Ravelry

I didn't understand the draw of Ravelry. Now that I'm a member, I understand completely--well, at least better than I did several days ago.

The consummate center for bending the credit card for women who knit and crochet. If you are already at the top of your credit line, do NOT sign up for this....warning, warning, danger Will Robison...and I mean that with capital letters.

Now if you are able to control your urges and just look at people's creations without succumbing to the "where DID you find that pattern?" mentality, then this is the place for you. EYE CANDY lurks in every corner. A woman who knits can spend an entire WEEK shopping (can you say "shop til you drop?")...not only that, but the user can upload pictures (albeit the manner of upload is somewhat tedious--you have to upload to flickr.com, then TRANSFER the pictures to Ravelry...Flickr.com charges a fee if you go over their maximum allowance for uploads, so if you have a VERY large stash, with a large # of patterns, you might want to keep track of your stash and patterns on your own hard drives or cds instead..a rewritable cd and cd writer required.) of their stash and patterns, projects you're working on and those in the queque, track your needles and chat with other knitters/crafters or email them through the use of forums--rather than through yahoo groups. All in all, the be all and end all center for the knitter/crocheter.

Somewhere in the middle of my fun with this website, windows upload downloaded an update to my pc for my video display, and perhaps something else, because it totally ruined my experience with the forums, and with viewing pictures--or it could have been an upgrade to my accellerator, which lowers resolution of pictures to make websites load faster. One or the othere is responsible, but I am not sure yet--because by the time I finished finaggling with the computer, the day was over, I ached in every bone in my body from sitting at the pc all day, and fell fast asleep in my chair, having done NO KNITTING WHATSOEVER ON A DAY WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

Thanks a lot Ravelry.

So today, I am going to force myself to stay away from Ravelry, and save the rest of my stash/project lists and queque entry for another weekend. I'm tired, and need rest...so imagine my surprise when I pulled the 4 of Swords. A picture of an effigy with 4 swords--3 on the base of the effigy and one hanging in the tree nearby. The meaning of the card is clear--GET SOME REST! So, even though I'm taking some time out to post here, I am later going to my in-laws for lunch. I get my best naps when I drive!

The mittens are coming along. I finally started on the second mitt, and it's now about half done. I should be able to finish the hand part today. Then I will work on the thumbs...then on the gauntlet. I have some very specific ideas on how I'm going to finish them off now, and I'm beginning to get excited about the prospect of finishing them.

I also drew out the Sharon Miller Princess Shawl that has been languishing as a WIP in my knitting closet for about 2 years now..I have perhaps 30 more points to go on the border, and I can start on the body of the shawl. This particular shawl is one of my more intense projects, and the border is no exception--made in fine THREAD, rather than yarn, the knitting of it is not what I call relaxing, but the OUTCOME is worth it, because the lace is just beautiful! I'm knitting it on size 1 circular inox needles--nice pointy needles, with only a bit of drag--and since they are circular, the weight of the project is in my lap, rather than on my hands/wrists. The project is posted to my project list on Ravelry. I have no idea if the general public can view my notebook, but if you can, my screen name is drapert.

In the meantime, enjoy your day, and I will post more later when I get home if I am not too late.