Fiber Babble: Talk is Cheap

Talk is Cheap

March 12, 2010

Virgil pulled out another blade of grass, chewed for a second getting the sweet out, then said, "Bite me." "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊

I actually started this post for another reason (which will be revealed, don't fret) but since I'm here, let's pull something from the Album of Pictures I've Uploaded But Not Shared...

Oh! How about this?

This is the stitch detail from Duet, a pattern by Linda Wilgus from Knitty Winter 2009. Meant to be a neckwarmer/HAT, using the clever placement of buttons.*

Here it is about halfway finished, showing a nice (though dark) view of the pretty stitch pattern.

The yarn is Lion Brand Microspun in what is known around these parts as "Tracy Blue" or "Knock Your Socks Off Blue". The yarn splitty-ness was quite the pita (and I knew it would be) until I did that :smackhead: thing and switched to really blunt-tipped needles. The problem with my blunt-tipped needles is that the cable is "sticky" - the stitches don't slide back & forth without me gripping the thing between my elbow and my body then manually pulling stitches from one end to the other. This is why I put up with Splitsville so long before switching needles.

So, here it is. 1½ rows from the end of pattern repeat and the extra bind-off row.

See that tail of yarn? It didn't make it through those 2½ rows.

I had to start a whole new skein of yarn to finish* the thing.

:sigh:

* The project is finished... kinda. I sewed the buttons on the way that it's written in the pattern and it looks kinda dorky when I wear it as a neckwarmer. Wearing it in its hat form is even more ridiculous. So, like a relatively huge ('relatively huge' - is that like 'a little bit pregnant'??) number of other items in my Ravelry project page, this one sits at "95% finished" because I just haven't taken that last fifteen minutes or so to figure out what to do to make it work for me.

Now for the original reason for today's post, a little bit of blog business.

I don't think it will be too much of a hardship to most of my readers, but I figured I oughta let you know that I've turned on comment moderation for older posts only. In the last week this blog and two of my other blogs have been slammed with spam-spam-spam, sometimes fifteen comments at a time.

While the comments have not been offensive but just 'lame' - a link, sometimes not even in English and an obviously cut/paste sentence or two - it's a bit of a bother to remove them, hence the comment moderation. Easier to click "reject" on an email notification than to go search through my 250-ish posts to click "comments" then "make this permanent" then "delete comment". (Yeah, those extra 15-20 seconds really put a dent in my day)

Not a big deal to most users, but I just wanted you to know that it wasn't anything you did.

But I do think that today's "Last Lines" entry is particularly appropriate for those spammers.

Labels: blogging, knitting

permalink

5 Comments:

At 3/12/2010 11:26 AM,

Crispy Babbled Back:

OMG Tracy, I'm wiping laughing tears from my eyes. That line is so very appropriate for your woes. Why do these idiots feel it's necessary to spam....low IQ's I guess.

Your collar/scarf/hat thingy has a beautiful pattern (makes me envision an applique piece) but you are much more persistant than I would be, I would just chuck it if it made me look any goofier than I already do :0)

At 3/12/2010 12:46 PM,

Cathi Babbled Back:

The spammers were one of the reasons I moved my blog -- I had turned on comment moderation for all posts older than 14 days and the number of those comments that would show up was incredible.
Love the colour of your scarf/collar/whatever it is and the stitch pattern!

At 3/15/2010 12:34 PM,

Carrie P. Babbled Back:

Your knitting project is so pretty. I hope you can figure out some way to use it and it doesn't have to sit unused.
Bad spammers!!

At 3/16/2010 6:06 AM,

Candace Babbled Back:

I bought a set of the circular needles, but haven't really figured out what to do with them, I'm impressed.
I wonder about those spammers, they must not have much to do, and are easily amused.

At 3/17/2010 8:17 AM,

Darcie Babbled Back:

Oooh...that blue is yummy. I purchased a few skeins of the Microspun too...but crocheted them into washcloths. They clean the bathtub (skum...sorry...icky word) like nobody's business! It was such crazy yarn that I thought I couldn't drum up enough patience for anything like a cowl or scarf. What a trooper you are!