Only Sunday?

Yesterday was a fantastic day! Not only did I get a paycheck from JoAnn's, I was able to finally for once take my mother and my son out to a nice restaurant.

I also bought her some crochet thread and t-shirts at Hobby Lobby.

And I found the perfect yarn for Born to Knit's Dragon Hat--so I'll be casting on for that soon.

I finished another child sweater. This one turned out quite a bit nicer than the first one, which was nice, but very small, and will only fit a newborn, I'm sure. So I'm thinking--since it's a quick project, I might knit up a bunch of these and give them to the local hospital? That might help get rid of some of my stash.

Hubby keeps telling me that I'm stashing him out of house and home.

I finished the felted flower, but I'm not very happy with it. I'm going to try another flower, but I'll use a different yarn and a different pattern--this one I'm hoping for a sunflower or a daisy--maybe a bunch of them--to put on a felted purse...it's still in the "planning" stages yet.

I also finished the leaf lace scarf--in dusty turquoise, and I put tassels on the ends of it for decoration. The entire project used up only 2 skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Once I had memorized the pattern, I was able to knit it quite quickly.

Today, I have done a large load of dishes and reloaded the dishwasher, but since it's not full yet, I can't run it. Have run a load of clothing through the wash and folded and put away the clothes that have been sitting out for a couple of weeks now. In short, I've been pretty busy. I have to get dressed now and head out for JoAnn's Knitting 101 class today--

First however, I'm going to buy a smaller Digital television for the bedroom, so that I don't bother hubby while he's studying. He tells me that he's going to have a full load Summer Term, so he'll be at his studying most of the time. I can't run the television while he's studying, so if I go to the bedroom, I can watch on a small television.

For Demo today at JoAnn's, before the Knitting 101 class, I plan to work on a dishcloth. I am quite a bit behind on the Monthly Dishcloth KAL's, and want to catch up. It's too late to get the prize for doing them for the whole year, but that's okay. I have to locate the cotton yarn and take it with me. The pattern is waiting.

It's time to go--sorry that there are no pictures of the projects. I will try to get them today and upload tomorrow.

Spin City!

More than anything, I am a spinner--I bet you didn't know that with all the posts about knitting, but I go in spurts....one week, I'm a knitter, one week something else entirely. It saves me from getting bored, and keeps me active in the mainstream of fiber arts.

This last weekend, my spin group decided to gather on Saturday and carpool to one of our members house who is a little further away than the rest of us, and can't come to spin day--but we all drove down to Hastings to have a little spin day on a different day than we normally meet.

What a great time we had!

I finished spinning this green merino/tencel I have been storing since summer, and now have to wind it off to a niddy--wet and hang it. Other people brought knitting, crochet or felting. One of the members brought a video of Jacee Boggs. And I have to tell you--

I am MEGA-INSPIRED NOW! This person is something else. I loved everything she did in the video, and recommend that our group buy a copy of it to put in the library, and to see if she could come to Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan sometime (like next year, since she's in California THIS summer). I would seriously love to meet her, pick her brain and have a few good stories, because she sounds like SUCH A RIOT!

So the whole world is spinning at my feet. I can't wait to go to JoAnn's and get a feather boa, and try the technique, putting feathers into my wool yarn.

And then, I might make some felted eyeballs--who knows?

What to do? What to do?

I can tell you right now, I am much more focused on what I DON'T want to do, than what I do want to do, unless you're talking about a few hours from now, in which I will be taking my spinning wheel with me to a friend's house, along with some kind of wool and perhaps a project--

But which one?

I have so many projects going, it's a little mind boggling.

I have TWO crochet child sweaters, one just needs buttons, which first have to be baked--the other one needs one and a half sleeves and buttons, and it's done.

I have a lapghan in a wave pattern, also crocheted, and about 15-18 skeins of yarn to add to it.

I have the Princess Shawl border DONE, but now have to pick up stitches, but I'm not sure if I pick them up "in the round" or if I pick them up and work back and forth. Also need a new addi lace needle in the correct size and probably 60" length to work on it. So that's on the back burner until I can order the parts.

I have a felting project, which is definitely going, because the person I'm going to see is a needle felter, and I'm looking to get a little help for my issues with this poinsettia that doesn't want to felt together. I'm a little more than frustrated with that. Front loader machines just don't felt things well.

I learned twined knitting Thursday night (it's fun!) and have a wristlet going--but before I go much further, I want to make some texture stitches, and get those "down", the wristlet is going well, otherwise, and I'm excited about starting some gloves at some point--however, I know that I'm going to have to locate some of the longer dpns--because twined knitting is much TIGHTER than regular knitting, and so requires more stitches (as well as more yarn). I do love the effect, though, and the finished product resists water (read that, good in a rainstorm) and is quite a bit warmer than regular knitting (even fair isle!). So, the wristlet is a possibility, but not a probability--reason? The guy who knows how to do the texture stitches is going along with us, and he could work with me.

Speaking of him, he showed off his newest fair isle sweater Thursday night, and OMG! It's in brown hues--rich browns that show off the beiges and make the pattern look like one of those deep pile rugs from India! IT was GORGEOUS! I asked him if he was going to put it in the fair, and he said he didn't think he could because it wasn't his original design, to which I scoffed--you can put that in--original or no--because it's your work. You just give credit where credit is due. I honestly believe that sweater could make it all the way to Convergence!

I meant every one of those compliments. And all the yarn was hand spun and hand dyed with NATURAL dyes found in nature. REAL stuff.

It was gorgeous.

I cleaned off my computer desk the other day too, looking for all my check stubs from JoAnn's. I'm not sure if they will send me a 1099 or not, so I kept all my stubs, just in case, so that I could report the income on my taxes. Since I started so late in the season, I don't expect the money to add significantly to our tax base, but a year's worth might--so I have to deduct a certain portion and save it for paying taxes, should the issue cause a problem. Also, hubby's not presently paying taxes on his retirement stuff and I think he's going to owe. This is irritating, because I ALWAYS overpay, and so if he owes, all my overpayment goes to paying off his taxes, and then some! This won't make me very happy at all, because my income taxes go toward the house payment, as they have for the last 10 years, and this year, they won't. I'll have to tell him that they will go against the bill, and not HIS bill either. So the underpayment comes out of his money and not mine. It's complicated. I'll have to figure out what my taxes will be without his money, and adjust accordingly. I do know that my overpayment will more than cover the money I received from JoAnn's though. So, I am not the slightest bit worried. The taxes will need to be done separately, anyway, so I'm not expecting problems.

Hubby's schoolwork is coming along fine. He's a bit frustrated with his programming class--he was discussing the problem he was working on with a friend, who diagnosed the problem without much thought and gave him the answer to the issue he was having, which made my hubby even more upset! As if! How dare he come up with the answer so quickly when I've been trying to figure it out for hours! (um, hubby--watch out! Your jealous vein is beginning to pop out the side of your head!)

It was just too funny.

Well, I have to go downstairs and pick out the wool I want to work into z-twist yarn. The fire went out last night, and the house is really cold this morning, so I'm not looking forward to going to the wool room to get wool for this endeavor, as the downstairs is even colder. Surely, I must have some wool upstairs!!! I'll peek in the closet.

Well, in the meanwhile, I'm a busy soul, so everyone have a good weekend!

The Fun Continues...

Last night, I taught a knitting class at JoAnn's. There were eight of us, including me. Wild women, out looking to have fun and laugh and experience a good time.

Well, we did that all right. We all learned some knitting, too. I smile to myself when I think of it. One of the ladies was laughing so hard that TEARS were running down her face. So much that I got her a tissue, and then she laughed harder when I asked

"Are we having a "tissue-issue" with a lilt in my voice, and frankly, I think she nearly died.

Another person was laughing so hard that her face was simply beet red--and everyone laughed and had a good time.

Well, just call me "good time Charlie". Depending on how serious you were, the more you learned, and there were some ladies who were doing very well--others were "getting" the motion, and will have fun at home remembering how to make the stitches. And of course, they all work a few blocks from me, and I can go there and work with them some more if they choose.

The whole evening was a great time.

People at my office are starting to comment on how much I really love doing this "second job". It's just that it doesn't "feel" like a job--you know how when you love what you do, it seems to go by so fast. But seven students is the largest class I've had yet so far. I hope the fun continues, because I would miss it GREATLY if it went away.

In the meanwhile, I'm working on a child sweater. The first one I made has a mistake in it, so I have to rip it out, but other than that, it's fine. It might be a bit of a job to rip it out, as I've done quite a bit of finishing on it. I am saving it for Saturday, when I can really pay attention to it. But working on the second one, I see where I made the mistake on the first one, and therefore, I will finish the second one before finishing the first. I think it's a good plan. I was just so wound up last night that I knew that I wouldn't sleep, and I had to make sure that the pattern didn't have a mistake in it (you see, SOMETIMES I make mistakes miss an instruction, and then the end result doesn't make sense, but I try to finish it anyway. I always assume it's an error in the pattern, and then I try to figure it out. Since I have a student who is making the sweater, I took her through the parts I knew to be correct, and had her continue at home, and leave the parts that I thought might have an error alone, and that we would finish those in the second installment. It won't take long to finish up the pieces and then sew together. Now that I know there is no error, I can go forward, and so can my student, but there is a trick I want to show her, so I will hold off contacting her about it until the second installment of the class. In the meanwhile, I'll finish up the sweater and put it up for a sample on JoAnn's wall.

Hubby is having fun at school, too. I think he's glad for something to do. It's keeping his mind occupied, and his hands busy. I do believe that he bit off more than he can chew, but I also think it's good for him to have that in his life--it tends to stretch your ability to cope, and he needs that. I'm really happy for him.

Well, must finish getting dressed and head for the office, now. Everyone have a good day out there in bloggerland!

Martin Luther King Day

You know, this day is an auspicious day. I like it because I get a day off work to continue to do things I like to do, instead of what I have to do in order to make a living. But there you go. That's about the end of it.

I do, however, remember the day of Dr. King's funeral. My 4th grade teacher (oh HUSH!) Mrs. Eckert had brought in a television from the video folks (yes, of course they had video in the dark ages!) and we watched the procession. Personally, I didn't know the man, and didn't keep up with current events at 10 years old--I can only assume that Mrs. Eckert did. The effect was one of those "indelibly imprinted on my brain" types of landmarks that really don't seem to make a lot of sense. Having gotten older, I've watched some of the documentary, and find MLK to be quite a historical vignette, figuring very prominently in the annals of the past, and in the present for the people he represented, just as Elvis figures for others. An important man, yes. For me? Not so much. But to have such an impact on the history books--to have obtained his "10 minutes of fame" and to have, as the result, HUGE political change gives me hope that sometimes, one man CAN change the world...or at least his or her little corner of it. Even then, however, not much impact on me personally, except for the day off, which I do appreciate, and I watch the documentaries faithfully--usually--but there is no time to spend today honoring the man, which is a little sad really. I know that in other cultures, this day is nearly considered a high holy day. Yet not for me. Certainly perhaps more than Christmas, but not Easter. Perhaps on par with the day Kennedy died--although I don't feel any real connection to Kennedy either.

Oh enough with the soul searching already. I am happy to have the day off, and I don't want to spend it lamenting the loss of an admittedly good man. Just like Elvis--he's DEAD already. Get over it!

So today, I have good news...I finally finished the border for the Princess Shawl--last night in fact, at 11pm or so, I worked the last row of the 85 points (people, that's 1700 rows!). Now, I have to pick up 865 stitches all along the edge of this piece. Ten stitches per point, plus 15 stitches evenly distributed across the length--which is approximately one stitch every 5th or 6th point alternately. But OMG! 865 stitches? Any idea how difficult it is to keep TRACK of 865 stitches when you're just starting to pick them up? So I thought I would give the piece (and my throbbing eyeballs) a little rest today, and work on something else--until I can lay my hands on the needle I'll be using and that might be a few days--you know, until I get my paycheck? We need milk! But I feel pretty good about having finished this. Somehow, I believe in my heart that the rest will be a BREEZE comparably, with areas that are mostly "knitting", where the border WASN'T--with repeated stuff that may or may not be easily memorized--but there I go, thinking again. I promised myself that I wasn't going to do that.

So instead, I thought I would plan a little for the sock class this morning and the Child Sweater class this afternoon, with a little break in there for spin day. The sock class involves learning to turn the heel and picking up stitches, plus Kitchener. Of the two, kitchener is often the most difficult for people to wrap their head around, but seriously, it's very easy once you have it down--all you really need to remember is to work it loosely, then go back and snug everything up, then weave in the end REALLY WELL, so things don't come undone.

What? You've never had a toe come undone?

But I have to shower this morning, and I need to make up some more business cards, and I have no idea what I'm going to put there! I suppose I'll figure it out. In the meantime, everyone watch television today. I'm on my way to a busy day!

Something Different...

Today, I have just 7 more points to do on the Princess Shawl Border.

I am a little bit behind because of the samples I made for JoAnn's, but I'm catching back up. I should have those seven done today, but I must allow my eyes to rest for a bit--as I've just finished working three of them, and my eyes are--well--crossed.

I got some news the other day from my husband. He tells me that my ex-boyfriend is teaching his Physics class.

This was NOT happy news, and I got teased rather hard about it. Grief and loss don't resolve for me, so the news brought all sorts of good and some REALLY BAD memories right to my temporal lobe and sent me in a tailspin...for a while. Then I got to chatting with a girlfriend, and after a while, I felt a lot better, and was able to finish working out the day. But I was certainly exhausted at the end of the day--so much so, that I was unable to get to sleep. So I took a sleeping pill at 2 AM, and slept until 10 the next morning.

It just wasn't the best way to begin my weekend, but there you go.

Hubby, his son and I drove into town and had breakfast together. Then, because hubby was driving me pretty nuts over his computer (he's not real savvy about computers, but he's getting better with practice), I decided to head to town and pick up some things. One was a video camera/webcam to use for internet conferencing with my son and my mother--this is a cute little contraption. I got business cards, paper and some folders for hubby to use. Then I drove to JoAnn's and worked on a couple more points on the border.

You wouldn't believe the number of compliments I received about my lace. It's very pretty, I know that--and I thanked everyone. It's a difficult piece, but not impossible. I've made mistakes, but I've learned a LOT, too. Laminating and enlarging the border pattern were two things I learned early on. The rest has been learning to tink lace and counting, counting, counting. Now that I'm nearly done, I can work two rows before highlighting the pattern with the dry-erase marker, and that saves lots of time. I can now get a point done in about an hour or so--if I don't end up tinking--which of course, slows me down a little. And I learned how to tink an SSK (slip, slip, knit), and an SK2P (slip one, knit two together, pass the slipped stitch over the knit two together), and a K2tog (knit two together).

I ran into a young man at JoAnn's who knows how to bead, which is another craft I like doing, and he also likes to work in glass--something I've always wanted to do...so at some point, I'll be taking his bead class. I want to learn how to make the spiral necklaces--ah, another lifetime, right?

In the meanwhile, I knit on the border, and chatter with my son. I have a webcam now, so we can talk and see each other talking. I'ts a little memory intensive, but otherwise works well. I've never been photogenic, so having people see me while I'm doing "stuff" is not necessarily my cup of tea.

I really hope that hubby learns the computer a whole lot faster than he has so far. I'm having to teach him all of my little keyboard hotkeys--such as CTRL+P to print stuff. These are all things that will make his use of his computer more efficient and lots faster. We'll see. At some point, he'll fly off on his own and learn stuff that *I* don't know. That's when I'll be able to let him soar on his own.

My guru had me download a piece of software, and now he and I can communicate and he can fix my computer remotely. This is a piece of software that I can use for my friends, as well, and help them fix their computers--the software is called "TeamViewer". It's a lot like Log Me In, but you don't have to use the web, at least not directly. You find your IP address, send it to your buddy, and then he can log into your computer and fix whatever might be not quite working right (or as expected). He had fun showing me different things, and built me a ping program so that I could make sure that I was connecting to the internet, to my husband's computer and to the printer. Windows XP is starting to get "confused".

Well, I'm thinking about taking off and heading over to my mother's to help my son learn to knit. He's having a bit of trouble.

Ye Olde Memories....

The boys (read that hubby and son) are downstairs snaking the toilet drain.

This is an accident waiting to happen.

An EXPENSIVE accident.

Because should anything break, and a plumber need to be consulted, well, let's just say that this old house is made of sticks and clay...get my meaning? Nothing is to code anymore. Replacing ANY lines for the sewer would mean chopping up 10 yards of concrete, both under the house AND under the deck (which was JUST redone a few summers ago--and why didn't we snake the drain THEN????) to replace the line, pull up the pine tree stump from the 30 foot tall pine tree that USED to be there, and MAYBE even replace the sewer tank and re-run the drain field which has already been broken once from somebody rolling a pickup truck over it (we won't mention names....).

I recall a time when I was doing laundry, and suds came out of the toilet in the bathroom down there in our basement! We had to use a hose to run the grey water! Imagine that in this freezing cold! The ultimate in frozen pipe! And of course, you can't shut the door when there's a HOSE in the doorway, so let's just say laundry was a summertime thing....

And I remember a time when we had 2" of water, backed up from the toilet (but not sewer water, thank goodness--just grey water from the laundry) that soaked the downstairs carpet (remember that ugly yellow shag carpeting? OH YES! Original Equipment for a 1976 house, along with the orange kitchen countertops!), and then we couldn't get the musty smell out of the basement so we had to take up all the carpet. That was fun, too. Moldy carpet. Dusty, moldy carpet, taken up in pieces (naturally it wouldn't come up in ONE piece) and transported by hand and shoulder, right next to the nose, and tossed into the pickup truck to take to the landfill--tossed, and dust rose in the air 10 feet!) I believe I contracted a cold that year that I could NOT shake, that ended up staying with me for 6 entire months until the doctor finally diagnosed me with a case of minor asthma.) Sorta makes you understand why we didn't REPLACE the carpet. I think that was a wise decision. Yes, Indeed! I do!

However, now, son lives in the basement, and with my urging, and loving reminders and a skipping down memory lane, son and I convinced hubby to get a toilet snake to snake the line.

Which brings us to this moment, where the "boys" are playing with the monster, rented from the local "machine rent-all" place--with marginal instructions in use of the contraption--and they are snaking the toilet drain.

I'm keeping the number for the plumber handy, just in case. Hey, Culligan Man!

On the Line with Tech Support

Well, I just spent the last half hour to an hour with tech support at Verizon Wireless.

Result?

Well, I'm connected, but it's an "always on" connection, which is fine for me--not so fine for hubby, who likes to leave the internet on pages that are constantly updating. This might get expensive.

In the meanwhile, I have to recreate the network connection, and that's not going so well yet.

I'll let you know.

Must.Call.Verizon!

Still having difficulty staying connected. It's become an issue in the entire household.

I had a Knitting 101 class yesterday with 6, yes, count them, 6 people!

It was a little much. I hope that the four who caught on to the process were satisfied, because the two that had trouble rather took more time--but I think I did well, all things considered. I have a new knitting "thing" to learn myself, and that is,

"How to Knit "Left-Handed"".

But for now, I must go to work. I can download instructions there to get a visual on my break or on lunch, and learn enough to be able to teach the class.

The extra yarn for the contest has arrived, and now, I'm working on so many different things, I'm wondering if I'll have the time to work on it. I haven't even knit a swatch yet.

And another person queued up my slippers. I think that's cool. Must. Go. Start. Car.

Am I Dreaming?

Well, I sure wish I was, because that would mean I was still sleeping--and I'm not. I came to work early this morning to get a jump on some things, and ended up sleeping right though the alarm, and was a whole 10 minutes late, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but the person I was hoping to get a jump on was already here, and there was only a small pile of things that I could get done for her to work on, now all the rest of the stuff I have can be done over the next two or three days.

So I guess I came in early for nothing. This would be maddening, except for the fact that it means I can leave earlier than I normally do--and that's a plus.

Last night I made potatoes in my new potatoe bag I got for Christmas. It worked great! I think I'm going to make more potatoes tonight!

It's sort of a slow news day today, though.

I have 31 more points to go on my Princess Shawl Border. I'm getting there! If I can just complete two a day, I will have them all done in 15 or 16 days--which will put me toward the end of January starting the body of the shawl. Frankly, I can't wait.

Well, it was a short break, but I have to get back at it. It's supposed to snow today (a lot), and I'm not looking forward to that. I hope I get home early enough to miss it.

A little rant....and then back to work...

They've decided to tack on another responsibility to my workload at the office yesterday, and it's beginning to drive me knuts.

Somehow, I hope that I can get past this recent trodding on my feelings for leaving me out of the decision to do this.

In the meanwhile, knitting on the Princess Shawl. I now have only 32 1/2 points to do on the edging, and then I can put it away for blocking later. I will be so happy to move on to the next part. I'm hoping that it's a bit easier to memorize than the edging was, but for whatever reason, I do believe that it will be more difficult. Somehow, that's how it goes.

I haven't made any progress on my next project--the one I plan to offer for sale, I mean. I am waiting for a few more skeins of the yarn I intend to use, and when it arrives, I will start. I also have some projects I need to get going on for JoAnn's--some felted flowers and a child's sweater--very important to get my samples done, but I've been really busy for some reason, with not a lot of time to accomplish things at home--

That might be because of the addition of working OUT OF THE HOME, which is stressing me out these days, because of the addition of a new task, which is driving me knuts...oh...there I go again....

I haven't done a tarot card in a long while...so I draw one..

Wisdom...reversed of course, from the Psychic Tarot, which compares to the Hierophant in the Rider-Waite decks. Psychic Tarot claims this card to be that of a teacher, rather than a religious ideology--which tones it down quite a lot. Reversed, it may mean that I need to take the stance of the student, and learn something today. It could refer to the fact that next week my husband is going back to school, and how that might affect me--something, in fact, that I'm really excited about, since it means that there will be evenings when all will be quiet around the house, and I don't have to come home and get supper going the second I walk in the door! YAY!

It might also refer to the fact that my son is trying to re-learn knitting. Yes, I was a good mother, and taught him when he was a teen, but for whatever reason, he dropped it in favor of doing other things (such as driving me knuts!). But now, he's picking it back up, and I'm very excited about that--finally, somebody to share my craft with!

But whatever it refers to, I'm sure I'll find out in time.

Doings Today!

I was so fortunate today, as I only had to work for a half day, then a doctor appointment, then

Spinning!

Of course, I'm knitting, knitting, knitting, and in the space of the last blog post and oh, RIGHT NOW, I have finished 4 repeats of the border points on the Sharon Miller Princess Shawl.

Talk about motivated.

And I got my paycheck for the last week of classes, and believe it or not, I am REALLY pleased. Because I can't wait to spend it, and I already have an idea what I'm going to use it for! Isn't that what it's for?

Actually, I owe hubby some money, and by the end of this week, he will be paid off, and then I don't have to worry about the corn anymore until next season. Our supply should last until next season and probably into January, unless it becomes a great deal colder than it already is, and I believe that the worst of the weather is actually behind us. Usually, January and February are cold, but not so much snow as December. It's actually been pretty dry so far, and the Wooly Bear Caterpillar says that winter, spring and summer next will all be equally spaced. So--

Three months Winter. Three months Spring. Three months of true summer. Since December begins winter, there will be another two, perhaps two and a half months of winter, and then things will bloom again, and the sun will shine as it always does. Things will turn green again, and my favorite colors will pop out on the trees.

Why do I feel like I'm waiting for spring already? I do like Winter. I hate the cold and the bad drivers. Winter gives me a chance to showcase my knitwear that I've been working on all during the other seasons. Of course, THIS YEAR I am making a spring "wearable", and when I am finished, I will showcase it on Ravelry. You should look forward to this, because the project is going to be elegant, feminine and spring-y and probably VERY easy to knit (and perhaps a little crochet), and/or adjust for YOUR body. I also plan to enter it into JoAnn's newest contest offered in the store--Using a Red Heart Eco Yarn, you have to make an original article, and submit it to the contest for review, and first prize (there are 2), is a $1000 gift card for JoAnn's! I can always use a gift card, right?

First, though, I have to check my gauge with the yarn I chose to see how many stitches I have to cast on to make the article, then I have to measure how far a skein will take me, then I have to order more yarn (very likely)--so I have a little math to do first before I can actually cast on...but I am champing at the bit on this one!

Plus this, I have sold a few copies of my Comfortable Cable Slipper Pattern (see right panel), and I think this one might be my ticket to stardom. You know, for years, people have said that I'm talented--and it's one of those things where you think to yourself "ah, but you're just being nice..." but when someone actually buys your pattern so that they can make it, the compliment is written in cement! It makes you feel validated, and that it's NOT just words, that you really ARE talented.

If only I had the sense to sell my patterns years ago! :)

But this next pattern, coming up, is going to be so special as to pretty well dwarf the compliments on the slippers, socks and hats. This one will be so professional looking, that people will wonder if it's really possible for them to re-create it. And I think it would be VERY possible. It will take time and it will take work, but I'm looking forward to it, and I'm up to the task!

Watch for it here!

Problems with Broadband

Well, Verizon has done it to me again. This time, they have gone too far! This time it's the rant above all rants!

Now, my broadband card disconnects whenever it feels like it--as if it is aware when I go to the bathroom and leave it on. Then, when I come back to my work, the connection has been lost, as well as any online work that I might have tried to SAVE before I check the connection to make sure it's "on".

Bugger!

So, I'll be talking to them on Monday about it to find out what setting is causing this, because
it. is. driving. me. crazy!

******

Today, I have two classes to teach, plus knitting to work on. I actually was motivated to work on the Princess Shawl last night and made three more points, when I decided that I needed to make some edits to the laminated pattern so that I might be able to finish it--quickly, and without error.Most of the error I make are made when I have to look up and down--down to the pattern, then up to the work--I will invariably miss a yarn over or something, and tinking this thread is madness--trust me.

So the new plan is to get some colored markers and color in the blocks of work that are repeated--such as the k2tog yo k1 yo ssk and it's mate, which is the same, just reversed and the yo sk2p yo--then the ending of every other row and the beginning of the alternate rows are also knit the same, just in reverse, and I think I could memorize the pattern easier if I could simpify it. Even though I only have 37 more points to go.

God help me.

The motivator for starting the shawl again last night was The Queen Susan Shawl. I think I'm in love with Shetland lace. If you haven't seen this one in white, wait until you see it in black (yes, somebody was fool enough to work up a Shetland lace pattern in black--I wonder if they can still see properly.) Absolutely stunning. I downloaded the pattern.

Somebody tell me when I can find the time to knit all these things?!

And then I found a cool pattern for another dk hat, AND a cardigan. I tell you, I am doomed.

In the meanwhile, I will work purposefully on the Princess Shawl. Fear not; it will likely be years before I actually finish it. In the meanwhile, I have other things to work on, and classes to prepare for, and breakfast to eat, and so on.

It's also the last day of my vacation. Bah! Humbug!