An appeal for peace, by George Takei

That is all.

I Blame Marvin

Yikes! Six months?!? Wow.... I can explain, really.

My contracts with AT&T were all expired, so as per their usual, they started offering upgrades and bribes to renew my contracts. After a bit of consideration, it appeared I could switch my internet package, end up with wi-fi at the house, and receive a better rate AND a batch of credits and gift cards. So far so good.

Until the gift cards came.

I had been eyeing an e-reader for some time, and had decided on a Nook for a variety of reasons, so off I went to my local B&N to obtain portable books, PDF's, and all kinds of stuff. (Honestly, with the added memory chip, I've got over 200 books, most LARGE ones and a stack of knitting patterns, plus some music on there and still have better than 95% memory left.) I named him Marvin, after the paranoid android from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , since in my head I could hear him grumbling "Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and what does she ask me to do? Marvin, can you fetch me some Jane Austen? Marvin, are they handing out free cookies at the cafe this week?"

Small problem. Now I'm spending quality time with Marvin when I'm at home instead of internetting - it's just so darn easy when they give you a free book every Friday, a lot of the classics are available for free and even more are available in huge "Complete Works" compendiums for between a dollar or two.

There's still stuff going on, (potentially some exciting things). Hopefully now that I've caught up a bit on my reading I'll get a few more updates in.

Update on No Updates

I have been working on things, and even have a few things to post, but for anyone who didn't hear, my little Elf passed away February 3rd. I went down to give everyone dinner and he just never woke up from his nap. I'm trying to take consolation that he went quietly and peacefully, but still...it just hasn't left me in a mind frame to do updates. Hopefully will manage some in a few days. Thanks to everyone who had offered condolences, they are appreciated.

One Down

Tally for this week - one scarf done. It's an infinity scarf (big looped scarf you can wrap around a couple of times, if you haven't seen them). This makes 1 scarf down, 10 to go, 11 shawls to go and 15 stitching to go. No problem, right? (Delusional? Why, yes I am. It's still early in the year!)

Off to a Good Start

Well, 15 days and 15 cross stitch projects started. There's an assortment in there of linen samplers, regular aida cross stitch, stamped cross stitch and embellished cross stitch (that's the one where they basically print a picture on the cloth and you highlight it with stitches). Now let's see how this goes. I'm really REALLY good at starting, let's see how much I can get finished in 2011.

And just in case anyone had the fleeting thought I may have stopped there, I signed up for an 11 scarf challenge. OK, so not much of a challenge as I already had at least 11 scarves I wanted to knit up, or that were already in PIG status. Oh well, scarves are fast, right? (Now that I've tempted fate, watch for updates on just how bad a scarf can be!)

New Year - New Insanity

The impossible was accomplished in 2010 - I completed the 10 in 2010 shawl challenge, one of 399 out of thousands who started who succeeded. Abendwind, Wintersturm, Colonnade, Lady of the Forest, Citron, Ruffled Shawl, Kartoffelfeur, Traveling Woman, Wuestenhimmel, and Adamas all got done by end of the year.

Now, far be it from me to rest on my laurels (or leftover yarn, or patiently waiting stash projects, or...well, you get the idea). I immediately jumped into the 11 in 2011 (same idea, just add one shawl to the mix) AND as if that weren't enough insanity, signed up for the Winter Insanity Stitch Challenge (the site is in Finnish, so you'll need to run it through the translator of your choice). The object of this one? Start one stitching project every day for the first 15 days of the year, then try to finish them all by the end of the year.

I DO have some realization of my limitations, so I'm not actually expecting to finish this one during the year (especially as a lot of the things patiently waiting in my stitching stash are BIG projects), but I do know that once started, a project will get finished eventually. (5 - 10 years is still finished! Eventually!) I'm also taking this as an opportunity to expand my horizons a bit from the basic aida cloth and stamped cross stitch to Real Cross Stitch Samplers on Real Linen Fabric (A lovely 1854 Danish sampler reproduction was yesterday's start - with a special thanks to my friend Jackie for the hand-holding to get me started on Real Grown Up Stitching!)

I'll add pictures at some point, but right now have the printer hooked up, and I'm still on the back up computer that only has 1 port. I can have either printer, or camera, but not both at the same time. I may wait until I've got everything started for the 15 days, then post a mass picture so I don't have to do so much flailing and cable swapping (trust me, Me + Electronics = Ugly Situation Fast!)

Here's to a new year filled with new opportunities and growth for everyone (I'm NOT going to say challenges - everyone I know had a 2010 TOO full of "challenges" of the bad kind!) Now get out there and try something impossible! You just might do it by the end of the year!