Hi from SoCal

I'm at my mother-in-law's house in San Bernardino, California. We have driven around our old environs quite a bit - and it made us both a little sad: we miss it and it's gone and changed and gotten less familiar. There are two primary changes in my mind: first of all, many of the houses here burned down a few years ago. Most have been replaced with all kinds of styles of houses, but it certainly looks different. Seconly, the city, especially the business districts, has been getting gradually more run-down, and we are always surprised when we visit to see dead shopping centers and businesses and more bars on the windows of residences than before. Still, it is just gorgeous here - very hot during the day but cool in the evenings and the mornings with a bright blue sky and wispy clouds. We have the brown foothills to look at, and more distant mountains, and bouganvillea in bloom, and the whole landscape dotted with Q-tip palm trees.

The house where we were married has a dead lawn, in fact, no surviving landscaping at all. The front lawn tree is a large, branched stump. It sits in a lovely neighborhood, a forlorn rental among nicely-kept homes. We drove to our last house, which we adored and has a wonderful view of the whole valley. It's surrounded by rosebushes and well-kept. We stopped to visit our dear neighbor to find that he's been ill, has split from his wife, and has caregivers. Things change, especially when it's years and not months. It was great to visit with him, though, and enjoy his upbeat, fun personality.

John is having a try at fixing his mom's broken sewing machine, and I'm on their dial-up internet. This neighborhood isn't wired for DSL. In fact, I was browsing the internet on the Kindle a while ago, that's what an addict I am! I edited two videos yesterday and am just not sure they're what I want, but I might upload them when I get to a good connection. I need to look at them again with a fresh perspective. It's a challenge to put the right information into the videos.

My MIL Barbara and SIL Laura have all kinds of adorable pets, including one of the most gorgeous dog's I've even seen, but also the most fearful and standoffish. She arrived starved and hairless and Barbara and Laura brought her back from the brink. She turned out to be a stunning blonde, some sort of golden retriever mix, spectacular and teddy-bear-like even after being clipped for the weather. It took a day for me to persuade her to let me rub her neck. She let us walk her last night, and I just can't get over what a beauty she is, and so sweet-natured.

I had a comment on YouTube from a knitter who has had a tough time knitting the back of the V-neck child's raglan. I hope it's going better for her! My dream is that people are working the lessons one at a time and feeling some genuine mastery.

On to more adventures.

Ribber Videos

Whoo-hoo! Did a couple videos (maybe it's three, I'm not sure until I edit) before going to the airport! My hubby encouraged me to do that because the editing and uploading take the longest. I can edit on my trip. If these are okay, I will have some of the very beginner lessons uploaded at the next place where I have high-speed internet!

The most interesting thing here is something that is NOT in your manual - it's called an e-wrap ribber cast-on. I hope my filming turned out and I can put it up, away from my knitting machines as I will be.

I'll be visiting my sister and her family in Orange County, California in a few days. Her son is an internet wizard, THE Thomas Zwaagstra of MySpace fame, who wrote some wonderful software and has had a successful internet business since he was 15. My sister is very supportive of my teach-everyone-to-knit passion, and I'm sure they'll let up upload if I've got something ready to go!

My First Ribber Lesson Video is UP!

I appreciate the kind comments and the people giving suggestions about the videos. It's certainly fun to get to the ribber videos, and although I'm going out of town soon I wanted to see if I could get one or two done.

Here's that first ribber lesson - definitely for beginners, but these will get more interesting as I go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQZ_V5a7JLA

Your ribber adds tremendous capabilities to your knitting machine. For one thing, you go from having 200 needles on your standard machine to have 400 needles! You can do ribbing plus a lot of other textures; circular knitting; double jacquard, a kind of fair isle doubleknit; extra-wide knitting. There are just more options than you can count.

Here's something interesting, a very fast baby blanket that I make on the standard ribber:
http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/07/baby-blanket-pattern.html

A good place to start is with with casting-on, in fact, with a regular circular cast-on.

Most ribber cast-ons are variantions of the circular cast-on. The procedure is to have a zigzag row, where one strand goes from a main bed hook to a ribber hook to a main bed hook, and so on across the row. Then you know one row on the main bed only from left to right, one row on the ribber from right to left, and finally, one more row on the main bed from left to right.

You could get by with 2 rows circular instead of three, but what the heck, the Japanese manuals say three, so let's do three.

The circular cast-on works with k1 p1 ribbing and with full needle rib (k1 pl closer together). It also works with k2 p2 and k2 p1. For those odd ones, it's simply necessary to get the needles arranged to make the zigzag row.

After the circular rows are done, you change to regular tension and knit every needle and go on with the knitting.

When you get to k3 p3 and other variations where you can't do the zigzag row, the correct procedure is to do either K1 P1 as 1x1 or as full needle rib, and then immediately after the cast-on, move the stitches to the desired layout.

The other minor challenge with circular cast-ons is getting the tension just right. I strongly recommend that you swatch before every garment to get your tension the way you like it. Your ribber tension will be work up looser than you expect because of the distance between the beds. While you're at it, measure the ribbing for gauge, too. I like to do some ribbing, then transfer the stitches to the stockinette setup and main garment tension and see how that looks and feels.

You will find that the zigzag row needs to be tight, the circular rows need to be looser than that but tighter than the regular ribbing. You can, if the bottom edge is stubbornly flaring out, use scrap yarn and a ravel cord so that the comb isn't holding the stitches out so widely and get a tighter tension on the zigzag row, but I do not normally find that necessary.

U. S. Debt Clock

Food for thought:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

 

Losing Weight

At Weight Watchers last night, down 1.8# more for a total loss of 16.2 pounds.

I’m nervous about going out of town though!  I hope I can travel without gaining weight.

 

Back to School

I took my college-age son to the airport so he can return to NYC in time for school. He's flying to New Hampshire to see a friend, and then he'll go on to school.

It's bittersweet. I'm very happy that he's doing fine in college, but we'll be a long way away and we'll all miss each other. He's a sweet, fun kid. Time rushes past, and baby boys grow whiskers!

He certainly has overweight luggage. I could fit in the ice hockey goalie bag with at least one small friend. It's enormous! He needs about 55 to 60 pounds of goalie gear, and he can't do without any of it - no spare stick, no spares of any kind. Usually when he travels, he puts 50 pounds of that in his hockey bag and his skates and helmet in with his clothes. That isn't possible this time. He has a bag stuffed with clothes and necessities and a backpack jammed with a laptop computer and more clothes and necessities! In addition, he has a long goalie stick, which is in its own long bag and usually gets taped to the goalie gear bag. We have him on an airline that's famous for being nice about luggage but we expect to pay an extra fee.

Last Video in GB Series - Transferring Ribber Sts to Main Bed

Here's the new video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3goe0oyHe7w

I found that I could, fairly easily, transfer large blocks of stitches from the ribber to the main bed, using the garter bar. It's just the shortcut for when you're switching from ribbing to stockinette.

I also discovered that it didn't matter if it was 1x1 ribbing or 2x2 ribbing, or whatever pattern, it transferred up okay.

However, in my experimenting before I prepared this video, I didn't find it easy to transfer from the main bed to the ribber. If you have it conquered, give me some pointers!

Taking Stock

In a few days, I'll be travelling and away from my knitting machine. After making all these videos, that'll feel very strange! After my trip, I have plans for more videos.

In winding up the garter bar videos, I tried one last idea - transferring batches of stitches from the ribber to the main bed. It worked fine on my standard, so I tried it twice more without and problems. I need to try that on the bulky, and if I think it's a video, I'll make one. I didn't want to do things that were too difficult, or impractical. I did 1x1 ribbing so I was transferring every other stitch, but it would work for whatever stitch layout you have.

My usual disclaimer: please practice!

The next videos are ribber lessons. An awful lot of this is going to be too simple to people who are already comfortable with the ribber, but since I am trying to help beginners, I want to cover basics.

Garter Bar Lesson 13 - Vertical Weaving

Use garter bar to guide several colors of yarn for weaving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlV0Qo8Z5S8

New Garter Bar Video - Using GB to "Park" Stitches and Shape a Neckline

A common task, shaping a neckline, is faster and easier with the garter bar! You put the stitches on it that are for the other side of the neck and hang the garter bar on the machine while you shape the first side. Then you put the stitches back on the machine and shape the second side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCng6QktjA

Garter Bar Lesson Videos UPDATE

Lesson 1 - Getting Started - learn to adjust stopper, compare bulky and standard bars, and use garter bar for a stitch holder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4RHDVjiL5Y

Lesson 2 - Decrease Evenly Across Row - how to decrease with garter bar, and how to calculate where to put decreases when pattern says, "decrease evenly across row."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40g1HoM1r0A

Lesson 3 - Increase Evenly Across Row - how to increase, and how to place increases
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mpfsaFtbck

NEW: Lesson 4 - Make Garter Stitch - REVISED - Don't miss, I think it's a lot more understandable as I flip the knitting and make garter stitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ipzQ4pq0-E

Lesson 5 - Quaker Stitch - Uses the garter bar to turn the knitting to make a very interesting reversible, stretchy stitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxZsKMouKgA

Lesson 6 - Gathering with the Garter Bar - a useful technique. I make a cute little ruffle in this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7CLnq-_bNA

Lesson 7 - Getting stitches back in the hooks + plus speed ripping!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idp5v5rQAbM

Lesson 8 - Making a vertical dart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIDGNOGt0g

Lesson 9 - Eyelets (2 Parts) Move ONLY Selected Needles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLl9kfPzjfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ_Mipdhqdk

Lesson 10 - Turning Cables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt6R37qUxuU

Lesson 11 - Woven Cable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZPPt66qKMA

Lesson 12 - Using Garter Bar to "Park" Stitches & Shape Neckline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCng6QktjA

Lesson 13 - Garter Bar Used for Vertical Weaving - Multiple Color Weaving Threads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlV0Qo8Z5S8

Lesson 14 - Garter Bar Used to Transfer Ribber Stitches to Main Bed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3goe0oyHe7w

New Garter Bar Video - Woven Cable

Lesson 11 Woven Cable is up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZPPt66qKMA

This is a fancy cable that is greatly simplified by using the garter bar.

Steps to the pattern:

1. Knit 2 rows.
2. First transfer: put 10 stitches in the center on the garter bar and cross them in pairs - right over left. To do that, move the stitches to the right one needle and put the second from right one on the first empty needle, then skip a needle, then put the next on the needles, skip one, put one on, across. Pick up stitches still on garter bar, lift and move 2 needles to left to cross the stitches and put the remaining 5 stitches on the remaining empty needles.
3. Knit 2 rows.
4. Put 8 stitches in the center on the garter bar and cross them in pairs, this time, left over right. To do that, move the stitches to the left one needle and put the rightmost stitch on its needle, then skip one stitch, put the next on its needle, and on across. After those 4 are moved, pick up the garter bar and move 2 needles to the right, then put the remaining 4 stitches on the remaining 4 empty needles.

Repeat that for the pattern.

Changes in Credit Card Law

Here's a law that will help a lot of consumers get out from under their credit card debt. Sometimes people have found that their credit card interest rates were suddenly raised to a level where paying off the debt was all but impossible.

The new Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act of 2009 becomes effective in several stages, and some new rules became effective yesterday (Thursday the 20th).

Now, credit card companies have to warn consumers 45 days before an increase rate increase. In case of a rate increase, customers may choose to close the account and pay off the balance at the old (lower) interest rate. In the past, credit card companies only had to give 15 days notice that the interest rate was being raised.

In addition, the credit card companies have to mail statements at least 21 days before the payment is due. That time period used to be 14 days.

There will be additional provisions of the act that become effective in the future, including restrictions on marketing credit cards to young people and regulations over fees and rate increases.

The most important part of a plan to reduce credit card debt is including strategies (like cutting them up, or maintaining an emergency fund) so you don't grow a balance again. A quote from Orison Swett Marden: "Unfortunately, Congress can pass no law that will remedy the vice of living beyond one's means."

New Garter Bar Video - Turning Cables

Last night, I did a new video on turning cables using the garter bar.

I love cables, but don't particularly love hand manipulation. I like to go FAST! I like to type FAST! and knit FAST! I notice that the typing fast shows up in some of my posts as typos.

You will find that using the garter bar and your stopper makes cables a lot easier and faster to turn. You need your stopper on this one. Without your stopper, the needles are going to move and getting the garter bar onto the hooks will be more trouble than it's worth.

A key concept in these last few videos is that you can easily put only the stitches you want to move on your garter bar. Here is the procedure:

1. Pull the needles for the stitches you're going to move all the way to hold. This gets the stitches behind the latches.
2. Holding the knitted fabric against the gate pegs, pull the stitches you're not going t0 move - the ones you want to stay put - out far enough that that the latches open but not so far that there's any danger of the stitches going behind the latches.
3. Push the needles from hold gently back to line up with the others.
4. Hang the garter bar on all the open hooks and pull toward you - both knitting and needles go toward you and the ones in the latches stay in the latches and the ones behind the latches stay behind the latches.
5. Place the stopper.
6. Tug the stitches on the garter bar. Only the ones you selected in the first step will go onto the bar because the others are inside the hooks.
7. Move the stitches as desired.

If you machine has patterning capabilities, like a punch card or electronics, you could use the patterning to help pick out the correct needles. Just food for thought.

When I say I love cables, I'm not kidding. I usually do them with the garter carriage or the ribber, and they add a wonderful texture and dimension for more of a hand-knitted look. I'd like to do a series of lessons on cables, but feel duty bound to move on to the ribber after I finish these garter bar lessons. So, it goes on the to-do list, which currently is quite long.

Here's the url for the new video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt6R37qUxuU

Garter Bar Lesson 9 - In Two Parts

This is an unusual lesson. You select certain needles and the garter bar moves only those needles! The technique is used for lace and cables.

If you combine this technique with the patterning capability of your machine, you can shortcut hand tooled patterns.

Part 1 of 2 - Eyelet rows (every other needle transferred)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLl9kfPzjfw

Part 2 of 2 - Typical pointelle pattern (every third needle transferred)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ_Mipdhqdk

Cool Projects

Today I was working on two interesting projects.

One was compiling proposals from audit firms. We have had the same auditor for several years, and our board wanted to go to bid. This Request for Proposals was electronic, now a common practice, creating a .pdf out of the RFP document, emailing it to the audit firms, then having them bid with a .pdf. A couple of the bidders told me it saves them time, too, to do it in this paperless fashion.

I used an email questionnaire to the references - the fastest possible way to get references done, and not my own idea but an idea from a colleague. You write it once, send it to all the references (for whom emails were requested to begin with). Most of them emailed something back in less than 10 minutes, and I have a record of what they said, not what I thought they said. And you're fair, because you asked everyone the same questions.

You could do almost any bid process this way.

The other cool project - that I didn't work on much, merely followed an email discussion, was the Austin CPA chapter's committee to create a free training day for our members, who like me, are controllers. We had a great discussion by email about what classes we want and where to find speakers. It's going to be an excellent program. My one contribution is I'm going to interview a possible speaker on credit and collections in the morning - I want a class on that!

Newest Teaching Videos

I just put up a garter bar lesson video (#8) on making a vertical dart.

The next video is absolutely essential if you want to get the most from your garter bar!  It’s the eyelet lesson, which sounds like no big deal, but what this lesson is really all about is being able to select certain needles for transfer and then transfer those stitches for the length of the garter bar, all at once.

I will be using this technique, moving selected stitches, to do several things, including cabling and multiple-transfer lace in upcoming lessons.  After that, imagine all the “hand-tooling” you can do quickly with your garter bar!

Weighed In Last Night

Down another little bit - 14.4 pounds total. Last week I learned that a "stone" is 14 pounds, and since I had lost 13.2 pounds at that point, I decided that next weigh-in I wanted to be down a whole stone.

A stone really sounds like something! It's certainly less to lug up and down the stairs at work all day.

Fears of Obamacare

Last night, as I finished up some video editing and watched a little TV with John, I felt ill. I had a headache and saw a few flashes of light in the periphery of my vision. I thought maybe I had a migraine coming on, but I haven't had one of those in a long time.

When I got on my way to work this morning, I wasn't feeling a whole lot better, and out in the sunshine I could see a great many black specks. I realized that the spots were a tiny amount of bleeding in my left eye - only a tiny amount, but I thought it would be a good idea to go to the eye doctor.

I have a wonderful opthamologist in Austin, who is part of a group with two offices. He did cataract surgery on me several years ago - in my family, we get cataracts very young. I was in my 40s having a terrible time seeing because of the cataracts, and was very grateful to have them fixed. I have also had an episode of bleeding once before, which turned out to be no big deal. This was no big deal again today - the doctor says the inside of my eyes looks fine and will recheck me in a month.

So, my point here is this: because I had a disturbing symptom, I phoned and got into see my doctor the same day. I was examined by a thorough assistant using high-tech equipment. She put all kinds of information about my medical history into a very cool computer recordkeeping system. The doctor took some time with me and examined my eyes carefully. He could see information about my prior episode in the computer system along with my other history.

What would my experience have been like in Canada or England, where they already have socialized medicine? Would I have gotten in the same day? Would I have been examined with the superb equipment by an extraordinarily cheerful and careful technician? Would there be doctors with this amazing amount of training and expertise available to regular people like me?

I read about the uproar in England when their nationalized health system was denying macular degeneration medication to people who hadn't yet lost vision in one eye. They did back off on that, but only after people went without and there was a big controversy. I know what it's like to be losing one's eyesight - the cataract was a pretty tough experience for me - and that story bothered me a great deal.

Of course I'd like to see solutions for the uninsured, but do we have to dismantle what we have, or squelch innovation, or drive talent to other fields? I was creeped out by this weekend's trial baloon by the Obama administration that they'd drop the public option. I believe the public option will wipe out private insurance, and I had my hopes up when they hinted they'd drop it, but no, it was some kind of political ploy.

Two More Garter Bar Videos

The speed ripping video is up. It also includes a practical piece about getting stitches back in the hooks when they're messed up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idp5v5rQAbM

But here's the one I'm dying for y'all to look at - I came up with a whole new approach to lesson 4, which was how to knit garter stitch. I wanted to answer some questions that came up and address the problem of how to make it easy to see what's going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ipzQ4pq0-E

I start out filming normally, then film from underneath the machine so you can see the needles catching the stitches after the flip, which is the part that most people find hared to understand. After that, I did a bunch of rows of garter stitch, and for fun, speeded up the video of the repetitive steps so you can see enough rows to form a nice swatch of garter stitch.