Well, lots of stuff is talking to me, but not the yarn

Did you ever have one of those weeks where the "Muse" is not with you?
The highlight of my week was when DD1 introduced me to a D&D cartoon on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqFPujRZWo
Did I do that right? Anyway, we've had a love/hate relationship with the kids playing D&D for several years now. It just struck me as increadibly funny when she was reciting parts of the video for her little brother. And, now I just can't get it out of my head.
Anyway, that's the kind of week it's been.
The DH's Work Socks With a Twist from Unique Sheep's Ram Club are showing progress ! Yeah !

When is a pattern modification really a new pattern?

At what point does a pattern modification become a whole new pattern?
The case in point for me right now is the February Ladies Sweater that has taken Ravelry by storm. What I have read about it so far gives a lot of credit for inspiration to the EZ SBJ.
But, it is obviously a new pattern, not just a derivation. Where does that line get crossed?
When did it become New and not Copy? Where is the line between the New FLS and something equally different that can stand on it's own merit?
The February Ladies Sweater is absolutely wonderful. When I saw it today for the first time, I knew that I would be casting on asap. The yarn has just been waiting for it since it jumped into my arms at the RenFest. A Black Baby Alpaca that is so luscious, I could not put it down. Of all the yarns there, this was far and away the softest. I would have picked it no matter what color it was.

There are literally hundreds of FLS photos posted on Ravelry. Many, many of these are being made as fast as needles can fly. Very few of them are in dark shades. Maybe because of the season of the year. Maybe because black doesn't photograph well. And, I agree that the FLS does look lovely in all of the infinite varieties of colors and fibers out there. But, I have this black that is begging to be made into something that I will want to wear every day.

Modifications:
1) The baby Alpaca is far finer than what is specified, worsted, I'll check exactly how fine.
2) The square neck isn't the best for my narrow, slopey shoulders. I'll be checking into a smaller, rounder neckline.
3) The widening look at the shoulders is good, and I'll be emphasizing that as much as possible.
4) Maybe not so much garter stitch. The Baby Alpaca wants to be smoother than all garter.
5) The lengthening look of the vertical lace pattern is good, but I'm not sold on the pointy shape of the lace. Due to the yarn's RenFest background, it wants to be a celtic knotwork of some kind. Aran or Gansey or some such mystery.
6) Not so sure about the 3/4 sleeves. Not sure why, I always push my sleeves up to that level anyway, so why not start out there? Hmmmmm
7) Must have a pocket somewhere. Yeah, I'm weird.
8) Not so sure about the baby doll, show off the baby bump effect on someone of my age. Might be kind of scarry.
9) Will be as long as I have yarn to make. It could end up quite a lot longer than in the design. I knit until the yarn is gone. Yeah, I'm weird.

So, more planning, more sketching, more thinking. Maybe if I just hold the yarn for a few minutes it will tell me what it wants to be.

I Missed the Yarn Harlot !

No one that I know (outside of You All) can possibly understand how disappointed I am. The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came within driving range, and the job sent me the other way! I even Excel calculated it out and MapQuested and everything. There was nothing short of a Hiro timeshift that was going to get me to the Yarnies before they left the building, and probably the airport. (Which makes me think, maybe if I had been a little more creative, I could have found out what flight she was on, raced to the tarmac, and .... what then? Would I have Kinneared her unobtrusively? Would I have collapsed, laughing, at her feet?)

There I was, all set to go to a wonderful night of knitting, ROFL, the awesome Yarn Harlot ! I mean who cares about the Debates, the New TV season, all that stuff. What is really important here, people? I mean, where are your priorities? All the Heroes, LOST, BSG, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, ER, CSI, EM-HE, and Gray's Anatomy in the world don't measure up to one evening with the "One Who Understands". (Don't get me wrong, I know there are more important events: my faith overall, staying married to my DH, the birth of a child....)

Well, obviously, my priorities are with my job. Eventhough the non-knitters had no idea what they were doing by sending me to a different office miles and miles in the wrong direction. But. Seeing as how the paycheck leads to Stash Enhancement.
And, this paycheck will pay for the book that is waiting for me at the wonderful local book shop.
And they called today to let me know that Ms. Pearl-McPhee signed it for me even though I wasn't even there. If I wasn't in the office full of non-knitters, I would have cried. She is So Wonderful ! So Human, so Humane, so Knitterly!

Counting down the minutes until I can leave for the book shop to pick up the new book! Free Range Knitter! It's gotta be good.

Excel My Knitting

Excel is my friend, it helps me think to see everything all lined up in neat rows. Sortable, alphabetizable, numbers that can be manipulated: added, subtracted, averaged, factored. Lists that I can print off and boxes that I can use to check off. Excel doesn’t care about my grammar, or punctuation unless it’s in a formula.

I’ve been wanting to come up with a way to chart knit stitches in Excel. In the past, I tried using the regular fonts that come with Office and just typing in the stitches. But, it really only works for the simplest of patterns. So, off to search the internet. Maybe people have put new stuff out there since the last time I looked.

If I was going to spend money, there’s a program - Stitch and Motif Maker:
http://www.software4knitting.com/pstitchmotif/stmkr.htm

For free: you can download fonts with knitting symbols that you can plug into an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document I would assume.

Almost every link on the internet that showed up in my search eventually pointed to one of these two. So that’s where I’m starting.

http://www.knittinguniverse.com/xrx/DownloadsList.php?CategoryID=32
(scroll down to "Symbol Font")
or
http://home.earthlink.net/~ardesign/knitfont.htm

Update at 11

Greg Kinnear and the Yarn Harlot

Ok, so I have been out of the loop. Greg Kinnear was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and actually talked about the Yarn Harlot; called her the Michael Jordan of Knitting!
It's about 20 minutes into this show:
http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O%27Brien/video/episodes/#vid=726521

So, this knitting wild woman that writes about knitters (not knitting) posts a story about the airport on her blog in August 2007. Then, a word she has coined, minted herself, is listed in the Urban Dictionary within days. See it here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kinnear Way to go Ms. Pearl-McPhee!

Yet, it takes over a year for it to hit TV. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Maybe Television is going to loose it's status as the trend-setter of our times.
Does that mean that within my lifetime, Television rose to the pinnacle of influence and then was usurped by the microchip on broadband?
Man, and my grandma thought that she had seen great changes in her lifetime.
What will tomorrow bring? What wondrous leap of progress is flying off someone's needles right at this very moment?
You know how the Geek/Nerd crowd is always talking in languages that mere mortals cannot comprehend? Clingon, for example. Metric, Binary, Emoticons, txtng, OMG, ...
What if the knitters spoke their own language? Would it be Yarnish? Harlotton? Knitish?
Fiberlingo?

An international language of fiber, where fiber lovers all over the universe live together in peace and harmony. Think of the influence that knitters, and fiber artists overall, would have on the world.

Wait a minute, I think we might actually have that started already.

I am so proud to be a knitter right now! sniff, sniff....

Buttons on Baby knits

The S'nB calendar pattern for Friday, October 10 was a Baby Swing Sweater. Absolutely adorable. On my list to cast on ASAP
Designed by Leslie Barbazette. The credits on the calendar page list at www.craftnation.net but that goes nowhere. So, I'll be tracking her down. (found her here: http://www.vivaponcho.com/about_us.html )
But, the point of this post is Buttons on Knits for Wee People.

Good, bad, rules, guidelines? What is the ongoing debate saying these days?
At what point does a button become big enough that it isn't a choking hazard? When are they small enough to not be a problem? When they're small enough to not be a choking hazard, don't they become a nose stuffer hazard? Please don't tell me that you don't know that little kids sometimes stick things up their nose that should not be there, or in their ears: cereal, corn, beans, peas, tape, string, beads, rubber bands, the key to Big Sister's diary.
Holes or not: Would the holes in a button work like the hole in a lifesaver and help out a little in choking situations? Would they air whistle, alerting adults to the crisis?
Teething: Buttons make great teething chewies from one point of view - they really help the teeth make it through. Grandma used to make strings of buttons on a cord for the babies to play with. On the other hand, how often does a baby chew right through the cord, string or other attachment to get that button off? How often would you have to keep checking on the attachment to make sure it's still secure? If it's a Gift Knit, how do you know that the responsible adult will know to keep checking?
Brain Development: Buttons are colorful, textural interest. Playing with buttons and figuring out how they work has got to be good for fine motor skill development. I know that my nursing babies were very clever about unbuttoning my top at the least opportune moment (think about Church, the grocery store, yep...). And everyone of them has grown up to be so brilliant now.

Strings are out on hoodies for children - because they get caught on so many things and choke the little ones. Blankets and Bumper pads are in question right now, or they were last time I checked. Car seats keep getting better, but keeping a little one comfortably warm on the way to and from the car without cooking them in the car is getting more difficult. Then there's the sleeping thing: Back to Sleep, Wedge to not roll over, Tummy Curling, propped up, sling, swing, bottle, water bottle, no bottle. Pacifier, thumb, ortho development device?

That's one of the problems with having kids; the experts keep changing all the rules. I refuse to give birth ever again until they quit changing the rules.

The Yarn Harlot Commeth !

O M G !
I just found out that the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) is coming within range of where I can be. Not like she's coming to my Home Town or anything. But, she's going to be at a location where I could conceivably be there too! Yeah!

Keep in mind that I didn't bother to go see any of the Political Candidates when I had the many, many chances. No on T. Boone Pickens. Same thing with Hannah Montana and several other celebrities. It just doesn't seem that important to me to see those people in person. I even once turned down the chance to see the Pope parade - it would have been a long distance view. But still - He's the Pope. That one, I probably should have gone to see.

But, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ! That's a whole nother story, now. She's a person I would drive far and wide to see. And there's a couple others on my list of people to revere enough to go out of my way to be close to: Dave Ramsey, ... Can't think of anyone else right now. Maybe I'll add more later.

Hey, you know it's gotta be good if I'm willing to Drive Down Town to get there!

There are so many great new patterns out there

This is such a difficult time of year for a fiberholic.
All the magazines are coming out with great new patterns. The websites have great stuff, Knitty and Ravelry, and all those other ones too.
The shops are stocking up on great new yarns.
And the Sales!
The Gift List is clamoring for promises to be made. (Don't remind me that about half of the projects that I started last fall didn't ever get finished.)
There even seems to be a conspiracy with the babies ! Yes, the babies. There are new ones and babies in the making everywhere. And each new little downy head begs to be swaddled in cushy hand knit goodies. The patterns for babies and little ones are getting better too.
And then there's the new TV season. Finally. There's good stuff on TV to knit to, calling me to the big comfy chair. It's cool enough outside (and inside too) that it isn't torture to snuggle into a big pile of fluff.
But, there's so much other stuff that needs to be done.
What's a fiberholic to do?