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Messages - daen

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1
Technoquette / Re: Being an Admin
« on: May 16, 2019, 08:29:57 pm »
Not a moderator myself, but I have seen mods start a comment (or section of a comment) with MOD HAT ON and end with MOD HAT OFF.  That way people can tell what comments are official moderation and what comments are simply one person's opinion.

If the mod is more likely to comment officially than unofficially, perhaps marking personal opinion posts with MOD HAT OFF/ MOD HAT ON instead would require less work.

In my offline experience as a discussion group facilitator (in a religious organization), I discovered that as soon as I, the "moderator" expressed anything resembling an opinion or a statement, the discussion ended right there. I would have to ask a question to restart things. I got very good at asking questions and then carefully drinking coffee and saying basically nothing while the discussion swirled.

2
Family and Children / Re: decluttering/organizing with aging grandparents
« on: May 02, 2019, 05:30:59 pm »
Quote from: Luci on May 02, 2019, 03:10:26 pm
As an old married couple, we pretty much keep lots of just-in-case things, but are very organized. Please remember that we were raised by people who lived during the Great Depression and WWII, so were taught to be very frugal. As the only daughter of an only daughter, I have a lot of antiques. We are trying to get our kids and grandchildren to start taking some things, but they are reluctant. These things mean a lot to us and we really want them to have a good home. Sometimes I wish they would go ahead and take stuff and throw it out now if they don’t really want it.

Right now, I would suggest just go for offering the organizing help. Someone above say to suggest one category at a time, and I agree with that. I watch a lot of Hoarders and have seen them force the homeowners to throw away stuff that is quite obviously kind of good. Put all the plastic bags together and break down the decent boxes or use them now for organizing. You have the luxury of time that they don’t have on the show. Go ahead and ask if you can box up the sweaters that haven’t been worn in years but don’t suggest throwing them out. Food expiration dates aren’t law. Pasta is good for years if it isn’t damp or buggy. Canned food is good for a long time beyond the date if the can is intact or it hasn’t had mice or rats around. Even "experts" are beginning to see a lot of exceptions to the dates. No reason to argue a lot about some of the food.

Well, books have been written, so I’ll shut up now.

Regarding the bolded: one of the Swedish principles is to ask (your child, your niece, your insert-potential-heir-here) flat out: "Will you ever want to use or own this? If not, I'll give it to a charity shop/ sell it on ebay/ recycle it. If you are, I'd appreciate it if you could take it now, or soon-ish." Let them know it's a speak now or forever lose this piece moment, and that you're okay with either choice.

Maybe you've already done this, and your children aren't giving you an answer, in which case I don't really know what the next step would be. But if you haven't, maybe putting it in so many words is worth a try.

3
Family and Children / Re: decluttering/organizing with aging grandparents
« on: May 01, 2019, 01:09:38 pm »
[Let me preface this suggestion by saying that this, like many things, is much easier to decide to do for yourself than to have someone suggest to you, especially given the name of this activity.]


There's a book by Margareta Magnusson, published in January last year, about "Swedish death cleaning." Apparently it's (somewhat) customary in Sweden to begin a slow process of decluttering after you hit retirement, so your family will have less to deal with in cleaning up your estate. I just looked on amazon, and they have nine or ten titles on Swedish death cleaning in addition to the original. I am by no means suggesting that anyone rock up to Grandma & Grandpa's (or Mom & Dad's, or anyone's) house with the book and say "here's what we're doing today!" but some of the principles might be easier to adapt for a family member who is resistant to decluttering, but needs to for whatever reasons.

So if you (general) are either dealing with this situation or suspect you may be in the future, you might want to do a bit of research on Swedish Death Cleaning, to see if that's an approach that might work for you and/or your loved ones.

4
Technoquette / Re: "Too Intrusive" or Something Else?
« on: March 25, 2019, 07:23:57 am »
I spent a year where I carried the on-call phone one week out of four. Calls only came to this phone after being filtered through the answering service. So any time that phone rang, it meant there was an issue that could not wait until office hours to be resolved. Further, it meant I was responsible for passing it on to the correct person to resolve it.

Most of the time it was minor but annoying things, like forgetting the key code, and I could deal with it over the phone or by walking down to the other end of the block to unlock something. Sometimes it was people not finding their rides at the airport, which was more tense. I never had to deal with a crisis with one of our overseas offices, but one of my co-workers fielded a call where our rep in Nigeria had received news that her father in Canada had hours to live, and my co-worker then needed to get enough details to find out what was going on, then get the field rep in contact with the area supervisor (at 11:30 pm on a Saturday) so they could start making necessary arrangements.

Between that experience and my prior mild dislike of phones, my reaction to the phone ringing unexpectedly is, to quote Shakespeare, "What fresh hell is this?"

I don't have a cell phone, for this reason; if I did, I would appreciate anyone who would text first. So I understand. But I also know my loathing of the phone is by no means universal, and I can do more to control my reactions than I can to control the people who would like to call me... so I work with it.

5
Life in General / Re: The good chair
« on: February 14, 2019, 09:35:59 pm »
It's not precisely the same situation, but I take a backrest with me almost everywhere I go, because I will be in pain if I don't have proper back support. (Fortunately, there's a chair at work that's perfect - and equally fortunately, no one else likes it.) It's no reflection on anyone's furniture - simply that I have a back issue and I need to take care of myself or I'll be in some level of pain for the next two days.

I feel a bit embarrassed carrying the thing everywhere, but I'm the only one who thinks it's embarrassing - anyone who's ever mentioned it is sympathetic rather than dismissive.

All this to say - bring whatever it takes for you to be comfortable.

6
Hobbies / Re: Knitting question
« on: January 24, 2019, 06:17:19 pm »
Quote from: Rain on January 14, 2019, 06:37:16 pm
New question....

When knitting with two strands of yarn how do you figure out what needle size to use?

(Here's hoping that if each needs size 6 needles it would be 6 + 6 = size 12)

Depends...
I'm assuming you don't have a pattern that specifies the weight of the two strands and the needle size. But that would be the first step - check the pattern.

Next: are you trying to replace a thicker yarn with two thinner strands, or are you doubling up the yarn to make your end product thicker?
In either case, you'd go with the recommended needle size (possibly down a size in the former situation if the doubled yarn seems thinner than you expect the thicker yarn to be, possibly up a size if the doubled yarn is thicker or you want a heavier end product). But I'd start with the recommended needle size for the project or the original yarn, and knit a swatch to see how it feels. This is one of those times when spending fifteen to thirty minutes knitting one or two repeats of your stitch pattern can save you hours of lost work later... or ending up with a finished product that you're not happy with.

7
Weddings / Re: Engagement Party
« on: January 14, 2019, 06:47:29 pm »
Engagement parties have never really been a thing in the circles I run in. Showers, yes, but not engagement parties.

Wedding socials (a fundraiser party where one purchases tickets at $15-20 per person, then pays for drinks and tickets for various and sundry prize draws, whilst listening and/dancing to music that is ear-bleedingly loud and starting the buffet at midnight) are very popular in less-conservative areas in my province, and are starting to become more popular in my city as well. When the majority holds to the belief, at least in public, that alcohol and dancing are both morally repugnant, a social doesn't really fly, but things have been changing.

8
Hobbies / Re: Current Projects
« on: December 30, 2018, 04:04:02 pm »
Glad to hear the update from Mel - I was worrying a bit. Not that dealing with med side effects and jumping through hoops, even metaphorically, is a picnic by any stretch, but I'm glad to hear it's not worse.

Thanks for being the messenger, Chez Miriam.

9
Hobbies / Re: Getting ready for Christmas 2018
« on: December 19, 2018, 09:19:46 pm »
I think I'm doing okay, all things considered. I have the runthrough for my choir service tomorrow night, and I think I have everything done except possibly printing off one more copy of the script.

We're hosting my side of the family on Boxing Day, and I'm just finishing up making some treats that my husband and I can enjoy, since most of the standard goodies conflict with our dietary needs/choices. The menu and food prep isn't my responsibility, thankfully, or I'd be much more flail-y than I am right now.

I've knit... fifteen? I think... of the mini-sweaters, some of which will be going for family gifts and some of which will probably go to a fundraiser sometime in the future. My gifts are all purchased, and just need to be wrapped - by which I mean popped into a shiny gift bag and topped with tissue paper. Much as I have loved wrapping gifts in the past, and spending an hour or more on each, that's not my thing right now, and I'm grateful that gift bags are a thing.

So basically, I've finished shopping, I've finished baking/cooking, and I have a moment or three to chill before the practice tomorrow. I think that I've come pretty close to meeting my goal for this Christmas season, which was to not overcommit myself and burn out before Christmas Eve.

(Just re-counted - I've knit seventeen mini-sweaters, and I have one more on the needles that I may or may not finish before Christmas. (Ah, who am I kidding. I'll finish it. I may end up taking it to the in-laws on Sunday and finishing it there, but I'll finish it. ;D )

10
Life in General / Re: Is this line cutting?
« on: December 11, 2018, 06:12:33 pm »
I thought of this thread today. I came up to the counter as a woman was finishing her transaction, and I put my item down on the lower level of the counter. (The checkouts are really weird at this store - about a foot of counter before the scale, and then it drops down a foot or so beside the cash register.) The payment transaction took a little longer than usual, no big deal, and just as I was about to hand over my item, a woman came in and plunked her items down in front of me - and the cashier took her without a blink.

I stood back, pleasantly, thinking, "Oh, so we're doing it this way, are we?" After the cashier rang through Step-In Sally's items, she also picked up and rang through some items I had assumed were extra bulk-item bags that had been left behind. (They appear to have been disposable piping bags, once I looked at them.) And then Step-In Sally finished her transaction and the cashier served me next.

I go back and forth on whether or not this was line-cutting. Even if it wasn't, I would have appreciated a quick word from the cashier that Step-In Sally had been there first, and it would only be a moment, just so that I knew...

11
Holidays / Re: The Great Christmas Tree Debate
« on: December 11, 2018, 06:03:27 pm »
They don't refer to glitter as "the herpes of the craft world" for nothing.  ;D

12
Life in General / Re: What should I have done here?
« on: December 11, 2018, 03:31:03 pm »
If I got an invitation that said "Do you want to eat dinner at 5pm at our house?" I would assume that 5 pm was the time dinner would be served, because I see "eat dinner at 5 pm" as a statement of intent to be eating at five.

On the other hand "Do you want to come over for dinner at 5 pm?" (which is a fairly common wording in my area) is as likely to mean "arrive at 5" as it is "eat at 5," and that leads to its own confusion. This has led to my issuing most invitations as "Would you like to come over for dinner? The meal will be ready at five, so come over anytime after 4:30."


13
Hobbies / Re: Current Projects
« on: November 27, 2018, 05:08:32 pm »
Quote from: Pattycake on November 27, 2018, 07:22:57 am
Daen, those are so cute! What a lot of work, what with changing colours and all.
Actually, no color changing. The green and orange one is a Red Heart Heart and Sole varigated/self-striping sock yarn - Green Envy? - and it worked out nicely. The one with the rose body is (I think) Serenity Sock Prints in Chili. Both of them did the color-changing all on their own. I'm debating adding some pattern with white yarn and duplicate stitch to the solid-color sweaters.

Quote from: RubyCat on November 26, 2018, 08:32:26 pm
Those are adorable! And you even have a tiny coat hanger!  Awesome!
My husband is planning to make more hangers for me... and now there's talk of a tiny little wardrobe to hang them in.

Quote from: oogyda on November 27, 2018, 01:15:30 pm
I would love to get the pattern!  I think they would go well with the wine bottle scarf and hats i made last year.
This is the pattern I used: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-sock-yarn-sweaters But there are a ton of other patterns for mini-sweaters on Ravelry, so go wild.  ;D


14
Hobbies / Re: Current Projects
« on: November 26, 2018, 06:43:55 pm »
Quote from: Pattycake on November 24, 2018, 01:16:23 pm
Quote from: daen on November 24, 2018, 12:36:09 pm
I'm having a go at knitting tree ornament sweaters. I finished the first one, and it's so cute I couldn't resist showing it off to my coworkers. Right now the plan is to knit five total, but if I'm still having fun, I'll keep going. It's a great way to use up my sock yarn leftovers, because I only need about 5g per sweater.

picture?

Now that I think I've got this mostly figured out...

The sweater in question:


And with its friends:


15
Hobbies / Re: Current Projects
« on: November 24, 2018, 12:36:09 pm »
I'm having a go at knitting tree ornament sweaters. I finished the first one, and it's so cute I couldn't resist showing it off to my coworkers. Right now the plan is to knit five total, but if I'm still having fun, I'll keep going. It's a great way to use up my sock yarn leftovers, because I only need about 5g per sweater.

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