Topic: Posts

I got an email today from someone, who, having seen my posting on the tealArt knitting blog regarding my intentions to write patterns, and pictures of some of my designs on ravelry, encouraged me to write patters because she really liked what she saw and wanted to knit some of my stranded patterns.

This was amazing. And I feel when people are, basically, asking to give you money that you should really go with that, because its a sign.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about for some time, and I did need the encouragement. But I am at a bit of a loss, about how to orchestrate it.

The truth is that selling digital wares is a somewhat difficult proposition: you’re selling an idea, not a physicality, and digital documents are infinitely copyable, so how do you both not give everything away for free, and not turn into an obnoxious capitalist about the whole scheme.

I think a tip jar-type model is probably the easiest/most likely solution, but it is difficult to ponder correctly. And I want to have something that will last long term, and not blow away in a few months when fads change.

So my first instinct was to write Cory Doctorow, about the technological angle of the document distribution, because this sort of model seems to be right up his alley. And I think knitting patterns are enough different from fiction that the models are different enough that it might be interesting thing to explore.

I’m not sure that I have a good solution, yet, so your input is of course appreciated, but I’ll repost the relevant parts here, below the fold, because I can.

I have a question quandary that I hope you’ll be able to offer some insight on at your connivence.

I do a fair bit of design work for hand knitting, and I’ve gotten a few requests to write up and offer some patterns, but I think on a conceptual level these “things” could be short stories, or essays, or bits of software programs.

This seems like a generally enviable position, but I’m at a bit of a loss. I have a number of patterns that are/will be for free/creative commons downloads. But I have a number big/intense patterns patterns for sweaters that I’m not sure will work well in this model. So I guess the crux of my question, is do you know of any good solution/service that will allow variable pricing/donation models, for electronic document delivery that don’t suck and/or don’t make me seem like an obnoxious capitalist?

Some thoughts about knitting patterns in contrast to other electronic text solutions:

• The digital copies can sufficiently/completely replace the physical/paper copies (They’re short, so it’s feasible to print them).
• Digital copies are preferable. Many knitters photo copy patterns from traditionally issued books because it is easier to cary around a few sheets in a page protector than a whole books.
• If you can get all the patterns that you want from a book, there’s little incentive to buy the book, for many. Many knitters will only buy a book if X number of patterns seem like things they would want to knit.

Delightfully, knitters are pretty willing, on the whole to pay for things (there’s disposable income there) and have adapted pretty well to the internet, so I think that if I can give people a way to pay for the documents, many will, without needing some sort of tight fingered system. But I’m largely unaware of what kind of options are out there.

Any insight is much appreciated.

Cheers, tycho

He suggested the Lulu.com document delivery system that lets you both give away things for free and charge for them. Which seems like a good place to start, though I wrote the following clarification/response.

I’d sort of like to do something more along the lines of another sky press http://www.anothersky.org/, so that it presents folks with a “buy now for ____” box with some reasonable value in it, with an explanation that you could set it to zero, and you could get it for free… So that the downloading experience is structured around the expectation of “not-free” but is still freely available.

I fear having to home bake something, which would take too much time away from doing other things, like writing, but it might not be that hard.

Thanks, cheers…

I have finally established the knitting of the body of my new sweater, and it progresses slowly. I haven’t been knitting on something that wasn’t a sleeve or a sock, since late November, so I forget how different the pace feels for sweater bodies.

I knit about 2 inches on the sleeve yesterday, and another inch or so today (so far; I have yet to watch the Torchwood that I have in store. There will be more knitting).

By my calculations, if I knit just two inches a day, I’ll easily get to the underarm of the sweater in a bit more than a week. Which is quite exciting. The yoke section might take a week because it is a fiddly bit of knitting, and then a few days for the finishing, so this sweater seems pretty much on pace, baring something unexpected.

It’s a fun pattern to knit and I’m really enjoying the sweater, though I’m worried that my gauge has changed, but it’s really quite possible that it hasn’t, so I’m not going to worry about it.

The next sweater is going to be a raglan-shouldered pullover, knit in what I hope will be a drape-y fabric, out of a merino-possum yarn that’s been in the family stash for a long time. Why yes it is, teal. I haven’t made a determination about the construction direction.

My thought is that I’ll cast on provisionally somewhere in the middle of the sweater, do the busy part around the shoulder, and then knit the sleeves and body from the shoulder to the lower hems after I’m sure that I’m able to do the math. I’d like to have a neat v-neck, and I’m willing to steek, but I’m not sure how to get it to all add up right in the end.

I must ponder further.

My search for the right kind of surgical steel (316L) continues with limited success. The smallest rods you can get are between a US size 3 and 4, which is way too big for what I’m looking for. It turns out that you can get straight “spring wire” that’s smaller than a US 0, but nothing for the US size 2.5 (3.0mm) and US 1.5 (2.5mm) that I find useful let alone other sizes in the 2.0mm to 3.0mm range. Sigh.

But there’s real work to be done, knitting pattern development, and job applications. I’ll be in touch?

Cheers, tycho

This is going to be a knitting post. But first a quick interlude:

Days on the Waitlist: 13

I also applied for two jobs. One a help desk job that will likely pay really well, but despite its mind numbingness, might be the right mix of work that I might enjoy quite well. The second is a web designer/developer job with a company that I think would be a blast to work for. Here’s hoping. I really want to get into graduate school, and I think if I don’t hear by the middle of the week, the chance of me hearing before, say April 10th (and more likely the 15th) is pretty low. If I hear before the 15th, the news is good, if I hear on the 16th I think my chances are 50/50 and any point after that: remote.

But this is a knitting post.

I’m going to take a few moments out of my travels today and stop by a hardware store and see if I can get 316(L) steel rods in size appropriate to knitting needles. Yes. I’m going to take a knitting guage and some knitting needles into Home Depot (which my mother and I call Home Despot). I’ll report on how this goes. I’d like to get some 3mm (14 guage?) to make US 2.5 sock and gansey needles, as well as some smaller for grins.

Update: I found some steel rods, that were 3 mm, and some brass rods that were a little bigger, but so much nicer. Not surprisingly, no surgical steel. Your collective insight and wisdom is much appreciated, of course.

Also, I realized after talking to my mother that a member our logical family is a cabinet maker and would probably be able to help me figure out how to make a knitting sheath. This is also quite exciting.

I’ve also finished both sleeves of my sweater and have cast on for the body of the sweater which progresses with minimal speed, but at this point that’s more than ok.

Anyway, Onward and Upward!

Ok, I was crusing around raverly avoiding my writing and sipping my tea, and I’ve found something `amazing <http://gansey.blogspot.com/>`_

This blog, called “A Fisherman Knits” is a guy (Aaron) whose really interested in traditional fisherman’s sweaters (ganseys or guernsey) and his blog is brilliance as it reports on various attempts to knit these really stellar garments, and its all very systematic and brilliant.

He knits using long double points that he makes himself (I must learn how to do this. there’s a pair of steel 5/5.25 inch needles in my future for socks, and maybe some 12 inch needles for a sweater) and I think there’s wisdom in this method.

Also interestingly he reports that he can wear these sweaters when it’s in the mid 60s comfortably (!) I always feel like my sweaters are too warm if it’s in the high fifties, so that’s something that i have to investigate.

Anyway, go forth and read.

Periscope down!

I’ve been knitting a lot. I still don’t have pictures, but I do have stories. I don’t quite have 1000 words of stories, but these few hundred will probably come close.

I finished sewing up the hem and the sweater is blocking downstairs. There’s a little bit of the hem which I’m a little disappointed with, but these things happen, and I’m not that worried that it will negatively affect much. I’m still undecided about closure. I think I’ll probably due with out for any wearing that it gets this year, and make a mega-order of zippers in about a month if I can’t find a source of good zippers locally. This sweater feels like it would proably work alright with some simple black bobble-esque buttons, so I might make little I-cord button hole tabs if it came to that.

It’s still damp so we’ll have to wait a while to get good pictures.

I’ve also been a knitting fiend of late, working on the sleeves of my sweater, which I’ve been working on seriously for almost a week, and will finish the end of the second sleeve this evening in all likely hood. I can’t wait to start knitting on the body of a sweater again, particularly given that when I’m done with the body of this sweater, I’m done with it, because the sleeves are already done.

The problems with my knitting queue are done. Done! I can resume my normal, if a bit obsessive, knitting life, without having to drag myself through projects that I don’t really want to work on, and I can look forward to the next project with hope and anticipation without guilt.

Speaking of my queue, just like my mother’s self imposed goal/project of knitting ten pairs of socks before memorial day, I’m setting a goal of knitting 14 Sweaters by December 31st 2009. Which is a little bit less than a sweater every six weeks. On average.

Which is about my common rate of progress, assuming I’m not knitting huge sweaters at fine gauges like I’ve been doing this year. I do a stranded sweater that fits me at like 8 stitches to the inch, in six weeks, and I don’t think I’ll just be making stranded sweaters either. So all should work out. This goal, like my moms goal, is really not a rush, but more like an excuse to spend my time (and knitting budget) on projects that I genuinely want to work on. I love making sweaters, and would be happy to just keep knitting sweaters and nothing else. Here are some other ground rules that I’m considering as part of my challenge:

• Sweaters started before the goal was established count when they’re finished. So the sweater I’m working on now, and the fine gauge gray sweater count when they’re finished, even though some percentage of the knitting occurred before I’ve started.
• The next 144 rounds of the Pi shawl I’m working on on size zero’s would count as a sweater, and if it’s not done at that point, the remainder of the shawl will also count as it’s own sweater. I don’t expect to be working on this, however.
• At least three quarters of the sweaters I make should be my own designs and/or things that I could publish as my own. Preferably more.

Sounds fun.

I’ve also worked out what yarn/kinds of patterns I intend to make for the next eight sweaters I want to make. Which is also incredibly exciting, I have stash yarn enough for two sweaters, and i think I have leftovers enough so that I can knit 3 sweaters only buying 4 cones of yarn (the last two sweaters I’ve made I’ve bought 4 cones each, which while necessary, has contributed to my leftover shelf greatly.) Also surprisingly, I have, on my list, five yarns/sweaters that I want to make that are medium weight single color patters/designs/ideas. I’m thinking that it’s about time for me to suck it up and knit cable work.

Anyway, hope you’re having a good goyeshe yantif, I should go knit/write, I’ll be in touch.

Onward and Upward!

Today has been a knitting day, that’s pretty undeniable, and I’ve gotten a lot of knitting done, so that feels good, and I wouldn’t suggest that I’m all the way to being “back in the writing saddle,” but I’m feeling less dyer about things, so that’s good.

Part of getting back on the writing saddle for me is to get back into the reading saddle. Read more (or any) fiction; listen to things. Consume media that isn’t simply guilty pleasure (like I think I need to watch more feature length movies and fewer procedurals.) It’s all gist for the mill, and I need more of it.

I’ve been struggling with the James Tiptree book The Starry Rift, which hasn’t really grabbed me in a big way, certainly not nearly as much as her earlier (slightly) and much greater Brightness falls from the Air, to which Rift is at least tangentially connected. It’s good, but I’ve found it hard to get involved in. I was really involved in the first story, but it ended, and the second story is taking almost as long as the first to get into. Also my copy of the book was damaged in an incident with a plant, which has made reading slightly more difficult. I think this is part of my general inability to grok for shorter forms.

So I’m not reading that, becuase I figure life’s too short and if I could be reading something it’s probably better than reading nothing at all, so instead I’m reading Empire Star a--from all accounts--whimsical adventure novella by Samuel Delany, which I think might be the right thing at the moment.

I’m also listening to, somewhat obsessively (hence the knitting) Cory Doctorow’s reading of Bruce Sterling’s *The Hacker Crackdown*. It’s over so I can listen to this basically straight through. Which is a lot of fun. This might be bridging on creepy, but I really enjoy hearing Cory talk, and really, by now I mostly know most of his shticks, and I still listen to them. And it helps that even if I disagree or am frustrated by his approach from time to time, it’s always… stimulating. And that’s a good thing, particularly when I’m trying to find my saddle.

My other, more erstwhile, project of the moment, and the topic that this entry owes its title, is my process of developing the “bad guy” character my Mars Stor(ies), who I’ve felt is a little bit too unfocused for too long. Writing, just notes at the moment, about his past and secrets is helpful for being able to more fully actualize him in my mind. What I’m realizing after the fact, is that I mushed together two antagonists from my high school novel, in a way that totally didn’t work in my mind.

This hasn’t been a huge issue until now, because in the earlier story, he was pretty far removed from most of the events and we never see things from his perspective. But now I’m teasing out a story that’s going to give us a little bit of his origin story, and, well I need to have this figured out. Mostly my problem is that I have a hard time making him come off as being evil enough, rather than just slimy, and short tempered. It’s an ongoing project.

With Breakout in cold storage, I’m turning back to the Mars stories to see if I can just get something short (novelette length?) written and out. I’m also going to spend some time with Station Keeping as a spring/summer project, once I’m back in the saddle. But I’m also trying to think about other universe’s/worlds/settings situations. My Mars stories are great fun, and I like the characters and some of the other things that I’m doing, but I don’t want to get stuck either. So while I don’t think it wise to actually do anything about that right now; branching out is something that’s very much on the horizon.

Onward and Upward!

Note: I tried to post this earlier today, but was thwarted by something or other. I’m off to write one last entry today, which you’ll probably read in much quicker succession than I expected you would anyway. Enjoy.

So I’m making a mitten sweater. Which is to say that, I’m using a Latvian Mitten Pattern for a sweater.

I’m doing a couple of things that are not particularly typical for me:

1. I’m using a sport weight merino yarn. Not only this, it’s a generally available sport weight merino yarn. Made by Louet. I typically make stranded sweaters out of fingering weight yarn, and I typically use yarns that aren’t particularly commonly available. Weaving yarns, mostly.
2. I’m knitting (most) of the sleeves before I start on the body. This is because I’m making an EPS-style sweater. That is, Elizabeth (Zimmerman’s) Percentage System, and it’s a nifty/brilliant way of making sweaters in one piece. The one I’m aiming for is the a saddle shouldered sweater. it’s going to be (another) cardigan, and I think it’ll be nifty.
   • I have the first sleeve done, and have about 4 inches done on the second sleeve. My goal is to get the second sleeve off of the double pointed needles before I start the body.
   • I’d say that about a quarter of my sweaters are EPS sweaters, but I almost always cheat and knit the sleeves from the shoulder down, by provisionally casting on the sleeve stitches, because I had an aversion to knitting sleeves, but I’m working on getting over it.

And it’s fun knitting. I’ll get pictures at some point.

In other knitting news, I’m sewing down the hem’s on the morocco sweater. I have the neck, the bottom, and most of one sleeve. I’m not in a rush, and I have to remember to not judge this sweater until after the wet block, because I fear that the sewing job looks a little sloppy, but I think it’s going to be fine in the end. So close.

Anyway, I’m off. I think I have enough writing to write about that I’ll have another post to day. Fathom that.

Onward and Upward!

Days on the Waitlist: 10

I said the other day to a friend that “I thought I had my voice back.” This realization, and the opportunity to articulate it was incredibly powerful for me. While I haven’t completely returned to normal, I’m getting there, which is kind of nifty, not going to lie.

Yesterday I wrote the begining of a 2,000 word essay/concept paper for a structured hypertext system that I’m trying to get Chris to collaborate with me on. This was the other result of this conversation, and even if nothing comes of this project, I’m pleased that I was able to write something like this. It was the closest I’ve gotten to writing a real academic-ish essay in months.

It’s not perfect, it needs a good once over, and I realize that the ending is lacking, but it’s something. That felt really good.

I also, went through the rest of the first chapter of Knowing Mars, the novella from last fall, and have some better ideas about how to procede with this project. I think I’ve been stalled for a while, because I know that I need to further develop the antagonist, and I’ve been attempting to do this edit by hand with a pen and a print out, which is less than desirable, I think.

In any case, I need to get a draft of this project done that I can be happy with so that something can be done with it. This weighs heavily on me, and on my list of current projects as I think about the near future. I think having a written project that I can be happy with will let me feel much more secure about whatever happens with the waitlist.

And I need to keep writing, of course. It’s hard as hell to write when you feel like crap and--at least for me--it helps like the world to do so. Alas.

So I’m going to get going, but thanks for listening.

Onward and Upward!

So, one of the things that I did today, was write a little shell function that will append text to the end of a file from the command line. I’m sharing it with you all because that seems like the thing to do, and I find it useful.

I’m sure there are more effective ways to accomplish this, but this works. To be fair, there’s nothing here that will protect you from yourself, but it shouldn’t be able to do much damage. I keep it in my .bash_profile, but that’s probably not the smartest thing in the world. Have fun.

ap() {
  file=$1;
  shift
  note=$*;
  echo -e '\n- '"$note" >> $file
}

Then to use the function, once it’s been loaded is, at the prompt:

$ ap filename.txt stuff that you want to append to the file

A couple of notes: You have to type in the full filename, thankfully we have tab completion. If you want to prepend, I think you just change the direction of the pointy brackets from >> to <<. Also I have it set up to add all notes as if they are a bullet point (in markdown hence the “-”).

Onward and Upward!

Chris and I had a discussion about LiveJournal last night, that lead in some interesting directions.

Though the discussion was started by the impending (21st March 2008) day long boycott of the site (which I’m not commenting on, and neither know enough about to pass judgment, nor am particularly moved by the whole deal), but quickly moved on to a contemplation of LJ, and you know, the internet as a whole.

I wrote this entry yesterday but didn’t post it. It’s since come to my attention that the rhetoric of the strike errs towards anti-semitism, which is a bit troubling. I think I’ve technically read my friends page since midnight GMT yesterday, and this post will get pushed to LJ, so I guess that I’m not participating.

I’d also say that it doesn’t strike me that anything is particularly different this time around. When I joined LJ the first time (with my old handle as the username), you had to be invited/have a code from an existing user, there weren’t free accounts. Frankly I think that’s part of the reason that the LJ community is what it is. As for the censorship stuff, that’s not particularly new and though distasteful, a completely enforceable part of the terms of service. Anyway, on with the entry…

What we recognized was that LJ is basically the only consistently successful social networking site on the internet, ever. Furthermore later social networking sites, like facebook and myspace, have started to look more and more like LJ as time goes on. The facebook “feed” is a lot like the LJ friend’s page, the facebook profile and the LJ userinfo page are remarkably similar. And so forth.

The surprising thing is that LJ, though developed and changed over the years, is pretty much the same thing that it’s always been, and that’s sort of cool.

I attribute the success of LJ to two things: the friends page, and the granularity of security that “friend’s locking” provides. The diverse and dedicated (and not unsizeable) userbase seals the deal.

While I adore Wordpress, and think that it’s great software, the truth is that WordPress.com and blogger that preceded it, really can’t hold a candle to LJ because though there are “community features” (comments, blogrolls, rss feeds) the “blog,” they don’t have the friend’s page.¹

And admittedly, today, we have things like Google Reader and other RSS services, and Open ID that go a long way to replicate the “f-list” experience, but it isn’t the same, and it isn’t automatic. Often, in this whole cyberspace adventure, I think independence is the way to go, but I really think that in the case of LJ, there’s no way to do the community aspect of blogging or social networking as successful in an independent sort of way².

Our conversation ended with Chris’ recolection that he thought--years ago--that we should have tried to replicate the LJ phenomena and improve upon it somehow. He/we was/were always unclear of the details. The conversation then moved on to a discussion of programing languages and methods and projects, both historical and future. I will no doubt continue to blog/write about where this train of thought is taking us, but I think the observations about LJ and what constitutes success in terms of software and cyber/social phenomena will prove useful in the future.

Onward and Upward!