September 11, 2008
MeTube
My first YouTube effort ever, a five-second-long video of your Blog Mistress and a slightly startled but accomodating Benny.
See, what happened wuz, I was completely clueless about the camera function on my laptop, and one day I clicked on something and then clicked on something else and then an odd blue light appeared at the top of the screen and...good God, there was my face, staring back at me, sporting a, not unsurprisingly, deer-in-the-headlights, "What the hell is that weird blue light?" expression.
It then devolved into one of those slapstick scenes where a character makes artibrary movements to see if he's standing in front of a mirror, a magic doppelganger, or a heretofore unknown twin (and it always ends up being a magic doppelganger or a heretofore unknown twin). I waved, the picture on the screen waved; I adjusted my bangs, the picture on the screen adjusted its bangs; I made an ugly face, the picture on the screen...euw. You get the idea. Anyhoo, I discovered almost immediately I had no real practical use for the camera but before I turned it off I scooped up the closest feline and we did a little mugging. And then I inflicted the whole damn thing on you. Ta-da!
Joony, for her part, recently fell of the spiral staircase and ripped 3/4 of a claw off. I called the emergency vet who said I could wait until the next day to take her to my regular vet but, in the meantime, I could dust the claw with flour to stanch the bleeding. Poor Joon: From that moment on she couldn't do anything mischievous without my knowing exactly who did it. The dusting of slightly pink flour was a dead giveaway.
Bottom line: My regular vet said just keep an eye out for infection. So far so good. Nail may or may not grow back, but I figure that's just one more I may not have to clip.
I’m trying to design a gansey, the kind that has simple, knit and purl diamond, chevron and checkerboard patterns, but things aren’t going well. Out of the three, yarn, gauge, or pattern, inevitably one doesn’t want to play along (which makes me think, of course, of the "one of these things is not like the others" song from Sesame Street). I did, however, stumble across this while doing the damnable math part of the design and thought it might be helpful to someone out there, a Wikipedia table of divisors for all numbers from 1 to 1000.
This comes in handy when you’re designing a gansey because if you want to use three or four different stacked stitch motifs, you can easily determine if they will all fit into the base stitch count. For example, if you design a sweater based on 216 stitches for the body, a stitch motif based on any of the divisors of 216, in this case, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, 27, 36, 54, 72, 108, or 216 (some of which, I realize, you wouldna’ use), will work with any other stitch motif based on one of the other divisors. This may be common mathematical sense but it’s nice to have it all laid out in one honkin’ chart.
Posted by Ryan at September 11, 2008 02:55 PMOh my gosh, look at you! You are smokin', honey! I know, it doesn't *really* count since I'm into boys, but really, girlfriend, you look mah-velous!
Sorry to hear about poor Joon's accident. I'm glad she's on the mend.
Posted by: Kristen on September 11, 2008 03:22 PMWelcome indeed to the 21st century!!! Whooda thunk it? Ryan... on the tube... with a cat?!! I bet your inner-geek is feeling pretty proud right now. Just be careful what you say and do or you could end up on The Tonight Show like the Numa Numa guy...
Posted by: Ken-Bob on September 11, 2008 03:27 PM*waving back like a loon*
Hai, Ryan and Benny! Y'all are adorable!
Posted by: Cookie on September 11, 2008 03:58 PM{Waiving} hi people (skin and furred) on the computer!
Posted by: Elaine on September 11, 2008 04:12 PMYou crack me up! It looks like you're having so much fun, you and Benny. I think it's great that you're designing your own gansey, can't wait to see what you come up with.
Posted by: Sheila on September 11, 2008 04:17 PMHell, I haven't quite sorted out the camera on my newest laptop, so you're ahead of me already.
Posted by: Mel on September 11, 2008 04:24 PMWhat I wanna know is, why did Youtube decide that, based on my viewing your short video, clips of Dirty Dancing might be appreciated?
Poor Joon. My Fluffy occasionally does that to a dew claw.
Oh poor Joon -
I was among the group waving back at you too --
Posted by: rho1640 on September 11, 2008 06:16 PMHubba, hubba, hubba. You look mahvelous.
Posted by: JudithNYC on September 11, 2008 09:46 PMWhat a great video - Hello to you both!
(he does look a bit perplexed!)
Poor Joony...I'll send her head scritches to make her feel better!
(((hugs)))
ok, wait--your emergency vet accepts PHONE CALLS!?!?!? The one here in town won't even talk to you in person without a validated/verified credit card number and substantial deposit upfront...
While flour is good in a pinch, you may want to get a small container of styptic powder. It stops bleeding if you accidentally clip nails too close.
Glad your furry goober is ok.
:)
Phyllis
You and Benny are adorable! Poor Joon - I hope she's feeling better. I suppose it hasn't stopped her fooling around on the stairs... :)
Posted by: jules on September 12, 2008 09:38 AMYou can't see me but I'm waving back at you guys right now, honest.
Posted by: Romy on September 12, 2008 09:53 AMOh, honey, you and the cat are both adorable!
I'm going to go see if I have one of those -- then look out, net!
Pictures of Rhys galore!
Posted by: AnnePandora on September 12, 2008 11:34 AMMy son just got a new laptop (combo HS grad and B-day present) and he and my younger son spent an inordinate amount of time takin photos and then using the software to morph the pictures, add hats and beards, etc (the dog with the beard and santa hat was pretty funny).
When you wrote wouldna', my brain immediately read the rest of the post in a Patrick Stewart/Sean Connery accent. :)
Cute kitty! As for poor Joon: ow! My doggie ripped off a claw chasing a squirrel one time, and those things bleed like fuck!
Posted by: Kim on September 12, 2008 06:58 PMThanks so much for that table. I expect it to come in very handy when I finally get to resizing my basket-weave-with-ruffled-ends shawl. It may actually speed the onset of progress.
Give Joon a hug from me. I expect she does a good 'poor little me' bit, but she has a very good reason this time.
Do I have a camera on my laptop?
Posted by: KarenJoSeattle on September 12, 2008 11:05 PMI'm waving back and telling you both you look great! Ryan, you look a lot happier than Joon; perhaps the kitty doesn't care for cameras?
Posted by: kmkat on September 13, 2008 06:47 PMYay Joon. Yay Bennie. I luv them both.
MATH and knitting??? What's with that?
When I stopped drinking, I got my brain back, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. To this day, I am stumped by my brain. Obviously, you have figured out how to use yours appropriately. I am in awe.
Posted by: Gail "hey-would-you-shake-up-this-bottle-of-juice-for-me" on September 13, 2008 09:29 PMPerhaps, Gail, but which one of us has actually *finished* a sweater? That would be, I believe, YOU!
Posted by: Ryan on September 13, 2008 11:08 PMWhat a finorkin' TREAT! Call it reflex - I waved back too, crowing "HI RYAN!" as though you could hear me. Duuuuh. Then I looked to see if I had a camera on my laptop. (I don't - and probably would've noticed if I had.) I've been away for a bit, outta town and all that, and this is the most fun I've had since gettin' home! "Designing a gansey"......three words you won't find comin' outta me any time soon.
Posted by: dale-harriet in WI on September 14, 2008 08:19 PM