I am a Doofus

More fractals for the apo challenge, the top one is a bit of a puzzle.

And I am a doofus.

This is no FO that you see. This is the aw shit, I picked up only 2/3 of the stitches I needed.

Good news, the cable looks great, the sweater is a sweater properly with the border, and no, I am dead certain blocking can't fix that. I pulled it all out, and picked up 329 stitches instead of 224.

My socks are drying by the yarn sink. I only use the sink to wash the knits, and the drying rack got packed away already.

That's all for now, take care

Molly : )

The wedding website

Here is the answer many seem to be seeking.

The Molly Nelis and Danny wedding website:

http://dannyandmolly.tiberiusimages.com/

For some stupid reason when you search our names it isn't coming up correctly, and the spammers and scammers seem to have a lock on the google results.

Can't Stop the Excitement

I finally got around to creating another facebook event, this time for moving into the house. As far as I can tell it is a go-go-go. Last Friday we signed the last form before closing, and we reached an agreement on what was going to be fixed, or payed to be fixed. I did create an event last month to help organize the bachelorette party, and other important wedding info, like how the bridesmaid dresses finally came in. I found it sorta strange. They said they were late because of Chinese New Year . . . in March, when that is at the end of January / beginning of February. I don't actualy use facebook for much. Since my facebook is not linked to my main email this oftentimes results in me having no clue that I have invites to parties. Whoops. As with many things, you volunteer to share, and there is no better way to share certain news than facebook.

The plan this weekend was to get as much done as possible. The reality was that most of what I wanted to get done didn't. There is much packing, and thanking, and cleaning that needs to get done.  I did make pizza, I did start writing thank you notes, and I did take care of registry issues, but it certainly was a very lazy weekend.

An asymmetric fractal, and what I decided to enter for the weekly challenge. All variations were horseshoe, except for the final transform, which was bipolar.

And a feral fractal, just because I could. Occasionally I feel like I get stuck in a rut, so I take the flame that comes out of the random batch, and I polish it using all of the apo manipulating skills I have. The results tend to give me new ideas, or at the very least spice things up. It is feral because if you cruise DA looking at fractals, there are plenty of renders out there that are not very far removed from the crap apo spits out. Before you know better, feral fractals are all you can make.

I might be in a spiral rut.

Can't stop the spirals! Maybe I should try something new. . .

I don't have many pictures, I just quick ran and took some.

 I finished the first cable cluster yesterday, and today I will likely make some progress on the plain ribbing before getting to a row with a single cable. I might be done with this sweater this week. Exciting!

That's all for now, take care guys

Molly : )

To Engineer is Human

If you boiled an engineer down to only one trait, there are many that wouldn't make the cut.

The awkward, problem solving, introverted, geek/nerd, smarty pants, pyromaniac, detail oriented, coffee swilling, fashion disaster you might know from Dilbert or Iron Man, doesn't really boil down what makes an engineer different from most people. My fiance and I have boggled many non-engineers, because at the end of the day, an engineer is eternally curious about any and all things.

I am not an always engineer, my fiance is however. His parents rue that day they taught that boy the word why. He spent the next two weeks "why-ing" every single thing. Frankly he hasn't stopped twenty-some years later.

Last week at knitting the gauntlet was thrown. Did I not know something about anything?

I know a little or a lot about: Electronics, Softball, Drawing, Chemistry, Piano, Cooking, Fractals, Biking, Newspaper Publishing, Technical Writing, Knitting, Drafting, Home Preserving, Color Theory, Swimming, Gardening, Fish Keeping, Material Science, Rock Climbing, Baking, Mathematics, Creative Writing, Tennis, Psychology, Astronomy, World Religions, Poetry, Genetics, Boating, Typography, Vibrations, Song Lyrics, Physics, Yoga, Computing, Birding, Solid Mechanics, Geography, Graphic Design, Programming, History, Glass Blowing, and Instrumentation.

There are not enough hours in the day to know everything about anything, or satisfy all of the things I am curious about. Frankly there are probably more things on the list I forgot, or not listed things which I would like to know a lot more about.

I am continually impressed on how my bizarre interests contributed to my career so far as an engineer. I never knew that learning design theory, and photoshop were going to be the skills from high school that set me apart as a research engineer/scientist. I thought that was one set of skills that I was never going to need again.

It all goes back to be curious, asking questions, figuring out why something is acting in a given way, tracing back an issue to a reason, and therefore a solution. You need to draw on all of you knowledge, and the more random crap you know, the more likely that you will open to the unexpected. You can draw parallels between seemingly unrelated fields, and speak to a broad spectrum of people in a technical language they are comfortable with. Resonance in vibrations and new age healing are surprisingly similar concepts.

Generally overlooked, a good engineer needs creativity far more than analytical prowess, and creativity is not something that comes from a vacuum.  A curious engineer can draw from far more sources of inspiration, mix them up, and create something novel and unexpected. If the solution was obvious, it would have been done 40 years ago.

I would say engineering is a surprisingly human trait. Who doesn't want to improve something, to make their lot in life better, to save some time doing a boring task, to see beyond what something is currently and realize the potential it holds? Kids do it all the time, imagining, playing, goofing off. As an adult I really feel that we should continue to nurture these impulses, encourage exploring, banish rote memorization, and demonstrate our own sense of wonder, and curiosity. I suspect if we did a better job, engineering wouldn't be so mischaractarized and misunderstood.

Engineers ask why.

That's all for now, take care guys,

Molly : )

The Time for Procrastination is Over!

When something passes across my email, it needs to get done, now. I wouldn't say that life has entered a full panic, it just means that there is plenty to do, and I can't put if off for a week to do it.

I can make time for things I want to do, like baking, and knitting, and sleeping, I just need to deal with things as they come up. Get it done before I forget and some new thing diverts my attention.

Honestly I had such a crazy and wonderful weekend, that I am pretty much toast for working today. I will try reapplying coffee and see how that works. I went back home this weekend for the last big planning trip before the wedding. So I got the dress fitted, met with the DJ, had a wedding shower, had a trial run of hair and makeup, socialized with friends and family, and starting working on some of the last details.

Aren't the decorations for the shower darling? My aunts did a great job. And I am probably spending a large chunk of time writing thank you cards tonight.

I am really glad there isn't a plan this weekend. I can't handle plans. I am really looking forward to largely loafing around the apartment. Or moving the packed boxes to the garage, so I can have room to loaf in the apartment.

There have not been many fractals this week. The challenge this week is to use horseshoe, and one other variation once, to make an appealing fractal. My first try was mostly horseshoe and a bubble fx.

My second try was a variation on my favorite base, the spiral.

On the knitting front, I have started a new project, and frogged it back, in short order. I started Hexagons, but the size large was too big for me, and the dear sweet lovable one too. So I will try the medium ones and see how that goes. I ripped them out at knit night. The 90 something woman thought it was hilarious that I was frogging in front of everyone. Really non-knitters are much more fascinated with why the hell you would rip something like that out.

I neglected to take a photo of the 4 hexagon tube. I did the stretchy variation, I am wondering if the non-stretchy is as stretchy. I was expecting the stretchy version to be less stretchy, so it was a pleasant surprise.

The progress on the sweater continues.

I think I am going to stop knitting stockinette once I get to my pants, and start the border. I switched mirror photo locations. The bathroom was a little too messy this morning. Not like the bedroom is much better. . .

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

The Usual

I made some gold fractals, mostly because I find yellows and browns really challenging to work with.

I am entering this one because it reminds me of gold leaf, and compasses, and waves.

This one looks interesting, even though it ended up cloudy. I didn't use a gamma threshold, and I had the quality high enough to prevent grain, but it was strange.

There has been much knitting, even if there has not been much doing.

I started my hexagon socks, out of boredom last night. The dear sweet lovable one got stuck at work late, so I managed to get 2 done before giving up and going to bed.

 I have most of a second sleeve done. I finished the decreases, it is just a matter of measuring, ribbing, and binding off.

Can you tell I am having fun taking pictures of myself in the bathroom mirror?

The problem with this sweater right now it that there isn't anything going on in the front right now, and it is hard to take pictures of my back.

I tried changing the camera orientation to reduce dead space, however, it just resulted in different dead space. Can't win.

What's up for tonight? Some dinner, some asparagus, some packing, and some knitting. Sounds like a good night to me :D

That's all for now, take care guys

Molly : )

Sweating it out

Summer is here.

I am pretty excited that I can enjoy it this time around.

On the flip side, I am definitely not used to the humidity and heat. This may never change. I am a northern girl, and I wilt when it is 90 and thrive in any temperature below 85.

I also passed an important blog milestone. I deleted my very first spam comment. 

Fractals include a little fooling with my powerful machine.

And the fatal flaw of 64 bit apo is that plugins are not supported. This week's challenge was to use unpolar, which is interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't on the essential list for Apo7x.64 bit.

If anything the gradient on this guy is a very pretty one.

I am going to try out a pretzel recipe, since it sounds like fun. I will either have a disaster, or new cooking techniques will be added to my repertoire. It isn't an adventure if success is guaranteed. And by the power of me taking the weekend to write a blog post I have results!

 MMMMMM cheese sauce.

It was both a success and a failure. Always always always double check the suggested amount of salt before adding it. teaspoons are not tablespoons. They were really good. They just leave you desperately thirsty after eating them. They turned perfectly brown, and chewy, and the rosemary adds a complexity that is delightful. I will try again soon, now that I have a better handle on making them.

The next challenge is to make Russian Black Bread with more of the ingredients than the last time.

I am sporadically working on my sweater. Last night I thought I would have a ton of free time. However, that was a lie. I made dinner, packed boxes, and went to bed. I might have finished a sleeve while walking around with the home inspector. I might want to change to size 3 needles for the ribbing, and rip back to the 8 1/2 inch point. I made it to 10 inches before thinking to measure. Maybe tonight will be better knitting time.

So maybe to compensate for stretching, 10 inches of sleeve before 2 inches of ribbing turned out quite well. I am trucking away on sleeve number 2, because there is much knitting to do, and less time in which to knit. In order to meet the yardage requirement I might need to make the sweater a good bit longer in the body. The body so far, and one sleeve weighed in at 87g, which means I am more than halfway to the goal of 150g. It is hard to tell how much yarn the collar will take.

I suppose if the other sleeve takes 25 g, I want to be in the 115 g range before I start the collar. The yarn scale will have to follow me around.

The department of stashquisitions visited my apartment. I entered in the 2nd anniversary contest for The Knit Girllls, and I won of skein of sun valley fibers sock yarn in the coral colorway. I must admit I would have never bought it, but I really love it. I am not normally drawn to the pastel, orange/yellow/pink colors, but I think it will make a great pair of socks.

I was so excited when I was watching the video, because I heard a number in the 30's, but it wasn't me. Then for the last skein of yarn, my name came up! Yea! I stopped it and told the dear sweet lovable one. Who was confused why I was so excited. Oh well. Free Stash! Stash elephant is very proud.

Speaking of stash . . . I packed it all into a box, along with most of my knitting books today.

I also have all of my notions, knitting books, and patterns, and yarn I never entered in raverly. The only things not in the box are blocking wires, umbrella swift, some straight needles I didn't put in for the picture.

I suspect that I will have to post it in the flash your stash thread. since I don't normally take photos of my stash.

That's all for now, take care

Molly : )