We now return you to your (ir)regularly scheduled blog...
"I apologize for the lack of posting for the past month! Or two. I did a silly, gettin' old thing. In an effort to streamline my 8 email accounts, I decided to route them all through Microsoft Outlook and I changed the passwords (they all were different!) to be the same. Now, I don't need to enter any passwords at all. That's a good thing, right? Apparently, not so much.
I totally forgot that I had changed the password for my blog account too, and when I tried to go in and do a post, I was blocked. I entered, and re-entered the old password and because I did it so often, I was blocked for 24 hours. And then I would try again. About three weeks later, in the middle of the night, while patting myself on the back for streamlining my email retrieval and reflecting on how much time I save by having it centralized, I gasped. Then, and only then, did I realize what I had done. I had changed the password, and that's why I couldn't get into the blog. Simple. Yet incredibly stupid. "
Yes, I do have 8 email accounts that I had to check on a daily basis. Now I only have to check one. And I don't have to enter any passwords. Woohoo! There are still some issues with Microsoft Outlook that need ironing out, such as many legit emails are automatically put into the spam folder (thank you, Bill Gates), but I do remember to check my spam account each day too. It's a good thing too, because you never know when I need to buy some Cialis, or I may want "to make my member larger", or maybe someone from Nigeria really needs my help in getting 7 million dollars out of the country. Have you ever wondered how many people actually respond to those junk emails? Digressing again, aren't I.
So, in my absence, I have been knitting - a lot. Socks, earflap hats, baby sweaters (no, no grandbabies on the way yet), little lace bags, a lace halter, there's more, I just can't remember them all. Some of them are on my Ravelry project page, and some have yet to be posted.
However, I have been having some fun designing a "Stars and Stripes" earflap hat and mitten set to complement the Maple Leaf set from the Diamond Yarn blog.
The first Stars and Stripes hat, hereinafter to be referred to as S & S hat, just didn't measure up to my expectations.The stars that were knitted from a star chart acquired free on the web looked squashed.
So, I recharted it, and this is the result.
See how the shape of the star has changed? Here's how I did it. First of all I knitted a 5 inch by 5 inch swatch to get my exact stitch and row gauge. (Quit your growning and knit the darned swatch!) Then I created knitters graph paper from this website and used a star quilt template for the outline. Tracing the outline onto the knitter's graph paper was easy, and all that I needed to was chart the filled in area in excel.
The reason the first hat's star are squashed is the chart was created with square ruled graph paper and knitted stitches are rectangular - more wide than tall. Hmmm, something like me. By using the knitter's graph paper and inputting my exact stitch and row count, I can duplicate an exact replica of any shape or picture.
Let's say you wanted to knit a sweater with a photo or your grandchild on it. First, enlarge or reduce the photo to the size you desire, then knit your swatch 5 inches by 5 inches using the needles and yarn required for your project and count the number of stitches and rows in a 4 inch square. That's why you need a 5 inch square. To be even more precise, wash, block and dry your swatch before measuring. Now you're ready to input the numbers into the graph paper generator. Print out your graph paper. Briefly admire it, and then put the graph paper into your printer's paper tray, and then print your photo or picture right onto the graph paper. And wa la (voila to the rest of you) you have created your own chart. That will knit just like it looks on the graph paper. Fabulous. Creativity made easy. Actually it takes longer to explain the process that it does to do it.
Except for the swatching, and you really have to do the swatching.
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