Just a Few More Changes

Well. I’ve finished specifying thumbnails for all of the posts. It was very interesting (for me, at least) to go back through more than five years (!) of writing. I’ve changed a lot, and a lot has happened in the past five years – some things that I’d forgotten about. I apologize to those of you that subscribe to the blog’s feed (I know some of your are out there! I see you on my stat counter) if my manually updating more than 400 posts made them all come up again. Really, I don’t know how RSS works. I guess I ought to spend some time figuring that out. Could anyone who’s subscribed to the feed lend their perspective? Did you see hundreds of posts this week?

At any rate, I’ve added a few new widgets and plugins and thumbnail doodads to the blog; I think they’re pretty cool, myself. Please note the recent posts in the right sidebar, and the list of most commented posts. In (what I think is) a very exciting development, you should be able to subscribe to comments when you leave one – so if there are follow-up comments you will be notified via email. I am so, so pleased about this. I love the comments I get here on the blog. I really, really, treasure and appreciate them. It makes it feel like what I am doing has some impact on the people who read it. But (and if you’ve commented here before, you’ll know) I am terrible about responding. Every now and again I’ll shoot off an email, but usually I just don’t get around to it. I’m hoping it’ll prove easier for me to post a comment in reply as long as I’m already here on the blog, writing and moderating. We’ll see.

I’m also trying out something new called CommentLuv. It’s supposed to provide a worthwhile link back to your url (as opposed to a donotfollow) and post a small excerpt of your most recent post in the comment section, to entice other readers to come visit you. Just check the box at the bottom to try it out.

Well! That is probably not as exciting to you as it is to me, but I’d really appreciate it if you would try out the new features for me. Do they work? Do you like them? What do you think?

Well, Dar-Knit.

Or, as they say – da Nile is more than a river in Egypt. I just want to show you a picture of something:

Yup. Yessiree, that’s a nice…big…hat. Check this pic out:

 Wow. Wow. Proof – once again – that swatches lie. Proof also that calling something “oversized” will only shield you from the realization that it’s WAY WAY WAY too big for so long. Drat.

Oh, well. Only a baby hat, right? (Note to self: next time listen to the little voice that says, “Hey! That looks way way way too big!”)  After a few moments of debating whether to finish it and give it to Charlie – he does look cute in it – I sucked it up and ripped it out. It’s amazing how fast a perfectly good oversized hat is reduced to a ball of yarn. It’s also a bit surreal, looking at a ball of yarn thinking how thirty seconds ago that ball was a hat.

The good news in all of this is that since I had to make the hat significantly smaller, it went a lot faster. So now, I’m at exactly the same point I was yesterday…woo. I’m looking forward to moving on to a new step in the process.

Anyway, this post marks the end of my January blog blitz, and my website anniversary. I’ve really enjoyed getting back in the swing of things, and even though I’m not going to try to blog every day this next month, I hope to keep things going at a faster pace.

Knitting Knew Knoggin…Covers

Pulling out the Concentric Stripes Cardigans yesterday reminded me – I always meant to make coordinating hats to go with them! So last night I went digging in my yarn and found a skein of the same green yarn I used in the cardigans, did a swatch and a few calculations, and started knitting.

It’s just a simple rolled brim beanie to begin with, and at first that type of knitting is quite pleasurable. It’s nice to relax, forget about details, and just knit and knit and knit. Of course, a few inches in I get bored and start measuring after each round, wondering when it will be long enough to start the decreases, but fortunately that didn’t take long. (And I wonder why I make so few sweaters. Seriously. I have the attention span of a squirrel sometimes.) Anyway, I made it nice and big so they can wear it through the next few months, and I finished most of the hat. I’ll probably add the embellishments and start on the second one tonight.

Tommy is so thrilled.