Monthly Archives: May 2005

Bigger and Better Things to Come

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Many thanks to Deb! I’m going to rip back the few inches of the Beginner’s Triangle Shawl and start on an adventure… my own shawl. 🙂 Not like I’m doing anything fancy. I’m going to look around and see what lace edgings I like and figure out the base number of stitches for the edging of my choice. That will probably affect whether I start with an odd number of stitches or even. Deb told me she just did a garter stitch triangle, then a lace edging. This is the basic construction of the Wool Peddler’s Shawl I just completed, so this should be pretty straightforward. Nifty. 🙂

I’m also thinking of starting a pair of socks for the Husband since he has managed to wear holes right through the bottoms of both socks in the last pair I made him, now they were a little bit over a year old and he wore them a lot whenever it was cold out. I think they ran into the problem of the carpet in our apartment being rougher stuff than the wool they were made out of. I picked up a couple different colors of a washable wool yarn that looks to be sport weight, so it should work nicely.

I’m also hoping to get the drum carder out of the box sometime this weekend. I got it a month ago, and it’s just been sitting in its box the whole time. I had been so busy with school stuff that I had to ignore it to get assignments done. But, the long weekend should afford me some time to play.

Now for some peppermint tea… and some painkillers… for the kink in my neck is giving me a righteous headache.

JavaScript rots your brain

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I don’t know why but this week has been exhausting; thankfully, it’s at least going by fast. I blame it on the JavaScript project I’ve been working on for work. My manager had the brilliant idea that now that I had done a website with JS, I must be an expert, so I could easily complete this page for marketing. *ugh* I’ve been working on it since last Friday. At least I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is glorious since the light was in doubt until moments ago. I have been building the page in parts, and yesterday I added the last important part of the JS code, and it didn’t work. Everything was working beautifully, then I broke it. I have spent a goodly portion of today taking things out and adding things in an attempt to make it work goddammit. My manager came up with a way to make it work that was akin to using a hammer to make a square peg fit in a round hole. I’m rather proud of my coding finesse (I would have gone into programming if it hadn’t been for the required calculus classes). So, I spent today working on it, and now, finally, it is working. The only thing left for this project is to apply a stylesheet to make it conform to the company website. For some reason I have a feeling that’s going to break it again… of course, that would have nothing to do with the fact that the company website was designed by someone who has a limited grasp on how a website should be designed for usability standards. Anyways, the JS is working — properly, no less — and now my brain is goo. I have a couple more hours of work left and all I can do is stare at the wall. Hopefully, if I keep my head upright my gooey brain won’t leak out my ears.

Actual Knitting Content
I haven’t done much… haven’t even considered the dropped stitch in my Beginner’s Triangle Shawl. Might have something to do with me wondering if this is the pattern I want to use this yarn for. I thought it would be good because I only have 1000 yds, and the pattern says knit till the triangle is as long as you want it, you’re bored, or you’re half way through yarn. But, I’m still in love with what Deb did with her Brooks Farm, and I’m slightly unhappy with the fact that the Beginner’s Triangle Shawl will have vertical stripes…. *ugh* Perhaps an email to Deb is in order to find out how much yarn she needed for her shawl….

Catch it now before it goes away

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My professor gave me full credit for my final project. Yea! But she has said that she’ll be cleaning out our files sometime this week, so see it while you can. An important note: my website seems to only work in IE at the moment as FireFox has handling issues with the JavaScript I used. I don’t know if it’ll work in Safari as I haven’t checked it on my home machine, but if someone tries it and it works, let me know.

Edit: My professor has removed all my files from the server, so no more pretty website.

The end at last

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This afternoon I turned in my last major project of the semester. *sigh* Quite a load off my back. And since I’ve decided to take a break and not have a summer class (even though it’ll set me back a little). You all saw the paper I turned in last Monday… well, unless you ignored it, which I wouldn’t blame you for doing. 🙂 I had a final a couple days ago. Then, today’s assignment, which was a website for my Internet Technology Tools class. I’d share the URL, but I want to make sure my professor grades it before I go sending any traffic its way. Unlike the paper, the website is all about fiber, so it should be more interesting than the history of the Mountain View Public Library.

Shawl
Meanwhile, I started a new shawl for myself… the Beginner’s Triangle Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. The Brooks Farm Duet is so nice and soft, and I haven’t had too much trouble with it spliting, which was a worry I had before I started due to the way the yarn is plied. It’s going to interesting to see how the colors play out since the shawl is knit side to side rather than top to bottom or bottom to top.




Unfortunately, I dropped a stitch while I was knitting and studying on Saturday. I haven’t had the chance to try to pick the stitch back up… I didn’t have good lighting or a crochet hook when I made the mistake. I’ve been too busy or tired to take care of it since then. Picking up stitches requires so much more concentration than knitting does… at least for me.

Fun stuff
Tonight was a tasty steak with mushroom sauce and asparagus in celebration of finishing the semester. Very nice Pinot Noir… I even splurged and had an extra glass (since I have the points for it).

Tomorrow is going to be a half day at work because the Husband and I have tickets to the 2 pm showing of Episode III in Mountain View. *Woo hoo*

The Weight Watchers diet is going really well… I’ve lost 12.6 lbs so far, which is amazing… it’s really hard to believe that a simple change in my diet has done this. Of course, now the pants that I bought a couple months ago are really baggy… I was able to pull them down without undoing them this afternoon… it took a small amount of work, they didn’t just fall off, but they fit nicely when I bought them. I’m about half way to my 10% goal. I guess this is really incredible because when I tried Weight Watchers 2 years ago I only lost like 6 lbs in 13 weeks…. I lost that same amount in 2 weeks this time around. Okay… I’m going to stop sharing now and go drink my wine. 🙂

Finally, some pics

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I fianlly got around to downloading pictures off my camera, then uploading then into my online gallery last night. I even found pictures on the camera that I had forgotten I had taken. One is a couple ounces of raoving I dyed with food coloring (I have yet to get around to spinning it up… need to do that).

The other is a couple of scarves I made for my Mom for her birthday. She had told me she wanted “one of those scarves.” Since I wasn’t sure which kind of scarf she was talking about I knit two. The glittery one is knit out of a skein of blended yarn I got at my LYS for $36. The other is made out of Bernat Boa… $10 at JoAnn’s. My Mom prefers the glittery one… the Boa scarf is that one that people identify with (no accounting for taste). My Mom says she’s been taking a great deal of pleasure in telling people it’s a Borchardt Original (*snarf*) whenever someone asks where she bought it.

And finally… the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

The Wool Peddler’s Shawl

72″ wide, 34″ tall… and quite nice, if I do say so myself.

Lace close-up

Haiku Wednesday

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Falling leaf?
Wings beating lightly
Tiger butterfly passes

Regretably, no pictures of the shawl. They are still laying dormant on my camera. But, the shawl is winging its way towards TN.

In lieu of pictures, I present for your reading pleasure (if you’re into that sort of thing) my recently written library history paper: (sorry, taken down)… all 23 pages of it. No, don’t worry, there’s only like 18 pages of actual writing and even 5 of that is appendices.

I will say this, the stuff they put in newspapers 100 years ago is just funny.

Two finished objects

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The Wool Peddler’s Shawl has been blocked and looks great… I even have pictures taken, but I am too lazy at the moment to upload them from my camera. Gotta keep people coming back for more, right?

The second finished object is my Library History paper…. that only took forever to complete. It has now been emailed to the professor and is out of my hands. If you’re into that sort of thing, I’ll try to link to it tomorrow, too.

Must go get something to eat…. I’ve been working on the paper since 9 AM (that’s just today’s work) and didn’t bother to stop and eat. Now I have no excuse.

*ugh* Majorly crashing as adreneline leaves my system…..

The question of use

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I chatted briefly with my sister yesterday, and she told me that her kitten seems to be enjoying the felted kitty bed… although not in the manner in which it was meant to be used. She’s been carrying it around in her mouth. According to me sister, she has yet to lay in it, but has layed on it a couple times. *eah* As long as she like it, I guess.

I have to hit the library after work this afternoon to look up newspaper articles from the turn of the century. Ah, the joys of microfilm… *sigh* I’m trying to keep from flipping out over this paper. The professor says she’s looking for 20 pages. I have no idea how I’m going to get there. Let’s hope she counts cover pages, abstracts, and references towards the page count. *ugh* There are questions she is looking for answers to that I haven’t found any answers to, such as “Who used the library? Do you get a sense of who the founders targeted and who the early patrons were? Was this a white, middle-class oriented institution, or did the early library reflect California’s diverse population?” The closest answer to this I’ve gotten is that the library was open to everyone who lived in town. What the demographics looked like in 1905, I have no idea. I can’t make any assumptions because Mountain View was founded through Spanish/Mexican land grants… the majority of town sits on the site of the main ranchero (which had a name that translates to The Pastures of the Ewe Lambs). But I don’t know if there was still any sort of Hispanic population as the town began to grow and finally incorporate. I might have to see about trying to find what the ethnic proportions were. What’s funny is I think the core of my paper is actually going to focus on the town trying to get a public library up and running instead of the library once it was established.

It’s not a Flaw… it’s a Feature!

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Shawls
I finished the Wool Peddler’s Shawl (officially this time) on Monday night. It took me about 2.5 hours to finish the sewn cast-off, but it looks really nice. Now I just need to wash it and block it. You’ll get pictures when it looks pretty… right now it looks a bit lumpy.

I did a swatch and cast-on for the Beginner’s Triangle last night. This morning I discovered a new design feature that I have added to the pattern. I photocopied the chart because there is no way I was going to cart around a hardcover copy of A Gathering of Lace. Unfortunately, certain things didn’t show up in the copy… those certain things being the purl stitches at the end of each row. They’re there to create a clean edge… the first stitch of each row is slipped as if to knit. Well, I have been knitting the last stitch of each row… opps. Since I was on Row 18 when I discovered this (by looking up something in the book) I decided it looks just fine and to continue as I have been. *shhh* Don’t tell anyone.

Secret Pal
I still haven’t figured out who my Secret Pal was.

But I can happily say that my other Secert Pal (the one I was sending to) is Lisa @ Slip Knot Pixie. Yea!

Monday again

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Once again it is Monday and I find myself at work… the last place I want to be. I have no idea where I’d rather be or what I’d rather be doing, but work just isn’t it. It’s just a blah day… there’s no motivation to do my job, not even my paycheck.

My Thanks
Thanks to everyone who shared their sympathy over the fridge situtation. I think it’s a problem in any workplace with a communal fridge. I think it was just the last straw for me last week, and I snapped. But, a loud angry blog posting is probably better than me actually yelling and throwing things in the breakroom. (I don’t get out-right angry easily, but when I do I have a tendancy of throwing a fit… usually I just get pissed off or frustrated and I might give people looks and fume, but I tend to keep it to myself.) I’m thinking of inveting in a mini fridge. Kenmore makes a 1.7 cubic ft mini fridge that’s only like $60 at Sears. I figure that’s a worthwhile proce to pay to not have people taking my food… and who knows over time, if they keep doing it, the cost of lost food could eventually add up to the cost of the fridge.

RAOK’d!
Sunday, when I finally got around to checking for Saturday’s mail, there was a package from Marina containing a couple of lovely lavender sachets. I like lavender… I like all herb-y sorts of scents. One sachet came to work with me today in order to try to establish a sense of calm in my cube. *Crosses fingers* Here’s hoping it’ll work. I think the other will find its place amongst part of my wool stash. I have cedar balls in with the wool that’s in a dresser drawer, but my overflow is in plastic storage without anything to chase off pests or keep it from smelling plastic-y and stale. So, many thanks to Marina from me and my yarn!

Actual Knitting Content
I unofficially finished the Wool Peddler’s Shawl last night. It’s unofficial cause I am still working on the cast-off. I decided to go with the sewn cast-off from Knitting Without Tears; I think it gives a nicer edge, which I think this shawl deserves. But, it’s going to take forever. I started casting off last night and got about 8 inchs done in about half an hour. I think part of the problem is the ass long end I’m using, but I’d rather be using too much for the cast-off then run out an inch from the end, which happens more than I like to remember.

As soon as the cast-off is finish I’ll be casting on for the shawl for me… it shall be mine… mine, I tell you! Bwahahaha! *Clears throat* Excuse me, yes, I shall be making a shawl for myself. Of course, I could also cast-on a sweater for myself. I went to my LYS on Saturday and they were selling all their Cascade yarn at 20%. Couldn’t pass up a sale, now could I? I picked up enough Cascade 220 for Mariah in color 4148 (I think)… it’s a heathery mauve color.

I also got to pick up my drum carder while I was there on Saturday. Yea! Drum carder! Let the rejoying commence for my precious is in my grasp. Sadly, I’ve been so busy it is still in the box. *pout*

It’s That Time of Semester
While I have not yet redeveloped my eye twitch from last semester, the next 2 weeks could see it coming for a visit. I have a 20 page paper on the history of a California library (I’m researching the Mountain View Public Library) due in a week. I have 2 small Web projects due this Wednesday and next Wednesday. I have my History of Books and Libraries final exam on the 16th, and my final Web project is due on the 18th. *ack*

Secret Pal
A trip to the post office on Saturday saw off the last package to my secret pal, a goodie package to the person for which I’m a secret pal angel, and finally, the felted kitty bed for my sister’s new kitten. Yea!

Unfortunately, my secret pal (the one that was sending me goodies) has not revealed themself. Secret pal, are you out there? Are there email problems again? Have you revealed yourself in your blog and I some how missed it (actually, that wouldn’t be that hard… I had so much of a back log in Bloglines that I only skimmed the blogs, and then Bloglines started making me login every third blog.) If you have tried to get a message to me and I have missed please try my email again, or post a comment here. For now, whoever you are, thank you for being my secret pal. 🙂