Thursday, August 09, 2007

A Safe Place

You know what happens when you have something that you don’t want just anyone to find and you put it in A Safe Place? Yup! When you want it, you can’t find it! That’s what has happened to me recently. Before we went on our vacation in June, I backed up my computer on my portable hard drive. Then I unplugged its cables and stashed it somewhere safe. You know — just in case somebody breaks in and steals my computer. Again. (Yes, it has happened to me before. That’s why I was being so careful.) Unfortunately now I can’t find it. I’ve forgotten where I put it and I’ve looked absolutely everywhere I can think of. Therefore it’s gotta be somewhere I’m not thinking of. This ageing mind must be going…somewhere else. I wish it would go where my hard drive is hiding. I’m overdue for another back-up.

Meanwhile, I’m 3/4’s of the way through winding the warp for the blanket. Here’s one quarter:


The others look quite different. Since I could only get two 8-end stripes out of each ball and I only had one or two balls of most of the colours (except black), I just staggered the stripes in any order that pleased me. The warp stripes will be repeated 3 times across the blanket when I sew it up but the wefts will be more random. It may look like a dog’s breakfast when it’s done, but what can you expect with so many odd balls of yarn? At least it will keep me and T-Man warm this winter which is basically all I ask. I could finish the winding and start getting it on the loom if I’d just stick to what I was doing. But I seem to have a particularly acute case of Crafty ADD today. Besides winding wool, I spent some time reading on the computer and knitting on T-Man’s socks. They’re almost done. Reading a few more blogs and some email should do it.

I also spent some time spinning for the Icelandic Shawl. I shouldn’t even be starting on this yet but just can’t help myself. Several folks in the KAL have started knitting already! So far I have the moorit (light brown) and white merino wool that I’ve already spun up, a merino top called “Wood Smoke” (several browns and greys plus red, green and orange) and a black unknown top with a wee bit of light grey or white (hard to tell) that I found in the stash. I’m auditioning some denim-ish blues and a bit of orange in the mix but that only gives me 7 of the 9 colours the pattern calls for. I may either dye for the last 2 colours or just use the 7 that I already have. The largest amount of one colour that the pattern calls for, besides the main colour which will be the moorit, is only 140 yards which spins up quite quickly. What I need to do is go over the pattern and figure out in what order the colours are used. Then I can draw up a diagram to help me decide what goes where. This is a complex pattern so that might take me some concentration.

When T got home from work, we went on another of our famous walks. We found a couple of presents for my dear granddaughter who turned 3 today. I know I’m contributing to the objectification of women by catering to her love of all things “princess” but I can’t help it. She’s got a pretty strong sense of self so I’m hoping it won’t have a lasting harmful effect. Her party is on Sunday so I won’t see her until then to find out how she likes ’em. I need to make a birthday card now to go with the pressies.

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