May 2005 Archives

So what do you do with that random expensive skein you bought? Not another scarf, not another hat, not mittenettes. We have a great cute shrug thanks to Glampyre.

{flickr tags = glampyre glampyreoneskeinwonder oneskeinwonder}

Now, tiny shrugs aren't new, but I'm going to be buying this shrug pattern because it actually has shoulder shaping. I already sit like Quasimodo, I don't need any more help in looking like Egor And face it, any woman who can make a shrug pattern out of ONE SKEIN is a brilliant woman. We should support her so she creates more brilliant patterns. Finally, I have hopes that my expensive one skein wonders will become great cute little shrugs for the summer to ward off air conditioning.

Now just to rootle through my stash. And to find some time to knit this.

It is inevitable that you'll have to speak to someone's customer service at one point or another. So go and read these tips for getting good customer support which basically include working with the customer service person in a constructive manner and provide them with a concise explanation. One thing I'd like to add is that if something has gone wrong, when you have a "complaint", tell them
- what the problem is with the product you paid for/are using. Keep this concise.
- * What you'd like them to do about this* In other words, what can they do to make you a happy customer? Don't keep them guessing! Sometimes, I just want to give someone a head's up. Other times I want them to reverse the charges. When communicating customer service, know what you want to report with some pertinent details, if the situation is urgent, what you'd like them to fix, and if you're feeling constructive, quickly what you really love about their product.

Lastly, if a customer service person has made you happy and you felt like you were talking to an intelligent human being, always tell them so. Personally, I think the majority of formerly almost-decent customer service reps were yelled at, cursed, hung up on, and left with a nasty taste in their mouth. Telling customer service or a retail person that they did a good job, I believe, provides them with some encouragement that they're doing a good job and not all people want to give them swirlies or other not so pleasant actions. Encourage people to give you good customer service.

A message from freecia to fellow knitsters who are on the lookout for great yarn stores. SUPER SUPER! Full Thread Ahead was launched this last weekend and I loved the Bamboo and Soy Silk! But I was a good girl and just came out with the Cascade Cotton Rich. I did spot Bogie of Knit Flix at the launch. That was interesting because I regularly read her blog and thought it might be her, then went home and saw the yarn she picked up.
There are those who argue about the ethics of injecting advice when it is really advertising and well, I kind of agree with them. However, I saw some unique yarns there and know Hollis is totally committed to getting some great yarns you don't see very often. This is tough in our area since we've got LYS galore but I have to say that if you buy some of that yarn, I've probably drooled on it. So, freecia drool free with purchase. Given that I'm like a fanatical shopper (we've been known to visit 3-4 yarn shops in a day looking for the exactly perfect item. Or my wanting to make all my friends go to the Hudson in New York for the yarn stores, nevermind only three of us knit) I can totally say that many of these are custom dyed yarns in lucious summer colors but Hollis also took into account her friends' tastes and included wonderfully tactile neutrals and my moldy greens. Char's big chunkies. Melissa scored some pretty cotton for a Vintage Knits tank top. And an awesome level of customer service (She fed us while showing off the yarn).
Go now for the 15% discount she's offering, just enter LAUNCHPARTY in the discount field during checkout! Dive Right in I almost did with her big oodles of yarn. Ohh. Did I mention that she's been knitting for... Let's just say her first knitted object might be able to purchase alcohol. Always nice to know that you're buying from an expert knitter who has actually knit up patterns she's selling with the yarns she carries.

Check out my Trellis!

Flickr tag = knittytrellis Tag your trellis photos uploaded to flickr.com with knittytrellis and we can find your photos by searching for knittytrellis on flickr
I've substituted the Rowan All Seasons Cotton with 6 skeins of Cascade Cotton Rich and really love how great the stitch definition is. The only thing not to be loved about this cotton is how the label says "Hand Wash Only" hahahaha. Yeah. Uh huh. Right. I don't even really mind the cotton shedding on my hands. Yes, my hands can get sweaty with the excitement of cabling (and yes, I learned via Wendy Knits to cable without a cable needle).

So, you want details?
1. The color is called buttercup. A flora named yarn for a flora named pattern.
2. I'm making it extra large for a one year old (he's almost two months old) because bigger kid-knits are better than smaller, it might take me a while, and the kid is super-cute in all his chubbiness. Hey, I was majorly chubby, too.
3. The YARN HARLOT has read my blog and left a comment. I'm stunned, yes you made it in the top three Stephanie. A) Not to insult my readers, the whole 10 of you, but I'm stunned I managed to attract the famous lurker and have her leave a comment. I say DUDE in all my California born privileges to surfer talk B) Someone other than who I've Secret Pal'd with or knows me in person can actually possibly spell my name, or use RSS . Yes, my friends who refuse the manna of goodness called RSS. And the boyfriend who is regularly notified and quizzed on blog entries.
4. Not pictured clearly here, but evidently my double yarn overs were absolutely deformed until Charlene came and showed me how to make better yarn overs.
5. due to my malformed deformed yarn overs, I have two tiny buttonholes which will probably fit a US #8 needle but not any reasonably sized button.
6. After I took the pic I knit another monumental 4 inches or so. Hey, it is cotton and cabling.
7. I watched three episodes of Stargate SG-1 while working on the Right front. On Monday. In a row.
8. Buttonholes and Seed Stitch don't seem to play well with each other. I'm working to get a ombudsman to oversee with specific instructions.
9. Even though I think I know the pattern, it works much better and less wonky cabling if I'm a- paying attention and b-actually following the pattern or at least using it as a reference for "hmm. what went on here???"
10. Who really hand washes cotton. I'm going to toss it in permanent press on warm. Hey, it is big, it is okay if it shrinks some. Maybe a swatch first, though.
11. (for added value) Yes, those are double pointed needles. I can't find my Denise #7s and will probably need to buy a replacement plus some clover bamboo from Hollis, my knit momma and proud owner of a new online knitting store with oodles of luscious not-previously-seen-by-me yarn (I love the woman. Check out the Rainbow Wools which Char feel in lust with.)

The Japanese Bookstore got my other major purchase where I went in to buy a postcard and came out with $30 worth of stuff. Some of it pens and notebooks (always a nice pick me up applicable to school. Really, I need more pens. I don't have every single one as of yet) but I also scored this Learn How to Crochet Book!
Do you recognize him? The Prince of Knitting! (as seen on pinkurocks.) This book is filled with great step by step instructions. Yes, it is in Japanese. No, I do not read Japanese but there are extensive graphics. And my neato crochet pattern books are in Japanese thanks to a pinku swap! I swore I would learn crochet for two patterns in a book she sent and so I shall. Once I find my crochet hook.
Price: $13.95 USD or 900 Yen
ISBN: 4-415-10091-0
Blogs are awesome. Bloggers are super-awesome. Better than wonderful colors of Alpaca Yarn.

Have you SEEN the new knitty surprise?

> This time, something for the new mom
> Something for the less-new mom
> And something for the kid in all of us
> Don't forget to check out our review page -- new goodies are there, too!

Thanks to my cousin, I have a little human to knit for. Despite him crying when he wears the pumpkin hat. Hey, I warned him... His auntie is odd. Babe, you're just going to have to wear one of these beaties, but maybe not in July when your auntie from Australia (another cousin) comes back.

Hoo Yeah. I'll be stashing for this sweater soon.

The university gives me a reasonable 1,000 page print quota but my relationship with Kinkos is budding into a cautious semi-reliable "family". I imagine this is what overloards say to small companies. Not a partnership but those ambiguous marketing words.

Believe it or not, evidently I surpassed 1,000 pages of printing last quarter of 99.9% legit school material. My teachers like slides and articles. Maybe there was an issue with the print spooler. So, this quarter, when I signed up with Oreilly Safari for a few books and reference materials for my Design Pattern class, I told myself to use Kinkos and I have to tell you, Kinkos has potential to become a Grad Student tool.

My life is just too good. I mean, how often does someone in your knitting group open up an online yarn store and import stuff you've never seen. My stash is now so sad in comparison. My life is aimless and without purpose until some of this yarn comes home with me.

What am I talking about?

The Launch Party is this weekend. RSVP if you can make it! If you can't but see something you like, leave a comment on the blog to indicate interest ('cause Hollis is great but she can't read minds outside of a 10 mile radius. I should know. She keeps on buying all my colors in the perfect weights and blends. Don't even get me started on the info she scrounged on needles or a certain East Coast Yarn I was staring at during Stitches West). The store is online, after all, so you can shop to your content. Mad brilliant.

If my world was perfect, she'll also carry the Phildar patterns. Except it seems to be an extreme effort to get Phildar in the States and it is already available in Canada. Guess I might just mail order once I get to a sleeve in Sway.

Speaking of Sway, the fronts are coming along nicely. I'll take a photo of it soon! And once again answer Charlene's question of why I have holes in the fronts. They're POCKETS Char. POCKETS.

I like to revise my entries after writing and publishing them. Perhaps it has something to do with seeing my actual post on the page and noticing the mistakes (so it would be smart to let me see this post in its entire context with styles in place rather than in easier to read previews)

And today I realized something baaaad about my habit. I accidentally trackback spam articles I link to because my site is set to autoresolve trackbacks from links I've included in my post. In short, that means my post appears many many times in the trackback section of another site. A well read site. Yes, this is embarassing.

So. I went and turned off my auto-resolve. It can be turned off in the WEBLOG CONFIG section > Preferences.
Scroll down until you find the trackback section and turn it off.

While reading LifeHacker which is a site promoting shortcuts for everyday productivity, my worlds suddenly convereged! Knit that Photo which referenced another geeky blog I read Make:Blog and their article LogoKnitting I was all whooooaaa. Just when did these geeky techie blogs with mostly guys notice the rise of knit? And Knit tools? But hey, new knit tools always welcome!

But perhaps it was the more socially oriented concept that caught their eye. Make (or rather Phil Torrone of Make Mag, or he with the cutest geek dog who has a proper knitter's response for the ipod sock. Both the dog and the blogger.) says of the KnitPro tool

Handy, it's also part of a larger project called "logoknitting" microRevolt fiber hobbyists use the tactic of "logoknitting" for sweatshop awareness. Logoknitting means knitting a logo into a garment. They knit logos of well known sweatshop offenders, as a way to promote discussion on how advertising, labor, production and consumption relate.

I tried out the tool and it returns your image in a nicely row and stitch numbered grid in easily printable pdf. Very cool!

And what did I say after I realized my worlds bumped into each other? Intarsia. *shudder* Bah. Maybe I will... And thought of yet another of my worlds of neat icons and pixel-graphics that I could churn out in knitwear much like the wristlets in SnB 1 and my favorite space invader wristlet which is on my mental list (gotta go write that down. k). Though it occurs to me now that pixelblocks are a perfect way to fiddle about with color patterns.

Perhaps the world of freecia where geekery meets knit meets Getting Things Done isn't as unique as I thought...

I have not abandoned my Sway sweater nor have I been knitting anything else. My knitting life has been taken over by my professors who ... Well, let's just say that I've resorted to getting up earlier and time management techniques in order to have a shot of completing some of this massive load of homework.

Sway progress has moved above the front pockets! The pockets had me confused for a while because the first try resulted in an upside down pocket. The second try resulted in a rightside up pocket but I was wondering whether to "place pocket" in the front or the back. I've settled for putting the pockets in the back simply because the instructions indicated that I would need to put 22 stitches on a stitch holder while knitting in the pocket. They don't say to switch back so I'm assuming the pockets/linings go in the back. How I'm going to seam these, I don't quite know. Had I paid more attention in the beginning, I'd have knitted a different pocket style than called for.

Time to get back to the Design Patterns which is not knitting patterns (as my boyfriend cheerfully hoped as do I) but programming with Design Patterns. I'd listen to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy read by Douglas Adams while working on it but I must focus! Waiting to try audiobooks while knitting though!