drama queen...

You could call me that but how would you feel? My package of 6 blue shades of CT8 arrived and filled with the anticipation of a good Christmas morning, I eagerly ripped it open. Instant deflation! Disappointment personified! OMG, I didn’t like one of them, never mind two or three. I pouted and went into a diva funk…gosh, darn, what to do, what to do? I did take them out several times, placing them differently and looking from various angles in alternate lighting, hoping they changed or maybe I would, but no, it did not work.
In an attempt to re-adjust my machine knitting values and karma, I proceeded to finish the loose-knit dress. Things went swell for a while. I seamed the front and back and finished the shortrowed neckline, using a multi-strand ewrap (#23 from 50 Ways to Love Your Knitter); joined the shoulders and did the same to the armholes; seamed the sides, darned in all the ends and tried it on. Laughter ensued, and I was glad there was no witness. It’s huge, but I was expecting that. Anyway, I tossed it in the washer with a couple other smooth things, on a handwash cycle. Put it in the dryer, monitoring it carefully every ten minutes. When it seemed dry, took it out and put it on again. Aw, darn, it’s a couple inches too long. I purposely had not done any extra finishing on the hem, hoping the 3-strand ewrap would be enough, but in the back of my mind, realized I may have to do something extra. Even tried belting it, but it still was a bit long. Tossing around ways of doing a cut’n’sew to shorten it, I figured I’d try giving it an extreme wash/dry, really kick in the shrink factor – nothing to lose! Wet it down, spun it to eliminate most of the water and put it in a hot dryer this time and let it go! Bingo! it’s perfect! ;-) Minneapolis, here I come! And, it looks fine with the black slip! You’ll have to take my word for it for now – this photo is just to prove to you I did it and you have to wait for a live-model shot!
This dress turned out so nice, I thought, hey, maybe I could use that ‘cold shoulder’ sleeve again – it still seems to be featuring strong fashion-wise and I could put it on with hand-stitching (the armhole is already finished) and then it could be easily removed next year if I don’t like it then…To knit the dress pieces, I had used DAK and interactive knitting, so I turned on my DAK7-Silverlink4-dedicated old laptop – Windows 2000, and  not much happened – it got stuck on the ‘starting windows…’ screen and I remembered last week, it was on and while doing something else, I heard some suspicious ding-dong sounds coming from it, panicked and shut it down. Now, I unplugged, rebooted several times, went to the internet, googled help, tried everything suggested and came to the conclusion that the hard drive was fried. Rats! I have another old laptop that has XP but no DAK7. My current laptop is Windows 7 and I have DAK8 on it but never was able to get DAK8 working with the SL4 (had been advised to purchase an SL5 to conform with the newer system but at an additional $500, drew the line). Double Rats!
Ah! to heck with DAK, I still have the PE1. Hooked it up, filled in the mylar, 48 rows by 24 sts, fed it in, revised and re-read several times before I got it right. Went to save it onto the card and ar-r-r-g-g-h! Just weird numbers and when I try to recall the last pattern entered, ‘no data’. OMG! Is my knitting career over?  A few months ago, I told you I had to replace the battery in that card. A new battery for $8? After all, the replacement was hanging around here for a long time. Could try that, I guess.
One last thought - my old desktop computer, Windows XP, not hooked to internet either – too old, has DAK7, but it’s across the room – do I have the energy to move it? OMG! look at that cord for the SL4 – it’s like 20 feet long at least – I always wondered why? Hah! it reaches! and it works!