterer? It’s really hard! Roogles just mentioned this excellent video: Twitter in Plain English.
Obviously, there’s more to it than that, but show it to your non-Twittering friends and maybe they’ll finally understand.
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Busy day:
Fixed many breakfasts this morning, then the boys and I got to the Apple store at 9am. Nice Apple guy came out to my car and carried the iMac in for me. The Apple store doesn’t open for business until ten, though they start doing repairs, classes, and private lessons (!) at 9. It was really strange to be in an almost-empty Apple store. Usually it’s wall-to-wall people. A nice Genius took the iMac into the back to open it up, decided it was the power supply, and replaced it then and there! Go Apple! They actually had a power supply for a 3-yr-old iMac in stock. My Applecare was still good so I didn’t have to pay a thing. A nice Apple guy even carried the iMac back out to my car for me. Apple, your customer service rocks. My iMac is good as new now :)
Then home and chores. The boys wanted to ride their bikes to the park, but it was cold, so they rode bikes and I drove so I could sit in the car and knit once we got there. It’s only a few blocks away, and they don’t have to cross any busy streets. Then we went home and I fed them again, then we drove up to San Marcos for Henry’s 12:30-3:30 classes. Fargo and I went to the library for a while, and then sat in the common room at Henry’s school. While we were at the library, Fargo noticed that they had a manga drawing class from 3:30 to 4:30 (free, run by a famous manga artist whose name I can’t remember) so after Henry’s classes were over we raced back there and they had a great time at the drawing class!
Then we got home about 5:15, and they played and I made dinner, then over to Henry’s Kung Fu class at 6:30. Then home again, and I made more dinner and collapsed on the couch, set up some WoW auctions, knitted some more edging onto The Stole (I’m nearly halfway around the perimeter!), and watched an episode of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. Michelangelo. Bernini. Ahhhhhhh, so civilized! here’s Bernini’s David for you to admire:
Picked up Henry at 8, fed him again (the boy is an eating machine), and he and Fargo and I watched The Trouble with Tribbles. Fargo is not a big Star Trek fan. Yet. We aim to change that :)
Tomorrow we only have orthodontist in the morning and Henry’s private Kung Fu lesson in the afternoon, so I hope we can do some nothing for a while…
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Have you heard of the group called Improv Everywhere? They do surprising and creative performances in public places. You might have heard about the recent one where their “agents” stood as if frozen for five minutes in Grand Central Station, or the one where they staged an elaborate musical number at a mall food court. Their most recent performance takes the cake, though. They worked with a Little League commissioner to turn a Little League game into a Big League game! “He was the only person involved with the league who knew what was going to happen. The players, coaches, and parents were kept completely in the dark.”
IE brought in dozens of enthusiastic “fans” to fill the stands, provided programs, snack vendors, and animal-costumed mascots. NBC provided a Jumbotron, a famous sportscaster to do the play-by-play over the loudspeaker, and the GOODYEAR BLIMP!
Watch the video, read the story. The kids and parents are obviously having the best day of their whole lives. Reading the story literally brought happy tears to my eyes. How wonderful to put so much creative energy and manpower into a stunt that made EVERYONE happy!
Henry’s dear friend Fargo has a week of vacation, so we drove the 3-hour round trip to pick him up. (A good friend like Fargo is worth the long drive!) I let Henry be in charge of the music, and he picked Animals (Pink Floyd). He says that’s his favorite album right now. Cool kid, you say? Why yes, he is :)
So, yeah, I’m pretty tired right now! I’ve done about 20 (out of 84) repeats of the edging for the stole — coming along nicely.
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Felt better today, not so tired and my throat not so funny. Henry had an hour-long private Kung Fu lesson today, and group class this evening. He loves Kung Fu so much!
The Introverted Knitters are thinking of listening to an audiobook at our meetings, though we have yet to work out the details. Please join us, all you introverted knitters/crocheters/spinners/crafters!
We went to the library yesterday and I got a biography of Henry VIII for young adults. It’s only about half an inch thick, and I read the entire thing in one afternoon. I know I didn’t learn everything there is to know about Henry VIII, but I know a whole lot more than I used to. I know who his father was, why Henry VIII was so extremely obsessed with having an heir, and the names/fates of all his wives. Also the whole Church of England thing. We’ve got Episode 1 of Season 2 of The Tudors waiting for us to watch it when we have time; looking forward to that! I will be surprised if they continue the series for very many more seasons, though. Henry VIII will become extremely unpleasant pretty soon, and I think it might be hard for Television to have such an unsympathetic and unappealing main character… He makes Tony Soprano look like Santa Claus.
Also reading The Hidden Family by Charles Stross. Some bits of it are kind of dull (clan wars, assassins, whatever), but I really love Steampunk Land :)
Happy April. I’ve not been feeling very well for the past few days… nothing special, just kind of under the weather. My throat is a bit scratchy but not really sore, and I have a bit of a cough. And I’m tired, so tired, even though I’ve been getting plenty of sleep.
Dan and I went walking in Balboa Park on Saturday morning, which was very nice. We walked down into Palm Canyon, past the majestic Moreton Bay Figs that grow there. What a root system!
I’ve been knitting a lot on the Print o’ the Wave stole, and have just about memorized the lace pattern, although this morning I noticed that I had gotten a little bit off (one of the zigs had continued too far before zagging) and had to pull out a few rows. Nothing tragic though.
Also started some more Happy Striped Socks for Henry:
To quote the Hodg-man, “That is all.”
I’ve been working on Eunny Jang’s Print o’ the Wave stole, in Knitpicks’ Shadow laceweight merino (Lost Lake colorway) with size 2 needles. I’m having a lot of fun with it — it’s a nice easy lace pattern with restful purled WS rows. The zig-zags are so nice and obvious that I don’t need markers to remind me where the pattern repeats are, and it’s easy to tell what row I’m on if I forget. (Note: errata here! Most important thing is “As written, Chart B for the edging contains an error. The second-to-last stitch of rows 9, 11, 13 and 15 should be marked as a k2tog.”) I’m knitting the thing in one piece from end to end so there’s no grafted seam down the middle. And I don’t think I’ll be doing as many reps as the pattern calls for (34 total)… we’ll see how long it gets.
Progress on March 23:
And earlier today:
I was just browsing around for alternate knitted edgings, in case I want to change things around a bit, and by sheer coincidence I bumped into the very same pattern (pretty sure, didn’t analyze it but it looks the same) as the main body of the stole, only here it’s called Coral Pattern. Neat!
Henry’s Happy Striped Socks are done!
Yarn: Knitpicks’ Risata — one entire skein of blue, with only a couple yards left over, and less than half of a skein of buttermilk.
Needles: Knitpicks’ Harmony 32″ wooden circs, size 0
Vague Details:
CO 16 st using Judy’s Magic Cast-on. Make toe till you have 52 st total. Move one st from sole to top (25/27). Top is k3,p1. (End k3) Work two rounds white, 5 rounds blue till you have 9 white stripes. Make ordinary Dutch heel on 25 st (heel flap will be under the heel) for 14 ridges. Turn heel on 8+9+8. Pick up all those side stitches. Decrease away gusset stitches every third round. Continue ribbing pattern for 5 more white stripes. Switch to k1p1 ribbing in blue for 12 rounds, then 4 rounds double knitting to prep for grafting (14 rounds total), then graft. Done!
Kung Fu Socks!
In progress:
I love the Magic Loop method! I’d never knit socks that way before. It made them go really fast, because you only have to fiddle with your needles twice every round, instead of four times! Also it made them way more portable, and easier to try on at any time. I’ve started another pair just like these but in green and brown — Henry’s choice. I also discovered that i don’t hate toe-up socks if I don’t try to make a fancy backwards heel. A regular old Dutch heel is just fine.
An assortment of knitting photos. I gave up on the Bleeding Hearts stole from IWK Spring 2008. The lace pattern was annoying. I started Eunny Jang’s Print o’ the Wave stole instead, and it’s fun! I’m going to work the center panel end-to-end instead of grafting in the middle. I love this lace pattern. It’s very easy, very pretty, has restful WS purl rows, and, once the zig-zags develop, it’s so obvious where you are in the pattern at any point that that I don’t even need markers between pattern reps. Lovely. And the Knitpicks’ “Shadow” merino laceweight yarn is lovely to work with. The white string is a lifeline through row 12 of the third repeat, just in case there’s a disaster later.
Henry’s socks are almost done. I can’t say enough good things about knitpicks’ “Risata”!
Re-blocking the Slipped Cable Vest because I foolishly wore it before the ribbing was bone dry :)
And, finally, at long last blocking the Cobblestone Cardigan Modification:
(After seeing this photo, I tugged the left side down a bit more!) It’s 86 degrees today so my wet sweaters should dry pretty quickly.
Since we heard that Adam Carolla was going to be on Dancing with the Stars, we decided to swallow our pride and give it a try. We watched the first two episodes of this season and… wow! It’s really entertaining! It’s not sleazy or slimy at all! It’s kind of cultural! It’s really interesting and fun to watch these people, who are all famous in one way or another but completely new to ballroom dancing, get up there, live, and bravely do their best.
Today is “Won’t You Wear A Sweater Day”, in honor of Mister Rogers’ birthday!
In honor of what would have been Mister Rogers’ 80th birthday on March 20 [2008], Mr. McFeely — aka David Newell, the public relations director for Family Communications, Inc. (the nonprofit company founded in 1971 by Fred Rogers) — has a special request. “We’re asking everyone (including members of the media) everywhere (from Pittsburgh to Paris) to wear their favorite sweater on that day,” he asks. “It doesn’t have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mister Rogers wore on the program, it just has to be special to you.”
I’ve got my favorite red sweater on. Let’s make the most of this beautiful day! Won’t you be my neighbor?
I just found Wikihistory, a hilarious short story by Desmond Warzel. It’s in the form of a wikipedia-type message board for time travelers. The noobs keep on killing Hitler…
http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html
It’s very short and extremely funny! Go read. I especially enjoyed BarracksRoomLawyer’s contributions to the discussion ;-)
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Finally, finally, my recording setup is fixed, or rather, not fixed but worked-around to my satisfaction. The problem started recently, after a re-install of Leopard on my Macbook. There’s really nothing to indicate that Leopard is to blame, but the problem did not occur until after the re-install on a new hard drive. (The first, original installation of Leopard caused no problems.) The problem occurred in both SoundStudio and Audacity, using any of my three USB microphones. Recordings would suddenly become filled with static and echo, OR would randomly skip and/or garble some input, leaving garbage and blank places in the file.
We tried all the usual fixes — un-installing and re-installing drivers and software. No change. Then we did a completely fresh installation of Leopard, wiping the hard drive completely. No change. (You might think I’m annoyed at losing everything for no reason, but it is rather fun getting my computer set up again, with all my favorite software and settings! Ahhhhh Apple.)
Finally Dan suggested I try his firewire audio interface instead of my USB one (It’s a box that goes between mic and computer). And, 6 test recordings later, I have not had any re-occurrence of the problems! Hallelujia! I finished up Helen’s Babies (still waiting on my proof-listener to give the last three chapters a listen before I catalog it, but it’ll be available very soon), recorded three Blackfeet Indian Stories, and started a new solo, the wonderfully charming Book of Art for Young People!
Knit Picks’ Slipped Cable Vest, in Wool of the Andes worsted. Needles: Harmony wooden circs, size 4.
Cute, huh? I’m quite pleased! It was fast and fun to knit. However, for the sake of other knitters who might want want to make the same vest: Warning! There are a lot of errors in the pattern!
1. You need to start the cable patterns on the second row (RS), which is not really made clear in the pattern. Also, you don’t want to just randomly place your increases! Count your stitches and figure out where to place increases so that the ribbing continues unbroken up the sides of the vest.
2. This one might trip up a new knitter: when working the short-row shoulder shaping, you will start on a WS row for the left side, and a RS row for the right side! You want the taller part of the fabric at the neckline, and the lower part at the armhole, so you’ll start working the short rows at the neck edge, not the armhole edge!
3. When you start knitting the right side and back after binding off for the armholes, the instructions are unclear and could lead you wrong. You must start by knitting a WS row or you’ll lose a row of your cable pattern.
4. When you pick up stitches around the neckline for the collar, the instructions don’t tell you to pick up stitches up the side-fronts! For me (size small), it was 23 front +18 side-front + 46 back +18 side front +23 front for a total of 128, not the 94 called for in the pattern. Quite an omission. EDIT: Now I’m wondering if maybe I’m wrong about these numbers… maybe they really did want me to pick up far fewer stitches than I did, though it seems as if the fabric would pucker. That might account for the width of the neckline. Hmm… Well, try it both ways and see how it works for you!
All in all, a somewhat sloppily written pattern and not one I’d recommend for new knitters, or those who don’t want to have to figure out where the pattern is steering them wrong :)
This was a fast and fun knit, despite the pattern errors. Wool of the Andes is a lovely yarn, very easy to work with, and it blocked beautifully. The pattern needs some tweaks to make it great (besides fixing the errors). Balancing the cables, front and back, so that like cables meet at the shoulder, would be easy and very effective. In size small, swapping the positions of the front cables would not change the stitch count and would mean that the cables met smoothly at the shoulders. The neckline is oddly low. The collar needs short rows in the back to raise it — I added four sets of staggered short rows, raising the back of the collar by an inch (4 inches high in back, 3 inches in the front). Another touch I added was to balance the collar ribbing so that it starts and ends with k2, PLUS a chain selvage — so, on a right side, sl1, *k2, p2* around, end k2, p1. Wrong side: sl1, *p2,k2* around, end p3.
Another little tweak — instead of binding off for the armholes, just slip the stitches to a holding string. Drop the working yarn, and attach a new ball for the back and another new ball for the other front. Then when you pick up the armhole ribbing it will continue smoothly up from the side-ribbing!
This is not my favorite FO, but it’ll be useful, and the yarn was only $14, so even though it’s not perfect I’m still happy I made it :) More photos:
(Look at my ridiculous puffy hair. Oh how I wish it would lie flat!)
I have just discovered “sweded” movies on youtube — short fan-made remakes. Brilliant! Here’s Star Wars:
And here is Fellowship of the Ring, parts 1 and 2:
Long post with knitting updates coming soon. Watch the videos while you wait.
