Category Archives: Musings

Musings

A short story of the evolution of double spaces

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Do you put one space or two spaces between sentences?

In my long-ago schooldays when typing a paper, I was taught to have 2 spaces between sentences. I don’t recall that I ever questioned the reason for this — it was just a given like other seemingly superfluous (maybe ridiculous?) rules in school.

Of course, that was long before the advent of desktop publishing on computers with proportional fonts. As I learned much later, the theory is that double spaces was deemed necessary for mono-spaced typewriter fonts. But historically for movable type (and now for proportional digital fonts), the extra space is not necessary.

Most modern references cite single space between sentences to be proper form, especially when using proportional fonts. I happen to be a total single-space-between-sentences convert. I didn’t need much motivation, and was actually somewhat relieved of no longer being burdened by that ‘rule’.

I still get submissions from many people who use double spacing. It isn’t too difficult to do a mass change-and-replace to single spacing if I need that for stylistic consistency with other material that is being published under my branding. Sometimes, if an article is left stand-alone (or is a quote from someone), I leave the double spacing. An example is the recent guest blog visit from Catherine Wingate).

So, I’m not really here to argue which is correct — single spacing or double spacing. But rather to acknowledge that it is evolving with the influence of technology.

I am sure that it is not coincidental that Apple technology adopted hitting the space bar twice (e.g. on iPhone) to insert a period followed by a (single) space. Now that’s efficiency without wasted space and motion. I can live with ‘double spaces’ there, because it is an elegant solution to satisfying proponents of double-spacing and single-spacing alike, lol.

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Musings

What’s Your Different Name for Today?

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My motto here at “Taking Time to Smell the Roses” is to take the opportunities we can to have a little fun now and then. There’s a good excuse today, because the folks over at Wellcat.com have established Feburary 13th as Get a Different Name Day holiday. This is the day we may change our name to whatever we wish and have the right to expect colleagues, family and friends to so address us.

In case you have never thought about changing your name (even for a day) and are at a loss how to join in celebrating this holiday, check out this site — Fantasy Name Generator

The justification for today’s holiday is in part for those who hate the birth names they were given. For those in the U.S., you might find it interesting to see if your given name is on the list of Popular Baby Names for the year you were born. My given name is not, but I still found it interesting to check various years and see how names cycled in popularity.

Jacquelin without an 'e'
Jacquelin without an 'e' - 4 months old

So the story goes, here is how my parents picked a name for me. They thought I was going to be a boy (or maybe that was their wishful thinking?) and they had already picked out the name Jack (after my Mom’s brother Uncle Jack). So I guess they were back-peddling in the hospital to quickly come up with a derivative name for the little girl baby that the stork delivered instead, lol.

I don’t hate my birth name, but the uncommon spelling entered on the birth certificate has been a minor grief throughout my life. My legal first name is Jacquelin. That’s right, no ‘e’ on the end. You wouldn’t believe the countless legal documents I’ve had to send back for correction because invariably people want to add an ‘e’. “Jacquelin-without-the-e” became a well-rehearsed jingle.

Almost no one ever calls me Jacquelin. I go by Jackie. But my fantasy name is Nichole — or Nicky for short. So that is what you need to call me today, ok?

What’s your name for today?

p.s. Thanks to Thomas and Ruth Roy at Wellcat for permission to share this holiday with you.

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Musings, The Designing Day

The designing of … by Catherine Wingate

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I am pleased that Catherine Wingate, author designer of The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal, is here to give us a peek into “The Designing of …”  process behind her sock designs. I think you will enjoy, as did I, hearing the what and why of inspirations for a few of her favorite designs. And now turning this over to Catherine —

Catherine Wingate
Catherine Wingate

As a designer, I’ve been queried about the design process itself.  “Does the yarn inspire you first and initiate the creative process?” “Do you start with a design in mind and then search for a suitable yarn?”  “Do certain knitting stitches themselves come first and lead to a design?”

Yes to all, at least in my case.  I’ve experienced all of the above along with some other inspirational triggers that I’m forgetting at the moment.

Yarn can always be a primary source of inspiration.  Every fiber-player has picked up a skein of something lovely and instantly slipped into daydreaming about what it could become.  The variables relative to the yarn play out in the mind almost unconsciously as one ponders the quality, fragility, twist, structure, wear-ability and other facets while mentally seeing possible finished projects.  Some yarns are designed with a specific purpose, e.g., sock yarns, so the daydreaming starts further along in the design process…

Ahoy! Socks
Ahoy! Socks

Sometimes I begin with a finished design in mind and reverse engineer the process to decide which yarn(s) would work out best.

For example, I designed  Ahoy! Socks after sailing on the tall-ship Gazela Primera and wanted to mimic a fat, thick, traditional hawser cable that we saw during a stopover at Mystic Seaport.  I used a combination cabled stitch for the motif and a springy, twist-retentive yarn to maintain the integrity of the resulting texture.  [A pet peeve of mine is the wrong yarn for a project with the inevitable poor result and lack of wear-ability.]

Sock Therapy
Sock Therapy Socks

There are certain knitting stitches that I am strongly drawn to and want to use in designs.  Usually they’re stitches that have textural value and that I’ve not seen used in other designers’ recent work.  The stream stitch, used and well-received in Sock Therapy, exemplifies what I most value in a stitch; that it be easy, and fun, to knit — with  both the easy and fun requirements filled by  a stitch pattern that has a short and simple multiple-and-repeat structure so that a knitter can easily master it.  I am partial to stitches that provide what Mary Thomas’ book would call a textured fabric for both their importance in the history of hand-knitting and their beauty.

Sweet Valentine
Sweet Valentine Socks

And then, sometimes, there’s a design that continues to please the creator and originated from all three of the inspirations.  I am immodestly happy that knitters have enjoyed Sweet Valentine because the stitch and the yarn and desired end result worked exactly the way I’d hoped…and that does not always happen, yet alone so easily!

Thanks so much Catherine for stopping by. I enjoyed working with you on The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal.

And readers, thank you also for visiting with us today. If you enjoyed seeing these designs and would like to see more of Catherine’s designs in her two books, hop on over to these gallery pages at Ravelry for The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal

p.s. Although the mini-monthly calendars are out of date in the books, Catherine’s classic sock patterns are still a popular knit anytime of the year.

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Musings, The Designing Day

Have our eyes fooled us?

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Do you sometimes think you are following instructions, then find out later your eyes fooled you? Maybe your first clue is that things are not working out. Or maybe something is just not making sense.

Here’s a quick tip that has often helped me, and it might save you time and frustration if you are having trouble in the future …

Read instructions out loud! Well, maybe you don’t have to recite to everyone nearby, but definitely read at least in a whisper so that you form each word with your mouth. Even say the punctuation!

You’d be amazed at how many times our eyes can fool us and go right past important ‘signals’ in the instructions, like punctuation. Or even words that our eyes glide right past or think they are seeing some other word. Reading out loud (even at a whisper) can slow you and me down a bit and force us to pay attention to the signals better.

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Musings

2 minutes (or less)

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February is designated as National Time Management Month. In this ever-increasing fast-paced world that tries to cram more commitments into a constrained 24-hour day, it seems even more critical to find efficient ways of doing work and other mundane things that will free up time for more enjoyable, less stressful activities. In fact, this is totally in keeping with the idea of this blog for “Taking to smell the roses”.

I wanted to share with you a mindset that has helped me over the past couple of months regain some wasted time I was creating for myself before. It is the Two Minute Rule in tip 160 of Jamie Novak’s book 1000 Best Quick and Easy Organizing Secrets. It’s a really simple idea: if you can do a task in two minutes or less, do it right then.

There were so many things that I would put off until later that actually ended up taking so little time. Instead, I’d fret about them, and of course the longer this would go on, the harder and longer it would be to get back into doing something that should have been able to be done quickly.

The most glaring example was the counters where my mail would accumulate. Sure, I’d quickly (sometimes) look through what had come in, but then just put it back into a pile to deal with later. Sometimes envelopes or boxes would go for days (dare I say months) going un-opened. Reshuffling the pile periodically to see what I should have attended to already took extra time. It took extra time to repeatedly pick up the piece of paper and re-read something to know what it was. And even then I might just put it off. And there we go with another cycle of wasted time.

How silly, I know. But that is the habit I had gotten into. It was wasting time!

Now I have a little game I play with myself to see how quickly I can get through each day’s mail. Each piece is quickly given the 2 minute (or less) test. When the mail/packages arrive, they are brought to a place close to a designated trash can. Each piece is quickly given the 2-minute (or less) test. Junk mail is immediately trashed. All other is opened immediately and filed or put into the designated place where it will be dealt with (e.g. a bills due by date file).

I know … this all seems pretty obvious. And so are most of the other 1000 tips in this book. But this tip and others in the book are something that have helped jog me into action to de-clutter my life of time wasters.

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