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Thursday, October 28, 2004 Moving I'm fed up with Blogger, and installed WordPress. Go to my new blog here. wendy at 10/28/2004 05:24:18 AM Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Transformation It's amazing how my boss can foster so much creativity and invention. We've had this "work harder, not smarter" culture for so long ... but now that we've turned the corner, so to speak, reinventing ourselves and our processes for the new building, we're questioning everything. Why not install conveyors in our current building? If they have to cross a traffic lane - move the traffic. And the gains we've made in efficiency are being measured in the double digits. Yesterday we moved packing tables, and gained about 600 square feet of floor space, lowered the workload of the team leaders by 30%, decreased shopping travel by 10%, and increased packer output by 12%. My unbidden thought? "Now we don't have to move ..." No knitting last night, but Sunday evening I turned the heel on the first Vera sock. It's pretty cool, turning the heel first thing. My last pair of LL socks are a bit tight, so I increased my usual 60 sts to 62. It's back on the circular needle now, cruising to the toe. And the alpaca cardi continues, with the back yoke progressing. Its decreases are complete, and it's now just straight knitting. I tried it on, and it looks like it needs another 3" or so to the shoulder seam. wendy at 10/27/2004 05:57:30 AM Sunday, October 24, 2004 Debbie Bliss is not for me But, browsing at the LYS, I found a book I'd love to get for Christmas (hint, hint). I can't find it on Amazon, though, or remember the title - but I think it's by Hanne Falkenberg. Shoot. Lisa, do you remember the book? The last one I lingered over? If the Falkenberg kits weren't so darned expensive, I'd buy almost all of them. And Domino Knitting wasn't for me, but Vivian Hoxbro's new book looks very cool - Shadow Knitting. The only purchase to which I actually succumbed was sock yarn. Two skeins of Shepherd Sock in "Vera", and one of Cherry Tree Hill in "African Grey". [I've amended my dream of a drawerful of handknit socks, to a drawerful of socks knit from Cherry Tree Hill and Lorna's Laces.] Vera is on the needles already, and I'm going to use up all the yarn - I've provisionally cast on at the ankle, and after the foot is done I'll knit up the leg until it's finished. The crochet picot cast off is perfect for this - there's plenty of stretch. We perused the baby knitting books, and there are some absolutely gorgeous patterns from Dale. Too nice for the ex-DH's new baby, I decided. I'll file these away for grandchildren. wendy at 10/24/2004 06:40:55 AM Friday, October 22, 2004 TGIF Friday already! I've got my bounce back, feeling much better since about Wednesday. Work is nuts, as always; today we have three phone system vendors coming in with quotes. Geez, the phone system costs almost as much as the building! And my new IT-guy, Paul, started Tuesday. He's already worked through the 3-week project list I had for him when he started. Wow. No knitting has happened this week, though I have spun a bit (plying the merino/cashmere - what else?) I think tomorrow is guild day, but I better check the calendar. I'll bring the JW and the denim roving, for a change. Staffan called me yesterday, to discuss weekend plans. He wants to go to the "Middle School Fun Day" this afternoon, but skip the roller skating party that follows; could I pick him up at the school at 6 pm? He's growing up so fast. Not to be outdone by his brother, Sean surprised me yesterday, too. We'd left another note about our frustration with housekeeping. When I got home, the kitchen and living room were sparkling - dusted, vacuumed, everything! He'd written an awesome note in reply, then cooked scallops in vodka sauce for dinner. I am, again, amazed at him. Hey, Lisa - I heard you found the CD you wanted the other night, but the one I was thinking of is still here. Did you get the right one? And, are you free tomorrow, do you want to go to spinning guild with me? Call me when you get a chance. wendy at 10/22/2004 05:59:22 AM Saturday, October 16, 2004 I love my Capresso There are a couple appliances in this house that make me smile every time I use them. The refrigerator/freezer, because of the glass slide-out shelves and the light in the freezer compartment. The dryer, because of the light inside. And the Capresso, because it's so damn slick. Best features:
It was damned expensive, but we've had it for three years now. The two years before that, we went through three or four cheaper coffeemakers and one glass-lined vacuum carafe. I worked a bit on the alpaca cardi yesterday. I added a steek in front, because I hate purling all the way back. And I put in pockets, carefully measured to hold my cell phone or a pack of cigarettes. About 4" above the ribbing, I just knit in waste yarn where I wanted the openings to be. After another inch or so, I picked out the waste yarn and knit the pocket-back, then on the other edge I knit an inch of ribbing. For the pocket back, I added a couple stitches for ease, then slip-stitched it down. So far, it looks great. wendy at 10/16/2004 08:09:34 AM Wednesday, October 13, 2004 a little math problem Not pure math, of course, but applied math. If you have 7,000 items, and some of them are commonly ordered with other items, and some of them are ordered hundreds of times a day while others are ordered only twice a week ... Where do you put them? Not in a collective sense ("put them in the warehouse, dummy") but in the singular sense: where do you put each item? Data to gather:
That part - gathering the data - is relatively easy. The hard part is the actual analysis, weighting velocity, relationships and size into some kind of matrix that will be easy to read and understand. Then, doing it in a repeatable way - so every week, in the future, we can run the analysis and move stuff. This is what keeps me up at night. wendy at 10/13/2004 06:14:22 AM Tuesday, October 12, 2004 More startitis I came home early yesterday, feeling like crap. Soon I'll have to admit this is a cold, and take care of it. For now, I'm just sniffling, sneezing, stuffy and slightly dazed. Anyway, I went to bed with the alpaca poncho started last week. Before the first episode of West Wing was over, I'd frogged it completely in favor of a cardigan. Three false starts (duh, a cardigan isn't knit in the round) and about 6 episodes later, it's three inches long. No pattern, just stocking stitch, and seamless. It'll be cropped length and, if I get very brave, have set-in sleeves. I'd like a suit-jacket type of collar, but that's still pretty vague. wendy at 10/12/2004 06:42:45 AM |
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