Sara Skates

Coolest data representation I have seen in a while

I have so many things I'd like to blog about - Toby, skating (Adult Nationals, and Dance tests - I have passed the Rocker Foxtrot and the Tango so am moving on from Silver dances to Pre-Golds - wheee!), plus lots more - but have to post a quickie data thing for now.

This is the coolest data representation I have seen in a while.  I happened upon it here - Flowing Data, a new blog on my blogroll.  It's a New York Times graphic, where rather than using a traditional pie chart to break up and portray how folks spend their budget, they have divided the pie into sections, and then each section also has chunks corresponding to areas of spending - with amounts in that chunk and the increase/decrease from last year.  The chunks are color coded by side of the change in prices - so it looks more like a stained glass window.  It's also interactive - you can click on individual areas.

While my job as an Institutional Researcher does not involve a lot of visual representation stuff, I think it's hugely important.  Edward Tufte's work is phenomenal - I inflict one of his essays (on the use and mis-use of Powerpoint) on my Research students.  Lately, I have been following Freebase - which is a cool attempt that sort of combines my interest in mind-mapping (an example is here) to organize stuff and the vast amount of data available on the interweb.  Sort of.  If you really think about it.  Which is what I have been doing.

At some point, I know I'll have the headspace and time to blog more - bear with me while it's a bit hit or miss please :)  I am knitting - there's an FO on the horizon - so there's that at least!

PCAS recap

It has taken me all week to return and recover and re-enter and catch up!

Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals was a blast.  I got to meet up with old grad school friends of mine and hang out with their kids, visit my alma mater, go to Powell's, and - skate and skate and skate.

I skated in three events - Adult Gold Ladies Championship III, High Figures, and Masters Ladies Interpretive Light Entertainment/Comedy II/III.  All went well.  The figures event though was easily the highlight.  There were 8 people who competed in the High Figures event, and three in the Low Figures event.  We had several practices on Fri and Saturday - it was defintely cool to patch on designated patch sessions - everyone on their own patch of ice, no music - and moreover no dance patterns, MIF patterns, or multi-revolution jumps careening through the figures layouts!

This picture cracks me up.  You may need to embiggen to see it - but the judges are standing still and in focus, I am a ghostly blur.

The event itself was amazing.  They coned off the ends of the ice for warming up, and one by one, folks were called out to lay out each figure (we each did two - first a one-foot 8, then a FI to BO bracket).  I was the 6th person to skate the one-foot 8, and the second person to skate the bracket.  The test levels of the 8 people had a wide range - I have passed my third test on the standard track (there's the preliminary test, and then tests 1-8), my friend Brenda has passed her 2nd test, someone had passed the Adult Silver test (fairly similar to the 2nd standard track test), three folks had passed or taken (and not quite passed) their 8th test, someone had passed her 5th test, etc.  The main "feeling" during the event was more giddy than nervous - judges and competitors alike were really exited to be competing figures!  There was also a huge audience in the stands - more than I expected.

I laid out really nice figures - the one-foot 8 was a few inches wider on the starting side than the other side, but aside from that, it was really nice.  The other side was lined up, the change of edge was clean, and it was nicely traced.  The bracket I did was *great* - I don't think I have ever skated the figure that well!  The two circles were a little offset from each other - but aside from that, it was really nice - the F brackets were clean and nicely shaped, the back brackets were so well traced I couldn't believe it.  I went around for the third bracket and the first two were *right* on top of each other - the third was about an inch away.  I ended up in 4th place for this figure- the top three folks were all 8th test skaters, and they did just a beautiful job - you can totally tell the extra control and edge quality with those extra years of doing figures and testing under their belts.  Rumor has it the skating club will try to put together a figures-only competition next summer (09 sometime) - they'll pick 15 figures, you sign up for the three you want to compete, and whoever wants to do it can.  FX they do it!

  There was this funky hand-operated ice resurfacing thing they used during the event - it covered over the prior tracings and left the ice clean for the next batch - they did it after a few skates to clean up the ice.  Who knows how long that thing has been sitting in storage.

I skated reasonably well for my freestyle event.  My spins were great - and often those suffer when stiff-kneed and nervous.  My footwork went well - I edited one small piece of it (changing a counter turn into a three-turn), and forgot to look up (I am perenially trying to stabilize myself by looking down - it doesn't work and looks bad to boot LOL).  My jumps were so-so - I two-footed the first axel, I popped the lutz of the luzt/loop/loop combination, and fell on the second axel which is supposed to be a combination jump too.  I edited out the third combination jump and turned it into a solo flip - oops.  (Part of a well-balanced program is having both solo jumps and combination jumps).  I placed at the bottom of the entire group of 15 skaters but really?  I'm fairly happy with the skate.  Goals for the next month are to get the jumps solid and not "eek", and work on presentation points.

The interp event was decent too.  I typically am mortified to skate this event - I purposely picked music that is beyond my introverted comfort zone - I skate to some goofy pots-and-pans rhythm music that I pulled from a Sandra Boynton CD, you can preview it here.  Last year I skated it bedecked in kitchen utentils and paraphenalia - measuring cups at the bottom of my shirt that whirled around when I spun, etc.  This year, I wore a chef's coat and a single pot on my head - plus a few wooden (well, plastic) spoons in my hands.  I managed to be much more playful with it - and ended in a three-way tie for 4th place with my friend Brenda and someone else.  Since I've only ever placed at the bottom or very close to the bottom with this program, I was pleased.

Brenda and I after checking the scores -

There was a little bit of yarn shopping too - I looked up Yarnia. 

You pick different strands of yarn and combine them for a custom blend.  The one on the left was aimed at a denim look - it has some silk blend, cotton, and I think wool in it.  The one on the right I was aiming for a coppery yarn - it's mostly a variety of wool blends with a boucle in there I think.

One month to go (a little less really) before Adult Nationals - wheee!

FOs

I have finished a few things that have yet to be ravelried or blogged - this is a catch-up post.

The official last FO of 2007 was Poppy - laid out to block on New Years Eve:

I LOVE this sweater.  I wear it at least once a week, twice if I can get away with it.  It fits well, I love the colors (ahem, I knitted another sweater with the same colorway, and also painted the house the same colorway LOL), and it's soft.  What's not to like.  I had issues with the second sleeve requiring much ripping and re-starting, but it finally worked out.

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I finished this sometime last Fall:

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Hannah *begged* for it - a nosewarmer from Knitty. 

I made a few mods - I used leftover Fleece Artist sock yarn and thus adjusted the number of stitches, and for the band, I knitted an i-cord, and when it was done I threaded some stretchy elastic through it.

Hannah has worn it a lot this winter - Toby's lobbying for one.  It cracks me up.

Hannah's clay sculptures crack me up too.  She has been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes:

The photo is dark but it's a little gnome figure slicing off the top of a snowman with a chainsaw.  !!!

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I also finished another pair of lobster mitts for Hannah - out of homespun yarn.  I don't have pictures to share as the mittens keep walking out of the house in the morning before I am awake enough to grab the camera.*

This year, I have finished a few things.

These socks:

They're made using a cotton/lycra yarn from Greenwood Fiberworks (though she's not presently showing any for sale).  Grumperina has a  good photo here.  She reviews it here, and lists it as her favorite non-wooly sock yarn here.  While I prefer wool and wool-blend sock yarns, this yarn was not bad for a cotton yarn - the lycra definitely gives it a wooly kind of give.  It's a bit hairy to knit as it shrinks after it's first encounter with water.  I ended up wetting the cuff, measuring the size before and after shrinking (both stitch and row gauge), and sorting out how long to make the foot from that.  It makes a great fabric that hugs your foot and doesn't stretch out like that made with regular cotton yarn.  I have two more skeins of it and will certainly use it again.

I have been working on more things.  These fingerless mitts have given me fits:

The first attempt didn't work b/c I didn't like the stripes clashing with the lacy ribbing of Pomotomous (a sock pattern from knitty, adapted into fingerless mitts; other options here and here).  Notice the thin even striping though - these mitts have also been an exercise in gauge.  I believe I cast on 72 stitches here.

 

This is start #2.  It's Socks that Rock yarn in Monsoon colorway, from the 2007 Sock Club.  I also cast on 72 stitches - in fact, I ripped back to the first row and started there without re-casting on.  I thought I'd try the pattern that came with the socks - and adapt it for fingerless mits.  I liked the cabling and stripes this time - but the pattern makes for a very unforgiving tube of fabric - it was too tight to fit over my forearm muscle.  So it got ripped.  Note the difference in the striping!  The cabling v.s. the ribbing is the only difference - it's the same number of stitches on the same Knitpicks needles.

Try number three is using an X O X O cable pattern.  It is working out well - one mitt is done and the second started.  I'd be well into my second whole PAIR without all the ripping LOL.

I am working on a pair of Pomatomus fingerless mitts too out of other yarn - details in a future blog post.  I have made it past the first pattern repeat and am a little off somehow - to continue the pattern, I'd have to start with a K rather than a P or something (details escape me at the moment).  I'm stuck at figuring out whether to rip and fix it (though I can't figure out where it went off) or just continue merrily along and "read" the knitting rather than making sure the knitting follows the chart.

 

And a gratuitous Hannah and Bassoon shot:

I'm not sure what they're laughing about but they're both having fun being the 5th grade bassoonists.

I leave tomorrow a.m. at the crack of dawn for the Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals - skating here I come!

Neglect

Yes, I have been neglecting the blog.  Suffice it to say, breaking up is hard to do.  It has occupied a lot of my headspace and you know?  While it's not that I haven't had stuff to say, it's hard to say it to an "open" audience.  So I haven't. In a nutshell, we are inching forward, and things will be ok.  There's a level of craziness about it all, though I'm not sure it'd be possible to go through something like this without some craziness.

Knitting.  I am making good progress on a pair of cabled fingerless mitts, though they're slow going as they're a tight knit.  I am a thumb away from the first one being done - so casting on for the second is on the horizon. 

Socks.  Oh. My. Hell.  I have two pairs that have been in progress for a while - a simple picot-edge stockinette pair, and a 3-1 ribbed pair.  I finished the first sock of the stockinette pair - and it is waiting for me to cast-on for the second.  With the ribbed pair, I have finished the first sock, and am maybe an inch from the heel on the second.

When I noticed:  CRAP.  I have gauge issues, *and* I have managed to cast on an extra rib (4 stitches) for the second sock.  It's about an inch bigger in circumference than the first.  While yes, I have contemplated creative solutions (slicing and grafting), and just living with it, it's probably headed to the frog pond. 

It's irritating as it means that three WIPs now need some thinking/work time - casting on etc.

The saving grace is that in less than two weeks I have a cross-country flight to Portland OR for Adult Sectionals - a skating competition.  I switched sections this year to Pacific Coasts rather than Easterns - as Pacific Coasts added a figures event.  Figures!  I am competing figures - a rare event these days.  There are nine people registered for the event - quite a deep field for most adult skating events.  I am *so* excited.  I'll be doing a Freestyle and Interp event too - but it's the figures that I am really excited about.

I have been baking a lot of sourdough bread lately - it's really rather fascinating.  I tried a no-knead method most recently - I resisted it for a while because I didn't think it could possibly work.  It works, fabulously.

Pictures?  Yeah, someday ;)

Wool Pigs

Oh My - they're real.

They have been blogged about and defined, but I doubt anyone realized they existed.

Merry Random Merry

It is very nearly Christmas as I start to write this - which we don't celebrate religiously but do celebrate in the name of Santa - the kids are tucked in - Santa's elves have done their work downstairs - and I am settling in for the night.  I fully expect to be awoken at the crack of dawn tomorrow by two very excited children.  Random blog fodder that I have been meaning to write about includes the following.

The Poppy sweater is kicking my butt.  I have been within spitting distance of finishing it for a while now.  A series of goofy mistakes on the second sleeve have it taking *for-f-ing-ever*.  The latest includes doing the sleevecap shaping on the wrong edge (orientation) of the sleeve, such that that bell-shaping at the sleeve cuff/wrist would have popped up from the wrist, rather than hung down elegantly.  Tonite's short-lived celebration after casting off the second sleeve (thus, some minor sewing up and edging alone were between me and an FO) lasted only a minute or two, and then the ripping party began.  This WILL be an FO before this Winter Break is over.  It might even be one sooner than later in the break, but no promises as no doubt that'll jinx any progress at all.

We took Toby (and Hannah, though it's totally pretend for her) to see Santa on Saturday.  We purposefully went early in the day to avoid the mall crush - three days before Christmas?  Any later than 10 am would have been insane.  As it was, it was *perfect* timing.  We got there and one kiddo was in front of us in line.  We pulled Toby out of his wheelchair and he walked up to Santa with his canes - Santa pulled him up onto his lap and spent the next 20 minutes chatting with Toby.  Toby had all sorts of important questions - like "Why didn't Rudolf play any reindeer games?" and Santa told him all about it.  Toby gets plenty of negative stares and unwanted attention due to his equipment and motor differences - but every now and then strangers get past that and key into his charm.  That Santa did so was great.

Folks' solstice posts have touched me deeply this year - in particular MamaCate's and Mafia's.  I can't match their eloquence or even depth that comes with years of thought and practice.  However, their writing resonates with where I am at this year and where I hope to move - onward, to a more authentic being, where I live my life more honestly in tune with meeting my own needs while giving myself to others and living in the joy of the kids and all that comes with that.

With that, I am signing off to catch some zz's.  Toby has shared a cold with me and probably Terry - it is settling in my head at the moment.  Someone must have done a study with the frequency of academics getting sick over winter break ;)

Catch-up

Where to start.

There has been knitting.  A hat is done, more mittens are in progress, a sweater is Very Nearly Done, I am itching to cast on for any number of new things.  I have lots of ideas about using the Kauni Effekt yarn (with long striping sequences) - that may be its own blog post though.  I went to the Rochester Knitting Guild's monthly meeting tonight - I haven't gone in 4 or 5 years, they have switched spaces and now meet within walking distance of my house (!).  I serendipitously had put on my Lite Brite sweater this morning and it got a slew of compliments from the knitters.  Combined with a huge array of desserts that folks had brought - let's just say there was comfort food in my belly, comfort clothes on my body, and really comfortable people to be around - not a bad evening at all.

Sadly though, we had to say goodbye to my Clyde kitty the day after Thanksgiving.  He has been declining for a while now - losing weight (he used to be 17 or 18 pounds - he was down to 7 lbs on his last day), looking rather scraggly, and just not as perky as usual.  His kidneys were on their last legs, and while he was reasonably happy all along, we woke up Friday morning to a kitty in distress.  We took him in that day, and while they could have tried some IV fluid therapy and that would have probably made him feel a little better, it was a matter of time - and not much time at that.  His kidneys were down to "little nubs" (I believe that's the technical term that the vet used...) - they were just worn out.

Our other three kitties have been doing admirably at reorganizing themselves into a three-cat household.  The day after, Akasha (the three-legged wonder cat) crawled under the covers in exactly the same spot where Clyde usually checked in at night and in the morning.  She has not made a regular habit of it - but it was poignant for her to crawl in there on the first morning without Clyde.  Sweetie Pie kitty is becoming quite the bathroom buddy (as Clyde was), and Henry cat (the big rather brainless cat - while Clyde wasn't as honkin' huge, he was similar in temperament) is holding down the fort on my bed's down comforter.  Clyde is sorely missed - I had him for 15 years, and he was totally "my" cat.  he had the hugest feet with two extra toes on each front foot, and he just adored me.  But the three others are dears - and all fairly young so we won't be doing the old-pet thing for a good long while grin.

Lastly - skating.  I am SO excited.  The competitive season is around the corner - Sectionals are in March, and Adult Nationals in April.  Typically I go to Easterns as that's the section where I reside (there are three - Easterns, Midwesterns, and Pacific Coasts).  And typically the competitions have two "tracks" - the qualifying events - where the top 3 from each Section go on to the Championship round of that event at Nationals, and the non-qualifying events - where anyone can enter as long as they meet the test qualifications for whatever level they are entering. 

So - the exciting part is that Pacific Coasts will have a *figures* event in the non-qualifying part of the competition.  As in compulsory school figures - that's Tenley Albright in the photo on the left sidebar doing a patch loop.  The two figures being competed at my level are the one-foot eight, and a forward inside bracket to a backward outside bracket.  I am *beyond* excited. 

I need to decide whether I am going to submit a "change of home club" form to switch to a Pacific Coast figure skating club, and therefore buy myself the ability to skate in the qualifying round and make a rather unlikely bid for one of the three slots skating in the championship round at Nationals, or not bother and just skate in non-qualifying events.  I'd skate the same program - no worries there.  I have the form ready to go....typically, my rationale is "why not skate the qualifying round, it's there" but I'm not convinced it's worth the frenzy of changing home clubs etc.

I broke out my patch skates over the weekend (they have been sadly ignored since this summer) and - I have missed the patch time. 

The kids - Toby especially - are in their pre-Christmas/holiday frenzy.  This too shall pass ROFL.

Pay It Forward

I'm playing!  I like this idea.  I came across it first on Cece's blog.  I am pirating liberally from her text as I am in a rush...

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.  So, if you are interested in receiving a handmade something from SaraSkates, leave a comment. The first three will receive something...........knitted, sewn, food? Who knows?

I have finished a long-languishing set of FuzzyFeet (knit giant slippers out of two strands of Cascade 220, shrink the heck out of it to felt them into my size).  They have been nearly done for quite some time, and then a trade opportunity came up for the Cascade 220 for some Kauni yarn, and I jumped at the oppotunity to finish a WIP and trade for something I have plans for (details to come).

Wayback Machine Contest

KitKatKnit is having a contest - blog about what you were knitting a year ago, and post the link to her blog in the comments. You have to be old though - I'm pretty sure I qualify ;)  I spent 5 of my growing up years living out of the country so have large cultural knowledge holes when it comes to TV - but technically I was old enough LOL.

A year ago, I was finishing up a gift sweater which involved some steeking to fix a mis-count on where I had put the neckline - changing it from a V-neck to a U-neck with a band.  I was also just starting Poppy, which egads, I am finally getting around to finishing right now.  I have about 2/3 of the second sleeve done - then some minimal sewing and a finish around the collar I believe.  I would be done with the sleeve now except that it took me not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR tries to get the second sleeve to be the right number of stitches (the third time, I got a good 4 inches up before I realized i had cast on at least 10 too few stitches - the sleeve was 2 inches smaller in circumference than sleeve #1).  And, on this try of the sleeve, I knit an extra two inches following the pattern rather than the mods I had done to sleeve #1 - so rip the two inches I did.  I'm one inch back through those....and making steady if not slow progress.

It's totally time to finish Poppy IMO!

He's got the "read your knitting" brain -

Toby noted this morning while I was donning his lobster mitts that "Mama, they don't look like knitting because they don't have all those little dots".  The mitts are made out of garter stitch, not stockinette, so there are bumps all over rather than the smooth knitted stitches.

I keep meaning to blog his forays into learning how to knit.  I sat down with him a while ago and went over the through the window, around the tree, back through the window, and off the ledge! thing with him.  He totally got it.  His fingers aren't all that nimble and he didn't do a lot of stitches - but he did take a break to grab a pencil and piece of paper and write down the "Rules" - those four steps, one by one, with words and pictorial representation.   Totally cracks me up.

Wonder where he got his analytic brain ;)