We have a newcomer in the family.  Meet the Librarian!

It’s a Dell netbook - 10.25” wide, 7” deep and about 1” tall.  It weighs less than 2.5 lbs.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh…..

I am absolutely enchanted with this machine.  It all started when I mentioned to Myria that my reader was beginning to show some issues.  It’s a Viewsonic PPC and has been in near constant use for almost 7 years.  Mainly I have used it as a portable book-reader and an appointment keeper and I was beginning to think I should start looking for a new one.

But guess what?  There aren’t a lot of PPCs being made any more; do-everything phones have just about killed that market and what there is that’s still available is very expensive and comes with a lot of features I don’t need and would never use.

Of course my resident computer expert encouraged me to look at the netbooks - the little, tiny laptops that have been springing up everywhere.  They were small, portable, light-weight and cute as the dickens :)  I was reluctant at first because I wanted something small enough to put in my purse and because I doubted that I would be able to manage (what I thought would be) the small keyboard on a netbook.

As it happens, the keys on the Dell are actually bigger than the keys on the Logitech keyboard that I use with my main system.

We researched the possibilities - including looking at exclusive readers like Sony’s and Amazon’s Kindle and while they certainly do a good job, reading books is all they do.  I don’t need Blue Tooth or GPS, but I wanted a little more functionality than that.  Also, for a one-trick-pony, I felt they were a little expensive.  On to the netbooks.

These little things are ubiquitous - or nearly so :)  Everybody makes one (including Gateway which I thought had died the big death years ago) and some manufacturers make several versions.  But the basic package is pretty much the same no matter who you buy it from.  1 gig of RAM, 160 gig hard drive, built in wi-fi.  The cases can vary quite a lot - and you can pay a fair bit extra for a colored case (something other than black) or a “special” edition designer case.  Other extras would include things like more memory, a bigger hard-drive, etc.  After looking around, it seemed that the basic Dell machine would suit my needs well.

Frankly, it’s a better and faster unit than my main system - which is also Dell, but several years old now :)

That’s my reader software.  I was really afraid I would have trouble reading on the small screen.  But actually, the screen isn’t that small and I have no trouble reading at all.  Whee!

So Myria and my father got together an gave me a combined, early Christmas present :)  I dearly love this little machine.  I can do anything with it that I can do with my main system and I can bring it anywhere.

I have a bag I can use to put it in, but I eventually want something I can use both as a purse and a carrier.  I’ll have to look around and see what’s available but there’s a possibility of making one too :)  That might be too much fun not to try!

Finally, from the Try Anything department:

Last weekend I got an urge to make something decorative for fall as we have absolutely nothing.  Christmas decorations we have - Thanksgiving/fall - not so much.  Anyway, I hied me to the webs looking for pumpkin patterns.  Let me tell you, you could drown in all the pumpkin patterns available for free out there.  But in the midst of searching through them, I remembered a pattern for making a ball - a sphere.  It’s here - Judy’s 12 Section Yarnball.  The 12-section is for a large ball.  I used the pattern for the smaller ball towards the bottom of the page.  And I followed the pattern exactly (except for the number of sections) but I crocheted it instead of knitting it.

I admit it was something of a whimsical experiment that happened to come out way better than expected.  The rounder pumpkin has 6 sections; the squattier version has 8 (the stems and vines were improvised).  They took very little time to make and were really quite a bit of fun.  If you want to try this, I used worsted weight yarn and a size H hook - but the pattern should work just as well for any size yarn and the appropriately sized tool to work it with.

Myria loves them! 

I’ve been working on a few projects recently :)  One you already know about and two are new.  Well, new to the blog, anyway…

The Vortex Blanket you have seen before.  I reached a desirable diameter (that is, I got to a point where I felt that another trip around the circumference would render me a blithering idiot!) and decided to start the border.  You may remember me dithering about a border some time ago?  I did try a couple of things - lacy things but they didn’t work for me.  I could work them just fine but somehow they didn’t look right to me.  Then I tried a crochet edging which was even worse.  So the whole thing lay in my work basket for quite a while as I was annoyed with it - well, with myself actually :)

Then a few nights ago I thought about garter stitch, probably because one of the newer projects is in garter, and decided to give that a try.  As you can se in the above photo, it seems to be working out quite well.  My only issue (and it’s a very, minor quibble) is that I’ll need more yarn to work this all the way around the circumference of the blanket.  A lacier stitch might have been satisfied with the yarn I had on hand, but this wants more - at least that’s my belief.  So I picked up a bit more this week at Michaels where the Patons wool I’m using was on sale for about half price!

And, of course, for that kind of savings, I bought more yarn to dye and a bunch of beautiful eggplant purple that I have no idea what to do with yet.  I just couldn’t resist the color :).

The garter stitch project is this:

It’s a very basic shawl/scarf type of thing, similar to the Meanderthal Shawl.  The darker yarn is the one that was dyed here plus some radiant Spunky Eclectic sport-weight that Rob sent me some time back.  It has been ageing in the stash and when I started thinking about this project and what might be interesting to combine with the dyed stuff, this started jumping up and down and yelling “me-me-me-me-mmmME!!”

The idea is that the colors look like (to me, anyway) either sunrise or sunset - depending, I suppose, on whether you’re facing east or west.  The dark parts have stars (randomly placed beads) and even the occasional constellation (not-so-randomly placed beads).  It will end with a lacy pattern around the bottom, meant to represent the suns rays as it either rises or sets.  I have begun the lace, but you can’t see it because it’s all scrunched up on the cable :)  I’d like to think I’ll have this done soon, but Christmas is coming and I have started my holiday projects - which will take precedence for a while, I’m afraid.

Which leads me to the last project :)

...and…

This is intended to be a throw, or a lap blanket.  Of the color arrangements pictured above, I prefer the one with the variegated border.  Of course you have to do it both ways so you can see which one looks better.  I might do three more of the aran colored border square for the corners of the throw.  I haven’t decided yet - and I won’t have to decide for a little while :)  The squares are 11” on a side, so I’m thinking a 4 x 6 grid would make a reasonably sized throw. 

I’m using Red Heart SuperSaver here both for utility’s sake (washer/dryer) and because I fell in love with the colors.  I have, however, noticed a change in the yarn.  It is spun much more loosely than before and while that gives it an interesting “textured” look, I fear that it’s longevity, for any given item into which it’s made, will be impaired.  It’s also quite splitty.  Sigh…  I guess everyone’s feeling the pinch and more and more things are degrading in quality so the price point can remain stable.  Semi-stable…whatever.  This has been such a good, work-horse yarn, for so long, that I’m really saddened to see the change.

Olay - this morning we had the big draw…

Cue hunting shark music from Jaws...DA-dum, DA-dum, DadumDadumDadum…)

And here’s the pick…

And here’s the winner!

Greta, drop me a line letting me know where you’d like me to send the yarn and needles and I’ll get them out to you, pronto :)

Thanks everyone for your sweet and kind comments.  I so wish we could all meet at a coffee shop,  sit down for a day and just knit and get to know one another.  That would be so much fun!