Where the Dreamers Go

Is this why I married an engineer?

2009-07-09T22:36:21Z

telynor: "This drive always seems shorter on the way back than the way there."

filceolaire: "It's downhill."

[Writing] Favourite Places to Write?

2009-07-07T09:12:21Z

This post comes as result of a google search. I'm feeling guilty with all this time on my hands; I should be doing writing or revising. Problem is, my computer is currently in the kitchen/diner, and so is G's. G is playing a lot of computer games, and he is always streaming music or having a loud skype conversation. Other rooms where I have written in our house in the past contain things like televisions and beds, both of which are impossible for me to resist at the moment.

So I looked online to see if anybody had compiled a list of good places to write in London. It turned out there aren't any generic 'great places to write in London' lists that I could find, but a couple of blogging writers have posted lists of where they like to write, mostly comprised of stuff like, 'um, at my desk in the morning.'

Here's my list. Do you have a favourite place to write? Post it in a comment, even if it's not anywhere near London!

Oxleas Wood Café. I haven't written there for a long time, but there was a time when I was there 2-3 days a week with a laptop. Probably need to do that again.
Generic coffee shop writing, with or without free wi-fi. Actually, without is probably better. I find that getting out of the house helps me not beat myself up because there's a sink full of dishes somewhere not being washed. I used to particularly enjoy writing in very public places and just tuning out whatever was going on. I remember in high school purposefully writing in the IAA cafeteria because in my room I was available, and in the cafeteria if I took a seat off the beaten path and had my head down over a legal pad, I was likely not to be disturbed. Singapore, believe it or not, was great for this. Everyone mostly moves very fast in Singapore, so if you're the sole person taking up space at the back of the coffee shop (where there is certainly free wi-fi), nobody is going to complain overmuch. Also, you're obviously a tourist.
Anywhere quiet and isolated. I've actually done searches for places that have picnic tables in and around London that aren't attached to particular restaurants or cafés. These are less common here than in the US, for some reason.
I'm interested in the idea of writing in train stations, but there are few good places to sit with a laptop that aren't attached to specific restaurants or cafés, and there's only so much coffee I can consume over time. Writing on trains also appeals as a concept, but long train journeys are few and far between for me, I'm almost never alone, and sleeping seems to be a more common default switch for my brain than writing.

Your turn! Where do you like to write? Do you have a single writing space, or do you like to explore strange new worlds?

[Public] Here are some items we're friend-cycling.

2009-07-07T07:52:05Z

We have a Dolce Gusto coffeemaker up for grabs. This was a free gift from Viking while I was working at EFDSS, and my coworker couldn't make the first one work, so Viking sent a second. I fixed the machine (it wasn't actually broken, just stuck) and took it home. It is in perfect working order, has all parts it's meant to, and comes with the original instruction manual and two boxes of coffee pods. The only thing missing is the coffee mug they supply with the machine, and I never had that to begin with; it was kept at EFDSS for folks to drink coffee out of. The coffee pods are Dolce Gusto Caffé Lungo, which is described as 'like a long espresso', and Latte Macchiato, which is a two-capsule coffee that's essentially a sweet latte.

Upsides to this coffeemaker:

Makes coffee that doesn't taste as bad as instant by the cup and immediately;
Is fun to play with;
Is easy to clean;
Means everybody can have whatever sort of hot beverage they want without lots of prep. You can see a list of available capsules here.

Downsides to this coffeemaker:

Takes up a bit of space (but is all in one piece and easy to put away);
Uses only Dolce Gusto coffee pods;
Coffee pods are expensive (£3.28 online, £3.75ish at Sainsbury's. The prices are the same whether you're getting a coffee that requires 2 pods (8 cups/box of pods) or only 1 (16 cups/box of pods).

We also have a Tefal 3-tier Steam Cuisine Steamer. Product shown on webpage is not exactly like ours but has most of the same features. We've had this steamer for years and are just not using it very much. It comes with all accessories including a rice container and instructions.

Upsides to this steamer:

You can steam an entire meal using all three baskets, or just steam some rice using only one;
The appliance stacks away neatly and takes up less space when stored;
It shuts itself off automatically according to a timer you set;

Downsides to this steamer:

We have found it difficult to clean, but your mileage may vary;
One of the steamer tiers has a crack in it, but this does not affect performance;
Tastes tend to travel upwards in the steamer and drips tend to travel downwards, so particularly if you're steaming fish, will have rice and veg that tastes of fish if you steam three things together

These appliances are at our house, clean (steamer could do with descaling), and ready to be given away to the first UK-based friend or acquaintance who is willing to come pick either of them up. I will not be shipping either of these because I don't have the original packing material. Please only reply if there is actually a chance you want and can get this appliance. I love my American friends, but page after page of 'gee, if only I could afford the plane fare/had a teleporter/could make it to your house before X-and-So' is going to irritate me today; please don't do it.

As an aside, we are also looking to get rid of quite a lot of old clothing and old books. If you think you might want to come have a rummage, please get in touch. Caveat in paragraph above applies; I am emphatically not shipping books.

If I do not have takers for the two appliances by this weekend, I will be posting them on the Lewisham Freecycle list, where they will be snapped up immediately, so if you're interested, please let me know!

Home student classification?

2009-07-01T16:42:51Z

My settlement visa (spouse) dates from September, 2005. My ILR dates from 2007. I thought the classification would be from the date of my settlement visa and place me firmly in the home student bracket, since I've had residency for more than the three years I've seen specified. However, a recent postgraduate application has landed in my prospective university's international admissions office. Am I doomed to international studenthood for another year?

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Hey, UK People! Let's get together Saturday Night!

2009-06-26T23:33:41Z

My pal and writing acquaintance, David Wake, has a play that'll be in London for two more days only, in Earl's Court.

I'm hoping some of you might like to go and see it tomorrow night with filceolaire, possibly G, and me.

Venue:
Baron's Court Theatre
7:45 pm
Admission: £12

We're amenable to an inexpensive dinner before or after the show, but by inexpensive, we mean 'we're skint!'

It's OK to comment here or email me at my LJ address if you're interested in coming.

From tithenai, Buffy vs. Edward Cullen -- the Remix!

2009-06-21T08:07:45Z

[Public] Delicious Book!

2009-06-18T07:45:39Z

Yesterday, I received my copy of Faery Moon, by PR Frost! It is the second of her books about Tess Noncoiré, speculative fiction author and undercover demon-fighter, and it features my song "My Fairytale"!

I got about 45 pages into the book on my commute to knitting class last night, and so far, I love it. Unfortunately, it has already been stolen from my grasp by filceolire who came out onto the back porch this morning while I was making a Certain Phone Call to Carphone Warehouse with the book in his hand.

"Hey!" I said, I'm reading that!"

"You were reading it," he replied.

So I guess I'll have to wait a day (he's a fast reader) to find out what happens to Tess—but you don't! Go buy this lovely book, right now! I won't spoil you, but for my filky friends, I can tell you that within the first five chapters of the book (they're bite-sized, good train reading!), the protagonist identifies "There's Bimbo on the Cover of My Book" as the Best Filk Song Ever. ;-)

[Public, for now] Harper's Friday, or How I Spent a Whole Day Chasing the Beep

2009-06-06T12:02:54Z

For those of you who don't know, I currently manage a community centre in Southeast London. This is an interesting job, with all sorts of things to do, lots of task juggling, and a variety of people to interact with, most of the time. The building houses a nursery that has a large staff, a full kitchen, and tons of great kids, a dance company, and provides some classroom support for the local secondary school.

Friday morning, I walked into work and set the front doors to open automatically (pram access). Then, I checked in with the nursery staff to see if there was anything they needed.

"Harper," said the nursery receptionist, "There's some kind of alarm going off in the kitchen. Can you check it out?"

And here begins our tale.

"Sure," I replied. When I got to the kitchen, sure enough, there was a high-pitched beeping noise, which seemed to be emanating from a point above my head. Smoke alarm battery, I thought instantly, and went to get a set of steps (a stepstool, Americans). I came back, disconnected the smoke detector, and found no indication that the battery was bad. In retrospect, the lack of a light indicator should have shown me this. And anyway, if it were the smoke detector, disabling the device will stop the noise, since the battery contacts only engage if the device is in place. I put the smoke detector back together.

I systematically turned on and off every electrical appliance I could find, thinking that something might need resetting. No luck. By this time, the kitchen staff were starting to arrive, and it may be worth noting that the kitchen manager was taking a leave day on Friday, so she wasn't in. I did ring her and ask about an alarm; she replied that she knew of nothing in the kitchen that would really give an alarm, unless a fire or single appliance electrical fault was in progress, in which case we'd either see a fire or the appliance would be easy to identify. I turned off extract fans, microwaves, the rear window fly zapper, the CD player, the dishwasher -- you get the picture.

After about half an hour, with the nursery manager there helping me look and visits from half the nursery staff wondering what the noise was and could they help locate it, I gave up and called the secondary school facilities manager. FM advised me to call our main maintenance contractor, as he was meant to be at the school that day and could pop over and see me, no problem. I rang the maintenance contractor, who said he could be in a little after 10:00. I delivered this bad news to the nursery staff, who closed the kitchen door and hoped for the best. I was already feeling sorry for the women in the kitchen.

At 10:30, the maintenance contractor showed up. He and I walked into the nursery kitchen. "Sounds like a smoke detector battery alarm," he said.

Now, I was all set to be proven a stupid girly girl once again and have the contractor explain to me in small words how I didn't flick this or that little safety switch in order to disengage the alarm before replacing the battery, or something like that. But when he got up on the steps, he determined that the noise was not in fact coming from the smoke detector. "Nope, definitely not," he said. "Besides, there'd be a light indicator as well, and it's very unlikely both would fail at the same time. I think it's coming from your emergency lighting."

"My emergency lighting."

"Yeah; there's a battery in your fluorescent tube that needs charging in order to power the emergency lighting. My guess is you had a power cut at some point and the emergency lighting was on for long enough to run the battery down. The alarm is telling you that the battery's not charging and needs to be replaced."

"Oh!" I was slightly pleased with myself. "So this is not something I could have fixed myself."

"Not if you didn't know about it ahead of time," said the contractor confidently. "Now, just let me disconnect the battery alarm, and we'll get our electrician down here with a new battery, because he keeps some in his van."

Relief! I left the kitchen to report to the nursery manager. The nursery manager is a very efficient woman, but she is not known for her sense of humour. As in, I'm sure she has one, but I rarely see it, and she does not laugh easily. She was happy to hear that the contractor had found a solution. I told her I wanted to go back and observe what he was doing, so kitchen staff wouldn't have to endure hours of beeping if this ever happened again.

But when I got back to the kitchen, I found the contractor on the steps with a puzzled look on his face, "I tried that," he said into his mobile phone. "Yeah; the fuse is right there, and when I pull it out, the emergency lighting comes on, and yes it's dim and the batter probably needs replacing. But the alarm doesn't stop."

Uh, oh.

"Yeah, OK. Maybe it's not actually coming from the light, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is."

He proceeded to systematically turn off every appliance in the kitchen, including CD player and radio, check the electromagnet on the back door, turn off the extract fans, the gas conduit, and everything else he could think of, including checking the ceiling panels for faults in the kitchen ventilation system. "No, I really think it's that light, but there's some trick to disconnecting that alarm that I don't know." He rang the electrician back and asked him to come round. The electrician said he could arrive around lunchtime.

Reluctantly, I told the kitchen staff they'd have to wait a few more hours. By this time, I was used enough to the beep to know that it beeped 10 times, then stopped for just long enough to make me believe I'd found the source of the beeping, then started again and beeped for another 10 times.

At 12:30, the electrician still hadn't arrived. I rang the contractor, who told me it would probably be 1:00. Reluctantly, I told the nursery staff that it would be 1:00, then headed home for a late lunch, assuming the electrician would be there when I returned.

You already know what happened, don't you? Of course the electrician wasn't there. I called the contractor, who assured me he was on his way.

Meanwhile, I'd discovered a radio that teachers at the secondary school thought had been nicked was actually at the lower school office the whole time, found that the back window of my building had been smashed, taped, and hazard-marked and nobody had informed me, and gone through some furniture catalogs in hopes of talking the powers that be into purchasing some more chairs for the community centre.

When the electrician arrived, I took him into the kitchen. The contractor was with him. "Sounds like a smoke detector battery alarm," he said. He checked the smoke detector and the light and turned every appliance off and on and admitted that he was half deaf, so needed me to stay around and tell him if the noise had stopped, because high frequencies are difficult for him. He tested the fuses on the lamp and determined that one of them was indeed low, so we could do with a new battery there. He tested the emergency lighting and said that it wasn't low enough for the battery to be not charging at all, though. He opened the ceiling panels. The contractor said he'd leave us to it and headed back to the school to continue what must have been a really long meeting with the facilities manager. We had no luck.

The facilities manager arrived around 2:15 for our discussion about risk assessments and some health and safety issues. This was a productive meeting. We worked for about 45 minutes while the electrician continued to try and find the source of the beep. He came out after that time and told us he was completely stymied; would the facilities manager like to come by and have a listen? The three of us ended up going to the fuse box and turning off each connection to the kitchen sequentially to try and find which circuit the beeping noise was connected to. No luck. The facilities manager had to leave, and as he left my coworker arrived, so I asked her to go have a peek at the kitchen while I went outside for a stress break. By this time, it was 3:30, I was meant to be on a train at 4:15, and most of my day had been hosed due to trying to track down this problem, because everyone needed an extra set of ears, or an extra set of hands, and I was the extra.

Three minutes later, the electrician came to the door of the centre and gave me a thumbs up sign. My coworker had found the noise immediately. "It was some little gadget," he said. "And it wasn't in the ceiling at all; it was in a drawer underneath a whole bunch of other stuff."

"No way," I said.

My coworker came out with the triumph in her eyes. I shook her hand and awarded her the informal employee of the week award. "What was it?" I asked.

"It was a meat thermometer," she said. (A probe, Brits.) "I don't know why it was going off like that, maybe the batter is bad or something. You couldn't hear where the noise was coming from?"

"She went right to it," said the electrician.

"Did you tell the nursery manager?" I asked.

"Yes," said my coworker.

The facilities manager came over to retrieve his USB drive, and I asked him about the window.

"What window?" he said.

We walked back to examine the window, found that glass had indeed been ordered for it; the facilities assistant just hadn't informed the facilities manager or me about the broken window.

When I went back to speak to the nursery manager, she was sympathetic about our not finding the beeping noise. "How could we have known?" she asked. And, in true nursery manager form, the next thing out of her mouth was, "I want to know why the kitchen staff didn't know where this probe was and what it sounds like, and I want to know why we're not using it when we cook."

Um, because yesterday's nursery lunch was chicken nuggets? It's hard to measure the temperature of a chicken nugget, even with a probe so sensitive it goes off in proximity to a dishwasher.....

My son and I managed to be late to both possible direct trains and had to go through London Bridge to get to our Friday game night.

But now I know what a meat thermometer sounds like, and so does everyone else at the centre. Assuming it ever happens again, which I believe is highly unlikely, we will be able to isolate and stop this device before it kills an entire day again.

Thought For the Day

2009-06-01T08:59:02Z

[Knitting] Swag, and Project Updates!

2009-05-29T19:33:51Z

Recently, I Got Yarn. I also started a new sock, plus did some work on some older projects. Clearly, I am seeking distractions against the other sock I have to design this week....

It's a Knit Kit!
Seriously, it's a Knit Kit. It's got Stuff.

Swag!
From Get Knitted Dot Com. This is Noro Sock in a colourway that's different from what I'd usually choose, but I quite liked the photo. I'm experimenting with KnitPro (formerly KnitPicks) dpns. I'm still mostly happier magic looping with long circulars, but I liked the Square dpns so well I figured I might as well give some others a try. I experimented with the wooden ones, and, um. Well, they're pretty. I think they'll end up as a gift for somebody.

More Swag!
This from Knit 'n Caboodle, two skeins of self-patterning wool from SchoppelWoole, the same company that produces the Zauberball, another of their lines in purple (this is what I'm making the Pomatomus out of), and some Opal monocolour in a nice blue that I'll use to design a lace sock for autumn.

Pomatomus Sock
After the first pattern repeat. Yeah, I know; I need another project like I need a hole in the head, but I also needed something repetitive to take my mind off all the designing I *should* be concentrating on....

Progress on the Summer Sliding Socks
This is old progress; I haven't been knitting these much, since I've been working on this designing project that I'm not posting pictures of publicly. I really love the way the Zauberball is colouring.

Progress on the Strangling Vines scarf
This is going to have to have the *ahem* blocked out of it, but I do really like the pattern. It's completely mindless at this point, so I carry it in my purse and work on it at meetings and when I have to take the bus somewhere.

[Public] Friends List Cull

2009-05-15T08:38:12Z

I've just made what is for me a pretty large reduction in my friends list. I simply am not having time to read everybody the way I'd like to, and so I've removed several people and communities.

If:
You haven't posted in ages;
We know one another only peripherally;
I know you but don't feel like our common interests meet all that much;
You're not a member of my immediate family/local circle --

I've probably removed you from my friends list.

This doesn't mean I don't like you or that you have offended me or something. It means there are not enough hours in the day! In between work, teaching, writing, music, knitting, and designing, my LJ reading was going into skim-mode anyway, and when I discovered that a couple of old and dear friends had had some trouble and I'd missed it, I realised I needed to make this cut.

If you want to continue to read protected entries, do please drop me a line. I will probably re-add you, but I cannot read everybody anymore.

Knitting, music, some silly memes, some PSAs and all that will continue to be public.

[Knitting] Other Things My New Kitchen Table Is Good For!

2009-05-10T16:17:52Z

IMG_0596.JPG
Originally uploaded by harpetrator

Blocking Lace!

This is mokatiki's BRANCHING OUT, which she gave to me as a birthday present. To preserve my rapidly failing dignity, I won't tell you which birthday it was for. But today, with the help of a £15 playmat from an Amazon Reseller, I've pin-blocked it. Woohoo!

[Knitting] Where to Get the Knit in the UK

2009-05-08T09:55:51Z

Updating my old 'get the knit' post. I'll link it in to my page links and probably post it to Dreamwidth later today.

Where to Get The Knit in the UK

I’m going to concentrate on fast, (relatively) inexpensive mail-order shops here, but you should know that my favourite walk-in knitting store, hands down, is I Knit London in Lower Marsh Street near Waterloo Station. They do some mail-order, but there are less expensive places to order wool online.

That said, here’s my take on UK mail order for wool. I’m not concentrating much on indie dyers, although we have some excellent ones. These are in no particular order; they’re just from my bookmarks.

MCA Direct is a fantastic source of the kinds of wool you’d find in a haberdasher’s or a Hobbycraft. They sell all grades of acrylics, wools from Sirdar, Patons, Jaegar and Wendy. Their high end is Rowan wools and Regia sock yarns. They often have good closeouts on discontinued wools and sell project packs at a discount. Ordering from them is fast, direct, and personal; I got an apologetic email when I ordered something that had just been sold out, for example.
Texere sells bulk wools on cones at pretty good prices. You can find all kinds of grades and blends, not all of which are suitable for handknitting. They do sell some balled yarns, but the thing you’d be looking for here is large amounts of yarn for specific projects.
ColourMart has a fantastic array of fine laceweight to aran weight fibres. They specialise in cashmere, silk, and other high-end fibres, and their selection, while mercurial, is vast. Do not visit this site if you are a lace knitter with an online shopping addiction. You Have Been Warned. ;-)
First 4 Yarns comes highly recommended. They’re another supplier of mixed yarns, including some higher end things.
Get Knitted is a big mail-order outlet that recently opened a storefront in Bristol. They’ve been the ‘best’ UK mail order shop for a long time, and they carry knitpicks needles and other posh accessories.
Socktopus is a mail order shop that caters exclusively to socknitters. They also have a storefront shop in London, but I haven’t been in. While they look good on paper and run a lot of workshops, their website selection is often thin or out of stock. I’ve never ordered anything from them.
Knit N Caboodle is another big mail order supplier; they have Zauberball at better prices than anybody else, and they also sell ‘Purple Pins’ dpns, which are very cool to look at. I’ve recently heard stories that their fulfilment is slow and not great, but I’ve also had friends get instant responses from them, so your mileage may vary.
Colinette Yarns sells directly from their mill although they’re also distributed worldwide. Their website is often the best place to find the perfect colour of whatever Colinette yarn you’re looking for, and fulfilment is pretty fast. I’m particularly enamoured of Jitterbug, their excellent multicoloured sockweight yarn.
Angel Yarns is the only online shop I’d put in the ‘avoid’ category. Their website is not tied to their stock, apparently, because everything is listed as in stock, but you can wait ages (and I do mean ages) while they procure your stock. Highly annoying. I ordered twice from them while we were in Singapore, and they never managed to get an order right.

Please comment if you've got another online shop to add. I know we have lots of excellent indie spinners and dyers in the UK, so if you have a favourite feel free to post it in comments; I may try to include them in the list at some future point.

[Knitting] Shyeah.

2009-05-06T21:57:07Z

I should really just back away from Colourmart.

Right. Now.

Severndroog Castle Preservation Trust Barn Dance, 13 June!

2009-05-05T20:24:39Z

The Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust is holding a barn dance on the 13th of June at Woodlands Farm on Shooters Hill Road.

Music by Skinners Rats

Cost is £12, including supper. I have ten tickets to sell; if you're interested, please get in touch!

[Knitting] Fishing for stitch patterns

2009-04-29T11:46:59Z

At this point, I have copies of
The Ultmate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches,
The Vogue Stitchionaries,
The Encyclopedia of Knitting,
The Knitter's Bible,
The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches; and
three of the four Barbara Walker Treasuries.

I'm working on some designs for a couple of pairs of lace socks.

But you know what? All those other books do not hold a candle to the Barbara Walker Treasuries. There's just more, and more interesting stuff, in them. Which is not to say you shouldn't get the others, but I'm finding the Walker treasuries much more valuable as a unit.

Just sayin'.

[Knitting] Stash Enhancement! :-)

2009-04-29T11:19:52Z

So, you know. I got yarn. I didn't pay for all of it, and what I did pay for was cheap, cheap, cheap.

Eight photographs

Amazing Wool from The Knitting Goddess!
Two skeins of sock wool for samples, and one skein of cashmere, just for fun. Yummm.

Here's another photo of them all together -- because they're just so pretty!
Joy, aka The Knitting Goddess, also included a beautiful silver goddess stitch marker.

Blue Faced Leicester Sock Wool, in colour Lime

Cashmere Lace Wool in colourway Autumn

Blue Faced Leicester Sock Wool in colour Brown Owl
(I think this one is my favourite!)

Personal stash enhancement, delivered in one day from MCA
Two skeins of Sirdar Crofter DK, a self-patterning acrylic/cotton/wool blend, in colour Bracken. I think this will be made into something for a certain special baby.

Two Skeins of Sirdar 'Crofter' in colourway Bracken
I love these colours, particularly the interplay of green and purple. I am thinking of a wee cardigan.

Three Skeins of Wendy 'Happy' in Scorpio and Taurus
Wendy 'Happy' is a bamboo/nylon blend that Aunty Marion introduced me to. I found a few skeins of it at a Hobby Lobby last weekend, but knew there must be more colours. My favourite is still the Scorpio (that's the bluey greeny one), but the Taurus (and not just because it's my astrological sign) is a close second. Alas, the Aries and Libra colourways leave quite a bit to be desired and are not as interesting as the fabulous Arieses and Libras I know. Capricorn was nice, but I think my sister the Capricorn will prefer the Scorpio — which is why I got two of those! These yarns were very inexpensive. Because I spend so much time (and, OK, money) in IKL, it's easy for me to forget that there are very good wools out there in every bit as good fibre blends as the more expensive stuff.

MCA Direct
The Knitting Goddess

Sock Innovation Errata

2009-04-28T13:16:32Z

Just saw this posted on the internet sock list:

Sock Innovation Errata.

[Knitting] Summer Sliding Sock, Progress

2009-04-28T11:32:53Z

Summer Sliding Sock Progress
Originally uploaded by harpetrator

Here's a glimpse of the continuing Summer Sliding Sock. I haven't worked on this sock since Saturday, since I've been down with flu and I really am not up for ticky or difficult knitting. It's teddy bear jumpers and a ditty bag for me at the moment.

I'm into the gusset increases at the moment and will turn the heel fairly soon.

[Knitting] Summer Sliding Sock, new needle

2009-04-23T07:21:23Z

Summer Sliding Sock, new needle
Originally uploaded by harpetrator

I think the new needle is working. I kept the first sock on the 3.25mm needle and started this one on a 2.5mm. I was a little worried at first because the tension was visibly denser and I was concerned it wouldn't fit, but I think it's actually going to work out fine at this point. And yes, I like the green-to-yellowy-orange thing the other ball was doing a bit better than this, but we'll get to that point on this sock as well.

[Knitting] Summer Sliding, lace pattern emerging

2009-04-22T06:33:51Z

summerslidinglace
Originally uploaded by harpetrator

I'm really loving the way the colours are coming out on this sock. Thanks to everybody who encouraged me to knit this one: I think it's going to work out fine.

My only concern still is that the 3.25mm needles are not giving a very firm sock and that both the pattern itself and the garment will suffer for this. Then again, I still have my first pair of socks, made in sockweight Fortissima Socka, on 3.5mm needles, and they've held up fine. I can't help but think the pattern might look nicer with a firmer tension. The largest size for this fairly complicated sock is 70 sts around, so I had to find a tension that would give between 9.5 and 9.7 stitches per inch on 70 stitches. I settled on 7.5 stitches/inch on the 3.25mms, which will give me a sock 9.5" around -- half an inch smaller than my foot, but the sock should stretch.

It's still possible I'll rip this out; I need to see how the lace pattern looks once it's built a little more. I'll make a decision probably in the next two or three inches.

[Knitting] Summer Sliding, Toe

2009-04-21T14:37:29Z

summerslidingtoe
Originally uploaded by harpetrator

I am loving knitting with the Zauberball! It's unlike any other sock wool I've ever used in that it appears not to be plied. It's almost like a sock weight Lopi, only very soft and more than a little bit fuzzy. Despite its appearance in the ball, it does have variable thickness.

In order to knit the Summer Sliding socks, I had to go up several needle sizes, so depending on how the patterning looks, you may see a reluctant frog have to happen here. If that does happen, I'll drop back to the Magic Mirror socks, which have very similar construction. I'm thinking that the fuzziness of the Zauberball may make up for the 7.5 st/in tension, which is really working very well. I'm using Addi lace needles, which also help with the fuzziness. The designer wants 9 st/in, so I'm hoping that the general stretchiness of lace will forgive my tension sins.

You can see that the green is just beginning to lighten into yellow at the top of the toe there; I'm very interested in seeing how and where the colour changes will take place. Although I've experimented with Turkish cast-on before (and taught it in class -- that was the first time I ever did one!), this is the first pair of socks I've done a Turkish cast-on for, and I am in love. The seamless appearance of the toe is, to quote a world of supervillains, 'sheer elegance in its simplicity!'. And it allows an easy wedge toe on a toe-up sock without the bumps and jogs you get from the QK double cast-on or doing a provisional cast-on and picking up stitches!

[Knitting] Razors Edge Socks, Finished!

2009-04-20T08:33:09Z

I completed these last night and wove the ends in this morning.

Razors Edge Socks -- Finished!
Here's a full-on view.

Side By Side
Here's one of the few places you can tell the socks don't match exactly -- and it isn't even my fault! There was a strangely long stripe of one of the variegated colours, twice as long as the one on the previous sock. I ended up removing the orange stripe from the left sock, as it's theone you barely see in the front. |In retrospect, possibly I should have gone with the green variegate, but I couldn't tell 100% at that point that the socks weren't going to match unless I moved some colours around. Once again, the i-cord bindoff proved very simple but required more than one colour stripe of blue; however, since these are toe-up socks, fudging and futzing around with the wool colours at the cuff point won't get you into *too* much trouble. ;-)

Close-up of slipped razor pattern
I like the way this pattern frames the gusset of the sock.

The pattern seemed OK to me as I knit the second sock, but obviously as I wrote it I won't find errors the way someone who didn't write it, might. I'm open to anybody knitting these and telling me how they get on; you can find the pattern here. I hope to have it linked on Ravelry as an actual pattern sometime soon, but I'm having trouble with this process.

ETA: One thing I'm concerned about with the pattern is that knitters used to knitting socks may find the distribution of stitches at the heel turn a little confusing. I should probably go back and edit it so that you always know the number of stitches you should have on the instep and heel sides of the sock. And alas, since the numbers aren't regular, I probably won't be able to design this for different sizes using Sock Wizard. However, since I knit the socks on 3.25mm needles, I think a lot of sizing leeway would be possible if you used needle sizes down to say 2.0mm.

The Ravelry Project Page for these socks is here.

[Knitting] Good Customer Service Kudos

2009-04-19T19:34:44Z

To Knitting Software .Com, from whom I purchased the inexpensive Sock Wizard Mac application yesterday. There were two versions of their ordering website online, one with a download option and one without. The one with the download option did not work, so I ordered the software to be shipped, and this morning I sent an email asking if there were a downloadable version.

We went off to take pola_bear back to university early this afternoon, and I thought no more of it, figuring I'd get a response possibly on Monday. But when we stopped for lunch, I checked email via the iPhone and found that the lady from Knitting Software had already got back to me, apologising because they'd updated their website and those links weren't good, including a download link to the software and a note that she wouldn't be charging me for shipping!

And now on to the application, which looks great, if basic. It's essentially a full-service sock calculator, with a lot of options. Alas, it isn't customisable to the point where I could just plug in some parameters and change a sock architecture a la Cat Bordhi, but it offers cuff-down and toe-up options, patterns written for 4 or 5 dpn or 1 or 2 circulars, and a very nice variety of heels and toes, including a toe-up star toe which looks like fun—in three lengths, standard (crew) short (ankle) and knee. The website has photos of some of the heel designs. It makes patterns according to US shoe sizes, which may prove a bit of a problem for some, but there are plenty of online conversion charts that will tell you what your US shoe size would be. It does not allow adjustments for very wide feet/ankles/calves, but does enough of the basic maths that it will be possible to design the same sock in several sizes, aside from the charting of whatever pattern I want to use. The charting, of course, is what Stitch Visualizer is for. ;-) (subtle hint: my birthday is coming up!) :-D

I suspect I'll get seriously started on whatever I'm making with the Zauberball and try to clear some more UFOs before I settle down to knitting any socks from Sock Wizard-based patterns, but so far I'm pleased. The program is easy to use, produces simple, readable patterns that can be customised to my satisfaction and will need only basic tweaks to incorporate inventive patterning and whatnot, and it was quite inexpensive at $35 US.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about Sock Wizard in the days and weeks to come, but my first impression is very good.

[Knitting] Zauberball!

2009-04-17T09:57:17Z

I picked up this lovely wool on Wednesday at I Knit London, and now I'm thinking I may get a second ball of it if they still have it on Saturday.

Zauberball translates to 'magic ball', and I think that even in the ball it live up to its name. It's just alive with possibilities, isn't it? The wool comes in an astounding array of colours, not all of them this bright, I promise!

Zauberball!
I'm sorry for the blurry photo, iPhone, iPhone, blah, blah, blah, but I really love this wool and the colours are fantastic. It will make up into very long stripes that fade into one another gradually, and right now I'm trying to decide what to make with it. Right now, I'm thinking of the Flit & Float Scarf from this spring's Knitty, or maybe....

Bettie's Lace Stockings

Firestarter

Magic Mirror

Summer Sliding

Which one do you think I should make? :)