Archives for August 2006

Picture Fixing and Navel Gazing

Published on 23 Aug 2006 at 2:26 pm. 17 Comments.
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I know it looks like I never bother with the blog much, but let me tell you, I’ve actually been blogging until the wee hours of the morning for a week now. All, and I mean ALL the images imported from my old blog on Blogger were no longer working, so I had to go back and fix each and every one.

It turns out that if you right-click the broken image, you can cut and paste the address into a new window and see the photo. I did that for every picture and saved it to my hard drive. I like to have pictures that embiggen when you click on them, which means that I also had to save the larger versions of each picture as a separate file. Then I uploaded them onto this blog, which became a million times easier when I figured out that I could just transfer the files using the ftp site that comes with my service from Living Dot. (great service, by the way. Awesome support – quick and friendly!) Then I had to go into each post and replace every picture, including the link to the larger version.

It took a long time. I’ve been blogging for almost exactly two years! (I started on August 31st, 2004) It’s amazing how much the simple act of blogging has changed my life. Not only do I have a pretty good record of the last two years worth of knitting, I’ve met or corresponded with untold numbers of truly brilliant and inspiring people, been to countless parties and dinners and events that I never would have known about, I have a freaking book out, and even more than that, I’ve made some really great friends. I can’t even imagine what I else I could have been doing over the past two years that could have come close.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love these here internets. Where else could you amass such a group of funny and interesting people? Just think of the amount of “conversation” you’ve shared with bloggers you read. I tend to think of blogs as emails to people you want to keep in touch with. How many people are in your bloglines list? How many blogs do you read on a regular basis? The relationship that we as bloggers share with one another is certainly different that those we share with the people sitting right next to us on the train. But I don’t think that difference makes it any less valuable. Rather than stumbling around with the small talk you get trapped into with acquaintances, bloggers tend to get right down to it. Our personalities are out there, right alongside our brand new handknits and often times, our dirty laundry. I think writing allows people to express themselves more fully than just having casual conversations, so even casual posts tend to be more thoughtful than your typical “Hey, how ya’ doin’?” at the grocery store. And once you’ve had that thoughtful back and forth with someone, I find it gives you a leg up when you actually meet them in person.

It’s like a little sanity check sometimes, just to skim the blogs and see that people’s kids are thriving, brain surgeries are going well, bones are mending, chairs are flying off the back of trucks on the highway, people are going nuts dealing with crazy house crap or sometimes facing serious medical issues with themselves or loved ones. But everyone is determined to keep on keepin’ on. When you look at it as a whole, the blogging community is like a machine chugging along, recording daily life – the good, the bad, and the boring.

I don’t know, maybe this is why I was so addicted to the Sims. I just like keeping track of everyone, knowing I can pop in and say hi, even though we haven’t officially met. There’s something about the looseness of it all that I find fits me really well. I think many of us are aware of each other and know things about each other from our blogs, even though we’ve never met, maybe haven’t even corresponded. And yet we still have a strange kinship. There needs to be a word for whatever that is. Something other than creepy.

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It’s Good to Have Minions

Published on 14 Aug 2006 at 10:29 pm. 9 Comments.
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Ha, ok, I’m just kidding about having minions. But it’s great to have crafty friends. Especially ones who continually amaze with their humor and the ability to make you say “Holy crap, I want one of those!!” pretty much every time they make something. Such is the case with Maryse. My internal “List of Things to Make” is continually updated when she finishes something. Except for that crazy scarf of many colors. I love it to tiny bits, but just looking at the bag containing the gazillions of little globs of yarn required to make it, well, sign me up the next beach sand counting detail and let’s leave it at that. 

And Ms. M has done it again. But this time, it’s with an extra dose of glee for me. Y’see, she’s gone and made a Kitsch Kozy. For the book! How cool is that? Now I feel like I’ve made it to the Big Time! 

 

  

  

  

  

Maryse has posted directions on how to make this particular brand of granny goodness. Check it out! The best part is that she made hers out of non-kitschy classic wool. Was it because she felt the book deserved better? Has she developed a petroleum allergy? Uuuh, nope. Turns out she dumped all her acrylic on me back when we were making stuff for the Tin Can Alley patterns. Sly, Maryse, real sly. Oh well, more book covers for me. 

 

 

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Fancy Meeting You Here

Published on 8 Aug 2006 at 2:29 pm. 11 Comments.
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OK, so have you ever not blogged for so long that you almost start to feel afraid to? Yeah, that’s where I’m at. It’s not that I haven’t been writing posts. I write them constantly, throughout the day. Trouble is, they’re all in my head and they never seem to make it to the screen. So let’s just pick up as though I hadn’t fallen off the earth.

First things first. Look what I got!

 

 

A brand new niece!! Blogging community, meet Ginger. Ginger, meet the bloggers! She was 5 weeks early, but was healthy enough to come home after just a few days. She’s a trooper, as are her parents – my brother, Danny, and sister-in-law, Shannon. I think she’s about 2 weeks in this picture. She’s going to be 4 weeks on Friday. Awwww lil’ Miss Ginger . . . Crazy Aunt Stitchy can’t wait to give you a dollar every time she sees you, even if your parents say no.

Toes, people. LOOK AT THE TOES!!!

*thud*

It’s ok, I’m fine, I just passed out from the cuteness, it’s cool.

Next things next. Knitting update. Sadly, a pictureless one as the camera batteries seem to have taken a hike. I’m pretty sure Mike knows where they are, but he’s pleading the fifth at this juncture. When the subpoena comes in from the courthouse, I think the mystery will be cleared up. One sock down, another almost at the heel. I Heart Toe-up socks. I do, I love to try them on after every fourth row. Love. It. Also, I finished the mini-skull tote, I just need to seam it and felt it. Ok, so “finish” may not have been the right word. But still . . .

Now for some linkety links. I am hoping to revamp my links page soon, right now it’s totally neglected. Poor thing.

First, if you don’t know Julie Jackson, you should. She’s the genius behind Subversive Cross Stitch. I was the very first interview in her new series “Crafty Query”, named for it’s vary vaguely creepy host of the same name. Just look at him. That laser beam stare, that middle-finger-pointing thing, those curtains. As I said to Julie, “I would tell that guy anything he wanted to know. Anything.” I love her patterns, I think I’m going to get “People are Cattle”, but there are too many good ones to choose. I may get a few. Plus, she now sells the crazy gold frames , so you can really class it up! Yay Julie! Also, if you want to snort with laughter, check out her cat Boone. I played this over and over, then made Jon watch it over and over.

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Check it out! I’m #3 on the Yahoo 9!! Cooool! They’re something about that girl that I really like. Even without the sound on, she’s really interesting and expressive. I like to watch her. She’s purty. Make sure you scroll down to the poll section. Vote early and vote often!!

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Feast your evil eyes on Natalia’s amazing jewelry at the Evil Eye Emporium! This bracelet is my favorite. It’s so delicate, yet so . . . snakey. I’m going to be doing some holiday shopping here, fer sure.

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And I have a huge apology to go along with this next link. It’s the Vintage Knit-Along by the Kitchener Bitch (LOVE that name!) I had a delightful email exchange with her, joined up and promised to mention it. I’ve been remembering it on and off for weeks and I feel really bad. I had always thought it would be great fun to start and take part in a Vintage KAL, but time has been scarce, so I was so glad to see someone doing it. I had dreams of participating, but I can’t seem to get much of anything done lately. But I do like seeing the cool stuff that’s going on over at the group blog. Go see! There’s even a yarn contest!

Thank you to everyone who’s been checking in with book sightings and for all the great feedback! I’m trying to respond to everyone, but seriously, work has been busier than it’s been in a long time, so I’ve had very little time to be social. In the end, my day job wins every time. Mama needs yarn and tin can money, after all. Also, I’ve been working on some cool creative stuff that’s not yet ready for public consumption. It drives me crazy when I’m working on something cool can can’t share it, but trust me, if it all works out, you’re going to love it. Very exciting! Hopefully one project will be ready for sharing very shortly. Fun fun!!

OK, that’s it for now. I know there’s more, but I’ll come back and share when I remember it. I need to get used to doing smaller bursts of posting when I think of things, rather than waiting, saving things up, and then totally forgetting them. Hopefully I can get better at my time management now that my plate is spilling over with To Do Lists.

Oh, and buy the book! If you like it, feel free to write a review on Amazon! (I’m also trying to get better at self promotion. More on that tomorrow.)

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