Up and Running Again

Well, after a lot of fiddling and finally making a purchase of a teeny little wi-fi attachment, my laptop is back among the living.  This is pleasing, mainly because if it died, I was out of luck, since we are not even close to having available funds to purchase a new laptop.  But we were able to spend under $20 for the little attachment.  Phew!

You know what I missed the most?  Not being able to easily post here or read blogs, or do it in a leisurely way.  And not being able to watch or listen to the podcasts I enjoy.  Don't get me wrong, I do check social media regularly, but not being able to check it wasn't what bothered me the most.  Granted, I was also not overly upset about not being able to read blogs or the whole podcast thing, but I did miss it.  I did realize that I clearly spend a lot less time online than most people I know, so that was interesting.  Who knew?

Over the weekend, I did actually finish the knitting and the weaving in of ends on my Neverender!  You can sorta/kinda see it here (along with a bonus shot of Jack's butt ...).  You may remember that I mentioned finishing my Tart shawl as well, about ten days/two weeks ago.  Well, since then, I have been looking everywhere for my blocking stuff.  And I have had no success.  I'd gotten to the point where I figured I must have put it someplace weird where I would only find it after I'd broken down and bought new stuff.  I mentioned it yesterday at work, and one of my knitting co-workers said, "Oh my God - I have it!  You loaned it to me a few months ago, when I finished a shawl.  Now that I think I'm becoming a 'real' knitter, I bought my own stuff, and keep forgetting to bring it back to you!"  She felt bad, but I was just relieved that I hadn't put it all somewhere weird.  :-)  Of course, I will have to wait until next week to do anything even if she brings it to me today, because we are having guests for Easter weekend.  But soon I should be able to share some "official" FO pictures.

My next knitting project will be a special pair of socks.  A friend of mine's husband has been on dialysis for years, and has been going downhill quickly over the past couple of years.  She put out a call on Facebook for kidney donors, and though there were no matches as a result of that, a ton of people did get tested, etc. and put on the registry as potential donors, once it was shared, etc.  So that's good.  But even better is that a few months ago, they found a donor for a kidney transplant!!!  Sadly, they couldn't do anything then, because Brian was recovering from pneumonia.  But right now, the surgery is planned for May.  I have been feeling bad because other than sharing the Facebook post, I couldn't do anything to help.  But now that he will be able to get the transplant, I wanted to do something to celebrate.  So I found some lovely yarn and have decided to knit him a pair of socks.  He'll be housebound for at least 2 months after the surgery, and I know from experience that after surgery, even in the summertime, sometimes you can have cold feet.  So my next project will be to cast on socks for Brian.

(Of course, I may have something else going too, but those will be my primary project until they are finished.  I mean, everyone needs *some* variety, right???  ;-)  )

I am going to use a pattern that was just released today, the Red Brick Socks pattern from The Crimson Stitchery.

I am so thrilled that this pattern was finally released just in time for me to start Brian's socks!  (BTW, you can get a discount on the pattern by using the coupon code THANKYOU on Ravelry.  The code is good through April 25.)

So, I am indeed up and running again, and should be able to post regularly.  Technology is always good, until it isn't, right???