Scarf-tastic

The International Scarf Exchange 3 swap is underway! I heard from both my spoiler and my spoilee and of course I couldn't wait to get started:
This is Inner Truth from the new Magknits. I'm using some of my dyed Fisherman's Wool. the pattern is easy and to my surprise, I actually do like the cable pattern in a variegated yarn. Here's a fuzzy close up:
There are outer cables with a triple twisted inner cable. I like it, though I'm hoping the cable might pop out a bit more with blocking.

Venting (skip if you hate techno babble)

If you've emailed me since Friday and are still looking for a response, please resend your message.

Your earlier messages probably met a sad end yesterday. I have been with this local ISP since 1995 and I've grown attached to my email addy. Even though I now get internet access through the world's most huggable cable behemoth (Comcast), I can't bear to part with the old address (well, really I just can't bear to change my email at every website I have ever registered with). Anyhoo, I lost access to my mailbox mysteriously on Saturday so I did a little troubleshooting on my own to make sure it wasn't on my end. The mail server was accepting my password but it wouldn't let me see any of the mail headers. The error looked something like this:

ERR [SYS/PERM] Unable to process From lines (envelopes), change recognition modes or check for corrupted mail drop.

After several attempts over several days (it's a small company plus it was a holiday weekend), I finally got a phone tech to see that 1. I do know how to use email, 2. it's not the password, 3. it's not the spam filter (where did that come from??) and that 3. the problem is with the box. Finally, last night a tech calls back and says the mailbox was corrupt (duh!) and they had to delete it (arghh!) and set up a new one (finally!).

And here's the best part: just as I was talking to the last tech, the power goes out in the house. The world's most huggable power company (Pepco) had shut down our power because they were trying to fix this wee little problem of water trickling into our fuse box from their line. So I'm standing in the dark, listening to the guy who just deleted four days worth of my unread email. But wait! There's more. I get off the phone (I was unfailingly calm - I save all my rage for this blog), the power comes back on and I try to boot up my desktop. No go. Unplug, replug. Nope. Unplug, replug of the UPS. Nada. Cursing. Nothing. The power cut off had apparently killed the power supply, though how that happened through the UPS is yet another mystery. Considering my recent run of luck, I will leave that mystery alone and just replace the power supply. I wonder what will break next...

Labor Day Labors

Here's one mission accomplished:
The Endless Afghan is now officially The Ended Afghan (or The Afghan Formerly Known As Endless, if you wanna be real formal). It's a couple of repeats shy of what the pattern calls for, and I've got the 3/4 of a ball of Jiffy left to prove it, but I'm just glad it's off the needles. It's big enough as it is. Now that it's done, I've recovered some Needlemaster parts: two cords and a pair of size 11 tips. Hooray, I can make more WIPs!

In other knitting news, I made a hat to match the Sassy Striped scarf:
Pretty cunning, eh? This reminds me that it's about time to get started on the winter holiday knitting. I will try to behave and treat this as an opportunity to stash dive, instead of yarn shop!

Mia Can't Count

I frogged the second Fetching because I so cleverly cast on the wrong number of stitches. My cast-on logic must have been, "If there are fewer stitches, I'll get done sooner!" It made sense at the time **head scratching**. Good thing I'm not too far along.

I'm making progress on the Funky Tank Top. The front and back are done and sewn up:
I have to do the neck and armbands now. The colors are growing on me, even the creepy puke green. I hope it looks ok to my cousin too, or Jersey Baby might never get to wear it.

The alpaca scarf is halfway there. It's just stocking stitch with a garter stitch border, so I'll spare you the new photo. I just started ball 3 of 4. The pattern only calls for 3 balls, but the scarf looks so short in the picture. Plus, I had four balls in my stash anyway, so why not go long?

For this long weekend, I have resolved to do the following:

1. Finish the Endless Afghan from (gasp!) two years ago. I've decided to call it quits with the lace part and knit the garter stitch border. It's plenty long enough as it is anyway.

2. Fix Icarus (remember Icarus??). I seem to mess up more and more the closer I get to the end.