And no, I’m not talking about that Haley Joel Osment movie my mom loves (but it has Kevin Spacey in it, which is okay, I guess).
I’m talking about this:
I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on this blog requesting to join the Pay It Forward exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
I will send you something! I promise! Do not despair if it comes slowly.
So there. Share the knit love.
But I can appreciate programming language, having fiddled with my blog and the really simple html tags in LiveJournal. Therefore, I think this is most awesome:
Essentially, it’s knitting patterns done in an XML-esque language, supposedly designed to be plugged into a program that would read the code and then allow you to alter the pattern based on a person’s size, your own particular knitting gauge, and English to metric conversion. So, for example, if you wanted to knit a sweater for your brother using a bulky yarn of which you had several 300-meter skeins, but the pattern was designed for a woman using 400-yard sport weight skeins, you could, hypothetically, plug in your information and the pattern would alter to fit your specifications. (And I realize that I have just constructed the. Longest. Run-on. Sentence. Ever).
Anyhow. If you go and look at the Basic Sock Pattern, it’s surprisingly easy to understand, if a whole lot dorky. I don’t really know too much about XML outside of the book a friend lent to me (which I flipped through casually maybe two months ago), but I didn’t have a problem with it.
So now, possibly in the dorkiest of dorky mashups, I have found a reason to learn XML, and it is knitting. I probably could have predicted this, but I would not have admitted it before now.
[Link taken from BoingBoing, the most awesomest website ever.]
Because I totally mentioned that design was a part of this blog (you can check in the “About” thingy).
A couple of weeks ago, we had a special speaker at work who educated us on the finer points of publication design. Aside from his talk being awesome, he pointed us in the direction of a fantastic company that does absolutely phenomenal information design. That is, they make quantitative information engaging and beautiful. Not only that, but their site is extensive and well-organized.
So if you get a chance to waste a little time:
This is a representation of traffic data. How awesome is that?
And so is this one:
In the world of knitting, I have completed one whole sock, but my camera battery is dead and so it will have to wait until later.
Without waiting for permission, I am posting this lovely LOL HappyGoth that Baobh (I will remove the link if you wish) made for me. It so sums up this past week:
Yep. So sums it up. But it made my day.
[btw, if I didn’t mention it before, I totally had the flu that day, and couldn’t breathe, and had completely run out of happy. Astute, Baobh.]
It seems as though that’s all I post about lately, but I’ve been very busy.
So here’s your daily web goodness:
The Voice of the Underground is Silenced (complete with sound clips)
Emma Clarke interview (who knew the voice behind “mind the gap” was so funny?)
This past weekend I went searching for some new clothes for work (since I’m traveling soon and am bereft of Respectable Clothing Items). I went to H&M, which was dumb since they don’t make clothes for real people, only twigs and popsicle sticks and perhaps pipe cleaners. The pants there lie; they say one size when they really mean another, much smaller size. I was able to squeeze their very largest pair over my thighs (an improvement from the last time), but was unable to zip them. So I bought some shirts that were my size (since they don’t have to fit over my thighs), and that was that.
I did notice, though, that knitwear is huge this season (not size-wise, though there is some of that, too). I’m wondering if it’s like this every season but I never noticed before I became a knitter, or if it’s huge this season because knitting is very “in” right now. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems as though everywhere I look, stores are selling knitted things, and the fashion magazines have at least one spread with huge, chunky knit sweaters (one even had a sweater with a proboscis).
I will continue to investigate this trend, and see if either of my theories are correct. In the meantime, I’m still knitting three pairs of socks, and now that I’ve been sweater-shopping, I think I’ll knit my own, since I don’t really like what’s out there to purchase (I’ve petted it and thought about how I could possibly knit it myself).
But the real post never happens. Suffice to say that I had a good Thanksgiving.
And now it is Monday. This is for all those at work:
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Thanks to cuteoverload.
This is so totally cats.
Truly, it doesn’t.
I have this pair of socks that I started possibly in May or perhaps April. The fact that I can’t remember exactly when should be a sign to me that I ought to finish that pair before starting ANYTHING else.
And yet.
The Chickengoddess lent me an Interweave sock book (25 Timeless Sock Designs, or something like that), mostly because it has a great explanation on how to do a kitchener stitch, and I got to looking through it. And then I got to looking at my sock yarn stash (which is small and the only stash I have). And then I was madly rifling through my needles, all the while grumbling at my husband that I was certain I had a set of size 2 needles, after which I discovered that another pattern called for size 1 needles, and lo and behold I have an extra 4 of those I’m not using, so I knit the hat that was on the bamboo needles onto the metal needles (which are much longer and will therefore not drop stitches quite so easily), and then I cast on a new pair of socks.
*sigh*
Mind you, I also have a pair of Jaywalker socks that I am working on, too.
But these are pink! And involve lace! Pink!
My excuse was that I couldn’t find the pattern for the Jaywalker socks, and therefore couldn’t work on the toe, but the real reason is that I’m totally all over the place and am not happy unless I have more projects cast on than I have actually completed. I imagine this is not unique to me, and while this offers me some consolation, the Very First Pair of Socks remain unfinished, because they are 2×2 rib and I have moved on to more complicated knitting (I did try one on and they are very, very cushy).
I daresay, these are fitting with the general mood lately, that I have been most unable to post original content. What a lazeabout I am. Harrumph.
At any rate, these are worth a look (and fit nicely into the “design” category I often forget):
I wish to purchase at least one of each of these, and with them paper the dining room. Or perhaps the lavatory. They seem to be appropriate for the lavatory.
I must also remember to practice my Victorian-speak, as I am a little rusty.
Er… monkeys.
I’m going to need A Moment:
Oh, my. I think I might be seeing this many times over.
