The End Already?

Wow, time really got away from me. After Dozer passed away I then lost the African Grey parrot (Stormy) to a seizure and the next week one of the parakeets died (Skye).  What a crappy month.

Right now everyone is hale.  The indian ringneck (Kiwi) has been moved out to the computer desk & the play cage and I am trying to stuff her with food as she is thinner than I would like.  It is fun to visit with her, although I miss Stormy calling me "HEY! Girl! HEY!" all the time.   I also moved Wavey the parakeet in with Opal the parakeet and they seem to have come to a room mate agreement.  It is too early to say if they like each other, but the nitpicking has lessened. 

This year I read some books, knit some things and played some World of Warcraft.  I went to gardening every week I was supposed to.  I watched some movies, took an online class and adopted a dog that was pound-bound.

Next year?  Maybe finally apply for a new job, maybe go back to making soap, maybe get serious about honing my German language skills, maybe knit some things, read some books & play some more WoW.  Walk the dog more and do the dishes more as well. 

And blog more.

Moving Forward

I'm making it through each day, getting up, going to work, checking FaceBook & Ravelry and finding things to smile about. 

I'm taking pleasure in showing more attention to some of the other pets (Kiwi parrot particularly) to remind them that I love them and to remind myself all is not lost.  Kiwi is looking thin, but I am making mixed veggies and keeping the dish extra full and hope to see a positive improvement soon.  She has been a good bird for almost 10 years now and deserves to be spoiled.

Finished reading "The Hobbit" during a lazy Sunday in bed this morning; soon I plan to go see the new movie. 

The new term of the Harry Potter knitting group (soar, Ravenclaw!) starts on Jan 1 and I have spent a lot of time on the forums visiting, reminiscing and planning projects for the next term.  I have some lofty goals and a lot of yarn at my disposal.

Hope you are all well out there in internet land.

Sad

I just got back from the vet. I put my darling Dozer to sleep today.  I am so sad. I loved this dog so much. In addition, this is the third dog I had to euthanize this year and it does not get any easier. He has been my companion for more than 10 years and we went on so many adventures together.  He got his tooth stuck in a chainlink fence, he tried to get kicked by horses, sheep, donkeys and goats, he was a dog friendly dog who liked walks, overnight visits and the dogpark.  He was my rock through some difficult times these last few years and I would not have made it without his calm presence.

I do have some dog overlap; I got Holly a couple months ago so Dozer could teach her all his bad habits. She was a quick study.  Of course, I haven't told anyone about her so it is another whole issue to figure out how to present her to everyone. 

But none will ever replace Dozer; he was a gem of a dog and the last thing the vet said to him was "well Dozer there sure wasn't anything wrong with your heart" while he was listening at the end.  True words. I miss you, buddy.

Precocious

... and semiprecious.

Presenting the semiprecious scarf.

Very Cordial

The spinning wheel is fixed and I am finishing up some merino tencel roving in my own "cherry cordial" colorway.  It is smooth, shiny and gorgeous.  No in progress photos yet (Beaker chewed my camera cord), but here is the fiber I started with. 

I don't usually use colors this bright, so I have no idea what it will become (maybe socks), but it sure is pretty. 

Up & Running

Monday I finally had the motivation to get my spinning wheel up and running.  It has been a dustcatcher ever since the drive band snapped 3 years ago.  I bought a new one last November, but progress did not... progress. 

Monday was a lovely warm day - one of the last of the season, I suspect - and I collected a rag, the drive band, a screwdriver and gave it a good going over.  It took only about 30 minutes, including repairing the scotch tension which I didn't even know was broken! 

Now it is good as new and I have been spinning some lovely pink / red / purple merino/tencel blend at a laceweight.  I am thinking of using it just as a singles yarn & not plying, but might have to do some experiments first. 

I forgot how much I enjoy spinning.  While I did do some spinning on a drop spindle in the intermission, it was not the same.  I love the treadling, the drafting, watching the bobbin fill up with lovely fine yarn. 

It feels good to have it fixed. I may have to fix some other stuff soon. 

Tired Hand, Warm Neck

The Ophelia scarf is all done and is extremely soft. 

New scarf in the same pattern cast on and knitting away.

Soapy Monday

Making soap.  Eucalyptus and pumpkin tonight, and maybe some vanilla sheep for variety.  Then it will be time to work on my scarf - it must be done, photographed & posted before midnight on the 31st. 

Off to stir the pot!

There is Pansies, That's for Thoughts

I am knitting away on the Ophelia yarn - can it really be 4 years since I spun it?  The time has flown.  The scarf is The Prismatic Scarf and is going well. I fear it will be too short, but if it worse comes to worst, I can add buttons & I cord and call it a cowl. 

Morning Mumbles

I've had a good couple of weeks. Work has become fun again, now that we have a couple more people trained up on problem files (my specialty) and because it is a slower time of the month.  It will pick up again at month end later this week, but I am enjoying the respite.

I am still knitting for my Harry Potter / Ravenclaw house knitting group on Ravelry.  I finished some fingerless mittens, some crocheted butterflies, a couple washcloths and am working on a scarf.  There is more I want to finish this month, but am pretty satisfied so far.

The pets are still falling apart: Fritti is sneezing again, Galen has a gross toe, Dozer's lump isn't getting better, Carrie has escaped & I haven't seen her in days and the dogs think Lizzie is a chase & bark toy, which is the most obnoxious problem.

Hopefully I will catch up with picture taking and make some more visual posts later in the week.  

Stash Thursday

Some beautiful blue merino roving / top I picked up at Lambtown last year.  Not a fantastic picture, but the fiber is really lovely. 

Hopefully at some point I will stop posting about stash fiber & start working with stash fiber!

Stash Monday

Today is the last day of vacation. Maybe I will finally  take an hour and get the spinning wheel back in working order.  There is stash to be spun! 

This is some yak roving that I got at Lambtown last fall.  It is grey-brown and amazingly soft.   I suspect I was thinking I could spin it on my charka, but a featherweight spindle would work well too. 

Vacation: Day 1

Yesterday had a definite knitting & TV theme to it, as most everything I did was knit and watch Hulu plus. I found a great show called Circus and watched the first few episodes.  It is heartwarming, fascinating, funny and poignant in turns.

I knit an Acorn for Quidditch. It was a fast and easy knit and I think I will make a bunch of them.  The pattern is so easy I can memorize it and make acorns every time I need to fill a little time with knitting or have a small amount of yarn.  I bet they would make great cat toys.

I also knit a Corgi washcloth for Muggle Studies class.  It is a washcloth for people which sports a corgi, not a washcloth for washing  your corgi.  Sorry.  It went surprisingly quickly (although not as quickly as my regular diamond shaped ones) and I bet I can finish the coordinating one (for Potions) today.

In the morning I finished Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire and it was a fun read.  Starting book 5 on Sunday!

Having a day where I didn't have to go anywhere was wonderful; I can't remember the last one.   I haven't had a Monday off in a while and I work on Sundays so it seems like I have to be "up and at ' em" every single day.  Today I think a dogwalk is in order if it stays cool. 

Stash Thursday - Quidditch Hat

Pictures are here!

Stash Thursday

I love naturally colored wool and I love superfine fleece. Cormo  wool is the best of both worlds. This is 5 oz white & 2.5 oz natural grey roving from Cormo Sheep & Wool Farm (blog here)  It is certainly not enough for sweater, but would make a nice vest or hats or shawls or mittens.

Gamification - Project 2

[The prompt: Create a gamified system for a city government to increase fitness & decrease insurance costs]

Most people realize that exercise and fitness are important to good health and quality of life.  No one likes to be sick or unwell, but sometimes the choices people make contribute to an unhealthful lifestyle and they need the structure of a program to make changes.  Creating a gamified system to provide extrinsic motivation and rewards is a way to encourage healthful habits, and when people start to feel the physical improvements in their lives, they will continue the behaviors for the intrinsic value.

For the employees of the city of Werbachia, I propose adding an activity reporting feature to the automated timeclock that the city uses to track attendance and hours.  This will be a low-cost, uncomplicated way for employees to report their daily physical activity and this data will be reported back to users in a weekly progress update that tracks their progress against themselves & against an average of the other city employees.

The game elements of this program include:

• checking in
• points for the different categories of activity (more for strenuous activity or muscle strengthening, fewer for light activity or cardio)
• badges for completing activity goals
• feedback (in the weekly report to track & compare progress)
• quests (a monthly newsletter will give activity suggestions and directions for completion of goals)

At the outset, primary motivation to record activity and encourage increased exercise will be extrinsic. By linking the activity report to the automated timeclock, every employee will have 4 opportunites per day to log their exercise (clocking in & out for the day and in & out for lunch). Because the city uses the same system for all employees, this will relatively simple & cost efficient to implement and maintain.

Every week the employees will receive a progress report which will give them feedback.  They will be able to see their own progress over time and compare their progress to that of the group of city employees as a whole.  The individual employee can choose to share this information with their peers, and this gives the user flexibility and control over the "game". This feeling of engagement is critical to a successful gamified system.  Those who are motivated by self-improvement will be pleased and those who are motivated by cometition with peers and the main group will be pleased as well.

Physical fitness is, well, physical and the more the city employees utilize the system and work to increase their activity levels to progress in the "game", the more they will become fit and feel more healthy and energized.  This good feeling becomes an intrinsic motivator for the user to continue to progress.  What was once a requirement becomes a good and rewarding habit.  In this way, using a gamified system to initiate & encourage increased physical fitness using external motivation leads to the creation of a desire to continue the habit for the intrinsic reward of health and happiness.

Stash Thursday

Amazingly, I am actually knitting a project with this stash yarn.  It is a skein of hand dyed, local grown, local processed alpaca.  I am making Celestine for my Ravenclaw knitting house.  It is a very fiddly project, but interesting, and I am practicing some techniques I don't usually use, like picking up & knitting to add a section.

Gamification - project 1

The prompt: Provide reasons why gamification could be a useful technique [to sell breakfast pastry].

My submission: Gamification can be a useful technique to reach the goal of increasing the market share of Cereals Inc in the breakfast ready-to-eat market. Incorporating game elements to our product can make the experience more fun for our customers and can increase consumption and brand loyalty.

A primary goal of gamification is to engage people in everyday activities (customer engagement). By adding the right game-like components to our marketing plan, users will begin to associate our pastry with a fun and engaging experience they will want to repeat (easy fun).  We also want them to share with their friends and family, which will encourage more people to try our product in addition to the positive feeling that customers will get from sharing the information (people fun).

Games appeal to men and women equally, and the majority of people in the young adult demographic are comfortable with gaming (broad appeal).  Finding game elements and techniques that will catch and hold the interest of the consumer is becoming the new normal and the product that is fun to use will have an advantage.

It is also possible to use gamification to recognize and reward good habits. This could be as simple as eating breakfast every day or a more complex idea such as enabling users to track thier eating, nutrition and exercise patterns.  A sense of satisfaction from posting progress or meeting goals is another element of fun that gamification can provide.

The applications of gamification are many, but our goal is a simple one: for our customers to feel that choosing a breakfast pastry from Cereals Inc is more than just a meal, but rather a fun and rewarding experience they would like to repeat.

Juggling Goslings

My plate is full, full, full here at Chez Pickyknitter. I'm trying to pretend it is not far too much for one woman to handle.

Work - We've been on full schedules (8 hours x 5 days, minimum) for a few months now and I am starting to miss the slow weeks when we had 6 hour days. It was a nice break after the week of 14-18 hour days during month-end.  However, I like the paycheck and won't complain too loudly.

Reading - I have several books partially started & then set aside (Don Quixote, The Awakening, & Bleak House all spring to mind) but my current pusher book is An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon.  It is a weighty tome, but good for dipping in and out of, unlike the classics which require my full attention (and often, my notebook).  In addition, I am re reading the Harry Potter series and finished book 1 this week.  I will exchange it for book 2 tomorrow.

SciFi & Fantasy class (online) - I am behind in my reading for this unit... I'm not even entirely sure who the authors are.  I need to "get a move on" as the next essay is due by Tuesday. I should at least watch the introductory video for the unit tonight before I go to bed.

Gamification class (online) - I am caught up in the videos and the quizzes, but need to prepare the exercise / essay for the first class which is due in, uh, 19.75 hours. Yikes.

Knitting - I am almost done with the Springy socks but mislaid the contrasting color yarn at the last minute and now they are on hold. I picked up a scarf in progress to keep my hands busy, but am quite miffed about the socks.  I am in a Harry Potter themed knitting team on Ravelry (Soar, Ravenclaw!) and am planning 6 small projects to be complete before the month is out, plus trying to keep up with all the chatter on the forums.  Chatter is my favorite part; my Gamification instructor would nod sagely and approve of the social aspect of Ravelry being a huge part of the fun I have there.

Things being squeezed out - Soap. I have got to make soap.  Washcloths. I have got to knit washcloths.  Pets. I have got to walk / wash / snuggle / groom the pets.  House. I have got to clean the house. World of Warcraft. I have got to catch up and get ready for the new expansion.

All righty, enough procrastinating. Time to do some reading for class! 

Stash Thursday

I photographed part of the stash yesterday and organized it on my Ravelry page.  The idea is that if it is taring me in the face, maybe I will use it!

Today's selection is some of the fiber I have acquired from Red Fish Dye Works.  They have beautiful, reliable fiber & color. I just realized that two skeins of sock yarn escaped the camera, I will have to add them later.  One is blue and one is orange... I sense a pattern emerging.

Merino / Silk handspun 4 oz

80 Merino / 20 silk 4 oz

50 Merino / 50 silk 4 oz

Silk yarn, 2 ply 120/2

Silk yarn, 2 ply 120/2