Tinkering

If you are reading this from the website and not from a blog reader, you may have noticed that I've updated the look. It was long overdue! It annoyed me how narrow the previous template was, but Blogger's options were pretty limited at the time (or maybe I just didn't access them properly). Anyway, I hope you like the new digs. I also made some changes over in the Gallery. I was getting tired of duplicating the information from Ravelry, and now that I can make my Rav project pages public, the Gallery has a different purpose.

Not only have I been tinkering with my own blog, but I've also been playing around with a different way to read blogs. I am now using Blogshelf and really like it.


This app makes your blogs look like your iBooks shelf, and it's a really nice way to flip through the entries. When I switched over from Bloglines to Google Reader, I just imported all my subscriptions. At first, I was irritated that I had to manually add feeds to Blogshelf and that I couldn't just import my Google subscriptions. However, that has turned out to be a good thing. I have a lot of "leftover" subscriptions to blogs that have not been updated in a year or more. There were other blogs that just weren't a good fit for me anymore, either because they had changed or because I had--or both. I do follow some blogs that are not very visually-oriented, and I've kept those on Google but have been gradually converting the rest. I love browsing blogs in this way, and I save it for the late evening when I can savor them in peace, rather than obsessively checking my Google Reader all day long.

I am branching out a bit and subscribing to a few crafts/lifestyle blogs that are not related to knitting. I am sharing a few finds below and hope you'll make some suggestion for me too!

• Givers Log (hat tip: Orata)
  
• On-Hand + Modern
  
• Marta Writes
  
• CRAFT
  
• Hostess with the Mostess

I also subscribe to my Ravelry Friend Activity RSS feed with Blogshelf now. If you have an iPad and want to do the same thing with this app, go to your Friend Activity page on Rav. Select the category of friends for which you want to generate the feed, and choose the information you want included (pictures, stash, queue, favs, etc). Now click that little orange feed icon near the top and choose "friend activity (current filter)." It'll take you to an address that looks something like this:

feed://www.ravelry.com/people/YOURNAME/friends.rss?set=collection-SOMENUMBER&type_1=1&type_2=0&type_3=0&type_4=0&type_5=0&type_6=0&type_7=0

Copy everything in that address starting with the "www", leaving off "feed://". Now go over to Blogshelf and select Subscribe --> Search. Type in "http://" and then paste the rest of the address text. That should give you the proper subscription.

In addition to my general friend activity feed, I created a category for friends who are local. That way, I get to catch up on what they are working on, even when I am not able to make it to knit nite; their projects don't get buried in the larger general feed. It's really fun to flip through your friends' WIP and FO photos like this. I hope you'll try it if you've got the app.

For even more iPad tinkering, check out Norah Gaughan's latest post. It's no wonder I admire her!