Etherknitter

Earworm Gangnam Style

My DH sent me a link to K-pop.  I had no idea.  

This video squashed Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" video/knockoff frenzy.  I wrinkled my brow as I watched it, thinking there was stuff here that was just NMD.  (In the Etherknitter household, that is an oft-used acronym:  not my demographic.)

Then it became an earworm.  You have been warned.  I have included an instructional Youtube link. It is a very aerobic dance.  And you probably shouldn't open this at work.

Tomorrow, we will talk about I-cord bindoffs/castoffs. *yawn*

 

 

The Sound of Wine

Wine, as it appeals to the ear, and the eye.  Amazing.  I love this.

 

You asked for it: No SIM

Snark is the official sense of humor in this household.  It serves as a coping mechanism for the bits that life chews out of one's psyche and coping reserves each day.  Mr. E and I both understand that there is a certain resignation about it, which takes away the part that would otherwise upset the other.  It means we aren't truly in pain; we are simply compensating with wry humor.

I try not to inflict it here.  But I have been persuaded by yesterday's comments to write more often. That means you and I are making a bargain.  You will not rush to reflexively reassure me, fearing I am fragile and at my wits end about the snark subject.  I, for my part, will do my best to amuse us.

My 2009 transition from Samsung flip-phone to iPhone 3GS was seamless.  The iPhone 5 transition has been disgusting.  (The only reason I saw it through was because transition to a Droid promised to be worse.)

1.  I ordered the handset on September 27th.  Apple customer service said shipment in 15-20 days. She lied.  32 days later, it was in my hands.

2.  The hurricane was scheduled to arrive less than 48 hours after the arrival of the handset.  I postponed activation of the phone until after Sandy left.  Good thing.  I lost my landline for days, and still had a working cellphone.

3.  I backed up my iPhone 3GS on my MAC.  It took an hour and a half.  All I have is pictures, and apps, probably fewer than most users.  The timing caused me to miss my Genius bar appointment.  I rescheduled it for the next day.  At the end of the backup, the MAC chirped happily, patted me on the head, and told me my backup was done.  I should have guessed.  Do you know that you can back up your phone without having to input a password anywhere?  And do you know that Apple purposely makes it impossible for the user to go in and inspect the backup to see if it looks complete?

4.  I went to the Genius Bar.  The Genius activated my phone.  My old 3GS was done.  My new 5G said No Service in the top left corner.  I asked the Genius about that.  He said it takes 5-60 minutes for AT&T to activate the new phone.  I asked him about restoring my data from the MAC, which I had in my backpack.  He said it was simple, and I could do it at home.  I believed him.

5.  I drove home.  Two hours later, No Service remained.  I called AT&T.  I was curt.  Angry.  Indignant.  Yes, dear reader, I understand this is all existential ennui, but it is bad service.  Two minutes later, I had Service, or at least a few bars.  

6.  I tried backing up my new phone through iTunes.  Did not happen.

7.  Back to the Genius Bar the next day.  I really did hit upon a genius there.  He told me I was hosed.  He wondered if I had backed up over my backup.  This was certainly possible.  We collectively tried to re-backup my new phone.  A password stood between us.  One that is lost in the mists of history.  Since I had cleverly encrypted my backup (WHY? THERE IS NOTHING IMPORTANT ON MY PHONE!), it was completely gone from my life without the password.

While we were there, waiting for our Genius to figure out why the MAC was not behaving itself, salespeople dashed by.  As one was scurrying into the back room, he asked his colleague, "Can you help me POS this iPhone?"  Mr. E and I snickered in unison.  Neither one of us thought of sales; we instantly and simultaneously thought of Men In Black.

8.  The Genius copied over my Contacts from my old phone.  I now have to reload my apps from iTunes, and copy pictures with iPhoto, then reload onto the new phone.  All apps need their data copied over by hand.  Do you realize that I kept track of every single oyster I've eaten for the last three years on my Awesome Note app, so I would know which ones I like?  With detailed tasting notes?  And I have now lost the 4,560,000 score on WhirlyWord forever.

9.  I went home with my tail firmly between my legs.  The password thing is my fault.  Checking the encryption box is my fault.  But Apple letting me do the backup without demanding that password is just plain stupid programming.  

10.  I got home and took out the phone to start downloading apps.  That evil upper left hand corner said something entirely new.  No SIM.  That meant no iPhone. I thought the Genius had put the SIM card in backwards, or upsidedown, or reversed.  Alas.  Life, and the Iphone, are never that simple or easily made right.

11.  I called Apple.  I ranted.  Politely.  I raved.  Without invective. (I knew if I called his company an evil word that it totally deserved, I would lose my audience and all of my potential help.)  I was on the landline for half an hour.  (Can you believe he asked me if I was using my iPhone to call him?  I told him it was a brick before he got to that, and he still asked.)  He told me to turn the phone on and off. I started getting outraged, but realized he was doing the correct thing with technology.  It worked.  I no longer had a brick in my hand.  I pointed out that intermittent No SIM was not acceptable.  He put me on hold, consulted the Gods.  I almost hung up because now my phone worked, and I was on hold for a rilly long time.  When he came back on, he said that he had called my local Apple store, spoken with my Genius, arranged for a new handset to be put away for me.  And I had to go to the Genius Bar, AGAIN.  Pick up the new phone, get it activated, and be off into the sunset.

23.  I went to the Genius bar two days later.  They couldn't find the new handset.  Then they did.  My new Genius activated it.  The upper left hand corner of death said No Service.  I told him I was not leaving the store until it had bars.  He called AT&T.  I wrestled the customer service person on the line to the ground, and got bars.  After I hung up, I asked the Genius what would happen to the old handset.  He said it gets sent back to Apple.  They take it apart and try to figure out what No SIM means to the software.

24.  Epilogue:  I have not had the heart to wrestle with iPhoto yet.  I am slowly reconstituting my apps.  I set up email for gmail.  I tried to do the same for work email.  The phone refuses to recognize my work email.  I do not understand why, since I copied everything exactly as it was,  from my cooperative but quiet iPhone 3GS.

Mr Etherknitter and I are going to spend some time trying to guess the password for the MAC.  We won't knock ourselves out, on the assumption that there may be no data left there.  (How can a programmer program a backup program that does not ask you if you WANT to overwrite what you have backed up in the past?  Shame on them.  Maybe the data is there.  Maybe not.)

Glad I waited til after the hurricane.  Three phones, four days, three trips to the Genius bar, two calls to Apple, two calls to AT&T later, I limped off the battlefield with my spoils.

 

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things on My Mind

Brain dump.  Easy.

1.  I am sad that I forgot about NaBloPoMo on November 1st.  No matter how I tried to spin the month, that would haunt me.  That meant buh-bye to November 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.  

2.  The end of daylight savings time has been completely eclipsed by the knowledge that Thanksgiving is two weeks and two days away.  (My first typing said two tweeks.  That might be just as correct.)  Time to hustle my bustle.  (My mom used to say that.  I had no idea until JUST NOW that she had bastardized "hustle and bustle".  Amazingly, it still makes sense, and I have no idea if she did it intentionally.  The problem with people being dead is you can never go back and ask them these things.)

3.  I am about to ruin your cholesterol life by telling you about the most amazing cheese I have found in several years.  It is called Harbison, produced by Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont.  The cheese wheel (and it is that in name only) is wrapped with spruce bark.  The wrap is the only thing holding the integrity of the cheese together.  Get it about 2 degrees over refrigerator temperature, and it is liquid.  Cheesy, tender, unctuous, yummy cheese-sin.  Mr. E and I, armed with spoons, grin at each other as we take turns scooping, and exclaim, "It is abandoning itself!"  That passes as a loose translation of a French phrase that describes a cheese losing solid shape as it warms to room temperature.  When I lose my teeth,  I will sit with a spoon and eat this all day.  

4.  The I-cord bindoff is even worse than I thought.  No wonder I spent a year dreading it.  I will post about the problems another day.  It sits on the floor or on the table or in the bag, haunting me like a dessicated Halloween ghost that has lingered well past its time.

5.  The yard is full of leaves.  And branches.  And sticks.  I suppose I have to do something about that in the near future.

6.  Mr. Etherknitter and I were discussing seasons.  When does late fall end, and early winter begin?  He thought there needed to be frequent frost coating the lawns.  I wondered if it was the beginning of neutrals in the landscape.  No leaves, no blooms, no color.  My spingroup on Sunday said ice on local water, and snow.  The question has not been settled.

7.  Weaving is spanking me.  Warp threads keep breaking.  I have no idea why.  Lynn gave me some suggestions.  I am still not good at repairing them.  It gets done, but it is ugly.

8.  I am thinking of restarting piano practice.  Actually, I started yesterday.  It was fun.  I am very rusty, but some stuff is still stuck there in my memory.  Maybe this year, I will perfect Pachelbel's Canon in D.

 

9.  The turn in the weather has prompted more exercise, more cooking, more braising, more energy.  All of this is good.  It all hangs together:  more cooking and braising means more need for exercise, and more energy means it is easier to get the exercise done, which then means there is more energy for cooking and braising.  Sometimes life is cool like that.

10.  I am in iPhone5 hell.  That also deserves a separate post.  

 

 

The engine of More is Done

I am waiting for the perfect post. 

Dumb.  

I am waiting for my knitting to finish itself.

Dumber.

I am blocking and making mistakes.

Dumbest.  But recoverable.

My photographer is MIA.  

First up is Fog Lifter.  I finished a second one during the Olympics.  Blocked it.  Patted it the next day, and found that it was good (and dry).  I took some pictures.  Sometimes the lens shows the oops that the naked eye missed.

There is no point at the neck of the shawl.  I sprayed it, repinned the top, and think it will be fine.   

How long ago was Feather Duster done?  Last summer, 2011.  I tried blocking it on the board on the floor.  Threading the wire on the floor was a recipe for back pain, so I stopped.  This iteration was accomplished on the dining room table.  Better, by some.  It dried.  The aha moment with this came as I was looking at the finished ones on Rav.  Oh.  Points.  People blocked points.  Just like Susan said.

Some blocked points at the feather motifs.  Some blocked them in between.  My version will stand as a triangle with no points.  (How could 300 yards of torturous mohair/silk Shibui Cloud end up producing such a SMALL amount of real estate?)  I blocked it to the dimensions on the pattern.

No mistakes yet on the third one.  What is worse than the tedium of blocking a shawl?  Blocking it twice.  This one, Volt, needs to be blocked pre I-cord edging to get the tension right, then post I-cord edging to get the finish right.  You can see the circ cord at the bottom of the shot.

Plan:  Between now and December 31st, I have two goals.

1.  Survive Hurricane Sandy.

2.  Finish WIPs.  Get the psychic weight gone.  

I still owe the Vavstuga posts.  I promise.  Ditto Rhinebeck.  I promise.

Ten on Tuesday: What I Did Over the Long Weekend

1.  Recovered from Vavstuga.  Worse than SOAR.  Better than SOAR?  Drinking from the firehose of weaving for five days.  If you weave, if you want to weave, GO.  I was TIRED, inspired, joy-fired.  That is why I came home to my loom and

2.  Threaded heddles.  The project is modest, cottolin towels.  But the loom no longer looms dark and mysterious in the family room.  The warp is black, which is tough.  Correct ergonomics while weaving are critical, because

3.  The exercise I did on Sunday slammed my body.  I ache.  I asked for it.  Endurance training.  After a week of sitting in front of looms, and stuffing my face with wonderful Vavstuga food?  Lunacy.  Which is probably why

4.  I went to the last farmer's market of the season.  Bittersweet, that.  Cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven, ground lamb without the rank overtones, and less fat than commercial products.  The fall colors, and crisp air remind me that I need to finish summer projects.  That drove me outside to

5.  Finish planting daylilies, along with whatever else I have been watering in pots all summer.  I need to finish this today.  Yesterday, I was gimping around too much to even THINK about bending down to plant.  Instead, I

6.  Watched Revolution.  The concept is interesting - the world loses electricity all at once.  The subplots are dismaying and depressing.  Survival is more about luck than prep.  The main character, Charlie, overplays most of her drama.  But I can't stop watching it.  I stayed up way too late, so I didn't finish

7.  Plying my Frabjous Fibers BFL/silk 2ply.  I owe you a BIG post on the spinning progress going on.  Six pounds in 2012:  I am 10 ounces from the goal, and have until December 31st to do it.  The irony of the spinning slacker dropping the goal looms large (yes, I am thinking about weaving these days).  That meant that recovering from Vavstuga (#1) was followed immediately by

8.  Organizing my weaving drafts, samples, new books, new yarns, new equipment, and information. Staples provided binders, sheet protectors, tab separators.  That puts two tasks in one heading, so I'll skip to

10.  Changing the sheets to flannel and turning on the heat yesterday.  Seems a noteworthy event each season.  I try not to be a wimp about it, but I usually fail.  Cozy is good.  I'm thinking Thanksgiving, I'm revving up the braise recipes.

11.  The final task that took several hours was starting Pinterest boards.  What took me so long??  I am Laurie Etherknitter on the site.  Tell me who you are, and I will follow!  

Ten, pretending to be eleven.  That is fine.  Vavstuga deserves a separate post, which will come soon.  Did I say GO?  Yes, I did.  You will have to wait til 2014, because all the 2013 basics classes are filled.  

(Shout out to Lynn, Marcia, Sheryl, Mary Beth, Steph, Judy, Jan, Becky, Susan, Terri who made it just the best week ever.)

View across the Deerfield River from Vavstuga's dining room.  The Bridge of Flowers is on the far left.

Last Week

A teaser.  Answer before you read more.  Where was I?

 

I would not have guessed, either.  Montreal subway, McGill stop, I think.  

A brief trip, cut short by the common cold.  We went to the Jean-Talon market. September's abundance triggered appreciation of plenty before approaching scarcity.  My chromosomes tell me that winter is coming.  Stray tendrils of thought - will I look back on this in some post-apocalyptic life, and remember what was possible?  We would have loved to take some of this home, but US Customs would have not been pleased with us.

Tomatoes.

OCD tomatoes.

Lettuce too perfect to be real.

 

Premature homecoming was not a bad thing.  The virus scurried off without infecting others.  I had a chance to block And So Are You.  Three days to dry!  Must track down the elusive male photographer for modeled shots.  

Ten on Thursday Plus Edition: September

Ten things about September that I love.  

1.  September is about anticipation.  The school years, ages 5 - forever, seem to have programmed most of us to think of this month as a new beginning.  Nothing in the work world agrees with this, so it must be the anticipation of renewed energy associated with

2.  Cooler weather and less humidity.  That alone energizes my poor summer-sodden body.  More activities that were repugnant in July and August start to make sense in September.  For example,

3.  Wool becomes possible.  The idea of a sweater in my lap no longer gives me the vapors.  I do love knitting shawls and socks.  But colorwork, with wool in both hands?  No.  My Mt Everest is competent sweater knitting.  That will never progress during summer months.  My other Everest is fitness in all three spheres:  aerobic, muscle conditioning, flexibility.  September means that

4.  Exercise is more fun.  Let me clarify.  The gerbil-stuff on the elliptical is never "fun".  But cooler temps make it less nasty.  Fans are more effective.  There is a reasonable hope of cooling by evaporation.  That just doesn't happen when the dewpoint does what the dewpoint has been doing this summer.  All things suffered in the heat.  But now, I can even

5.  Think about doing constructive work in the garden.  Transplant.  Finish unfinished spring business.  Get the final perennials in the ground.  Even the plants are happier with less heat stress after I mess with their roots.  Once the planting is finished, then I look towards

6.  A nice run up to some pleasant holidays.  Thanksgiving.  New Year's.  Nice celebrations, excuses for fun food and wine.  Even before the holidays arrive, we in the fiberverse can anticipate

7.  Rhinebeck!  New England Fiber Festival!  Some anticipate SOAR.  This year, I am taking a beginning weaving class at Vavstuga, the epicenter of Swedish weaving.  Okay, those are all in October and November, but September IS the slide into home base.  That means stepping back into September proper for

8.  My wedding anniversary.  I am a lucky girl.  We are planning nice dinners, most of which will be at home as we

9.  Glut on even more farmstand produce this month.  At the beginning of the month, all that was available in August is still there.  Plus there are new things:  winter squash, potatoes, delicatas, more greens.  The favorite dish of the summer was local ground lamb, local eggplant, local onions, local parsley in this recipe.  I substitute walnuts for pine nuts, which were crazy expensive this year.  I don't use tamarind, or do any of the in-the-pan stuff except for water to keep the eggplant and lamb moist.  I will admit to only using two eggplants, for a total of four halves, and packing the pound of ground lamb into the four halves.  Once I have the halves pre-baked, I squish the innards down a bit to make room for the lamb so it doesn't roll off the top of the eggplant.  This dish is even better the next day when the flavors have melded with the eggplant.

10.  And what could EVER be wrong with a season that heralds fewer bugs?  This year, we have had West Nile, Eastern Equine Encephalitis.  Ticks have been everywhere.  

The budding, teasing promise of Clematis ternifolia at the end of August, finally POPS.

The sad part of September is when we say goodbye to the hummingbirds for another year.  Migrators stop by for a quick refill, and move on.  

I need to block three shawls (THREE).  I have to get FO sock pictures to post.  Pictures of spun yarn (I am AHEAD of schedule for 6 pounds in 2012, finally) need to appear.  I am not successfully fighting startitis.  I'll get a few inches on the needles in the correct gauge, and point that up later.  

 

 

 

 

Silver and a Half

Marinated.  Immersed.  Drowned.   Two weeks of my life devoted to the athletes, their tears, their joy, their exuberance.  Immersion, too, in WIP Wrestling.  Go Fug Yourself did a good summary post of the aquatic sports, men's competitions.

I was overambitious in the schedule of projects.  But that is the only way to get an Olympian task done.  I finished And So Are You first (top).  I could not be distracted from the drama in London, so Fog Lifter (bottom) came next.  Done.

But Volt.  Poor Volt.  I swatched the bind off four different ways.  Grace Anna Farrow, the designer, has the Icord cast off, and attached Icord done with straight K1.  The stuff on the Interwebs and Youtube demonstrates K1b.  I tried both.  Although I like the look of the K1b on the bind off, the attached Icord looks pinched.  The Icord variations completely encircle the shawl, so I want it all to be consistent.  Straight K1 wins, but required too much attention to start.  

I went on to finish the first Wollmeise sock.  And I made progress on the second Frija sock.  Neither of those were in the planning of the initial competition.  Sometimes, a competitor needs to add extra elements of difficulty in order to reach the podium.  And so it was, here.

I did not see a spot at the Medals Ceremonies for Silver and a Half.  I had decided that expressing my knitting in terms of goals not met had no place in this post.  So just picture that small little step in between gold and silver.  I am there.

Not That You Asked

A slow start to the competition has not discouraged our champion.  She missed the Opening Ceremonies of the Games Previously Known as the Ravelympics.  Life intervened.  Our competitor came out of the gate the next day, on the first day of Olympic competition in London. 

"Where the hell am I in this WIP?"  It was the opening move, quickly executed, with fast progression to full commitment and speed.  Clearly, there is some ground to be covered in WIP Wrestling.

First preliminary heat is shawl And So Are You.  There were some training holes in the ruffle that needed to be eliminated.  Second time around, substitution of player M1R/P1/M1L for K1/P1/K1 in the same stitch did the trick.  The ruffle looks GREAT in this competition, and Team Etherknitter USA is pulling ahead.  All she needs is a finish by the weekend, and she can advance to the semifinals.

That semifinal is going to be TOUGH.  It is the applied Icord bind-off for Volt.  Having practiced it last year with a swatch, and nailing it on the first go, our competitor has not touched it since.  That means she will have to re-do a penalty swatch before she can start the race.

 

If all goes well, the medal event will be finishing Fog Lifter.  The longest rows are left, and then a complex crochet bind-off.  She has stuck the finish on this one in the past.  We can only hope that she, like Aly Raisman's mother, is not videoed with the the f-bomb rolling off her lips, clear enough for even the most rudimentary lip-reading member of Team USA to understand and appreciate.