Let’s play Catch-up.

November 25, 2012August 6, 2023 ~ laura ~ 1 Comment

Ok, as mentioned in my Thanksgiving Recipe post, I’ve had a perfectly good reason for not posting the majority of this year.
I needed to move web-servers. We kept saying we were going to do it soon and then not doing it, and because it was going to happen “SOON” I didn’t want to add anything that would alter the backups we had already made. Never-mind that of course when we went to move the site, the first step was to take brand new backups.
Regardless, it is done now, so I should be back to posting with semi-regularity, aka, about once a month if prior habit still holds true.
I have broken this post into different sections below so you can just go to the sections you are interested in and skip the part you could care less about.
It’s a long-winded ride, so settle in!

ADMIN

I am no longer with bluehost. That felt so good, let me say it again. I am not longer with bluehost!! I am no longer paying anyone for a shitty shared hosting platform. My site is on my very own server in shmoo’s data center. We have complete and total control.
All back end work is being handled by us with him doing most of the SysAdmin heavy lifting since he got to choose the OS. We bought the server at the beginning of the year, got it up and running early February and have generally only used it as a Minecraft server ever since. Mind you, Minecraft was not the intent for the server, but it has worked out nicely to use it as such. I have migrated my WordPress and Gallery installations over finally this weekend, and made sure that they are up and working correctly.

Part of this migration involved upgrading Gallery2 to Gallery3, and this has killed the plugin that worked for using Gallery photos in my blog, which makes me sad, because I loved it and it’s silly to put the same photos in two places on the server, and now I have to go back to using full links again if I don’t wish to do this. While this doesn’t make me happy, it is liveable. I don’t care for any of the Gallery3 themes, but overall it’s still the best photo gallery software out there, so I’m still using it. What I won’t be doing is going back and fixing any of the links that worked with the WPG2 plugin. I used it for years, and I just don’t care that much about fixing it.

Blog-wise I am using a theme I used several years ago that really isn’t widget compatible. Well it is for the left column, but not the right, and I can’t figure out why, and after a few hour I just gave up and fixed the right column without widgets. I’ll likely be looking into other themes later, but for now, I don’t cringe at the thought of this one and thus it shall remain. I always quite liked this theme, I just moved on because I liked widgets more.

SPINNING

I went to MSW and bought a bunch of stuff.

I did Tour de Fleece this year and spun 40 ozs of fiber, but haven’t done much spinning since. Nothing really of note at any rate.

I did take Felicia Lo’s Craftsy class on Spinning with color, and found it quite useful. I wish I had taken it a month or two before TdF so that I could have planned out some of the techniques to try during that time. Also, Craftsy is pretty awesome. If you like taking classes on your own schedule, at home, in your pajamas, without other people… it’s totally the way to go. Pretty affordable too and they have sales every so often too.

KNITTING

Since the Dim Sum, I have knit a new Nalgene Cosy in broken rib.

The Misogyny Networks Mankini Top

Made with the finest acrylics money can buy!! This fabulous fun fur and fuzzy yarn creation filled me with a dirty shame.
It was so bad that shmoo said my knitting license should be revoked, and he didn’t even have to wear it.
Regardless it was perfect for its intent and I was happy to compromise my knitting standards to help make a point in my industry.
Sometimes you have to take one for team….

A Pair of Campout Mitts for my Nana.

Mod was adding the extra i-cord at the bottom.
The gray is Alpaca and the pink is the same stuff the nalgene cosy and tea pot cosy were made of. I am finally almost out of that yarn. ALMOST!

A Pair of Campfire Mitts for myself.
I still need to take a photo of these, or wrangle shmoo into doing so while I wear them. Maybe next week!
Made these with the two Rainbow yarn bumps I spun up.
I had finished one armwarmer at the end of last year. It got ripped when I changed from the made up as I went along pattern to Campout Mitts.
Made them longer and added a band of garter stitch at the bottom.

I’ve been working on an Entrelac Infinity Scarf for my aunt. She’s been waiting about 3 years for me to make something with this yarn, and I am about half done with it.
Hopefully I’ll wrap it up before 3 more years go by.

I’ve also started a cocoon thing for the cat, but it’s crochet using random scrap yarns. It might end up horribly ugly. It probably will be. If he likes it, he won’t care, and neither will I. If he doesn’t like it, the dog will.

PETS

Daisy and Bri are both fine.

Daisy had another spine/neck disc rupture this spring but seems to be ok and able to live with it. She’s old and has a more limited mobility than she used to but over all is still a happy healthy dog. We took her to Florida this year with us, and for a dog who absolutely hates water, she absolutely loves the beach and St. George Island. Even shmoo noticed how much she liked it there. We took her with us on our morning walks, and she wasn’t interested in touching any little bit of the surf AT ALL, but she would every now and then and not totally panic. Mostly she loved the warmth on her old bones, the sand itself, and the interesting smells.
A very content beach going Daisy

Bri is doing well. Evil as always. He’s gone to a meat twice a day diet and I am the one that feeds him. I am less worried he might kill me in my sleep and he has stopped peeing on my things, or rather, only on my things. Now when he gets mad at us, either of us might suffer the wrath. I am OK with this because I no longer feel targeted by him. Shmoo is less pleased, especially when I get to point and laugh at him.

OTHERWISE

Work is good. Always busy, always a challenge but I am happy.
I have stopped doing Letter Exchanges because I am a bad pen-pal and haven’t written a letter to anyone since I got sick back at the end of January from shmoocon. I was sick for over a month, ended up missing a week of work total, and did 3 different rounds of drugs. It was awesome, if by awesome I mean, totally sucked.
Facebook and G+ still suck.
Twitter is still my social network of choice.
I broke my Kindle3 keyboard and had to get a new one, just in time for the Paperwhite. I love it other than really missing the side keys for advancing the page quickly.
The game FTL is awesome.
We still aren’t playing WoW, though we have started playing GuildWars2 since they came out with a Mac client.
It’s not as fun as WoW but it doesn’t have a monthly sub price so I don’t much care.
Minecraft has replaced WoW for me for the most part. It’s the game I spend the most time in, and I like to see the things others have built.

That’s it, you’re all caught up!

Flore

July 23, 2009August 6, 2023 ~ laura ~ 2 Comments

So while not posting, I have been knitting.
I finally finished up Flore, in the Red Pepper colorway.

4830|400

It’s a fiddly knit. Not overly taxing, but fiddly in the doing and fiddly in the finishing. It is very cute however, and something I’ve wanted to knit since before I knew how to knit at all. As soon as it’s dry, it’s going to go overseas to await a kiddo that is due soon.

The pattern was fine, but I didn’t like yarn. (Takhi Cotton Classic DK I believe) This doesn’t surprise me as I generally don’t like to knit with 100% cottons. I am well pleased with how the hat turned out in the end however, and am considering making a second in a wool or wool blend.

I’ve been spinning too. I ordered some stuff from Paradise Fibers. One of the stuffs I ordered was some of Ashland Bay’s Rainbow Firestar glitz.
You can see below one of the pre rainbow glitz batts on the left and in the middle and on the right you can see Rainbow Firestar. It turned out lovely and more like what I was seeking to match. I’ve already spun it up and plied it as well, but that will have to be another post.

4833|400

I got a new camera strap to help me keep track of it, and it’s lovely. I got it from Phat Straps Etsy shop.

It’s quite cute, sturdy, and I like it. I do think I should make a padded velcro sleeve for the camera itself now though, but I’ll have to see if I can find a good fabric match first.

I also spun up a few other things, but not all are quite skeined up yet, so that will have to wait.

Oh and I made some catnip mice for Bri a few weeks ago. The smallest one is MIA but the medium and large one are pictured below. They have been well loved already, and continue to be played with each day, so I consider them a success.

I promised pictures.

February 11, 2008August 6, 2023 ~ laura ~ 3 Comments

So there’s a crap load of them today….

First photos of Ufserud, including a rare photo of myself wearing it.

The spinning I finished last week. This is Crown Mountain Farms Pencil Roving in.. Pumpkin Patch…I think. No idea on yardage. I didn’t bother to check it as I still have a good bit to spin up and add to it.

Look at these socks! Don’t they look like these? Yeah, I didn’t slip any knitting by you. I bought them at Target. In fact, I bought them because they looked so much like Red Herrings.

Sahara will not be done in time for this weekend. I made it sit in time out too long and there’s just too much ripping back I am going to have to do in order to be happy with the end product. So I’ve cast on two other things instead! But I’ll save those for another post.

In other random news, a little over 2 weeks ago, I got my eyebrow pierced.

And finally, I leave you with a picture of what appears to be the cat being pervy while sitting on my pillows.

Faceless.

June 18, 2007August 6, 2023 ~ laura ~ 5 Comments

My grrr, he has no face. And while that really fits the mood I’ve been in lately, it’s not the reason he is without. He’s without because he’s already had his first bath and I am waiting on him to dry before filling him in.

My thoughts on the pattern? I’m so glad you asked.

First, I used the single strand version, because the yarn I was using matched the suggested single strand yarn pretty closely, if anything it was a tidge thicker. That being noted, I found the washcloth to be both smaller and thinner than I would have thought based on the pictures shown. You do realize this pretty quickly when you go to cast on and see it’s only 24 stitches, but still, I just expected something larger, thicker, and just having more substance. On the upside, I have already road-tested the little bugger and have plans to make another with the remaining yarn and try it double stranded with another. At the very least, it’s a super quick (only a few hours), super cute knit, that makes a great gift for kids of all ages. Especially if you throw in a nice bar of handmade soap to go with it.

I finished up spinning the hot red (you know, hot pink + red) BFL and believe I have a little over 800 yards of it. I have no current plans for it, so it’s just going into the stash. I have concluded that I just don’t love BFL, and I want to love the fibers I spin, so I probably won’t be getting any more of it.

But I do like the Merino/Silk 80/20 that I picked up at MSW. I’ve started spinning on the purple.

The green will be started almost as soon as the purple is done. I originally planned to do one of those chevron scarfs with these two fibers, but now, I am not so sure. I’ll need to test my sockapalooza sock pal pattern once I get it written up, and these colors would do just as well for a pair of those socks as they would for the scarf. Or maybe even a different pair of stranded socks. Decisions decisions……

MS3 swatch. Red handspun bottom, Elderberry Zephyr top, Addi Lace Needles, US3.

In other news, I’ve signed on for MS3. That would be Mystery Stole, not Mystery Shawl. I’ll never do another Mystery Shawl again after my previous experiences with them. The Mystery Stole however, is run by Melanie. And the result from MS2 is a pattern I purchased a few months back, but just haven’t gotten around to making. (Like everything else I have patterns for I might add.) So when I saw that MS3 was happening, I jumped on it. I don’t know that I’ll get it done on time, or even that I’ll start it when everyone else does. It really depends on how complicated the pattern is. If it’s a small easy repeat, I’m on it. If it’s not, well, I just don’t have the concentration needed for long non-repeating rows right now, so it will have to wait until I do. Other than that, I say if you are interested, come join us, but be warned, the group is HUGE, and the emails produced by the group right now are…. overwhelming in numbers.

And finally, yesterday, I took a class with Lucy Neatby. It on finishing and it was lovely. You haven’t lived until Lucy Neatby looks at your grafting and calls it beautiful. The only negative thing about the class was two women that would just not shut the hell up. And to these two women, I have only this to say…

I don’t give a rat’s ass about you and your health care situation, or who you think is politically responsible for it, or what Oprah says about it. Nor do I think a knitting class is the place to discuss it. Furthermore, stop arguing with teacher dammit. I didn’t pay to hear you talk. I paid to hear Lucy talk. So kindly extend the rest of us the courtesy we have extended you and shut. the. fuck. up.

And honestly, I wish I could have said that to them, but as an employee at that shop, even if it’s just one day a week and every now and then, I can’t. But I can sure as hell think it.

New Year, New FO.

January 1, 2007August 6, 2023 ~ laura ~ 2 Comments

Today, whilst cooking up 16 bean soup to use the remaining Christmas ham, I finished up Knitty’s Calorimetry.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but I just couldn’t get a good one of the darned thing. This is the third Calorimetry I have made. The first two went to Coleen for her birthday. One was a bit largish as it was knit as written, and the second a bit smallish as an alternative to the big one.

This one uses Lion Brand Landscapes in that pink colorway. (It’s unlabeled stash yarn, I have no idea of it’s name.) And I cast on 60 stitches instead of the written 120. And I think I was using my US8 addis, but I’m not positive.

And here’s the October Sky all balled up and ready to swatch.

I am hoping it swatches up nicely. I am considering a pair of hand/arm warmers/mitts/fingerless glove type things. I figured I can get a small pair or one long one from this ball, and I am considering which I want. Probably the long one and then another long one from the other half of the fiber I have left.