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October 31, 2009: Two Big Projects The past couple of days have been spent alternating between the website redesign and the layout of the Winter issue—both fairly sizeable projects. I thought the website redesign was close to being done, but when I tested the checkout process yesterday morning, I discovered a couple of glitches caused by the digital download software module. It took me most of the day to fix them. I had to do it myself, because tech support at the company that developed the module wanted $95 an hour to answer my tech question. No thank you. (Geeze, aren't you glad knittting designers don't charge $95 an hour for tech support?) I am a judge at the Speech & Debate competition at our high school today. DD#1 and I both have to be there at 7:30 a.m. I hope she does well, but I am not allowed to acknowledge her (or any of the other students I know) while I am there. It's a reasonable rule, but sometimes hard for the parents to remember! Would those of you who said you'd be willing to test the site please shoot me an e-mail at Janet at Big Sky Knitting.com? I'll send you the link for playing around in the new site. It looks a lot like the existing site, just with a few enhancements. All I am waiting on at the moment if for PayPal to approve my application for a new system they have available for the store software I am using. I have nothing new and exciting to report on the knitting front: I finished a hat (pattern to come soon, I hope), I am trying to finish up a sweater, I have a scarf started, and I need to start reknitting the Taste of Aran Afghan. I have the luxury of having enough items for Twists and Turns® for a couple of issues that I can work on some back catalog stuff. At least I am knitting.
October 27, 2009: Soft Goods I got the new digital delivery software installed in the store yesterday. The self-test that came with the software worked perfectly. I also worked on the pattern index and got that into shape. Things are moving along. One thing that just frustrates me to no end is the difference between website rendering on Macs and on PCs (and yes, I am using style sheets to control the appearance of the content). The website looks really good on my Mac in Safari, Firefox, and IE. I happened to be at the school yesterday afternoon, so I took a look at my website-in-progress on one of the PCs there. It looks completely different than it does on my Mac (I know that the reverse is also true, because there are websites that look really good on PCs that look awful on my Mac). I'll have to boot up Parallels every so often and check my website in IE under Windows (although I'm running Windows XP, and who knows what the website might look like in Vista or Windows 7). If anyone on a PC would like to test the website when I get to that point, let me know and I'll send you the URL. So the "huge winter storm" that we were supposed to get yesterday was another big bust. That makes three in a row now. I'm not complaining about the lack of weather, except that people (like me) are going to stop believing the weather reports and then one of these days the meteorologists might actually be right and we're going to get hammered. I see that Knotions is going to cease publication—too bad, but I am not surprised. I heard a lot of my own thoughts echoed in her comments about why and how she came to that decision. I think we'll see more of this in the future. I may get some knitting done tonight if I am lucky.
October 25, 2009: <mvt:item name="hdft" param="global_header"/> I am becoming quite fluent in website, having spent the better part of yesterday working on mine. The bulk of my time thus far has been spent getting the page template to look the way I want it to; now it's mostly a matter of dropping in the specific information for each page. I'm closer than I thought I would be, although not done yet. I have two big pieces left to install:
This blog is also going to require some managing. Right now the consensus seems to have a WordPress or TypePad blog and link to it from within the store software. it means losing the blogs I've done here for the past two years, but that's the way it goes, I guess. I worked on the Winter issue of the newsletter yesterday, too. I was hoping to have one of my new designs ready for this issue, but I've had precious little knitting time lately, so I'm going to pull in one of the older, unpublished Aran designs instead. And because the blog has had so few pictures lately, here are some scenes from Montana (inside and out). This is how the dog lottery winners spend their evenings:
The alpinglow on the mountains was just beautiful last night, but of course the picture doesn't do it justice.
We're supposed to get a strong Pacific storm this evening, but we were supposed to get one Friday night, too, and all we got was a little rain. I wonder if the lousy forecasting up here has to do with the fact that all the equipment is in Missoula? That's where our weather forecasts are generated. The weather there can be completely different there than it is here. And let us all pause for a moment and acknowledge that today is the first day of hunting season in Montana.
October 22, 2009: In The Office Our fire chief has a gift for shaking the right trees, and I found out yesterday that more vaccine is on order and an EMS-only clinic has been scheduled. I still think it's ridiculous that the health department required a reminder from anyone that EMS personnel should have been vaccinated first. Out here, the rural fire department EMS personnel respond to and see patients before anyone else, and it just makes sense to protect the front-line responders. Moving on . . . I managed to arrange my week so that I had two days in town to get all my errands done (Tuesday and Thursday), and wouldn't you know it?—those were the only two days I got called to sub. Two schools called me yesterday, but I had three appointments scheduled and I couldn't rearrange things on such short notice. Today I could go in and sub and no one has called yet. Oh well. I have plenty to do here. I went to the speech & debate reception last night at the high school. DD#1 has joined the speech & debate team this year and she's doing quite well. Her events are Extemporaneous Speech (30 minutes to prepare on a topic for a 10-minute speech) and Impromptu Speech (3-5 minutes to prepare for a 5-minute speech). Their first competition is next weekend. I am curious to see how she does—she seems to enjoy it and she's very comfortable speaking in front of people. That is a skill that will serve her well. My days this week have been spent getting the new store software in place. It's actually a lot easier to use than the old software—the old software was so basic and limited that I spent a lot of time trying to find workarounds. The new software has lots of powerful features, so I am spending a lot less time tweaking. I also did a fair bit of work on my pattern line: Bev needed some information for the Fiber Trends website, and I am still trying to get patterns loaded up to Patternfish. I got some of this yesterday:
with which to redo the Taste of Aran Afghan. Esther, your observations about this yarn were well-taken, but I think it will do nicely for an afghan. The original afghan is pretty ratty-looking, and the whole pattern book needs to be re-done. At the moment it is charts-only. I'd like to add color pics, written instructions, and I'd like to make it available as a digital download. Hunting season starts Sunday. The lead story in the paper today was about the shortage of hunting-caliber ammunition, but the husband says he has enough on hand. I'm a bit worried about the dogs being out—the state has opened wolf hunting just about everywhere, and from a distance Lila almost looks like a black wolf. We're in a populated-enough area that we shouldn't have to worry, but it's been my experience that putting hunting rifles into some peoples' hands is enough to turn them into inconsiderate jerks, like the one who left a gut pile in the woods right outside my office a few years ago. So Lila may be sporting a blaze-orange bandanna for the next couple of weeks. And now it's time to work on the website a bit.
October 21, 2009: One Amazingly Screwed-Up System Yesterday was a busy day; I left here at 9 a.m. and didn't return until 9 p.m. I went to see my naturopath yesterday morning, and it was a good visit. We spent a fair bit of time talking about why it is that I am on a higher-than-normal dose of thyroid medicine (if I take any less than I am taking, my pulse slows way down and other weird things happen). He checked my temperature and my core body temp is still a few degrees lower than normal. The bottom line is that my metabolism is still screwed up, even on a replacement dose of thyroid medication. We talked about the hcg diet and I asked him if he thought it was reasonable for me to try it. Part of me feels like I've failed because I can't get this last 20 pounds off the traditional way, but then he said something that made a lot of sense to me. He's seen the hcg program reset peoples' metabolisms when nothing else will, and that it's possible that after I do one round, my metabolism may reset to the point where I will need less thyroid hormone than I need now. That would be a huge bonus. So I made the decision to go ahead and start the program to fix all the damage done to me by a totally screwed-up medical system. I begin November 1. I had to practice giving myself an injection in his office (I was going to have the husband do it for me, but it's really not that difficult). I've got about ten days to prepare—I need to get meals prepared and frozen and get some other items on hand before I start the injections. If all goes well, I should be back to a reasonable weight by my birthday, which is November 24. Last evening I took a three-hour substitute teacher training class offered by the Northwest Montana Educational Co-Op. I did not realize this, but it's Montana law that substitute teachers need to have a minimum of three hours of training before working in a school. There has been such a lack of subs, though, that most rural schools waive that requirement. I've been subbing for 7 years, so I didn't really NEED the class, but it was a good class and I am glad I took it. I figure there is always something new to learn. While I was at my class, the husband was attempting to get a swine flu shot. We were told that EMS personnel would be given priority, but apparently the Flathead City-County Health Department chose to implement their own plan for getting vaccine out into the general population, and their plan did not include vaccinating any EMS personnel. The husband went to the clinic (which was 40 miles away, not even in a central location) where he saw that the line was so long that he probably wouldn't have been able to get in. No priority was being given to any county EMS providers. He didn't get a shot, nor did several other EMS personnel from other departments. Our chief is looking into this and I am curious to find out what answers he gets from the powers-that-be. Our pediatrician doesn't have any vaccine—I called and was told to take my kids to the above-mentioned clinic, which only had 600 doses to distribute. What a mess. We can't seem to do anything right in this country.
October 19, 2009: Profound-less The lack of postings this month is really sad. I have company, though; when I read Chrissy Gardiner's blog this morning, I discovered that she feels the same way, and she summed it up so nicely:
Yes, exactly. And profound is hard to come by. Bev Galeskas was in town for a Fiber Trends trunk show at Camas Creek Yarn this weekend. I always enjoy talking to Bev. She's such a savvy businesswoman and she knows the industry so well. I invited her to stay here Saturday night so we could chat. She has some great ideas for my pattern line. It's a lot to wrap my head around, but I'm working on it. I meant to take some pictures at the store and completely forgot. I've known for a while that my store software is inadequate for what I want to do with it, so I upgraded it recently to a more powerful package. It's going to take me a while to get all the code in place and move the site over, but I am excited about some of the new features. And coding is fun in a weird sort of way, even though I have no desire to do it full-time or for anyone else. I'll have to put the site work on the back burner this week, though, because I need to concentrate on getting the Winter issue of the newsletter done. The husband has been clearing underbrush from parts of the property, and now all of it needs to be burned. I went out and helped him with the burning yesterday because 1) I like to be outside; 2) it's time with the husband and we're both so busy that I take it where I can get it, and 3) it's good exercise. I found it a bit distressing that previous owners of the property used that area as a dumping ground for all sorts of stuff—bottles, used cans of paint thinner, etc. Hopefully that's a "rural tradition" that is going away. It sure left us a mess to clean up. I came in at dinner time and sat myself down to knit and catch up on episodes of Sanctuary and Stargate Universe. I like both shows a lot, although I had to watch the first episode of SG-U twice to figure out exactly what was happening. I hate it when a show's storyline is unnecessarily complicated, and that one was as convoluted as they come. I have a visit with my doctor tomorrow about the hcg program. I have been reading up on and preparing for it. People have asked me for progress updates, so they will probably make it into a blog post or two in the coming weeks.
October 14, 2009: Traveling to Tucson Tucson was great fun. When I left Kalispell Friday afternoon it was 21 degrees. When I arrived in Tucson it was 71 degrees. Quite a change. I missed the worst of the cold here in Montana. It was about 39 degrees when I got home, but this morning it is snowing. I stayed with the lovely Lynda and her husband Graham, and they made me feel right at home. In fact, everyone I met was really welcoming and friendly. I bought myself a special treat while I was in Tucson:
It's a walnut drop spindle with a dichroic glass inset, and it comes with a bit of backstory. A few weeks ago I was reading Susinok's blog about her visit to the Taos wool festival. She posted a picture of a walnut drop spindle with an abalone inset that she purchased there. I thought it was just lovely. During my first class in Tucson, Jill Holbrook (the workshop organizer) casually mentioned that if I liked, she could take me to see her friend Ken Ledbetter and the amazing spindles he makes. She went on to say that he had just been at Taos, and the light bulb went on in my head. "Does he make drop spindles with abalone insets?" I asked. "Oh yes," said Jill. So after class we went to visit Ken and his wife. I don't get opportunities to spin much any more, but I do have a collection of drop spindles. I tried a few and the one in the picture is the one that wanted to come home with me. I've decided that I will keep it close at hand on my desk and I'll just take a few minutes every so often to spin on it. Ken reminded me very much of my father, who used to build clocks and furniture in his spare time. It's obvious that Ken takes great pride in his work. He talks about wood like we knitters talk about yarn. Take a look at the KCL Woods website and see if there is somethere there that speaks to you. My classes were over Monday afternoon, but I wasn't flying out until Tuesday morning, so I spent Monday night with a college friend and her husband, who just recently (two months ago!) moved to Tucson. I haven't seen Elizabeth since the husband and I visited her in Jackson Hole, WY in 1991. We had great fun catching up and we went out to eat at an amazing Mexican restaurant where I had tamales for dinner. Yum. Her husband, Ben Johnson, is an incredibly talented painter, and you can see some of his work at his website.
October 7, 2009: My New Diet I don't have enough controversy on this blog, so I thought I'd toss something else into the mix. I have an appointment to see my doctor after I get back from Tucson. When I saw him in August, I told him how frustrated I was that I can't seem to lose this excess weight. I was doing really well and losing steadily—although slowly—back in the spring. At my sister's wedding in May I was down to a weight and a clothing size I hadn't seen in almost seven years. Unfortunately, a month of taking generic thyroid hormone—which I've since found out is demonstrably weaker than the brand name version—sabotaged all my weight-loss efforts. I gained back all I had lost and then some, and the clothes I bought back in the spring no longer fit. When I saw him in August, my doctor suggested I try the hcG diet. Two of my friends have done it recently; one lost about 62 pounds and the other lost almost 30 pounds. It is not, despite what you might read in the media, a fad diet that doesn't work. I literally saw my friends shrinking in size before my eyes, and there is a body of scientific evidence to support this diet's effectiveness—more on that in a moment. At the time my doctor suggested the idea, I wasn't quite ready to leap in. I told him that I really wanted to see if being back on the brand-name thyroid hormone would jump-start the weight-loss again. And this program is hard to do if one is traveling, so I knew September and October would be lousy months in which to start it. I've been back on the brand-name thyroid hormone for almost three full months now. I still weigh what I weighed when we got back from the east coast in July. It's not like I eat excessively—ask JC, who spent a week on a cruise ship with me. She'll tell you what a veggie-lover I am. I eat hardly any red meat. Something is messed up with my body, and I think it's a result of four years of untreated hypothyroidism. I am out of patience. I want my old body back, and I think that this program will give it to me. My doctor is very cautious and very conservative, so I know that he's only on board with this program because he's done a lot of research into it and knows that it's got solid scientific underpinnings. He sent me the original documentation from the doctor who developed this diet (back in the 1930's) so that I could read it and research it myself. It'll take three weeks of taking hcG and a 500-calorie diet (veggies and lean protein, which is what I eat anyway), but if all goes as planned, by Thanksgiving I should be back to the weight I was after DD#2 was born. Back then I weighed 138 pounds, which was right smack in the middle of the weight range for my height. I'll keep you posted on how things go. Let me just say how ridiculous it is that things got to this point, and what a sad commentary that is on the state of medicine in the US that my previous doctor allowed me to gain 30 pounds, all while telling me I was eating too much and not exercising enough. Yeah, right.
October 6, 2009: Their Default Is Not My Fault Strawberry, I happen to agree with you. I don't think it's my responsibility to protect people who default on their debts to me. As soon as I mentioned the situation to a group of my fellow designers, I discovered that I am not the only person this has happened to—they've also been unable to get payment from this same store. And we've all been advised not to go public about being stiffed because it could backfire on us. I'm sorry, I just think that's a load of crap. If none of us does anything to change the situation, the dysfunctional people continue to win. That's just not acceptable to me. As of right now, it's all been turned over to my very excellent lawyer, who has handled stuff like this for us before (unfortunately, the building industry is full of low-lifes who don't pay their bills and hope no one will notice). And I'll do whatever I can to get the word out among my fellow designers so that nobody else gets snowed by this particular yarn store again. A technician is coming to work on the copier today. I hope that this problem is fixable for a reasonable amount of money. Having a copier here on which to make handouts for my classes has been so convenient and I'd like to keep this one going for a while. I shipped a box of class materials down to Tucson yesterday. That's so much easier for me than trying to schlep stuff with me on the plane. And it's less likely I'll forget anything. Now I just have to figure out what the weather is going to be like and pack my clothing accordingly. There still isn't much knitting going on . . . I've been working on the sleeve to a sweater and I'll probably take the other sleeve with me to finish while I am traveling. Some mindless knitting allows other ideas to percolate in my head.
October 5, 2009: Irritation I haven't posted lately because I'm irritated about a lot of things, the biggest of which is that a yarn store where I taught this summer still owes me payment for services rendered in the amount of about $1600. I've sent invoices, e-mails, PMs' through Ravelry, and I've gotten no response. I'm trying to be professional about this, but part of me really wants to call them out publicly and shame them into paying me. I've learned over the years that there is little advantage in being Mr. Nice Guy, and this has gone way past my capacity for being understanding. I also have a business to run. On to other things . . . Camas Creek recently got in a shipment of books, and I picked up quite a few (five) interesting ones while I was there last week. It's been a while since I bought that many knitting books. I particularly liked this one:
It's Knit Edgings and Trims—an Interweave Press reprint of some of the Harmony Guide patterns as well as some new ones. It joins the other books in this series. Looking through it last night gave me a ton of ideas. I only have one peeve: no charts. Geeze, Interweave, would it have killed you to include some charts with this book? Lila has been a great addition to our pack. She and Rusty get along very well and she's just a good dog. We like her a lot. She goes in for a wellness check Thursday morning. It will be fun to introduce her to our vet. I put in a call Friday afternoon to the copier company that services my big copier; it stopped working while I was trying to get my handouts done for Tucson and they were supposed to call me back with an estimate of how much it would cost to get it fixed. I hope they call back this morning. I was hoping to have all my handouts done and packed by now. Our little copier isn't working, either—I suspect it needs a new fuser but I've got to figure out the best way to get that replaced. In the meantime, it's back to packing for Tucson.
October 1, 2009: Practice Makes Better I've tried—over the past week or so—to set aside at least a half an hour every day to practice the piano. A lot of people (many of them at my church) seem to think that once one learns to play the piano, no further work is necessary. While it's true that playing the piano is a lifelong skill, it's a skill that suffers without regular practice. I know this because for ten years I was without a piano, and when I finally had one again, it took a lot of work to get back to my former level of expertise. Fortunately for me, I am a really good sight-reader, which has saved my butt on more than one Sunday of a week when I didn't have much time to practice. Our song leaders and worship leaders are supposed to let the pianists know as far in advance as possible what we are supposed to play on Sunday morning. However, "as far in advance as possible" tends to be Friday night or Saturday morning, and no amount of pleading for more time over the past ten years has been able to change that. Oh well. The best I can do is practice regularly and keep my skills up. I'm also trying to stretch myself a bit and play things that are a tad out of my skill range. I don't want to be stuck at the same skill level for the rest of my life. I play three or four prelude pieces every Sunday morning. It's easy just to grab the pieces I already know how to play and rotate them in and out. But I am sure the congregation gets as tired of hearing them as I do of playing them, so I need to spend time working up some new pieces to put into the rotation. I am also rather particular about playing music appropriate to the current church season. Perhaps I am the only one who cares, but it's not really appropriate to begin playing Christmas carols the moment Advent begins. I don't play Christmas carols until the week of Christmas. Until then, it's Advent music only. I finished a lace scarf I was working on and now I'm feeling "eh" about my other projects (which happen to be sweaters, both of them). I've got another simple cabled scarf on the needles so that's what I worked on last night. The husband and I watched a movie called "The Express," about Ernie Davis. Ernie was the first African-American to receive the Heisman trophy (in 1961). He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, but was diagnosed with leukemia and died before he ever got to play for them. I am ashamed to admit that—even though I have been a Browns fan all my life—I had never heard of Ernie Davis. The husband says I get a pass because all of this happened before I was born, but still . . . it was a sad story. So I'll finish this cabled scarf and then decide what else I want to work on. I'll likely finish one of the sweaters—the body and half of one sleeve are already complete, so it wouldn't take much more work to get it done. I just wish I felt a bit more excited about knitting. |
