Knitting and Design and Flow

It struck me on the way in to work this morning that the reason I love knitting so much is because it’s design in almost pure form. With web design, there are so many hurdles you have to jump through to get your design into a working state – css attributes to learn, scripting languages to inhale, content management systems to navigate, coding issues, browser inconsistencies, bugs, communication, frustration, office politics and ridiculousness; the pure visual design work (the part I love) is only about 15% of what I get to do, and the rest is just necessary evil.

Knitting, on the other hand, is just pure design elements: space, line, color, texture, shape, form, value – all right in your hands to sculpt at will with nothing in between you and the finished work – blissful flow.

I feel the same when with photography much of the time as well — just me and a camera and vision in my head captured.

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At Yack Arena

At Yack Arena

Watching the ice dancing competition and waiting for Stephanie’s
competition. (in Wyandotte, Michigan.) She passed her Bronze moves in the field test this morning, so she’s really excited. She’s been working hard on the test requirements for the last several months, so this is quite a validation of her work. I’m really proud of her.

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On the road again

On the road again

Headed to Michigan to visit our friends Dan and Melissa and to go to
Stephanie’s skating competition in Wyandotte, MI. Left the pooch home with our petsitter for this trip; too far for the little dude. Stephanie is also testing for her bronze moves in the field.

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Weekend Update 2010-01-19

Nope, I haven’t quit the 365 photo project, I’m just behind on putting the photos I’ve taken up. I know – three day weekend for me and I couldn’t get it done. But I was working on the project — I want to do some portrait work, and we have a southern-exposure window that I wanted to put a chair in front of so I could take some pictures in natural light. That entailed taking down the Christmas tree, rearranging the library, and moving the trunk from in front of the window. Lots of work, but now I have a place to seat people in pretty lighting.

I’m trying to create some variety and different opportunities, because all my pictures are of knitting and cats. 😉 It hard to come up with entertaining things to photograph when I hate the cold and am hibernating at home a lot.

I’m the knitting cat lady! Yes, knitting and cats. And dogs – wouldn’t want to forget the pooch.
Scarves I'm knitting
Gratuitous knitting photo

Things will also pick up once it gets warmer. This coming weekend we’re going to a skating competition for Stephanie and I’ll have a lot of pictures there, and we do get out a lot more in the spring.
Stephanie took me out last night to a Asian/Vietnamese food place on the east side of town – Sandra Rice and Noodles. OMG. The best lemongrass chicken I’ve ever had, hands down. Simply wonderful. I have leftovers that I can’t wait to get at. We tacked a dessert on to the order so we could use a coupon – rice pudding that was the best afterthought ever. Really delicious. It’s on Pendleton Pike, so it’s a bit out of the way, but definitely worth the drive from downtown for us. Yum yum yum. I wish I were a better writer when it comes to food, but I’m not good at separating flavors and identifying what went into a dish. And I tend to only talk about places I really enjoy, so every food review sounds the same – “Yummy, delicious, best ever.” Not terribly helpful to anyone, other than to let you know what I like.

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365 project – Day 12: Stephanie’s Scarf

New Project - Scarf for Stephanie
I’m absolutely in love with this one – a scarf I’m making for Stephanie in two different varigated yarns, alternating rows, in a rib pattern that I got from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s site. I finally got settled down with all the indecision about what new project I was going to try, and all the thought I put into it has paid off. This is going to be one of my favorite new projects, and I can see how polished it will be already.

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365 project – Day 10: Knitting at Home

New Project
I dithered back and forth about what new yarn to use and what new stitch pattern to try, until I drove myself nuts. Stephanie’s not feeling well, and I don’t feel great either, so I opted for comfort, and grabbed scrap yarn and the Roku remote. I’ve been watching Season 2 of MI:5 and knitting away on a easy project rather than stressing about creating some fantastic new thing.

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