Y’know, some days we are just better off not getting up. I shoulda played hooky today. Instead, first thing, before coffee, I took this picture of my cable in order to start my post with the mystery cable story.
It’s not that much further than the other day, but it’s a little bit (and don’tcha just want to squeeze that yarn’s lil’ cheeks! oooh!). So I go to download the pictures from the camera, and the monitor won’t wake up. This has been happening on and off lately (no pun intended), but David thought he had it fixed. Something something reset pram something /NVramblah-blah. And then today, nada. I mean, the monitor is fine, but something is a-blink in the system or in the video card or whatever. C’mon, baby, gimme a break!
Now, I know how it feels, but I don’t sympathize. I have work to do, and I hadn’t had my coffee yet. Crikey. I mean really, I do my job on the computer. All day. I could hear email coming in and I sorta panicked, but it was only 7 am, so I hit restart, turned around, and went back out to work on my cable a little more.
I know, I’m a real problem-solver, I am. But, I hadn’t had my coffee yet, so my brain wasn’t exactly functional.
So I get back to the cable and look down and there, there it was. At the raglan increases. Those 3-st ribs that run down the raglans. They were . . . hmm, no . . .mmm, yup, they were . . . getting wider. Crap.
And did I mention I hadn’t had my coffee yet? Are you getting the drift that “my coffee” is a pretty important component to the start of my day?
Sigh. I really don’t mind ripping out. I’ll do it in a heartbeat; ask any of my students. But I was SSOOoo into this mystery cable game! I wanted to have a nice piece to show ya later on. I guess you players will have to wait another day to see a better view. I can give you a clue: it’s 24 sts and 34 rows. I had to translate it to the international charted symbol system to make my life easier. Also, I own a LOT of obscure knitting books; I’ve been collecting them since way back when you could get them for 25¢, if not for free from the trash. Yeah, I know; I told you I’ve been knitting a long time.
. . . And don’t you even say that O word
I thought it would be fun to give a prize* (and please pass it along that I’m upping the ante on this): whoever guesses the cable first, gets some handspun yarn, enough for a scarf and mitts or a hat or something. And I’ll throw in a pattern. Now hopefully, this will be the yarn that I couldn’t use in the sweater (see the Moss Don't Grow post, midway down), but it could be some other yummy handspun. And my intention is to keep you updated daily, barring any more disasters.
So after all, out it came again:
Once I got it back on the needles I went back to my desk (with my coffee, YAY! . . . I know you’re glad), and gingerly touched the return key. Voila! I had video. Nope, yup, nope, yup. Blink. This is SO weird; every time I touch the mouse, the monitor goes black, and every time I let it go, the monitor comes on again. And then once in a while, for fun, it does a little shimmey dance; oh joy.
So, in other words, I can LOOK at baby huey, but I can’t touch it. Finally after a couple of hard reboots, he settled down to his usually sweet self. As long as I keep working and don’t let it go to sleep, I’m golden.
I really got hardly anything done yesterday or today so far on my knitting. I finished the striped hat and it’s so cute! And I worked on the Japanese feather lace stole, and on the moss shawl, but did I take pictures? NO-ooo!
I worked here and taught classes. I washed and dried sock yarn:
Which looks MUCH prettier in real life; this pic does not do the blue any justice. It’s really just here to tease Debbie J! Which is SO mean because she gave me this:
YAK! This is so soft and downy, it’s finer than dryer lint. I think I’m just gonna meditate on what to do with it for a few days. Hmmm just what I needed to soothe my spirit; I’m afraid I’m too selfish to make it the prize in the contest, sorry.
Thanks Debbie, you sweetie, you!
*Note: the giveaway mentioned in this post is no longer available
Originally posted by Anne Hanson on March 23rd 2006
