Summer should not be ending!

I just need two extra weeks of August.  That would be perfect.  Where are those time turners when you need them?  My research is hopping along, but I still have a lot to do.  (Note wonderful three people who read this blog:  you will hear that a lot until I finish this which could be all year).

Knitting:  I have yet to finish the socks.  I have started a new project:  a knitted chimp.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I am knitting a monkey stuffed animal.  So far I have the body, the backside of the head, 1 and 1/2 arms completed.  The pattern was features in a magazine by the designer extraordinary : Alan Dart.  His designs are amazing.  You cannot tell me this is not the cutest dragon you have ever seen?  The details are amazing (check out Medieval Mice for an example).

Well, I better get back my research.  Reading, revising, writing, and designing are on the menu today.

Fun Filled Times: Research and Knitting

I spend most of my days working on my research.  A little programming, but the majority of my current time is spent reading and writing.  A lot is reading search results and picking out what I am actually wanting.  (Initials of one of my topics is similar to a major company making for some interesting searching).

In the evenings, my break is watching tv and knitting.  Warehouse 13, Psych, and Leverage are currently my knitting background.  I am currently knitting presents for others and trying to decide my next project.  Yes, I will finish those socks, but that is my "to-go" project so I am saving it.  Anyway, next project possibilities:  A monkey, a sleeveless sweater, hat/scarf set, or a lacy wrap/scarf.  I have recently purchased yarn for all of these.  OK, I slightly lie.  I have yarn for multiple hat/scarf sets and lacy scarfs.  Of course, once I narrow down the project, then I have to narrow down yarn choices.  Choices, choices, choices!  Which project should I pick next?

Movies I Watch Every Year

In the heat and mugginess of the summer, I like to stay inside and watch a good movie.  (I also get a lot of good knit time in while watching these movies).  These are movies that I try to watch sometime each year.  Why?  Because I think they are just that good!  (Included are a few made for tv movies, but I count those as movies).

The list of yearly watch movies (in no particular order):

• The Lord of the Rings (I personally prefer the extended editions)
• North by Northwest
• Anne of Green Gables (all three parts)
• Murder, She Said
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• The Thin Man
• Wall-E
• The First Wives Club
• Meet Me in St. Louis
• Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Miss Potter
• Clue
• The Muppet Movie
• My Fair Lady
• NetForce
• Dial M for Murder
• The Princess Diaries
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Star Wars (Episodes I-VI)
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Bringing Up Baby
• The Mirror Has Two Faces
• The Da Vinci Code

Why is Knitting Like Software Engineering?

On a quick side note:  I (and my computer) managed to survive a second try at yoga.

Now on to why you started reading this post in the first place.  You were just trying to know how I was going to relate those two topics!  These topics may seem to be unrelated but I have come up with a quick little explanation.

During software engineering process you often toss out more code than you finally use in the end.  The tossing out can be for various reasons:  found a better way, changed the design of other components, not needing the component, redesign, it only was needed once and was really short, combining multiple similar components, etc.  I think I remember something about tossing out 70% of the overall code written for a project.  Anyway, throwing away and starting over is often a requirement or a good thing.

Knitting has frogging.  (No I am not making that term up my non-knitting friends.  Need proof:  read this).  Frogging involves completely starting over or preparing the yarn for a new project.  Like with software engineering, frogging happens for a bunch of reasons:  mistakes, dropped stitches, deciding that the project does not work with the yarn/needle size, you just don't like the project, need to make the item bigger or smaller, etc.

Summary:  Both are hard to do, but it is often for the best.