I was minding my own business yesterday, doing a little computer stuff and uploading some files to PI, when WinXP decided to download some updates. And when WinXP wants to download updates, it wants complete control and it doesn’t stop to ask please even if you tell it to. I’ve had this happen twice before (update download during upload to web), and both times XP has been damaged.

This time my (nice, well-behaved, well-protected, working) computer has been turned in to a large doorstop. It’s a pretty, flashy, glowing doorstop, but a doorstop nonetheless.

Yep, it’s deader than Marley’s ghost. Deader than a doornail. Dead.

Try to boot: Cannot boot. System files corrupted or missing.

Try to repair: Blue Screen Of Death, BAD_POOL_CALLER

Say what?

In the end, I had to resort to reinstalling XP from scratch, which means I lost Windows knowledge of all of the software I have installed, some of which I need and use every day. Some of which gets me to the Internets. I tried something to “fix” it, and it’s gone back to being dead. No reason giving. Just won’t boot. So I will reinstall again. I have a backup that’s about 4 months old. It should be reasonably close. I haven’t done that many new things since then. So, reinstall again, and then restore, and then we’ll see.

I tried to use #1 Son’s (newly working) computer last night to check my e-mail, and I couldn’t get to the web on his computer either. And I couldn’t figure out why, I tried and tried and tried everything I knew. I worked at it for 2 hours last night (e-mail is a powerful incentive). I could talk to the network router, but that’s as far as I could go. It was very mysterious.

This morning I tried again. Still no go.

Then I went back to my desk to get something and noticed that the modem wasn’t working. See, it’s powered through the battery backup that my computer is on. And I’d turned it off when I shut down the doorstop.

That’s right, gentle reader, it does indeed work better if you plug it in.

Three hours killed to learn that little lesson. Ah well.

I planned on showing you knitting progress today. But, alas, the pictures are on my damn computer. There will be no pictures until I can get my computer talking to the world again. 😥

You will have to trust me when I say that the Fixation socks are coming along nicely, I’m almost ready to start working on the Rainbow socks again, and all that STR is yelling knit me, knit me.

[sigh] Computer things seem to come in waves. Once I get past this, it should settle down for awhile again. Here’s hoping!

The rumors ran through the city like a snag on a cheap pair of stockings. (Stole that from an old Darkwing Duck cartoon.)

First there were only whispers. Then sightings from friends of friends. Then the first-hand reports began to trickle in.

Then I called Alice.

Blue Moon is in at Tangle.

So where do you think I was on Saturday? At Tangle, maybe? And remember that the rule is that sock yarn in no way counts as contributing to one’s stash. So just maybe some of that yarn mysteriously fell into my knitting bag and ended up at home with me.

Left-to-right, that’s Sock Candy in Carbon, Socks That Rock in Stonewash, Mudslide, Jewel Of The Nile, Kryptonite and County Clare, and Sock Candy in Key West.

What’s a girl to do?

I thought I showed admirable restraint. I didn’t buy any of the ribbon, or the kidmo, or the bamboo (that’s right, gentle readers, bamboo). Just the sock yarn. And it doesn’t count.

I don’t have immediate plans for most of this. But I think the Key West will be next on my needles, after the two pair of socks already going. I’m also considering a fair isle pair using Stonewash and Mudslide. While I was there, D picked up some of the Jewel Of The Nile and wound it. My camera doesn’t do it justice. It is truly jewel-like and almost glows. I can’t wait to see it knit up.

That’s the cool think about hand-painted yarns. They don’t look anything in the ball like they did in the skein. And they don’t look anything knit up like they did in the ball. It’s fun to see the colors emerge.

I did get some knitting done, also. I’ve been hard at work on the red and black Fixation socks. I have turned the heels (black) and I’m heading up the ankles. I hope to have these done very soon. Then I need to finish the Rainbow socks that I’m doing in the stranded pattern. Then it’s on to the Key West.

As long as so many wonderful sock yarns are made, why knit anything else?

OK…. I have a little knitting content for you today. But very little, I’m afraid.

Because I don’t seem to have the time to concentrate on any larger projects In an attempt to keep 2006 the Year Of The Sock, I have two new socks-aborning on the needles.

To the left is the reborn Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Rainbow. My plans for these toes include a second stab at arch shaping a la Meg Swansen. I think I will work the instep and ankle in the stranded stitch from the Crusoe pattern in Knitty. These socks are being worked on my trusty Inox Gray US#2 circs.

To the right is a pair of socks I’m making as a gift. I don’t think the recipient reads here, but just in case I’ll only say that it’s someone who likes red and black a lot. The yarn is Cascade Fixation (I love-a love-a love-a this yarn) in colorways 3628 (cherry red) and 8690 (black). The needles are Clover US#3 circs.

Can you tell I’m glad it’s summer and time to start knitting cotton socks again? I think Fixation is so fun in its stretchy goodness, and it comes in such great colors. How much fun can one girl have? I’m thinking of doing the lovemeknot socks in it. But maybe not in red and black. I’m thinking lime green and maybe white.

Someone asked me a question about using the Magic Cast-On with striped yarns. How do you get the stripes to “fall right?”

Well… it depends on how you want the stripes to fall…

OK. I sorry for the smart-aleck answer, but it is true. The absolute middle of the sock toe will be between the two needles that are used for the cast-on. The tail makes the loops on one needles and the “working yarn” makes the loops on the other. You are probably casting on between 20 and 30 total stitches, and that doesn’t take much yarn.

If you want the first toe round to be one color, start the first loop in the middle of the color repeat so that the working yarn and the tail are both the same color.

If you want a little stripe of a different color at the toe, start the first loop where the color changes. This is nicely illustrated by the Rainbow socks in the picture above. These toes were cast on with the tail green and the working yarn yellow.

If you want both toes to start the same, measure how far it is from the needle to the next color change when starting the first sock, and start the second sock at the same place in the color repeat.

If you want your socks to stripe randomly, start in random places.

See? It’s not hard at all.

Cherries! Yum!

They’re almost ripe too. Now if I can just keep the birds away from them.

Every year the same thing happens:

1) I see that the cherries are almost ripe, but not quite.

2) I tell myself to give them one more day and then pick them.

3) I come out the next day to pick cherries, only to find that the local birds have completely stripped the tree, leaving me with nothing but a few seeds.

4) I promise myself that next year I’m not going to wait that extra day!

So… the countdown begins. I will report back on my cherry-picking luck.

And this is the promise of good things to come in September.

The grape vines were severely whacked back last autumn, so I didn’t think I’d have much of a harvest this year. But it looks like there will be just as many as there usually is. And that means all of my friends, my colleagues at work, and 1/2 of the neighborhood will be eating grapes until sick of them until I get sick of picking and leave the rest for the racoons until they’re all gone.

I really planted the grapes in order to shade the back patio. It’s in full sun all day in the summer and really needs the shade. But I wanted a deciduous vine because there’s no sun in the winter and I need the light. Grapes grow fast and fit the bill nicely. They covered the arbor and tried to take over the whole yard in 3 years. Now they get whacked back every year.

I only have two vines. Two. They produce bushels of grapes. I prune to keep them off the roof and to prevent a stranglehold on the cherry and silk trees and to keep them in line. I do not prune for production — never even think about it. I just whack. I don’t fertilize them. Heck — I don’t even water them. Makes me wonder why grapes are seen as touchy and hard to grow. Of course, if I planted an entire vineyard my luck would probably be decidedly worse.

No knitting news. I’m knitting, but nothing noteworthy right now. I frogged out the mermaid socks. I’m just not feeling the love there. I’ve strated that pattern twice with different yarns, and both times it’s gone in the frog pond. So I’m considering what to do with the rainbow yarn.

Helen declared my secret project to be “not socks.”

Nope. It was socks. I wanted to try a toe-up version of the fitted-arch socks in Meg Swansen’s Knitting.

Above are side, bottom and top views of the result. (Be sure to click on the pic to get the biggy version.) I made these anklets because my hands were too sore to knit with size US#1 needles any more I got bored knitting ribbed cables I think they look great that way.

The particulars:

• Socks That Rock in colorway Carbon
• two 24″ US#1 Inox Gray circular needles
• foot: stockinette stitch
• heel: Eye Of Partridge stitch
• cuff: ribbles (i.e. ribbed cables)
• technique: shaped arches

Lessons learned:

• I should have started the shaping back further from the toe. That would have kept the toe from being poochy underneath.
• This toe looks too pointy. I should try a toe that has the shaping closer to the sides.
• This colorway looks amazing in Eye Of Partridge
• For some reason the arch shaping kept the socks from pooling.
• Fitter arches feel great and I need to try this again.
• Band heels do not appear to fit my feet well.

On a completely different subject Daisy asks:

Can you give me more information on the Rose Festival? I am a single mom living in Wyoming, my daughter is attending college in Oregon, so I will be driving through Portland in two weeks to help her move out of the dorm. I have driven through Portland once, but did not get off the interstate, so I am not familiar with the city at all, I have always thought I would like to explore Portland, but don’t even know where to start. Would you mind giving me some information on the city?

Here are some links that hopefully will get you started on Portland and the surrounding area.

Portland Rose Festival, Portland visitor’s info
Mt. St. Helens
Multnomah Falls
Mt. Hood
the Oregon coast

One further hint: If you come during Rose Festival, bring your umbrella. It never fails to rain.

I came home today to find a large envelope smooshed into my mail box (I sometimes think my postal carrier has it in for me).

I was so excited, because I knew what it was! SOCKS!!!!! Socks that have come all the way across the US.

And look at all these cool things that my pal, Kat, sent! There are postcards and pictures from her area of the country. And a beautiful hand dyed merino/tencel sock yarn from Mind’s Eye Yarns in absolutely my favorite shades of my favorite color, green!

And what’s that down there towards the bottom? Could that be… maple candy? Oh, Kat, how did you know that I will kill for that stuff!

There were also a couple of candies that unfortunately didn’t survive our mini-heat-wave of the last couple of days (ok… mild warm spring weather). And a candy bar that I have put in the fridge where it will hopefully solidify. And cookies that unfortunately didn’t survive my mail carrier smooshing the package into my mail box (darn him/her!).

I ate them anyway. 😛 Nothing wrong with cookie crumbs.

And here you can see the lovely socks on my happy, happy feet. They fit perfectly! I love the way the colors spiraled. It’s hard to tell from this pic, but the spirals actually continue from one leg to the other. Very cool.

This is Artyarns Supermerino. I’ve been wanting to get a good look at this yarn, and now I have some!

Thank you, Kat! These were well worth the wait!