Tag Archive for ‘nerdy’ at adam knits!

Tag Archive for 'nerdy'Page 2 of 6

Yarn Overdose 07 Sep 07

You know, one of these days I’m going to actually blog more than once a week…but that’s not the case today. I think Maryse hit my mood about blogging right on the head, so I’m going to copy her and oust the transitional sentences. Lists rule.

The order for The Loopy Ewe is done. Phew! I took Labor Day weekend to finish it up, and shipped it out last Monday. Sheri has already received it, and says that it should be up sometime soon, so keep an eye on her store. And in case you wanted to know, this is what 100 skeins of Yarn Nerd yarn looks like.

Holy Sheep Batman, it barely fits on my little table! It was a lot of work, but wasn’t nearly as hard as I anticipated. It’s easy to get into a rhythm and dye up around 15 skeins in an evening and 40 or so on a Saturday. So after a weekend here and a few spare evenings there, it was all dyed. Reskeining is a different beast though. This is about how I felt after reskeining all 100 skeins.

But it was still a blast, and I’m excited to do another order in the future! Oh, and 1500 MHz Sport Merino is now on order, so look for that soon. Since I know a lot of you want it (including me!).
The bike is fantastic. Not only are my hot legs getting even hotter (gotta love the efficiency of clipless pedals), I’m also quite speedy these days. I guess that’s what happens when you shave 10-15 pounds off your commuting machine. Also, my adventure with the ABQ bus system continues, as I’m finding more and more ways to incorporate biking and the bus into my errands and daily routine. If I were in an RPG, my character would have the following stats: Gas Usage = -20, Knitting Time = +50, Pounds Lost = -15 and Smile Factor = +10. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, perhaps you should unsubscribe and save yourself before it’s too late.)
I’m all caught up on the sweater front, and am cruising away on the body. I do need to start a sock though, since this project will soon become to large to squeeze into my bike saddlebags and wield on the bus. I do need a bit of room for a change of clothes and a sack lunch… ;)

Oh, and Mom? I’ll work on your shawl tonight, ok? Promise!
If I seem to be lacking my usual nerdy exuberance today, it’s probably only because I’m all alone in cubicle land, and I haven’t had human contact in around 4 hours. And after 4 hours of computer programming, you kinda start to feel like a computer yourself.
Finally, here’s another little project that I’ve been hiding up my sleeves for a few weeks now. If you are in Scout’s Swag Club, and haven’t received your latest yarn fix, you may want to stop reading, since this will spoil it. Inserting requisite paragraph breaks…

Not yet.

Nope, still no dice.

Are we there yet?

Maybe.

Oops, false alarm.

Keep going…

Almost there.

You’ll get a cookie if you keep going!

Ok, not really, but a fake gold star at least.

Scrolling all the live long day!

. . . .

Oh, now what’s this?

Why it’s lovely yarn! 40 skeins of it in fact, for Scout’s Swag Club for August. Scout asked me if I would like to be a guest dyer for the club a few months back, and I graciously accepted. The colorway is called Chuck T’s, and I think it’s quite smashing. Thanks again Scout, I appreciate the shout out!
Alright that’s it. Move along, nothing left to see. And have a lovely weekend. :)

Published

Adam

in biking, dallas, dyeing, knitting, nerdy, shop, sweaters, work and yarn nerd

Speed Reading 23 Jul 07

84 Comments

So I’m in the mood for a little contest. How about you? (Hehe, of course you are, since there’s yarn involved!)

All you have to do is venture your best guess as how fast of a reader I am. How long do you think it took me to finish Book 7?

I’ll give you a hint. I finished sometime in the afternoon on Saturday, and I did take a 4 hour sleep break at one point during the marathon. Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

I’ll pick 2 lucky winners who have the correct guess (guesses are open through Wednesday) and send them a skein of yarn (of your choice!) from the Yarn Nerd stock.

At any rate, the book was really really good, and I think it was a very fitting end to the whole series. I’m a bit sad that it’s over, but I’ll manage somehow. (Can you say His Dark Materials trilogy?)

I also got bitten by Second Sock Syndrome, and my love for the new Love and Peace or Else colorway, and cast on a new sock. The Tree Scum socks are still on the needles, but I used up the first skein and didn’t have the next one on me; but I did happen to have the Love and Peace yarn…(what a coincidence eh?) It’s going pretty fast anyhow; I’m at the heel already, and will probably be done with the first one in the next day or two. Maybe I’ll even try to set a personal sock record!

It’s hard not to speed along when the knitting is this fun! Hopefully it will last through the second sock! ;)

Published

Adam

in contests, knitting, nerdy, socks and yarn nerd

Yarn is Squishy 20 Jul 07

14 Comments

I love Fridays. Especially when you have every other one off during the summer. It’s quite nice to stay home, kick back and put your feet up. In a pile of yarn that is.

The store is all stocked up with some new yarns, including a new colorway called “Love and Peace or Else”, that I absolutely adore. It has black, gray, red, maroon and a bit of white. Everytime I see it, I got into a sudden fit and begin drooling all over the place, because I love it so much. It’s perfect for Project Spectrum, and it’s guaranteed to bring out your inner Bono. Love and Peace or Else is the title of a U2 song in case you were wondering. I know, I’m so hip it hurts. ;) I guess it’s a good thing that I saved a skein for myself huh? I don’t have any red socks, so I figure I should rectify that. (This is how I rationalize things in my head at least.)

Now that’s some tasty eye candy!

There was some roving in the store, but some crazed people with itchy trigger fingers snapped it up in about 2 seconds. You know who you are ;) There’s more of that on the way though. There was something about dyeing that roving that turned on a switch in my fiber-addled brain…I don’t think I’m gonna be able to hold out on the spinning bug much longer. I’m currently shopping for a drop spindle, since a wheel would definitely blast the budget to smithereens right now. I know there are certain ones among you who might try to persuade me with links to inexpensive wheels, so don’t even think about it! I don’t need to be enabled right now, gosh! Idiots!

Now that I’ve packed up all this morning’s orders for shipping, it’s time to mentally psych myself up for tonight’s excitement. That’s right. I’m going to the Harry Potter release party…

OMG HP7!!! OMG!

Now I realize I might be a bit crazy, (and super nerdy), but I’m really excited for this book to come out. I joined the Harry Potter craze a bit late, i.e. after book 6, so I’ve never had to wait with baited breath for the next installment. Well now I have to wait, and if I have to wait, I might as well get all excited and go to the launch right? At any rate, I’m sure I’ll be staying up very late tonight reading this book…is anyone else joining me?

Whether or not you’ll be staying up late tonight, I hope you have a good weekend! I know I’m going to :) As long as it doesn’t rain during tonight’s Isotopes game, it’ll be absolutely perfect.

Oh, and one last thing.

It’s official. I’m a dork.

Published

Adam

in albuquerque, nerdy, project spectrum, shop, weekend! and yarn nerd

Ms. Hopper, I Hardly Knew Ye 21 Jun 07

14 Comments

Today was supposed to be the happy day that I revealed the name I had picked for my lovely blue bike, but alas, I had much sadder news to report. It appears that my bike will be moving on to ride around on the big streets in the sky, because sadly, she has given out. I went for a ride on Sunday and was greeted by a very loud (and unpleasant) noise everytime I hit a bump. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, so I didn’t ride to work either Monday or Tuesday, just to be safe. Then my Dad and I took a look at her on Tuesday night and determined that the shocks were giving out, causing the fork to scrape against the moving front wheel.

My Dad took it to a few repair shops and determined that it was not possible to put new shocks on it, because the frame was incompatible with the new shocks. We tried taking them apart to see if we could breathe some new life into the elastomer bumpers, but they were reduced to a puddle of goo. My options were either: 1) put a fixed fork on for $100, or 2) put my bike to rest. Being as the shifters are also on the cusp of going out, I decided that it would be best to salvage the new parts I put on and just buy a new bike. I only fixed enough the first time around to get it in riding condition, and am afraid that I may be fighting a losing battle with restoring her to mint condition.

So it is with much sadness that I have decided to retire my beautiful blue bike. I’m just glad to have found a suitable name for her, thanks to Penny: Grace Hopper. I think naming my bike after the woman who invented the first compiler and discovered the first computer bug is fitting, don’t you?

I’ll be saving up for a new bike, but in the mean time, my brother has kindly offered to let me use his bike so that I can continue my commuting antics.

So farewell Grace Hopper, I’ll miss you and the fun times we had together. I’ll never forget those years on campus: that time I rode into a tree (ouch!), and the time I skidded on some sand, and fell off, crushing my laptop in the process (double ouch!). You never judged me for being the uncoordinated clod that I can be, and I thank you for that. And although I will get a new bike, know that I will always remember you as the first and most loyal bike I’ve had. Rest in peace.

Published

Adam

in biking and nerdy

My Trusty Steed, ___ 17 Jun 07

19 Comments

So how’s the bike commuting going you ask? Super! I really love it, and think I finally might have found a form of exercise that I can really enjoy. Plus the fact that I’ve gone 3 days over my normal gas tank fill up day makes it even better. In fact, I’m finding that riding my bike can be super relaxing, so much so that after getting home from work the other night, I rode another 5.5 miles over to my brother’s house for dinner. (My brother was kind enough to give me a ride back home, since going east is considerably harder than going west in ABQ because of all the hills!) I’m also feeling a lot more confident on my bike than I did before, and am getting comfortable riding with the traffic on the smaller streets. So all things considered, I love bike commuting and am so happy I gave it a try.

The only thing I need for my bike now is a catchy name, and this is where you can help me out. She’s (yes, I’ve given it a gender.) an older gal, but she is still full of energy and loves to go out on rides. Not one for being flashy, my bike is a workhorse, and she has a few scars to prove it. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to be treated kindly and get a cleaning every now and then. Oh, and as you can see in the picture, she’s quite a nerd, and prefers to be parked where she can brush up on her Electricity & Magnetism Theory.

So do you have any ideas for a name I could use? If left to my own devices, I might just name her COBOL or some other programming language (yeah, I had a car that I named FORTRAN once…), so I figure that maybe I should give the non-nerdy people a shot.

In knitting news, I finished my first Gentleman’s Lozenge Sock with Anne’s beautiful hand-spun tree scum yarn, and the sock is looking fine. I was a bit worried about the fit, but it turns out that my fears were unfounded (I swatched, how could I be wrong?), and the sock fits wonderfully. I love the pattern, it makes such an elegant looking sock, especially with such nice yarn. I’m planning to cast on the 2nd one today, which should give me enough time to finish the pair and make them my June socks.

In Yarn Nerd news, I dyed up a custom order of 9 skeins this weekend, and tossed a few other skeins into the dye pot as well. I have plans for a few of them, but there’s at least 2 that are available, so I’ll probably just put them up on the blog sometime this week. I also have one other skein that was a botched custom order, which I’ll be offering at a discount, so keep an eye out for those.

In preparation for my big summer dyeing plans, I’m taking a simple survey that will help me decide what things are most important to my wonderful customers in terms of yarn. I have a good response so far, but any more volunteers who would like to help me make my observations more statistically sound are more than welcome. You can take the survey here. Also, if you put in your name/e-mail address, you’ll be entered into a raffle for some Yarn Nerd coupons and great Yarn Nerd yarns.

That’s it for me, I hope everyone has a nice Father’s Day, and be sure to tell your Dad how great he is! I know I’m thankful for my Dad, he’s pretty much the best ever. So thanks Dad, I love you!

Published

Adam

in dyeing, family, finished objects, hand spun, knitting, nerdy, shop, socks and yarn nerd