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Welcome
I'm Laura. I am female, 27, a codemonkey, a linux enthusiast, a gamer, a bookworm, a knitter, gothic, musical, pagan, vehemently geeky and occasionally ineptly artistic.
Hi!
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Progress report on Snowflakes
Posted at 28 Apr 2010 04:47:07 PM |
I figured that after nearly four months, it was about time that I put up some kind of actual progress report on my Snowflakes in Cedar Woods project.
It's gone from a few tiny rows:
To a dinner plate cozy:
To its current form, which I have titled fondly "Bag of Ramen Noodles":
Owing to a superhuman feat of awesomeness by Dan, I did two entire charts yesterday. Today I am off of work, and so far have done the 6 completely plain rows that start Chart G - something along the lines of 4,272 knit sts and 24 corner yarnovers. While I would love to start the actual interesting part of the chart now, my wrists are protesting, my stomach would like lunch, and I have errands to run.
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Google Chrome
Posted at 26 Jun 2010 10:49:31 AM |
Now that this browser is finally workable - for me at least - I thought that I'd start with a mini-review of it.
Chrome is fast. You already know that; it's been Google's main plug for the browser since the beginning. We'll take its speed as read.
Although it's taking some time to break the Firefox-induced habit of making a new tab and immediately hitting Ctrl+K to get to a search bar, I think I'm going to like Chrome's multi-use location/search/bookmarking bar. It's certainly handy to be able to create a new tab and immediately start typing search terms without having to worry about which input box has focus.
I think it's interesting how new browsers just hitting the landscape have to not be as good as their predecessors, but better. Most of us won't look at a new browser unless it encompasses all functions for which we depend on our existing browser of choice AND offers us something more. Just good browsing isn't enough; it's got to have a truly enormous variety of extensions before we're even remotely interested.
For instance: I wouldn't touch Chrome (much less use it as a daily browser) until it had a viable mouse gestures plugin. I checked back regularly for progress on Google's own version of the plugin; it consistently failed to work, so I kept passing on the browser. And apparently, I sat on that particular high horse just a bit too long; Google's own plugin is still rocky*, yes, but Smooth Gestures is up and doing its thing reasonably well. It's not perfect, mind you - the comments regarding issues with https pages and occasional extension crashes are accurate - but it's good enough.
*And by "rocky" I mean "back and forward work, everything else is a complete wash-out."
There are several viable AdBlock extensions now. I don't use any of them except FlashBlock, but I know that this was a deal-breaker for some of you.
Beautify Facebook is nifty, if purely cosmetic.
I'm using Google Wave Notifier to save me from having to have my iGoogle page and gWave pages open all the time. There's a similar gadget for your gMail account, but I prefer the toys and widgets of my complete iGoogle page.
There's a Del.icio.us plugin, which works as expected.
Send from Gmail (no button) is still untried, but if it saves me from having an Outlook mail window pop up every time I click on a mailto: link, it'll be worth it.
Since I see that Chrome is available for Linux now as well (tiny cheer!), I'll be updating my computers at home and seeing how many of these extensions are cross-platform. (Hint: they'd better all be).
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Lookie!
Posted at 26 Jun 2010 10:49:07 AM |
Oh hey, what's that?
Yes, it's Wollmeise! Courtesy of Chanala @ Rav, it's 510 yards of Sockenwolle 100% in the colorway Terra di Siena to be precise. I don't know what it wants to be when it grows up, yet, but I'm fighting the urge to cast on for something and figure it out on the way!
There was more yarn and yarn-related goodies for Christmas, which I haven't posted yet for the rather terrible reason that I haven't finished photographing them yet. This week filled up stunningly fast, but I will get there.
Tonight we've friends coming over for dinner, and I'm taking the opportunity to roast the leg of lamb which I've been saving in the deep freezer. It will be my first lamb roast; wish me luck! Tomorrow is Knit Night (weather permitting) and bowling league resumes on Friday.
Despite having a full week I've made progress on my gloves from Vogue Knitting and on the Snowflakes shawl. Isn't it nice how I wait until it's 10* to start on a pair of warm gloves?
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Well hello there, 2010
Posted at 04 Jan 2010 09:48:12 AM |
A very Happy New Year to all of you, and may this year be even better than the last!
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Some brief picspam
Posted at 26 Jun 2010 10:48:57 AM |
My Evenstar necklace:
And a small present to myself ... ;-)
The shawl pin is from Scotts Mountain Crafts on Etsy. It is light as a feather and even more beautiful in person, I assure you!
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The pile on my end table
Posted at 28 Dec 2009 09:05:43 AM |
Wherein we detail the list of awesome Christmas presents!
I still have yet to use the Fyberspates gift card from my in-laws; I'm a) waiting for them to repopulate the website post-Christmas, and b) waiting for myself to use the yarn I have (i.e. finish something already) so that I don't feel like I'm carrying coals to Newcastle.
The Signature US #1 needles, on the other hand, are employed as we speak. And yes, best beloved, they are exactly as wonderous as you've heard. Completely worth the outrageous price. (And I've heard they're starting to make circulars. Be still, my beating heart!)
Dan gifted me a Yankees hat and jersey, which is made of awesome. Also an Evenstar pendant straight out of Lord of the Rings, which is beautiful and sparkley and supremely geeky!
On the aforementioned end table are the following:
The Midwest Gardener's Cookbook, by Marian Towne. This book looks incredibly interesting, and is filled with common sense recipes which are simple and look delicious. It may cause me to rethink what I usually plant in my garden!
Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting by Marianne Kinzel. There's one particular project in here which I very much want to make, but I'm going to have to do some serious finishing of projects before I can even contemplate starting it.
The Enchanted Sole; Legendary Socks for Adventurous Knitters by Janel Laidman. There are so many lovely patterns in this book! And I love all the stories that go with them. The way to my heart is truly through a good fairytale.
Home is Where the Wine Is, by Laurie Perry. I loved her first book, and am halfway through this one already. (Just don't tell that to The Anarchy Archives or Way of Shadows. I'm fickle.)
Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby. This has become a ubiquitous lace-knitting book since its initial publishing. The patterns do seem to uphold the book's reputation, and I'm excited to start using it!
A Gathering of Lace, by Meg Swansen and Elaine Rowley. Ditto the comment to VLT; everything in this book is gorgeous! These will keep me in projects for years to come.
Scarf Style, by Pam Allen. There are some truly cozy and interesting projects in here, which is good since while useful garments, scarves are my kryptonite. I'm hoping that some of these will be enough to curb my impatience!
And there you have it. I hope that your Christmas was equally pleasant and fruitful!
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Knitting globally: English, Continental, Norwegian, Portuguese
Posted at 26 Jun 2010 10:48:44 AM |
Unlike the rest of my weeks, this Saturday was very knitterly indeed. It started with Knit Morning at Borders in Brentwood, went through dropping off Georgia's christmas present at Hearthstone in south county, and up through a three-hour techniques class at Kirkwood Knittery.
I enjoyed that class very much. We learned Continental knitting (which I speak fluently), English knitting - a.k.a. "throwing" (which I did not speak at all, despite that being how I was originally taught), and progressed on through Finnish (I think?) and Norwegian purling, and ended up at Portuguese knitting.
Of them all, the Portuguese was the most surprising. I'm actually rather likely to use it when knitting something unpatterned, or ribbed (to wit: my half-finished Margot); despite looking wacky in the extreme it's amazingly fluid and uses very few movements. I wouldn't want to try a k3tbl with it, but for knit and purl it's very cool.
I also had my first attempt at trying stranded knitting using one color in each hand. My swatch looks rather dismal, and only some of it can be blamed on my 'strands' coming from the inside & outside of the same ball -- in other words, they're the same color and it looks not at all impressive from the right side. But hey - however inept it may have been, I have done it, and that means it's no longer scary!
My experiments in crochet are proceeding apace; I've produced one mushroom, which I think is rather cunning but which Dan thinks should be shorter and squatter, in order to more accurately resemble a Mario mushroom. My tension is abysmal, which is to be expected.
Beyond that, I have done exactly nothing. There is a sock in my purse only because there always is, but I haven't touched Snowflakes or TQS in weeks. I think the rush to get the last-minute shawl completed before Christmas started the burnout and the even-more-last-minute pair of office gloves put on the final touches this year. And if I have learned anything at all about my creative process, it is that there's no use in forcing it. What I am still learning is that I don't need to feel guilty about it. I'll go back to eye-crossing lace when I'm ready for it, and not before.
Expect updates sometime well after twelfth night.
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Marking the occasion
Posted at 26 Jun 2010 10:48:30 AM |
I am posting this, mostly, to mark the occasion. Also if the world collapses in on itself you will know the cause and who to blame.
Last night while at Michaels, "quickly - just to get something framed and then get out*", I did it.
Yes.
I bought a crochet book. ( No!) ( Yes!!)
In my defense it's amigurimi, not afghans, and it had cute little Mario mushrooms on it. How am I supposed to resist the opportunity to make Mario mushrooms?! (They may also restore 243 health over 18 seconds when eaten... stay tuned.)
You may have noticed that the book cover also promises a pattern for a Fruit Fucker, although I am sure that the writers did not intend their alien-robot thing to be interpreted in such a manner. Or maybe they did, and they're just trying to give children an early and well-rounded introduction to gaming culture? Regardless, I fully intend to make a pair and send them to Gabe and Tycho.
In other Michaels-related news, I have finally located a large-sized wicker basket with a lid** -- O frabjous day! -- and it now resides under the end table next the couch. Said end table no longer looks like a wool factory threw up on it, and my living room is consequently neater. I do so enjoy encapsulation!
Also, I have Christmas cards. With luck and a break in the space-time continuum, they will actually be sent out prior to Christmas.
* Letting me go into a craft store unescorted is the first sign of trouble.
** You would be surprised at how rare these are. I would have thought that more of the crafting community had cats, but surely their sales figures know best.
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Christmas-In-November recap (now, with absolutely no pictures!)
Posted at 30 Nov 2009 03:26:19 PM |
I do realize that this post would be a lot shinier if it included photographic evidence, but I didn't take any, so you'll have to make do. :)
Dan's family often does a Christmas present exchange at Thanksgiving since that side of the family isn't the same one that gathers in December. And although I'm still unused to the adults in the family being given presents as well as the kids, who am I to say no when the gifts included a SIGG water bottle, a gift cert to Fyberspates and a set of 2.50 mm Signature needles! The water bottle has already been pressed into service at work, and am eagerly anticipating using the others.
If you haven't checked out their website yet, Fyberspates dyes amazingly gorgeous yarn. I took a look at their current stock the moment we got home to a computer, and although I found a few things that I liked I didn't find anything that I was over the moon about just yet. The holiday shopping season seems to have taken a toll on them, not that I mind; the more they sell, the longer they stay in business! (And oddly enough I feel badly for acquiring more stash when I have so many projects that I can't see to relatively immediate completion. One, I can deal with, but right now the WIPs include Snowflakes, TQS, a hat, two shawls, a several-month-old sock that I still haven't kitchener'd the toe of and an immediate queue of fingerless gloves and something out of the bright red Habu laceweight that found its way home with me after the Habu class & trunk show in Kirkwood. Don't even ask me about my planned LoTR scarf; I can't bear the thought of it.)
I'll go shopping once I've knocked some of that off the needles & can buy more guilt-free yarn :-)
OK, I lied. Here's a picture:
(As yet unidentified project, knit in Cascade Heritage Handpaints sock yarn on .. 6's, probably. Stitch marker by WeeOnes @ Etsy.)
In non-knitting news, we finally found a car for a cousin who'll be turning 16 in a bit over a year (if memory serves). To preserve the surprise, I won't say what it is on here, but it's a good one that doesn't need as much work as some that we looked at. Looks nice, too!
We did some of the easy stuff on it this weekend (or rather, Dan did while I helped and learned) like changing the fluids, screwing with the interior, and running Seafoam through the engine. There's apparently a rather big job to be done with the clutch, but we have to order parts for that.
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