Happy Blogiversary to ME!

I Can Haz CAKE!

In honor of my 7 YEARS of blogging, I give you the NEW Velma's World: now with pages!

Yep, I started blogging with Blogger way back in March 2003, & despite some hiccups along the way, I've stayed with the blogging date what brung me. My first 'real' post (after "First test post by the dorky blog owner.") was the following, on March the first:

"Lo and behold, the technology works. Typing in my newly-minted fingerless gloves, knit in acid-green Cascade Pastaza 'Lime' and pink-multi Cascade Quatro 'Peachy', my first project involving an increase. Whee! Keeps my digits toasty in the damp No. Cali pseudo-winter."

As you can see, I started right in with the knitting & the infatuation with exclamatory statements. And not even one comment shows up that first month, although I can't remember if Blogger supported commenting that far back; I seem to recall a 3-rd party, buggy app in my sidebar for the first year or two, where comments could be left; lost to the internet sands of time, now. (But that first-blogged project, the fingerless gloves, are not, thanks to Ravelry: I give you, Fibonacci Gloves.)

So, to celebrate my blogiversary I jumped in to Blogger in Draft's new Template Designer mode, scrapping hours, nay weeks, of labor spent tweaking the code of my old, much-modified template. Today I re-vamped ye old bloggety blog, & I DIG! In anticipation of the readers who will ask, here's the Blogger video touting all the hot new things you can accomplish with it.

Of course the best new feature is the ability, possessed by Wordpress folks for awhile now, to create pages. Whee! Check out the new tabs I added at the top of the page for what I'm talking about. Some are only 'Coming Soon!' placeholders (I mean, a girl can only do so much in one day!), but it's looking pretty good, if I must say so myself.

In addition to the new pages, and the obvious design changes (I think it looks much cleaner, don't you?), I've added some other new features:

• Fiber Photo Tutorials: in the left sidebar, designated the CBC side, you'll find a section linking to my photo tutes; so far, that's just the Adventures in Dyeing Self-Striping Yarn tutorial, but I'm hoping to add more in the not-too-distant future;

• Translatation feature: If you're already a reader, you probably speak English or have already figured out a way to translate VWorld into your language of choice, but in the right sidebar, designated the Velma side, I've added a quick and easy way for visitors from other countries to see what goes on around here;

• Art Not Ads: yep, VWorld is an ad-free blog - no AdSense cluttering up the joint for us! Check all the way at the bottom of the right sidebar for a link;

• Tip Jar: that said, I'm not above a little cyber-begging to keep myself in coffee money, so I've added a PayPal donation feature in the left sidebar for those of you with a few extra pennies burning a hole in your pocket - RAK anyone? ;)

Mostly what I did today though was tighten up the design. I hope you'll find VWorld easier to navigate & more pleasing to the eye: better graphics, improved layout, delineation between sections, better load times - my aim is to improve your experience so you'll wanna come back!

To that end, please let me know what you'd like to see happen on these pages. I've got some stuff in mind for the coming weeks & months (fixing the Ravelry project section, adding more tutorials, creating pattern support, shopping directly from the blog, and Yarn/Fiber pages with descriptions of all the COLORBOMB Creation lines collected in one place), but I'd also like to hear what you like/don't like so I can consider tailoring what I present. Don't get me wrong: it'll always be what I want, but I'm not completely immune to your desires!

Here's to the next 7 years!!

Tags: Blogger, blogging, blogiversary

Happy Bubbles Abound

Still pretty giddy 'round these parts over the news that we get to stay in our home, but I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground long enough to eke out a YIP pic & a blog post today anyway. So I'm breaking my (rather flexible, I must admit) rule about blog memes & I'm accepting Tamdoll's Creative Blogger award (thx for the nomination, chica!).

This is one of those "honors" that smacks of those chain-letters we all abhor - tag 5 bloggers & get 25x more blog readers TODAY! - but I'm still drunk on happy juice over not having to move. I want to share the love today, so here goes.

The rules for the award acceptance:

• Thank the person giving the awards, and link to their blog;
• Copy award to your blog;
• Name 7 things people don’t know about you;
• Nominate 7 bloggers, link to them & leave a comment on their blogs letting them know of their award.

Yeah, it requires a bit of effort, but what the hell, why not! Tamdoll thinks my blog is creative, and that makes me smile. I want to put smiles on the faces of some of my favorite bloggers too. So, in no particular order, I hereby nominate the following 7 creative minxes & manxes - you totally need to check them out:

• Garth of Extreme Craft bringsthe fringe of craft into the light of day;
  
• Janice Rosema & her spectacularly creative fiber arts;
  
• Lil' Miss Drama Pants who makes me laugh;
• hizKNITS' Stephen doesn't post often but is worth the wait;
• Tara of Blonde Chicken Bouique, eco-happy fibers and mentoring;
  
• Naomi is IttyBiz is a small-biz whiz;
• Bonnie aka The Bon, photographer extra-ordinaire.
  

Oh, yeah - my 7 unknown things:

1. I've had surgery 6 times
2. I once rode 1,400 miles on my bicycle in 4 weeks
   
3. My love for music is so great I own over 1000 CDs
4. I am an excellent cook but don't like to
5. I've backpacked naked in the Grand Canyon
6. My only flying lesson was in a glider
7. I'm allergic to wheat. And nuts. And penicillin.
   

There ya go! All that's left is today's Year in Pictures contribution, which I'll leave you with happy, bubble-blowing Velma.

Still Happy - 7/365 YIP

Tags: blogging, memes

Surprise!

Welcome to the New & Improved VWorld blog! I've been working on a 'facelift' for about a week; hope you like it. (Well, actually I hope you *love* it, but I'm greedy like that.)

The main change has been to the 'new' Blogger platform, which operates on a modular page elements system. Most of the new stuff will be going on behind the 'magician's curtain' as it were, but there are some nifty new features, including:

• Following - 1-click following of VWorld on your Blogger dashboard
• Subscriptions - should be easier now
• Sharing - I've added a widget for sharing posts w/ social networking sites
• Streamlined - not so visually distracting (I hope)

This is still a work-in-progress, so lease bear with me as I work out any kinks in the system, and definitely let me know if something isn't working for you. Things will be fluid for awhile, as I figure out the best layouts. Don't be surprised if you see a poll or 3 on YOUR opinions for the future of VWorld.

Happy 2009, faithful readers!

Tags: blogging, 2009

Validator Velma

Over the weekend I decided to do a little research into why my blog doesn't appear in the Google Alerts I have scheduled to receive. Learned that one of the reasons might be HTML/XHTML errors in the code, so I went to a validation site, Validator XC3.org, and checked my code; whoa! There were over 1400 errors! So I spent an hour or so yesterday and another hour this morning fixing an ampersand here, and a missing carat there; I'm down to under 1200 errors, but that's still a LOT of code to sift through. Next up, I've got to go educate myself about parsing errors...

Helper Cole is off work today, so I sent him downtown posting COLORBOMB packages, paying bills, and returning the dye I bought Saturday. Love having a chore-boy!

But I spent the day spinning and plying - you guessed it - coils!

And here's a little yarn porn so you don't go away empty handed; it's the March installation of the Yarn Pirate sock club - 'Sweet Lime'. It's got bamboo! :)

Tags: blogging, yarn pr0n

Busy Sunday

Every day is busy 'round these parts, it seems... No rest for the wicked, eh? ;)

Spent an hour or so fiddling with the new ring membership for the Fiber Arts Bloggers webring; seems that Ringsurf has changed all the rules, so the webmistress for FAB had us change our code yesterday, then today I get another email saying that she's switched to an entirely new ring manager, alt-webring. I think she made the right decision (the new "improved" Ringsurf deal was crap; no more 'previous/next' surfing, everything gets directed to Ringsurf, no way to see a list of all sites in the ring, etc. - I wouldn't be surprised, or disappointed, if I heard from my other ring managers in the near future); but it did mean another hour of code tweaking. Ah, well, all is fixed now.

Then I did a little COLORBOMB paperwork, 'cuz I've had a few sales over the weekend. Got my spreadsheet updated and the packages ready to ship tomorrow. Now that's a chore I don't mind!

Today was supposed to be a day of dyeing (my first with 'real' dyes), but between the butt-ass cold weather and the fact that I - doh! - bought the wrong dyes yesterday, that is on hold. Yep, I bought MX fiber-reactive dyes, not acid dyes. What a dork, huh? Back to the drawing board.

My friend Katie stopped by to drop off her button-maker, on loan so I can make a bunch of freebie promos to bring to Black Sheep Gathering. But I've got to get my printer problem straightened out (no cord for one, no ink for the other, & both need the drivers updated) before I can make any. Think I'll spring for the ButtonBuilder software, too. Again: back burner for now.

So, I set about my daily task of spinning coils. And more coils... Everywhere, coils! Today I worked on plying the 'Spent Blossoms' colorway I spun yesterday. I think maybe coils are my favoreite thing to spin. Of all my yarns, they are the most relaxing to spin, so rhythmic. But plying, I am not a fan of plying. And the plying of supercoils seems the most endless task.

Back to it!

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, Sunday, chores, spinning, handspinning

Meme on Monday

I've been tagged... by Loopykd! AND by Colorado Knitter!


These are the rules!

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

My six non-important things:

1. I am a Gemini, which means there are 2 people inside me: one is a neat freak, one is a slob.

2. I am an excellent cook, but I almost never do it.

3. I watch an inordinate amount of television.

4. I have an exceptional vocabulary, and I'm not afraid to use it.

5. I played the violin for 3 years as a child: from grades 3-5, first chair. I cannot play a lick now.

6. I can drink a beer without touching the bottle with my hands.

Now I have to tag some people. If you don't like memes or being tagged, well, bite me.

1. Eva in Santa Cruz

2. Bea in Arcata

3. Susan in Highland Park, IL

4. David in Auckland, NZ

5. Mandie in Tongala, AU

6. Holly in Florida

Tags: memes, tagged, blogging

Button Box

Tags: blogging, buttons

Excuses, Exercises, & Excellent /Edible Yarn

As anyone who has perused this blog more than once knows all too well, I am blogging-challenged. Despite the best of intentions, I find it increasingly difficult to eke out even the simplest posts on any kind of regular basis. I've used every excuse in the book (no time, no energy, no internet...), but I suppose it all comes down to motivation. I just can't seem to find any. I've never been one for New Year's Resolutions, but 2008 might just be different. I might just have to resolve to blog regularly next year. Check back, see how it goes. In the meantime, we can only do what we can do. So here's a wee blog post for ya.

I found a link (via cashmerefarmer on Ravelry) to a the 5-5-5 Workout for crafters. I've had increasing wrist/elbow/shoulder problems as I've gotten more involved in knitting, crochet, and spinning full-time, and this workout is 'crafted' to stretch muscles and tendons in the hands, hopefully postponing the day where you are laid up with an injury. Knit safely!

On the spinning front, I participated in Spin Challenge #4 at The Yarn Museum. The criteria: "Spin a yarn that is made from edible materials. No, it does not have to taste good." This challenge was much more difficult than I anticipated. My original plan was to incorporate myriad "ingredients" into the yarn, using the quill attachment for my Lendrum, but abandoned that because neither my quill skills nor most of the ingredients proved up to the task. The final product, 10 yards of singles 12WPI twine-texture yarn I call 'Cornhulio', is composed of corn husks, red & yellow onion skins, tomatillo skins, and dried serrano chilis. I soaked all the materials in warm water before spinning, then ended up tying the lengths of corn husks together as I spun, with the other materials wrapped in along the length of the skein. This is a 100% "edible" yarn. (Wish I had a goat to feed it to.)

There were 3 other entries in this challenge, with crazy materials like gum & edible panties, carrot greens & habaneros, and seaweed & sardines. Go check out the submissions and vote for your favorite at Pluckyfluff's blog.

Lots of WIPs and FOs with pics, and TONS of new COLORBOMB Creations handspun yarn, all coming soon (promise). So come back! Please!

Tags: blogging, COLORBOMB Creations, exercise, handspinning, Yarn Museum

4 Months in 1 Post?

I think not. How to summarize all that's gone on since I last posted in June? I'll hit the high points here and then follow up with more details in upcoming posts. (As if anyone is still interested after my looong hiatus).

First things first: I've been an absentee blogger since, what, June?? Sheesh. But it's not all my fault! I *did* go on my planned backpack trip in early July, but that only took me away for a week. So, what gives? Well, first I had connection problems; my free wi-fi was down for awhile, then up, then down. In the meantime, I had computer problems. Terminal computer problems. With no funds to fix it. But once again, I am back and rarin' to go. So quit yer bitchin'! (Seriously, though, thanks to you few peeps still hanging around, asking where I wandered off to, and inquiring about my health/happiness/safety/alive-ness. You know who you are. It was appreciated.)

Second, but in many ways more importantly, I am now an engaged person! Yeppers, Velma, she is gettin' hitched. To uber-sweetie Cole, of course, who else? The festivities will be going down summer '08 -- more to come on that later. For now, just let the congrats start rollin' in. We're all happy here at Casa Colorbomb. (That's a picture of the post-proposal afterglow there you're a-lookin' at, btw).

Tags: blogging, absence, proposal, engagement

What a Weekend!

Such a great weekend I had, how about you? Started out Friday night with my first visit to the Firiday Night Free-for-All at my LYS Handmade Memories. Janice stays open 'til midnight once a month for a knit- and crochet-in, and besides Bea, Eileen and me there were about 10 other women there. While there, I took advantage of the knowledge base, and Janice taught me how to crochet! I've been wanting to learn forever, so I can make stuff like this, and this. So while I'm not there yet, I did manage to make this wee bonnet for the Knitted Babe I'm making Sophie for Christmas. Sure it would look better on a smaller head, but you get the general idea, right? This hat will be the first piece of clothing in what promises to be a wardrobe fit for a queen; I've sent my request to join the KAL and am waiting to be sent an invite.

I also finished up 2 WIPs, this Xmas scarf for myself in handspun yarn "Land of the Bubble King" from Jenny Neutron Star, and the watchap my friend Jeff commissioned from me, done in Manos del Urugauy. It was fun doing the scarf, as it was knit up on US35 needles and went lightning-quick, plus I hadn't knit a scarf in a couple of years. Quickies are nice sometimes. ;)


Oh, and locals, Handmade Memories has some good in-store deals: for frequent flyers there's a discount card, and if you visit the store in costume on Halloween, Janice will take 10% off your puchase! She's got some new Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and the book Not Your Mama's Knitting by Heather Dixon, 2 of my Lust-For Things, so I'm thinking about doing it.

Saturday, after a Los Bagels breakfast (best combo bagelry/Jewish bakery anywhere, I'd wager), I headed south with Eileen and Sophie to Redway and the annual Natural Fiber Fair at the Mateel Community Center. Although I didn't find the right drum carder like I'd hoped, boy did I score in the fiber department! Check out the pics of what I got: yak, camel & alpaca from Herndon Creek Farm; Cormo/silk waste and mill ends from Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill; silk hankies from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks; and mohair locks and angora from Nebo Rock Textiles. Like the dork I am, I got so caught up in shopping before 3yo Sophie ran out of steam and sent us packing that I didn't think to pull the camera out of my bag and snap a few photos of the displays. Doh! Although I noticed that the trend of snarky fiberistas extends beyond the brick-and-mortar shops to fiber fests too (one seller had all her fiber bagged and refused to open one so that I could touch it before buying; that's like buying a peach without holding it to see if it is ripe, in my book), I found Nancy Finn at Chasing Rainbows to be the epitome of a gracious seller. She gave me a little demo on spinning silk hankies on a drop-spindle, right in her booth. And both Marie (the fiber side of the biz) and Jim (the woodworker) Pritchard of Herndon Creek Farm were lovely to me. Jim helped me evaluate the 2 drum carders on offer at the used equipment booth (almost bought the Strauch double-wide, but I dislike the seller so much I'd rather pay full retail than save the 2 C-notes of her price). He even went so far as to show me how his lazy kates could be easily fabricated by my carpenter boyfriend. If you are in the market for a beautifully handcrafted, handturned nostepinde, yarn gauge, or orifice hook, look no further than the ones Jim makes from exotic woods. Going to this festival gave me a taste of what Eileen and I will find at Rhinebeck next year (this year is out, sadly, as I have one last seminar to attend for my graduate program); we are planning on going in 2007, come hell or high water.

Sunday was a lazy day; I hung out on the couch most all day, watching t.v. and working on this attempt at crocheting a hat (what the hell is up with the ruffling along the side?? And now I can't get it to "tube" down from the crown into sides; I'm stumped). Cole puttered in the garage making me a frame for an earring rack (similar to this one); he'll be finishing it tonight and I'll post a picture of it tomorrow, natch.

Ooh, want to share a spankin' new blog with you: Stuff & Things is the brainchild (or red-headed step-child, you decide) of my friend and frequent commenter Rebecca, aka OneTwistedKitty. She hasn't posted much yet, but the photostream she posted is ethereal and beautiful, so go check it out and pester her to write more. Thanks, R, for joining me in the blogosphere!

Tags: LYS, knitting, knit, crochet, fiber, fiber festival, blogging