Back from the edge

Anyone who follows me on Twitter or is a friend on Facebook may have seen my technology woes this past week or so. While getting a cute little red laptop is fun and simple because I don't have any old Windows software or compatibility issues, replacing my old Mac mini (who decided that the red laptop was too much of an insult to go on with life) was anything but fun, simple or enjoyable. Erg.

Techie people, go ahead and read the following. Otherwise, I suggest going immediately to the pretty pictures of yarn down below.

First, you should know that I hate to upgrade and unless I absolutely must do it, I don't do it. This is because nothing is ever simple, but it's always time-consuming. When you've been collecting Mac software and fonts since the early 90s, upgrading to a new OS and a new processor is painful at best. Here's my latest adventure; and this one came after many more.

I've been using a "legacy Mac" (beige G3) to run some old Adobe software, as well as my old Mac mini, one of the last ones with a PPC processor. When I bought a new mini, none of the graphics programs I had been running on those two macs would run in Snow Leopard. So off I went to upgrade (ouch!!!). But the fun didn't stop there. Seems that Snow Leopard had a big fat font problem. Luckily for me, the fix came out Monday - 10.6.3 - and I downloaded it. It didn't work though. None of my hundreds of type 1 fonts were being seen by the new system. Panic ensued. I spent lots of time Googling and talking to Apple tech support. The Googling helped more than the tech support, but I finally did get a supervisor on the phone who would at least own the problem. Unfortunately, he was not a font expert, so he escalated it and I was waiting for the call back in a few days. Not one to give up so easily, I went Googling again and found a couple of interesting facts. 1) There was a problem in 10.6.2 with fonts becoming corrupted and registering a file size of zero k, and 2) apparently, Windows servers cannot store older Mac fonts, including type 1, because there's a resource fork that Windows doesn't support. Hmmmmmmmm.

Since Snow Leopard did away with AppleTalk, I had been connecting to my G3 via the server connection (yes - the freakin' PCs in the house can all see my older Mac on the network, but the new Mac cannot - grrrrr) and this started me wondering if maybe those fonts that I had been storing on the G3, and had copied through the server connection to the new Mac, had lost their data in the transfer. So off I went to resurrect my old dying, but not quite dead, mini. I transferred all of the fonts over to the old mini via the AppleTalk network and then put the old mini in target disk mode to transfer the fonts over to the new mini. Lo and behold...they came over intact!!! And even better, the system sees them. And all it took was a week and a half or so.

So now that you've read that, you deserve some pretty pictures of yarn, dontcha think? These are a few other skeins I got at Stitches West - this is the purple color range. :) I so love all the amazing colors of sock yarn out there. And I've determined not to let my dislike of actual sock knitting keep me from fondling and using all of that loveliness!

First is Aubergine from Knitting Notions. This is the most incredible color!

Next up we have Freesia from Wolf Creek Wools. Yummmmmm!

And then Orchid from Royale Hare. It's my favorite high twist sock yarn.

And Brandywine from Wabi Sabi yarns! It's funny that I should have been so drawn to that colorway, eh? I didn't realize the name until I had made it mine, mine mine!

Well, all the technology woes have made me way behind on everything. Then I had to rip out half of my secret project (the other two having already gone to their new homes). And now I am left just hoping for a 36 hour day. Do you think? Maybe if I bend the space-time continuum? Hmmmm. Gotta work on that.

Monday's Musing

"That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well." - Abraham Lincoln

Have a fabulous week everyone! I intend to. My software is being delivered today (since I had to switch to Snow Leopard none of my Adobe software worked), so hopefully I will be fully up and running very very soon! :fingerscrossed:

red

My little red laptop is here here here!!! Isn't it cute?

And check out the dinky mouse.

I had to get a red one, no? Red makes things faster. :)

The keyboard is a nice size: not too big and not too small.

And it's super thin; perfect for travel.

I loaded Intwined Pattern Studio. I've been beta testing it on my Mac and now I get to try migrating files back and forth. Fun! :D

Cool, eh? :)

I like Intwined a lot, btw. It's great for charts, and they're adding more functionality daily. And it's a nice price. :) Off to play!

Monday's Musing

"Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more." - Louis L'Amour

Sometimes, being an instant gratification kinda gal, I forget how much patience is required in daily life! What about you? Are you patient?

Have a great week everyone!

:sigh:

This week I bought a mini laptop for travel (including swim meets!) and I think my Mac mini was upset. It must have been the way I went on about how cute the new computer is, and the color (red), and the mini mouse I got for it. I shouldn't have purchased a Toshiba using my Mac, because my Mac had the last word. The problem I had before came back. Ack!

So instead of the new printer I had been saving for, I ended up replacing my mini, because I just couldn't be down for as long as I was last time.

Ouch.

I ask you: is this not the cutest computer ever? (It's safe to say that now since I'm not using my Mac to post this).

And it's difficult to tell, but this mouse is dinky and completely adorable.

Unfortunately, my laptop is not here. I have my mouse and my external dvd, but Toshiba hasn't even shipped the computer yet. So for now, I am computer-less and depending on my husband's largesse.

In other and better news, the wonderful Roxanne of Zen Yarn Garden created a little video to show the bind off for my Brandywine Shawl!



Thank you, Roxanne!

And the latest total, you ask? Thanks to all of you, I have been able to send $8,000 to Doctors without Borders from Brandywine sales! I'm still working on $50,000 (10,000 patterns sold), and I'm just going to keep donating until I reach my goal! Many many thanks to all of you who have mentioned Brandywine on your blogs and in podcasts: Steph, anne, Wendy, Kat, David, Jasmin, Beth, Helen, and many others. You've helped so much to get the word out! Please don't stop now. I still need all the help I can get! :)

Monday's Musing

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” - Buddha

Have a great week everyone!

This n That

Whew. That week flew by! The Bear's birthday was a great one - thanks to all of you for the happy birthday wishes! We had cupcakes from Bear's special cake recipe

and lots of fun.

Bear said that since he was an old man now, he needed a beard. :)

I know I'm totally behind on posting about Stitches West. I had a big deadline right afterwards, and now I'm working on another. But I thought I'd pop some eye candy in here! I'm starting with the greens and yellows. Next will come the purples and burgundies. My stash grew along strict color themes this year!

First from Karen at the Royale Hare, some amazing orangey-greeny-goldy yarn. Yum!

From Miss Babs (who is totally adorable!), this one is called Moss.

From Wabi Sabi - this color is electric in person!

And from Didi - I love this sunny color.

Yes - sock yarn. But it's all for new shawl designs. Small shawls, to be exact. :)

Speaking of small shawls, Brandywine is doing very very well!

So far, I've been able to donate $7,500 to Doctors without Borders (MSF). Knitters are totally the best! I'm just going to keep on donating until I reach my goal of 10,000 patterns sold ($50,000 to MSF), however long that takes! So - many thanks to everyone who has bought the pattern! You've all made a huge difference. :) You can purchase Brandywine on my site or on Ravelry.

Monday's Musing - Happy Birthday, Bear!

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.<
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

That's one of my very favorite poems, and one my husband and I had read at our wedding. It's amazing how one choice can alter the course of your life.

Today is my baby's birthday! My Bear is 7 today, and feeling quite grown up. It's difficult to believe he's so old. :) He's brought so much joy and kindness (and cuteness) into our lives, and I've learned so much from him! He's also the luckiest person I've ever met. Just amazingly lucky. And he's responsible for me taking up knitting again. I hadn't knit for years and years, but I was so sick when I was pregnant with him that I lay on the couch most of the time and needed something to do! The rest is history. :)

Happy birthday, Bear! We love you.

Olympic knitting FAIL

I'm currently freaking out a little trying to finish a secret project, so I will attempt to distract you with pretty pictures of a little crocheted scarf necklace I did for Inside Crochet last spring.

It's made from Habu's silk and stainless steel yarn, which is a ton of fun to work with!

Did it work?

No? Didn't think so.

The secret project I'm working on? It was supposed to be finished before I went off to Stitches West, so this week, I could start on the other secret project that is due one week after the first secret project. Heh. Secret Project #1 was my Olympic knitting project. It still isn't finished. Fail! Secret Project #2 isn't past the swatching stage. :whimper: I may be a little scarce in the next week or so. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot Secret Projects #3 and #4. Ulp.

Monday's Musing

Back from a great Stitches West! I loved taking with everyone, petting the fiber and seeing the colors. Awesome. :) Now I'm playing catch-up! A full report will soon follow.

I used to watch Survivor (when I had time to watch TV) and will never forget the following quote. It popped into my head this morning. Does anyone else remember Yau-Man Chan from 2007? What a cool guy!

"Love many, trust few, do wrong to none." - Yau-Man Chan

Have a great week!