Always Explain Your Code

I'm having problems with my knitted code.

I'm trying to make a 9"x9" square, so of course an important thing is to have the initial set of stitches come out to be something that's 9 inches long. I have a pattern which specifies the use of a certain number of stitches to achieve this, but people don't knit exactly alike--some pull the yarn tighter, some leave it looser--and I personally never get the right size by using the specified number.

Generally I have to add more, but how many more depends on the pattern.

This square has a repeating pattern, so you can add a certain number of stitches to get another instance of the design, but the number of stitches per pattern-iteration is 14, which is a lot. I'm only about 4 stitches (and half an inch) short of 9 inches, and when I added 14 stitches it was 10 inches, easy.

The annoying thing is that you always have to knit several rows before you have enough of the representative fabric to get an accurate measurement. You have to run the code for a while before you can tell what it's doing, we might say.

This is probably fascinating to exactly no people, but here's the thing I should have learned from practicing coding, but didn't: comments!

I've knitted this square before, so I must have solved the problem somehow. I should have written a note on what I did. Presumably added some number of non-pattern stitches to the edges, but how many? I'll have to knit it again (4th time's the charm?) to find out.

Or possibly just give up in irritation and try some other square. Which I also will not know how many stitches to use for, but at least it'll be a change of scenery. You get tired of knitting the same first 6 rows over and over.

Drawing Connections

You know which two dissimilar things I've lately come to think are actually kind of similar?

Knitting and coding.

Both have a sort of obscure language and process for how you have to do things (wind the yarn around the needles this way, enclose these things in this type of brackets), and then you get a finished product that doesn't actually resemble the written pattern or code, but that derives directly from what stitches you made, or what things you put in which brackets.

Also, if you get one little thing wrong, it can totally mess up your entire afghan square/web page.

There's this similarity because you're trying to follow (or make up) instructions that come in a fairly unintuitive form, and with time and practice you gradually start to be able to work out what's going to happen as a result of which steps (ah, if I knit-purl-slip-knit here, it will come out like so in the finished square). But at first, you're really just sort of fumbling your way following directions because they're written down.

Code is in some ways easier to fix, since you can quickly make changes and then reload the page to see if it works, where you have to tear out and reknit everything back to the mistake in your square. I guess one could say that knitting patterns are in fact code, and fingers with yarn is just a fairly inefficient means of running it.

Anyway, that's my thought for the day. Now I must attempt to complete my weekly Codecademy lesson.

Not Feeling Fictional

November is coming up, and t'will be National Novel Writing Month once again, and I'm sitting around not having any inklings of ideas.

You can't start writing until November 1, so it's obviously OK not to have really fleshed anything out in mid-October, but in the past I at least had some loosely connected notions I'd been mulling over, and a kind of "here's where things will start" plan.

Now, I've really got nothing. Just not feelin' the inspiration. I'm feeling as if I may not get around to doing it this year, although I'll only be busier next year, so I kind of might as well go for it now.

I'm also concerned because the next Assassin's Creed comes out in November, and that will be very distracting. Veeeeeeeery distracting. Just thinking about it is distracting. Ah, to be climbing tall buildings right now!

Plus, there's all of this knitting to be done. It turns out I got way more yarn than I needed, but I wanted the free shipping that came with a $50 purchase!

Also, I'm a terrible judge of these things. It's like the time I needed to order an ethernet cable, and after considering the available lengths, decided 50 feet sounded about right.

Indeed. About right for when I need to take my computer out of the apartment and around the corner of the building. Which, you never know.

Be prepared by overestimating your need for everything, that's my motto.

This is why I really feel I should have about 8 or 10 novel ideas in mind if I'm going to tackle NaNoWriMo.

Eight or 10 ideas, 50 feet of cable, 20 balls of yarn, and a video game. That's preparation.

Persistence, Persistence

I just could not seem to get a handle on my latest afghan square. I would misread the pattern (repeatedly, in different but equally wrong ways), or it would be too wide, or too narrow.

I tore the whole thing out no fewer than 5 times, and was seriously contemplating just moving on to something else. Yet I persevered, and it turns out the 6th time was in fact the charm. So that's done.


In unrelated news, I just completed 700 charge cycles on this laptop battery. Party!

I have no idea if that's a significant milestone for a battery, but it's a nice round number, so I'm going to stand by the call for a party.

I got the computer in January of 2007, so that actually doesn't even seem like that many cycles. It's only, what, about 12 charges per month? Three a week?

I suppose that sounds about right. It seems like I'm on the computer all the time and must need to charge it a lot more than that, but I guess most of the time when I'm on a computer it's at work, which obviously doesn't wear down this battery.

Anyway, the battery condition is still listed as 'good,' so perhaps I'll get another several hundred cycles out of it. I used to faithfully do the whole calibration process every couple of months, as advised in the manual, but I confess I've fallen out of that habit. Still, I am generally careful about disconnecting it once it's fully charged.

Basically, I'll do the best I can to maintain this machine without expending any additional thought or effort on the project.

It's literally the least I can do.

Brain Wallpaper

My yarn arrived at last, so I can set to knitting!

Knitting keeps my hands full, and means I can't be reading or mousing around the internet all the time, so I expect I'll have to catch up on all kinds of questionable movies, just to have something going in the background.

I can only be alone with my thoughts and my knitting for so long before being overwhelmed by all those questions about whether or not I put the right subject headings on that thesis, or managed a truly comprehensive search in that database, not to mention the dreadful tremors occasioned by reflection on all the stuff that has to go up into the archives lest my office become impassable...well, it gets pretty grim.

That's when random movies you've never heard of, or had heard of but never contemplated going to see, can suddenly seem like a brilliant idea.

Almost as brilliant as folding your socks down to cover up holes in the heel!

Oh no, I'm not letting that one die.

Brandish Once Again the Needles of Victory!

The time has come for another grand Knitting Saga! Another sister is going to be married, so I have dug up my needles and ordered a pile of worsted weight yarn. Many 9x9-inch squares shall be crafted ere this tale is done.

I initially feared I would have to buy new knitting needles as well as piles of yarn, because when I went looking for them I could neither find them nor really think where I would have been likely to have put them.

I found a number of interesting things, however, including:

• Several tiny bottles of shampoo and lotion from various hotels
• A tiny bottle of scotch from somewhere
• A set of false eyelashes
• About 6 bags from various convention booths
• A book I got 1/3 of the way into six months ago but never finished
• A specially designed spoon to aid in pouring Guinness over pale ale to make a Black and Tan
• A sunglasses holder made to resemble a cicada that clips to your car visor and says Tuscaloosa
• Large quantities of old Library Journals
• An eyeliner pencil
• One of those tiny plastic swords that come in fruit-flavored drinks
• The knitting needles! Right where I left them, on the table under a pile of scrap paper 

I should probably tidy up around here. Unfortunately, I will soon be too busy knitting to worry about trifling concerns like that.

I plan to store my finished squares in a pile on the table, on top of the scrap paper.

Knitting Saga Complete

OK, now that I've got my pictures onto my computer, here's a little shot of the completed afghan, draped in artistic disarray over a couch.

We worked hard and we were triumphant! It was a magnificent sight.

Knitting Update

Brought my camera, but not the cord that connects it to the computer, so I cannot upload a new picture of the assembled afghan in all its glory.

It's pretty darn glorious, though.

Ahhhhh! Kelpies!

By which I mean, I hate packing, and have put it off until now, and I have to catch a plane in the morning, and am scurrying around all frazzled trying to figure out what I'm going to want to wear and whether I should bring my laptop and how to fit all these knitted squares into my bag.

There will be a grand late-night sewing party once we get all the squares in one place and start putting them together.

Well, I should go finish packing. Depending on whether or not I decide to take my laptop with me, I may be away from the old internets for a while, so miss me terribly while I'm gone, OK?

Waiting for Wool

Where's my yarn?! I have knitting to be doing!

Postal service, bring me my yarn! 

I'm just pacing the floor, restlessly tapping my empty needles together. Lonely and sad, wondering why I don't have handfuls of colorful wool right now.

Why, oh why, didn't I place the order sooner? A classic lament.

Speaking of tapping, I like these bamboo needles I got for this project, but they just don't click like the metal ones I used when I was a kid. That old click-click sound of knitting is different with wood.

I guess I can adapt, talk therapy is helping, but it's a change, is all.