ID10T

(Surprise! I have finally rolled out my new blog theme. Simple, but cute, and totally me. Stop by and check it out!)

Remember these socks? Frogged them. I thought the yarn (Omo) would be nice with something lacy. How about Jeanie? Pretty cables and dropped stitches? What could not be more fun? more »

Mini-Surprise

I’m still behind with posts, so many pictures to sort through and and posts to proofread.

Meanwhile, I was finally able to merge my old Wordpress feed with FeedBurner. I had signed up for FB ages ago, but couldn’t find an easy solution at the time. ESCknits at Ravelry clued me in to FeedSmith. This plugin made the transition so much easier. Now that my feeds are going through FB, the formatting should look much nicer now.

Since I was so happy with the feed improvements, I decided to change my blog template. It has a bit more white than I’d like, but is very clean and readable. I’m kind of picky about my templates… too many files or too many graphics can require more work to customize than I’m willing or have time to apply. This one is well designed and was easy to tweak here and there. The green color in the header navigation bar and the comment background is still a bit off. I always have trouble viewing light green colors on a LED monitor. I’m satisfied with it for now but don’t be surprised if it changes. Do let me know if anything looks wonky, thanks!

Swap Fun and Classes

I’ve reverted the blog back to the default theme/skin. (July already!) If you’re registered here, you can change back to the blue theme by editing your account (the theme section is near the bottom). I’ll leave it there for a while. : )

SYAC Update

They’re finally done!

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New Socks!

First, a few quick updates. I’ve temporarily changed my blog theme to match June Project Spectrum. : ) I actually like the layout, and the central (main body) width is similar to my default, but I get three columns, instead of two. I’d love your feedback on the layout/theme; is it something I should consider personalizing for this blog? Any problems with your browser, etc? Otherwise, enjoy the pretty blue colors. I have a bunch of pictures… some are ready to post, others still need cropping. I’d rather split them up into several posts, so that’s what I will do the rest of this week. Also, yesterday evening, I finally got my allergy refill, so I’m much better now.

And now, here’s the fun stuff! I got a surprise package in the mail while I was gone… my swap socks for the SYAC Spring Feet Sock Swap! Totally unexpected, and very exciting! My swap knitter was Kelly of The Gabby Knitter.

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Project Spectrum ~ April

I’m so glad the week is over! Next week, I’ll return to my part-time schedule of working on Mon-Tues.

I’m planning to temporarily change the theme for this site to match Project Spectrum. Check back again this weekend! : )

I’ve only been able to knit a little bit in the evenings. I’ve also been ignoring my two larger WIPs and my Continental scarf. Instead, I felt like working on socks.

One of these pairs has orange stripes for Project Spectrum. I think it’s the only orange or yellow yarn I had available! I felt something simple would be ideal for the striping pattern, so I started with the first pattern in Knitting Vintage Socks—Madder Ribbed.

I just had to snap a photo of how the Prisma yarn appeared when wound into a skein. Rather like a Tartan pattern, no?

Improvements

Ah…. much better. I think I have all the plugins I want/need right now. I can now schedule posts to publish at a later date, which is great because I seem to think of things to post about on the weekends. Now, instead, I can schedule and spread them out through the week.

I’ve also added a Rich-Text Editor; it makes posting less of a headache. I had to type in the code by hand (well, I could have used a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or Nvu, but that means using another program and then copy-pasting), and mistakes happened. Now, I can just highlight and insert links or format text, easy peasy. A small selection of these formatting options are available in the comment box too. : )

I also finally figured out where the setting was to require contact information for anonymous commenters, yay! I’m surprised at myself for not finding/notcing this setting sooner. I have anonymous comments enabled for the time being. That may change when (not if, I know it will happen sometime) the spammers find this site.

I’ve decided to take a different approach with posting pictures. I’ve already edited the Sock Yarn Stash (previous post) to reflect this. I like this method and will go back to update others.

So, I’m happier with this site; it’s getting closer to what I want. I’m still looking for a nice theme/skin. And I’ve been trying dozens several. There are two more coming out soon for this platform and I’ll wait until I can try them out and decide which I like best.

Have a nice day. And don’t forget! Spring Forward!!

Less “eh”

After yesterday’s site meltdown, I spent all morning cleaning up and removing errors. I think I’ve got everything ironed out. There are still a couple of weird errors I’ve contacted my host about.

I took some extra time to try out a few skins and still can’t find anything I specifically like. This one comes close, but is limited in the way only right-sided sidebars are allowed. But I threw together a quick header logo and will keep this until I get time to work on something better. Right now, it’s more important to be able to post stuff here, and be accessible, compared to the past two years, when the site wasn’t accessible. : )