...and a lot of other stuff, too!
You know? There’s something to be said for easy-peasy garter stitch. It seems to be the perfect antidote to stress. It’s calming to be able to knit the same thing over and over, to be able to knit without looking or thinking, or to get into a calming rhythm. I know there are people out there who really don’t love doing garter stitch, because the monotony of it drives them batty. But the thing is that I don’t think I am one of those people.
I’ve been concerned for a while now about how long it takes my blog to load. I’ve heard that several things can affect this, including the number of data calls, the plugins I use, and even the hosting service I use, which might be to blame.
I’ve disabled a couple of what I think are the most time-hogging plugins, and have asked a few others to display less information. I’m hoping this will improve things around here a little. There are a couple of plugins that I can’t do without though, especially my Ravelry progress bars.
So, how long does it take for my blog to load for YOU? Thanks for letting me know…
I think I did it! I wanted to create a blog page on a white background, and thanks to some contributors to the Mandigo Wiki, the answer was right there. So, instead of having a blog that looked like a page of something on a colored background, I got rid of the “page” look and turned the background white. Then I turned the background for my posts a shade of purple (of course!), because too much white is well, too much.
Which of course then meant I needed to update my image script, because I like drop shadows, and a drop shadow image has to match the color it’s sitting on. Thusly:
So now, let’s see if this works correctly. Feedback welcome! Does everything look right? Let me know!
Were it not for a slight accident this morning with the needle slipping out of the stitches and quite a few more than I would have wanted being dropped, I might be writing the Finished Object Report instead of just a run of the mill progress report. But, such is life when we’re knitting, eh? I’m not sure if I’ve ever knit a project that didn’t have at least some major mishap involved.
When I originally envisioned this hat I thought it might make a nice Christmas present for my daughter. Then I started it so early that I thought she’d get to wear it some this fall. And now? Well it looks like it’s regained it’s Christmas present status again. Oh well, at least I feel like I’m on track for something now!
Last night, we went around the kitchen table and each of us said what we liked best about the holidays. I asked the kids to ignore the obvious (presents!) and to pick their other favorite thing. Here’s what everybody said:
Diana: The Food
Steven: Making Christmas Cookies
John: Looking at All the Lights
Trish: Christmas Music
Yesterday I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.7. So far, I love it! If you’re thinking of upgrading, there are a couple of things to consider. At least there are a couple of basics that I did that helped make things go smoothly. First, I made sure that the theme I’m using is 2.7-compatible (it is). I grabbed the latest version of my theme, installed the upgrade, then disabled all my plugins, and let my hosting company do the automatic upgrade. Then I went in and reactivated my plugins. That’s all there was to it!
I’m finding that it’s hard to maintain three separate blogs, so I’m going to do some more general type blogging here from time to time. I’ll still keep my family blog, but even that needs a serious update. But I’m going to add a page for my writings and stuff that I had intended to develop at my long-neglected personal blog.
This blog will still be a knitting blog, but you might notice a couple of other sections in the menu over time. I’m just finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping up with three blogs. Let me know if you have any feedback on this issue! For now, I’ve uploaded an article I wrote for my college newspaper, more than 20 years ago. Even though my life is in a completely different place now, this article captures how I’m feeling right now:
Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow
Enjoy!
A friend on Ravelry posted about Blogging Against Disablism Day, which is set for May 1. I plan to participate! Pass it on….
I’ve been playing with the look of my blog banner and background over the last day or two. Of course, it HAS to be purple… 🙂 But what do you think? I thought about using a stock photo of someone’s hands knitting but my, ahem, technique is so unique to me that I had to use an image of my own hands. That’s my own Clapotis in the image, too. Hey, at least I didn’t use any generic images! Thanks for looking… hopefully I’ll have a knitting related update tomorrow.
