Spring Love and what object oriented programming means

I have a confession. I thought that Mobile Makers was full of shit.

You know that saying, if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is? I thought that applied. What are the reasons I was skeptical about Mobile Makers?

1. They say, anyone can learn it (even people who haven't programmed before)
2. They say, people will want to hire you after the class if you work hard (I've been working hard my entire life and no one has jumped at the chance to hire me.)
3. They say, Mobile Makers has a network of peers and mentors that want to help you.
4. They say, Mobile Makers teaches you things that you can't learn on your own.

I don't want to sound like an advertisement for them... but I know for a fact that 3/4 of those things are true (since I haven't completed the class, I don't know if people will want to hire me).

Here is my second confession: I'm in love with Mobile Makers.

Also, I'm in love with life at the moment because it's SPRING and SUNNY.

Yes that is what I'm currently knitting. If you're patient I'll show you what I'm knitting at the end of this. and YES I am doing this class in downtown Chicago. No more suburbs for this girl, I'm an official big city person. I'm probably also loving life because I started taking anti-depressants again. Huzzah mental health.

But back to my undying love for Mobile Makers. I've spent ten hours for the past six days (well... only eight yesterday) dedicating myself to learning objective c. AND IT'S WORKING!!!

I've always known that I pick things up fast, but I didn't realize how fast I can pick things up if I can ask why things happen. One thing I've learned from the past week is that once I know the reason you do something or the reason something works... then I understand it.

Case in point. Segues. What is a Segue in objective c? GOOD QUESTION LET ME ANSWER.

(I'll try to tone it down... sorry just got excited that I TOTALLY KNOW HOW TO CODE)
(I know I just used parenthesis above but I have a funny story about the word segue. Up until a couple years ago, I spelled it segueway because I didn't realize that segue is pronounced seg-way. Thanks sister and Bekky for making me not look like an idiot! Oh english.)

A segue is a way to go from one screen to another and pass along information when you do it. Two points I'd like to make about this. First, this is the entire point of object oriented programming. Programming is basically turning computer language into words so we can modify it. Object oriented programming's strength is that you can break a complicated idea into smaller parts, create a thing or an action (method/function), and use those smaller parts to make a giant thing.

Example (because that was super vague): I want to tell a computer/robot to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could write it this way:

1. open bread bag
2. take two pieces of bread out of bad
3. place slice of bread on the table
4. open jar of peanut butter
5. pick up knife
6. put knife in open jar of peanut butter
7. put peanut butter on knife
8. take knife out of jar
9. rub peanut butter on one side of the bread until evenly coated.
10. put down knife
11. open jar of raspberry jam (the best)
12. pick up knife
13. put knife in open jar of jam
14. put jam on knife
15. take knife out of jar
16. rub jam on one side of the bread until evenly coated
17. put down knife
18. put the two pieces of bread together with the peanut buttered side and jam side touching each other.

That was a lot longer than you thought it would be, but not unbearable. The trouble with this comes when you want to make the ULTIMATE peanut butter and jam sandwich with multiple layers. You would have to repeat 7 steps just to tell the person to do the same thing as before (lines 4-10 are essentially the same as 11-17). And what would happen if you forgot to say to open the jar? then you'd have to go through a huge list of steps to find out where you missed something.

With objective C, you can turn an action into something that's repeatable.

I can hear your attention waning so I'll make this quick.

Instead of having one list, you would have a couple. the first list would turn the 7 lines of code into one method that you would call on whatever property(peanut butter or jam) you want.

prepare bread for sandwich:(topping added)

1. open jar of (topping added)
2. pick up knife
3. put knife in jar of (topping added)
4. put (topping added) on knife
5. take knife out of jar of (topping added)
6. rub (topping added) on one side of the bread.
7. put down knife

Make Sandwich

1. open bread bag
2. take two pieces of bread out of bad
3. place slice of bread on the table
4. prepare bread for sandwich: peanut butter
5. prepare bread for sandwich: jam
6. put the two pieces of bread together with the peanut buttered side and jam side touching each other.

MUCH SIMPLER IN THE LONG RUN. Which is the point of coding. Yes you can do something the long way, but if you want to create something automated that does the same action over and over... why not be lazy about it?

Ok. I was going to talk about segues but that'll have to wait for tomorrow. Because it's time to figure out how to make a tic tac toe game.

PS. I'm making a shawl.

Logic, Life Changes, and Mobile Makers

First off, I'd like to admit that yes I failed on my new years eve resolution gift thing to Bekky. Perhaps I was a little ambitious. Alas, the first step to succeeding is failing... or something like that.

For the next two months this blog is going to be a little different.

(as an aside: I've often thought that I'd be more interested in writing in my blog if it was less blah and more actual Jen. I guess this will test it.)

Why are the next two months different? Because four months ago I decided to change my life. I was sitting at work, miserable because an attorney had just yelled at me for being the devil (or something akin to a demon), when I read an article about something called a "Programming Bootcamp." Now it might surprise you (nine) readers that I'm interested in programming... but let me explain the logic behind it.

(HA GET IT?! Programming is all about logic and so I made a joke referencing that.)

As you may have gathered, I love knitting. It is normally quite impossible to make a living from knitting, so with that off the table I decided to look at what I like about knitting. I love that it's repetitive and you can sink into a rhythm, I love that you can create a finished something, I love that you're constantly learning and pushing yourself to do something new, and most of all I love the community that surrounds it. All these things can be applied to programming.

So long story short, I've spent the last four months saving money, studying objective c, and applying to Mobile Makers.

Let me also say that I am a very skeptical person. I like to believe the best in people and businesses and education, but as my dad always says, "Plan for the worst, hope for the best," (I come from a long line of pessimists realists). Maybe I've also grown jaded from working in legal finance.

That being said, for the next two months I'm going to do a daily blog about my experiences coding at Mobile Makers. I'm going to try and make this a mostly positive blog but it may contain some rants and breakdowns.

Enough introduction. We learned segues today and I have a lot of night work to do to make sure I get it.

DON'T WORRY I'LL STILL BE KNITTING ON THE TRAIN AND POSTING YARNY PICTURES.

The Selfish Selfless Year

Did you hear? It's the New Year! I know that you've been wanting to read another post about resolutions and how this year is going to be different... so here you go.

This past year has been wonderful, but difficult. Wonderful for many reasons: I've met great new people, I've learned new things about myself, I've started on a new path that will improve my life, and I've been rocking in my band.

Here's the difficult part.

and it really shouldn't be that difficult because I'm an open person. I pride myself on 'what you see is what you get' and not being afraid. But I have been afraid.

I could drone on about about why I've been afraid and how society needs to change and blah blah blah. But that's not my style.

My style is straightforward with poor grammar and a lack of conjunctions (don't tell me you didn't notice).

I have Depression.

Not like oh no I get sad sometimes. But more like it makes it hard for me to go out, to go to work, to meet friends, to enjoy doing new things.

As a result, my spinning has been sorely lacking.

(this is where the new year comes in)

One of the things they tell you to do with Depression is to do things. It doesn't matter what you do, it just matters that you ignore the voice telling you that everyone hates you and life is terrible and nothing you do will matter.

It also serves this back-story to tell you about my bestest friend in the entire world: Bekky. Bekky has had a shitty past couple years and I want to make sure that 2015 is great for her. She is one of the only people who reads this blog, so I decided to make this year a sort of dedication to her.

That means that every month, I am going to spin some amount of yarn, blog about it, and then send the final yarn to her. I can't guarantee that I will blog every week, but even twice a month is more than what I did last year.

Merry Christmas Bekky! This is your Christmas present! A full year of Jen yarn!

What does spinning yarn for my best friend and Depression have to do with each other? 2015 is going to be about taking care of myself and taking care of others. AKA the Selfish Selfless year.

BALLER.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to spin some mohair onto this lovely bit of roving below.

Summer of '69 (but actually 2014)

I bet if you look at the breakdown of when I post new knitting blogs, they are never in summer and always in fall/winter. You probably think it's because I don't knit in the summer, but you are an idiot. 

Of course I knit in the summer! I just do so much other stuff that it's impossible for me to tell you about it. When push comes to shove, I'm a sucker for summer. It's never too hot or too sunny for me. 

This summer has been especially busy because I've been playing a bunch of shows in my band Tea Tsunami. Oh did I forget to mention I'm a drummer?

(cut to me basking in the glory of being awesome)

But enough excuses, let's get to what I did do this summer.

Spun.

Beer.

Knit lace.

Knit Cables.

Saw sheep.

Fell deeply in love with sheep.

Brats.

ADORABLE.

Bought Fiber.

Hung out with my bestie!

Knit a baby sweater.

And these are just the yarn-y highlights!

Probably my favorite knitting/yarn related thing was going to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival with my best friend of all time: Bekky. 

One of the most obnoxious things about being a knitting is hearing the comparison to being a grandma. I understand where this comes from, but I happen to know quite a few people my age (aka young) who knit. However, at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival, I felt  young beyond my years.

Age ain't nothin but a thang though. Because Bekky and I spent a solid 3 hours walking around TWO warehouses of yarn and fiber and sheep and rabbits. We cooed, we swooned, we fondled (the yarn you pervert).

And I ended up with some beautiful beautiful things.

Don't worry faithful blog readers, it's fall so I'll be able to keep you posed about what they become.

Classy bitches spin thin

 I recently splurged and bought myself a pound of Cheviot wool from paradisefibers.com. Naturally I rationalized it as, "I could easily make a profit and this will be the roving that starts my indie spinning/dying business." How am I doing with that?

Oh, you know. Just non-existent. But I did see the inner desire of what this bag wants to be.

I don't know how I came up with this vision, but all of a sudden I wanted to make this huge fluffy bag into lace-weight yarn. Well, that may not be entirely true. Initially I was going to see if this wanted to be a 2-ply or a single. Once I started spinning it, I saw that it had a lovely halo effect and knew this had to be a single lace-weight yarn. (let it be known that I don't know if my spinning buzz words like 'halo' and 'single' are being used correctly. I feel painfully n00bish about all this. Also about my internet slang use of the word n00b. Because I do the internet wrong.)

Apparently the spinning gods do NOT understand that if I want this to be something, it should be easy. I have had a hell of a time making this small quantity. Literally I've down this process (sit down, spin for 5 minutes, have fledgling yarn break, give up, and walk away) happen 8 times.

Today I finally decided to do my usual classy blocking of the yarn (sexy heels that have literally never been worn but have gotten their monies worth by making pretty yarn for me) and decide to see how this fucking obnoxious makes me want to die lovely yarn looks while it's knit.

Because one thing I HAVE been doing lately is reading about spinning. Apparently the good way to do spinning is to spin something, knit a swatch, and..... adjust?

I'm not really sure about the last part. But I did get that I should be swatching.

THICK HEADS BUT THIN YARNS.

Spring Cleaning

I'm pretty sure knitters don't understand how much yarn they have at one time, let alone how many unfinished objects they have (UFOs). Yarn is pretty light and compact so it's easy to think that you don't really have enough and you can afford to buy just one more skein.

Me personally, I haven't bought much yarn in the past year. I have been on a bit of a fiber binge (1 lb of cotton, 1 lb of wool, assorted alpaca), but I've rationalized it by saying that I need it because I don't have as much fiber as I do yarn.

This past weekend I decided to organize my yarn stash.

Because.... Maybe it was a little out of control. But once I started going through my UFOs (unfinished objects for those slow readers out there), I found some things that I remembered the love and remembered the hurt.

Now these two projects above don't look too terrible. But let's microanalyze them. The hat looks quite lovely. It has a beautiful pattern and decent colors... The only problem is that it literally is too big for any normal human head. That entire hat either needs to find a Giant to wear it, or needs to be ripped out so I can reuse the yarn for something that could actually work. Next to it is an almost pair of socks. There is nothing obviously wrong about this project. The yarn is beautiful, the socks fit, the stitch pattern is interesting. The main problem? I ran out of yarn. That means I either have to spend twenty dollars to finish 1/4 of a sock, or rip out most of the first sock to finish the second. There is a third option. I could use some of my assorted leftover sock yarn to construct a not even remotely matching second sock. Which is not really an option.

Then I came across this red and pink mitten. It was a pain to knit. The yarn is much too thick for the needle size I used; which made knitting these like fitting a ham through a pin-needle (a feat I often attempt but never succeed).

Ergo. I have one mitten without a thumb.

Then you come across yarn that has decided to fraternize (yarn sex) with surrounding yarn (slutty yarn). This requires hours of untangling which would lead most mortals to insanity.

Luckily I'm not normal.

I love untangling yarn.


(spoiler alert. I'm a weirdo)

This is a lovely sock that stopped. Maybe I just needed some winding up.

These just need some finishing. And a baby.

This was a test knit that bored me to tears.

Although it's beautiful. and 3/4 of the way finished.

What do I end with? Knowledge that I should NOT buy more yarn until I make at least 30 more things.

In which I compare crack to socks and insure a Bronco victory.

I would talk about what I've been spinning lately, but I'm getting rather frustrated with it so I'm putting it on time out.

The thing with knitting is that sometimes you have to jump start yourself. I mean yes, I love knitting more than many things in my life and it brings me great joy and blah blah blah. But it can be a chore.

Do you know what you do when you fall out of love with something? You remind yourself what you like about it.

Color. 

Nick has hairy man legs.

I adore color. This particularly beautiful skein of sock yarn includes a lot of my favorite colors: lime green, dark blue, red... 

There were two things in that sentence that gave me back my knitting mojo. Color and sock yarn. 

Socks are crack to knitters. They are portable, relatively quick, easy and interesting, and beautiful. That is why less than a week after starting this exquisite form of crack.... I have:

The socks that will cause the Broncos to win the Superbowl. You're welcome Colorado.