Want to work a seamless set-in sleeve from the top down?  Did that sentence even make sense?

For my Central Park Hoodie, I lengthened the armholes but wasn’t smart enough to just use a larger size’s instructions.  I was then faced with this choice: destroy my brain by trying to figure out the math to make a sleeve cap and then deal with easing and sewing OR work my sleeves top-down with short rows.  Guess which one I chose.

Do you know how to pick up stitches and work short rows?  Then you have all the skills needed for this pattern modification.  For more information on this technique, check out Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top or Wendy Bernard’s Custom Knits.  Here are some good tutorials for picking up stitches from Knitty: Picking Up Stitches on a Straight Edge and Picking Up Stitches on a Curved Edge.

It was the short rows that confused me at first.  When you work short rows for a sock heel, you work shorter and shorter rows then longer and longer rows to make a pouch that’s essentially two trapezoids on top of each other like so:

However, the short rows for a sleeve cap are just the second half of the diagram.  You start with a short row and then get longer and longer, picking up wraps as you work over them instead of saving them all for the end.

Now, make a  decision.  Do you want to work the sleeves in the round or do you want to work them flat and then seam them? 

Let’s assume you want to make them in the round first.  Sew the shoulder and side seams for your sweater.  You now have a nice armhole to pick up stitches around.  Starting at the side seam under the arm, pick up and knit stitches evenly around the armhole.  If you haven’t made any modifications to the armhole, then the number of stitches on the sleeve before the sleeve cap shaping starts is the number to pick up.  Make sure that there are the same number of stitches on either side of the side seam.  Use the shoulder seam as the center of the sleeve top.  Place a marker for the beginning of the round.

If you’ve decided to work your sleeves flat, just sew the shoulder seams of your sweater.  Pick up and knit stitches evenly across the armhole.  If you haven’t made any modifications to the armhole, then the number of stitches on the sleeve before the sleeve cap shaping starts is the number to pick up.  Make sure that there are the same number of stitches on either side of the shoulder seam, using that as the center of the sleeve top.

Now for a little math.  Divide the number of stitches on your needle by 3.  Go ahead and round up or down to the nearest even number.  The result is the number of stitches you will need to have at the top of your sleeve cap.  Center this 1/3 on the shoulder seam.  Place markers on either side.

Knitting Flat	Knitting in the Round

Mark the underarm stitches.  If you’re knitting from the bottom up, the underarm stitches are the stitches that have been picked up from the cast off stitches and decrease rows.  Make sure that there are the same number of underarm stitches on either side of the beginning marker (if knitting in the round) or either end of the sleeve cap (if knitting flat).  If you’re knitting from the top down, the underarm stitches begin at the first increase.  Place markers at either end of the underarm stitches.  If you’re knitting in the round, you should have 5 markers.  If you’re knitting flat, you should have 4 markers.

Okay, the set up is finished.  Now, work (in pattern) to the end of the top 1/3 stitches and slip the marker.  Wrap the next stitch and turn.  Work back across the top 1/3 stitches, slip the marker, and wrap the next stitch.  Turn and work back to the first wrapped stitch.  Pick up the wrap and conceal it with your preferred method, then wrap the next stitch.  Turn, work back to the next wrapped stitch.  Pick up the wrap and conceal it, then wrap the next stitch.  Here is an excellent write up of the various ways to conceal a wrapped stitch.

Continue working back and forth this way until you reach the underarm markers, ending on a RS row.  In the round, knit across the underarm stitches and continue around, concealing the last wrapped stitch as you come to it on the RS and then finishing the round.  Flat, work the underarm stitches to the end of the row, then turn and work back, concealing the last wrap as you come to it and continue on to the underarm sts.

Continue the sleeves as laid out by your pattern.  Unless the pattern has top-down sleeves, decrease whenever the pattern says to increase.  Remember that if you have picked up more stitches than the pattern called for to adjust your decreases accordingly.

That’s it!  Not so bad, eh, and no seaming!

Here’s a real world example to make things clearer:

On my CPH, I made my armhole 1” longer than called for.  I knit my sleeves in the round and changed the frequency of the decreases.

Starting at the side seam, I picked up 1 stitch for each cast off stitch or decreased stitch.  This gave me 9 stitches for the first half of the underarm.  I placed a purple marker after the 9 sts and for the beginning of the round. Then I picked up 2 stitches for every 3 rows of knitting until I reached the shoulder seam, which ended up being 35 sts.  I picked up 35 stitches down the other side of the armhole, placed a purple marker, and picked up 9 stitches for the underarm.

This gave me 88 stitches total for my sleeve.  Dividing 88 by 3 gives me 29.33333.  I rounded up to 30.  I want 15 sts on either side of the center of the sleeve top.  I placed blue markers on either side of my sleeve top, which was centered at the shoulder seam.

Since the CPH has cables running down the sleeve, I also placed white markers for the beginning and end of the cable chart, centered on the shoulder seam 6 sts away from the blue markers.

I knit to the purple marker (the top 1/3 of my stitches,) slipped the purple marker, knit 6, then worked the sleeve cables between the white markers, knit 6, slipped the purple marker, wrapped the next stitch and turned.

I purled back to the cable, worked the cable between the white markers, purled to the purple marker, wrapped the next stitch and turned.

Knitted to the cable, worked the cable, knitted to the wrapped stitch, concealed the wrap, then wrapped the next stitch and turned.

Purled to the cable, worked the cable, purled to the wrapped stitch, concealed the wrap, then wrapped the next stitch and turned.

Once the short rows were finished, I worked the rest of the sleeve in the round. 

Axelrod discusses in his book titled: Terms of Engagement, four approaches to change: i) Leader-driven approach, ii) Process-driven approach, iii) Team-driven approach, and iv) Change Management approach.

Leader-driven change is more suitable for small and medium enterprises with owner-managers. This approach works well when the manager or leader has all the necessary information and knowledge. Leader-driven changes tend to be directive and non-participative. Therefore this approach is less suitable when: a) the workforce is young and/or highly skilled, b) the business environment is complex and dynamic, and c) successful change requires active involvement of a number of people in the organization.

Process-driven changes are led by experts or outside consultants and supported by the leader; these changes are more common in large, bureaucratic organizations. This approach works well when the change requires technical or specialized expertise. Also being directive and non-participative, as in the case of leader-driven approach, this approach is therefore less suitable when: a) the workforce is young and/or highly skilled, b) the business environment is complex and dynamic, and c) successful change requires active involvement of a number of people in the organization.

Team-driven approaches are most common in large, manufacturing enterprises that have skilled and educated employees. Change management strategies—such as TQM, Quality Circles, and Six Sigma—exemplify this approach. These are highly participative change efforts that empower employees and provide them with involvement, participation and ownership of change. Team-based approaches that are properly executed can unleash enormous levels of employee energy and motivation. This can, in turn, lead to innovation and productivity gains. However, using this approach can also cause some discomfort for managers in an organization because they may not be used to sharing their power and authority with workers. Moreover, this approach requires managers to shift from a directive, authoritarian style based on power and expertise to a participative style based on persuasion, coaching and helping. More importantly, the team-based approach to execute change requires the establishment of a ‘parallel organization.’

The fourth approach to change is called the Change Management approach. This is a combination of expert-driven and team-driven approaches. Whereas the former provides a business and technical focus to change, the latter generates ownership, involvement and commitment. So as to gain this commitment, most specialists, experts and change management consultants have incorporated the parallel organization concept in their process-driven approach. The Change Management paradigm is the approach to change that most organizations use today. Although it seemingly seeks to integrate ownership of change with practical business focus, the Change Management approach has shortcomings. Instead of involvement and commitment, this approach breeds cynicism, bureaucracy and resistance. It actually disempowers employees, by reinforcing hierarchical top-down management.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Miss 1 looks lovely in her new wee top. And so does Miss 3. (Yes, she was willing to try this on. Go figure.)

Oh and so does the newborn size dolly…

Amazing eh? I think I really confused my husband this afternoon taking these pictures of everyone in the same dress/top. But I just *had* to try out the amazing qualities of the “Bloom” that see it grow with your baby. This is the latest pattern from Aussie designer “Tikki”, and I was eagerly awaiting the pattern, having heard it came in multiple sizes and yarn weights – 4ply, 8ply and 10ply.  I had a ball of 4ply Wool Company yarn in Raspberry that I would be perfect. What I hadn’t realised was that each size has the same number of stitches exactly, it is just be changing needle size and gauge that the sizes varied. Clever, eh.  It  did leave me with a little problem though, as this size is meant to fit newborn to 12 months. But the pattern features Tikki’s daughter Lily who is nearly 4 wearing the 4 ply version, so I figured my petite nearly 17 month old would still get lots of wear out of this. And I think we now know just how much…

Yes, I think it might end up being first up best dressed around our place!

So what are the magic elements to this pattern? It is knit in the round top down, so no seaming The bodice is 1×1 rib which looks so teensy tiny – you can see it doesn’t stretch at all on the newborn dolls. Then there is a lovely increase which sits beautifully over Miss 1’s budda belly, and stretches out flat across Miss 3’s chest.  Clever.  Then the skirt is worked straight in a lace pattern, before heading to a more detailed border. I started to worry about running out of yarn – I had maybe 2-3 metres left when I cast off.

While I enjoyed knitting this, it isn’t an idle knit once the rib is done – I needed to have a good amount of concentration for counting out the lace pattern. Of course I am not a natural lace knitter, so people who love lace will find this a complete doddle. And I cannot recommend this pattern highly enough when you consider it covers age newborn through to approximately 8 years. It would be terrific if you wanted to knit a gift for a girl whose measurements you don’t know, and you are guaranteed that the wearer will get lots of use from it.

Even if they *do* run away from the photoshoot.

04 novembre 2009

cari, si fa per dire, dipendenti, come dice la parola voi dipendete e io invece no,

avrei potuto chiamarvi maestranze, ma allora avreste maestrato, e non so cosa significhi;

vi scrivo solo perché quella bella gnocca della comunicazione me l’ha chiesto. Fine

It’s monday, and we’ve been getting an awesomely huge response to the single we put out last week. Still, there are SO many people out there who still don’t know about it. And that is just sad, sad, sad.

So if you dig it, or even just have some serious guilty pleasure for it, let everyone know. EVERYONE! It’s on youtube, but you can download it for FREE, so there is really no point for you to be watching online, unless it’s to stare at the stellar band picture. We’re kidding, it’s a bit washed out.

So download it HERE. NOW. Heck, go on other peoples computers and download it there as well. And then do the one thing humans are programed to do. DANCE!

The new release of SolidWorks Labs Threehouse V2 hit me to think again about Top Down approach and efficient communication between Design/Engineering and Manufacturing.

Background.
SolidWorks Labs released V2 of Treehouse. You can get more information on their website as well as take a look on multiple blog articles about that. My favorite was SolidSmack’s “Full Speed TreeBleed. SolidWorks Treehouse, Not Just a Treehouse“.

Design, Engineering and Manufacturing
Problem of disconnecting between Design/Engineering organization is not new, in my view and exists in many manufacturing organizations. It’s obvious Engineers sees a product they develop very much in the light, of how they build parts/sub-assemblies/assemblies/configurations models. For them this is what make sense. However, from manufacturing side, it always looks different because their structure is driven by assembly process, packaging, supply chain and other factors from a shop floor. Most of the systems today are not providing a good solution for this problem. Those customers that made decent solution in this space built it based on huge customization and service base.

In my view, Treehouse concept is interesting since it can provide a communication bridge between two worlds: design and engineering/manufacturing. The way to initiate design top-down in SolidWorks is not trivial and Treehouse can be an interesting approach to do so. It can facilitate modular design and ability to create new products and configuration top down initiated from Engineering/Manufacturing space.

What is your opinion on that? Have you had chance to think or implement the top-down approach in your organization? What systems you had in your mind to support it?

Best, Oleg

I had one of the best weekends.

My sister came up from SD to visit. I went to the knitting meetup early morning, and rushed to Irvine station to pick her up.

Knitting meetup was quite good too. best gifts ever: yarn from Korea! One of the members got a yarn bomb from Korea and brought some to the meetup to give out. I got 750yds of PINK bamboo cotton yarn in lace weight, and then sport weight cotton/nylon blend in soft beige, with bits of glitter dark green, red, and purple yarn. Soo cool!

Here are some pics from the meet up. We’re eating!! We always do lunch at 12ish, and because the place is at Blink Cafe, we use their kitchen. =) The lady on the left is the chef hehe. She cooks everything on the menu at Blink. The lady on the right is the one in charge, and she brought these yarns for us. =)

Ohhh and I totally take back what I said about IK and VK in the last post. Over the weekend, I really sat down to READ the magazines: IK Weekend and VK Winter. I still don’t like the paper quality but wow, the designs are so much better than I expected! Esp IK Weekend is all about practical, comfortable stuff for everyone in the family. I love it when they have men’s patterns. Love the new layout too. Makes more sense. I also got to read IK Holiday Gifts at Borders today while my bf was working out his Fantasy Draft… Love love love the pattern for men’s sweater. I forget the name already, but it was top-down, saddle shoulders, with simple garter or reverse St st in the middle. I can see my dad in it. IK is going more knit-in-the-round, and top-down.

I cast on something from VK too. In the round, bottom-up fair-isle sweater. I’m using the yarn I recycled from my sister’s ex’s sweater. Hope karma has nothing to do with the fit of the sweater or anything. Keke

So the band was having another fierce debate (as we always do) about which song various band members are most like and we decided (as we always do) to just ask you guys. Now let’s set the rules straight here. This isn’t what your FAVORITE sweet 16 song is, no no no, this is what sweet 16 song you are most like (big difference).

Example: Hopeless romantics line up under “Falling For You,” party animals under “Lightning Strike,” the only kid with the car in their group of friends would go “Top Down,” or if you just consider yourself totally reckless (that would be, yes, “Reckless Remix.” Duh.)

So what do you think? What are you most like? Is it the new dangerous-sounding single that we’re giving out for free this thursday?

P.S. For the record, Bert is most like Reckless. Now tell everyone before he logs in and deletes this from the blog.

Started back in May, this cardigan has amassed a bundle of experiences and associations for me as I worked on it. In short, the good news is: I finished it, have worn it, and will wear it again. 

*Warning – longish knit-related post follows, but does include pics of Simon Baker: Guardian AND Mentalist.*

Were it to be named after the pattern I used, it would have been the February Lady Sweater – for that is the pattern that wooed me back into ‘like’ with this tweedy green wool. But I knitted no part of it in February, and I’m British enough to think of ’sweater’ as a perspiration-related term, which doesn’t go with being a lady. So that name’s out.

Strictly speaking, it’s 100% refashion, as I’d knitted an entire Debbie Bliss Biker Jacket jacket years earlier, before realising on completion it was not for me. So a-cross-posting-on-Wardrobe-Refashioning I shall go, as it is my pledged duty to write up this reworking of the wool as a WR activity.

It is 75% a Guardian Cardigan - for this is what is produced when knitting along to an admittedly pretty rubbish, yet oddly addictive  legal ‘drama’, aired daily at 6.00pm on Five TV, starring housewives’ choice Simon Baker, on whom I developed an unexpectedly hefty crush. How did I get so attached to this/him?

Well, it would be rude to ignore such a successful formula: brooding, emotionally stilted, handsome young lawyer with exciting druggie past, in will-they-won’t-they office romance with female colleague, who you totally identify with as she tries to break down his walls of emotional stilt.  And each week he gets to save a troubled youth from an awkward legal situation. Aaah. And sometimes has to take off his shirt. Mmmmmakes it easy to ignore the paperthin characterisation/doopid plotlines/effing awful theme song.

The remaining 25% covers the bit where I missed a few episodes, lost the plot and fell off the Guardian wagon. So I knitted without Simon’s help, although we’re still friends and have tea together from time to time for old times’ sake.

For the first 8-9 inches down, it was my first topdown knit garment and first project on my new and excitingly interchangeable circular pins. Then I went away for a fortnight and didn’t want to knit tweedy wool on a Mediterranean beach, so abandoned pins, threaded Guardian Cardigan onto a holding shoelace, and knit the Mohair Sea Shrug from start to finish instead. So the Guardian Cardigan failed to get that title.

Then finally, through the magic of the interwebs, the Guardian Cardigan became my first experience of two thrilling new knitting techniques:

• magic loop knitting – where you use a super long cable on your circular needles to knit a much smaller circumference of knit. I did the much-shortened sleeves with this method, commuting on the tube, and ensnared two fellow commuters while wrestling with the spare loops of magic cable. Oops! Giggles once, stern looks the other. This set of instructions got me started. Cool method.
• icord finishing - where you create a kind of french knitting cord to cast off stitches, or on the edges of the knit fabric. I’d drooled enviously over needled’s apparently effortless cord finishing then found this series of fantastically descriptive tutorials on the wonderweb. Makes you feel a bit clever, this one.

So after all that, this has to be the Magic Guardian ifinished Cardigan.

Why not? Who on earth is ever going to ask me what it’s called?

Two days ago, I mentioned my newest obsession.

Today, I’m cured…

…for now.

It didn’t take long to knit up the front band.  Sewing in the zipper took a bit more time than I expected, but I decided to whip stitch the zipper in by hand so that I didn’t have a visible seam in front on those front bands.  I’m quite pleased with the placement–the bands lie just over the zipper enough to make it invisible without bunching up.  The fit is precisely what I was hoping for, and even Lexie likes it.  Once I got it on her to take some pictures tonight, I had hard time chasing her down to get it back off!

When Sharon of Three Irish Girls released the previews for the September Stash Menagerie club, it took me a while to figure out what I was going to do with a bulky weight yarn. I’d recently been trying to help a fellow 3IGer find a hooded cardigan pattern for a child that went with another pattern, and we’d both stumbled across the Knit Child’s Raglan Cardigan from Lion Brand. I suggested some ways she could modify the pattern to get what she wanted, but it occurred to me that I really wanted to knit a hoodie for Jeffrey–I could use this pattern too.

I rejected that idea sometime between winding the yarn and casting on. I just wasn’t a big fan of the look of that pattern, and I was dismayed to find the patter was written to knit in pieces from the bottom up and then seam. I’d wanted a raglan pattern because they’re often written to be either seamless or minimize seams. And, if possible, I preferred a top-down raglan because I like being able to try it on as I go–and with children above the average height for their ages, it’s easier to knit a top-down sweater to the proper length.

So the search was on for another pattern, but I was rather dismayed to find that top-down raglan hooded cardigans for children knit in bulky weight yarn were hard to find. Eventually, I found the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan Sweater pattern. It sounded promising…it looked intimidating. It was much more recipe than pattern, with a fair amount of math (easy math, at least) thrown in. But it would allow me to knit a top-down raglan cardigan to my child’s exact measurements with any yarn I chose.

After a bit of uncertainty, I reminded myself once again that it’s only yarn, I can’t hurt it by knitting with it, and if my version turns out to be a disaster, I can frog it and try again. And what the heck–while I was at, why not wing adding a hood?

As I mentioned previously, I was only a couple rows in before Jeffrey’s cardigan became Lexie’s cardigan, but that little bit of knitting was enough to make me comfortable with my version of the pattern. I opted for seed stitch edging rather than ribbing at the wrists and bottom edge–it tends to be more of a pain for me to knit, but I infinitely prefer the look where I can get away with it. I think it really works beautifully with this yarn–it gives a pebbled look at the edges.

The body and sleeves knit up quickly, and then it was time for the hood. I checked a couple patterns that had hoods added, and decided to pick up one stitch in every collar stitch, and then added a stitch on either end for the first several rows. I wanted to be sure to have a nice deep hood (that was one of the things I didn’t like about the Lion Brand pattern–although it’s hard to tell due to the hairstyle of the child model, the hood looks fairly shallow) that would stay in place, since hood cords are out. I used a hooded sweatshirt I recently bought Lexie to make sure the height was right, and then–in the move I’m probably proudest off–I Kitchnered the top of the hood instead of binding off and seaming.

Chances are you can see in the picture above where I did it, but I doubt someone who didn’t know would see it–and it only shows because I accidentally pulled some of the grafting stitches a bit too tight. I expect some of that will come out once I block the sweater, as well, but even if it does, I consider that a very successful first attempt at the Kitchner stitch.

The last knitting step was the front band, which was picked up all along both fronts and the hood edge. In retrospect, I probably should have picked up in 2 out of every 3 stitches instead of 3 out of every 4–I think the front band might be a bit on the wavy side. Again, it’s probably a sin that blocking will help hide, as well as the stability of the zipper I sewed in. I decided I wanted the cardigans to zip up because that makes them easier to put on and take off…and then I bought the wrong kind of zipper, that doesn’t disconnect at the bottom. So the very bottom opening is permanently sewed shut.

I can live with that. And as soon as the Seacoast yarn shows up, I’m ready to cast on for Jeffrey.

Pattern: Baby Belle, by Cosy (Raveled here.)

Yarn: My own handspun, hand-dyed Corriedale, and some scraps of Valley Yarns Northampton in Lavender

Needles:  US 5s Addi Turbo Lace

Notions: 2 flower buttons from Hobby Lobby

Began: September 2, 2009;   Completed: September 10, 2009

Notes:  Cosy put out a call for handspun versions of her adorable baby sweater pattern, and I couldn’t resist.  I really wanted to spin up something special but, with Patches’ illness and the start of the semester, I had to use my handspun stash.  I’m happy with the way the Corriedale knitted up, and the little random bits of blue make me happy (though I do wish there were more of them; I’ve got to keep that in mind for my next foray into dyeing).  I call it the Baby Blue Belle because I feel any baby wearing it will look like a blueberry.  An adorable, well-dressed blueberry.

There’s not much to say about this pattern; the sheer adorableness speaks for itself.  I’m happy with the project in every way: the pattern is clearly written and easy to knit, and features the garter row color changes that I love in many of Cosy’s designs, and the final product is quite adorable.  It was a fun knit, though I don’t have any good photos as we’ve had bad weather lately.  And now I just need to find someone who will give it a loving home!

On a side note, thank you all so much for your kind words about Patches.  We are making our way without her, though we feel her absence terribly.  I’ve got a lot to catch up on, and I hope you’ll all bear with me as I complete a parade of posts.

The breakthrough leaders should stand at the organization’s boundary and bring in outside information. They must also communicate their company’s philosophy to the outside world. In their book Breakthrough Management, Shoji Shiba and David Walden have defined the eight principles of visionary leadership as follows:

1)      Principle 1: The visionary leader must do on-site observation leading to personal perception of changes in societal values from an outsider’s point of view.

2)      Principle 2: Even though there is resistance, never give up; squeeze the resistance between outside-in pressure in combination with top-down inside instruction.

3)      Principle 3: Transformation is begun with symbolic disruption of the old or traditional system through top-down efforts to create chaos within the organization.

4)      Principle 4: The direction of transformation is illustrated aimed by a symbolic visible image and the visionary leader’s symbolic behavior.

5)      Principle 5: Quickly establishing new physical, organizational and behavioral systems is essential for successful transformation.

6)      Principle 6: Real change leaders are necessary to enable transformation.

7)      Principle 7: Create an innovative system to provide feedback from results.

8)      Principle 8: Create a daily operation system, including a new work structure, new approach to human capabilities and improvement activities.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Digger Dig some holes, find some stuff, conquer the world!* *(Results may vary…)	Digger.swf Hosted by eSnips

A simple game, (play with it here) you have 10 chances to find items in a 5 by 5 grid. There are common items, semi-rare items, and rare items. The original line art is done by our very own Orion, and the game in whole was taken from concept to completion in 2 days. (Also, the game -would- loop by clicking “end” on the last screen, but esnips doesn’t seem to like that, so I had to disable it.)

This was done for commission through Get A Freelancer.Com, so thank you to that job poster for the excellent opportunity!

As always, feel free to leave a comment or bug report ^^

Change is nothing new to leaders or to their organizations. Around 500BC, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus noted that: “You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on.” He was one of the first Western philosophers to address the idea that the universe is in a constant state of flux.

As we move further from the “stable state,” effective change leadership has become a challenging calling. Today in the language of business, organizations, academia, and consultancy, the word “change” has come to mean different things to different people. We need to define “change leadership” in a way that establishes a congruence between leadership and the benefits of the change being implemented; and articulate it properly. Change can refer to any of the following and more:

• External changes in the market/industry, technology, customers, competitors, social, political and natural environment;
• Internal changes that determine how the organization reacts and adapts to the external changes at great speed;
• Top-down programs such as business process reengineering, restructuring, cultural change, for example, and
• Business transformation programs which can be described as comprehensive organizational initiatives.

It can also be a combination of all the above.

Major change is those situations in which corporate performance requires most people throughout the organization to learn new behaviors and skills. These new skills must add up to a competitive advantage for the enterprise, allowing it to produce better and better performance in shorter and shorter time frames.

Change leadership can be defined as altering groups to the need for changes in the way things are done; mobilizing and energizing groups; and tapping fully into the potential and the capacity of the organization. It involves taking the responsibility to champion the change initiative and effort through building and maintaining commitment and support. The situation determines who emerges as the leader and what style of  leadership he or she has to adopt. The situation will also determine the core skills needed to lead in that particular situation. Therefore, one can no longer discuss leadership in general terms.

The leader and the style of leadership required in a stable organization will differ from that which is required in an organization under threat. This is because leadership styles and behaviors are likely to be critical in times of threats.

The qualities, characteristics, and skills required in a leader are determined to a large extent by the demands of the situation in which he or she is to function as a leader.

In any major change program, there are many leaders because there are many people at many levels in the hierarchy who play different critical roles during the change process, including the CEO. In modern complex organizations, the notion of an ill-seeing, all knowing leader is unrealistic. Instead, different individuals assume leadership in situations where they have a unique competence or accountability. All the non-CEO change leaders are every bit as essential to creating high-performing organizations as are the more visible and dynamic executive leaders. In essence, the change leader could be the CEO, a line leader, internal network, or a change community.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Definisi Pattern Recognition
“Pattern Recognition” atau dalam bahasa indonesia dapat diartikan sebagai “Pengenalan Pola”. Yaitu dimana komputer dapat mengenali suatu pola yang pernah diberikan sebelumnya dan membandingkan kemiripan suatu benda pada tingkat atau prosentase tertentu.

Menurut Ursa Majorsy, Pola dalam hal ini merujuk pada pengertian suatu komposisi stimulus penginderaan yang kompleks yang dapat dikenali oleh manusia sebagai pengamat sebagai suatu kelompok objek. Rekognisi pola merupakan proses pengenalan kembali terhadap pola yang pernah dikenal. Oleh karena itu, jika kita melihat wajah teman kita atau mendengar lagu kesukaan kita, kita dapat mengenal masing-masing persepsi tersebut sebagai sesuatu yang sebelumnya telah dialami.

Bila dilihat dari jenis prosesnya, pemrosesan informasi memiliki dua jenis pemrosesan, yaitu data driven & conceptually driven. Pemrosesan data driven dimulai dengan datangnya data penginderaan. Sedangkan dalam conceptually driven pemrosesan informasi dimulai dengan pembentukan konsep atau harapan individu tentang informasi yang mungkin dijumpainya.

Pengenalan pola melibatkan baik pemrosesan data dengan data driven (informasi diterima oleh indera) maupun conceptually driven (pengetahuan yang disimpan di memori). Pengenalan pola (pattern recognition) merupakan proses yang menjembatani antara proses deteksi sinyal penginderaan yang sederhana (yang cenderung data driven) dengan persepsi terhadap pola-pola yang kompleks (yang cenderung conceptually driven).

Kemampuan untuk mengenal pola dari informasi penginderaan merupakan ciri khas yang spektakuler pada manusia dan binatang. Kemampuan ini memungkinkan kita untuk mengenal teman lama diantara lautan manusia. Kita juga bisa mengenal suatu lagu hanya dengan mendengar beberapa not dari lagu tersebut. Dengan mata terpejam pun kita bisa menebak dengan benar bunga melati dari aroma yang kita cium. Pembahasan mengenai pengenalan pola pada bab ini lebih banyak difokuskan pada pengenalan pola visual.

Pengenalan Pola (pattern Recogntion) sesuai sample yang kita ambil dari manusia dan hewan dapat dibagi dua yaitu Pengenalan Pola Visual dan Non-Visual. Pengenalan Pola Visual adalah kemampuan untuk mengenali sesuatu dari pola-pola yang dapat dilihat seperti halnya pohon, rumah, tiang listrik, dll. Sedangkan Pengenalan Pola Non-Visual adalah kemampuan untuk mengenali sesuatu dari suara atau rasanya seperti halnya (lagu ini judulnya apa, siapa yang menyanyikan, siapa penciptanya) selain itu kita juga bisa mengenali suatu buah/makanan dengan hanya merasakannya seperti “jika minum jus yang telah diberi pewarna sehingga tidak terlihat jus aslinya kita bisa tau kalau itu jus apa saat kita merasakannya”. Nah bagaimana mengaplikasikannya kedalam sebuah mesin (komputer) sehingga komputer dapat mengenali pola-pola tersebut. Mari kita pelajari bersama

Pendekatan-Pendekatan Dalam Pengenalan Pengenalan Pola Visual
Terdapat beberapa pendekatan untuk menjelaskan bagaimana proses rekognisi pola visual, antara lain pendekatan psikologi gestalt, canonic perspectives, pemrosesan bottom-up/top-down, template matching, feature analysis dan prototype matching.

This is a simple top down raglan sweater. It is designed the same as a sweater in Noro Mini Knits book. Only the pattern in the book is written to be made in pieces and has errors in the sleeve cap shaping. I tried knitting this sweater from that pattern, but got frustrated and worked it my own way. The advantage of this is that it custom fit for my daughter.

Pattern: My own. Based on a design from Noro Mini Knits seen here (If you are a Ravelry member)

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, Raspberry color

Needle size: Size 7 US (4.5mm)

I recommend Knitting from the Top by Barbara Walker as a good reference for this type of knitting. I do design my raglan designs slightly different. Barbara put in a one-line sentence that stated that after you reach the shoulder width you do not need to increase your stitches every other row, but can vary it for each section to get the custom fit you need. This sweater has less increases in the sleeves than the back and front. My daughter has thin arms. If I were to increase every other row then they sleeves would be way too wide. Also the front and back are not increased at every other row either. I needed to get the longer length in the armhole than I needed width. Therefore those sections have been changed also. I use my row gauge times my armhole depth to find out the total number of rows needed to reach the under arm. I then chart that section out and work out the increases before I start.

My daughter tells me this is going to be a favorite because of its design. She also wants more in other colors. Seeing how she also knits, I think I’ll just pass the pattern onto her.

I started this sweater last year in August on our vacation. It has been so long that I barely remember how I did it. It all started when I saw this sweater. I wanted to make it, but change a few things: a deeper, round neckline and that the ribbing starts directly under the bust. I used Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top to make my own pattern.

I ordered the yarn from Louet ( sadly  discontinued). It is a single ply wool/silk blend and I kettle dyed it in red-violet.

Due to our heatwave I have been able to wear the sweater only briefly, but I think this one is a winner. The yarn is very soft, the neckline flattering, the sleeves have a nice length. The only negative is that due to the ribbing the sweater is very close-fitting. I thought about adding more stitches, but I really don’t like how increases look in 2×2 ribbing.  But all in all I am very happy with it.

Ich bin wirklich zufrieden mit meiner Ausbeute und werde dort bestimmt öfter mal eine Anleitung draus stricken.

Es beinhaltet eine Vielzahl von Sockenanleitungen. Manche hab ich noch nicht gesehen und manchmal kann man sich auch einfach Anregung holen. Es gibt Sockenanleitungen für jeden Geschmack: ganz einfach, Kinder, Lace, mehrfarbig, Muster …

Also dieses Buch lohnt sich auf jeden Fall. Es besteht nur aus Anleitungen top-down, also von oben nach unten. Und die Modelle sind fast durchweg klassisch. Das tolle daran finde ich, dass sie auch Varianten zeigt. Ausserdem enthält das Buch einen großen Teil Stricktechnik.

Und hier findet man auch schöne weiche und anschmiegsame Modelle. Meist klassisch. Pullover, Jacken, Kleider, Schals …
Hat sich auf jeden Fall auch gelohnt.

I am stunned (and delighted!) at the number of friends I have who are expecting new additions at the moment. Many aren’t due until next year,  and I am hoping to keep up with creating gifts for each of them. This wee vest is for a friend who is due somewhat sooner than that, and is winging its way to her house as I type.

Yep, it’s another wee Milo, and I suspect I’ll be churning them out with regularity over the next wee while. I chose to do the aran cable on this one.

This is the 3 month size, and it used a paltry 66g of DK weight yarn. Fabulous! The yarn I used was Cleckheaton Country, an oatmeal sort of shade. I was gifted two balls of this yarn in a swap I did, and it was intended for dyeing. I cast this on fully intending to dip dye it when it was done, but I lost my nerve. It was so cute the colour it was. And as my friend didn’t find out the sex of her baby, I was worried that it might not suit if I used my purples, or my blues. Annnnyway, I held off on the dyes, and I think it’s super cute as it is.