March 26, 2007
Applets and Cotlets (Washingtonians Will Get the Pun)
I forgot to mention the most important element in the Magic Cone story, and why the magic of the Magic Cone must work. See the large, darker gray area in the front of this picture?
Below that lies $20,000 worth of sewer work TMK had to have done quite involuntarily a few years ago, thanks to person or persons unknown who flushed one diaper too many down some toilet somewhere and caused unspeakable things to happen in TMK's garage, and which was, of course, not covered by your friend and mine, the insurance company. Now you can see why the pothole-on-steroids, which is small in circumference but unsettling in depth and ambition, is making her a little nervous.
On Friday, Ruth left a comment on the blog so, as I always do when someone leaves a comment with a link, I cantered on over to her site to see what was what, and found myself intrigued by her color analysis in this entry. This led me to wonder how she obtained/created her palette, which further led me to tap my chin, purse my lips, look up at the ceiling and say, "Hmmm. Surely there must be some kind of color-palette generator on the Net." And there is!
To use the palette generator, enter the URL to a photo and click “Color-Palette-ify.” The applet will generate a five-color “dull” palette and a five-color “vibrant” palette, plus the hexadecimal color number if you want to use it in a Web design. (Web design, shmeb design. You and I both know I’m looking for knitting color palettes. Puhleeze.)
This is what I got when I ran the applet on the picture of the periwinkle cap resting on the lavender.
Speaking of the periwinkle cap, here it is finished, although looking obscenely bulbous and round thanks to the obscenely bulbous and round mixing bowl used to model it. Great pattern, fun pattern, easy pattern, although it came out small. In hindsight, I would add another repeat of the pattern both horizontally and vertically. Off to Arizona it goes!
Nine more boxes of Avalanche yarn went out this weekend, so if you sent me a check, you should be receiving your box soon. I’m starting to scrape the barrel of even remotely colorful yarns, but I'm still soldiering on so, if I make any more boxes, and you are next on the list, you will be hearing from me.
OH. MY. GOD. I almost forgot! I got the latest Dulaan numbers from F.I.R.E. this morning, and they have 4,228 items!!! “Only” 7,858 to go. We’re doing well but we need to keep knitting, knitting, knitting and blanketing, blanketing, blanketing! Thank you everyone for what you've sent so far!
I'm a big fan of great phrases, and "small in circumference but unsettling in depth and ambition" is a GREAT PHRASE!
I'm stealing it.
Posted by: MaryB in Richmond on March 26, 2007 11:58 AMThat little palette generator is way cool. I could have a little too much fun with that thing.
Posted by: Kris on March 26, 2007 12:07 PMSteal away, MaryB in Richmond. That exactly describes the hole, trust me. It is scheming, I'm sure of it.
Posted by: Ryan on March 26, 2007 12:08 PMI miss Applets and Cotlets, and Nalley's Chili...and redvines (twizlers do NOT count), oh and Fran's salted dark chocolate Caramels, yum. Now I have an unhealthy desire to fly 3000 miles for lunch.
One gets the sense from the pothole photo that there isn't actually anything under the asphalt...just a black hole to nowhere. Kinda disturbing.
I've never actually eaten an applet or cotlet. Are they tasty?
Posted by: lyssa on March 26, 2007 12:26 PM$20K out of pocket for work that had to be done under the roadway? Shouldn't that be in the city's domain? Isn't that why one pays taxes? WTF? If it were New Hampshire, I wouldn't be surprised, but Seattle?
Posted by: Mel on March 26, 2007 12:28 PMMel: Seattle is a strange place when it comes to who pays for what. As it turns out, my house was on a "party line" sewer system it shared with 17 other houses. I had the misfortune of being at the bottom of the "hill" on a block that is primarily rentals (not the nice kind). To get away from this situation, my next door neighbor and I put an entirely new sewer line in that only we share. And we made it small enough in diameter that no one can "force" us to let them on the line. The city makes the homeowner pay for any repairs/replacements all the way to the sewer stub 14' down. And then they won't let you fill up the hole yourself. The city insists on filling the hole and sending you a bill. Needless to say, I'm a little protective of what I now consider "my" piece of the road. ;-)
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 26, 2007 12:36 PMThat color palette generator is great! I used it last Christmas season. I wanted to knit a felted entre-lac bag for a blog friend, and I wanted to use colors she liked. She had posted a photo of some yarn she had dyed to her specification to knit a sweater with. I used that photo in the color palette generator, and was able, from the other side of the country, to knit a bag that went with her sweater.
Posted by: Crafting Jen on March 26, 2007 12:41 PMTMK -- I think you should park your car or a shed on that piece of asphalt and when the city complains tell them you paid $20,000 for that piece of property it belongs to you!!
;-)
rho
Posted by: rho1640 on March 26, 2007 12:47 PMOh man! I love applets and cotlets--I'm gonna have to order some now.
Your street story has me in fits--my landlord has been battling the city for a couple of years now over what happened to the basement of my building. It appears that when they dug up the road awhile back they damaged the pipe that leads to the house. They insist it's not their fault, blah, blah, blah.
Posted by: Kristen on March 26, 2007 01:05 PMI wonder.. are you getting hourly photos of the cone and its decline? Perhaps there is a email for the sewer company that TMK can send them a daily photos with the "magic cone" and how it is sinking???
I like the idea of the palette generator. hmm.. now to put it to obviously evil uses!!!!
Posted by: anj on March 26, 2007 01:12 PMAnj: I just watched the cone take a 20 foot flying leap when a large truck hit it. I left it there for a bit to collect itself, then I helped it back up and got it settled back over the hole. ;-)
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 26, 2007 01:15 PMIt is sad that the city won't do anything other than put a cone there... but I totally think you should take it to your advantage. Make the cone into a scarecrow or something!
Posted by: Sara on March 26, 2007 01:55 PMI just checked out CuteOverload and immediately thought of you and TMK when I saw this:
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/03/gaaaaaahhhhnnnn.html
Enjoy!
Posted by: LaurieM on March 26, 2007 01:56 PMAlso check out colorjack:
http://www.colorjack.com/
It'll make some seriously cool colour combinations for you. My favourite is the "sphere" function.
Posted by: Gladys on March 26, 2007 02:07 PMMother of God! $20K! That's insane. I mean, just, DANG.
I really like that shade of quattro. It looks great in cables.
Renee: That was my half of the bill. ;-)
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 26, 2007 02:49 PMRenee, TMK's not kidding. The project actually cost $40,000 out-of-pocket but, fortunately, her neighbor wanted to get off the "party line sewer", too, and was willing to pay half. Otherwise, TMK would've had to pay the whole dang thing.
Very funny comment, by the way, Renee!
Posted by: Ryan on March 26, 2007 02:59 PMWell darn it all - where's the fun in that? You've got to revel in the tactile pleasure of stroking that little eyedropper over the colours, sipping pixels of nectar here and there....
Posted by: Ruth on March 26, 2007 03:45 PMSo, Ruth, am I to understand you did yours the, er, hard way? (Of course, you have to take my teasing with a grain of salt since, until your posting, I had *no idea* how to pull colors from a picture.)
Posted by: Ryan on March 26, 2007 03:58 PMOh, thanks for the link to the color palette generator. I know I'll find a use for it.
Posted by: Sydney on March 26, 2007 10:44 PMWow. Just, wow. And I'm also sitting here wondering who the hell thinks it would be a good idea to flush a diaper.
Posted by: Renee on March 27, 2007 04:38 AMI got my knitting group to start knitting for Dulaan, and we already have several sweaters finished. I tried to sign up on the Dulaan list but my email bounced back from your yahoo email address. Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your posts.
Posted by: Hellen on March 27, 2007 05:08 AMHi Ryan! It was so good to meet you last night and hear your story and Dulaan's. I always enjoy meeting bloggers in person that I feel I've come to know through their writing. Thanks for putting your picture on your blog so I could totally stalk you in the food court!
Dawn (with purple hair) :-)
Posted by: Visionsister on March 27, 2007 09:20 AMthe periwinkle hat turned out lovely!
Posted by: marti on March 27, 2007 12:25 PMHi Ryan,
I see Dawn already beat me to the punch. I too wanted to say it was nice to meet you. And it was awesome to hear the story of how Dulaan got started. I read your blog, and I have commmitted to knit 5..but i never knew how the whole thing began. Very cool.
Also, I have been trying to get my man to knit 5 as well..but until last night all I got was a "maybe". But he took a hat kit last night..so I am feeling optimistic. =)
BTW the cone, I think it needs to have an "accident". Then you can call and tell them the solution did not work. Of course, then they make just give you a new cone. Ugh.
Melanie (the needy one.)
The palette generator is da bomb! Thanks for the link. :)
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on March 28, 2007 07:22 AMToday, on the West Valley Hwy, in the no man's land between Tukwila and Kent they were fixing potholes. Perhaps the magic cone will be replaced at some point in time.
Posted by: PICAdrienne on March 28, 2007 11:50 AM