The Importance of Doing a Backup

The week started with the worst case scenario for my computer (laptop) at work. It crashed. Literately. To the floor from a height of about 1.20m. While it was switched on! (That's what you get when you try to do three things simultaneously, while talking to the customer on the phone at the same time)

After that all I got was the not so friendly message 'Operation System Cannot Be Found' and that was it. Dead. Nothing else. End of the line.

Luckily I got a replacement fairly quickly (I can't do a bloody thing without the computer), but, of course, my last backup has been ... oh ... a looooooong time ago. I did loose a lot of data, and reconstructing it from the e-mails I've sent out over the time is a slow and painful process.

So, people, stop reading right now, and make a backup of all your important data. You might not need it, but if you do you will be glad you made the effort.

Already done?

Good.

On the up front, my dad, who's been in the hospital for one thing and then was kept for another is back home. He doesn't have the results of the last examination yet, so there's a bit of worry still, but I try to be optimistic.

I've finished the wrist warmers and they are lovely and cozy, though a bit long in the hand section.

I've got a bit of the yarn left and thinking about making a headband from it. I'm thinking of Calorimetry from the winter issue of Knitty, though the pattern there is writing for a thicker wool. I'm also not quite sure I've got enough wool for it, but guess I'll give it a try anyway.

Last week I've mentioned I've bought material for a new cardigan. I want to knit Mr Greenjeans (again a Knitty pattern ... don't know what it is, but I really like a lot of the stuff they do)

I've started out with a yarn called Riana by Gedifra. According to the information in the band if would be a perfect fit gauge wise, and I sort of liked the gray with the little speckles of other colors. But when I started I found it knits up too loosely and that I don't like the colors after all.

So I returned to the store and exchanged it for another yarn, Bingo Chinè by Lana Grossa, which knits up much tighter and I like the lighter gray much better.

(it is a bit lighter than in the photo here)

When I knitted my swatch I've ended up with almost perfect gauge (18,5 stitches per 10cm instead of 18) and decided to start. Two and a half balls in the pattern, I checked my gauge again and now I'm suddenly at 16 stitches per 10cm!

How did that happen?

I guess I might be able to fudge the pattern to get it to fit, but then I've read that the wool grows when washed by another 20 ~ 25%, which would make the finished cardigan gigantic.

For now I've decided to knit another swatch and wash it to see if it really grows so much and then think about the whole idea again.

*sigh*

Progress on Castle Sampler

I've closed the border and everything aligns as it should.

Yeah me!!!