I have an update on the yarn I'll use for the 2018 Advent Scarf project, but that'll wait for another blog post. This time, I'm here to share a couple of progress photos of a couple of WIPs (and to complain a little about something).
First, there's the "Sitka Spruce" hat. As expected, it looked a little shallow/short for a beret, so I've followed the example of many other knitters before me and added in an extra half of a repeat (so it has 1.5 repeats, total). I'm just a few rounds short of finishing that, then it'll be time for the decrease, and hats usually fly off the needles, at that point.
Hats don't usually take this long, but I've taken my time on this one. I'm not a speedy knitter at the best of times, and these twisted stitches have slowed me even further-- plus I've been working on another project or two, so there have been some long breaks.
Incidentally, I noticed when skimming my project notes for the 2015 Advent Scarf that that pattern included some twisted stitches, so I guess this wasn't my first time trying them. I'm not sure how I feel about them, yet... I don't love knitting the left-leaning type, but I guess they might be worth the effort. Maybe I'll reserve my final judgment until after the hat is done.
Here's my latest progress photo:
I like the way it's turning out, despite some wonky stitches. (Tension issues!) I'm not even sure who the hat's for... I really have enough hats for myself, and I'm not sure it'll fit me well. On the other hand, maybe there's no-one else who'd want it/need it, either... I'll just wait and see what the hat says when it's finished. ;o)
(...Oops! I see a mistake in the photo that I hadn't noticed before! One stitch is leaning to the right when it should lean to the left. I guess it's possible to drop some stitches and fix it, but since it's a column of twisted stitches that build diagonally, I'm not sure how wide a patch I'd have to drop to fix it. It might not be worth the effort... And now that I look at the side not in the photo, I see another mistake there, too. Darn it! This evening is just one irritation after another, so far.)
The second WIP is the "Ahmanet" doily. As a WIP, it hasn't been blocked yet, of course, so it's not looking its best... But you can see some progress, at least!
Those rounds are getting loooong already, and I still have seventeen more to go!
I'm very happy with it, so far. Wouldn't want to make one this big every time, but I think it'll be impressive when it's finally finished and blocked.
The promised (threatened?) gripe is about Flickr, the photo-sharing website. It has announced that (in the very near future) if you don't pay a $50-per-year membership fee, they will only host up to 1,000 of your photos-- size doesn't matter, just the number of individual photos. Either you can cull photos yourself before the deadline or they'll delete all but your 1,000 most recent photos.
Personally, I simply don't believe the site is worth $50 a year, for what I get from it. These days, I don't use it as anything but a photo storage site. Plus there's the principle of the thing... This is the site that, not so long ago, was advertising a free terabyte of photo storage per user.
Sure, the company has changed hands since then, and they're perfectly within their rights to change the deal, but as someone who's used the site for so long (over a decade) and was a paying member for much of that time (until the free terabyte made it unnecessary), it's frustrating that they've decided to reduce the number of "free" photos so drastically (and increase the membership fee at the same time).
I can't help but think it's the beginning of the end for Flickr. Based on reactions I've seen, even many of those for whom the fee itself is insignificant, there's a certain feeling of broken trust and a lack of faith in the company, going forward. People are saying their photos are being held ransom, and though that may sound like a silly exaggeration, there is an element of truth in it-- especially for bloggers.
You see, for all these years, I've embedded my Flickr-hosted photos into blog posts-- not just here on this blog, but on my (extremely photo-heavy) garden blog, on my old polymer clay blog, and on one or two other blogs I've written through the years. Though I can of course migrate my photos from Flickr to another hosting site, all those embedded photos will now have broken links. Instead of a pretty photo of a doily, this blog could soon display an ugly blank spot (or worse).
All my blogs-- even the currently active ones-- will be riddled with broken links and blank spots where the photos used to be. The thought of going back and manually changing all of those links is... well, laughable. It would take forever, and it's just not going to happen.
I blame myself, partly. I probably shouldn't have relied so heavily on Flickr and embedded photos in blog posts, but I did, and now I'm left with the prospect of paying the ransom every year (and just hoping they don't raise the price even further-- or someday "go poof" altogether) or bidding a fond farewell to all that old content. Some of my blog posts will still make sense without the photos, but they'll look awful-- abandoned and depressing. I think that if I can't find a (non-Flickr) solution whereby I can keep the photos in place, I might just leave my old blogs and start with fresh ones...
Maybe I can at least manage my photo cull so that the majority of photos for this blog remain. My garden blog is probably a goner, though. It's not likely to matter to anyone but me, probably, but I did enjoy going back and seeing how the garden has changed over the past few years... Yes, I feel a little sorry for myself that it's about to be ruined!
I'd have understood if Flickr had said, "You can keep what you have, but no more free uploads beyond the 1,000-photo limit." Grandfathered us in, as it were. I would've been disappointed to have to find a new solution for photo hosting, but it wouldn't have made me hate the company (like I now do, to tell the truth). My old blog content would've been safe, at least.
----But to go from "A free terabyte for everyone! Woo-hoo! Par-tay!" to "1,000 photos only! Oh, you're currently using just 0.4% of your previously promised free terabyte? Well, too bad, sucker! NO MORE PHOTOS FOR YOU! ...Oh, and we're deleting most of your old photos, too. Nyah!"-- all served up with a heaping side of "Ooh, we love our precious community spirit so much! You guys are, like, super important to us!!"...No. I'm done with you, Flickr. It's over.
...So.
That's that, really.
On one positive note, I've read that Ravelry's "code monkey" (and owner), Casey, has begun the process of migrating projects/patterns/stash/yarn photos over from Flickr to Ravelry, where they'll be hosted safely (for as long as the site's around, probably).
So if you've made a habit of uploading project/stash photos to Flickr and then just linking to them in Ravelry, they should still work, even if Flickr eventually deletes the photo. However, he did ask (in this forum thread) that Ravelry users not delete their Flickr photos, to make sure there's been enough time to save all those photos on Ravelry. (I'm not sure how you'll know when your photos have been migrated. I assume they'll no longer show the Flickr logo underneath.)
That really is helpful; at least we won't have to find and re-upload all those photos! (Whew.)
Well, enough griping about Flickr (for now). Time to find the silver lining. Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, it's hardly a blip on the radar.
I have a more enjoyable blog post to write, next time.
First, there's the "Sitka Spruce" hat. As expected, it looked a little shallow/short for a beret, so I've followed the example of many other knitters before me and added in an extra half of a repeat (so it has 1.5 repeats, total). I'm just a few rounds short of finishing that, then it'll be time for the decrease, and hats usually fly off the needles, at that point.
Hats don't usually take this long, but I've taken my time on this one. I'm not a speedy knitter at the best of times, and these twisted stitches have slowed me even further-- plus I've been working on another project or two, so there have been some long breaks.
Incidentally, I noticed when skimming my project notes for the 2015 Advent Scarf that that pattern included some twisted stitches, so I guess this wasn't my first time trying them. I'm not sure how I feel about them, yet... I don't love knitting the left-leaning type, but I guess they might be worth the effort. Maybe I'll reserve my final judgment until after the hat is done.
Here's my latest progress photo:
I like the way it's turning out, despite some wonky stitches. (Tension issues!) I'm not even sure who the hat's for... I really have enough hats for myself, and I'm not sure it'll fit me well. On the other hand, maybe there's no-one else who'd want it/need it, either... I'll just wait and see what the hat says when it's finished. ;o)
(...Oops! I see a mistake in the photo that I hadn't noticed before! One stitch is leaning to the right when it should lean to the left. I guess it's possible to drop some stitches and fix it, but since it's a column of twisted stitches that build diagonally, I'm not sure how wide a patch I'd have to drop to fix it. It might not be worth the effort... And now that I look at the side not in the photo, I see another mistake there, too. Darn it! This evening is just one irritation after another, so far.)
- - - - - - -
Those rounds are getting loooong already, and I still have seventeen more to go!
I'm very happy with it, so far. Wouldn't want to make one this big every time, but I think it'll be impressive when it's finally finished and blocked.
- - - - - - -
The promised (threatened?) gripe is about Flickr, the photo-sharing website. It has announced that (in the very near future) if you don't pay a $50-per-year membership fee, they will only host up to 1,000 of your photos-- size doesn't matter, just the number of individual photos. Either you can cull photos yourself before the deadline or they'll delete all but your 1,000 most recent photos.
Personally, I simply don't believe the site is worth $50 a year, for what I get from it. These days, I don't use it as anything but a photo storage site. Plus there's the principle of the thing... This is the site that, not so long ago, was advertising a free terabyte of photo storage per user.
Sure, the company has changed hands since then, and they're perfectly within their rights to change the deal, but as someone who's used the site for so long (over a decade) and was a paying member for much of that time (until the free terabyte made it unnecessary), it's frustrating that they've decided to reduce the number of "free" photos so drastically (and increase the membership fee at the same time).
I can't help but think it's the beginning of the end for Flickr. Based on reactions I've seen, even many of those for whom the fee itself is insignificant, there's a certain feeling of broken trust and a lack of faith in the company, going forward. People are saying their photos are being held ransom, and though that may sound like a silly exaggeration, there is an element of truth in it-- especially for bloggers.
You see, for all these years, I've embedded my Flickr-hosted photos into blog posts-- not just here on this blog, but on my (extremely photo-heavy) garden blog, on my old polymer clay blog, and on one or two other blogs I've written through the years. Though I can of course migrate my photos from Flickr to another hosting site, all those embedded photos will now have broken links. Instead of a pretty photo of a doily, this blog could soon display an ugly blank spot (or worse).
All my blogs-- even the currently active ones-- will be riddled with broken links and blank spots where the photos used to be. The thought of going back and manually changing all of those links is... well, laughable. It would take forever, and it's just not going to happen.
I blame myself, partly. I probably shouldn't have relied so heavily on Flickr and embedded photos in blog posts, but I did, and now I'm left with the prospect of paying the ransom every year (and just hoping they don't raise the price even further-- or someday "go poof" altogether) or bidding a fond farewell to all that old content. Some of my blog posts will still make sense without the photos, but they'll look awful-- abandoned and depressing. I think that if I can't find a (non-Flickr) solution whereby I can keep the photos in place, I might just leave my old blogs and start with fresh ones...
Maybe I can at least manage my photo cull so that the majority of photos for this blog remain. My garden blog is probably a goner, though. It's not likely to matter to anyone but me, probably, but I did enjoy going back and seeing how the garden has changed over the past few years... Yes, I feel a little sorry for myself that it's about to be ruined!
I'd have understood if Flickr had said, "You can keep what you have, but no more free uploads beyond the 1,000-photo limit." Grandfathered us in, as it were. I would've been disappointed to have to find a new solution for photo hosting, but it wouldn't have made me hate the company (like I now do, to tell the truth). My old blog content would've been safe, at least.
----But to go from "A free terabyte for everyone! Woo-hoo! Par-tay!" to "1,000 photos only! Oh, you're currently using just 0.4% of your previously promised free terabyte? Well, too bad, sucker! NO MORE PHOTOS FOR YOU! ...Oh, and we're deleting most of your old photos, too. Nyah!"-- all served up with a heaping side of "Ooh, we love our precious community spirit so much! You guys are, like, super important to us!!"...No. I'm done with you, Flickr. It's over.
...So.
That's that, really.
On one positive note, I've read that Ravelry's "code monkey" (and owner), Casey, has begun the process of migrating projects/patterns/stash/yarn photos over from Flickr to Ravelry, where they'll be hosted safely (for as long as the site's around, probably).
So if you've made a habit of uploading project/stash photos to Flickr and then just linking to them in Ravelry, they should still work, even if Flickr eventually deletes the photo. However, he did ask (in this forum thread) that Ravelry users not delete their Flickr photos, to make sure there's been enough time to save all those photos on Ravelry. (I'm not sure how you'll know when your photos have been migrated. I assume they'll no longer show the Flickr logo underneath.)
That really is helpful; at least we won't have to find and re-upload all those photos! (Whew.)
- - - - - - -
I have a more enjoyable blog post to write, next time.