Tag: web design

Lesson Learned

Note to self: do not turn a sock heel late at night while watching telly and not counting properly. It will only end lopsidedly! Ah well, back I go!

This is, by the way, the third pair of socks for the Sock Knitters’ Pentathlon – the Rattlesnakes. I’m loving the twisty twiney cables, I really am. I’ll do a proper update soon and post a photo.

Part of the reason I’ve been so quiet recently, by the way, is that I’m not sure I’m getting on well with this version of Movable Type. Still, if I don’t use it I can’t get used to it enough to be sure. But the design templating system…hmm… I need to find out more about it. Because right now I’m getting more and more tempted to change the whole site to run off of WordPress (not just the blog). I think I can do that with MT as well, but I already know how WP works, so. I spose it all bears more looking into, and 1am isn’t the time to do it! I’m off to sleep on it again.

Testing Blog It crossposting…

So, after much faffing around, lets see if this really works. Can I post to both my blog and LJ (and Twitter, and the FB feed or status, not sure which yet)? And if so, hi LJ! I’m back!! Well, I’ll try to be at any rate. Obviously right now I’m over here on Facebook, and if you want to add me on that you need to know my real name.

Anyhow, I’m off to do some coding for a site that doesn’t explode my head before I go knitting this evening. So, not my personal site then. Which I really have to sort out, but zomg, trying to integrate the blog and the photo album and the links and all their various templating methods…. why did I think that setting the site up like that was ever a good plan? (Because I didn’t do it all at once, then?) Yet I’m reluctant to abandon MT & Coppermine & Linkster and the hand-coded pages for a single CMS that I’d have to import all that data into because eep, what if I lose something on the way? Oh, it’s all too much like hard work for me. I give up!

Fixed it!

Mostly ;-) But the point is, bloggy service is restored, and the comments should be working again as well. I’m not sure where the Typekey authentication part has gone to, but I’m going to look into that tomorrow. This whole site really needs stripping back to the bare code, so I shall get on to that tomorrow, I expect.
Now, I’m off to bed!

Zooooom

  1. I’ve had THE most awesome final / “reveal” package from my SP11 pal, Janey. THANK YOU JANEY! :-D I shall write more and post pics later. And email Janey to gush a lot. Yes.
  2. Due to Circumstances Beyond My Control, I haven’t been able to send out my own final SP11 parcel to Katie yet. Argh. Actually, it looks like I won’t be able to get hold of one thing I was looking for anyway, so I guess I’ll have to give up and get it sent asap. Although asap might have to be next week, the way things are looking. I reiterate: argh! Sorry, Katie :-/
  3. It’s a year today that I was in that car accident (my car was hit). Therefore, a year since I last drove, since after that (a) my poor car was squished, and (b) I was put on meds that mean I’m medically disqualified from having a licence. Which in turn means I’ve got a free bus pass, so it’s not all bad.
  4. I was kind of under the weather again last week. Mainly, I’m annoyed. I have things to do! Therefore, I’m now running around like a… crazy running around thing. Pick your metaphor. Off to the shops soon. Hey, fresh air! That’ll be novel.
  5. Site revamp still not done. Well, it is. I just haven’t applied it to the actual site and uploaded it yet. Yeah, not done.
  6. What with the not-well thing, I haven’t got as much knitting done as I’d like, either. I do at least have one FO, but everything else that’s Christmas knitting? Um, not yet. Must knit faster.
  7. I have sorted out pretty much everything (I think!) that I’m going to destash, however. Looong post all about that coming v soon.
  8. Xandermog is poking me in the leg with his sharp pointy toes. Owwwww.
  9. Aaaaaaaaaand the child upstairs seems to be banging something echo-y and metal on the floor. Oh, someone please make it stop!
  10. I might just be having a bit of a manic Monday (haha, oh dear). Shall have to watch myself, and try to do some relaxing stuff once I’ve got the must-do things out of the way. Note to self: breathe.

Destashing? HAH!

Today, I’ve been looking through my stash on Ravelry and trying to decide what I don’t want / need. As well as a few odd things, I had every intention of thinning out some of my Posh Yarn and Yarn Yard stash. Uh huh, right. What has actually happened is that I’ve fallen madly back in love with every single skein and colourway. It’s all mine and you can’t have it. So there!

I’m also restraining myself right now from running and digging out a skein or two to wind into cakes so that I can cast them on. Oh, they’re so pretty! I want to knit with all of them, this instant! But I don’t have time. Christmas knitting first! And oh dear, only just over a month to go for that. I’ve got to get a crack on.

Actually, there are a few skeins that I can bring myself to, ah, re-home. If anyone wants to buy them from me, that is. I really do have more sock yarn than I can reasonably knit in the next, oh, couple of years. And more than once I’ve bought yarn because it’s so pretty… without taking into account that I already have some that’s very very similar. I’ll think about it overnight and see which ones I settle on.

Before I go to bed, though, I’m going to do a bit more work on the redesign of this site. With a bit of luck I should have it up sometime this week. The design itself is pretty much done, actually…. it’s just plugging it in to the various parts of the site. I’m intending to convert everything to php, so I have to work out the most efficient way of doing the templates. I’m not sure if I’m going to change the blog to php, though. It’d mess up any direct links. Unless…. Hmm, I’ll sleep on that as well. I’m tired anyway. Maybe I will just go to bed now. G’night.

I went to the animal fair

So, once again I’ve been mainly too busy to knit, as I’ve had my friend staying (we had a brilliant time), and then my aunt sadly died (she had cancer), so there was her funeral in Blackpool to go to – one of those bitter-sweet things where it’s not an occasion you want to be happening, but it is nice to be with the extended family. *sigh*
Once I was back from that, I was working on Purdyshop.com, which is an online store for handmade designer glass jewellery, belonging to one of my best friends. We got that finished and open on Friday – hoorah! There will probably be a few small tweaks needed, but all in all I’m pleased with it.
So, that means I have time to do other stuff again. Like knitting! In fact, as soon as I’ve finished writing this entry I shall be parking myself on the sofa with an mp3 player full of knitting podcasts, BP, and the Monkey socks. Yay!
BP needs a sleeve sewn on, then I have to pick up again and knit the edging. So, nearly done! At long last!! As for the Monkey socks, I’ve just finished the first one, so I’ll be casting on No. 2 once BP is finished. I really enjoyed the first one – I made a couple of slip ups due to not paying attention, but nothing disastrous. I’ll post pics of the process soon. I was going to do that tonight, but I’m impatient to get back to the actual knitting, so they’ll have to wait. Oh, except I already do have a photo of the first sock uploaded to the photo album when it was only a few rows ‘old’. I’ll put that in here then – here you go:

Continue reading “I went to the animal fair”

Anti-spam upgrades

I’ve been having loads of problems with comment spam, so I’ve been upgrading to the latest few versions as they come out, and I’ve also installed the MT-Blacklist and NoFollow plugins. I’ve set the blog to mostly dynamic publishing, too, which should (a) reduce the load on the server, and (b) solve the rebuilding problems I’d been having. Hoorah!
Back in the ‘real world’, I’ve just started one of my OU courses for this year, and will be starting the other at the weekend. No, I’m not completely insane (only partially) for doing more than one course at once: the music course is a 30-pointer*, and the web design course is a 12-week 10-pointer, which will be followed by two more of the same starting in May then October. Which will give me the standard 60 points for the year, all going well :-) They all count towards my degree as well as the web courses being part of the Web Apps Development Cert.
It’s also occurred to me… I didn’t actually mention on here that I’ve moved, did I? Which is a bit remiss of me, since it was a fairly big move: in September of last year I came back down here to Hastings, the old home town. And it’s very nice to be back, too. :-)
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I should be posting much more often from now on, though, now I’ve got the study-journal thing set up, and this year’s courses have started again.
* 120 points is the equivalent of one year’s full time university study.