Thank you, Mr. President

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Thoughts

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[Two hundred forty years ago], our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all [people] are created equal.
Abraham Lincoln (edited in brackets)

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for serving us these eight years. Thank you for maintaining your dignity and thereby our national dignity in the face of severe conflict, for exercising restraint, for forging ahead against the odds, and for setting the highest example of American citizenship. You are a man of true courage. On this Independence Day, folks like you make me proud to be an American.

With Gratitude,
Katherine

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

11 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by in Favorite Things, Reading, Thoughts, Writing

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Emotional truths can sometimes
be conveyed more effectively,
more compellingly, through fiction.
[Diana Ossana]

Journey to MunichI’m a reader. I read volumes of non-fiction—history and wars in which the United States has participated. But mostly, I read fiction. Mysteries are my favorite.

Jacqueline Winspear, one of my favorite authors, developed a character, Maisie Dobbs, who weathers hardships and tragedies by using life events as learning experiences. For me, the books about Maisie are examples of how truth can be effectively represented in fiction. It is like the difference between illustration and photography. Scientific illustrators tell us that illustration can often represent a specimen more accurately than a photo would.

Ms Winspear’s website includes the following about her most recent Maisie Dobbs novel (which I thoroughly enjoyed):

Journey to Munich
12th Maisie Dobbs Novel

Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers—and finds herself questioning whether it’s time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have other ideas.

VestsI am a writer. I mainly do technical writing and have been working on my knitting pattern collections. The image at the left shows six of more than a dozen vest patterns I am working on. The one on the dress form is the latest and was knit using silk and marino yarn that my daughter spun. I am also immersed in producing patterns for a textured knitting collection that I call Great Lakes Chill Chasers.

The greatest challenge for me in writing patterns is assuring accuracy. I have over seventy designs for which I could produce patterns, but assuring accuracy slows me down … which brings me to my last point.

Calculator I am not so good with arithmetic. There is a lot of calculating involved in writing patterns in different sizes. The best helper I’ve found is a calculator app for my iPad.

MyScript© 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.

Love Renews

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by in Favorite Things, Thoughts, Writing

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The spiritual meaning of love is measured by what it can do.
Love is meant to heal.
Love is meant to renew.
Love is meant to bring us closer to God.
[Author Unknown]

Easter 2016
I celebrate the gift of Easter. Other folks celebrate different days of commemoration. I celebrate each person’s right to celebrate what ever renews the spirit in love.

Each day enriches my life and yesterday was especially enriching. My daughter sent me a box of delightful gifts among which was the skein of yarn in the photo. She spun the yarn using a blend of marino wool and silk. It is delicious and is like a magnet to my hands and a pair of knitting needles. The bouquet in the watering can was a gift from my sister, also one of a cluster of gifts from her. My heart is full of gratitude. My spirit is renewed.

Civility

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Thoughts, Writing

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All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
[Winston Churchill]

I try to avoid controversial topics on my blog, but I feel compelled to digress for this post. I study a lot of history and have noticed that people do not behave any better nor any worse now than they ever did. All nations have blots of bad behavior on their historical record. Also, there seem to be very few incisive thinkers in this world—many folks run their mouths without engaging their brains.

In the USA, we have been besieged by political campaigns for too many months. Very little of what has been said is accurate, true, or useful. Most of it has been a smoke screen to cover the fact that these politicians have no idea how to address the real problems in this country or the world. The whole experience has been generally ugly, abusive and useless. Some have behaved in such a horrid manner that I am appalled anyone would support them.

There are many primary elections across our country today. I ask my fellow citizens to remember their responsibility to support and serve our constitution to the end that all people can know freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. I ask for civility.

Civility means a great deal more than just being nice to one another. It is complex and encompasses learning how to connect successfully and live well with others, developing thoughtfulness, and fostering effective self-expression and communication. Civility includes courtesy, politeness, mutual respect, fairness, good manners, as well as a matter of good health.– Pier Massimo Forni, Civility Project at Johns Hopkins University

Lace Boot Cuffs

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Free Pattern, Knitting

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I once danced with a cowboy.
I fell in love with the sound of his boots
tapping out the rhythm of a Texas Two Step.
The cowboy rode into the sunset, but
I’ve owned a pair of cowboy boots ever since.

hand knit boot cuff

In my 2016 business plan, I listed “publishing a minimum of ten patterns” as one of my goals. I am offering this first pattern free especially for folks who aren’t familiar with my patterns. I feel like buying a PDF pattern online is similar to buying a pig in a poke (southern slang for buying something without seeing what it is actually like). These cuffs take less than a ball of yarn. The pattern is both charted and written out and, as you work on it, you will surely think of other ways it can be used: scarf, mitts, etc.

This pattern is given to you complements of
Katherine Misegades, A Time To Knit Publications, LLC.
You are welcome to reprint it and, if you wish,
use it as a resource for teaching a workshop.
Thank you Mary Shue for helping me proof this pattern.

Download Pattern Here

Finished Cassian Capelet

29 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Knitting, Ravelry, Thoughts

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I used to think that music was like lace upon a garment,
nice to have but not necessary.
I have come to believe that music is
absolutely essential to our community life.
[George Eastman]

 

Cassian

Hot off the needles. This lace caplet is knit using a wool/silk blend fine yarn. I added glass beads to each point on the border. When my niece was visiting for Christmas, she saw this and loved it, so I gave it to her. The pattern is available on ravelry.com.

Vector Software

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Drawing, Review, Technology, Thoughts

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All of us show bias when it comes to what information we take in.
We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want.
[Noreena Hertz]

vector-drawing

[Note: This post is likely of little interest to anyone who doesn’t use design software, but I did want to share my experience with the few who do. I’ve had trouble finding information about real experiences with this hard and software.]

I select art supplies, computers, hardware and software based upon how each assists me to achieve what I want to achieve. I’ve used Adobe Illustrator since version 1.0 (over twenty years) but am crashing into the brick wall of my bias.

Several years ago, Adobe Systems switched their software distribution to a creative cloud plan. Instead of charging for software and shipping a disc for installation, they offer a subscription plan where the customer pays a monthly fee to use cloud computing that ties the user to Adobe servers through an internet connection. They tout this as being a less expensive and more efficient method of keeping up with the upgrades and taking advantage of a variety of publishing services. That may be true for some customers, but that does not suit my needs nor the way I work, plus I don’t want to be tethered to Adobe’s cloud. Therefore, I happily use Adobe CS6 (the last non-cloud version).

I treated myself to an Apple iPad Pro and Apple pencil for my birthday. It is my new best friend. I use it in place of a TV, and I draw on it. I looked for two types of drawing programs (pixel-based and vector) and settled on Procreate for the pixel-based software, and Autodesk Graphic for the vector-based software. My first challenge was compatibility so I could open the illustrations on my computer as well. Compatibility has been a challenge for me in one form or another since I started using a personal computer in 1982 so I knew I could figure something out.

  • Both of those iPad apps let me transfer documents to my computer by way of iTunes file sharing. My Adobe Illustrator won’t open them.
  • Then I installed Adobe Illustrator Draw on my iPad, found it usable but could only move the drawing to the creative cloud Illustrator for desktop work (unless there is something about it I don’t understand). It won’t transfer via iTunes. So I uninstalled it from my iPad.
  • I ended up purchasing Affinity Designer and the computer version of Autodesk Graphic on my Mac. Wow! I could spend the rest of my life exploring these pieces of software. Also, they open the iPad illustrations.

Now I am on a roll. I love drawing with the Apple Pencil and only need practice getting used to drawing on such a smooth surface to produce images that look like they were drawn in a sketchbook.

Redefine, not retire

18 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in My Client's Sites, Thoughts

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There’s nothing I would retire for,
so I won’t retire.
[James Earl Jones]

INSPIRATIONS

I started my adult work life as a caregiver (nurse) and, fifty years later, I spent this year working on a job for Willowgreen, Inc. (a publishing company) that is designed to inspire caregivers. Willowgreen’s owner, Jim Miller, writes this about Daily Inspirations for Caregivers:

If you’re a family caregiver, you can be encouraged and lifted every morning for one complete year with James E. Miller’s newest electronic resource. Each day you’ll receive a personalized email from him containing one of four offerings: a short inspiring video, a brief audio, a one-page writing, or a photo-thought, incorporating a striking photograph with a meaningful quotation.

I’ve been an independent graphic designer for thirty years, and I consider this to be at the top of my list of beloved products upon which I have worked. I was diagnosed with, and had surgery for cancer right before I started working on this project last spring. As I worked on the 365 items used in Daily Inspirations for Caregivers, I discovered that immersing myself in the positive thoughts and images bridged the time between diagnosis and recovery for me. All summer, I was filled with joy while I worked.

Now who in her right mind would retire from a job like that? I’ve decided to redefine my work toward publishing my designs and patterns, something I can do in my home office, but I’ll not retire while I can see, think, and draw on my new iPad Pro.

If you would like a free sample of Daily Inspirations for Caregivers,
you can sign up for it HERE.

you, me & Winnie

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Favorite Things, History, Thoughts

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We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give.
[Winston Churchill]

Letter from Winston Churchill

When I was a child, my Aunt Esther always sent me birthday cards that were signed “you, me and Winnie.” The three of us shared birthdays. Today, I am 73, she would be 103, and Winnie would be 141. Until I went to school, I thought Winnie was a relative I’d never met.

When I was in grade school, I learned that Winnie was Winston Churchill, he’d been in the Navy (First Lord of the Admiralty) like Aunt Esther (yeoman cartographer, USN), and he worked for the British government (Prime Minister). Then I was assigned to write a letter in class. I labored to write to Mr. Churchill to share one of Aunt Esther’s cards with him, and to tell him that I figure the three of us were like twins since we shared a birthday. I told him I’d heard it was his 80th birthday and I was so glad he still had a job and hadn’t given up and retired. Then I wished him a Happy Birthday, and I mailed it.

I was home the morning Mama took a letter from the mailbox and almost fell off of the porch when she read the address. It was a response from Mr. Churchill! In the photo above, you can see that the letter has yellowed over the years. It reads,

10 Downing Street
Whitehall

I am so much obliged to you for your very kind token of goodwill on my birthday.

Winston S. Churchill