Drive it into the ground

You know the commercial where that guy says "I want my hard drive to make the sound of a Yetti"? Yepper, thats the one. But warranties can be great and a new one is flying here during the holidays - it is a race for backing up 160 gig before death. So I won't be knitting, so much as backing up for the holiday. Ah, but it will still be a fiber filled treat. This is why you should have your printer on one side and your spinning wheel on the other side of the computer. While the system does crap, like write DVD's, you play. Just no angora near the unit please. I will be spinning some SOAR treat, maybe yak down? Yes, on the coldest day of the year some Yak down from Toni at the Fold sounds warm and soft. Doesn't she have the fluffiest stuff?

And then I get to go to Old Town to see the luminarias, eat hot tamales and drink steaming cider while listening to the bands. This is such a nice tradition here in town. Not very many tourists, but a lot of locals come out to see this spectacular display. When you live in tourist town, it is nice to see the locals gathered for such a spectacular sight. Happy Holidays and safe travels my fiber friends.

A new felted bag test - sort of. This is unknown ebay yarn, hopefully wool. It was not nice for anything, but the old knitting machine liked it. My SK-860 used it up. Even if it doesn't felt, it will be a nice bag for projects. Roughly 16" x 16" x 2.5". The ruler is 15" for scale. Tomorrow we will see what happened in the washer. 

Philosopher's wool cardigan coming along. 

Remembering Tricks

Isn't the web wonderful? You go and search for some technique that is driving you crazy. In this case, I was having problems with a circular cast-on for machine knitting. Anyway, I am out and about hitting lots of good info, but none to solve my dropped stitch problem and I run across this juicy site. She has great hints and lots of fun things, but mostly she has this join (Russian Join). Gee, I knew this yarn join 10 years ago. What happened to that knowledge? Why did I forget and stop using it?

I am knitting a sock with some really fat yarn that was naturally dyed by my guild. It is Tomato Vine, Madder and Chamisa. And though it is a basic stripe, I forgot how to make a smooth join in big yarn. I didn't want ends. I spliced several different ways, but got nothing but little ends hanging out. Then I see this site and remember why I thought it was the perfect join in the first place. It is like an old friend coming home. I will have to carry a needle with me, but that isn't so hard to get the join I want in this sock.

Thank you web fairies for bringing back this lovely trick for me to enjoy.


The socks in Tomato Vine, Madder and Chimisa.


The yarn is logwood=purple, cochinille=rose and purple plum leaves=green.