Sweater Project

So, years and years ago, I read about an algorithm called Markov chaining that is used for stochastic modelling. Without going into details about what that actually means (check the Wikipedia article), it can be used to analyze a body of text and then generate new text that is similar to the original. The more input you have, the better.

I always thought about setting up a blog that would crawl other knitting blogs and generate posts this way. Today, what with things being a little slow, I went ahead and got it working.

Here’s a sample of The Yarn Harlot’s work, transmogrified:

I think you could just knit one side of the loss of Janine, and it did and that it may not be long enough to justify it.
Ask and ye shall receive.
My lovely and charming Mother-in-law Carol dropped by, fresh from a tree.
When he sees me advance on “his” fleece, he springs from the book…or so they tell me.
I was drunk on my Morehouse Merino , for those who don’t, and that there is time and buy the leftover wool.
That’s what I do.
I think they might be the answer, and I were to knit presents for our secular school to have fantasies about tiny little voices should be obvious from point #2, Joe will not ask me for the “Hymn to Freedom” …signing and singing her little heart out.
When I returned, the water emitting a cloud of citrus scented goat stink that will exceed any “I told you the spinning is boring (Hint - I don’t control when babies are born), but when I wake up there’s still no end in sight?
So then you know that this kind of way.
Yesterday, when this yarn to make it work.
I still believe that perhaps I could be different enough for there to dry.
This is Claudia, standing in front of Countrywool, her shop in Hudson NY.
I can’t wait to share my celebration with you.
(I bet there will be met with open mocking, pointing and laughing.
It is also wondering “What the (* & ^!
Joe and I feel better.
Stupid sweater.

And here’s a slight alteration of Jess, of the Bugs:

I think your rye’s gone ergot, Sir John.
Cotton has been used in the future, so perhaps I’ll get one up here when I finish a new one.
I’m learning how to use the program, but there’s something nice about the hand drawn ones.
They’re…special to me it appears “normal.”
That means, of course, when I do, it’s usually work-related.
I also took some pictures of knitting and such for me this year.
I’ve started on the above-mentioned butterfly and the Amazon is about halfway through two sleeves at once.
Lest you think ol’ Kade’s a slacker, check out the relative size (below).
They should be ready just in time for summer.
I’m rather pleased with this one.
I’ve got a few rounds of the variation in knitters and should not be able to get a picture of the meadow socks.
Any other February, I’d have already finished and cast on these two things for the Harlot.
I’ll be able to get a picture of my weaving project and the last is a technical work by a local artist of the rest of the actual butts now that I now know more about plant fibers than is probably healthy for any individual.
Edit: I was explaining to a non-knitter how I’ve sworn off lace for a while.
After I explained that the purple had started to fade, so I have been made to the two projects for the semester.
I did a count of cowboy hats, kilts, and street guitars.
Here’s last year’s count.
And this year’s follows: 17 Cowboy hats 1 kilt (though anecdotal evidence brings the number of woven squares I’m doing to 15, considering the weight of the abdomen today, so hopefully I’ll be able to tell, but the balls of brown I had muscles and my flowering plants collection is finished and turned in.
*whew* Forgive me if I seem a little too small.
I sometimes have trouble judging the size of things.
Socks and mittens and such for me are tiny, but to me in a weird kind of pinky color over brown, called “orchid,”
then there’s a bright purple and some PINK that was applied to pre-lightened hair.

I’m going to that special corner of hell reserved for text manglers.

I went to lunch with my friends Lori and Rachel yesterday. When we got back from some excellent Chinese cuisine, I looked up in the sky and started shouting “A BUNNY!”

No, it wasn’t too much MSG:

Hee.

While Lilith was in town, we did a number of domestic things, like adding hanging hooks to several of the doors so that I have places to put jackets besides the sofa. We also retrieved a dining room set that my friend Isabel has been holding for me in storage for forever (thank you, Isabel!!!). And just before she had to return home, we picked up a deep fryer.

I’ve been wanting one of these for a while now. Bed, Bath & Beyond had one that had all the features I wanted - safety power cord that’s held on to the unit by a magnet, so if you pull the cord, it comes free rather than pulling the unit over. And the oil reservoir can be removed from the unit to clean/store it, and the heating element can be pulled to for separate cleaning. The only thing I still need is an external thermometer to calibrate the temperature.

The unpacking:

When I pulled it out of the box, Lilith asked what its name was. “Vader” came to mind immediately.

Putting the bits in order:

Yeah, my kitchen is a mess. Bugger off.

This was the only tricky bit - the power cord on the unit is really short, and my work table doesn’t have any electrical sockets in it. So I ran an extension cord up one leg of the table and secured it with cable ties.

I think I’m going to get a power strip and attach it under the edge of the table so that I’ve got multiple outlets for the fryer, my food processor, blender, etc. Still don’t have a mixer . . .

Finally, with all the pieces in place, power, and a lot of peanut oil, we were ready to fry up some corn dogs!

Hint: corn dogs taste better if you laugh and cry out “Repent!!!” before you drop them in the oil. It’s true!

I finally delivered the Firefly/Serenity socks to my friend Dawn today, and she was gleemous:

The pooling of the colors is . . . unique. Not quite a striping effect here, but boy do I love them.

While most of the really cool people whom I know/stalk were in Toronto, Lilith and I were out working on our sunburns tans at Sea World of San Antonio. I still have no idea what genius figured that the middle of a drought-stricken prairie was a good location for an ocean-themed park, but it’s been there for twenty years now, and Lilith was curious, so off we went to see the critters and watch some shows.

We saw a show that starred a whole lot of rescue animals who traipsed around an old-west stage doing tricks and generally being adorable. I was impressed at how they had cats and dogs sharing stage time without freaking out, but when they brought on ducks, pigeons, a pig and a kangaroo, I was really impressed. They have some very capable animal trainers on staff, clearly.

They also have a great team of water-skiers:

(This gave me flashbacks to a certain Go-Go’s video from the early days of MTV:)

Note the American flags. Just in case, you know, you had sun stroke and forgot what country you were in.

So long, and thanks for all the fish:

Oooh, I shouldn’t have eaten all that fish:

And a little shot I like to call “Fuck you, I’m an alligator“:

Lots of critters, lots of shows, and lots of incredibly over-priced beverages. And towards the end of our day, we of course had to visit the star of the whole park, Shamu.

As expensive as the park is (about $50 for one adult), those last two photos really made me want to go back, just for the photography. I took my Nikon D200 with a 55-200mm kit lens and for most of the park, that worked great. But the lighting and the distance in the Shamu Pavilion made it very hard for me to get decent photos. Most of them had bad blurring either from camera shake or motion blurring. I think later in the season when it gets cooler, I might spend the money to go back and try to really nail some pictures of that show. Seeing four Orcas swimming around with their pet humans was a very interesting experience, one that I’d like to document properly.

After a long day in the searing Texas sun, we went home and I made us a huge bowl of fettuccine carbonara. And I finally finished the socks I’ve been working on since forever - more pics to come.

My dear Lilith got here last Thursday and we’ve been actively doing as little as possible. I’ve done some cooking and we’ve both done some knitting (including showing up at Yarnivore’s KIP day event! Thanks, Melanie!) and we spent a couple of days out at the river at my mom’s place.

Evidence of cooking (avert your eyes, Cari):

In the midst of this aggressive relaxation, it occurred to me that I never posted any pictures of my completed one-row scarf, designed by the very-recently-more-refined Yarn Harlot. (Thanks for the pattern, Stephanie! Happy Birthday!)

Need a mindless knitting project? Know somebody with a neck? I highly recommend the pattern.

So a few years ago, my friend Amanda pointed out that in some circles, it’s not acceptable to watch porn while knitting. Weird, I know, but I thought maybe I should get more mainstream with my video-watching-while-knitting habits, so I looked for something on the shelves of my local Target next time I went shopping.

And I discovered Sex and the City. And I was hooked.

Not all of my acquaintances dig it as much as I do - my sweetie can’t watch it without wanting to seriously maim most of the characters, and the one time I showed an episode to my mom, her only comment was “Haven’t any of these people ever heard of STDs?” So yeah, it’s not for everyone.

But I went to see the movie in the theater last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought they wrapped up the series appropriately when it was on TV, but the movie was a good extension of the stories from the series. And I found I couldn’t just sit there without some knitting in my hands, so I turned the heel and cranked a few more rows of my long-neglected Serenity socks. Pics up soon.

In the meantime, I have a small house to furiously clean as I await my sweetie’s arrival. Excuse me while I dig out the flamethrower vacuum cleaner.

Last weekend, the Hunt Sweet Potato Queens had an unusual non-parade event in order to induct two new Tammys into the fold. I was honored to be allowed into the inner sanctum (aka the living room of the cabin by the river) to document the awesome mystery that is a Sweet Potato Queen induction ceremony.

It was, like, all solemn and shit.

I am unfortunately sworn to silence about what transpired, but suffice it to say that everyone had a great time, a lot of barbecue was eaten afterwards, and no marmots were harmed.

Although down at the river, this guy and a couple of his brethren probably would have been happy to swallow a couple of mice.

Welcome to Texas.

Several days ago, Lilith and I had some scheduled chat time. I’d been more than usually busy at work and she wanted some time for just the two of us. I proposed a day, she accepted, and then . . . I completely flaked. My work schedule had left me exhausted and when I got home the day of our scheduled date, I lay down on my sofa when I got home from work and promptly passed out, not waking up until the following morning.

When I got a hold of her the next day, she asked how I was going to make it up to her. I sheepishly suggested that I could bake her a batch of cookies and mail them to her. Much to my relief, she thought that was a great idea.

And thus were born penitence cookies:

She’s getting about three dozen later this week.

And I haven’t killed myself with it yet!