Kiss My Knits!

Daughter’s trip to the dentist.

Sorry for my lack of here-ness. The hubby’s out of town, so I’m holding down the fort solo. And yet, oddly, the house is cleaner when my husband is gone and it’s only me here. Coincidence? I think not.

My daughter’s been very good, and we’ve had fun. I’m so glad she can say “what does that mean?” now. In this way, she’s been able to ask for clarification on subjects such as sleepwalking, millet, and why we have to keep the bathroom door closed when we’re in there. Currently she’s viewing that as “optional” which I’m attempting to change.

Dragonrealms-wise, I spent part of the morning learning the behind-the-scenes GM side of a neat in-game system. One part was flummoxing me, and GM Iayn finally figured out what the dealio was. GMs Ariawen, Maece, and others also chimed in with help, whch was much appreciated. Nifty system. It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again. GM Jeremael was a freakin’ genius and I still miss him.

On the knitting front, I’m hating having instructions to make just “a blue scarf” with no clue of the tastes of the individual. For all I know, she wants fun fur. However, pressing the issue with the recipient is what got me as far as “a blue scarf” and I sense I can’t pursue it any further without making her uncomfortable. Okay, then, blue scarf it is!

I already had some Silky Wool in a periwinkle/blue jean shade that was going to be the Eve scarf for myself. The only picture I’ve got of my progress on that is so blurry that it’s pointless to post. Anyway, based on the four inches I’ve knit of Eve, it will take too long to knit for someone else, so instead I decided to tackle the lace sensation that’s sweeping the nation, Branching Out. Picture to the left.

Jayne hat-wise, hat on the needles for Virginia, then California and Connecticut.

Tonight? Knit more, watch LOST, and wallow in decadence. I made linguine with clam sauce last night, so I’ll have leftovers of that. Then, for dessert?

+ = =

Yeah, baby!

My daughter was out sick on Friday, so she brought home a Mother’s Day thingie for me today. And it’s really very sweet.

But you know what’s even better? Look at the improvement in her handwriting. Most of y’all know my daughter is PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified) and has some fine-motor issues.
Let’s take a look, shall we?

I’d like to take a moment to be sure that you’re aware of a piece of legislation currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. It’s the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006” also known as the COPE Act (HR 5252). If you’re reading these words, you use the internet, and therefore this legislation will affect you.

In a nutshell, providers will be able to charge companies to provide good access to their sites. For instance, if Amazon chooses not to pony up the dough, a provider would be able to slow access to them to a crawl. Search engines might redirect you to Barnes and Noble.

That’s bad enough if you’re a large, monolithic corporation. What if you’re a small business? What if you’re a blogger? Or what if you’re an individual sending data to someone using a service that hasn’t paid a fee to your service? How long would it take for your information to get to its destination? Call me nuts, but I believe that photos of your child should get to Grandma before that child grows up.

Preserving the idea that information should be able to flow freely is a concept called “Net Neutrality.” Net neutrality understands that fees to maintain connections are required, but not selective fees that penalize the little guy or gal.

Without net neutrality, small businesses and individual users will be negatively affected. It will come as no surprise that the lobbyists for this bill are large telecom companies.

To add insult to injury, the bill also permits providers to ignore less-profitable areas when providing service. In other words, if you’re not in a densely packed residential area, you may be out of luck. Nice knowing you, Wyoming.

This bill is expected to reach the floor of the House by mid-May, so I’m writing a snail mail letter to my Representative in Congress now. If you’d like to learn more, and I certainly encourage you to do so, visit http://www.savetheinternet.com/ . They are in favor of net neutrality. They also have a petition you can sign.

For more info, check out:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.internet09may09,0,4559120.story
http://www.freepress.net/congress/billinfo.php?id=169

It’s an important issue that’s not being carried by the mainstream media. I hope you’ll take the time to learn more.

Cut for length.

Zero knitting or DR content.

Went grocery shopping this morning at my local Harris Teeter grocery store. This store is huge, and carries many things you wouldn’t commonly find in a smaller store, like buffalo meat and flaxseed oil. I wasn’t shopping for those, mind you, as I’m not in the market for naked oiled buffalo meat wrestling.

Because they’re so big, they have a hot food bar, with Chinese and Italian food in the afternoon and breakfast in the morning. So today, going past the breakfast bar, what do I see?

A blast from a Southern kid’s past…

knitting meetup and more UFOs.

Dear Dragonrealms Staff:

After a brief lull, I’m experiencing another slight Jayne hat upsurge as people get ready for the summer ‘Con season. So if you could all do me a favor and please STOP HAVING BABIES ALREADY that’d be swell.

Love,
Tvini

If we weren’t all living in such disparate places, I’d say it was something in the water.

Aaaanywho, after the Freak Flag, I felt the need to make something a little more subdued and less… flamboyant. The husband calls this a skater hat. Okay by me!

This is from my one skein Kureyon hat pattern, which I’ve modified again for more gentle decreases and a more rounded crown.



After the recent debacle with mysterious changing Noro colorways, I wanted to be sure I had some recent examples up on the site, as I think that the pic to the right, taken at least two years ago, may be from another that was reformulated/discontinued. I have a customer who’s expressed an interest in it.I don’t wanna go through the inconvenience (to them and me) of getting paid and then finding out that it’s not available.


HTML-savvy types, I have a question. How do I tell the text to STOP wrapping around a picture? Above, I’ve got the picture aligned left, then the text, but I’d like to be able to tell it to stop wrapping, then begin a new section after the lower edge of the first pic. Is there an end-tag to tell it to go back to default/normal text alignment? Does this make sense? I’m learning html here and there, but obviously there’s a long way to go.

Order on the needles for Indiana, then Norway, Massachusetts, and California.

ETA: thank you, , you’re the bestest! That did the html trick!