Saturday, October 07, 2006

G, B & U

G is for Good

Good # 1

Although I do not usually post about acquisitions, I feel compelled to celebrate the fact that Koigu, a yarn dyed in Canada, is *finally* available in Ottawa, the nation's capital. Hallelujah!!


I might have bought a skein or 10.


Good #2

I haven't posted a doodad for a while, so in honour of Socktoberfest, allow me to share my method of storing DPNs. I used to use one of those roll things, but then I came across this:


I found them in a local dollar store. I believe they are originally designed to store utensils or silverware, but they're the perfect size for DPNs. I can keep each size in its own little tray. They stack for neat storage.



B is for Bad

Bad #1

I was going to post my answers to Lolly's Socktoberfest questionnaire (BTW - What's the difference between a questionnaire and a meme?) but I decided, after coming across the gazillionth questionnaire on other blogs and saying, "Yikes, not another one," that I wouldn't. My BAD. Sorry, Lolly.

While I was preparing to answer the questionnaire that I am not going to answer, I was digging around trying to find my first pair of socks that I knit back in 1999 using the famous Two-Strand Wool-Ease Socks that was all the rage many, many years ago that I had knit just to see how socks worked with the intention of determining how they held up, but I couldn't find them, and since I'm not sure whether I kept them or gave them away in the first place, I reminded myself that if I was to have done something differently, I really should have kept better track of a little piece of history, and likely should have used a nicer yarn, like Koigu, or Cherry Tree Hill, or one of the many wonderful handpaints that are available, but since I just wanted to figure what the heck a heel flap and gusset were, and I obviously did figure it out since I've many too many pairs to count since then, in the end, it was probably irrelevant. :-)

Bad #2

I did, however, find the second pair of socks I knit. I remember slaving over them, playing with gauge and stitch count so the colours wouldn't pool or stack but would still give me a nice pair of socks. And nice they were, for many years. Alas, Cleckheaton Tapestry, though beautiful, isn't really meant to give you socks that last for 20 years. The socks, though wonderful, are on their last legs .... err, toes.

U is for Ugly

Ugly #1

I apologize if I owe anyone emails, or responses to comments, or anything like that. It seems my computer was hit by an Ad-bot, despite about 37 prophylactic programs, and it is slowly eating its own hard drive. I have managed to save all my saved knitting patterns and photos and am in the process of saving all the rest of the crap I have accumulated over the past five years with this machine. My inbox has managed to empty itself several times, and my address book is now toast. It seems I get to spend the long weekend reformatting my hard drive and trying to load everything back on.

Ugly #2

I didn't pay much attention to blogs until I found Bloglines, and then I fell in love. At last count, I am subscribed to 718 blogs. (No wonder I don't get much kintting done.) However, in the last few days, Bloglines has decided that it wants to "help" me by automatically refreshing itself every five minutes. And while it does that, I get to sit and watch it, because it won't let me continue reading the blog I'm currently viewing. And if I should happen to go somewhere to comment and try to get back while it is refreshing itself, it freezes and shuts itself down. Thank you, Bloglines, for trying to be ever so helpful and thinking I am too stupid to click refresh myself when I want to refresh.

Jason, over at Jason Knits, has a very cool Google Reader blingy-thingy on his blog, and I am Very Seriously considering taking my blog reading business elsewhere.

According to the Bloglines home page, if you put the phrase bloglines freedbacking into a post, Some Poor Sap from Bloglines will actually read what you've written. I apologize, SPSfB, but since Bloglines has wasted an inordinate amount of my time this week, I decided to put this little bit of bloglines freedbacking way down at the bottom of this post so you can also waste a bit of time reading a bunch of nonsense about socks before you get to the bloglines freedbacking that you want/need to read. Turnabout is fair play. Unless you are a fellow socknitter, in which case, I hope you enjoyed the post.

34 people had something to say:

Mama Urchin said...

Dave, your bloglines freedbacking awesome!

karrie said...

Bloglines kinda forced me to start using firefox because when i used safari the updating totally seized my computer, too.

earthchick said...

ITA about Bloglines. Grrr.

And I'm sorry about your computer. That bites. [Glad you could save your patterns and pics though - that's what scares me most about computer probs I've been having!]

Manda said...

Oddly enough, my experience is the opposite. I love the new Bloglines, but the new version of Google Reader is really getting on my nerves. At first it wouldn't work at all in Opera. Now that I've found some scripting to fix that, I have to learn half a dozen new keyboard shortcuts (which of course are completely different than Bloglines' shortcuts) which do the same thing as only two in Bloglines. I'd dump Google in a heartbeat, but Blogger has put hotlink protection on BlogSpot images so they won't show up in Bloglines. Google owns Blogger, so they do show in Google Reader. Getting rid of Google Reader would mean losing all my BlogSpot subscriptions, and I don't want to do that. ;)

Anyway, Bloglines people have always been quick to respond to my rants when they have server problems or whatever, so you'll hear from them soon.

Oh, and nice Koigu! :)

Nana Sadie said...

Gorgeous KOIGU!!! Can't wait to see all your socks...I'm new to bloglines, and so far, even with the new stuff, I'm okay - HOPE you get your computer taken care of before it dies (I'll say a prayer to the computer gods that it dies in grace AFTER you finish transferring everything!)
(((hugs)))

Mag said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mag said...

What a wonderful blog I've discovered!
Bloglines frustrates me.
I am a Koigu lover and have no place local to buy it. Buying online is near to impossible with a lot of returning and trying etc.
Pilgrimages are required.

~Previous post deleted due to silly typo~

Anonymous said...

You must be the person who went to Wool'n Things before me and bought a lot!!! Yes, I stocked up too and asked Gisèle to order the solid colors too. Koigu is WONDERFUL!!!

Anonymous said...

You, sir, are the dollar store king! I shall have to hit my dollar store with a new agenda! The Koigu is beautiful! I have never knit with it and same as the last commenter I am hesitant to buy it online. Do you have a favorite colorway?

LaurieM said...

Do you use IE or Firefox for a browser? I find the tabbed browsing in Firefox makes reading blogs much easier. I can read someting, while something else is loading.

I love those Areo DPNs I see you have. I've tried many different kinds in the last while, but the Areo are still my favourite.

BTW-nice Koigu. Leave some for the rest of us!

aija said...

Man, I know what you mean about the koigu. I'm not allowed to set foot in my lys for say, a YEAR now cos I went nuts this time :)

I thought I was bad w/ 400 blogs! You're the man. Obviously. :)

Anonymous said...

I second Laurie's suggestion to use Firefox and its fabulous tabs. Oh, how I love the tabs!

I only sucribe to 150 blogs or so and have a hard time keeping up. How do you do it?

LavenderSheep said...

I use Mozilla and agree with the tabs. They rock! I don't think I could ever go back to not having tabbed browsing. Besides Firefox & Mozilla are more secure so they don't get as many viruses. Think no pop ups. Every once and a great while (like maybe once a year) I might get one and it always surprises me.

Sonya said...

Great Koigu colors! I go back and forth on Bloglines too. I may try google for a while.

Liz K. said...

I'm glad I am not the only blogger who chose to opt out of the questionnaire, Lolly-love notwithstanding,

Anonymous said...

I complained about Bloglines to Bloglines myself yesterday about the same thing. It's hella annoying.

Surely you can darn that sock?

Unknown said...

Excellent post Dave! Love the Koigu; have knit some socks with it and have oh maybe a couple of more skeins in my stash LOL...great rant - I too have not done the questionnaire. So sorry about your computer; I think I would have had meltdown at the same time. Bloglines, blogger - up and down for me. Hey I am impressed with the number of blogs you have on your bloglines - you go Dave!

HPNY KNITS said...

with 1774 signed up for socktoberfest- some of us can opt out of the Q...
so sorry about your hard drive trouble- you motivated me to make DVD copies of my knitting files-
but the stash enhancement is very rewarding!
:-)

lexa said...

Love the Koigu!

I was thinking about subscribing to bloglines. Now I kinda wonder. Maybe I'll stick to the old fashioned way for awhile yet. Over 700 blogs, and Aija 400 -- when would I ever get the chance to knit! :)

Have a good Thanksgiving weekend!

Sharon said...

Enjoy knitting all that yummy Koigu :)

Terby said...

Newsgator.

Bloglines ended up driving me nuts a while back.

Pearls Mother said...

I'm sooooo jealous,
Koigu, up close and touchable.
Lindy

Michelle said...

Well, now I want to head out to the dollar store and buy myself cute little stacking bins. But I'm not sure if I have enough dpns in each size to justify them... Maybe I can get some in hopes that I'll build up enough dpns to really need them one of these days.

Anonymous said...

Heh, Koigu sounds like our Jo Sharp Australian Alpaca made in Italy. I had no idea it was dyed in Canada.
Re: Google RSS/XML - I'm switching also! I think we can subscribe to bloglines AND google reader. I'm looking into it as we speak! Will keep u posted. x

Anonymous said...

Me again with a quick query: have u noticed an influx of visitors in the last month (or so)?

turtlegirl76 said...

And I thought I was bad for subscribing to almost 200 blogs. Wow. I am in awe of you and your time management.

Also - any ideas on storing Addi Turbos? Or do you even use them? And if not - why the hell not?

Anonymous said...

I'm still giggling about the SPSfB reading all about sock knitting.

700 subscriptions!?! I think my brain would explode. I know I wouldn't get any knitting done! I can't keep up with the 200ish that I subscribe to!

Teri.p said...

If I say bloglines freedbacking way down here, does that mean the SPSfB has to read all the comments, too?

Now I want to go to the Dollar Store to buy up utensil baskets, Dave. I have small dpn holders that I made (whups - they match your bag but didn't get stitched in time to make the trip to Canada) that I like a lot, but I wanna be like you!

Anonymous said...

Making bloglines read through a post on sock knitting and how to store dpn's - hilarious! ;o)

Anonymous said...

I am so with you on the bloglines thing. That automatic refreshing is making me crazy. And it seems like it interferes with everything, it takes up all my PF usage to refresh. Grrr.

Anonymous said...

David,

Hi! When I log onto bloglines, I click on the entry so my 'puter loads it in a separate pop-up, then I click on another blogline entry, click again so it loads in a separate pop-up, etc. Then I sit down with my coffee, read away, and bloglines refreshing hurts me not! Hope that helps! 700-and how many blogs? Good for you!

Faith said...

Mmmmmmm Koigu....I've never actually knit with it yet, just bought it and admired it because I've got to have it, but have to find the perfect project(s). =)

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

I know this post is a bit old, but I just came across it. I'm an engineer with Bloglines and just wanted to see if you're still with us, and if so, if you're still seeing this problem. We released some updates about two weeks after this post went up that should have addressed the performance problems, and we've turned down the automatic refresh quite a bit since then. If you're still having problems, feel free to contact me at ben.lowery AT ask dot com. Thanks!

CelticCastOn said...

ohhhh Koigu!
lol for the guy from bloglines reading this post heheh