You be me for a while, and I'll be you

[roadrunnertwice]

I'm testing out one of those new Mac builds of Chromium (via), and it is actually kind of awesome! Feels sleek.

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Lately I haven't been posting as often as I otherwise might have, because it turns out that I'm actually kind of reliant on having a native-app LJ client. And they all suck right now.

Xjournal used to be awesome, but it doesn't work with Dreamwidth and is stagnant these days anyway. iJournal always kinda sucked, and now it hasn't been touched for three years. MarsEdit technically works, but its DW and LJ support is... lacking. asLJ is too new to trust, Deepest Sender kind of defeats the purpose of using a client in the first place, and nothing supports the DW crossposter. So I have to post via a web form, which shouldn't slow me down as much as it does, but it does, so.

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I AM MOVING HOUSE. Gonna go live with Schwern in inner Northeast! It'll be rad. I have not even started packing yet. Expect me to become increasingly bugfuck insane until the 6th or so.

The place I'm moving into is a 2nd-floor apartment in a brick building that kind of reminds me of my digs in Minneapolis. Not anything close to identical, but familiar enough to immediately feel like home.

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That is a rather large spider in the bathroom, isn't it? I have granted her Not My Problem status, on the condition that she gets off the counter within the next half hour.

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Writing continues to be difficult. DON' WANNA TALK 'BOUT IT.

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It's one of those nights where The Replacements are once again everything I could ever want from pop music.

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So yeah, this is my new job. I likes it lots. Folks is cool. Things:

• The yarn world is far larger and stranger than I imagined.
• Indigo is awesome. No, seriously, it's the weirdest shit. Reacts on oxygen contact! Changes color as you watch!
• We get free coffee. My caffeine tolerance has shot through the roof.
• The shop runs on this app called POS·IM, which apparently has a 20-year lineage and is One Hairy-Ass Beast. It's got a majorly schizoid personality. On the one hand, it's been polished for 20 years to suit the needs of small-to-midsize retail outfits, and in general, the developers have thought of everything you will need to do with the thing. On the other hand, the interface seems to be held together with baling wire and fun-tak, the search capabilities are about the least sophisticated I've ever seen, and none of the features seem able to decide whether they're made for database-savvy power users or the technically-disinclined. The manual is written in at least two, probably more like three different voices, which switch off without discernible pattern and use distinctly different sets of vocabulary. It perversely re-invents every available wheel. It makes it frustratingly fidgety and tedious to make any large-scale changes to the inventory, and frighteningly easy to wreck vast havoc.
  • I am absolutely confident in my ability to bend it to my will. JUST YOU WAIT.
• No, I don't know how to knit yet. Gimme another week or two.

Comments

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

A yarn store, huh...

Funnily enough, Robin and her mom are planning on attending Sock Summit. Maybe I should mention to her the store at the very least.

[roadrunnertwice]

Oh, cool! Sock Summit looks kind of insane; our shop will be representing in force, and one of them told me that the Summit's server fell over due to load during the registration rush.

Anyway, it's a cool shop, so I'm sure she'll see some cool stuff at our booth. Our naturally-dyed yarns are especially slick.

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was thinking more along the lines of "I wonder if you'd be there?"

I heard about the server meltdown. Somehow, Robin got most of the classes she wanted while her mom didn't. There were apparently many cases of payment confirmations being sent but class reservations not being made. I wonder how all that'll play out. It sounds like a huge mess.

[roadrunnertwice]

I don't think I'm going to be manning the convention, though I guess it's too early to really know. But I'll be around the city regardless, so we might be able to meet up anyway!

[nightswatch.livejournal.com]

This shop seriously sounds like something out of Discworld. I have a hard time believing yarn shops just exist in the real world, or at the very least that they don't spring into existence with pre-formed staff of old biddies.

Also, man, work-related software? It's always so bad! Why? Why?

Portland has MULTIPLE large yarn shops

[roadrunnertwice]

Yeah, making your own textiles sounds kind of outdated, right? But no, I've been informed that yarn is a multi-billion dollar industry. o_o I'm peripherally aware of yarn culture and its modern mutations via people like b_zedan, but the enormity of it still kind of bowls me over.

Re: Portland has MULTIPLE large yarn shops

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you'd have a list somewhere...? Don't know how much time Robin and her mom will have outside of the summit, but I suspect they'd be interested to know.

Re: Portland has MULTIPLE large yarn shops

[roadrunnertwice]

Let's see... there's us, and the guys at the shop seem to consider Twisted over in Northeast to be pretty great. Other than that, I'm basically new to the whole thing and have no idea what's what. I'll ask around though; I guess ask me again closer to August?

There is such a thing as fibre shop tourism, trust me.

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

Ravelry.com lists 42 local yarn shops within fifty miles of PDX. Granted, one of those is an Etsy shop, but still.

Do you need a more comprehensive list? I could narrow it down for you.

Re: There is such a thing as fibre shop tourism, trust me.

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

*smacks head*

I should've thought of that, to be honest. Robin's already on Ravelry, and probably already knows about looking up shops on it. Thanks.

[turandot.livejournal.com]

I remember using POS systems. Not fondly, mind you. Just remember it. It's why I am still pathologically afraid of working retail for any portion of the remainder of my life. Mind you, this was in the mid 90s, so I'm hoping it's been improved somewhat. Good luck.

[roadrunnertwice]

Haha, thanks! I'm slowly starting to get a handle on it; got the spreadsheet import system sorta figured out today, and also discovered that all the search fields accept SQL wildcards, which will make life a lot easier for everyone in the shop. It's still a bit of a monster, but I'm sure I can deal.

[emmling.livejournal.com]

I'm learning to crochet!

[roadrunnertwice]

Sweet!

David, one of the other dudes at the shop, designed this (I THINK crocheted?) swine flu memorial face mask with a pig snout on it. A glass head on one of the shelves at work is wearing it. It is amazing.

[gyladia.livejournal.com]

There was a rather large spider on the camera lens of the Fox News weather cam in Seattle today. I think we were supposed to be paying attention to the clear skies or something, but the weather guy couldn't stop screaming "Ugh, don't look at it! I hate those things! Ick! Yes guys, I'm arachnophobic" the whole time it was up.

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

The in-house dye shop totally sounds like fun (and infinitely easier than running a dye works out of your kitchen). It's like alchemy for string. Do you mostly use natural dyes with heavy metals as mordant? Or do you use acid dyes too?

Yes, the fibre world is both vast and incredibly specialized. The knitting and community has finally found its way onto the internet and has realized in the process that we LOVE to disseminate information about what we do. There's so much to learn, weird little tricks to trade about making a project more polished, knowing what fibres are best for what, cultural variances in knitting/crocheting/spinning/weaving. Someone always knows more than you do about $_technique and yarn shops for a long time were the main way to connect.

I know you probably got some of this impression from Women's Work: The First 2000 Years but that was archaeology. This is living culture. I think you'll have fun with it.

Good luck with the move.

And one of these days I've got to stop confusing The Replacements with The Rentals. Damn kooky band names.

[roadrunnertwice]

Alchemy for string, that is about right.

We've got acid dyes on hand, and there's a woman only loosely affiliated with us who does some amazing hand-painted stuff under her own Abstract Fiber brand, but the stuff we sell under our name is all natural dyes. As far as I know, we don't mordant with heavy metals (which sounds kind of terrifying! But I'm a total weenie about bioaccumulative toxics, I assume it's safe if you know what you're doing); I thiiiiiink all our mordanting is done with a mix of oxalic acid, cream of tartar, and something else I forget, probably soda or something. The only dyeing I've done so far is with indigo (which doesn't need a mordant), so I'm still kind of hazy on that part.

(The culture fascinates me! This is actually reminding me a lot of my job at the bakery; I seem to be developing a habit of being employed by entire alternate universes. Which suits me wonderfully.)

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

Copper, iron, tin, and alum are the commonest mordants for natural dyes, but not the only ones. Not true heavy metals like you'd have in the periodic table.

Acid dyes use vinegar as a mordant, so they're a lot less of a toxic fuss in some regards. (Koolaid and microwaves! Of course, that gives you less-than subtle coloring.)