AAgh!
All my comments seemed to have disappeared when I switched to the new Blogger. I've been using Haloscan, and well, this didn't work out for the old posts even with their nifty installation wizard.
I've supposedly turned on Blogger comments since they now have the email me when a new comment is posted feature and trackback and that's what I really wanted anyway. But I can't get that to work either on the old posts.
Any help here?
because you need a vacation from my vacation...
Forgive me for all of the old posts that may be showing up in your bloglines account if you actually subscribe. I just switched over to the new blogger and saw that they have a categories function now. If you've been with me for a while now, you've probably discovered that I'm a bit anal and well, organizing information makes me absurdly happy. So I'm going back through ALL the posts and adding tags to them all. Anyone know how to add the categories to the sidebar?
I also saw this meme over at Every Word's a Purl and thought that it might give you some insight into what our house is like.
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
Well, our place is in a state of perpetual disorder, so I knew that I wouldn't need to go to the bookshelf to find a book. What, like bookshelves are meant to store books? More like whatever falls out of your pocket, right? Anyway, I clearly live with an engineer. I have plenty of brochures on my desk, but none of them go up to page 123. The only real book, well...
"...Given the generator polynomial g(x) for a cyclic code C, however, we can make meaningful comments about C's ability to detect errors in a variety of situations. We consider three situations below that are generally considered in the design of computer communication systems.
Error pattern coverage." - Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage by Stephen B. Wicker
What I want to know, is, who is this C person, and I want to be able to detect errors in more than just 3 situations! And the rest of the page is some sort of table, so sentence five was actually at the bottom of the page. BTW, I think that "Error pattern coverage." isn't actually a sentence, but since they bothered to put a period at the end of it, I figured that they considered it a sentence and so should I for this exercise.
Feel free to self-tag as I did.
Oops! I managed to completely miss the fact that it's been just over a year since my first post. I was reminded of it by Karen, who just about shares my anniversary.
I never actually thought that anybody would ever actually read my blog, but somehow people have drifted over from various places. You've seen me through my engagement, histeria over my first almost entirely knitted Christmas list, reckoning with an increasingly unwieldy stash, a death in the family, wedding planning, and some 34 finished objects. Wow, I just realized that's more than an FO every other week. Huh... when did I get to knit that many items? Oh yeah, when babies started popping out of everyone around me.
That, ahem, is not what's in store for the next blogiversary...
I don't have any fancy contests or giveaways planned for this blogiversary... just a heartfelt thank you to everyone who's ever read or commented. Your praise for my work and encouragement for the many spazzing moments accompanying my knitting and life in general mean quite a lot to me. Who knows where we'll be in a year, but it'll be fun finding out!
Pacey actually told me where he got his shoes, though it took him a while to recall the name of the store. That either means that he had someone else go out and shop for him, or he was under the influence at the time he purchased them. Okay, I guess it could be a host of other things as well. Then he went on and on about how they weren't exactly what he'd thought they'd be yada yada yada. It was somewhere in this diatribe that I realized, Pacey isn't really a climber. I probably could have told you that before meeting him, but this just confirmed it.
I also wanted to give a shout out to all of the lovely ladies I met on Sunday at Lauren's SoCal KnitBloggers KnitOut. I named that of course because I like for things to have names. It fits into nice categories that way. I thought it was way cool that a girl from New Haven, CT could bring all of us local bloggers together when we usually wouldn't. Thanks Lauren!
I got to meet up with Jillian again, which makes me happy because she's just such a great sounding board. Wendy was in attendance and I felt bad because I hadn't been keeping up with my blogreading to realize that Girlfriend had been sick for almost a week. I was psyched that she could make it anyway! The post I'm linking to discusses the 6 types of knitter. What type are you? For lack of a better category, I think I'm a garment knitter...
I didn't get the nerve up to talk to Marnie and Julia though I stalk their blogs on an almost daily basis. I keep hoping that Marnie's test knitters will finish their work soon so I can buy the Deciduous pattern!
New people I met: Kathy whose blog you must check out because you'll be wishing that the internet could bring you food, MJ who's also a rock climbing knitter, Kris who was wearing a beautiful FO and as far as I can tell scores jealousy points from me for being all-around crafty (check her post and you'll get a glimpse of my unobstructed face!), Allison whom I was happy enough to have a sweater deconstruction conversation over her store-bought sweater (I WILL be making a larger than required gauge stockinette fuzzy sweater just like the one she was wearing!), Lori who gave me a lesson on Canadian geography, and so many more that I just can't list everyone here!
And really, next time: projects for 2006!
Being a blogger without a camera sucks. But the scanner is my friend. I haven't been able to show off my recent Christmas related FO's becuase they just haven't fit on the scanner! I finished my grandfather's Hoodie Boogie Rock and cast on for the last of the trio on Wednesday. I also cast on Wednesday for Unbiased Redux. I wasn't going to show it because I don't think you can make out much from the scan, but oh well, you twisted my arm.
See? Can't tell a bit from that, right? It's not everything I hope it to be, but I think it might be too early to tell just yet. I've decided that this would be perfect for a felted Kureyon version too. Just have to finish this first, and then I can experiment!
On the DF knitting front, he finished the knitting on our friend DL's (those are his initials) Bones hat. It just needs a bit of seaming for the hem and the back where DF had to work back and forth. Not a bad attempt at intarsia, huh? Actually, it's stranded, so it's more Fair Isle, I guess. Anyway, project number 5 under his belt now, and 3 (including this one) without a pattern! I wonder, is this a man trait to just fly by the seat of your pants and knit with an idea of what you want but no directions? He's not bad, huh?
In non-knitting news, I managed to send off a secret santa package today! I'm notoriously bad about sending gifts that I already have to their intended recipients, so this is amazing for me. Which reminds me of a story my cousin told me earlier this week about his adventures in Christmas shopping.
So he went into a dollar store to pick up some stuff for our family's secret santa exchange. Only it's not secret since we all know who drew who. I guess that's more of a gift exchange. Anyway. When he walks into the store:
Clerk: You're back!
Cousin: Um, no, not exactly.
Clerk: Yes you are, you're the guy who likes to collect the Chinese figurines!
Cousin: Um, no!! What kind of pansy do you take me for exactly?
Clerk: Sorry about that, let me ring you up.
***
Clerk: Um... yeah. Do you need a bag for your items? *holding up the girls' opaque tights*
So what would you think if you were a 19 year old boy and you open up your Christmas present only to find: one pair girls' tights, a block of chalk, and leather work gloves? Looking to get him arrested, is what I think!
Actually, it's all for climbing. You cut up the tights and fill it with chalk so your hands don't get sweaty, and the work gloves are to help manage the rope if you so desire. I guess you could probably use trouser socks, but I think the tights might be cheaper.
On the wedding front, still nothing has been decided. A new wrench was thrown into the mix this week: we found out that DF's grandfather's cancer hasn't gone away, it's spread to distant organs. We're thinking about whether it would increase the chances of him attending if we move the date up from the fall. I don't know.
BTW, has anyone else noticed some strange behavior of Bloglines and people's blogs who are hosted on blogger? I haven't seen blogs light up in bold for the past couple of days, but if I click on the feed, there are unread posts in it. Did I do something weird?
As I stalk myself to see if there are any comments that I need to respond to (I do read all your comments and am very appreciative you take the time to do so!) I note that the haloscan commenting link doesn't always work. It seems to have done this intermittently over the last few weeks. Has anybody else noticed this?
Yes yes, I've been MIA. I blame it on the frenzied knitting and eating and family visiting and flying and... I'll just shut up now.
This post will be short since I have more frenzied knitting to get back to, but in an effort to stay on my promised knitalong updates on Tuesdays (it's 10pm PST, it still counts!) here's the lowdown:
1. DF finished the strap on Unbiased and it was given to future SIL over the weekend. I had to beg DF not to give it to her because it just didn't measure up to spaz standards. I wanted to hide behind DF when future SIL opened the gift. I was too ashamed. Her suggestion was to add a zipper or some other closure to make it a bit functional. I thought it might work well as a trashcan liner myself.
2. I finished Light Petrol. Only a minor amount of spazzing on the neckline and armhole openings for this one. Amazing, ain't it?
3. I cast on for Hoodie Boogie Rock 2 for my grandfather. It's flying this time since I've already worked out most of the pattern details and changed the cable border to garter stitch border. I think this border is significantly more masculine.
No pictures still since the camera is with my parents. I'll post summary posts at some point to clear out my sidebar I swear, but they'll have to be pictureless.
BTW, has anyone noticed that since announcing my engagement early on in the life of this blog, not a peep has been mentioned about the W word? Honestly, it's because I'm SCARED SHITLESS of the planning process. Could it be my perfectionist, OCD tendencies? Or maybe my need to please everyone? Or perhaps I'm afraid of the Catholic church refusing to marry us pagans (okay, it's just me)? Or even, by some wild stretch of the imagination, maybe I could be afraid of offending every family member we have and just elope. Anyone have a paper bag so I don't pass out?
Also, I noticed that haloscan has been slowly eating my early comments. Do they delete comments after a certain number, or do they just delete them after a certain period of time? Thinking more and more about just paying for a blog...
Ah-hah! No pictures today, so that means I can use Word to write my post, and Blogger CAN’T EAT IT. HA! Take that.
Why no pictures? Well, honestly, it’s because I have absolutely nothing to show. I’ve been stuck in this knitting Groundhog’s Day for almost two weeks. I think I’ve finished the sleeves on Hopeful, and then my OCD kicks in and the sleeve gets frogged and reknit. I think I’ve knit about 5 sleeves now. So instead of torturing you with yet more pictures of the same thing, or at least mostly the same, I’m just going to wait until the end. Thanks everyone for your comments on tourniquet sleeve vs. flaring sleeve.
Unbiased is almost done. It’s in the process of being pieced together and then the straps need to go on. Note that I didn’t say that I was in the process of piecing it together. Turns out I have a conveniently located finishing service at my disposal. And I don’t mean Jennifer Knits. The DF! Thanks DF for seaming the bag…
On to the meat of what I have been thinking about saying for a while. Like a lot of you, I really enjoy blogging. I don’t think I mention other people’s blogs near enough though I read them almost every day. Well, except on weekends. Mondays are therefore scary days when I wonder how I’m going to read 50 posts over lunch. I digress. So I wanted to take a small detour and out my bloglines list here. I really like clicking on the links to other blogs that people show on their sidebars to see what other people are talking about. Unfortunately, I think I might have a bit of a commitment phobia to actually show these as permalinks on my sidebar. Yes, need more therapy.
Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to all of the people whom I read regularly, whether they know it or not. In order of appearance on my bloglines account:
Kim at A Knitted Frenzy
Laura at Affiknitty
Keohinani at Aloha and Oreos
Lizzi at Amimono
Chris at Bits of Knits
Alison at the Blue Blog
Laurie at CrazyAuntPurl
Carrie at Every Word’s a Purl
Stephanie at Glampyre Knits
Kathy at Grumperina goes to local yarn shops and Home Depot
Jessimuhka at Jessimuhka Knits
Theresa at The Keyboard Biologist Knits
Wendy at Knit and Tonic
Chrissy at Knittin’ Mom
Winnie at Knitting Escapism
Lucia at the Knitting Fiend
Christine at Knitting for Boozehags
Caitlyn at Knot without my Knitting
Marnie at Marnie Talks
Julia at Mind of Winter
Karen at Musings of a Mostly Self-Taught Knitter
Nona at Nonaknits
Jess at Penelope’s got Nothing on me
Jillian at Sknitty
Kym at Stix and the City
Wendy at Wendyknits
Stephanie at Yarn Harlot
Karen at Yarn is my Metier
Whew! I know that a lot of these are on everyone’s must read list or appear in various knitting magazines, so these are actually on the bottom of my list to check when there are too many posts to sift through. For all the others you don’t recognize, go by there and check them out.
So who do you check in with on a regular basis?
So it occurred to me that I've been learning a lot from reading everyone else's knitting blogs, why not get my own! So here I am amongst thousands of other knitters on the net sharing my obsession with knitting. Now off I go to figure out how one exactly goes about blogging...
