That title was supposed to read "Laptop woes" - and nw yu can prbably guess what key desn't wrk prperly n my laptp anymre.

Writing that phrase also made me realise why that might be so - it seems as if the letter "O" is a  frequent one in English. Or maybe I have a penchant for using words with that letter often. Maybe I should start a quest to merely utilise different expressions in the future. (I just realised how hard to nigh impossible that is.) 0r empl0y the zer0 instead? N0. N0t a s0luti0n either.

I guess that after many years of using my trusty laptop, it is probably time to look for a replacement... because hitting that key real hard and waiting for it to respond with an O seriously cramps my normally soft-typing writing style...

More proofreading today. Why on earth did I write so much? Yesterday didn't go so well in terms of reading progress, so I'm hoping for a much better "pages done" number today.

Inbetween and to keep me motivated, I'm knitting a second version of the slouchy hat to test the new maths for the hem/brim part. My prototype hat does fit, but only after vigorous blocking of the hem, which was not what I had originally intended to need - but I wanted that hat, and I wanted to wear it, and if it could be made to fit... well. I am (obviously) very, very much a product knitter, not a process knitter, though I do enjoy the process.
I'm working the new hat in much bulkier wool than the prototype, plant dyed by Sabine in a beautiful, beautiful orange that makes you wonder every second whether it's a friendly, warm and light earthy hue or a sparkling bright dot of colour... and that makes it very, very pleasant to work with. (In addition to that, I am very happy to find that thicker wool on larger needles really knits up much quicker than fine wool on fine needles - even if I still knit slowly, tightly and on smaller needles than recommended for the wool thickness.)

A good while ago, I ran a series about medieval hairnets and netting, writing about my experiences and results from working netting both as a spiral and based on real rounds. And I wrote this:

I'd say that an unadorned, simple net might well be worked in a spiral, since it will take very hard looking to see that: In the crown section, there's too much thread on too small an area, and the lower end of the net, if stitched to a band or sporting longer loops for closure, will not be easy to read. For any net that will show different size mesh, colour changes or embroidered patterns, spirals are out of the game, because they are just irregular enough to show.

in that post back there.

For my suspicions about nets worked in true rounds because of colour changes, different-sized mesh and embroidery, I had a prime example in mind - rolling all those treats into one beautiful hairnet that I had already blogged about by that time - this hairnet:



I was, at that time, convinced that this so amazingly regular-looking hairnet must be made in rounds, not in a spiral.

Well.

I stand corrected, and many thanks to Cynthia, who studied the net much closer than I did. And gave me a heads-up on my error. Proof that I'm wrong (and that looking at the evidence much more closely than I did in that case is always the right thing to do) was before all of our eyes all the time, because even on that blurry picture, you can see that it was netted as a continuous spiral - if you look at the bit at around 3 o'clock:


Can you see it?

Maybe it's a bit clearer in this picture:


(This comes from HEINEMEYER, ELFRIEDE: "Zwei gotische Frauenhaarnetze." Waffen- und Kostümkunde 1 (1966): 13-22.) There's a jog right beside the upper edge of the little shield motif that is cut by the upper edge of the picture. The one without a partner by its side. And there might even be a single green thread going down from the last green bit to the next green bit, crossing right through the white bit. Which would be totally the thing to do if you couldn't be bothered to cut the green thread just for that little bit of white.

So much for netting in rounds... and I take back what I wrote, and now say:

While you might suspect that netting in the rounds would be more useful for nets with embroidery, different-sized mesh and colour changes, the busy overall pattern of such a net, made in fine threads, distracts the human eye enough from the slight irregularities of the jog that these are only seen when looking very hard or studying a net in detail.

(And now I'll wait for somebody else to prove me wrong again. Bring on your hairnet analysis results - I'm quite in the mood!)

Meanwhile, back in the lair...
In addition to proofreading and several instances of planning going on in the background, I have finished the hat which is currently blocking (oh why does blocking take so long!) and looks very funny in its being-blocked state; the pattern has been updated and supplied with some more instructions for the fancy parts; photos have been taken of some bits of the process; and if the hat fits perfectly after blocking (which I hope very much), I will be a very, very content knitter.

Proofreading has also progressed nicely, though I have some last pages to read (and the images to look at). And I have caught up with things far enough to start getting back on track with plans for next season's market stall additions... which means a library day. Which means coffee with a good friend in the break. After I did my batch of proofreading...

However, while I am looking at black letters on white paper, I can glance up and see the hat being blocked (and hopefully drying extra-fast), and you can have a look at it, too:

Somehow, during the last few days, I've been saying "oh I'm so blogging this" to a medium-sized bunch of things, only to forget what I wanted to blog about by the next morning when I sat down to actually blog. Well.

I am, however, blogging this, because it's blue and teal and nice and I like nice blue and teal things:


Which is part of a hat I'm currently knitting. Or, to be more precise, part of the lower edge of a hat I am currently knitting. Which will hopefully be finished and blocked and fitting me well and flattering me and keeping my head warm and my ears extra-toasty very soon. (And just in time for the next cold period, since I already missed the first one due to too-slow knitting.)
If it does all of the above, I do intend to have the pattern (yes, I did make a pattern) test-knit and if test knitters don't all run away screaming telling me that is totally not possible, I do intend to publish it on Ravelry.

Oh, and you don't even have to knit a swatch for the pattern. Or graft. (Guess which parts of the knitting process are not my favourites?)

We have finally managed to resurrect a nice old personal tradition... one that has (sort of) a long (not personal) history before it became almost extinct.

Back in those days long before radio, TV and computers were there to spend the evenings with, but spinning was still a necessity for every rural household, there was a German tradition called "Rockenstube" or "Spinnstube" (literally: "distaff parlour" or "spinning parlour"). These were more or less regular meetings where women (including young women, of course) would get together to spin and chat. As helpers with the chat and other amusements (yes, all kinds) the young men of the community would come along to chat, sing, and do whatever else young people of differing sex might do on an evening that might, in some cases, have drifted off more towards the "party and amusement" thing than to a productive evening of spinning.

As a result of these drifts, Rockenstuben were banned in some regions of Germany, and later, the need for such spinning get-togethers got smaller and smaller until they died out completely. But the basic fact that once was the reason for Rockenstuben still rings true: It is much more fun to do crafty chores in good company than on your own at home.

Which is why, years ago, we introduced the "Hutzenabend" into our lives - "Hutzenabend" being another word for "evening where you get together to do crafty things in company" but less spinning-centred. In our case, we fixed one evening per week and told our crafting friends that that would be the evening where we would sit down and work on our projects, and they were very welcome to join us. I always loved those get-togethers, but after they had run successfully for a while, less and less people came, and finally, we were mostly alone on those evenings - jobs took too much time, folks moved away, other things in life got into the way, and for a while, we had no Hutzenabend anymore. But now, in the new home, we have gone off to a very glorious start with the first one - and I sure hope that our reborn tradition will continue strong from now on!

My normal life style does not include lots of reading or listening to the news, but even if you don't try to catch news every day, the big issues sooner or later still come up somewhere. Like the Haiti earthquake.
To help with relief in Haiti, the Yarn Harlot has put up the knit signal (like the bat signal, but with more yarn) and asks for donations to MSF (Médecins sans Frontières, which means Doctors Without Borders).

MSF has been doing great work all over the world for many years, and I personally think that they are one of the best humanitarian organisations to give money to - because besides other reasons, very very little of the donations does go into the overhead, and most goes to where it is needed. So if you have a little money left over, consider giving them a bit - and if you need a better pro-donation pep talk, read Stephanie the Yarn Harlot's blog.