all the pieces, even if everything else is falling apart

This should be an adventure! I'm posting from A's scary Dell (no, seriously, it took many minutes for Blogger to even load). My ibook seems to have died. There's a chance that the RAM thingies are just loose, given one of the weird messages I got when I tried to boot it up from the software CD, but as I don't actually have a screwdriver tiny enough to let me into the guts of the thing, the investigation will have to wait. It's really too bad, as the thing died on me as I was finishing working with photos I'd just put into iPhoto, for a blog post. There was a really awesome sleeve in progress photo, and I can only hope that one day I'll see it again.

But things aren't all bad. Despite spending way too much time futzing with the computer, I managed to finish the second Ingeborg sleeve this weekend. So instead of a cool in progress shot (it was really cool, and I'm really disappointed I can't share it), you get a mundane finished sleeve shot. You'll have to deal. :-)



Yeah, I know it's a little fuzzy. I just don't have the patience for technology right now.

So now I have to make a date with C's sewing machine. Oh, and I also should block the pieces first. In the meantime, I started the bag! I did a cursory swatch in two colors of worsted weight wool which I won't be able to use, as that yarn isn't available at my LYS. (Gotta comply with contest rules!) It's too bad, because I kind of liked the blindingly bright green/purple combo. But the more subdued blue on blue is also lovely. I didn't swatch for exactness, but more to get a feel of whether I'd like knitting worsted weight on size 3 needles, and to get a feel of approximately what gauge and fabric I'd get. This is a bag, so things don't have to be too exact.

I ended up getting just under 7 stitches per inch in my swatch, though I think it will end up being slightly looser. I'm using the chart from pattern 20 in the Knitting Marvelous Mittens book, adapted to have a few extra solid stripes on the side seams. I did a provisional cast-on, knit a few rounds in a solid color, and am a few rows into the chart. So now it's just round and round in circles until I like the height of the bag. I think the width is sufficient that I'm probably not going to want to do shaping, though I may feel differently in a few inches. I don't have a photo today because there's not much to see, yet. I'll try to get at least one in progress photo of the body, for those of you who are curious about the colorwork pattern, and don't own the book I borrowed it from.

I meant to post at least once this weekend, since I got so much knitting done. Stupid, stupid technology. I don't think the knitting disaster roundup is going to happen, but a bunch of people left interesting comments on that post, so go back and take a peek if you're curious. And if you want a deeper view on tragedy and knitting, by all means listen to the latest episode of Cast On.

This is a really disjointed post. Also in the maybe-dead ibook is a sticky with a nice, neat list of all the things I wanted to blog about this weekend. Now that I don't have my crutch, you're getting impatient stream of consciousness. There is one wonderful thing on that sticky that I'm not going to blog about, yet. It's something a friend of mine made, but I got the feeling from her recent post about that project that there may be more photos coming, soon. You know who you are, Ms. Ksubnaught. Are there more photos? 'Cause you know I'm going to have to eventually send the readers of this blog over to look at your gorgeous creation. :-)