Computers, part deux

Shortly after I wrote my earlier post, I decided to actually attempt to do a little troubleshooting, and fired up my laptop.  Network worked just fine on it, so now I don’t know what to think.  I’ll have to try moving the laptop to the front counter to see if it is locational, and if it’s not…well, then, I guess we’ll know it’s the computer (which happens to be the new Mac, and…I guess I’m going to learn a lot more about how my Mac works!)

Photos from yesterday and today:

I cheated a tiny bit. I took a number of photos last night, I wasn’t looking through the eye-piece, just holding the camera at about my stomach, snapping pictures. The picture I took that captured the word Lost on the TV — the knitting was blurry. So, I cut the TV screen out of that one, pasted on top of the TV in this picture and VOILA!  (I worked on my sweater some last night.  Long way to go yet.)

Yes, I’m weird. And geeky. And just the slightest bit addicted to several TV shows right now. I got to choir last night at 7 and informed the choir director that I HAD to be home before 8. I didn’t tell him why, but my Mom knew. Thankfully, she didn’t give me away.

I took about 25 pictures of Katie. She basically ignored me. The lighting in here tonight is terrible, which means the camera takes longer to expose the pictures. Holding it by hand gave me very blurry pictures. I set some books down on the floor, the camera on top and got some great pictures. So there’s your photography tip for today. Actually, two tips. Get down on the same level as your subject and use something to balance your camera (it was sitting off the floor as far as Don Quixote and a Moleskine journal would lift it). Books, tables, chairs, counters all work as stand-ins for tripods.

And on that note, it’s time to stop letting the sleeping dog lie and send her out for her last trip of the day to the great outdoors.

Come on Katie, time to wake up so we can go to bed!

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Sock on a Keyboard

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I want to do is learn more about Photoshop and specifically, photo editing.  I’d also like to learn more about how to use my camera, a Sony Alpha-100.   The other day I was just playing and figured out how to use the Custom White Balance setting, and tonight managed to take 2 pictures that very vividly demonstrate what that can do for you.

Backstory, or…why I took pictures of a sock on a keyboard:

My Mom’s Old Computer is going to become my Aunt’s New Computer, and I needed to clean some stuff off of it and see if I could make it not be so stinking slow.  Interestingly enough, simply uninstalling Trend Micro anti-virus seems to have done the trick as far as speeding things up…

As I was sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting for it to do things I suddenly thought HEY!  While I sit here I could be knitting! And I am now wishing that all those years ago when I actually worked with computers for a living and spent HOURS of my life waiting for them to do things, I could have been KNITTING.  Just think how much knitting I could have gotten done!!!

And now the pictures:

First picture taken using the Night mode on my camera.   The color is WAY off.  (No flash, just the overhead light).

The only thing I changed for this picture was setting the Custom White Balance, using the white countertop as the white reference point and voila:

Like night and day, isn’t it?

I didn’t do any further editing of the pictures, just resized them for the Internet.

If you are wondering what on Earth I mean by White Balance, here is a tutorial I just found that explains it much more clearly than I could:

Understanding White Balance (even if you just click over and read the first paragraph, you’ll get the idea)

What I know about photography could fit in a thimble, and I hope to at least expand that up to a mug by the end of the year.  I’ll try not to bore you too much in the process, but I’m such a geek that stuff like this really tickles me.

(And look!  I’m on the heel flap of my sock!  Isn’t it purty??)

Suzanne

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Saturday

Beginning to knit is like patting your head, rubbing your tummy, chewing gum and walking all at the same time.  At least, I suspect that’s what our newest knitters thought this afternoon.  I think they were starting to get it, though, and I hope they had fun at any rate.

Yesterday afternoon we had freezing rain, and by the evening time it had turned to snow.  I didn’t even know it was going to snow, and was more than a little surprised to wake up and find that we’d gotten…6 inches?  Or more?  It was really fluffy stuff, and thankfully it wasn’t windy.

I’m headed for my bed and will maybe make a few stitches of my own before turning in.  I about 2 weeks ago that if I want to wear my sweater any time soon, I actually have to WORK on my sweater.  I’ve only (only!) got 24 more rows of the sweater “skirt” to do (out of 80 rows).  The trouble is that after every 8 rows, I’ve added 12 stitches per row, so…each row takes longer and longer.  I did start working on the sleeves 2 weeks ago, I decided I’d better get them in process, because when I get finished with the body of the sweater, I might be ready to throw in the towel.

TTFN-

Suzanne

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And off jumps jack

Part of Lucy’s birthday gift this year was a set of needles and a skein of yarn.  She’s finally been able to join me for her first knitting lesson, and she caught on right away!

Joe decided he wanted to knit, too, so he grabbed some needles and a skein of yarn and got busy.  He had had a lesson from Gramma Reed awhile ago, and he remembered right quick what to do.

Will decided not to knit. He did this instead:

On her way out the door, Lucy tried to convince her father that (a) she needed another skein of yarn in case…she needed to cast on a new project? and (b) that she needed the measuring tape with the cool case that she’s been eyeing for months.

TTFN-

Suzanne

p.s. today’s title isn’t a song lyric or title, I’m stretching myself to include, well, whatever I want to.  At any rate, this is a poem/chant/mnemonic you can use to help kids (or adults!) remember the steps of the knit stitch:

In through the front door,
Once around the back.
Peek through the window
And off jumps Jack!

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Report card

On mine it would say:

Does not follow directions well.

I was happily knitting away on my sweater and thinking about the instructions and thinking about what I was doing.

And realized I had messed up.  Again.

I groaned out loud and Mark said “How much do you have to rip out now?”

(The boys report cards came home today, both of THEIR report cards were just fine.)

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WIP Wednesday

Many moons ago, Wednesdays were always the day that we posted about our WIPs on our blogs.  I thought I’d revive the tradition and post about what’s been under the sewing machine or on the knitting needles this week.

Quilt Blocks that are in progress:  the double nine patch is a sample for a class on Saturday.

Knitting detail:  you can sort of see the definition of the ribbing starting to show just above the needle.  The yarn is so yummy, it is one of the heathers and has some flecks of other colors in it:

Customer quilting:

So what Works In Progress have you been working on this week?

Suzanne

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Warm hands

About a month ago I was complaining about how cold my hands were (already).  Things warmed up a bit, and I guess I got used to the cooler temps, because my hands hadn’t been quite so chilled.  Until this week.

Brrr.

But now!  Look at what was waiting for me when I got to the shop this morning!!!

The knitting fairy (aka Mom) has been leaving me things a lot lately.  These wool fingerless mittens are purely awesome.  I’m wearing them as I type!  And can’t wait to show them off to everyone who comes into the shop today!

edited to add:  if you are on Ravelry, the pattern is available as a free download, it’s called Cascade 220 Fingerless Mitts.

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The other front

Apologies to non-knitters.  But I have to share.

As a quilter, I have done my share of unsewing.  Reverse sewing.  Frogging.  Whatever you want to call it.  Tedious?  Absolutely.

However.  I did not know the meaning of tedious until I had to rip out some rows of my sweater yesterday.

When you are ripping out quilting stitches, you get to use a nice sharp seam ripper and whack the thread to bits and get rid of it all.

When you are ripping out knitting stitches, you have to preserve the stitches from the previous row, so not only are you taking out mistakes, you are freaking out that you are going to drop a stitch.

I managed to get back to where I had made my mistake without tearing too much hair out (and without dropping any stitches, thankyouverymuch.  I ended up getting some scrap yarn involved and threading that through the stitches I wanted to preserve, and just had a fun old time yanking out the stuff that had to go away).

I was so proud of myself.  I kept knitting for qiute awhile last night, even though there are a million other things I probably ought to be doing.

If I’d been doing one of them, I wouldn’t now have to rip out several more rows.

I read the instructions for the M1 increase as “insert the left needle from the back to the front.”  I read it several times.  Turns out what it actually says is “insert the left needle from the front to the back.

About 1.5 hours of knitting, down the drain.

Does this make me a real knitter???

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Solid rain

Sunday night at our house is movie night, and it’s usually popcorn and cheese and apples in front of the TV.  Last night we split up — the boys stayed home with Grandma and watched Iron Man.  Mark and I came downtown to go to the movie theater (Burn After Reading).  Before the movie, during our drive, we noticed this weird stuff floating in the air, coming down from the sky.

I’ve tried to convince all of my family that it was solid rain.  Because it couldn’t have been snow.  It’s not possible.  I refuse to accept that it could be time for it to snow.

I can’t get anyone to agree with  me.  They insist it was snow flurries.

Damn.

Completely unrelated:  I bought a new box of bandaids when we were at the grocery store Friday night.  Actually, I bought two.  One for home, one for the shop.

Good thing, too, as I’ve needed not one but TWO bandaids today.  I was boxing up a mail order and managed to cut myself on the cardboard.  Think of a papercut times 50.  Yuck.

And finally, I’m quite proud of myself:  I have the front left and right and back of a sweater knit!  I have to seam them together and then pick up stitches along the bottom in order to work on the “skirt” part of this sweater.  And then I have to pick up stitches around the neck to create the collar.  And knit the sleeves.  I did get one seam sewn together, and don’t know why I thought that part was so scary.

Right now it’s kind of a lumpy mess.  And the color is prettier than the picture.

Eventually it’s going to be this:

But in Green, obviously.  And bigger, since I’m not a stick like the model.

(The pattern is from Interweave Knits, called Tilted Duster.  My mother tells me that it is quite popular in the knitting community right now.  Clearly I have good taste)

I’d better try to get back to work.  It’s been busy here in the shop.  One of the things I like about being here is that I never know what a day is going to bring.

Suzanne

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Randomly

1.  I’m surprised by how many hits I get on this blog from people who have searched for Western Salad Dressing.  Seriously.  At least once a day if not more.  I feel like I ought to be posting more recipes using it to provide a useful service to the community of folks who are searching for it.  Hey — I might have to post our family’s secret dip that uses Western dressing…it’s a recipe my Mom’s side of the family MUST have at every family gathering.  My husband and children thinks it’s gross.

2.  I have ladies coming Wednesday morning to learn to knit.  THey are making felted bags, and of course I have to be making a new one along with them.  I started with a brown base for the bag (purely because it was  skein of yarn that had been wound into a ball as an example when we get the ball winder and had to test it).  I totally horked up a skein of pink last week, so after I untangled it, I decided to use it with the brown.  I was going to just do brown and pink stripes, but now that I have one brown and one pink stripe done, I think I might need to add in cream stripes, too.

3.  On the way home, I saw a man walking a Beagle puppy.  OMG.  I want a Beagle puppy.

4.  I don’t seem to have a concussion, but I do have a sore spot from my head injury.  And my sister-in-law can attest that you can actually see the mark where I whacked myself.  My guardian angel works overtime.  One of these days I’m going to hurt myself very badly, purely out of clumsiness.

5.  I haven’t talked about digital scrapbooking in awhile (because I haven’t been doing any…imagine that…) but coming up here soon is an opportunity that you should think about if you have any interest in the subject at all.  The classes I’ve taken in the past have been with Jessica Sprague — and starting on the 9th she is offering a free class called Stories in Hand.  For all of the info, you can visit her website:  http://www.jessicasprague.com/ — the details are on the home page.  You do NOT have to be a digital scrapbooker to do this class, the class is about developing a way to capture the stories you want to record and remember, whether you are a scrapbooker or not.

6.  I have to work on feeding my boys.  Those three boys.  They think they need to be fed every single day.

Later –

S

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