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Owie...

My ISP has upgraded servers -- or something -- and I'm supposed to input some values for something into some spots somewhere within the workings of my email program.

The ISP handily has a webpage that steps users through doing this for several email programs.

But it seems that my ancient copy of Eudora doesn't have any place to input some of these values, and, in fact, no version of Eudora is shown on the ISP's webpage.

(And there's no support for Firefox on the page either, which really does surprise me.)

Not sure what to do.  I can access mail through a web-based app, but I actually prefer to write email while not on the web.  I think it's a hold over from the days of dial-up, which, for me, didn't end that long ago.  (On the plus side, it seems that the web-based app lets me see a surprising amount of mail filtered to the junk folder.  I don't recall ever seeing so much junk mail in my Eudora, so I guess it never got past the mail server?)

IOW, if you're trying to get me through email, please be patient.  I wasn't expecting to to deal with technical issues this week and...um...it's going to take a bit of time to resolve.  I think.

“198 plus Yards of Heaven” – Finished

Sorry the pictures aren't great; I've had to fit picture-taking into my schedule today and decided to grab the sunlight while I could.

The yarn for this shawl started out as a mostly-solid dyed skein in a somewhat dated shade of pink. (Well, I think it's dated.) The vendor no longer sells the yarn, and when I expressed interest in it, she simply gave it to me. I wish I had a picture of the skein; maybe I can stop by the shop one day and if there's more, take one. (A picture, I mean; not a skein. That said, I'd work with the yarn again.)

The skeins of yarns went with me to visit Alan and John, and while I was there, John tinkered with the colours. There was a plan for the yarn, and a particular recipient of the finished project in mind. The end result of the dyeing isn't what I was expecting -- I think John figured he'd wrecked the yarn -- but the end result is also beautiful, and while I knew my original plan might not work, something would.

I worked some swatches for a lace shawls, and set them aside for a couple of days to cogitate. (Which sounds like a much more complex process than it actually was.) In the end, I settled on Christy Verity's "198 Yards of Heaven". (That's a link to the pattern on ravelry.) If you've not seen the pattern in a while, you should look at it again. Christy made some changes in response to knitters' feedback which significantly improve the design. (And it's free!)

Now the thing about knitting lace with a yarn in which there are contrasts in colour and chroma (at least I think it's "chroma": you know, the tints, shades and gray scale thing), is that the contrasts in the colours will fight for your eye's attention with the surface patterning of the fabric. This is why you see lace shawls or cabled sweaters worked in colourful yarns with lots of contrasts, and the lace or the cables just disappear into the wash of colours. So the thing I was wondering about was whether a lace pattern would show sufficiently, and that's why I worked the samples.

I think the shawl is a success. The colours add interest, but don't really compete with the simple lace pattern. It's really lively, and really lovely.

Great design, nice instructions. I'd work it again. Except for changing the beginning -- the designer has you cast on 5 sts and then increase rapidly up to about 15 sts over the first 3 rows; I started with a short garter stitch tab and knitted up stitches along its edge -- and working more pattern repeats than indicated, and shorting the length of the pointy border, I worked the instructions exactly as written.

To Recap

Pattern: "198 yards of Heaven", by Christy Verity. Free Ravelry Download available here. Thank you, Christy.

Yarn: 2 ply wool, about DK or worsted weight, no long available.  About 200 yards per skein.  I used about 1.5 skeins.

In Other News

There isn't any. See you all later.

Reporting In...

It's been a while since I posted, and before I launch into talking about me, me, me, I want to point you to this blog post of my friend Kyle Kunnecke.

In addition to being smart, funny, cute and incredibly creative, Kyle is also training to run the National AIDS Marathon  -- while working at his job and attending school to get his college diploma.  I figure anyone who runs a marathon should get a medal, but medals don't raise funds that organizations like the AIDS Project Los Angeles needs to do their work.  You can make a contribution to help Kyle achieve his fundraising goal, and it doesn't have to be a big contribution.  Every little bit helps.  (Do you really need to buy more sock yarn?)  The "donate" button is on this page.

Go Kyle!!

Okay...

So a couple of weekends back I went down to Easton Mountain to attend a workshop called "FINDING YOUR CALLING: Making Connections Between Spirit and Vocation".  More about the workshop later.  The drive down was mostly through sleet, and several times I thought about turning back.  Visibility was very poor; the interstate was slick.  (We drove past Utica at 45 MPH. I wondered how long it had been since the highway had seen speeds that slow.)  Then, about an hour west of Albany NY, the sleet changed to rain.  Much better visibility.  I arrived at Easton Mountain and saw the snow was melting.  Ick.  (The joke is that there are 5 season: winter, spring, summer, fall and mud.)

Next day, Dave, Scott, Sunfire and I drove over the mountains into Vermont to go to Green Mountain Spinnery. Dave mumbled abit about the weather -- usually when we were in a brief whiteout -- but on the whole I was relieved by how good the visibility was, especially given what I'd slogged through the previous day.

There is a display of yarn behind the desk/cash area in the retail shop at the mill; it's changed every month.  We were surprised to see the green/purple combination of Easton Mountain.  What a welcome!

John drove down from upstate Vermont and met us at the mill.  (He's going to knit a hat.  We supported the local economy.)

Then over to the Front Porch Cafe for lunch.  Wonderful. The return trip took us through Manchester, Vermont, where we might have supported the local economy. (Tip: the Lemon Almond Brittle at Mother Myrick's is very good.  The Buttercrunch is also very good, but if I had to choose I'd go with the Brittle.)

The next day it snowed.  What a difference in the landscape.

 

After the workshop I drove home, and arrived back with a nasty flu bug.  Missed 2 days from work, and a week later I'm still snorffling.  (The weather for driving home was much better than going down. Thank you to the Divine.)

The workshop was facilitated by Ken Mattsson, a career practitioner from Boston.  It was the first time he'd presented the material at Easton Mountain, and it really needed an extra day.  However, I consider it to have been valuable, would recommend it to others, and benefited from it.  Ken is an excellent presenter to groups, and did very good, sensitive, one-to-one work.

Once upon a time, a career counsellor said to me "You know Ted, sometimes when people are stuck with their careers, it's not a career problem. It's a life problem.  Often when you sort out the life problem, the career thing just sorta sorts itself out."

I would like to say that while at the retreat I had my moment of divine inspiration and my path in life was laid out before me. Didn't happen.  What did happen was that some things got consolidated, and a few things that I need to do that I've been skirting got put rather forcefully into focus.  There needs to be some changes.

In Other News

• "Hi" to everybody who is reading this because of the brief profile in the February issue of Simply Knitting magazine.  Thanks to the editors for the mention. (I was completely surprised by it.)

• I made it through the lay-off at work this past week, so I have a job until the end of July.  After that...um...we're not sure.

• I have knitted something. More on it later.

• And I started spinning something.

There seems to be a bit of an orange theme going on right now.

Talk to you later.