Northern flicker

Isn't this a beautiful bird? I just wish I was one of those very talented photographers who could get him with wings spread showing the brilliant orange underneath.
But this will have to do.

Home

There are rain drops dashed on the window and a happy dripping sound coming from outside. Ah, the sights and sounds of Vancouver.

I'm happy the rain has come home again. Now for a walk.

Elizabethan revel?

I was playing with the idea of tucks the other day and wondered how they'd look incorporated into socks. Here's the result.

When you love words, there's a lot of fun in trying to choose an appropriate title for things. I like to name all my creations and that can take as long as it actually making the item. I mull over ideas, narrow the field and then go back an pick up discarded ideas. So, as I'm knitting the socks, I wait for the character to emerge.

At first, I thought the word 'chocolate' would be in there somewhere. The brown is more like the photo on the left. Kind of an obvious thought, though, and I like a little more complexity. And, the chocolate idea could be reinforced by the mint 'icing' and the varicolored yarn is the 'sprinkles' on the cupcake. Nah! That was way too long and involved. Talk about complex.

The tucks have a picot edge which gives them a frilliness and suggest a Caribbean party. Hmmm...then the brown could be rum and Coke - a Cuba Libre! As I worked on, that became one of the lower choices. I started thinking the tucks looked like the stand-up armor of a stegosauraus. And then again they reminded me of Elizabethan ruffs. Which idea, as you can see from the blog title, won the day.

My favorite reject is : I found my frill" . Now you know just how silly words can make you. No, no, it's not the knitting. That's completely serious. And I'm contemplating further tucking - it's great fun. I'm envisioning a side-to-side knit sweater with tucks of a contrasting color down the fronts. Or a dino sweater for Charlie with tucks on the sleeves. Could work.

Easy life

I thought computers were supposed to make life easy!

I decided I wanted to make a slide show Powerpoint presentation for our next annual meeting. It's been a few years since I even bothered with Powerpoint - mainly because I didn't have it. And I really didn't miss it all that much.
When I got a new computer I thought it might come in handy and was glad it came stock. Now, here I am doing my slide show and relearning everything. I had a couple of hundred photos which first had to be sorted and culled for the best effect. Then it took ages to figure out a couple of stupid things I was doing wrong. It's almost done now - just have to do the titles and I'm finished.

But what I thought was going to be a couple of hours work has turned into a few more than that. I know the problem is that the computer is only as good as the operator. I need more practice.

Bring on your slide shows...I can do it now!