Posted in February 2008

FO: Unoriginal Hat

The hat taught me cabling and used up some yarn I bought because it was on sale and I liked the colors. It doesn’t fit at all so I gave it to Sharlene from my knitting group to give to some little kid with a small head. I’ll make another one using the same yarn later, hopefully it’ll fit then.

Pattern: Unoriginal Hat
Designer: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Source: Yarn Harlot blog
Alterations: None
Recipient: No idea
Yarn: Zitron Vario
Colorway: No idea
Amount Used: Approx 50 yards
Needles: Size 13, 24″
Started/Finished: February 26, 2008

hat1

hat3

Progress: Item 12 – Learn to cook 25 items.

I sort of forgot that learning to cook/cooking are actually on my 101 list. Then again, much of what I do other than study is on the list. When I was making the list, I decided I really wanted to learn how to cook. Not because I feel obligated as a wife, I assure you. No matter how many times those of older generations have told me, “You’ll learn to cook and take over the preparation of meals later (AKA when we have kids),” I’ve ignored them. I don’t think I should learn to cook just because I’m now married or because I’m female. I could never learn and that’d be perfectly fine with Matt. He loves to cook and is actually good at it.

So why even bother in the first place? As a point of personal pride. I dont’ want to be another person that says things along the lines of, “You’ll know the food is ready when the fire alarm goes off.” or “The best thing I make is reservations.” Even if I only cook a few times a month, that’s a few times Matt doesn’t have to worry about it. I could actually have friends over and cook something for them myself instead of asking Matt to do so.

Last week I grabbed three of our most basic cookbooks and started reading. I already know a lot about the ingredients, tools, and methods. But knowing about them is far different than actually using them. I had no clue that our broiler had three different shelf heights until I tried to make burgers. I was surprised how much salt you have to put in things to actually make them taste right.

My cooking lessons will all be on Matt’s blog though every now and then I’ll probably post links over to that page. Right now he’s taking all of the photos but I hope to take that over soon. I’ll need to get past the stage where cooking more than one item at a time is overwhelming before I can think of adding a camera to the mix.

What have I made so far? Cheeseburgers (Thurs night) and Parmesan-Dijon Chicken with Twice-Baked Potatoes (last night) – three items down, 22 to go!

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Done: Item 73 – Make a You Tube video.

I actually made three, all this weekend at FIRST. Why make a YouTube video in the first place? Because I could, essentially. I wanted to get in on it. Here’s the videos.

1. Dean jumps over game piece (AKA 40″ ball): He’s one of the teachers that helps out with the robotics team. Despite how tall he is, even he had trouble jumping the ball. I captured this at the recommendation of one of the students. (link)

2. Left turn: After much messing with the software Matt and one of the students finally go the robot to turn left autonomously. That whole go forward, turn left, go forward, turn left thing is still being worked on. (link)

3. Kicker: The robot has a “kicker” that’s used to remove the ball from the robot. This video was taken during our attempts at getting it to work properly. (link)

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It’s DONE!

I can stop saying “Once FIRST is over..” or “After FIRST..” because the robot is DONE. Okay, not totally complete and working 100% properly but it’s at least in the crate and sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Downtown LA. We won’t see it again until the regional Easter weekend (great timing, huh?). I’m sure we’ll have a couple meetings to get all of the tools together and iron out logistics prior to then but at least I get a break from robot-building. I’ve now got back my Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings as well as my Saturdays. Don’t get me wrong, I really love being a mentor and participating in FIRST in general but it’s nice to have my life back.

Oh, here’s a quick pic of the finished ‘bot, taken by Kathy, one of the teachers from the high school. If you click on it, you’ll see the Flickr page which shows the time the ‘bot was declared finished: 5:38 am (okay, that’s Eastern – it was 2:38 am here).

robot build 08 034 (2)

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FO: Green Goodness Mitts

I had this cotton yarn leftover from Erin’s Clapotis and was trying to find a pattern to use it up. I came across a pattern for garter stitch fingerless mitts on someone’s blog. I’ll be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for the pattern. Not due to anything being wrong with the pattern but my history. I’m horrible at anything done in the round and when I saw the pattern I thought it was another opportunity for me to show off my poor round-working skills. Then I actually bothered to read the pattern. The mitts are knit flat using short row shaping. I did, however, have to teach myself how to Kitchener stitch to complete them. They turned out pretty decent though the stitching up part took about two hours per mitt. These will go off to Erin to match her Clapotis. Hopefully they fit her hands!

(One note: This was one of my fastest ever FOs. I started them Friday night and they were finished by Sunday afternoon.)

Pattern: Garter Stitch Mitts
Source: Ysolda (link)
Size Made: Small
Recipient: Erin

Yarn: Classic Elite Flash (Print)
Colorway: Gulf Green
Amount Used: 60 g (110 yards, approx)
Needles: Size 7 32″ Addi Turbo

greengloves

Technical deets here

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Robots, Robots, Robots

My life has been taken over by robots. With the ship date just over a week away, we’ve been meeting all the time. We get home, grab something for dinner, watch a bit of TV, and head to bed. Five days in a row so far (today makes six). But, I know it’s all worth it. The kids will be so much happier to have a truly finished, working robot put in the crate instead of one that sort of works. Hopefully we won’t be testing the mast for the first time or drilling speed holes  in Lexan at Midnight the day before ship. I’ll do a whole write-up of the ‘bot when it’s done but, for now, here’s a few of my favorite photos from the build season thus far.

FIRST 08 - Weeks 1-5
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