... But organising digital photos across platforms takes patience and determination to a whole different level.
Still searching for how to get the old disappeared photos to upload, or how to restore them from my digital stash.
But synchronicity is at work. I had hi-speed broadband installed on Thursday. And The supposedly seamless transfer wasn't. Cue very assertive conversations with customer service. No I will not take a screw driver to the box on the wall .. the phone line was working fine until the switch. If it's a fault on the phone line it's due to the switch over. No I will not wait till Monday for a line engineer as a this has been caused by the switch over so standard terms and conditions don't apply. Etc etc. I wondered why I had bothered .. it wasn't broken before, so why hadn't I left well alone. The engineer arrived Friday morning first thing, yes it was a fault with exchange wiring. All fixed, but I still wondered why I had bothered.
The answer came today. 7432 photos uploaded to google photos in under an hour. Last I've I tried to back them up to the cloud I took about 3 days.
However, that still doesn't solve the problem. There are some pesky little settings somewhere to reset I'm sure. Or is it because I am trying to do it from the iPad?
The only screwdriver I will contemplate will come in a glass, well chilled.
Saturday, 22 October 2016
What goes around comes around
Funny that my last post was about the zombie blog. Oops.
Yes, time to put this blog into therapy, and give it some nourishing attention and care.
Why now? Partly because of my new found outlet for creativity via weaving and knitting. And I have been idly wondering how to keep better notes of my creations. And mainly because I went to a talk yesterday on tatting (no, not an obsession I will ever be tempted to take up) where the speaker re-inspired me to get this journal out of the 'in need of resuscitation corridor'. Why start from scratch when the foundations are already here?
Managing to find the blog was the first step. But the disappeared photos? What's happening there? Oh dear. I've been sorting out my woolly hoardings, works in progress etc over the last few weeks. Is this a call to action for digital decluttering?
Let's displace by making another cup of coffee and doing a few more inches of my woven scarf project.
Yes, time to put this blog into therapy, and give it some nourishing attention and care.
Why now? Partly because of my new found outlet for creativity via weaving and knitting. And I have been idly wondering how to keep better notes of my creations. And mainly because I went to a talk yesterday on tatting (no, not an obsession I will ever be tempted to take up) where the speaker re-inspired me to get this journal out of the 'in need of resuscitation corridor'. Why start from scratch when the foundations are already here?
Managing to find the blog was the first step. But the disappeared photos? What's happening there? Oh dear. I've been sorting out my woolly hoardings, works in progress etc over the last few weeks. Is this a call to action for digital decluttering?
Let's displace by making another cup of coffee and doing a few more inches of my woven scarf project.
Saturday, 26 September 2015
Oh dear ... Breathing life into a zombie blog
I've been knitting ... I just haven't been writing about my knittery. A lot to catch up with.
So the dilemma is how to play catch up. Working from my photo archives might be a good way if I can crack the technology steps. Perhaps I'll knit a few rows first.
So the dilemma is how to play catch up. Working from my photo archives might be a good way if I can crack the technology steps. Perhaps I'll knit a few rows first.
Monday, 2 January 2012
This beanie jumped the queue
Well, it's no use giving Dom his requested beanie in May, is it? Hope it stays on his head while cycling through the rest of the winter months.
Stephen West Piece Out. Yarn Rowan Cashsoft baby dk. 4mm/4.5mm circular needles.
First completed project of 2012.
Stephen West Piece Out. Yarn Rowan Cashsoft baby dk. 4mm/4.5mm circular needles.
First completed project of 2012.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
2011: A review of a year of knitting and stitching
As I return to this blog, I realise that over the last 6 months I have cured myself of the habit of being constantly connected to the cyberworld by technology - you can't blog or tweet or surf and knit at the same time.
But of course a consequence is that this blog has lain dormant.
So in the age-old tradition of New Year's Eve, I decided that a it's a good time to review the knitting projects of the year - while I have a chance of remembering what I've been doing. It would have been easier if I'd used this blog to keep a running record - but let's see how we go.
Let's try the chronological approach to start - and add photos and comments later.
Christmas 2010
Back-tracking a bit to the autumn of 2010, this was probably the start of the new phase of knitting. My good friend A had had a horrific accident, and broken her femur badly. I went to buy her a knitting project to keep her from climbing the walls during the recovery - legwarmers seemed appropriate. 3 hours of browsing and indecision later, I came away with Noro yarn and pattern. But I couldn't resist - and knitted them up myself to send her the finished result. A good decision as it turned out, as she wouldn't have had the energies to knit herself at that time.
I then started on a waistcoat for myself, before getting sidetracked into all sorts of other projects. (The said waistcoat still languishes unfinished - and is destined to be ripped apart to re-use the yarn in projects more suited to what I now want to knit.)
I think I then finished off an angora ruffle scarf (mohair de France - bought from the market in Nyons from French angora goats) that had been on the needles for years - and gave it to E. I had a captive audience for my creations!
And I started to spend time looking at pattern books etc in John Lewis - tuning in to the new world of interesting versus funtional knitting - and not a ball of courtelle or acrylic in sight!
I bought a Rowan Studio knitting book - and my daughter E earmarked 2 pretty tops - so we chose colours and bought the wool (rowan haze).
Christmas 2010: I used more of the angora wool to knit a scarf for my mother. I had intended to finish the pink bolero for E for Christmas, and got sidetracked into knitting another angora scarf and beret for Lizzie (using up the french mohair). (Those 6 balls of assorted pinks, purple and violet went a long way). Of course, E wanted a beret as well! And I finished the pink bolero in time for her to wear it to her graduation in January.
Wrapping the aforesaid bolero and beret to send it reminded me of receiving the Christmas box from my grandmother in the post. It was full of her various knitting projects for the year - lots of bedsocks as I recall! - and they all carried her scent of lavender water. So wrap up your finished articles in tissue paper and tie with spare yarn from the project. Spraying the tissue paper with your favourite scent makes the unwrapping of the gift a fully sensory experience for the recipient.
But of course a consequence is that this blog has lain dormant.
So in the age-old tradition of New Year's Eve, I decided that a it's a good time to review the knitting projects of the year - while I have a chance of remembering what I've been doing. It would have been easier if I'd used this blog to keep a running record - but let's see how we go.
Let's try the chronological approach to start - and add photos and comments later.
Christmas 2010
Back-tracking a bit to the autumn of 2010, this was probably the start of the new phase of knitting. My good friend A had had a horrific accident, and broken her femur badly. I went to buy her a knitting project to keep her from climbing the walls during the recovery - legwarmers seemed appropriate. 3 hours of browsing and indecision later, I came away with Noro yarn and pattern. But I couldn't resist - and knitted them up myself to send her the finished result. A good decision as it turned out, as she wouldn't have had the energies to knit herself at that time.
I then started on a waistcoat for myself, before getting sidetracked into all sorts of other projects. (The said waistcoat still languishes unfinished - and is destined to be ripped apart to re-use the yarn in projects more suited to what I now want to knit.)
I think I then finished off an angora ruffle scarf (mohair de France - bought from the market in Nyons from French angora goats) that had been on the needles for years - and gave it to E. I had a captive audience for my creations!
And I started to spend time looking at pattern books etc in John Lewis - tuning in to the new world of interesting versus funtional knitting - and not a ball of courtelle or acrylic in sight!
I bought a Rowan Studio knitting book - and my daughter E earmarked 2 pretty tops - so we chose colours and bought the wool (rowan haze).
Christmas 2010: I used more of the angora wool to knit a scarf for my mother. I had intended to finish the pink bolero for E for Christmas, and got sidetracked into knitting another angora scarf and beret for Lizzie (using up the french mohair). (Those 6 balls of assorted pinks, purple and violet went a long way). Of course, E wanted a beret as well! And I finished the pink bolero in time for her to wear it to her graduation in January.
Wrapping the aforesaid bolero and beret to send it reminded me of receiving the Christmas box from my grandmother in the post. It was full of her various knitting projects for the year - lots of bedsocks as I recall! - and they all carried her scent of lavender water. So wrap up your finished articles in tissue paper and tie with spare yarn from the project. Spraying the tissue paper with your favourite scent makes the unwrapping of the gift a fully sensory experience for the recipient.
Our legacy is others' inheritance
The friend of my daughter got married recently. Within hours facebook was full of pictures of the event ... I had no idea who was who, yet of course the picture were of the families and friends of the person posting the pictures. I am sure all the pictures will have lots of meaning for those who were involved - and it;s got me thinking, as I return to practically creating tangible 'things' (as opposed to just trying to keep my head above the waves in the cyber-pond of frenetic info-consummation that often masquarades as communication).
We are so overloaded with the digital image, taken in the here and now, and posted for all to consume. It's often infobesity. Our ipods are full of music - but which are the tracks that move us? - those that help us remember a good time, or a difficult time.
I do worry about what we might be losing because of the age of easy consumption that we are in. Perhaps the recent return to 'austerity' helps redresss the balance between consumerism and short-termism, towards a greater sense of legacy and responsibility.
As a gardener, I'm creating a micro-environment that I hope will outlive me and will be a net addition to the universe (though I must say, it's much easier when I try to work with nature, rather than against her. So the potatoes in Provence just cannot compete with drought this year. We'll eat tomatoes instead).
And as I knit and stitch, the process of creation creates a physical, not digital end product. It's not instant gratification - click and upload - and that's the joy of it. And as a physical entity that is given to someone else, or worn by me, the artefact is enriched with another patina of meaning
We are so overloaded with the digital image, taken in the here and now, and posted for all to consume. It's often infobesity. Our ipods are full of music - but which are the tracks that move us? - those that help us remember a good time, or a difficult time.
I do worry about what we might be losing because of the age of easy consumption that we are in. Perhaps the recent return to 'austerity' helps redresss the balance between consumerism and short-termism, towards a greater sense of legacy and responsibility.
As a gardener, I'm creating a micro-environment that I hope will outlive me and will be a net addition to the universe (though I must say, it's much easier when I try to work with nature, rather than against her. So the potatoes in Provence just cannot compete with drought this year. We'll eat tomatoes instead).
And as I knit and stitch, the process of creation creates a physical, not digital end product. It's not instant gratification - click and upload - and that's the joy of it. And as a physical entity that is given to someone else, or worn by me, the artefact is enriched with another patina of meaning
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
The sociability of stitching
Our communities and social networks have been changing ever since the era of the hunters and gatherers and before.
Knitting, quilting and sewing circles, usually in geographically and / or culturally local areas have been with us, in many forms, for just as long.
Now we often live geographically distanced from our communities of shared interest, families, friends. Yet as we have become more disjoined from our physical support communities, so unimagined advances in technology and the growth of cyber-social-networking enables us both to stay connected with our geographically and time-poor friends and family, and to connect with new global communities of interest.
I am quite amused to see how the patterns of social beings are being reinvented and transformed today.
So it is that the roots of communal knitting circles are now marked by an annual worldwide knit in public day. I joined in on Saturday 11th in London - which I heard about through the Internet.
And I connected with a collective of people with a shared interest. And with at least 2 individuals that I would never otherwise have crossed paths with in the sprawling mass of millions of people who inhabit or pass through London.
Twitter and facebook have their uses. But they cannot create those moments of syncronicity which are instrumental in weaving our connections through the happenchance of the meeting of interests, minds and physical presence from which something might grow.
And just because there was a dedicated day for world wide knit in public - this does not mean that for the rest of the year I have to knit and stitch only in private, or symbolically in my work.
In fact, only the other evening I bravely got out my knitting in public. Eventually a bloke on the next table said "I can't believe you're knitting in a pub in Mayfair!" And so connections were made, conversations and banter were enjoyed.
And last Friday A and V (the two women I had met at the WWKIP day) braved the rain to visit the wilds of South London, and we spent an evening swopping yarns (ie our life stories) at Rebato's, my local Spanish tapas bar.
Our meeting was a prime example of syncronicity at large in the world. And talking of worlds - next Saturday's outing is to the Stitched Science exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Knitters from all over the world have contributed stitched and knitted elements ranging from DNA to a fully knitted solar system. It'll be different, that's for sure.
Knitting, quilting and sewing circles, usually in geographically and / or culturally local areas have been with us, in many forms, for just as long.
Now we often live geographically distanced from our communities of shared interest, families, friends. Yet as we have become more disjoined from our physical support communities, so unimagined advances in technology and the growth of cyber-social-networking enables us both to stay connected with our geographically and time-poor friends and family, and to connect with new global communities of interest.
I am quite amused to see how the patterns of social beings are being reinvented and transformed today.
So it is that the roots of communal knitting circles are now marked by an annual worldwide knit in public day. I joined in on Saturday 11th in London - which I heard about through the Internet.
And I connected with a collective of people with a shared interest. And with at least 2 individuals that I would never otherwise have crossed paths with in the sprawling mass of millions of people who inhabit or pass through London.
Twitter and facebook have their uses. But they cannot create those moments of syncronicity which are instrumental in weaving our connections through the happenchance of the meeting of interests, minds and physical presence from which something might grow.
And just because there was a dedicated day for world wide knit in public - this does not mean that for the rest of the year I have to knit and stitch only in private, or symbolically in my work.
In fact, only the other evening I bravely got out my knitting in public. Eventually a bloke on the next table said "I can't believe you're knitting in a pub in Mayfair!" And so connections were made, conversations and banter were enjoyed.
And last Friday A and V (the two women I had met at the WWKIP day) braved the rain to visit the wilds of South London, and we spent an evening swopping yarns (ie our life stories) at Rebato's, my local Spanish tapas bar.
Our meeting was a prime example of syncronicity at large in the world. And talking of worlds - next Saturday's outing is to the Stitched Science exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Knitters from all over the world have contributed stitched and knitted elements ranging from DNA to a fully knitted solar system. It'll be different, that's for sure.
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