Physics of Animation

I love NSF because I just received this video in my work email:




Via National Science Foundation

For the Love of Acronyms

I work with grants.  Most of them are research grants.  I get to see a lot of acronyms.  They often try to be cute and witty. Today one of my proposals had one that may make my top five.  It wasn't trying to be cute. In fact, I think it was an acronym from a British title, so if it was trying to be witty, it might have gone over my head.  The acronym was NIMROD and it referred to a piece of equipment used for very precise scientific measurements.  It made for a great proposal full of great statements like, "The recent arrival of NIMROD has opened up major opportunities..." "the purpose of NIMROD is to strengthen the synergy between experiment and theory," and "NIMROD provides continuous access..."  I may have a fifth grade sense of humor, but I was thoroughly amused all day.

Philly Socks

I generally don't like to apologize to the readers of my blog because I generally do this for myself, and think of it as an perk is someone finds it useful or entertaining. Today, however, I'd like to say I'm sorry to anyone still following me and to myself. It has been far too long since I have shared anything at all, and I've been disappointed. Since my last post, I have moved to Brooklyn, made good friends out of old acquaintances, had a birthday and an anniversary, hosted Hubby's parents in our new home, gotten my new library card, and went on my first official business trip. That list is full of reasons to post, not reasons to neglect writing. My reason for not posting, is none of those. I haven't been active, because Hubby's computer died. For some reason, it did not make the move, so I have turned over my computer to him. Both of us have cut back on our computer usage, simply because we have to take turns now. I will continue to be absent until one of us has gotten a replacement.

At the beginning of this month I went to Philadelphia for a workshop on the fundamentals of Research Administration. I was excited for so many reasons. I don't travel by myself very often, this was my first time to Philly, and there was just something special about going on my first business trip. The workshop was fantastic, and I learned a lot. I meet some great people, specifically a couple of knitters from D.C. and Texas. We skipped one of the evening events and headed out to the LYS together where I picked up a little souvenir.

This is some Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) for socks. I showed up early for the workshop, and spent my extra time walking around the historic area and learning about our founding fathers all over again. I was inspired by all the brick and cobblestone, so for my souvenir yarn, I was looking for something in a burnt red/brown/orange color. What I ended up with is a bit orangier than actual bricks, and is such an incredible color.

It didn't take me long to find the perfect pattern. The Knotty or Knice Socks from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits won out because, it is toe up, and the pattern details fit perfectly with my memories of the colonial buildings. They were all small, practical, brick buildings with embellishments masking their sensibility in the front. I liked the strong lines of the ribbing in these socks, and the cable repeats are just a touch of flair that keeps them from plain, practical socks.

I've had to make just a couple adjustments because my feet are larger than the one the pattern is make for. My gauge is just a touch different and I've added an extra half of a pattern repeat to the foot. I've also decided to work these one at a time since they are my first pair toe up and with short row heels.

My perfect yarn, and my perfect pattern are combining nicely to make my Philly Socks.

First Days

My first two days of work were generally fantastic. I say generally, because the job seems great and the people were wonderful, but there were some bad luck things that overwhelmed my Monday. When I arrived the heater wasn't working. All of my professional clothes (that fit) were bought in Arkansas. It is an understatement to say that wasn't prepared to work in an old building with drafty windows and a broken heater at the end of December. I carried on with my paperwork in my bright blue fingerless mitts. I need to make another pair that is a bit more professional. I have some beautiful dark gray Frog Tree Alpaca that I think will do just the trick. By the afternoon the heat was on, and the knitwear was put away. The other crazy thing that happened, was when I tried to turn my computer on, it just wouldn't go. We got some IT guys to our office, and they started talking to each other about a trojan. Then they opened up my CPU, and took my hard drive. They said it was failing and they would save what they could. I didn't have anything on there, but I got the sense from my coworkers that there was stuff we'd like to keep. They brought it back and said they saved most of it. I hope I didn't loose anything important, but at this point, I wouldn't even know if I did.

Other than that, everything was fantastic. Things were quite so I was able to start to learn my way around and get to know my coworkers. My commute is about an hour and a half each way. I haven't really judged whether I'll be knitting or not yet. Right now there are parts that I could easily knit during, but right now a lot of people are on holiday vacations. It will probably be after the New Year before I get a real sense of how crowded my commute will be. Podcasts or reading are definitely a go though, so I'll never be bored.

Change of Pace

On Monday I start my new job with Brooklyn College. I am excited about the position and the office I'll be working with, but this is going to mark a drastic change in pace for me. I can't wait because quite frankly, I've been getting restless at home. I think the changes will be positive for everyone except the few avid followers of this blog. I imagine I'll be posting less, and the content might not be as knitting focused as it currently is. This prediction is based on my expectation that I won't be knitting as much, but you never know. I will have about an hour to commute and maybe since I'll be riding the subway away from Manhattan, I'll have some knitting time there. We'll just have to see, but I thought you deserved a warning.

Now for the fun stuff:

Since I accepted the position on Thursday, I didn't have to dedicate any of my normal time to job hunting yesterday or this weekend. I've reallocated all of that time to catching up on podcasts (I am still way behind since I didn't listen to any the week after thanksgiving) and working on my Christmas cardigan. I don't expect it to be done by Christmas, but I know that I have two days off next week and two days off the week after. I am hoping to get the bulk of the knitting done during these times so maybe I can set aside a weekend for seaming and another for the button band and shoulder flap.

Before you get too excited by my productive sounding plans, I should warn you that I am facing a full sweater frogging. I finished the back yesterday, and I blocked it this morning. Blocking is really the part of this project that I've been most worried about. Up until this point, I've been blocking things just to give them a nice bath and a finished look. The dimensions of my blocked items haven't been vital. This time, if the sizes aren't the same, the pieces aren't going to seam together right. So, while I was consumed in the worries that my haphazard blocking is going to get me in trouble, I neglected to worry about other things.

I finished the back of the sweater yesterday, and I blocked it this morning. to my dismay, it was stretched way too long. I managed to schunch it up into the proper measurements, I don't know how much of the schunching is too much. The width is fine, but none of the lines lengthwise really look clean or straight. (I'm sorry the picture is bad, my blocking space is not well lit.) I'm pretty confident that the weight of wearing it, is going to pull that length back out. So, I've been battling all morning with the options of frogging now, or waiting and potentially frogging the entire thing. I think I've decided to trudge on. I realize that if I finish the entire thing, I'll be less likely to frog it, and less likely to wear it if it fits poorly, but I have a lot of reasons to think it might be ok even with the extra length (there is a little YarnHarlot inside my head telling me that those will be marked as my famous last words). First, the width is good, so conceptually, the sweater should still fit, just be longer. Second, I made the smaller size, so a little bigger might be to my benefit. Third, I already cut an inch off the bottom, so if the added length makes it fall at the widest part of my hips that is undesirable but not disastrous. Fourth, even before the extra inch was cut, the bottom didn't reach the widest part of my hips yet so there is even more room to play with. Fifth, this is my first pieced together sweater, so I don't know what kind of stability seaming in the sleeves (which will have a width dimension that matches this length dimension) will give to the sweater. Sixth (and finally), I have absolutely no idea how to fix it if I do frog it. It is not the main body of the sweater that I am worried about, but section from the arm pit up. That section doesn't have any knit to X" long directions in it so I am uncertain about where I could cut anyway. I realize that I could decrease faster to make it shorter, but that would change the angle and the shape so the sleeves might not fit anymore.

Well, all of that just made me more confident. Did it convince you? I am going to keep going, and if in the end it was the wrong call, hopefully, I will have learned enough about this type of sweater that I can come up with a plan to adjust it. In the meantime, maybe I'll keep my eye out for some top down patterns just in case.