I wasn’t sure what to do with the wool left over from Tricia’s Canada Jumper. 8 skeins is not enough to do a whole other garment, and given that the shade of Paton’s Inca that I’m using (7005) is not being produced this season I felt it better to use up the yarn rather than purchase more.

The result is an Open Star Stitch Beanie for Jen, and an Open Star Stitch Scarf to match (still a WIP).

The basis of open star stitch is;

Cast on a multiple of 3 stitches

1. On R1, knit 4. Cast off the second stitch that was knitted. Yfwd (to increase), knit 3. Cast off the first of the three knitted stitches by passing the stitch over the needle. Repeat until 1 stitch remains, knit 1
2. On R2, purl
3. On R3, knit 2, yfwd. Knit 3, cat off the first of the three knitted stitches by passing the stitch over the needle. Repeat until 2 stitches remain, knit 2
4. On R4, purl

Using Paton’s Inca with standard gauge, the pattern goes like this;

• Cast on 50 stitches on 7mm straight needles (I tried knitting this on circulars, but my 7mm circs are too long. Could be adjusted for circs)
• Knit 1, purl 1 rib until fabric measures 8cm deep
• On the next row, knit 3, inc 1 by knitting stitch and passing it back on to left needle
• Should have 63 stitches.
• Continue in Open Star Stitch as above for a further 15 cm.
• On the next row, knit.
• On the next row, k2tog, repeat until end. Continue rows of k2tog until single stitch remains.
• Sew edges together with wrong sides facing, then sew in ends and turn inside out.

Today I got cash out via EFTPOS at a shop in Geelong. I asked for $100 in cash, which I received. It wasn’t until afterwards that it dawned on me that the amount that I had authorised was $100.01. So, where does the one cent go? Obviously not to me, and probably to the shop which was assuming I wouldn’t notice. I didn’t mention anything at the time – but I want to know whether this is standard practice or just a typo by the woman processing the transaction? Surely one cent is not worth it, but over hundreds or even thousands of transactions? Has anyone been diddled like this?

PHPWomen has two free copies of Zend Studio to give away. Simply be one of the two best writers of a PHP Best Practices article on the PHPWomen forums (as judged by members) between now and the end of July to win

I have some Paton’s Inca in a beige blend (the same colour that the One Piece Jacket was done in) but I can’t find exactly the sort of pattern that I want to knit, so it’s time to design my first jumper. I’m an information systems major rather than a textiles major, so I decided to apply software engineering principles to designing my jumper.

So, first of all, requirements elicitation. The business requirements of the jumper are;

• The jumper must accentuate my “assets” while downplaying any not-so-desirable attributes
• The jumper must fit, and should have plenty of stretch
• The jumper should be easy to maintain
• The jumper’s cost should be less than $150

Translating the business requirements into functional requirements;

• The jumper will have a v-neck that is 2o cms deeper than the top of my shoulder and shaping will begin 8 cms in from the shoulder. The v-neck accentuates the bust while drawing attention away from the hips and gives room for movement
• The jumper will be knitted in 1 x 1 rib to give shaping and stretch
• The jumper will have slight increase to allow for large bust and decreases for waist, possible increase for hips
• The jumper will have sleeves that finish 10 cm below the elbow (my preferred sleeve length)
• Paton’s Inca is $6 at Lincraft or $5.40 at K-mart (unless I can twist Damo’s arm to get ACS to offer bulk packs cheaper). Therefore, the pattern must take less than 26 balls of yarn if I buy them at K-mart.

Next: knitting pattern design using functional decomposition

I recently had an article published by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) of Australia on what Kepner-Tregoe problem solving and decision making offers to ITIL Problem Management.

So far, one of the most useful concepts from KT is the use of a ‘deviation’ to determine whether you do in fact have a ‘problem’. A deviation is defined as the difference between an expected and actual condition – such as a server load twice that of normal, or a host being unresponsive when it should be up. If there is no ‘deviation’, then you must question whether you really have a ‘problem’. This is useful for distinguishing between development requests / enhancement requests and true ‘problems’.

I’ve just installed the WordPress Mobile Edition plugin for WordPress, which means my blog is mobile.
So, does that make it a moblog or a blobile ???

So, if you’re viewing this on a web browser you’re probably wondering what the site actually looks like on a mobile device. I can’t take a picture of it (d’uh!), but it’s basically a plain text list of recent posts – with all the formatting taken out.

I was curious as to how the plugin detects whether the user-agent is mobile. It was straightforward. An array of user agent strings for small browsers (DoCoMo, Wii, Symbian) is created, and if the user agent matches an element of the array, then the plugin generates a mobile-friendly layout.

My installation of WordPress was a bit out of date, so thought I would update it – it was so easy! All that it entailed was downloading the new files and uploading them via FTP.

Tricia is off to Canada in a week or so – and I wanted to knit her something that was warm, but versatile for the trip. Having recently finished the One Piece Jumper using Paton’s Inca, and being very happy with the outcome, Inca was again my tool of choice. Tricia chose the 2 x 2 rib jacket – a collared pattern with a jacket zipper in the front so that it can be worn either closed or open. The jacket is more versatile than a jumper – and would be better for travelling.All the individual pieces of the pattern knitted up OK. The sewing up was also straightforward until the collar. The tension for the collar was difficult to determine, and I had to unpick and resew it twice – I’m still not happy with it! If I had to do the pattern again I would probably pick up stitches after sewing together the front, sleeves and back – and knit the collar from picked up stitches.

The length of the pattern was also puzzling – Tricia is 5′ 0″ so shorter than most people – and the length given in the pattern was the perfect length for her. Therefore if I were knitting this for someone 5′ 9″ or so, I’d add another foot to the length!