A Little Yarn On The Side

I can knit while doing a lot of things, but this isn't one of them.   This, however, was my 40th birthday present from Andy's sister and her family, hereby dubbed our Adventure Family.  How entirely cool is that??

*  Theo took a break from digging up the vegetable garden long enough to eat my knitting *  The planets were aligned in such a way that the magnetic pull on my metal needles was just too strong *  I found that cleaning the house was actually more fun than knitting. *  I've been struggling with the philosophical question, "Why spend all this time and money making a sweater, when everyone assures me they saw the exact same sweater  at Walmart for $20 OR.............. There actually has been knitting, but Blogger continues to have issues every time I try to update, so you'll just have to take my word for it for a while.

So, not only  does the new dealer think Holland's stabilizer-continually-slipping-at-the-exact-same-moment is totally stupid, they sell Bernina AND Husqvarna, and are right next door to a huge kitchen store. If you don't hear from me again, I am camping on their doorstep.

Today I'm driving 284 miles round-trip to take Jeeves in to be fixed by a dealer that isn't an ass.  At least it's a nice day for it. Things have finally progressed since I complained to the BBB.  While Holland's Sew Shoppe continues to refuse to acknowledge that a single thing might be wrong with my machine and has now expanded their accusations of my incompetence to include my ability to work the software and hoop anything at all AND that I lied about them not ordering parts in a timely manner (3 months for a damn bobbin cover?), they refunded the $60 "repair" fee that I paid them in February to do absolutely nothing, and Husqvarna has finally stepped in (after 6 emails from me) and will be honoring the warranty because all of this started while it was under warranty, and will work with the new dealer to either find the problem or send it in to the service center. So, it's good and bad.  While I am happy that at least I didn't have to pay for thi...

The only thing worse than having a math problem that you can't find on a sweater is FINDING the math problem on the sweater..........

So, it turns out I wasn't just being a lazy slob who didn't keep the sewing room clean.  Subconsciously I must have understood that there is a point where the sewing room is so clean that I don't want to sew because I might make a mess.   Well, there will be no more of THAT sort of behavior in my future!

The sewing room is actually clean.   Like really clean--you can actually see the tables because things are put away and everything.  Combining spring cleaning with friends coming to visit was more motivating than I had dared hope.  Of course, all that cleaning did interfere with crafting time, but there has been some crafting since the last post.  There was some quilting until I had "help,"  and I have finished another Crest of the Waves scarf, which is the last of the mohair blend in my stash-dash basket.  Andy's sweater is still waiting for me to redo the collar, and I now have a 30-inch zipper, which is the largest size I can get without getting creative, so I hope it works.  There's a new chemo cap in progress, with what I think is one of the last 4 skeins of the chemo cap yarn.  I made a change in the stash-dash basket, replacing the two skeins of pink baby cashmere left over from Fleur with two similar skeins left over from a baby swe...

Our regular knitting blog broadcast has been interrupted by housecleaning.  This mad obsession by the blog owner will certainly pass quickly and probably won't recur for at least a year or more.  Please stand by for our host to regain her sanity.

So, I thought I would run a few errands around town, then drive Jeeves down to the repair guy 142 miles away.  I had even stopped to pick up an audio book to listen to during the 3+ hour round trip drive, and had even driven about 30 miles when I decided to stop for coffee.  About this time, the starter on my car also decided to stop, but not so much for coffee.  Luckily, this was at a truck stop, and after two attempts to jump start the car which ruled out a dead battery, two very nice men were able to give me enough of a push so I could start the car that way (thank heavens my car is a manual transmission, or my car and I would still  be at the truck stop, but I would have probably have moved on from coffee to hard liquor or whatever one can get at truck stops).  Knowing that I would never get my car restarted unless I made a point of always parking on steep hills (which Twin Falls is spectacularly devoid of), I called my mechanic and said I was on my way back...

I'd like to say that I got lots of things done on Finishing Friday, but I was too angry with Holland's Sew Shoppe to really focus on anything.  I'll be taking Jeeves to the other dealer this afternoon, and when HE finds the problem, I'll be reporting that to the BBB.  I don't know what--if anything--the Better Business Bureau will really do to them.  I've always sort of believed in the back of my mind that they are the champions of the consumer, but I've also known that one of the most unethical businesses I have ever encountered (and I can say this because I worked for them for a few months) has been a member for years and has an excellent rating.  So, I guess we'll find out.  BUT, no one I know will ever  do business with that company again, and that's a fair number of people. I thought it best to avoid sewing in any form, so I dug out my Stash Dash basket, and have now (as of last night) finally finished that monster 880-yard skein on the shawl...

I received a response from Hollands through the Better Business Bureau, and they are claiming 1. There's nothing wrong with my machine 2.  The designs I used for example are NOT Husqvarna designs , and since I specifically said they were, they're obviously then implying I lied about it. and 3. THAT I'M STABILIZING IT WRONG.  Yep, after I used the exact same piece of embroidery that they used as their stupid example. It's official.  I really hate them.  Can you believe this?  Oh, and remember when Jeeves came back from the first repair with more problems than when he went in AND without the back cover?  Holland's is claiming that they didn't charge me for that repair "as a courtesy."  Well, thank you for not charging me to break my machine.  That's big of you. I have asked them to transfer the warranties to the dealer 142 miles away, refund the $60 "repair fee" and have sent pictures to the BBB.  I never want to see these bastards ...

*  I actually had the sense to have Andy try his sweater on before finishing the edging and attaching the zipper, and the collar--which looks huge when he's not wearing the sweater--looks rather short and silly when he IS wearing it.  So, back to Joanns to get a 30" and 32" zipper to see if I can finally get this right. *  No word on Jeeves, but that's no real surprise as they never have bothered to call me to give me updates, tell me my machine is ready, tell me a part is on back order, or anything remotely useful.  There's an off chance they might notify the BBB instead, as part of the complaint procedure is that the company gets a chance to respond.  God help me, they're probably going to tell the BBB it's a stabilizer issue or some other such nonsense. *  Busy weeks REALLY interfere with knitting, but today we're going to see a matinée of Wicked,  and that involves a shuttle service, so I'm thinking there will be some prime knitting time i...

Obviously now that you have all seen the size of the stash, this comes as no great surprise.  Probably more along the lines of "stating the completely freakin' obvious" such as "I like to buy yarn."  But this  time really is different. I am lusting after yarn I already own. Basically, I want to knit anything that isn't one of these lovely yarns: I know, I know, the Stash Dash was my own idea, and I've even been doing really well on it.  I believe I've used up 7 or 8 of those skeins already and am rapidly closing in on that big 880-yard monster skein that I've been working on forever  since February.  But I apparently have the emotional maturity of a three-year-old, and as soon as I can't have something, BAM!  It's all I can think of.  Today's object of lust is socks, but I'd settle for pretty much anything so long as it's forbidden.   Perhaps after the Stash Dash is over, I should take away all my WIPS and forbid myself to...

Guess who's going somewhere today? That's right--I'm having Andy drop Jeeves off at the dealership today, as even the thought of having to go near those bastards has kept me up for two nights now.  BUT, remember how they said it was skipping in mid embroidery because of the amount of stabilizer I was using?  Here we are with one layer: three layers: and the one layer that was okay because it was done by THEM and not by little lowly ME: So, not that it isn't possible that the bastards at Hollands will still try to claim that it's a stabilizer problem, but I'm sort of betting they'll have a new solution this time.  And, I thought it might be fun to take a bit of a survey to see what we think they might come up this time.  Possible things they will blame it on: *  Somehow I have surge protected it wrong *  Global warming *  I'm a girl *  I'm using the wrong material *  Martians *  I own cats instead of dogs *  That it mi...

I have been cleaning.  (And this might be a good time to point out that there are brighter things to do after one has strained one's back, but in my defense, there are probably worse ones.)  There is still a great deal to be done, but I did at least get to the point of being able to take pictures of The Stash. First, the closet: which is getting closer to door-dom all the time.  Or, as I should say, is getting closer ever since I stopped buying fabric like a demented human pack-rat.  The yarn is a bit harder to see as so much of it is at the top, but those bags are almost all full of yarn: Not too bad, right?  Of course not--because that's not the entire stash!  On either side of the closet are: starting from the top, laceweight, fingering weight, and nice sport/dk weight.  Then a bin containing some fleece for jackets.  On the other side:  The grey contains dishcloth cotton odds & ends, then worsted weight, not-so-nice sport/dk wei...