Best Quote I Heard All Day
Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.--Jeff Raskin

I make my living using a computer. This I admit, in the way that a substance abuser might introduce himself at his first 12-step meeting.

My name is Marilyn and I use computers incessantly.

Because I am at heart a born-again Luddite, I will not hesitate to say that both my Dell and my IBM laptops are in danger of being hatcheted.

Due to the twin computers' insouciance today, I will not be bringing you the other Christmas Crapalong pictures AND the picture of the finished Lavold vest. Beelzebub and Beetlejuice are not cooperating, e-mailwise, in letting me publish the pictures.

This will be remedied when I come back from Saratoga Springs next week. Gack.

Lavold-ish Things
Having finished the vest, I decided to get moving on the Ran tunic from the latest book.

In case you are interested, there is a mistake on the chart for this design. The size start indicators for M/XL and S/L were transposed.

This caused me about 2 hours of grief while I cast on, knit the set-up row, counted stitches, ripped out twice, and finally determined that the chart was fucked up. No corrections on Knitting Fever's site; however, Lavold does have a page on her site that lists the four corrections so far for the book.

Knitting directions are notoriously difficult to edit and check, so I think that only four errors is not bad, considering that XRX publications are filled with them. And frankly, the Ran error is probably the most egregious of the four.

If you go through the site, you'll see that she has also done a book on I-cord, available in Swedish only. Can't say that I'm holding my breath for the English translation.

I-cord has its uses but it looks tacky when used as faux cabling or for weird surface design treatments.

In general, I would say that Lavold's directions could be better written for the American audience, who needs their collective hands held at every juncture.

These designs are for the mentally organized knitter, believe me. You don't swatch? You don't count rows? You don't read the directions five times before starting? You never block? Buy some Wool-Ease and make an afghan.

Interestingly, there were two identical questions on the Knit List last week about the Lavold vest back neckband. I actually bothered to answer the first question publicly. Of course, the answer the two KListers sought was right in the directions.

I was overcome with Christmas spirit, what can I say?


Off to Saratoga Springs
This afternoon, I'm trekking to upstate NY to stay with Mitch and Emily, John's friends. He's already there...I had to put in time at work, hence my late departure. So I will be out of range, out of touch, and out and about until I return next Sunday.

This year has been far better for me than last year--I met John and that's truly been the hallmark for me, along with selling the house and moving into my new place.

And thanks to all my Tontant Weaders for reading. You know how much I appreciate you. May you all have a rare and handy 2004.