Posted by me on Friday, the 8th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 2:35 PM, local time.
or, How I Acquired Two New Hobbies at the Expense of some Free Time
This post is about knitting and crocheting. For you poor theoretical physicists worried about the fact that $A_{\mu}(x)\rightarrow A_{\mu}(x)-\nabla_{\mu}\alpha(x)$, this might help, although you might learn useful things about differential geometry if you stay here for a bit. Probably not though. And for the few engineers who stumbled here trying to figure out why your extruded metals are not the right size, I can’t really help you at all, though you really should fix that in case I need some 1’s to make a sock or something.
But seriously, I digress. On to the real point of this post: Learning to knit (and crochet). After learning both things, I am really convinced that they are one and the same. That is, Knitting Theory can be expressed using Crochet Theory, though I grant that it could be quite difficult keeping that many loops on your hook at once, and I don’t really know that you’d want to anyway. But, even though I am pretty sure knitting is a degenerate form of crocheting, and crocheting (in its simpler, most commonly practice forms) is much easier to do, I think knitting is probably more generally useful, and certainly is more often practiced. It is surely for these combined reasons that shortcuts from using crochet hooks for knitting were developed, known as knitting needles (Surely this is how it came about.) Anyway, I digress again.
This may be boring to some of you, but I thought I would talk about the why and how I learned to knit (and crochet… that’s getting old. From now on, I’ll just assume you know what I mean). When I was a young lad, maybe 5 or 6 or so, my grandmother taught me to crochet. I assume it was mostly to keep me busy and out of her hair. Anyway, I don’t remember crocheting much, but I think I still have the hook she gave me somewhere in my room back home. More recently, as in, mere months ago, I saw some websites online where they talk about crocheting and knitting complex mathematical surfaces to get a better feel for how they look and work. I mentioned this before. Also really awesome: this Lorentz attractor!. As a mathematician at heart, I was intrigued, for there were lots of really cool complex shapes that have really simple equations, but its really hard to get a feel for how they look, even when its just in normal euclidean three-space. Let alone hyperbolic space, or higher dimensional spaces. So at that point, I kinda wanted to learn how to do this stuff.
Luckily, my good friends Jim and Pam, also known as the spectacular husband and wife knitting and crocheting team, were kind enough to teach me how to do this amazing things. Jim taught me to crochet, and that went really quick, and I seemed to get the hang of it pretty easily. Pam, not willing to let another go to die Dunkelseite, taught me to knit. Knitting was much more difficult to master, and I still have a few issues now and again, but it is also enjoyable, and there are definitely benefits.
So, I started making some swatches, and started making an afghan with crochet, and it was good, but slow going (also, it will take a lot of yarn). Its easy enough to figure out what to do with crochet (everybody likes afghans, and everybody needs potholders), but I was having some trouble figuring out useful things to make with knitting. Luckily, my main failing is that I like to buy books.
Enter, Knitting with Balls. A manly set of knitting projects that were useful and interesting (everybody needs beer cozies, and a simple but warm hat and scarf set is always useful. Also: a very interesting cabled laptop case. Haven’t started that yet. Need more practice!). So, I’ve started a few projects there, and now I got another book about making socks, cause that always looked interesting to do, and takes far less yarn than making afghans.
I am just starting to make socks though, and am working through some initial issues. First of all, when knitting on the round, I have trouble with the gauge and tension in the neighborhood of the initial join. I almost need to just practice that a few times, with only a couple rows of actually knitting afterwards before ripping it out and doing it again. That leads into another general problem I have with all sorts of knitting (and thus leading to the title of this post): Gauge Invariance. I don’t know if I’m holding the yarn wrong, or pulling too much after each stitch, or what is going on, but my gauge does not appear to be constant throughout my fabric. Especially when going back and forth between knitting and purling a lot (as in the ribbing for the hat I am working on), and when joining rounds (like the socks), and even sometimes just on the edges of the fabric when I turn around. I suppose with practice I will get better, but still, its a little frustrating.
Well, a longish post, but I’d been typing it for a while. At least I now have something to do while I am watching television. I always felt bad before, because whenever I watched TV, it seemed like I wasn’t doing anything useful, and wasting so much time. Problem solved!
Tags: crocheting, crocheting theory, differential geometry, gauge theory, hobbies, knitting, knitting theory, mathematical crocheting, physics, sock knitting
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Thursday, the 7th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:33 PM, local time.
In the interest of keeping momentum, I am trying to write to my blog now every day, at least once. I have a huge backlist of topics I want to write about, but most of them are currently just on my iGoogle homepage quick notes list as a simple phrase or two that I know what I mean to talk about, but would be meaningless to anyone else… some of them go back 6 or 7 months even, when I was still blogging more or less regularly, but didn't want to take the time to expand on those topics yet. So, they may sit there a bit longer as I try to figure out what to say.
Anyway, its getting pretty hot in Rochester this summer. Others may complain that I am complaining too much already about this, but I know that the sudden change in a single day from comfortable and rainy to that hot hot wind of summer that is so unbearable is really just an indication that this summer will surely get even worse. It always seems to. It’s at this point that I really start wishing for the late fall or early winter, when its not yet 30 below, but there is nice fluffy snow every once in a while… sigh.
Well thats probably enough for now. Expect posts soonish about my acquisition of yet another set of hobbies (knitting and crocheting), the wonder and awesomeness that is Opera, ways to keep my books in order (LibraryThing!), ways to keep my music in order, and my patio-container vegetable garden (and associated patio-container fruit orchard).
PS: I've started "tagging" blog posts, since its so darn easy on WriteToMyBlog.com to do so, and it might help with google searching for my page. Maybe.
Tags: blogging, rochester, summer heat, tagging
From "That which need not be read, Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Wednesday, the 6th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 10:25 AM, local time.
This is a test post from WriteToMyBlog.com. A handy web-based editor for blogs of all sorts. Not as simple as my email based one, but that is currently down for system upgrades that I am procrastinating with, so its good to have an alternative. I know I havn’t posted much lately, and Darcy, for one, is clearly losing interest. :) I blame my email thingy being down, and my hatred for WordPress’ own interface.
So, I hope that with this option available to me now, I can post a bit more. It would still be nice if this was a plugin inside iGoogle homepage somehow, but I guess I can’t have everything… yet…
Tags: igoogle, procrastination, wordpress, writetomyblog.com
From "That which need not be read"
Posted by me on Sunday, the 28th day of January, anno domini 2007 at 11:12 PM, local time.
So, previously, I have blogged about Dinosaur Comics, by Ryan North, a comic genius. Now, I would like to make a praiseful mention of xkcd by Randall Munroe. I don’t remember who first sent me the link, I suspect it may have been Kyle. He at least claims the distinction. Anyway, I have seen a couple of the comics off and on when people or websites mention them to me. They have been funny, and all, but just recently, I found myself going through the entire archive of comics. Many of them are down right hilarious. Some are scary in how well they describe me. All of them are quite good.
And, if you go and read some of them, don’t forget about the mouse-over text for each comic. Much like dinosaur comics, it is often a punchline, or commentary on the comic. But, they are always a vital part of the day’s offerings. Unfortunately firefox has a bug with long mouse-over texts, so sometimes you might not get to read it all. I do have a solution for Dinosaur Comics, which goes and grabs the mouse-over text and displays it prominently below the comic for easy reading. It also takes Ryan’s mess and makes proper XHTML out of it. That is one point where the author of xkcd is better: the source is clean. I respect that. Thank you, Mr Munroe.
I do plan to write a script to make it easier to read xkcd as well, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Please stand by.
As for a comparison between Dinosaur Comics and xkcd in terms of goodness, I think I still have to go with Dinosaur Comics. They are consistently of a level that xkcd usually, but not always, manages to reach. Besides, everybody seems to already like xkcd. Its not as fun to evangelize as Dinosaur Comics is (which, for some reason, a lot of people don’t seem to get).
Anyway, I recommend you keep an eye on these comics! They are sometimes rather niche in their audience, but a lot of times, pretty much everybody can appreciate the humor.
Tags: dinosaur comics, humor, kyle, webcomics, xkcd
From "That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Sunday, the 28th day of January, anno domini 2007 at 9:18 PM, local time.
So, it’s been a while since I’ve bothered Jim about teaching me to knit. However, in my usual meanderings through wikipedia, I happened upon the knitting entry, which in turn led me another site, where I found Something Worth Knitting. I then began to look a bit further into such things, and discovered some other very interesting things.
So anyway, uh, Jim? About that ‘knitting’ thing?
Tags: crocheting, geometry, knitting, math, mathematical crocheting, wikipedia
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Thursday, the 25th day of January, anno domini 2007 at 11:50 PM, local time.
So, I was at work the other day, getting cheap “break-room” coffee from the coffee machine, and I put in my seventy-five cents and it dropped down a cup and proceeded to do nothing whatsoever.
This has happened to me in the past, and really all it means is that have to walk all the way to the next break-room and get a cup of coffee there. But, now I have lost the seventy-five cents I put into the first machine. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to convince myself that if I buy enough coffee from the machines, my average number of failures tends to zero-ish and so I lose no money at all. That’s how that works, right?
On the other hand, the machine supposedly gives away a free cup of coffee every fifty cups purchased. I have experienced this phenomenon twice, I believe, in the 3 years or so now that I have been at my present job buying coffee from the break-room. So, I guess I’m making money on the deal? It is funny when it happens though, because you put in your money, make your selection, and it spits your money back out at you, as if to say, “Pfft!Your money is no good here, my friend. Have some coffee.” And then the little cup drops down and the coffee pours out and I am happy.
Tags: break room, coffee machine, failures, free coffee
From "That which must be mocked"
Posted by me on Wednesday, the 17th day of January, anno domini 2007 at 1:20 AM, local time.
So, a quick update from the new year (yes I know, the new year is several weeks old now). First off, I’ve started a new blog. Or rather, I’ve split this one into two parts. I’ve noticed that I tended to blog about lots of random things here, but very seldom have I been blogging about technical subjects. I also recognize that while some of my readers might be interested in those technical subjects, many others might not be. So, any new ramblings about technical things (computers, math, programming, etc.) will go to this new blog, Complicated System of Pulleys. It can be reached from this blog by going to the link off to the right side, down in the sessrumnir.net section.
Related to this splitting, I have done a bit of a name reversal on this less technical blog. It used to be called sessrumnir.net and there was just a little comment under the title saying Nevermind…. Well, since I now have this second blog at pretty much the same site, I thought that it was more appropriate for both of them to be considered sessrumnir.net and each should be given separate names. Complicated System of Pulleys was pretty easy to come up with, and since Nevermind… had always been part of the old blog’s masthead, I thought it too might be appropriate.
Lastly (for now), I have added a small quote section to the mastheads. There was a lot of empty whitespace up there, and I like quotes, so there we go. Right now, I have to manually change the quote every once and a while, and I’ll probably keep it that way, though I imagine I’ll make it easier for myself to change it eventually. The two blogs will have separate sets of quotes. The quotes will generally be something that popped into my head, or something from a book I am/was reading. I will try to give proper credit/blame when possible. Some of them I might make up and those won’t be credited to anyone.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Oh, except to say that there is now about 4-6″ of snow cover. This is cause for celebration and joy. Thank you.
Tags: blogging, happiness, meta, new year, pulleys, snow
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Monday, the 1st day of January, anno domini 2007 at 2:43 AM, local time.
So just a quick note here this early hour into the new year to relate the wonderful news! Es schneit! Es schneit! Es hat geschneit! Es ist Schneiende! Isn’t it wonderful? After months of waiting, heartbreak, and sorrow, it has finally snowed! And I am tired and am going to bed! Yay!
Tags: happiness, new year, sleepy, snow
From "That which must be said, That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Sunday, the 31st day of December, anno domini 2006 at 7:21 PM, local time.
Edvard Grieg was an amazing composer and pianist from somewhere in Scandinavia at some point in the past (what do I look like, an encyclopedia? Go look it up yourself, I just gave you the link!)
I have always been a fan of his music, ever since I first heard In the Hall of the Mountain King. And sure, the Peer Gynt Suites and such are very nice. Still enjoy them immensely.
But, recently, I have fallen in love with the Lyric Pieces, Books 1-10. They sound so simple and yet evoke such beautiful emotion, ranging from anger to happiness to sadness. Since I had a difficult time finding them quick on Amazon, I went through the short trouble of creating a wish list to make them easier to buy. These fourteen low priced CDs contain a lot of piano music by Grieg, including some renditions of the Suites for piano as well. All are played by the same guy (I think. Most of them are anyway.), Einar Steen-N�kleberg. The guy is pretty good, as far as I can tell.
Anyway, Vols. 8, 9, and 10 are the Lyric Pieces. I particular enjoy Vol. 10, mostly because of Book 8, (Op. 65), which concludes with Wedding in Troldhaugen, which was brought to my attention by some of my friends using it in their wedding. Its this sort of stuff that makes me really wish I had bothered to learn to play the piano.
And! Who know YouTube had so much piano music? And music of all sorts? It seems its a great place to find new music for someone like me, who loves piano music from old dead guys whose copyrights have all since expired. My post earlier is another good example of the gems of YouTube. Some of the music is of rather low recording quality, and some from people who’s talent leaves a bit to be desired (not that I can talk much about that), but by and large there are some very talented people out there. Some other great Grieg examples from YouTube to capture someone’s interest:
Anyway, thats all for this year. Gotta run to a small gathering that will hopefully have wine and other good stuff to drink. See ya in 2007!
Tags: grieg, lyric pieces, peer gynt, piano, wedding in troldhaugen, youtube
From "That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Sunday, the 31st day of December, anno domini 2006 at 1:01 PM, local time.
Here is something I was going to post about some weeks back, when Kyle (the Mauian) sent me the link. I forgot. Then I was reminded to post about it after Adam posted an article about people with way too much time on their hands. That, of course, was over two weeks ago, and once again, I forgot.
Anyway, this YouTube video is what I wanted to post about. The Amateur is where this nobody records himself pressing some keys on the piano and banging on some drums. Then, through the magic of modern video editing, he resequences the video into something truly amazing. You should go check it out!
Tags: amateur, drums, kyle, piano, video editing, youtube
From "That which should be praised"
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