Adventures in Pattern Writing: Episode 3, Perfectionism Rears Its Ugly Head (Again)

I'm what you might call a selective perfectionist. Some things I can just slap together and not care, but when it comes to knitting, I'll redo, redo, redo until I'm happy with the results.

While this tendency can product some particularly excellent results, but it also has been the cause of massive amounts of frustration, and copious amounts of inappropriate, foul, colorful language.

After finally conquering inserting my charts from Microsoft Excel into Word, I started working on importing all of the heel charts (numbers 0 to 9) into the pattern. Then I looked at my Matthews jersey, hanging on the drying rack, I looked at the 52, I looked at the charts for the 5 and 2, I looked back at the 52, back at the charts. They didn't look the same.

Sure, the 5 and 2 I charted looked like a 5 and a 2, but not like the ones on the jersey. The numbers on the jersey were, blockier, had more straight edges. At that point, I already knew what was coming, but I fought it for awhile. Maybe it was the jersey's problem, not mine. I decided to compare the numbers on my Rodgers jersey (yes, mom, MY Rodgers jersey). Again, my charted 1 and 2 looked like a 1 and a 2, but not like the ones on the jersey. Crap.

The Original Five

I wasn't ready to face reality just quite yet, though. Clearly, I must own two faulty jerseys, so I dug out Husband's jersey, and the dog's jersey. Nope, the numbers were consistent from jersey to jersey and not the same as the ones on my socks.

Once again, I fought the inevitable. It wasn't really going to matter, I told myself. No one is going to look at the numbers on the heels of these socks and point out that they are not shaped exactly like the numbers on the players' jerseys. What kind of person notices that sort of thing? Most likely no one would ever know, and if they know, it is even more likely that no one would ever care.

Edited Five

Except for me. I would know. And I cared. And I knew what I had to do.

I printed out ten blank heel charts. Then I went to the Packer's website to find pictures of jerseys, and I recharted all of the numbers. And the process started all over again, hand drawing, charting in Excel, cutting and pasting (using Paste Special, at least I remember that) into Word.

And, I'm glad I did it. Otherwise it would have bothered me, and I would have ended up doing it at some point anyway. We all know I'm crazy like that.

In other news, the knitting on the Spatterdash fingerless gloves is done and I was lucky enough to find buttons for them. I just need to block, weave in ends, and assemble. Yay!

Adventures in Pattern Writing: Episode 2, Cue the Panic

Who'd of guessed that these socks
would cause so much trouble?

If you follow my blog regularly, or if you browse back through some past posts, you know that last July, I designed and made a pair of Green Bay Packer socks for her birthday. Ever since they came off the needles, I have been meaning to transfer the pattern from scribbled notes and crude graphs into an actual pattern, usuable by someone not residing inside my head.


Last November, I finally took the time to convert the graphs from paper and pencil drawings to an Excel spreadsheet. I then converted one of the graphs into jpeg form, to make it easier to insert into my finished pattern. and promptly allowed myself to become distracted by something else (I'm hoping it was at least something shiney).


About a month ago, during a very slow day at the Motor bank, while my co-worker was shopping online, I took my notes and typed them into an almost readable format. And by "almost" I mean, the basic instructions typed into a Word document with notes like "insert instructions for heel  here," "probably should figure out the actual stitches and rows per inch," "Chart A to go here," and "find a better way to word this" scattered throughout the pattern. At least I had all the pattern pieces were saved now.


Or so I thought.


The other day, I sat down to finally try to put all the pieces together, and went to pull up my charts. They weren't on my laptop, or my desktop, or my thumb drive, or my other thumb drive.


Cue the panic. I wasn't even sure if I still had the paper verisions. Was I going to have to start all over on these charts. I mined through my previous posts to see if maybe, just maybe, I had posted all of the charts on my blog.




The one chart I could find.

 Nope. Just the heel chart. Okay, well, at least I had a method to retrieve the heel chart. That was something. Then it occured to me, last fall there was a stretch of time when the screen of my laptop was out of commission, and I used my old laptop. Maybe, possibly, hopefully the charts were saved on there.


So, I dug out the old laptop, and the charger and let the machine charge while I went into work. I got home, booted up the machine, and, thankfully, the Excel file with the charts was safely saved.


Thank you. But the fun wasn't over yet.


I only had the files saved as Excel sheets, and inserted them directly into the Word document using copy and paste was creating all sorts of trouble for me, charts extending over several pages, distortions. And of course, for the life of me, I couldn't remember how I did the last time.


After some research (and cursing), I did figure it out. I think I actually used a different method this time, but seeing as it worked just fine, I'm not going to fret about it. The charts, in both Excel and picture format are now safely stored on my laptop, and my desktop, and both my thumb drives.


And, in case future me ever desperately returns to this post, wondering how I managed to convert the stupid Excel cells into a much more Word (and pattern) friendly image, here's what I did:


From Excel, highlight the cells you need and click copy.


Go into the Word document, select Edit, and choose the "Paste Special..." option. This gives you the choice if you want to paste the chart as an Excel spreadsheet or as an image (or some other ones). So simple, why on Earth did this cause me so much stress?


Now, future self, go buy me a beer for all the stress and time I just saved you. And stay tuned for Episode Three of Adventures in Pattern Writing, where I attempt to put everything together.

Where I Try to Convince Myself I Really Like Going to the Gym

I'm going to come right out and say it. I don't like exercising, even back when I did it consistently, it never was fun for me. I'm skeptical that a "runner's high" is anything but a lack of oxygen to the brain and the phrase "a good sweat" is nothing but an oxymoron.

However, as a responsible (well, sort of responsible) adult, I do understand that sometimes I need to do things that are not fun. So, I'm working on adding regular exercise to my lifestyle. 

But, how to convince myself to go to the gym? The long term health benefits? Not so much, it's hard to leave my couch, knitting needles, laptop, Kindle, and Sportscenter when the argument is someday I will be in better shape. The shirtless picture of Clay Matthews on the wall of the fitness center? Tempting, but I can probably find it on the Internet. The $100 I get from my insurance company if I log 75 workouts in 6 months? Maybe, but that only divides out to $1.33 per trip to the gym, and has the whole long term vs. short term problem. Because it is one of the few times that I get the chance to catch up on podcasts? Yup, that might just do it.

Finding time to listen to my podcasts can be tricky sometimes. When I try to listen at home, my mind fills with all the other things that I could/should be doing. Occasionally, I'll listen while I clean, but that doesn't always work out so well, and I find I get more done with music on instead. I've tried having them on in the background while I read, surf the Internet, or knit, but I tend to miss things. I can multitask with the best of them, but for some reason, not with podcasts.

When I was in school, the commute gave me ample time to listen (driving and listening works out just fine). However, I currently live about five blocks from my job, so commuting is a thing of the past. Enter the gym. A half hour of cardio on an elliptical jogger or treadmill creates the perfect opportunity to catch up on my listening. Once I get caught up, I'll have to come up with a new plan, but I currently have about 30 back episodes of The Bugle, 15 of Tuesdays with Aaron, and a bunch of various knitting podcasts, so I should be good for awhile.

But, let's hope the gym leaves Clay up on the wall, just to be on the safe side.

Relearning the Weekend



It will be a fingerless glove, someday.

I’m still getting used to the idea of having weekends free. For years, having a weekend day off when I didn’t have anything else to do was pretty much unheard of. Even during my brief teaching career, when I wasn’t working any weekends, it always seemed like we were going somewhere or doing something. Weekends last this last one are still new to me (though I will probably see more of them, I’m trying to arrange my schedule so that I have two weekends per month totally off from both jobs. Normalcy will be somewhat restored this coming weekend as I work at the bank on Saturday morning and at the store Sunday morning, but the following weekend should be free (which, if my calculations are correct, might mean I have to work the Superbowl, but that’s not going to happen, even if nobody I care about is playing)

Anyways, Friday night I closed over at the motor bank, and stopped on my way home for some Chinese food (yippee for working two doors down from the good Chinese restaurant). Husband was gone for the weekend curling with the local Lion’s club (don’t ask…I never do). I started working on my latest pair of socks, but the pattern/yarn combination wasn’t working for me. I browsed around and found a different pattern to try and set those aside. I did manager to get some more of the lacy flap on the Spatterdash fingerless gloves done.

One morning's progress.

Saturday, I slept as late as Pippin would allow, which turned out to be 8:30 (which is funny because he always seems to sleep later for Husband). I proceeded to spend the day doing what most would consider absolutely nothing, but I considered absolutely perfect. I knit, and knit, and knit. By the end of the day, I had completed the cuff and leg of the sock I started just that morning. I also enjoyed having complete tv control. I adore Husband, but we don’t always enjoy the same things. I tend to sit quietly and let him run the remote, and sometimes look forward to having the opportunity to watch what I want. I took advantage of this chance to finally get to check out the AMC series, The Walking Dead, which I had been hearing great things about. It did not disappoint, but then again, I’ve always been a fan of zombie apocalypses. Not really sure why, but something about being part of a heavily armed band of survivors battling the walking undead is appealing to me.*

Saturday evening brought dinner with my mom and stepdad, I’m not one to turn down a free steak when one is offered to me, playoff football on the television and a couple of drinks with a friend. Nothing too exciting, but a good day overall.

Sunday, I overslept and missed mass, and Husband was back from curling much earlier than I expected (but when you only curl once a year, your team doesn’t usually make it to the finals).  We headed over to my parents for the Packers/Giants game, where Husband decided that I wasn’t rooting for the Packers to win, which added to his sullenness and pouting.

Completed sock, three days start to finish!

At this point, I do feel the need to defend myself. I will admit it, I am a Giants fan, (not really sure how that happened, but even good kids from nice families go astray) but my first loyalty is to the Packers. Yes, it is close to a 50/50 split, but the Packers win out. However, I don’t really enjoy watching those two teams play each other, and won’t really cheer for either team, instead I used the opportunity to sit quietly and make additional progress on the sock. Husband interprets this as a sign of disloyalty to the Packers, and if you’ve ever encountered Husband after a Packer’s loss, you know better than to argue.

Husband was sullen for the remainder of the evening, both over the loss and my perceived disloyalty. I figured it wasn’t the best time to point out that if his theory was correct, he really was denying me the opportunity to celebrate that what he felt was “my team” had overcame the odds and is continuing on to the NFC championship, and a quarterback that I’m a fan of who gets a crap load of criticism any time he makes a mistake had an excellent game. And his denying me a chance to celebrate wasn’t really fair because I would have never done that had the Packers won (again, this is all just going along with the faulty logic that I would prefer a Giant’s victory over a Packer’s, which is not the case). Instead, I let husband stomp around the house muttering things about supporting the 49ers (which again, had his theory been true and the game went the other way, I also would not have done). That pretty much made Sunday night a big fail after a fantastic weekend. (I’m guessing some of you might be surprised that I would risk the wrath of husband by posting this on here, but he reads my blog maybe 50% of the time, plus I’m pretty sure he knows that he was being ridiculous.

*I feel the need to offer a bit of a side note hear, if my posts sometimes seem disjointed and rambling, it is usually because I don’t really edit them too much. Posts are usually a bit of a dumping ground for whatever is going on in my head. I tend to get off of the topic.

Project Talk: I'm Going to Go Ahead and Blame the Weather

Cubist Socks-Done!

The weather around here has been absolutely ridiculous, it is early January the temperature is going to be almost 50 today. Global warming, the beginning of the apocalypse, forewarning of the impending zombie uprising, or freak weather abnormality? It is hard to say. Most of the people who come into the bank seem to be enjoying this freakish weather, but I am not most people. I love winter, I want to look out my window and see snow drifts, icicles, and frost; not brown wilted plants and dreary gray skies.

Because of the unusual weather (or not…most likely not, but hey, we all need something to blame), my knitting funk has continued. I’m doing better than I was, but I was focusing almost exclusively on the Cubist Socks. As of Monday, I have these socks completely done and off the needles. Which, of course meant that I had to base my outfit choice for Tuesday solely on the new socks.

I’m learning from past experiences, and decided to frog and reknit the Spatterdash fingerless gloves using a size bigger needle. I've roughly gotten to the point where I was when I decided to frog, so they are moving along well now. And, I finally got a picture that almost accurately represents the colors in the yarn.

Close Up of Spatterdash

I still haven’t even cast on for the second sleeve of the Sheepcote sweater (or taken the first sleeve off of the needles for that matter). I don’t know if there is an actual reason besides my laser like focus on the socks. I have discovered, however, that both Ms. Bode and Ms. Lily are big fans of the yarn I’m using for this sweater (Valley Superwash Merino, I’m a big fan too, it is super soft) and are willing to climb things and dig in baskets to obtain said yarn. That is going to make completing the sweater very interesting.

Today, I also spent some time on Ravelry and decided on the next pattern and yarn combination for socks. I'm going to knit Brainless (rav. link) by Yarnissima, I'm knitting them out of Knit Picks Essential (now called Stroll) in the colorway called Peacock Multi, a combination of purples, blues, and greens. Hopefully the yarn/pattern combination works out.

According to the weather reports, things should be returning to normal (or at least closer to normal) over the next couple of days, so I'm going to run out of excuses for not knitting. That should mean more pictures of finished products up here soon!

In other news, the new job is still going well. I’m feeling more and more comfortable, and have to ask less and less questions about how to do things. I’ve actually engaged co-workers in conversations (or at least attempted to, small talk is nowhere near a strength for me), which is a pretty big step considering my chronic, acute shyness, and have still managed to avoid letting them know that I have the sense of humor the your average fourteen year old boy, or a massive fear of birds. But we all know I can’t keep that one hidden forever, at some point, my true colors always show.

In Loving Memory of Sirius J. Cat

Eight years ago, Husband (well, fiancée at the time) and I had just graduated from college (the first time, for me, the only time for Husband), we were planning a wedding for the upcoming July, and had just moved into the house we were renting (living together for the first time). Knowing that our house would be lonely with only two human companions, we decided that we needed some cats to help keep us entertained. We took a trip down the our local cat shelter to check out the available kittens.
Now, I’m not sure if you know much about cats, but January in Wisconsin is not prime kitten season. We lucked out and found an adorable six month old grey kitten with a white belly and four white paws. She was sharing a cage with a black, long haired adult cat. Husband had already made it clear that he didn’t want a black cat, and I was insistent on getting kittens, so despite the friendly nature of the black cat, we didn’t pay him much mind. We found a different kitten in another cage, but it was little and sickly (truthfully, I don’t remember much about that particular kitten). Originally, we planned on the grey kitten and the sickly kitten but the shelter felt that the latter was too sick to be adopted (though, I’m quite certain things would have turned out better for the kitten had they let us take it, the shelter was not the nicest, we have a much nicer one now). Instead, they suggested the older cat that was sharing a cage (kennel?) with the grey kitten.

Long story short. The grey kitten became Lily and the black cat became Sirius. I don’t think we ever regretted getting Sirius instead of a kitten, he was one of the best cats ever. There was nothing he loved more than to sit on a lap and be petted, except maybe cuddling with Lily. He was affectionate (sometimes) to the point of annoying.

About a year ago, we noticed some changes in Sirius. He lost a lot of weight, we had some problems with him urinating outside of the litter boxes. Taking him into the vet, we discovered he was only at 20% kidney function. Though we could have opted for a $25,000 kidney transplant for him, we decided to switch him to a special food. The vet assured us that his condition wasn’t painful, he gained a little weight, and seemed to be happy.
Over the past few weeks, we noticed that the symptoms were returning. He was dropping weight again, he was always on top of the heat vent, or curled up on his fuzzy black blanket, we could tell he just didn’t feel good.

The day after Christmas we returned from the Packer game in Green Bay, to find Sirius absolutely miserable. He wasn’t eating, wasn’t drinking, and was barely moving around. We immediately got him into see the vet, and she confirmed our fears, his kidneys weren’t functioning at all and he was suffering from the toxins that were built up in his system. There really wasn’t much we could do for him at that point
.
So, in the middle of the holiday season, Husband and I found ourselves in the vet’s office, petting our beloved cat as he fell asleep for the final time. It was heartbreaking, but at the same time comforting to know that during his final moments Sirius was curled up on his fuzzy black blanket, being petting by his human parents, and he was purring.

There is definitely a Sirius shaped hole in our lives, but we know we gave him a good life for almost eight years. Rest in peace, buddy, we miss you already.

So You Want a Resolution

Every year, I struggle with the idea of resolutions. I feel it is good to keep on improving yourself, and setting goals gives you a target to shoot for. On the other hand, New Year's resolutions seem to be setting yourself up for disappointment, they almost always seem to fail. But knowing this, I still dive into every new year with a hopeful attitude and a list of changes I need to make. As I start on this path, my current plan is to continue to keep updates on here, hoping that writing about the process will keep me on a better path.

So, here is what I'm aiming for in 2012:

• Eat at least 2 fruits and/or vegetables per day at least 5 days a week (yes, this goal is sadly below the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet, but I've got to start somewhere).
• Drink 64 ounces of water per day
• Cook with actual ingredients (I'm actual pretty good at this one, but I can always be better), avoiding processed foods and increasing whole grains.
• Get more active with 30 minutes of cardio, 3 times per week, and 10 minutes of activity the other 4 days (if this sticks, I'll be adding some sort of strength training, but let's start slow).
• Read more, rotating between non-fiction and fiction, review the books, and post the reviews.
• Write more, both on here, and the other stuff I'm working on.
• Knit using the yarn I have in my stash, crossing some of the projects off of my queue that have been there a long time (February Lady Sweater, I'm looking at you).
• Continue attending church on a (mostly) weekly basis.

Hopefully, I'll be checking in a couple of times per month to keep posting about progress (or more likely, I will be not posting about my lack of progress). Either way, it's good to try to make improvement.

Out With the Old, In With the New

Of course, Sunday marked the beginning of 2012. Husband and I rang it in with true "over thirty" style. We joined two other couples, one with children (ages 3 and 11 months), and another friend. We actually ended up deciding to celebrate the ball dropping in New York and heading home before midnight actually arrived in Wisconsin. Despite Ian (the 3 year old) kicking a glass of red wine out of my hand which spilled all over my pants, it was an enjoyable evening.


Sunday brought the last of our Christmas celebration, unless you count the Christmas party Awards Banquet at husband's work (but that has now been moved to April to make it less Christmasy) which was my dad's family. Somehow that particular branch of the family managed to ignore the fact that they scheduled dinner during the last regular season Packer game, giving Husband and I the options of crowding into my aunt's family room to watch her minuscule tv, or huddle over his phone and watch the play by play courtesy of G3 and Yahoo Sports. We went with option B, but did manage to make it home for the last half of the final quarter. Thankfully, it wasn't an important game, but I was still bummed to miss Flynn's amazing performance (and most likely the last time we will see him play as a Packer).


Today was another fairly quiet day. I got my hairs cut and enjoyed lunch with Husband and some family. Then husband and I spent some time putting away the Christmas decorations (I know, technically it is too early to put them away...but tell that to Husband). Then we enjoyed some delicious chili, grilled cheese, and attempted to enjoy the Rose Bowl (sadly, that ended with a Badger loss).


I've also joined the Words with Friends craze over the weekend. It may have become one of my new favorite ways to waste time and spent some time thinking about resolutions for the New Year, which will be another post coming soon!