just stuff

[flamingsword]

I am friending some more trans folks with interesting blogs, so if you're here because I am following your journal now, hello!

I am getting ready to knit myself a sweater, this time with colorwork in the Aurealis pattern from Ravelry. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aurealis-2 And crocheting some simple cotton trivets/coasters because of boredom.

I think I need to do a special "social cohesion/community building for geeks" essay on here? Do any of you geeks have social skills questions or things you would like to do and can't figure out how to do without a lot of grinding effort? LMK. Human interaction is one of my special interests, and if I don't know the answer then I get to do a research binge, which is also fun.

Other than that I'm not up to much other than getting ready for Yule and having a relatively low-pain day. It's kinda nice to get one of those so late in the year.

Comments

[sabotabby]

That's a gorgeous sweater!

I love the idea of social cohesion/community building for geeks. My issue is how to reach out to people. Like, FB has damaged my ability to be a good friend and know how people are doing for real. And DW, I think, requires such a high effort that I don't necessarily know how people are doing even if they post here, though I have a greater sense of depth. And my chances of running into someone these days are basically zero.

[flamingsword]

I will have to give this some thought. On the one hand, fb is a great tool for finding people near you, but on the other it is bad at whittling those numbers down to usable data unless you are buying advertising, unless you want to start an “Urban Geeks of the Great Lakes Region” group and get your friends involved in a massive resharing campaign of local or topical memes so that you can start having outdoor picnics or something next spring with your fellow nerdy folk once you know them.

Actually that doesn’t sound too bad; I may have to do one of those for Dallas.

[sabotabby]

Oh, I'm absolutely in groups like that. The downside is that about 95% of my feed is group posts, and because those occasionally have something good, I'm loathe to delete them. But I don't see very much from individuals.

[flamingsword]

Yeah, that’s the trouble with Facebook groups. It can take a lot to get the ball rolling on getting people to post personal information so that you can get to know them, but if it’s the wrong mix of people or too many folks don’t have good boundaries then it can become a trauma dumping ground and alienate everyone who isn’t into that kind of heavy emotional processing.

[sabotabby]

For me it's not even that. It's just that most of the content is just repetitive content and I don't see things that are important.

[ex_flameandsong751]

I like that sweater, it reminds me of Icelandic sweaters.

I am such a socially awkward geek I'm not even sure what my question/s would be 😂 - I'd still like to read the essay though!

[flamingsword]

It is Fair Isle knitting (only 2 colors) but it borrows the round yoke of the neck and shoulders from Icelandic knitting, and I like the look of round yoke sweaters better than raglans or dolman/batwing sleeved sweaters. I am still debating whether to do the sweater in navy blue and teal solid color yarns, or to do navy solid with tonal variegated green and blue yarn of the same gauge.

Decisions. I am not great at making them, but I may get experimental and just try out the green and blue Malabrigo yarn and see how it looks, then frog it back if it’s not right. I love having really soft expensive yarns, but I have trouble allowing myself to use them and that is a problem. Ugh. Post-poverty financial trauma behaviors are so deeply rooted that they’re hard to dig out, and none of the CBT books deal with that. Boo, I say!

[motorharp]

Oooo, that's a pretty sweater. I'm also a fan of the round yoke. I had an idea to design my own, and have gone so far as to draw something, but that drawing is now languishing, somewhere...

I look forward to seeing what you come up with, if you like posting pictures.

[flamingsword]

Ravelry has a customizeable pattern how-to set for colorwork sweater creation. It's $10 for the whole tutorial on how to do the design work: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/strange-brew

The recipe includes:

Instructions for designing your sweater top-down or bottom-up
An overview of round yoke design.
A ‘plug and play’ round yoke guideline pattern (just follow the pattern - no math!).
Nearly 100 stitch patterns to get you started
A ‘wedge design’ strategy for the more adventurous knitter.

If you are having trouble with the design, or are like me and just get easily frustrated with the math side of things.

[motorharp]

What an amazing resource, thanks!