My Computer is Here

I am so happy! Anth arranged the whole thing for me and volunteered after she said "just go on line and check" - oh, no computer, no on line! I suspected that my lappy was on it's last legs and had backed up all my files the week before and spent yesterday retreaving files, loading printer drivers, patches and so on, photos I'd taken of my projects, (finding where they hid the games). Then caught up with emails and Rav posts.

In the meantime Loz kindly lent me her dodgy old Think Pad (on dial up). The poor thing couldn't recognise anything on the E drive, although it knew it had been plugged in. I didn't even try to open my IK PDF CDs that I bought. I decided to pick up one of the MANY magazines I have, choose one I had allocated the week before. I had gone through my stash and allocated patterns to yarns, put them in a big box and decided that my job until the end of the year was to get as much of it knitted as possible.

I finished my Provincial Waistcoat but didn't find any buttons I liked in Lincraft. I'm going to help Loz move tomorrow - OK it's driving her from her old place to her new place and watch men move the boxes - that's helping, isn't it? anyways - on the way home I'm going to see what Spotties have.

I bought that Fabulous Vogue Knitting Holiday 2004 mag from Debbie in USA, I made the #20 Cable and Rib Bluey out of it. Well the #3 hoodie is lovely, with the worst photo ever taken to spoil a nice design, there's a few of them in Vogue let's be honest. The bag of blue mohair 12ply from BMW back room is being transmogrified - OK knitted - into #3 - an easy knit on 6.00 mms. I knitted the pockets onto the fronts, then picked up the body from the back of their loops, then when I'd knitted up to the top of the pockets, then knitted them to the body, 3 needle bind off style, but without changing to bigger needles, of course.

And I made a start on Must Have Cardi in BMW Rustic 8ply - Elm, but doing the body in the round to the armholes, and resizing for thinner wool - cast on 232sts. The only thing I changed this time was to mirror the cables, otherwise just the extra stitches added to the side pieces. It's a little bit fancier than I'd usually make, but it doesn't hurt to have one in the wardrobe.

Now I have my internet, project notes and old files back, I can finish the Bannister jumper, fire up the KM and do some of the the projects I've allocated for it.

Ode to an Ancient Mariner - always a good tale - aka Sue Cubed

It started last week. No, no, a couple of weeks before....

We Aussie Ravelers in the Bendigo Woollen Mills group.. had a bit of an epiphany - why not get together a co-op, whereby one person buys one ball of all of the new colours in their Luxury 8ply range, chop them up equally and redistribute to the coop group; then of course Sandy in Queensland thought a Rustic 8ply one would be the go and of course we all wanted all the samples they had in stock, not just on their colour card.

When mine arrived I played, I knitted, I undid, I decided that their Mariner was outstandingly wonderful. There was talk on the boards that they had plenty of the discontinued colours, so far no dramas, a few discussions were had on how nice the colours and so on. So I ordered my Mariner over the internet on Wednesday - all good - then last Friday I got a call. Nope they had none left - Nope, none in the back room, nope not one ball to be had. I was devastated!

Next was onto the boards to beg and plead. No luck. Then onto stalking people who had already bought some to see if they could be persuaded to part with any - nope, but then Sue W from Victoria had 2 and a little bit.. enough for a vest. I thought Provincial Waistcoat would look stunning in it. However I did approach a few more havers in their stashers.. Nope. Just one more ball would get sleeves.. Nope.

But I had the very best news this morning. Another Sue from Victoria has 4 and a little bit balls and was happy to send them on their way to me for a contribution to her paypal account.

There's more: I had a pm from ANOTHER Sue, who has half a ball what Sue W had sent her so she could finish her project.. NO joke - a well travelled bit of wool that! Now three Sues, all from Victoria and all have sent me their stash for money or swap..

When they get here, I shall take their picture and show everyone what a truly gorgeous colour it is and I'm so sorry they are discontinuing it.

Here ends my tale of love, loss, betrayal, false promises, forlorn search, stalking, rejection only to end in love found - all the best stories have those elements so I thought I'd share mine.

And special thank you to the three Sues: Sue W, Sue G and Sue RA, from Victoria, for supplying me with a happy ending.