Mmmm Geekery

Been tinkering with the look of the blog a bit - basically just changed the Blogger-provided template. They all look kind of weird, but then that's probably because I have a widescreen monitor and the proportions of the blog components don't adjust to the monitor size, so when I look at it, I have two huge blocks of background colour on either side of the content, which just makes it look out of proportion.

Also, Blogger? It helps if you don't randomly change the comment option to "Only Comments from Members of this Blog". Especially if you don't TELL me this. Just happened to be looking through the options and spotted that little detail. Oy.

I've also started trying to use bloglines but am kinda meh on it. I'd like it better if I could get it to display new posts like LiveJournal does on their friendlist feature: posts in order by the most recent, regardless of their source, whereas right now bloglines shows the five most recent posts on each blog. Most of them I had to click on the post anyway to see the whole thing which opens in a separate window anyway, so... Yeah, not sure how much use I'll get out of that.

Anyway, away from the techie stuff and back to the knitting.

First in knitting news, nearly done the Kasshabog Koigu socks. Went through about three or four possible ideas for the tops before I decided to just go with plain garter stitch. I don't really need the ribbing at the top to keep them up as they're all ribbing, and I just want to finish them.

Of course when they're done I'm not exactly free to start the socks that I want to, as I want to do those on a size smaller needles than the Koigu ones, which are currently take up with the world's most boring self-striping yarn. Really, I should have known this stuff was a dog in the skein: light blue, a slightly darker blue and grey interspersed with bands of black & white patterning, and all the colour bands are washed out and kind of mottled, like denim. Really, it's not the most interesting stuff, but now that I'm halfway done the foot on one and at the heel on the other I don't exactly want to tear it all out. See kids, this is why you should never buy yarn in desperation just to have some new yarn and something to knit. Because eventually you will get better yarn, by which time the dog yarn will be hogging the needles you want to use.

The socks I'd like to start once I'm finished the Koigu ones are using the yarn I got in New York, which I've found the perfect stitch pattern for. It was in one of the Regia sock books, a six-stitch repeat, making stockinette squares outlined by garter ridges. Or to me, in this yarn, like the neon lights of Times Square reflected in the grids of windows of skyscrapers. Therefore, they are now officially dubbed the "Times Squared Socks". *is a dork*

Now I just have to finish the Boring Socks of Doom so I can have my 2.25mm needles back. However, at least when I finish the Koigu socks, the BSoD can become my travel projects, and considering my work schedule just got interesting ("Define interesting." "Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die?" Sorry, random geekery) I should be spending quite a bit of time commuting to and from work on the bus.

Speaking of work, my knitting program at the library started today! I've been looking forward to it; particularly as I'm doing it with teenagers as an afterschool thing, instead of kids on summer Saturday mornings. Considering teenagers have more autonomy, especially around that time of day, I'm thinking there's a greater chance that the kids will be there because they're actually interested and want to be, as opposed to some of the kids I had last time, some of whom had less choice in the matter. Today 7 of the 9 kids showed up (Seven of Nine! HEE! Sorry, more geekery) and they were a really good bunch. Most of them already knew each other as they're homeschooled. A few of them already know how to do some knitting, some are starting from scratch, so the ones that already knew the basics basically had a little stitch n' bitch (including the others, of course, once I got them started off) while I taught the newbies.

The newbies did really well, and by the end of the class they were knitting away. It was nice to have them catch on fairly quickly, which I had been hoping would be the case. One of the girls was struggling a bit on her first row, and mentioned that she thought she'd probably stick with beading as "this yarn thing" wasn't really her cup of tea. By her third row she was saying that she could see how it could be addictive. :) Should be interesting to see how the class goes from here on in.

Also, I could really do an entire entry about knitting podcasts, but just mentioning one I've found recently, though they've been podcasting for a while: Lime And Violet. OMG. I love this podcast. I kept hearing about them on Cast On (the other of my have-they-posted-the-podcast-yet weekly addictions) and just downloaded a couple eps last week. These girls are hilarious; incredibly wacky and yarn obsessed. They sound like the kind of people I would love to hang out with because we'd just be howling the entire time. Now every time I see some incredibly delicious yarn I think of Miss Violet saying that she wants to rub it on her good bits. *snigger* Go to the blog or to iTunes or Podcast Alley and download them.

So anyway, there's the updates. Hopefully next time I update I will be closer to starting the Times Squared socks and I will have the Boring Socks of Doom closer to done.