A colleague and I commiserated about the dual burden of bringing our families to conferences with us. The purpose of a conference is to meet with your colleagues. But business travel takes precious time away from family--unless you bring your family along. Then we are torn between wanting to be with both colleagues and family, but having to choose.
Try getting ready for a business meeting and a family trip at the same time.
So why do it at all? Because the younger scientists are watching. Because our daughters are watching.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Depressing News
The time study scientists have noticed that working mothers are stretched to the limit. We can't seem to manufacture more time. You can read the NY Times article.
NASA has finally admitted that they cannot do all the things that various parties want them to do with the budget they have been given. Therefore, science is going out the window. You can read the official version here. The saddest part IMHO is the suspension of the explorer missions. So many graduate students' research were funded by that program. If this nation is serious about producing more scientists and engineers, we would put more funding into supporting exciting and compelling research projects for students. [I am speaking strictly as a private citizen and this does not reflect the policies of the company that I work for.]
Another digression
At my 20th high school reunion, I was astonished by how many people worked in marketing and how few people worked in production. I use production in a loose sense to mean producing things, ideas, art, intellectual property or providing necessary services. Do the vast majority of people in this nation work in inducing people to buy things that they don't need? [This explanation of what marketers do comes from a friend who is a very successful marketer.]
NASA has finally admitted that they cannot do all the things that various parties want them to do with the budget they have been given. Therefore, science is going out the window. You can read the official version here. The saddest part IMHO is the suspension of the explorer missions. So many graduate students' research were funded by that program. If this nation is serious about producing more scientists and engineers, we would put more funding into supporting exciting and compelling research projects for students. [I am speaking strictly as a private citizen and this does not reflect the policies of the company that I work for.]
Another digression
At my 20th high school reunion, I was astonished by how many people worked in marketing and how few people worked in production. I use production in a loose sense to mean producing things, ideas, art, intellectual property or providing necessary services. Do the vast majority of people in this nation work in inducing people to buy things that they don't need? [This explanation of what marketers do comes from a friend who is a very successful marketer.]
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Knitting with Wire Lessons Learned
With only 2 wire bracelets under my belt, I decided to share a few lessons learned.
1. Use cheap metal needles that you won’t mind scratching up.
2. The needles will slip out of the stitches no matter how careful you are.
3. This won’t matter because the stitches won’t run (ladder).
4. This works for you when you drop stitches.
5. This works against you if you make a mistake and want to rip out stitches.
6. There is no need to cast on to 3 needles to make the bracelet in the round like in the picture I posted earlier. Cast all the required stitches onto one long metal needle. Pull out the long needle and divide up the stitches onto 3 needles. Knit with the 4th needle.
7. I found it helpful to knit on a pillow placed on my lap. This kept the knitting level so the needles were less likely to fall out.
8. Knitting ‘combination’ style so that the leading edge of the stitch is towards the back was easier.
9. When knitting combination style in the round, wrap the yarn the other direction than you would in forming a western-style knit stitch.
10. There is no need to hold the wire to regulate tension. This makes wrapping the yarn a breeze.
11. Combination style knitting is very important for setting up for the final k2tog bind off row. If you aren’t able to get used to combination knitting, just knit the western way and then rotate the stitches so they mount the other way before starting the bind off row.
12. Then pull the needle out, manually twist the stitches to face the other way and then scoop them back on the needle.
13. Use much smaller needles than you would use for yarn to obtain the same gauge. I knitted the bracelet with size 4 (3.5 mm). To even up the cast on row on the second bracelet, I used a size 9 (5.5 mm) needle.
keywords: knitting, wire
1. Use cheap metal needles that you won’t mind scratching up.
2. The needles will slip out of the stitches no matter how careful you are.
3. This won’t matter because the stitches won’t run (ladder).
4. This works for you when you drop stitches.
5. This works against you if you make a mistake and want to rip out stitches.
6. There is no need to cast on to 3 needles to make the bracelet in the round like in the picture I posted earlier. Cast all the required stitches onto one long metal needle. Pull out the long needle and divide up the stitches onto 3 needles. Knit with the 4th needle.
7. I found it helpful to knit on a pillow placed on my lap. This kept the knitting level so the needles were less likely to fall out.
8. Knitting ‘combination’ style so that the leading edge of the stitch is towards the back was easier.
9. When knitting combination style in the round, wrap the yarn the other direction than you would in forming a western-style knit stitch.
10. There is no need to hold the wire to regulate tension. This makes wrapping the yarn a breeze.
11. Combination style knitting is very important for setting up for the final k2tog bind off row. If you aren’t able to get used to combination knitting, just knit the western way and then rotate the stitches so they mount the other way before starting the bind off row.
12. Then pull the needle out, manually twist the stitches to face the other way and then scoop them back on the needle.
13. Use much smaller needles than you would use for yarn to obtain the same gauge. I knitted the bracelet with size 4 (3.5 mm). To even up the cast on row on the second bracelet, I used a size 9 (5.5 mm) needle.
keywords: knitting, wire
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