Some notes on blogging

I've been a casual blogger for going on three years now, and I feel like I've learned a few things. For example: the people you want to read your posts will read them regardless of length; however, if you only post text, you limit the medium of blogging.

I've p-lurked around a few of the Parasites blogs (a more or less full list can be seen here: http://nanotexts.blogspot.com/), and I'm liking what I'm seeing. Ideas are flowing. There isn't quite as much feedback as any of us would like, but I think that's a continual problem in a class like this. But I wanted to share something with the parasites.

Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g


Blogging as a way of disseminating information opens possibilities because you are not limited in the way that a hard copy paper is limited, which is one reason I really enjoy that Tony utilizes it as a main format for writing.

Hyperlinks, embedded videos and pictures all offer the possibility of a greater, and here I mean that in the sense of greater as larger, experience for the reader. I'm not saying it's necessary to include these things, but I think it would be foolish to neglect them as available tools to work with. You wouldn't use the heel of your shoe on a nail if you have a hammer within reach, would you?

So post, play and explore the possibilities of this medium known as blogging. Especially if you're feeling stuck on what to say next.

Thursday is just not my day.

Had to stay through my entire class, so i missed the 2:13 bus. Running late for my youth 4 REAL mentoring where, oh, i'm supposed to lead the opening activity. Nobody is answering their phones. Homework. Crew. Everyone else seems to be having bad days.
AAAAHHHH!!! *takes a few deep breathes* okay, i'm doing great. Everything will be fine.
Good news though, i found out i got an RA interview. Assuming i can find the time to fit that in.

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Asks a question: a poem

What becomes of the blog untouched?
The final update, months if not years old,
it corrodes in the neverending
cached and saved on the servers of our Search overlords
zombies still standing
perhaps to come back and bite us when we least expect it
content builds character
context puts us in our place
But relevance forever holds them irrational
What becomes of the blog untouched?
Nothing.

So I'm reading this book, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.

And it's made me think.

Love is a parasite.

That interrupts your thoughts.

"'Oh, Chiara - my Chiara!' he cried out in the most painful grief. " Abraham is infected as he debates with Madame Benzon, and his love cries out, interrupting his statements against the frailty of the woman's heart.

We find examples of this same kind of interruption as we explore more of the happenings surrounding Julia and Princess Hedwiga, even our dear Tomcat Murr as each is interrupted by thoughts of Kreisler or Herr Hector or Kitty respectively.

Like the earworms I discussed in an earlier blog post, this love wriggles its way in and replicates itself, replacing what thoughts you would otherwise have. It is virus. It is an infective agent.

In parallels to the blood parasite of Shivers, it overrides rational thought.

So I now wonder, what is the parasite we're dealing with in Tomcat Murr? Why would Tony choose this as a text? Merely to bring up Toxoplasma Gondii seems a great deal of work for a rather small reference.


I can't shake the thought that there is a parasite hiding in this text that I'm missing. Something bigger among the ideas and tropes presented. Perhaps I'm infected with it already.

A Tale of Two Gauntlets

This is an instructional blog post dedicated to Redspool. May your needles never bend or break.

I take no credit for this design, it's a simplified version of a project I read about in the book Knitting With Balls by Michael del Vecchio.

Materials:

• a set of size 8 (7? I can never remember, I've had them so long) double pointed needles (so 4 of them)
• yarn in your choice of color (I realize I could be more technical here, but as a poor college student only now beginning to explore the world of handspun and local yarn, I've been limited to your basic, mass produced, acrylic or acrylic blends which usually have about the same worsted weight no matter which kind you buy.) For a pair of ittens, you need probably about one skein or an ounce each. Again, I've never really paid attention to that part.
• a piece of scrap yarn in a different color from your project at least 5 inches long
• Yarn needle (optional though recommended)

Instructions:

Cast on 40 stitches. Using the Long-Tail method.

Distribute the stitches amongst your needles so you have 10 on one needle, 20 on the next needle and 10 on the last needle.

You will be knitting on the round. To start, circle the last stitch, where the yarn connects needles to ball, to the first stitch you cast on. Knit 1. Purl 1. Repeat. Continue with this basic rib all the way around until the itten is about an inch long. This will be the cuff.

From here, knit through the back loop in a basic stockinette stitch until the itten measures 4.5 to 5 inches long depending on your preference.

When your itten is long enough, it's time to set up for the thumb hole.

On the next row, knit two stitches, then switch to the scrap yarn and knit for 7 stitches.

Swap the seven stitches back onto the original needle and continue knitting in the stockinette for 9 more rows or until the project measures about 5.5 to 6 inches long.

Cast off.

Rather than cutting the string here, what I usually do is cut it with 3-4 yards to spare (again, I've done this so many times I just measure out a few arm lengths and pray that it's enough) to use as the thumb. Then I weave the spare yarn through the project until it come out the rightside near where the thumb hole is supposed to be.

Remove the scrap yarn so you have 14 loose loops.

Pick up these 14 loose loops with two of your empty needles.

Knit 6 then switch to your fourth needle. Knit 1. You should be at the end of one of the rows of 7.

Using your spare needle, pick up 2 stitches out of the finished itten. Knit these.

You should have reached the next row of 7. Knit 3 then switch to your open needle. Knit 4 and when you reach the end of the row of 7, pick up 2 more stitches out of the fabric.

You should have 18 working stitches. Knit in the round like you did for the rest of the project for 9 rows (which is long enough for the thumb to be as long as the palm).

Cast off. Here you can either tie off or as I like to do, use whatever extra yarn there is and weave it back into the itten before tying it off.

Voila!

You've finished one half of a pair of ittens, gauntlets, fingerless mittens, whatever the hell you feel like calling them. Don't succumb to second sock syndrome, finish the second one and you'll be golden.

When making the thumb hole of the second one, I wait until I'm at the end of the row (so the needle with 10 stitches that comes after the needle with 20) before I make the thumb hole. While this isn't necessary as I've described the project, if you do any kind of cable work or fair-isle designs, this step keeps you from making two left or two right ittens.

One thing I like to do with this as a variation is to add some cables at the beginning and end of the itten. So after knitting for stockinette for 5 rows, the next time I reach the 20 stitch needle, I knit 1 and make a leftward cable of 8 stitches (so 4 over 4) knit 2 then a rightward cable of 8. Knit 1 to finish off the needle, then continue in stockinette until 2 rows after the thumb hole. Then repeat the cable process (only do the rightward before leftward) so you end with a kind of x shape pattern on the finished project.