Is Alden Amos good for anything?

A few years ago I borrowed Alden Amos' Big Book of Handspinning from the library, and I was less than impressed. Even if the book had been completely accurate, I would have turned off by the ego, the constant pimping of his products and dissing on others', and also the lavish praise on a seemingly unrelated person's products who if you look it up, you'll learn is his significant other. But the book is NOT completely accurate. It is littered with errors. From telling you to wind spindles off the end (please do not do that. Depending on the yarn you might be OK or you might end up with a horrendous mess, but it is always better to wind off the side), to the directions for measuring WPI that are completely wrong (he says to pack to refusal. No. It's not measured that way. The yarn should be gently laid next to itself, no gaps and no crowding).

However, he does have the only really detailed explanation of how a double-drive wheel's ratios work to produce take-up, so when I ordered a double-drive wheel, and got one of Borders' rare really good coupons that brought the book down to a reasonable cost, I bought myself a copy just for that section. I read it over again, and... it's basically bunk.

The math is perfectly fine, but it only works on paper. He's neglecting major contributors like, say, driveband drag -- which is the single biggest factor in determining take-up once your whorl ratios are set. Adjusting driveband drag is how you set your take-up rate. So the three pages of calculations are basically worthless except as academic interest to set your minimum. He does eventually talk about driveband drag, after many many pages of theoretical babblings. So the whole theoretical thing is basically worthless.

Just like Scotch tension, with double-drive you set your whorls, and then tighten something to adjust your take-up. Double-drive pulls in more gently and adds twist as it does. That's all you need to know.

Then, just to add insult to injury, another huge glaring error. Alden tells you that your driveband MUST cross a certain way on a double-drive wheel, and you must change the crossing to the other direction when you switch between spinning and plying. The only way to change this crossing is to either cut the driveband off and tie on a new one, or take the drive wheel off.

Luckily, I stopped, blinked a few times, and said to myself "There is no way our foremothers were destroying their precious hand-spun drivebands or taking their wheels apart several times a year." So I went elsewhere and looked it up.

You know you switch from spinning to plying on a double-drive wheel? You pedal the other way. That's all. You don't do a damn thing to the driveband.

Honestly, I have never seen another instructional book with so much that's just flat out, disasterously wrong. I'm honestly getting to the point where I wonder if anything in this book is right. I really do think it's more wrong than right, so it is really sad that this book is one of the "spinning bibles" out there. Luckily most people either can't afford it or aren't that interested in the theory, and own better more correct books, because if this had been the most common book for new spinners, the community would spend the next two hundred years undoing the damage that man had done. It absolutely blows my mind.

I was right!

Over the summer, I called bullshit on the old "whatever group that isn't us makes intentional mistakes to show only God is perfect" crap.

Someone kindly directed me to this article, specifically the second on Humility Blocks. End result of research: it is crap!
Amish do not intentionally put a mistake into quilts, and are aghast at the idea that they would or would think they would need to.
I lambasted the idea towards Navajo work last time.
And the article there talks about how experts in Persian rug and that history also believe the Humility Boof to be BS.

So, enough with the racist crap, fellow artisans.

First Ornaments!

Straight off the scroll saw, so not sanded or finished or anything:

Enjoy my geekery

I want to decorate my house for Halloween.

I don't have a lot storage space for decorations after the season this year.

I do have an Internet connection and a buttload of spare paper. Thus, lookit the awesome stuff I found:

This site is the best. LOVE the mechanical bat. Oh, and I think I need to wear a shirt with a pocket on Halloween just so I can have a pocket monster in it.

I think these will be too much work for this year, but they've got some cute things. I like the winged jack-o'-lantern.

These little buggers are cute. I need to put a couple of them together soon.

Spin-In News

Whew. Just got back from the Spin-in. Downtime was not a significant problem. Ooh, let's see...

My gloves won second place in their category! Go me.

I was not insane-impressed with most of the vendors. I didn't come home with any yarn. I did come home with a bunch of roving, because I'm like that. I am a sucker for silk, especially tussah roving and mawata (i.e. silk "hankies"). But I didn't spend nearly the amount of "petty cash" that I took.

I did, however, buy a spinning wheel. Actually, a bit more than that. I bought THE spinning wheel: a Schacht Matchless. I got to try one there, and it was soooo nice. Absolutely lives up to the hype.

I was planning to order a Kromski after this event unless I found a wheel I liked, but I did have in the back of my mind that if I found a Matchless for a good price, I'd go for it. I did, so I did. Got some nice freebies, too. The only down sides are 1) it's an order, not a carry-out, so I'll have to wait a week or two to play with my new toy, and 2) it's a single treadle. Under normal circumstances I slightly prefer a double, but the huge treadle of a Schacht makes it not normal circumstances. Because of the design, I think a single will be just great, and quite a bit cheaper.

So, very soon I will have in my possession a spinning wheel that will do everything I ever ask of it. So of course, then I HAD to buy roving, you see. :)

I think I've gotten enough big toys until after November, though. ^_~

I also tried the Schacht Ladybug. That is also a very nice wheel. It can have a place on my short list, too.

Oh, and I learned microwave dyeing. Given my love of insane-bright varigates, hand-dyeing may be in my future.

I don't have a project?! What do you mean, I don't have a project.

This posts is actually about three posts. And I'm running around trying to get ready for the spin-in/itty bitty fiber festival I'm going to, so it might be disjointed as well.

Lookie what I finished!



They're blocked and everything, but still a tiny skosh damp. At the suggestion of my knitting group, I'm planning to enter them into the "Viewer's Choice" awards at the spin-in tomorrow. Unless I get lost and don't get there in time to enter. Think kind of like a county fair type of competition. Just friendly, the most you stand to win is a ribbon.

It's always amazing to me what is hard or easy to people. One of the ladies at my knitting group brings these amazing lacework shawls and she's just whipping through them while chatting up a storm. I have to be completely alone in relative quiet to handle lace. On the other hand, just about everyone went insane over these little guys and were absolutely amazed (and asking me to teach a class on it). Yet the reason that I brought these is because up until I got to the original colorwork fingers (not used because they were too tight), they were a project I didn't have to pay much attention to.

At least to me, the hardest part about colorwork is learning to knit with your off hand. Once you know that, you're just switching which hand you wrap the yarn with.
However, motif work like this is the one time I wish I was primarily an American knitting instead of continental. For absolute best appearance, for most people and myself included, the background yarn should be knit with the right hand and the motif yarn in the left. Because of the way the yarns lay on the back, the left-hand yarn pops out a tiny bit more. However, I am MUCH faster and more natural wrapping with my left hand. Trying to do all the background with my right would not be all that much fun, not to mention slooooow. And the effect is so subtle that it's literally a subconscious perception; only the most absolute expert would be able to tell which yarn was in which hand looking at the finished pieces. As long as you're consistent, no one will consciously notice.

Anyway, spin-in tomorrow. If I'm entering something, I've got to be there for at least five hours. It's an hour away, so I can't really leave and come back. I've never been to this before, so I don't know if that's a problem or not. There are workshops, but I'm unclear whether the ones I most wanted to take have been cancelled or just aren't on the online schedule for some reason. I've heard the vendors are amazing, though. I'm hoping to stock up on pretty yarn (dude, I need buttloads of fingerweights in bright multi-colored colorways), and if I'm really super-duper lucky maybe I'll even find a spinning wheel -- but I won't hold my breath there.

Nonetheless, being a spin-in, eventually I'm probably going to want to sit down and work on a project. I'll throw a spindle in my bag, but knitting is cool too and keeps me occupied longer. But, I've discovered I don't have a project I can take!

What have I got going right now? Um... two lace things. I can't work on lace and be friendly and social at the same time. (And one's going to be frogged anyway.) I finished my gloves. I haven't started my sweater, and I need to measure, wash, and re-measure the swatch first because I've never used the yarn before and I'm going to basically rewrite the pattern. I guess I'll start something. I was going to start a sweater for an MSD, but that has to be custom fit and I do NOT want to carry a doll around. So I think I'll take the stuff for the nerdly mittens I want.

I have got to just buy a metric buttload of Dale of Norway Baby Ull in black and in white. I'm thinking 5 to 10 skeins of each color. I love the stuff.

Anyway, I need to be getting stuff together for tomorrow, so ja ma!

Options, I still haz dem.

So, I'm working on this pair of gloves:


And ya know what? They're gonna be too small. The hand is OK, if a little tight, but the fingers? Totally not going to happen. It's time I faced that fact.

So, my options:
1) Finish them by the pattern and give them away. :P No! Mine! Mine, mine, mine!
I think that shows what the inner child thinks about that option.
2) Frog the pinkies and turn them into fingerless gloves. I'm thinking do a couple of rounds of ribbing at each finger, and half the colorwork thumb then a couple rounds of ribbing there. That should give me enough width at the fingers, but I don't know if I'll have enough length in the right hand to be comfy.
3) If that doesn't work, tranform them into fingerless mitts. No finger divisions, just a few rounds of ribbing around the top. I'm not huge on fingerless mitts, but if it's the only way these will fit, it's the only way they'll fit.

Fountain Pens

Dear Red Platinum Preppy, If you wanted to be an eyedropper filler, you could have just asked. You did not have to spontaneously split your cartridge and send hot pink ink sloshing all over the inside of the barrel. Nice seal on those threads even without silicone, though. New rule: Noodler's Bulletproof inks only go in cheap, easily replaceable pens. There was so much stuff in my poor pink Cavalier, I think I'm going to run a load of J. Herbin through it to try to redissolve/suspend some of it. Just rinsing wouldn't do it. Sadly, most of my Esterbrooks meet the criteria of of cheap and easily replaceable. Not the Icicle (no way in hell), but right now I've got a plain black SJ with strange shrinkage issues filled with Zhivago (which is actually near bulletproof). Once that's empty, well, I've got a Platinum Preppy that wants to be an eyedropper filler. ;)

Some foot fetishist is going to love me.

I don't usually keep a design notebook, so you all will have to put up with my ramblings instead. (Well, not really, you can always scroll right by me.) Anyway, the socks in progress:



Learning process. First, learned that I really am pale enough to glow in the dark. Lookit my ankle blow the top right off the photo histogram there.

Ahem, anyway. I did an afterthought heel, but next time I think I might use Charlene Schurch's "forethought heel" method instead to avoid ungodly fighting with getting stitches picked up without getting needles tangle while having two balls of yarn hanging off the project. OK, the two balls of yarn part would have been inevitable, but I think the picking up stitches bit would have been easier still. I probably did not start the heel in the right place; next time I'll do the math with the row gauge, conveniently available there on the sole of the sock. Still less frustrating than a short row heel is for me, though. I might also work the heel over closer to 2/3 of the sock stitches instead of 1/2, but that needs some playing around with.

Ignore the gaping hole of death right at the ankle. I know that happened because I didn't pick up a stitch across the end. At that point, I'd literally been fighting with needles for 45 minutes, I couldn't figure out how to nab that stitch in the two-at-a-time method, and I didn't bloody well care anymore anyway. I'll duplicate-stitch that closed later.

I also learned that my ankle is about an inch larger around than the ball of my foot. This is not what designers usually assume; socks are basically designed as a tube with a heel stuck somewhere in the middle. In the future, I'll try to sneak in a few increases between the toe and the heel to compensate for this. It kind of pisses me off on these particular socks, because I thought about doing a chevron pattern on the cuff, but it has an 8-stitch repeat and I was at 60 -- about half an inch off of either interval that would work. Didn't realize I could use those extra four stitches anyway, and now I don't want to rip back. Although there or a little higher up might not be a bad place to switch to the chevron. What do you guys think?

I may have spoiled myself doing my first real pair of socks two-at-a-time, because I don't think I'll ever want to do them one-by-one after this. I think the magic loop method is growing on me, too, which is good. I discovered by accident that two-at-a-time two-circular method won't work with one of the circulars being a 16", so I'd have to buy extra needles for that method that I wouldn't normally otherwise. Ultimately, I am a cheapskate, and magic loop has the advantage that one long circular needle is usually cheaper than two shorter circulars or two sets of DPNs.

Unfortunately, I realized that I may not have needles for the next project I want to do. When I finish these, I'd like to start either another pair of socks, or a pair of mittens, and I don't have a lot of bunch of needles in smaller sizes -- and none other than the one I'm using long and flexible enough for two-at-a-time. If I get lucky I might hit gauge for something on the current needle, but I've got nothing else in the house to try if I don't. So now I'm trying to get up the guts to push the "order" button on a fairly large Knitpicks order to fix that needle deficiency. :P

Heading out to the old frog pond

So, working on these socks with the Red Heart sock yarn to try out the two-at-a-time magic loop technique.

And... I need to frog back a bit. I was a little overzealous with the toe increases. I need that blue part there to be 6 to 8 rows shorter, I think. Guess I'll toss in a life life and go for it.

So, what I think about the technique. Magic loop two-at-a-time I'm not liking so much, because the cord is under my fingers as I knit, especially on the second sock. I'm thinking two circulars might work better, so I may give that a go next time.
The two-at-a-time part had to grow on me, but I think it has. Managing pulling from both the inside and outside isn't as bad as I feared it would be, and it is nice knowing the numbers of rows match without having to count. Not to mention the future when I cast off, and get to be finished instead of having to start all over again.

At least I can haz squid:

Yes, his eyes are uneven. No, I don't really care. I've never been quite thrilled with the way the yarn eyes look on this pattern. I'm thinking next time I make it, maybe I'll go for big wigglely eyes instead.
Was a pretty fun pattern, though. I can see myself making it again.

You know what I hate?

The old "Navajo/Persians/Amish/Islamic Artists/whatever group isn't us always put a mistake in their artwork to show that only God is perfect" BS. It's the definition of glurge, in that something that's supposed to be 'sweet' and 'inspiring' is actually amazingly racist.

1. It's completely out of touch with reality. Example: A Persian rug has a few hundred thousand knots in it. Hell yes there's there's going to be a mistake in it somewhere. There's no need to add a fake mistake.
2. It accuses the other group of amazing ego. They think they could make something perfect and Godlike, so they chose not to.
3. With some groups, it's a major projection of Western Christian belief on others. For example, why would the Navajo feel the need to show only God is perfect? I know little about their religion, but enough to know that they have multiple deities, and perfection is not a requirement. Just the idea itself reflects the Western belief that perfection is desirable and the goal that must be aspired to in any endeavor.
   
4. With some cases, it's disrespectful and denigrating to the actual work. Again with a Navajo example, an odd bead in a piece of beadwork is not necessarily a mistake. Often they are intentionally added to mark some event that happened in the maker's life, which might be minor or major.
5. What group hasn't been accused of this at some time or other?

Suffice to say, every time I hear that troupe, I want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

Knitting Fiendery

So, as I think I've remarked, I'm taking an online class on Reversible Cables. Practice projects are scarves. Class started Saturday. Check out this baby:



Three days, four feet of cabled scarfy goodness. And not only is it reversible, it's wonderfully smooshy, too. A little shorter than I usually like my scarves, but out of yarn, so what can I do? The color doesn't look as nice on me as it could anyway, so I might end up giving it away. It still needs to be blocked, which will nicen up the somewhat icky end. That'll have to wait until next weekend, though, because lesson two involves some tips on doing it. And I need to get my hot little hands on some blocking wires, too.

Monogamy Is Overrated.

Project monogamy, that is. Like in knitting and stuff.

Somewhere along the line, the idea spread among knitters that project monogamy is the ideal to be aspired to. I don't know where it started; probably with some Big Name Knitter. I know Wendy Johnson is a monogamous knitter, which certainly helped the propagate this idea even if it started elsewhere.

There's nothing inherently wrong with project monogamy, if it works for you. It does help finish projects sooner. Some people express that as "faster", but that's not really accurate. A knitter might get a small benefit from monogamous knitting if it helps him memorize the pattern, thus spending less time looking at the sheet and more time making stitches. But even that's going to add up to a very small advantage. Nonetheless, if a project takes a month of solid knitting time, you will finish one worked singly sooner than you will finish either of two worked in parallel. But two projects get finished in the same amount of cumulative working time.

However, there are disadvantages for many people in monogamous knitting. A big one: the project slog. Sometimes when you're working on a project, you just get flippin' bored with it. Sometimes you even get to the point where you just don't want to do another stitch on it. Twice this weekend alone I've seen people say that they've been avoiding knitting because they just don't work on their monogamous project. Dude, put it away and cast on something else! This is supposed to be fun. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

I'm coming to embrace my polygamy. On the other hand, I am trying to keep it under control. Right now I've got three project bags. My idea is to have that many going at a time, and not to start another until I've either finished or frogged one of those. I'm not sure three is the optimum number, but it's a starting place. (Right now I've got a scarf for my Reversible Cables class, the Baby Draco sweater I'm so bloody sick of that I just can't work on it much right now, and a lace scarf that turned out harder and slower than expected. I might need a fourth bag for a 'definite no-brainer' project.)

---

Next topic: Maybe I need to rethink my approach to online patterns. Currently I've been bookmarking just about everything I like, and then going back as I have time and saving them to my hard drive in neat formats. That means I've got, according to file count, 183 patterns saved in neat formats, and another 9 or 10 that need some cleaning.

Now, saving patterns isn't a bad idea. The internet is not a permanent media, after all, and the Wayback Machine is far from perfect, especially on anything graphic intensive. But, I'm never going to make all those things. I find myself thinking, if I don't like something enough to put it in my Ravelry queue, or at least on my favorite patterns list, maybe I don't really need to take the time to save it. The odds are good that I will NEVER get to it. And frankly, with the exception of some toys, I think at this point that there are few patterns that I couldn't recreate if I realized that yes, I do absolutely need that after all, and no, it isn't available any more. It's not as easy, granted, but I think for me its doable.
I think I could at least handle cutting down. Of course, this is an invitation for my Ravelry queue to grow out of control, but that's OK. It's fairly easy to manage.

Yay, Dobby socks!

Here, in all its unblocked glory, is the sockmark.



And the photo even came out all Slytherin-y this time. It'll be a bit better behaved once it's blocked (sometime this weekend), but is very cute in person nonetheless. I don't plan to do this pattern again unless I get some wood or bamboo glove needles, though, and even then it's unlikely. LOTSA work in that little guy.

It's time for me to accept that I'm just evil.

(I shouldn't use that subject line the same day I do a religious rant. Ah well.)

I decided to try making a Dobby-style sockmark, which is a bookmark with miniature socks at the ends. Guess what colors I used.

Slytherin. (That's green on there. Really. Stupid indoor lighting.)

The baby Draco sweater's coming along.

Slytherin again.

On the planned list is a Weasley Sweater Cell Phone cozy. Only I don't care for the Gryffindor theme, so when I make it with a "K", what color scheme will it be in?
Slytherin.

Of course, I had to get worsted weight yarn for that, and I'll only need a little. And I also need two colors of worsted yarn for the squid I'm going to make, and there's no sense being wasteful, so what color scheme will my squid have?
Slytherin.

OK, I like the idea of the Slytherin squid. But I still think it's time for me to just accept that I'm evil.
Actually, I'm not evil  I'm ambitious and clever. :)

Actually, if you went by personality, I'd be a solid Ravenclaw. But bronze does not look good on redheads with classic Celt coloring. (And I thought the change to silver in the movies was a cop out.) Likewise, red and gold is right out, and yellow-black not much better. But green, green I can wear. Green I look fabulous in. Green and gold is better, but silver'll work OK.

That little sockmark thing is far more evil than you'd ever guess. Ignore it's size; that bugger has a LOT of stitches on tiny needles. The thing is an absolute hand-killer, too. I don't know if it's because I'm using metal needles, or because there's so much extra needle compared to the stitches on each, or the low number of stitches that doesn't give me a lot of working room to begin with, or what, but it'll make you stiff fast. This little guy is a good reason to practice project polygamy, so when your fingers can't take him anymore, you switch to something with bigger needles you can actually get a grip on.

I am also sooo sick of working on the baby Draco sweater. No more baby shower knits unless it's for someone I know well and really like, or it's quick socks or a bib or something. I've got one more sleeve, and two rounds of stockinette stitch on the body bottom. Then I'm going to neaten up the color joins on the side and do a border of two garter stitch ridge along the fronts and around the collar, then return to the bottom and do a similar garter stitch border there. The ideal thing would be to do the bottom and sides at the same time, but I don't have a circular needle that long, and I don't care about this project enough to go buy one. I'd like to just leave the side of the fronts as they are, but they look very unfinished in person. I think the garter stitch border will be a big improvement if I can figure out the right number of stitches to pick up for it.

Zealots ruin everything.

During my last chain store visit, I was frustrated to discover that prayer shawls are going the way of the WWJD bracelet: something that had good meaning and intention when it was limited to a small group who believed in it, moved into yet another brainwashing technique, and is now on its way to becoming meaningless commercial fluff.

I suppose first I should specify that I'm talking about Christian prayer shawls, not to be confused with the Jewish Tallit or any other article of religious clothing. A Christian prayer shawl is given to someone during a time of hardship. The very original seed of the idea was a wonderful one. The idea was to mindfully knit a comforting items for a (preferably specific) person in a difficult time in their lives, keeping them in mind while working. It was to be a very spiritual, meditative practice, basically a physical manifestation of a prayer.

Well, it went wrong almost as soon as it started with The Prayer Shawl Ministry. Yes, I am aware that I'm saying the people who first codified the idea are doing it wrong. You know why? 'Cause they're doing it wrong. As soon as just about anything becomes a 'ministry', it becomes a failure at its original purpose. Why? Because the focus is no longer about helping people in need; it's about 'spreading the word of Jesus'. Only last I checked, the 'word of Jesus' was about loving and helping people. If you stop concentrating on loving and helping people in favor of talking about it, you've failed. It's a terribly tragic spiral. People are the message, and if you've put aside the people in favor of the message, you've put aside the real message.

In the case of the Prayer Shawl Ministry itself, almost immediately the focus was no longer the people in need, but rather the shawls. Prayer Shawls became yet another way for churches to get face time, and giving aid to people in pain was a convenient side effect. Many makers are not mindful, but rather crank them out, just thinking or praying for the recipient "when they come to mind" as one maker put it on Ravelry. Some churches keep a stock of them back to hand out whenever they're 'needed', which can be anything from a tragic accident to a birthday gift. It doesn't matter who gets them; it only matters who from what organization makes them. So, basically the original idea is in the toilet.

Naturally, Lion Brand yarn is very happy to help you with your Prayer Shawl. They recommend Lion Homespun. Interestingly enough, it seems that most prayer shawls are made out of Homespun. So much for grass-roots and non-profit.

Suffice to say, I'm pretty disgusted, both in how this particular idea was corrupted into a propaganda scheme, and how that seems inevitable with anything spiritual in modern American Christianity.

Well, baby Slytherins have to wear something, don't they?

There is a very good reason why I'm knitting a baby sweater in Slytherin colors. When stash yarns will work for a project I want to do, I should use them, right? Efficient resource usage and environmental friendliness and all that. These were the were two coordinating baby yarns in my stash that I did not have earmarked for another project, and I don't think I have quite enough of the green to make the baby sweater I've been wanting to try in a solid color.
It's a very cute color combination, the bright green with the "thought about being white but it seemed like a lot of work, so I went with this" grey.


The grey is a little blow out, maybe, and the green is really a bit more subdued, but I think this gives you an idea. I can see little baby Draco wearing something like this (when it's done, of course) -- except it'd probably be professionally knit out of unicorn hair or something. Bet baby Sirius got subjected to one, and it's left him bitter ever since. ^_~

We just bought a new camera, and if I may say so, it totally rocks. It was actually able to get this picture, no color correction needed, in the crappy lighting in my room.

I zoomed in to the eye white to get a sample to color correct, and found the color was already correct. And no blurring even thought it was hand-held in my bedroom's crappy lighting.

The hat there is another FO, btw. It's dollfie-sized by coincidence, though. It's actually a cap for premature babies. I wanted to play with how I held and tensioned my yarn, and it's a pretty quick and yet utilitarian project. And one I basically have the pattern memorized for; I just have to look up measurements. On this one I did a tubular cast-off with the "proper" four set-up rounds, and I don't like the effect the set-up rounds had. Probably none of you noticed until I said something, but it tightens up and there's a bit of a ridge there. You can see it especially right in the middle of Nick's forehead. Someday when I've got some of these together, I'll see which of the local hospitals takes them and drop them off. Or mail them somewhere if no one local does. Or maybe there'll be another event like Caps to the Capital.

I love my cat Angelina, but she really tries my patience. I caught her chewing on the wrist strap of the brand new, not even a week old camera -- which she had hauled off my desk for the purpose. And then later she went for the transfer cord. I'm not having a good day to begin with, so this did not help in the least. (Any day that starts with a fasting blood draw is not going to be a good one.) It also reminded me why we never put on the wrist straps, so I took it off again. I feel bad that the lady at the camera store spent so much time and trouble trying to get it on. :(

Darn it, I'm going to have to practice what I preach.

I once again tried swatching for the Fiber Trends Felted Clog pattern, and I once again completely failed to make gauge. My unfelted gauge on the suggested needles are right where the felted gauge is supposed to be. This is positively bewildering to me, because I usually knit more loosely than patterns call for. It's also very annoying, because there's not a lot of larger needles sizes for me to try.

I'm starting at a 13. I own a pair of 19s, and I have absolutely no idea why. Probably for this pattern, because otherwise I do NOT do 'big needle' knits. But, I flat out refuse to use those things. They're evil, and the points are stupidly long, and I won't do it, no I wont. You can't make me, you can't make me.

The next biggest size I own are 15s, which are only 1mm larger than the 13s (because US sizes are stupid); that is not going to get me what I need. My odds of finding 17s are not good. Clover doesn't make them that size, so it's unlikely any of the big-box brands do, either. Unless they're in plastic, and I am not buying plastic needles that I will never use again. Actually, the 'will never use again' is why I won't order 17s, either; that and the $29 the two pairs (24" and 16") would set me back.

So what I will be doing, nonnegotiably, is using the 15s from my interchangeable set for this. Which means to match the sizing I can either try it with three strands, or follow my own advice for figuring out what size to actually knit when your gauge is off. Although of COURSE this pattern has to NOT give finished sizes. :P
I should have enough yarn to use three strands if I need to, though. (At least in theory; I bought an extra ball of each.)

I suppose I'll go ahead and do swatches with both of those options, throw everything into the washer to felt it, and see which fabric I like better. But not tonight. I'm tired of dealing with the evil pattern tonight. (And I haven't even started knitting on the clogs themselves!)

Things That Bug Me (Knitting Edition)

Well, not all knitting, but they're knitting triggered.

1. DOC is a lousy file format for sharing. People who use it, please go look up the word 'proprietary' in the dictionary, kthnx. Microsoft Word, you have to pay for. And it's an expensive SOB, too. Yes, there are other programs out there that will open that format, but Microsoft doesn't like to admit it for starters, and depending on the respective versions, sometimes it doesn't work well. PDF is also a proprietary format, but the viewer is free. (And you can make them for free, too, with CutePDF. Not even any ads. It's easy; you'll like it.) RTF and HTML are both non-proprietary formats.
   OK, funny story. One of my coworkers needed something that would print to PDF, so I told him to call up the corporate help desk and ask for it to be installed under one of our corporate licenses. He thought for sure I was putting him on. "You're setting me up, aren't you? They're going to laugh and ask what I'm talking about when I ask for a program called CutePDF, right?"
2. People who have their head up their ass about intellectual property, please at least learn what is copyrightable and what is patentable, and what each entails.
3. Enough with the five bagillion patterns for fingerless gloves! I'll allow a few exceptions for actual design-element driven patterns, but most of y'all aren't fooling anyone. You're just doing "sleeve with thumbhole" fingerless gloves because you're scared of fingers. Don't be! They're easy! And frankly, 99% of fingerless gloves are more effective with little finger cuffs just a little short of the first knuckle. Maximum warmth, much better fit, and still leaves your fingertips with maximum dexterity.
4. With rare exceptions, Snap.com previews are not cool; they're terribly terribly annoying. Look, if I wanted them, I could install the end-user add-on. If your blog provider turns them on automatically (LiveJournal, I'm snarling at you), turn them off. If you put them on yourself, don't!
5. Elizabeth Zimmerman was not a deity. If you like her, that's cool. But she is not the end-all and be-all of knitting, she's not infallibly correct, and are some of y'all actually reading what she wrote, or are you skimming over what you wanted her to write? Because I don't think she said what you think she said.
   
6. The current knitting fashion of strongly shaped sweaters. It seems every time I find a sweater pattern I like, especially tanks and tees, the designer is bragging about how they "aggressively decrease at the waist." Um... My body does not aggressively decrease at the waist. And I'm so short-waisted that even if it did, their waist shaping would probably be at the point of my hip.
7. When I hit the "Publish Post" instead of "Save As Draft" button. Oops. Um, post away!
   

Flickr is owned by Yahoo, isn't it?

*scrolls down* Yup, Yahoo. I went to go make a Flickr account, only to discover myself automatically logged in. And since Yahoo is the only place I've used the name Fyrejinnayah, I figured they must be the same company. It's actually very rare for the name Jinnayah to be taken when I sign up somewhere. I guess it is a pretty obscure word, and not the usual English spelling besides. (OK, this is funny. Throw Jinnayah into a Google search, and pages by or about me make up 6 of the first 10 returns.)

Ironically, the reason I even wanted a Flickr account is for an entirely different site. I finally got my invite to Ravelry, and wanted to start loading up some projects. Particularly, I want to prove that I actually do make things and not just talk about it. Admittedly, I probably research and talk about more than I actually do, but I do do! See, proof, right here:


OK, so Da Bunny helped a little. She's actually on top of the second slipper. I've been doing them more or less at the same time (a section on one, then same section on the other) to ensure I don't have radically different gauges between them. I'm not terribly far off from finishing them; just need to finish turning the heel, and put ribbing around the top. Of course, it would help if I were actually knitting on them right now instead of setting up my Ravelry account and writing this blog post, wouldn't it?

I'm cute, though. :)

It is really time to get a new digital camera. Actually, it's probably past time. I'm thinking about maybe one of Fuji's FinePix line, but I'm not sure. I want a compact digital with a fast response time and good low-light performance, because most of my pictures are taken indoors under nighttime lighting. I don't like that, but there it sits, and it's not changing any time soon. I'm thinking maybe this weekend of going to the local camera store and asking for a recommendation.