Thursday, May 15, 2014

Swatch It To YA!

Best Quote I Heard All Day

“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either.” --Elizabeth Zimmerman

Even though I am not working as a technical writer, technical trainer, or instructional designer, my beloved EZ quote is always in my heart. Yes, am constantly knitting and only my own designs. You'll be seeing them up on Ravelry as soon as I finish editing my own directions.

Back in 2003, I wrote an article for Knitty.com when it was initially online. Yeah, Swatch Out! Now it's time for me to submit my designs and some articles to the magazines. In 2007 I wrote three for Interweave Knits--the best was my interview with Kristin Nicholas. Love doing interviews and I know who the next knitting celeb would be. Ain't gonna tell you who because that person probably reads my blog.

Swatch Batch

I'm totally addicted to lace and my latest design crap is going to be a stole. Daughter Jennifer and I went down to New Hope, PA, where QueerJoe lives. Jenn bought a gorgeous purple dress and I have this wonderful lace yarn, Juniper Moon Farm Findley, which ain't cheap but is 50% Merino/50% silk.

Here's the swatch, prior to blocking.

Next designs are going to be an Aran pullover with Cascade 220 and a lacy cardigan with Koigu Kersti.  This shit keeps me busy, although I'll be happy to go back working in IT.

New Knitting Chart App

I finally got the StitchMastery trial on my Toshiba PC laptop. Yeah, your Steekin' Geek also owns a MacBook, which I am using now.

StitchMastery is excellent. What pisses me off is that KnitVisualizer has not been upgraded since 2008. Version 2.1 is it. When I upgraded my Mac OS recently, my KnitVisualizer no longer worked. The app opens but you can't create a new chart. The stitch palette is displayed on the left side, not the right side where it used to show up. So Intwined Studio is all I can use on my MacBook.

My late Mom's will is giving me some bucks. Gonna buy a new MacBook. And dump my lousy Toshiba PC laptop, which doesn't have a lot of room on it.

So that's it, skanks! I've not had much to write about recently but will be back here next week.