Sunday, December 28, 2008

Counting down 2008

Knitwise of course:

10. Kauni Effektgarn Wool. Slightly scratchy, great colour repeats, and wonderful for steeking. I bought mine at Little Knits, and sing the praises of their customer service. They're actually so nice that I joined their board on Ravelry just to hang on the fringes.

9. The tidbits from Lucy Neatby. The Astrophysics of Knitting.

8. Korres Lipgloss in Nude. Not knitting, but a girl has got to look good doing it. And have soft lips in case TAO is around.

7. The incredible colour artistry from Bob at Winderwood Farms. Such lovely spinning fibers.

6. The great sock yarns and fibers from Leah at Yarn or a Tale

5. Little Loopy. Knitting needs a mascot, and life needs a smiling face to put on your monitor.

4. Harmony Options. Again, not new for 2008, but I didn't get any until this year.

3. Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. Following my usual pattern I picked this up at the library. What was unusual was that I loved so many patterns from it that I promptly bought my own copy. The instructions for a top down set in sleeve...Amazing!

2. Namaste's Cali Collection. My Laguna is perfect for me. Soft, lightweight, sturdy, cleanable. And a Zuma was ordered by TAO for my birthday. Rich, I tell ya', I'm rich

1. Ravelry. Yes it wasn't new in 2008, but still my favorite tool. Patterns, yarn, friends, forums, queues, rubbernecking. Love it.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Birthday

Another year gone. It was exhausting and franic while it happened, yet it doesn't seem very long since I was typing last year's entry.

I'm grateful for TAO and the dogs. Grateful for the new friends I made this year (waves to the backroom girls), I learned alot from them. Grateful for friends still hanging in from prior years. The year could have been so much worse.

Hoping everyone is having good holidays, staying healthy and well.

Smooches
Time to eat naked angel food cake.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

-19 Farenheit ~ Gee what to do now?


You can tell what Loopy opted for.
ETA: Loopy was working so quietly that I dozed off and dreamed that a giant canary and a giant twinkie were sitting on a porch swing arguing over sock yarn.

Monday, December 08, 2008

New and Improved - or Still Not

I aways find myself talking to my stuff when I pack to/from an assignment. "Will I need this? Use this? Be provided comfort or contentment from this? If I leave this behind will I be sorry?" "Why Do I Have ALL of this?" usually said at 2 am before a 10+ hour drive

This last trip was no exception, fortunately I had a semi grip on the packing leaving the assignment which lead to little re-packing when I reached the house and TAO. Good thing, because while TAOs surgery went well, and his recovery went almost too well, my computer suffered a catastrophic lost of information. Upon hearing the screaming blue streak in the basement, TAO logically pointed out that if I were going to have to reinstall all that information, I should buy a new laptop with more bells, whistles, processors, and such. Right, but I'm not ready to go Fruit yet (willing but not ready) which leads to the PC option. Despite it's having been on the market for more than a year, I still hear mumbled cursing from people on the big V system. Having learned computers pre-windows, I hate the new point and click softwares, they've been dumbed down to the point that everything is 9 times more complicated than when you just had to know how to use it. And there isn't a way to circumvent the "idiot friendliness" you just have to slog along clicking here there and everywhere.

The upshot was a new laptop, which hates everything about my old information and has made me really look at my virtual possessions. "Do I use this file often enough to pull it off the harddrive and de-bug it now so it will run in V, or can I leave it for some other day?" The biggest PITA has been, unfortunately, some programs I use daily, and have so far, been a crapshoot as to whether big V will link to it day by day. "What do you mean, file not found?, you freakin found it yesterday and it did not go anywhere in the meantime, because Look, it's right freakin here!" Did I mention that the Search feature has been so improved that it's now just about useless? Unfortunately, I have 678 emails to read, bloglines has sent out a little dog with a cask of brandy and my favourite workout isn't recognized. Not much knitting either.

On the bright side: Due to my anal backing up of stuff, very little "good stuff" was lost, and my niece will receive my old 80 GB laptop with a newly recovered system. Also, the nicest "stuff" in my virtual world -the friends I've made through it- didn't go down with the crash.