By Me
Edited and Commented by kcknits (aka My True Self)
Hello, I am a yarnaholic. Fiber of all types invades my home; its siren call renders me powerless. Strike this sentence! This is not an invasion. It is a willing collusion resulting from the symbiotic relationship between man and sheep. I am an equal opportunity yarnaholic--acrylic has as much of a chance with me as cashmere. Equal opportunity my foot. Cashmere and bison are expensive. I've even bought fun fur because it was well..."fun". The swatch looked cute, but the finished scarf must never see the light of day. Remnants--those innocuous little half, quarter, and eighth balls--have sentimental value and must be pried from my dead fingers. The acrylic may be used for tying up plants, but touch my wool at your own risk!
I confess I give the fruits of my labors to others to justify my yarn habit. But I did keep one pair of socks, a scarf, a hat, two pairs of mitts, and the hideous fun fur for myself. My addiction harms my loved ones, forcing them to graciously accept clown socks and sweaters two sizes too large. My aunt asked for the purple, green, and orange socks. She even picked out the yarn. There's no accounting for taste. As for my best friend, she crash dieted while I was knitting. Besides, the sweater fits now. Even my dog has suffered because of my affliction. The snow booties, hat, and sweater looked so cute on her. Alas, malinois aren't poodles and she meticulously tore the hat to shreds. She's now on my “Do Not Knit” list.
I go to craft fairs and stand in the alpaca booth for hours trying to decide between the cream and brown lace weight baby alpaca before going home with both. Leaving them both there would have been a crime of immeasurable magnitude, particularly when they gave me a Sunday afternoon discount.
When I moved, I discovered I owned five things: books, knitting books, yarn, knitting needles, and CDs. Imagine how heavy the book boxes would have been if I hadn't filled them halfway with yarn. I gave away my movie collection for yarn space. My favorites are all available online and I needed the space. Instead of china, my sideboard houses yarn, carefully preserved in hermetically sealed bags. Fancy plates that I will never use are useless. I even purchased a vacuum sealer to support my habit. In your face, moths!
At tax time, I go through my receipts and calculate how much I spent on my hobby. Appalled by my yearly yarn expenditure, I lie to myself and claim I spent less than I actually did. I rationalize this by saying I am overpaying my taxes, which supports my government. This always sounds better than saying what percentage of my income I spent on yarn. Oddly, I'm okay with this practice.
Before I purchase yarn, I spend inordinate amounts of time studying the different brands. I will even PM people on Ravelry and ask about wear. In short, I am obsessed. This is not obsession; it's research. Hand knit socks should last for many years and this is the only way to know.
My New Year's resolution was to only knit from my stash. I kept it for five months before asking for yarn for my birthday. Well, everyone asked what I wanted. It's not my fault yarn was cheaper than the new computer I need. I have a problem. No, I don't.
With my assistance, smooshy balls have invaded my home. They are like gremlins except they replicate without water. I wish they were like gremlins. Then I would have enough of that yummy Madelintosh for two pairs of socks. Before I drown in my self-made vat of fiber goodness, And I would want to stop this from happening why? I am turning myself over to a higher Power and begging for help. Only through His grace can I overcome my addiction and clean out my yarn basket. He asked for a sweater.
Tomorrow, if the developers are to be believed, Inkscape 0.47 will become the newest official Inkscape release. Since this is the first version of Inkscape that handles well on a netbook, I've had it for the past several months and I can honestly say that the tweak tool improvements justify the upgrade. (Particularly, if you do your croquis drawings on the computer.)
I have a new Knitter's Guide to Inkscape: Cables, but I'm sitting on it until after the release. To the best of my knowledge, the current Knitter's Guides to Inkscape also apply to Inkscape 0.47.
Update: Inkscape 0.47 is still in prerelease. When it releases, I'll update the Inkscape posts and release the latest tutorials. Earlier today, I learned that many of my pictures and pdf files have mysteriously disappeared and/or become corrupted. After spending several hours researching the problem with no luck, I have moved all my public pdf files to DropBox. The links will take you directly to the file, but it is no longer hosted by WordPress.com. Since DropBox technically runs on Amazon's servers, that's probably safer anyway.
The performance for these downloads has greatly improved and I have tested them on multiple machines with different setups and had no problems. That being said problems may still occur. If they do, please leave me a comment like the lovely person did earlier today. Once I believe the problem is fixed, I will delete the comment. My apologies for the inconvenience. Please let me know if it occurs again. Somehow, I've escaped the widget problems so far, but I'll keep an eye out for that problem. Thanks for the heads up.
Noticed a couple of days ago that the search widget had disappeared from my sidebar and had to add it again. Other wp.com users reported in the forums that their links widget had disappeared. One of wp.com staff mentioned that they'd been working on the widget back-end, but while it isn't totally obvious that is the culprit, it would not be surprising.
Very much enjoying your blog, bookmarked in wp.com's blog surfer. :)
While lurking on the Ravelry boards, I noticed a common theme among many independent designers, both newbies and professionals... Most of us know a great deal about knitting and whatever our day job is, but we need help making our patterns look professional. While I am certainly not a paragon of virtue in this department, there are some rules of thumb that good patterns follow...
I wish I could say that a technical editor is the most important thing/person on the above list, but as wonderful and intuitive as these fine people are, there is one thing that will make or break your pattern that they have little to no control over...typeface.
Now, I don't personally subscribe to the notion that there are bad typefaces. However, there are some that are not suited to certain uses. For example, if your main body is written in a script or handwriting font, you either have 20/20 vision and don't respect those of us who really do need our glasses or you have a sadistic streak and enjoy torturing your readers. Regardless, even if I bought it, don't expect me to make it. (While I have never purchased one that was like this, let me assure that if I ever do, that will be the one and only sale you make to me. I will not give you more of my hard earned money for something else I cannot read.)
I'm not an expert on graphic design, but even I know presentation is important. Despite the old adage "Don't judge a book by its cover", we do judge based on appearance. Therefore, I've dug through my links and my bookshelf and assembled a collection of resources on typography that I think you will find useful. Out of everything on this list, The Elements of Typographic Style is the resource I use most frequently.
Totally agree! I have such a hard time reading patterns that don't have enough whitespace. I'm actually willing to overlook a few tech errors if I can follow the pattern easily and there's a schematic for me to do my own calculations.
Mark your calendars everyone. May 21st is Ravelry Tweet Day. Copy of the Event Posting on Ravelry: "unofficial" Ravelry Tweet Day May 21, 2009 This will hopefully be a worldwide Twitter event, however the Events page made me pick a state and country on order to post this! Maybe those from other places who are interested could re-post under their home state/ country so that we can get as many Ravelers as possible to Tweet Ravelry and knitting on May 21st. Idea- On May 21st, 2009 let’s see if we can get Ravelry and knitting in the “trending topics” on Twitter. event editors: cecilyam
I'm not someone who normally recommends upgrading to the latest/greatest anything. If you want proof, my old Thinkpad still runs Ubuntu 6.04. Before you ask, no, I will not upgrade it. I generally stick with software that was built and tested for my OS. I enjoy experimenting, but I use my computer for work. So I hate nasty surprises, like my program crashing after I've written ten pages. However, there are a few programs that I will upgrade and one of those is OpenOffice.
My main desktop is an Ubuntu 8.04. Honestly, I like this operating system and I have everything customized exactly the way I want it and all the necessary drivers installed. Me swap to 9.04? Never... Well, alright if you'll give me that Asus motherboard I've been drooling over and the processor to go with it, I'll switch when I do the upgrade. Otherwise, it's not coming near my trusty desktop (a 2.8 ghz Pentium 4 Northwood chipset, which is more than a little gray at the temples). (Now might be a good time to mention that the motherboard/processor combo is the only original part remaining on my old computer...)
Canonical freezes the programs for their distributions well before the official release date and OpenOffice normally releases its official release a few weeks after Canonical releases the latest Ubuntu. This means that whatever version of OpenOffice was available when they did the freeze is what version of OpenOffice you have on your computer. The moral of this little tidbit... if you want the latest version of OpenOffice, download it from their website.
When I installed OpenOffice 3.0 on my Ubuntu 8.04 back in October, I didn't think I would upgrade it again until they released version 3.2 in November. Then I saw Sun's OpenOffice 3.1 announcement and the word "anti-aliasing". (Perhaps I should put that in CAPS...) The more I read about the major graphics improvements and the new collaborative features, the more my brain went into gotta have it mode. So I hopped over to OpenOffice.org and grabbed a copy of the latest version.
Let me say that I am impressed. The interface looks the same, but a quick test of the collaborative features, the new graphics, and the improved grammar check integration (I use LanguageTool's plugin for this. Like most grammar checkers, it's not useful for much other than checking spacing.) make this a worthy upgrade.
Before the Upgrade |
After the Upgrade |
| The left rib chart from my Girly Mitts Pattern before the upgrade. | The left rib chart from my Girly Mitts Pattern after the upgrade. |
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Note: These directions are specific to the Ubuntu linux distribution. They should work equally well for Debian and Debian/Ubuntu derivatives. For Windows, uninstall your previous version of OpenOffice. Download the new version from OpenOffice.org and install it exactly like you would any other program. For Mac, see OpenOffice's wiki for instructions. RPMs are available from OpenOffice.org in addition to the DEBS. I haven't tested this under OpenSUSE yet, so I make no promises the RPMS will work. As with any upgrade or program installation, you should backup your files before you do this.
cd ~/Desktop/OOO310_m11_native_packed-4_en-US.9399/DEBSsudo dpkg -i *.debCongratulations! You've upgraded your OpenOffice. Note: Java was already installed on my system. If you don't have it, some OpenOffice wizards might not work. If that happens, go back to the page where you downloaded OpenOffice and click on the link that reads "Java and OpenOffice". Alternatively, open Synaptic Package Manager and search for Java to install it. In addition to the standard Ubuntu java installation, my system had sun-java6-bin, sun-java6-jre, and sun-java6-plugin installed. I do a lot of work with alpha and beta Java programs, so I might have installed these for some other reason. I'm just throwing them out there so you know.
I'm still tracking down this issue and will report back once I have more details and, hopefully, a lead on a solution. At this time, I believe it is partially related to the .debs not including a openoffice.org-kde install as my Ubuntu Gnome box is not experiencing this problem and I haven't seen reports from others indicating that they are experiencing this issue.
Thanks for the heads up!
Hello
I did those exact same steps for installing OpenOffice on a newly set-up Kubuntu. It works the way you described, but i ended up with an installation that has no anti-aliasing of FONTS (not graphics). There is no anti-aliasing on menus, or writer documents, not anywhere. Have i missed something, or you have noticed that as well, but you are not concerned with this?
Panos
Since Open Office is installed using Debian's package manager, it will show up as installed in Synaptic. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manger. Type Open Office in the search box and press enter. On the far left of the table which lists all packages, there is an arrow (on the same bar as Package). Click the arrow at the top and it will resort the packages. Click it until all the green boxes are at the top and scroll through them until you find Open Office. Then select ooobasis3.1-core1. Right click it and hit mark for removal. Then click apply.
Of course, you could do this using the command line, but using Synaptic is safer in this case because unless you uninstall each package individually, the command requires a wild card. Since the modules are named differently, there really isn't a standard search wild card that's guaranteed to uninstall only Open Office and you might accidentally uninstall another application or module.
Thank you for this very clear post. I obsess about possibly having to uninstall things in the future--what is the name of the Open Office 3.1 package for purposes of the uninstall command (sudo apt-get remove )? I'm a Ubuntu newbie using 8.04 on an Eee PC 901. Love it, but still in the learning curve! Thanks again.
[...] leave a comment » Note: Because of the improved graphics, please use OpenOffice 3.1 or higher. For further information, see this post. [...]
Hello, Mac Addicts have I got a deal for you! It's secure, completely customizable, has lots of programs available... Did I mention free? Yeah, the Knitting Penguin is once again hawking the Linux OS. Uh oh, I see you've decided that you love your Mac specific programs and are reaching for the back button. Hold on a second because I was once a Mac addict like you.
I do a lot of writing (both here and in my professional life) and the one program I really missed (and I mean "missed" as in got down on my knees and begged the manufacturer to use Cocotron for the next version so I could run it on my Linux) was Scivener. Just so you know, Scrivener is a very addictive program. Once you use it, it's really hard to go back to using a "real" word processor because Scrivener is clutter free, organization as you write. Word and Open Office just don't cut it after that. Did you notice I said was? Yes, I have completely replaced Scivener and I am very happy with my solution.
After trying every "writing" software trial available for Linux and Windows and still not finding something I liked, I sat back and really thought about how I used Scrivener. What was it about this one program that made it work for me? It came down to three things.
After defining it, I realized Scrivner is a desktop wiki with a decent WYSIWYG editor. Please spare me the arguments about how clean wiki syntax is and how easy it is to learn. I will not learn another language just to take notes. End of discussion. (See Wikipedia's Personal Wiki entry for more information on desktop wikis.) I tried different wikis to no avail and then I tried Zim.
This little jewel was a perfect fit and soon I migrated all my notes for all my different projects into Zim, which saves data as text files with a little wiki markup that you can easily edit with any text editor in a pinch. Zim runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. (Unfortunately, installing it under Mac isn't for the faint hearted, so backup your system first and have a little fun.) Zim just works. It does everything I did with Scrivener except write in a full screen view. Since I write most of my outlines in a notebook first and then type them up, I don't have a problem with using paper while I write or minimizing a screen on occasion so I can go back to Zim. Thus, I have multiple choices for my full screen view.
LyX and OpenOffice both have full screen views. Lotus Symphony has gorgeous tabs and gets the formatting out of my way. I personally love both LyX and Lotus Symphony. (I'm not quite an OpenSource fan girl. I will use and recommend products that aren't free and aren't open source. However, they must be well thought out and run on my Ubuntu 8.04 desktop. WINE is permitted.) LyX lets you open up two documents side by side, which is useful if you're relying on an outline. Lotus Symphony and LyX both use tabs for swapping between documents, making them more user-friendly than OpenOffice. Still, these are all full-blown word processors and I prefer to write now and worry about formatting later. (Of the three, LyX is the only one that renders equations properly. It's LATEX type setting is hard to beat.)
After experimenting with multiple clones of Write Room, I found TextRoom. Text Room is only full-screen text editor I found that allows rich text. It's archaically simple and does everything I need without distracting me. (In theory, you can install this on a Mac, but I haven't tried it and there aren't Mac specific instructions.)
Zim + TextRoom = One Happy Writer Enjoy!
I don't really have anything important to say, I just wanted to thank you for putting this up on the web. I have been looking for a program like Textroom for a while and wasn't thrilled with what I had found. It's simple, and it does what it is supposed to do, thank you again for bringing these two pieces of software to my attention.
Thanks for the update! I've been experimenting some with Celtx and StorYBook. Both show promise with Celtx being the closest to Scrivener, but neither is as flexible as I prefer, and I still use Zim and TextRoom for most of my work.
Thought you'd be interested in this -- you're not the only one who misses Scrivener in the Mac to Ubuntu transition: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23719/
Perhaps a true open-source solution could be devised? You'll see I've even come up with some possible brand names for this.
Have you ever designed an intarsia or fair isle design, ordered your yarn online and discovered that the colors were either a) hideous, b) didn't match, c) too girly for the man in your life, or d) all of the above? If you have, let me say welcome to the world of the online LYS. If you haven't, either you don't order online or you are incredibly lucky.
Let's go ahead and establish that I am not a lucky knitter. In fact, I would describe myself as the person who experiences the worst that the knitting world can offer (frequently all at the same time). Yes, I have ordered what I thought was a lovely pale pink yarn only to discover that the delicate pink was best described as pepto-bismol pink--a nauseating shade which instantly turns other knitters green and not with envy. After a multitude of bad yarn experiences, I have turned to my web design toolbox to solve my yarn problems. My tools of choice: Colorzilla and ColourLovers.
This handy little Firefox extension lets you pick hex colors from pictures and web pages. Just go to your online LYS of choice and click the eye dropper icon in the left hand corner of your screen. Hover over the yarn and scribble down the number on a handy pad of paper.
This is much better than eyeballing the color on your computer screen and saying, "I think that's a light purple." At least, this uses a real picture of the actual yarn for color. (Pictures are still pictures and colors aren't 100% accurate, but digital cameras are normally more accurate than holding your box of Crayons next to the monitor.)
I can't say enough about this site. I do freelance web design on occasion and it has saved my butt several times. (I particularly love COPASA, which helps you generate your palettes and integrates some color theory into your designs.) For finding palette ideas and creating your own custom palettes, this is an excellent starting place. A few things to note:
I've already done this exercise for the KnitPicks Swish DK, which I'm planning on using for a project. Since this is designed for use on your desktop in conjunction with an graphics program for sketching, I've put the file in a GoogleDocs spreadsheet.
| Color Name | Hex Value |
|---|---|
| Grain Heather | BA9B58 |
| Amethyst Heather | 785075 |
| Clematis Heather | 7C6A76 |
| Delft Heather | 575F8B |
| Persimmon Heather | A97447 |
| Jade | 3A523F |
| Beach Glass | 90AFA9 |
| Tidepool Heather | 688795 |
| Lemongrass Heather | 82805A |
| Pampas Heather | 7F8464 |
| Forest Heather | 3C462B |
| Merlot Heather | 3C2621 |
| White | DADADA |
| Cobblestone Heather | 434748 |
| Garnet Heather | 601F33 |
| Asparagus | 9FB785 |
| Coal | 454545 |
| Mist | 999BA7 |
| Maple Leaf | B82F25 |
| Hollyberry | 69121A |
| Cinnamon | 66291F |
| Nutmeg | CAB9A7 |
| Eggplant | 422C5A |
| Bordeaux | 6D0F41 |
| Petal | C8AFC4 |
| Dusk | 2C396D |
| Storm | 38516F |
| Moss | 555B38 |
You can create one of these for any yarn you are considering, but you do need good quality pictures. Use a single palette for a hand painted yarn.) Happy (tear free?) planning!
Following the horrendously difficult installation of my Wacom Bamboo MTE-450 on my OpenSUSE 11.0 desktop, I was a little terrified of the installation process under Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. My fears were groundless. After following these instructions, I rebooted my computer and it works perfectly. Once I found Linux compatible replacements for my favorite programs, swapping from Mac OSX to Linux was a simple transition. Then, I received a phone call from a client asking about the weird font settings in an rtf document. Up until this point, everything I sent was plain text, so font settings didn't matter. I'm not working any website designs or print designs at the moment, so I haven't needed any fonts that are not part of a standard Ubuntu install.
By this point, I have recovered all my old documents, pictures, ITunes purchases, etc. Any content I paid for or created, I recovered and moved to my new system. I forgot that I paid for the fonts. Some were packaged with software, the operating system, and others I purchased individually.
I pulled out the tiny hard drive which I had already removed from my Power Book, grabbed the IDE/SATA to USB cable I bought from TigerDirect for $15, and plugged the hard drive into my computer. A few hours later, my specialty fonts, including the non TrueType/OpenType fonts, are installed on my new system.
Here's how I did it:
Requirements:
Materials:
Instructions:
I understand your obsession...bexknitwear on Jun 27th, 2009
I understand your obsession
[...] Confessions of a...Confessions of a Yarnaholic « The Knitting Penguin « Ms. Yar on Jun 26th, 2009
[...] Confessions of a Yarnaholic « The Knitting Penguin Jump to Comments Confessions of a Yarnaholic « The Knitting Penguin. [...]
I feel so much better after...Suzie on Jun 26th, 2009
I feel so much better after reading this!
Hear! Hear! :) Gonna get...yarnaholic on Jun 26th, 2009
Hear! Hear! :) Gonna get linked, you know that. :D
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