Author Archives: Katherine

Grief Helps: a labor of joy

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Review, Thoughts, Writing

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It’s the great mystery of human life that
old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.
[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]

Grief Helps blogIt has been my good fortune that I have been able to spend my working life doing what I enjoy. My career has not only been fun, but it has also been enlightening, enriching and rewarding. Most of that is due to my clients. As an independent designer, every project I finish puts me out of a job. Fortunately, projects have materialized in adequate supply for the past twenty-eight years. This post is about one of my favorites.

I’ve produced print publications, electronic publications, and web-site work for Willowgreen, Inc., a publishing company, for over a decade. This company specializes in inspirational materials to help with illness, caregiving, transitions, and grief. Two of the greatest assets with Willowgreen offerings are Jim Miller’s writing skill and his magnificent photography. Recently, his publications have focused on helping folks who are experiencing grief.

Today, Jim will release a new blog called Grief Helps. It is designed especially for grieving individuals and families. It is simple to navigate, easy to read, and beautiful to view. Jim writes:

Grief Helps includes only fresh resources that are found nowhere else. Only Willowgreen’s own resources—not a copy of anyone else’s work. And the new blog provides an unusually wide variety of resources, unlike what you’ll find on any other blog: lovely mini-videos, bright mini-books, and meaningful PhotoThoughts, all absolutely free. In addition there are the more customary posts you’ve come to expect on blogs everywhere. A section also is provided for individuals to share with others their own “grief helps”—acts or practices or approaches that have assisted them personally on their journey through loss.

Working on Grief Helps has been such a healing experience for me that I wanted to share it with you.

Brothers

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in History, Thoughts, Writing

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To the outside world we all grow old.
But not to brothers and sisters.
We know each other as we always were.
We know each others hearts.
We share private family jokes.
We remember family feuds and secrets,
family griefs and joys.
We live outside the touch of time.
[Clara Ortega]

c.1950 - [back row] Irene and Emerson Hoffman [front row] sons: Ray, Bobby and Melvin

c.1950 – [back row] Irene and Emerson Hoffman
[front row] sons: Ray, Bobby and Melvin

2013 - Melvin, Ray and Bobby Hoffman

2013 – Melvin, Ray and Bobby Hoffman

The 2013 snapshot of the three Hoffman lads came in the mail this morning and reminded me that I had the 1950 photo scanned into my computer. Ray, editor of The Heritage Eagle for the J.I. Case Heritage Foundation, had his 730 John Deere over near his hometown of Sabetha, Kansas for a tractor drive. This photo was taken at an ice cream social following the drive. I think that you can’t get any more Kansas than that.

I only know one of these gentleman, but even I can see the lad in each of them. Some things haven’t changed in the intervening sixty years—the tip of Melvin’s head, Bobby’s grin and the impish expression on Ray’s face (and maybe even his overalls—I think he just lengthened the straps). I’ll bet a three-volume family saga could be written about those sixty years.

There is something universal in family photos—even photos of folks we don’t know. I was struck by the great good fortune these three brothers enjoy by being able to stand shoulder to shoulder and grin all these years later.

Summer Stuff Revisited

14 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by in Thoughts

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Summer afternoon — summer afternoon;
to me those have always been
the two most beautiful words
in the English language.
[Henry James]

Saturn sky

I love summer. What you see in the photo is a summer-winter romance. Instead of a younger man, I traded for a summer car. I haven’t figured out what I’ll do when there is a foot of snow in my driveway but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Meanwhile, I wish I could give you a ride with the top down in this breezy, blue and green world. This is a Saturn Sky and it is only by chance that it matches my outfit. I may be a bit flaky, but I’m not that extreme.

I posted that in 2008—five years ago. I still love my little car and have driven it summer and winter, in snow or sunshine, far and near. Its best feature? It makes me grin. It also makes other folks grin when they see me in it with my white hair and 70-year old face.

This was the last model Saturn built before GM discontinued the product line. Recently someone told me I should put it in a garage unused in order to preserve it since it might be a classic some day. I don’t think so. I’d rather drive and grin, and then let someone else preserve it after I’m gone. After all, they can honestly say it was owned by a little old lady who only got two speeding tickets (so far). Grin.

Winter Class: Argyle Vest #3

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Knitting, teaching classes, Writing

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Do not compute the totality
of your poultry population
until all the manifestations of incubation
have been entirely completed.
[William Jennings Bryan]

Three Argyle Vests

This post follows up on the winter knitting classes I taught at Sarah Jane’s Yarn Shoppe. The only connection I have with the shop is as a customer and, from time to time, knitting instructor. I designed this basic vest pattern with color charts specifically for this class. Each knitter in the class received a chart in her own selected color way. A fourth example is shown below.

Designing this pattern and facilitating this class was great fun for me. Now I am polishing the pattern to sell as a PDF on Ravelry.

Jodi's Argyle Vest

Winter Class #2: Argyle Vest, continued

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Knitting, Ongoing Projects, teaching classes

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Feelings are like a color chart
that God has given us.
[Keith Miller]

Charts

Eight knitters started knitting their argyle vests in the first class. In addition to using printed instructions to get them started on the ribbing and vest back, they also filled in work sheets that helped them figure their stitch and row count based upon their gauge and measurements.

In the intervening two weeks, each sent me their calculations and I updated their customized color charts to use when they knit the argyle vest front (photo above).

As I polish the instructions for knitting the front and adding the finishing touches, I am faced with my usual quandary when writing patterns. How much do I include in the instructions? Do I illustrate how to add duplicate stitch accents, work attached iCord around the arm holes, and finish the v-neck with a miter and invisible bind off? Or do I just say do it and assume knitters will look it up if they don’t know how? In a perfect world, I’d publish this using little videos in an enhanced eBook. Wouldn’t that be fun?

I love these apps

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Favorite Things, Other Favorite Sites, Review, Technology

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Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
[Arthur C. Clarke]

My first criteria for a good app is, it is simple. I’m a graphic designer and not a computer scientist. I look for apps that behave themselves (they work without bugs), and apps that are intuitive to use (they have a small learning curve). I spend my main self-education time keeping myself up to speed with my major software tools. I want my smaller apps to be more like a manual screwdriver than an electric drill with multiple bits. These two apps fit the criteria and are affordable.

CalculatorMyScript© Calculator is magic for sure. It was free! How does Vision Objects© do that? Also it works well and is fun to use. Write numerals and function symbols (+, -, =, etc.) with a finger on a touchscreen and then watch your writing change into real equations with the correct answer. It even charmed my five-year old grandson. When I used it in a knitting class to help people figure their stitches and rows from their gauge, it was fast and accurate. Some students even downloaded the app for their smart phones during class.

TaskTimerDesktop Task Timer by Erik Asmussen is also a winner in my book. I track my design time for billing purposes. In the past 30 years, I have tried using a number of methods to accurately record time and translate it in to an invoice. This app ($0.99) is the best I’ve found so far. I’ve even started tracking my non-chargeable tasks just out of curiosity.

Winter Class: Argyle Vest

02 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Free Pattern, Knitting, Knitting Sites, Pattern, teaching classes, Thoughts

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Design is not just
what it looks like
and feels like.
Design is how it works.
[Steve Jobs]

autumn argyle supplies

Teaching classes is an asset for a knitting-pattern designer. At least it is for me. Not only do my students inspire me by their requests and enthusiasm, but they help me clarify the pattern details and how to word the instructions. I have been composing a basic vest pattern in multiple sizes and gauges for an argyle technique class. Here are details of the fun parts of the pattern and how the design works:

  • Each of the eight students selected yarn colors in DK or light worsted weight from their favorite brands (Cascade 220, Berroco Ultra Alpaca, Brown Sheep Nature Spun, Rowan Creative Focus). I customized color charts (shown above) for each student to use with her written pattern.
  • The lower edge is ribbing that is knit in the round so it lays nicely on the hips.
  • The body is knit in two parts (back which is plain and front which is argyle) but the seam starts above the ribbing. Two stitches are added at the beginning and end of each piece as a seam allowance to produce an easy to sew, tidy seam.
  • The armholes are finished with applied iCord and the V-neck is finished with ribbing and an invisible bind off.
  • Attention is paid to smoothness of the fabric. Yarn joins and wraps follow the suggestions in the book shown below.
  • The accent lines are worked in duplicate stitch.

argyle-workshop-swatchAn excellent source for refining intarsia technique is Intarsia—A Workshop for Hand & Machine Knitting from the studio of Sealed with a Kiss (Sherry and Keely Stuever). Select this LINK to download a sample swatch pattern for argyle intarsia.

Fond Farewell: Robert Pence

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in Favorite Things, Photography, Thoughts

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Friends are relatives you make for yourself.
[Eustache Deschamps]

Robert Pence

I have always known Robert Pence. I’ve counted him as my friend for seventy years. I bid him farewell just before Christmas with the gratitude that I’d had the opportunity to count him as my friend for as long as I did.

When I was a small child, he was enough older that I looked up to him and considered him brilliant. When I first left home to go to college, it eased my homesickness to know he was nearby on the same campus. When we were both in the military, it was a comfort to know that he was stationed just up the coast. When I edited a magazine, he took magnificant photos for the cover. When I needed air in my tires, advice on home repairs, or information about anything, he helped me.

I shared his fascination with antique machinery, railroading, computers and the minutia of history. I admired his talent with composition and attention to detail in his photography. He enlarged my world, helped heal the bruises of life experiences, and shared the depth of his spiritual self. Although we weren’t relatives, one of the greatest complements I ever received was when he introduced me by saying, “This is my sister….”

After all of these years, I still look up to him and think he was brilliant.

2012 in review

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in Thoughts

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 12,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 20 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.