Track Your Progress, A Public Service Announcement

As I was sipping my latté this morning and reading blogs (now you know why my comments are often incoherent), I noticed some nifty progress trackers on Laura's blog. I'm always on the look out for ready-made progress bars because I'm too cheap to pay for the super-customizable version of Typepad and code them myself. OK sure, I'm just being lazy on that last point.

See my new bars on the left? I got them from Yarn Tomato, who not only has a handy-dandy little Web form that will help you make your own bars in your favorite colors, but she also has sets of pre-made bars that you can just download without any fuss. I did the latter, because I'm, uh, lazy.

Unlike other trackers that expect you to muck around in CSS code when you're ready to report some progress, Yarn Tomato's tracker is comprised of individual graphics representing each level of percent done you want to indicate.

So, all you do is download the graphics, upload them to your server, and add them to your blog the same way you add badges. Pick a different image for the level of progress you want to show. That's it.

Another Reason to Love Ravelry

For some, this progress tracker could be a stop-gap because...

Casey, the Ravelry Code Monkey, recently added a progress meter to the projects page, allowing you to indicate how done your WIPs are. The obvious next step is to offer a widget that will allow you to post a tracker on your blog that pulls the progress data directly from your Ravelry page.

In fact, they've already coded such a widget. They're planning to release it when they open Ravelry to the wider public. Brilliant.

On Ravelry Beta

I have to confess that I'm finding it harder and harder not to casually mention Ravelry all the time on my blog. I hold back because I know some of you are still waiting to get in as a beta tester. If you are still rapping your fingers on your desk wondering when your time will come, hang tight and make sure you subscribe to the Ravelry blog for updates.

The latest news is that they're going to be adding people in larger groups once they move to a professional server. Can you imagine that the whole thing is currently running on a machine at their house (at least I think it is, don't quote me)? I make my real money developing Web sites, and I can tell you I'm amazed they've opened it up as much as they have given that situation.

So, it's coming and I think reasonably soon.

Speaking of Progress and Things That Are Awesome

We rented "The Last King of Scotland" last night (Awesome!) to honor our last evening with the TV. Some nice folks that just moved here from Houston found my ad on Craig's List (How did people survive before Craig's List?), and came to fetch it this morning. They also bought the TV stand, the food processor, the clock radio, and a lamp, which is most of the stuff. Woohoo!

What I really mean to tell you is that I managed to finish the feet of my step-mother-in-law's socks last night, and will work on the heels today. I'm going to save myself a bit of torture and just do some short-rows. Nothing fancy.

I also squeaked in another order for some Wollmeise sock yarn AND some worsted-weight merino. I placed my order at the last possible moment because Claudia says she's closing the shop for four weeks starting, well, now. Sadly, I can't read her blog because my barely passable Dutch only gets me so far reading German, but the buzz on the net is that she's improving her ordering system. The woman is truly a saint, taking every order by hand via email. I love the personal touch, but that's gotta be overwhelming.

And, I also ordered the yarn for my upcoming cable sweater. I don't think you can buy Bergère de France in the U.S., so it was now or never. I ended up going with the silvery, blue color. I have their yarn catalog, but I think you glean only so much from a two inch snippet of yarn. Hopefully it doesn't suck.

Lots more photos coming next week. You still have time to upgrade your Internet connection to handle the download. ;)

Comments

[Heather]

You are so funny, Jen! I'll clear the bandwidth decks to accommodate your pictures...

I agree that Ravelry seems to want to creep in on any knitting conversation. Just when you discover one 'can't-live-without' feature, you discover a whole other aspect that improves your knitting life tremendously. And I know what you mean about not wanting to be the jackass that it always mentioning it for fear of annoying the people who are still waiting. But I am so impressed with what they have accomplished.

[Jeannie]

I'm always talking about Ravelry with my husband. He used to work with databases and can see the genius in it. But I don't let him anywhere near the stash section. ;-) Thanks for the link for the progress bars. I've been thinking about adding those to my blog.

[KelInCal]

I'm a Ravelry love, too. And just like Jeannie, I don't let my husband anywhere NEAR the stash section!

I also feel like a heel mentioning it in my blog posts, but it's just so hard these days! But you know what I think? Even when it's open to everyone, there are going to be those folks who don't want to mess with it for whatever reason, and they're not going to enjoy all the continued blather about it. I like some of those people and don't want to alienate them, so how exactly do I go about that? I'm looking forward to it being open to everyone, because I always had such a hard time keeping my site pages for WIPs, FOs and the queue up to date.

And YAY for new yarn!

[sophanne]

Thanks for being thoughtful to one who is 7493 on the list! : )

[Jennie]

Glad to hear you were able to get some Wollmeise before Claudia's break. :)

[Rachel]

King of Scotland was a great (albeit hard to take) movie...though I really dislike that they had to fictionalize big portions of it (did you watch the extras?).

Ravelry, Ravelry...alas, I got my invite a couple weeks ago and while I know some people would like to hurt me for saying this (particularly those who are invited yet), I simply don't have the time to get sucked in right now. And I know I will get sucked in. So I went on a brief tour the day I got my invite and haven't been back since. I can't wait to enjoy it more but it can't happen yet!

[olga]

The bar Do-hickeys that show your progress would bum me out to much if I had them, 'cuz they would never change . Seeing something at 1/4 done for 2 years would send me over the edge. Now if they had one that every time you looked at it your project magically did itself....

[jennsquared]

Hmmm... it sounds like you know a thing or two about codes and computers and such. I had these javacode that was my progress bar but when blogger upgraded to google, the widget won't remember my code! Actually, any LONG code for that matter. I tried to do a blogroll through google reader (it published the code) and it just won't remember it. :(

When you touch down and settle in, pop me an email with your address (or you already know it?) because I got a surprise for you :)

[Shannon]

Thanks for the link to the progress bars. I am going to add them to my blog too!

[tiennie]

I totally feel the same way about Ravelry! LOVE IT!