A new PC
When my desktop went to sleep last Monday, I had no idea it would not wake up Tuesday morning. After much gnashing of teeth, tears, and words not becoming to a lady, I took my old PC to the exorcist today. The diagnosis was a hard drive failure. The plan is to remove any data possible and move that to a new PC. I may have a new usable PC tomorrow! I’m hoping so anyway! And with that, I have a goal of more blog posts. I’m going to attempt to post each Wednesday on the charity projects I accomplish each week. I’m hoping that will encourage me to do my share of sharing!
Two weeks ago, I had a film crew here to film for a cable access show. It is called ‘Positive Investigations’. They filmed me spinning and weaving, many of my completed garments, but the stars were the alpacas! It airs on local cable in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis. Ironically, this is where I used to live, but now I’m outside their viewing range. Thankfully, the producer will be sending me a DVD of the show. I’m hoping to be able to put snippets of the show here.
December what??
That’s what I keep thinking every time I look at a calendar. I can’t believe Christmas is nearly here. I’m not at all ready! No gifts bought, no cards or letter ready to send out, no decorations. It’s not that I don’t want to do all those things, but I really would rather knit and weave and spin! And so I have been.
I’ve got hats nearly done for a brother and sister – custom ordered by their mom. The young girl chose her style and colors – light green and violet. I think I may steal the combo and try dyeing some yarn in those colors. The son’s hat is blue and gray. I hope to finish both week.
I also have a shawl on the loom – again, to be finished this week and mailed in time for Christmas. It is coming along nicely. I have yarn dyed for a pair of gray men’s mittens – to be picked up on Saturday!
Can I do it? I think so. Darryl has plans tonight after work – which includes someone else feeding him! (Yay – no cooking!) And tomorrow he will come home for supper and then head off to a meeting.
I also want to tell you about a new boutique in town. Delightful Day Boutique just opened in Becker. If you are ever in the area, you need to check it out. Local artists and crafters have things for sale there, as well as gently used kids and maternity clothes. New things are still being added. Get a sneak peak on the website. You can find our felting kits there and I’m proud to have them there. It is always nice to have new place to shop and support the local folks.
And a confession – I have nearly killed my desktop computer. It has so much STUFF on it, that it can barely move! The worst is my pictures. But that is also where I have the software that I use to crop and compress my images, so for at a while, I’ll try blogging from my laptop and not including many pictures. My New Year’s Resolution is to remove the bad photos (fuzzy, repeats, etc) and then move some to another storage place. So hang in there – I’m taking the pictures and will get them on some day!
December what? 16th? No way! I gotta get a move on!
Better late than never?
Here’s the end to the red scarflette saga.
I decided to put in 3 buttonholes for the 2 white and 1 red buttons. I found this great tutorial on making buttonholes. After a few tries, I was making pretty good buttonholes – much better than the ‘bind off, next row cast on’ type I had previously made. So I switched from the bumpy seed stitch to smooth stockinette, knit a few rows, put in buttonholes, knit a few more and bound off. I sewed my center red button on the other end and take a look!!!
One button one
End to end
The stockinette rows pulled in shorter than the seed stitch and the buttonhole row even more so. Bad scarf! So the scarflette went into time-out for a few weeks!
When I determined that the scarflette had sufficiently repented, I ripped back to the seed stitch and started again. I put in 4 buttonholes for the 4 red buttons. (Thanks to Linda and Karen for agreeing on this!) I continued to do the seed stitch and attempted to keep it as consistent as possible on each side of the buttonholes. And here it is!
The buttons are on
Buttoned
Over the head with one buttonThe buttonholes still pull that row in a little, but it is much improved.Wide front
Pointed down in front
It is finally done! I even had fun fashioning it is different ways on my mannequin head. It is knit from bulky 100% alpaca yarn, dyed with Kool-aid. $20. I think it will go into my Etsy shop, but my blog readers get first chance. I can say it is warm and cuddly!
