A Continental Purl That Works

I was taught English knitting and never needed continental until I started doing color work. I quickly learned to knit and after months of forcing myself to purl continental, my purls were still a mess. Disgusted, I ripped out the experiment sweater and reknit it English style.

Over the years, I’ve tried numerous tricks, including the icky finger ring thingymabob that makes your finger sweat, but nothing fixed my purl issues. I was ready to give up and accept that I could knit continental, but I would never be able to purl continental.

Then I stumbled across an obscure references to the Norwegian purl in a knitting history book. The book didn’t make much of an impression on me other than its one line reference to this technique. I can’t even remember it’s name. Thanks to Google, I found a multitude of videos and tutorials on-line and began experimenting until I found an explanation that worked for me.

I rediscovered Hsailormoon‘s video tutorial today and thought I’d share it with everyone. May you find this technique as enjoyable as I do. And if you don’t, may you at least appreciate the idea.

P.S. Thanks to this lovely person I have been purling continental since February. (I’m still an English knitter most of the time.)

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

My Ubuntu: What Changed and Why

As several people have reminded me, I did promise a quick run through of some of the changes I made following the Ubuntu upgrade. As I mentioned in that post, I have a black listed graphics card and an older machine, but I don’t believe I made any of these changes due to hardware issues. *Begin rant* I do enough hacking for others people. I have ZERO desire to do it on my own machine. If something doesn’t work out of the box or with only a minimum of tinkering, the chances are pretty high I’ll ditch it or never try it. This means I prefer to install all of my software from either repositories or .deb installation files. There are legitimate reasons for doing this other than ease of installation.*End rant*

Back Ups

For several years now, I’ve used Flyback for backups. I love the way it creates incremental backups that can be read on any machine with or without the Flyback software. However, Flyback is normally started from a prompt or a manual addition to the Application’s menu and the project no longer has active development, at least not anywhere I found. I swapped to Back in Time, which is like Flyback, but it installs to Applications > System Tools without any hassle and it’s automated scheduling works. (I had to use a word around to get Flyback to do this on my machine.)

Email Client

For several years, I’ve used Evolution, the default Ubuntu email client. I liked it, it worked, and it had the entire kitchen sink plus the pantry. The day after my update Evolution crashed three times. I installed Thunderbird with the Lightening extension for scheduling and tasks and didn’t look back. (You can install both of these from the repositories. System > Administration > Synaptic The only thing it doesn’t do is memos and I never used that feature anyway. I like the interface and it just plain works. (I used several extensions to integrate it with Remember the Milk. Maybe at some point, I’ll get around to writing about that, but right now my life revolves around contracted writing and the next installment in the Knitter’s Guide to Inkscape.

Code Editor

For a long time, I used Emacs, primarily for web coding. Then I began using the Firefox web development extension to code css. I’m a visual person and flipping between two programs so that I can see what the changes really look like seems a little absurd, but the extension wasn’t quite up to level I needed it to be. After a lot of thought and some exploration, I swapped to Kompozer for intricate css work (i.e. the kind that you really need to see it while you’re doing it and you’d better be looking at in something other than your head) and Bluefish for everything else. I have noticed an increase in my efficiency as a result of this change. Some of you undoubtedly believe this is sacrilege, but look at this way. At least, least I didn’t change to Vim.

Dock

(In case you’re wondering what a dock is, it’s the handy set of application icons that Mac became famous for a few years ago. Gnome-DO + Docky takes this idea and moves it up a notch. My installation started with awn, which always seemed a little sluggish to me, probably because I was permanently swapping from one of those shiny Macs, I mentioned earlier. (No, I wasn’t new to Linux. I’ve been using Linux either as dual-boot or on a separate machine since 2001, but I wasn’t enough of a Linux die-hard to give up my little mac. The mac sort of died. (It still runs, but using it takes a lot of effort and some tape.) But the damage was done. I refuse to use anything that doesn’t have a dock. The two extra clicks it takes to click applications, the category, and then program are two too many. And running them from terminal is just as much work. I’m lazy. The dock encourages my laziness in an efficient manner. Enough said. After awn, I used cairo-dock for about nine months. I was happy with it. Then a friend suggested Gnome-DO. It took me a few weeks to get used to it. Then I was hooked. Docky houses my frequently used applications and a simple windows + shift will let me run any application, search for and open any file, and, as an added bonus, it Remembers the Milk, tweets, searches my bookmarks, and it has a dictionary. I think I’m in love. Note: Gnome-DO comes with Docky, which is a Gnome-DO theme. To get to it, start Gnome-DO. Right click and go to Preferences > Appearance.

Web Browser

I still have Firefox installed and I do use it on occasion, but it is no longer my main web browser. I use Opera. It has a basic email client, bit torrent, a tea timer widget, and my daily crossword puzzle. I use it for the tea timer and the crossword. Oh, and the user agent switcher is built in, unlike Firefox which requires a plugin. While I personally despise anyone who says we only support IE and Firefox on computers running Mac and Windows, these sites are sometimes a necessary evil. I’ll lie to them in a heartbeat. 99% of the time, everything works. This does bring me to another change. Most of my blog posts were written using the ScribeFire extension. I swapped to Bilbo. (ScribeFire always seemed to make my Firefox a little unstable (probably due to a conflict with another extension). So even though I resisted this change at first, Bilbo’s working out better for me. (Bilbo is technically a KDE app, but I’ve had no problems installing and running under Gnome exactly like I would any other application. Like Back In Time, it appears to be under active development.)

VMWare to VirtualBox

I heard VirtualBox was faster. I tried it. On my machine, it is so I swapped. I use it to test sites with Internet Explorer and to run BitNami virtual stacks for an experiment I’m currently working on. I’m also toying with the idea of swapping distros (again). I’m currently working my way through Debian, but I don’t see any advantage to making the swap as of this writing. A quick note about BitNami, installing Drupal on XAMPP (the old version because the new one uses the wrong version of php) took me about 40 minutes from the time I downloaded it until I finished the basic installation. This is not including the configuration tasks that you have to do after the basic install. Using a BitNami Native LAMP stack and Drupal module. I had a working localhost Drupal installation in a little under 5 minutes. Even though I’ve since swapped to a virtual machine for this project, I’m sure you can see the why I like the concept behind BitNami. This brings me to a soapbox moment. If you’re encouraging someone to swap to Linux or are thinking about making the swap yourself, install VirtualBox on their (or your) computer and download the distro you’re thinking about using. Install it on the virtual machine and play with it for a while before you partition your hard drive or wipe out your existing operating system. Find out if you (or they) can live with the restrictions of Linux (and believe me, there are almost as many restrictions as there are freedoms). Your favorite Windows programs may run perfectly under WINE or Crossover Office, but there’s also a chance that they won’t. Find out beforehand and get some hands on experience with the alternatives. Now, before this post runs away from me, I’m stepping off the soapbox.

On Other Fronts

I have several designs that I’ve been sitting on for the past several months and I’m getting antsy as my first publication date approaches. This will probably be my last non-knitting post for a while.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Support the Knitting Lounge

I don’t normally post this sort of thing, but the Knitting Lounge at Fashion Week is the sort of project that can benefit all indy handknit designers in the long run. (It could also create a lot more competition, but that’s fine by me.) I donated what I could (it wasn’t much, but every penny helps) and I’m encouraging everyone to donate what they can.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Upgrading From Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04

I tend to bounce from one LTS version to another. It’s not that I don’t like the *.1 versions, but upgrading takes time. Unless there is a substantial performance or software package difference, I don’t upgrade. So when I decided to upgrade to 9.04 from 8.04, there was no longer an upgrade to 8.10 button on my machine. I’m now writing this in Ubuntu 9.04 which runs beautifully on my old 8.04 box. For a variety of reasons, I did not do a fresh install.

My Box:

• Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
• 1253 MiB Memory (upgraded last year)
• 2368 MiB Swap Memory
• Intel Corporation 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device

In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t exactly the latest/greatest anything. In computer terms, I have a dinosaur. One other thing that you may have noticed (or may not, depending entirely on whether or not you ran into this issue yourself), my graphics card was blacklisted by Compiz. Compiz is normally used for compositing. It’s what allows you to run things like Cairo-Dock, Awn, and Gnome-DO Docky. Since Gnome-DO Docky is a “prize it out of my cold dead fingers” app, I must have compositing. I’ll talk about using Metacity compositing instead at the end of the post. There are ways to hack the Compiz blacklist, but a hack is a hack and there are valid performance reasons for not running Compiz on blacklisted chipsets.

Preparing for the Upgrade

You will need the following:

• Ubuntu-8.10-alternate-***.iso (Here’s a link to a torrent site that still has the iso available.)
• Ubuntu-9.04-alternate-***.iso (Ubuntu Site)

Note: Replace *** with i386, amd64, etc. Choose the one that is appropriate for your computer. See the Ubuntu download site for more information.Don’t reach for a CD to burn these images. You don’t need it.

1. Update your current system. System > Administration> Update Manager. Install all available updates.
2. Remove orphaned packages. Open terminal and type: sudo apt-get autoremove. When it asks you if you want to remove x number of packages type Y and press enter.
3. Optional: Install and Run Remastersys to backup your operating system. This basically makes a .iso image that can reinstall your existing installation. I choose to ere on the side of caution, especially because I have known graphics chip issues. I’ve done upgrades like this one several times and never needed this .iso, but that doesn’t mean I might not need it. In my opinion, the peace of mind this gives me is worth the time.
4. Backup your Home Directory (ex: /home/kcknits) and your Remastersys (home/remastersys) directory to a separate hard disk. (If you skip this step, but still ran remastersys, burn the .iso found in /home/remastersys/remastersys tp a disk.) Again this is just a precaution, but shouldn’t you be backing up your home directory regularly regardless? I used Grsync for this backup, which you can find in your Ubuntu repositories. It’s a simple, graphical interface for rsync. I don’t recommend it for frequent backups, but for a one time job, it’s a great little tool.

The First Upgrade

Note: You do have to upgrade to 8.10 before upgrading to 9.04. You don’t necessarily need the 9.04.iso, but it upgrading with the .iso is faster in my experience. (This whole procedure from beginning to end took me about 6 hours to download and install everything. I took the dog outside and played ball while it was running, did a little bit of gardening, and cast-on a sock. I returned to the computer every 30 minutes or so to click OK and left. Admittedly, my hardware was part of the reason why this upgrade was so slow. The Asus EEE 1100H upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 in about 2.5 hours over a wireless connection with no .iso)

1. Move your .iso images into your home directory. For example, if my username is kcknits, then my home directory is /home/kcknits. (I’m using the home directory because accessing it takes less typing, which reduces your margin of error.) (You can copy and paste, cut and paste, or simply download them here to begin with.)
2. Mount the 8.10 alternate .iso. (Note: You must have the alternate .isos. If the word alternate is not in the .iso file name, you do not have the alternate .iso.)
   1. Go to Places > Home Folder.
   2. Inside your home folder, right click on the ubuntu-8.10-alternate-***.iso. Go to rename. Hit ctrl + a. (Select all.) This selects the entire file title inside the rename box. Now hit ctrl + c (copies the entire file name) and click outside the rename box to close it. (You aren’t really renaming the file. You’re just cheating a little bit.)
   3. Open Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal). Type sudo mount -o loop ~/(Do Edit > Paste or ctrl + shift + v to insert the .iso name here) /media/cdrom0 . This should look something like sudo mount -o loop ~/ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0. You should now be able to go to your home folder or your desktop and see that a cd is mounted.
3. Run the update from the .iso. On some machines the update runs automatically. It didn’t on mine. I went back to Terminal and typed: gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”. You can also run this command by typing Alt + F2 and typing the command above into the box that appears.
4. Answer the questions from the upgrade installer. Once the upgrade completes, restart your computer.
5. Update your 8.10 system. System > Administration> Update Manager. Install all available updates.
6. Remove orphaned packages. Open terminal and type: sudo apt-get autoremove. When it asks you if you want to remove x number of packages type Y and press enter.

The Second Upgrade

The Update Manager does have an upgrade to 9.04 button. You may use it if you wish. You may also notice a new program on your computer under System > Administration > Computer Janitor. Under NO circumstances should you run this program. It is a great concept, but it hasn’t been fully realized yet and personal experience (in a virtual computer setup solely for this experiment) says it breaks things. The Ubuntu forums also document others experiences with this program. I haven’t read about a good one yet. I’m not saying that they aren’t out there just that I haven’t heard of any good experiences with it. As I indicated earlier, I ere on the side of caution, which is why I’m saying don’t use this program at this time.

Option 1: Using the Upgrade Manager

1. Click the Upgrade button at the top beside the text “New Distribution Release…” and follow the instructions.
2. Update your 9.04 system. System > Administration> Update Manager. Install all available updates.
3. Remove orphaned packages. Open terminal and type: sudo apt-get autoremove. When it asks you if you want to remove x number of packages type Y and press enter.

Option 2: Manual Upgrade

1. Mount the 9.04 alternate .iso. (Note: You must have the alternate .isos. If the word alternate is not in the .iso file name, you do not have the alternate .iso.)
   1. Go to Places > Home Folder.
   2. Inside your home folder, right click on the ubuntu-9.04-alternate-***.iso. Go to rename. Hit ctrl + a. (Select all.) This selects the entire file title inside the rename box. Now hit ctrl + c (copies the entire file name) and click outside the rename box to close it. (You aren’t really renaming the file. You’re just cheating a little bit.)
   3. Open Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal). Type sudo mount -o loop ~/(Do Edit > Paste or ctrl + shift + v to insert the .iso name here) /media/cdrom0 . This should look something like sudo mount -o loop ~/ubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0. You should now be able to go to your home folder or your desktop and see that a cd is mounted.
2. Run the update from the .iso. On some machines the update runs automatically. It didn’t on mine. I went back to Terminal and typed: gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”. You can also run this command by typing Alt + F2 and typing the command above into the box that appears.
3. Answer the questions from the upgrade installer. Once the upgrade completes, restart your computer.
4. Update your 8.10 system. System > Administration> Update Manager. Install all available updates.
5. Remove orphaned packages. Open terminal and type: sudo apt-get autoremove. When it asks you if you want to remove x number of packages type Y and press enter.

Upgrade Aftermath

After the upgrade, you will notice that many of the repositories from the old distribution and some of your specially installed programs, including Amarok and OpenOffice 3.1 have been uninstalled. Fix these first.

1. Go to System > Adminsitration > Software Sources and click the “Third Party Software” tab.
2. Make a list of the unchecked repositories and go to Google (or your favorite search engine) and search for the software or repository name. Delete the old repositories and add the updated ones for your new 9.04 distribution. (This step took me about thirty minutes, but I consider it well worth the effort.) Note: OpenOffice 3.1 now has a repository for Ubuntu Jaunty. For complete instructions on installing and using this repository see this Ubuntu manual post.
3. Reinstall your software.

Note: There were some changes in how Ubuntu handles the Amarok libraries. When you install Amarok, you need to install the kubuntu-restricted-extras package. (This applies to both Ubuntu Gnome and KDE.) This will get you mp3 support. (You should also be using the legal Fluendo mp3 codecs, but that’s just my personal opinion.)

Compiz Blacklisted My Graphics Card

As I mentioned earlier, I am a Gnome-DO Docky addict. I think this program beats all the other docks hands down in terms of functionality. It took me about three days after I first installed it to get used to it and now, there’s no going back. Unfortunately, Docky requires compositing and Compiz, which is what I used to use for compositing, no longer works on my graphics chipset. Fear not! Metacity now has compositing. I do like to change these settings from the commandline, but some of you are probably commandlined out after the upgrade, so I’ll use the interface.

1. Type alt + f2.
2. Inside the box that opens type gconf-editor and hit enter.
3. Inside the Configuration Editor on the far right hand side, there is a list that looks similar to a file tree view. Click apps > metacity > general. Scroll down in the right hand side window to “compositing” and check the box beside it. Close gconf-editor

Your computer screen will probably flash when the compositing turns on. You know have compositing enabled and can use your favorite dock. Note: Many have observed that Metacity compositing is not as flashy as Compiz. I haven’t noticed any difference, but as you can tell from my hardware list, I’m not exactly running the type of box that would have 3-D effects enabled. Even if I did have that sort of a box, I probably wouldn’t use them because I personally find most desktop effects highly distracting. There were some other software related decisions that I made following this upgrade, which I will detail in a future post. Most were for improved functionality, but one wasn’t. I did swap my email client from Evolution to Thunderbird (with the Lightening extension installed). I honestly do not know what happened to Evolution between 8.04 and 9.04, but Evolution on the newly upgraded machine was not stable and none of the usual fixes worked. I do run and enjoy playing with alphas and betas. I expect these programs to not be completely stable and I’m okay with that. However, that attitude does not extend to my code editor, email client, or word processor. Hence, the switch. Well, I hope you found this post useful and that it didn’t make your eyes cross too much.

Resources:

• Ubuntu Manual Upgrade to Open Office 3.1
• Ubuntu 8.10 Torrent
• Ubuntu 9.04 Alternate iso
• Official Ubuntu Upgrade Instructions
• Enable Metacity compositing in Gnome
• Compiz Hardware Blacklist

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts