Glorious news

I’ve given up on designing my own site (it’s so hard to be satisfied with one’s own work). Thanks to the miracle of WordPress, kerryannwall.com is up and running. I will continue to blog here, mostly about nerdy things such as video games and hockey and all other things unrelated to my professional self, and I will eventually get game girls up and running, I swear.

As you were.

I agree

“Of all the people I know, you were the most likely to announce that you were engaged over Twitter.”
— Adrian Morrow

I love a good crossword in the morning

… if by “morning” you mean “sometime after midnight.” Yes, more disturbing than my inability to fall asleep before 3 a.m. (thank you, night shift) is my ability (“willingness” is probably a better term, on second thought) to plow through a series of New York Times puzzles without stopping before going to bed. (It’s not like there’s anything on TV.)

The full extent of my crossword addiction was documented a little too well in an unfortunate opinion piece best forgotten (though after re-reading it just now, I think I overestimated the horror). It appears that my doomsday-esque prediction that crosswords were about to be eaten alive by sudoku (which most spell-checking devices — still — don’t recognize, incidentally) turned out to be wrong. In fact, it’s practically worked out in my favour now that the crossword puzzles in newspapers strewn about in subway cars are still untouched by the time I get to them. (The same can rarely be said for the sudokus, most of which are at least half-finished before being abandoned.)

There was no real point to this post, other than to distract me from crosswords and our old friend rampant speculation.

Around in circles

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m currently working on a tiny sweater. It is, apparently, easier to knit tiny things because they progress so much faster (leading to less frustration and more self-esteem) and also because they involve much less yarn.

More interestingly, this is my first real attempt at circular knitting, which started off annoying and has now progressed to the point that straight needles feel strange and unnatural. This is aided somewhat by the fact that I have been working exclusively in stockinette stitch, and stockinette stitch is even easier using circular needles as it’s the same thing all the time. Furthermore, I’m getting serious help with the sleeves (thanks, mom!) as they each require the use of four double-pointed needles, and that’s a skill I just don’t have.

So I guess it’s more accurate to say I’m currently working on the body — the vest portion, if you will — of a tiny sweater.

In other good news, I’ve found two other patterns I plan to start moving on once the sweater is done. Exciting.

Y/N

The CBC has followed the Toronto Star into the realm of multi-layered commenting; that is to say it now allows readers to react positively or negatively to comments left on news stories.

Which sounds like a good idea until comments extending sympathy to the family of a person who has died start racking up the “disagrees.”

This very issue was the subject of a recent comment on the Star’s website speculating that someone could post a comment about children needing nurturing and encouragement and at least one person would “disagree” with it.

And finally, acceptance

After realizing that I have the domain name until 2012, I decided to get a move on.

It’s not anywhere near done (that should go without saying) but it uses words other than “coming” and “soon,” and is thus a marked improvement over what was up there yesterday.

I think it’s a spectacular font. You may disagree.

Lace FAIL

I gave up on the wrap. If I don’t knit something successfully soon, I will be horribly discouraged. Or possibly just sleepy.

Next up: tiny items of clothing.

And blogging more often.

Luddite

People react to the fact that I knit the same way they react to the fact that I have a landline.

“But aren’t you young and, you know, high-tech and stuff?”

Also interesting is that I’m not advanced enough at knitting to be considered cool for it, yet not remedial enough to qualify for serious help/pity from the cool, advanced knitters. Every so often, I encounter something that makes me wish I could crochet and only half-jokingly vow to learn, but it never happens. Or, at least, it hasn’t happened yet. The resolve continues to exist.

But I do enjoy telling people who ask whether I crochet that I’m not a hooker. (Zing.)

I’m up to seven knitting books now, including three stitch dictionaries. I’m still not very good. It’s a problem.

In unrelated news, how long can somebody last before dealing in death and destruction for a living starts to get to her?

It feels so much like stealing

The “very simple eyelet” (yo, k2tog, k6, repeat) is probably not really “lace” per se, but it appears in the “lace” section of the Stitchionary, and the Stitchionary never lies. (It’s also in the Lace and Eyelet Harmony Guide, but that seems to differentiate between proper lace and eyelets. I digress.)

The point is that I should probably not be tagging posts about the simple eyelet pattern with “lace,” but it’s too late now.

This needs to be finished by early summer. Contrast this with another project that, ideally, should be done by next week and almost certainly won’t be. Prioritization fail.

The shame of it

Yes, I have yet another new layout and yes, I should blog more. And I will. The bad news is that much of it will be about knitting because I am overwhelmingly lame commited to improving.

I am moving beyond scarves — slowly. I need longer needles. I also need more yarn. Pictures will follow, though most of the things I’m planning are intended as gifts. I finished a handful of scarves just before Christmas and have no photos to share. I’m attempting to learn lace. It’s infuriating.