Crazy Windows Feature

Has anyone ever had this happen? Daughter#2 was playing an on-line game that froze up. After Hub rebooted, the display on the monitor had rotated to the left by 90 degrees -- make reading and especially mousing a little tough. Since I'm the official IT gal at my house (scary thought), if became my job to get this fixed. I tried everything but to no avail. Finally, I mastered the skill of mousing on a sideways screen and did a Google search. Here's what I found out:

Ctrl-Alt-Up - right side up
Ctrl-Alt-Right - 90 degrees
Ctrl-Alt-Down - 180 degrees
Ctrl-Alt-Left - 270 degrees(If that doesn’t work, try Ctrl-Shift-R)

It's a Windows feature that was apparently designed for tablet laptops. BUT, on a regular keyboard, you can apparently accidentally hit one of these sequences when you try to Ctrl-Alt-Del. How crazy is that?

July gone already?

It's so hard to believe that July is over and it's time for the kids to go back to school. Where did the summer go? Last night, I took the girls out for school supply shopping. Today starts the beginning of Tennessee's Sales Tax Holiday weekend for clothing and back to school items, but I decided that whatever $ I might save, would NOT be worth the pain and suffering. Can you imagine how crazy the stores are going to be. As of last night, there were already items on our list that were hard to find or not found at all.

I have done quite a bit of knitting this last month. I'm still working on the After Dark Robe from Mason Dixon in an emerald green bamboo. It feels WONDERFUL, but it's a slow go. I've finished most of the back and am working on the seed stitch border for the neck.

I made a tank top for myself out of Royal Bamboo in a nice colorway of ocean blues. I've frogged the neck and shoulders a couple of times and decided to lengthen the shoulder straps. Boy was that a mistake. I have heard that bamboo tends to "grow" but this is crazy! I'm going to have to frog the neck and shoulders again and go back to the original pattern measurements.

My bud, Liana, has inspired me to try a baby sweater. She's always making the cutest little baby items - bonnets, sweaters, stuffed animals. Me? I seem to pick out projects that take a lifetime to get through. But, back on topic, this little sweater is my first foray into fair isle. It is a VERY simple border around the bottom and the sleeves. I think it's going to be just a little cutie pie.

Liana finished her Clapotis, which, I must say, is very impressive. She has already gotten so much use out of The Clap, as she likes to call it :) that I think I may have to try something similar. She uses hers as a wrap. I'm thinking of something in black with maybe some varying widths of dropped stitch rows. Mine is still forming in my head, but, once again, thanks Liana for the inspiration!

Taming of The Stash and other tales

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with end of school stuff with the kids, vacation, lots of knitting and lots of procrastinating (you should see my house). Knitting is so much more fun than laundry, cleaning house, organizing paperwork, cooking . . .

About a month ago, I had a “taming of The Stash” – well, as much as I could get to – there’re still several skeins lurking at the back of a closet that shrink from my grip when I try to reach them. I must sheepishly admit that The Stash, when fully stretched out, covered my 8’ long dining table. Wow! It is now grouped by type–baby, acrylic, eyelash, wool, etc. – and logged it into Ravelry, along with all my knitting needles. It is amazing to me how well The Stash is behaving now that it has all of its pieces and parts where they should be. Although The Stash is no longer outstretched on my dining table, it is still lazing around my living room waiting to be put to use, put away, or put out of its misery. I know The Stash has parts that I will never use, but I just don’t have the heart to remove any part of The Stash that won’t be put to good use. So, for now, I’ll just have to settle for living with a tamed version of The Stash. I guess it’s better than the monster in the closet it had been.

Now on to my knitting projects:

I made this easy garter stitch scarf to wear around the office. The yarn reminded me of the ocean and I bought it a couple of weeks before vacation.

I’ve wanted to try some bamboo, since I’ve heard so much about it in the last year or so. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by Haus of Yarn (one of our local LYS’s) and bought a ball of Royal Bamboo just to play with. I made this drop stitch scarf and I think it turned out very nicely. While I was at the Haus, I bought some Bonsai in a shimmery black. I’m thinking about making one of those neat little cravat scarves with it, but I’m still looking for a good pattern.


Tangerine Twist is done! (I call it Vanilla Twist since mine is white – made with Berroco Comfort.) I finished it last week while I was on vacation, and I wore it today for the first time. We have a group of Ravelers that meets at a downtown coffee shop every Wednesday and they were all very complimentary. They had seen this top about 3 weeks ago when I was still working on the back, but not since then. Their comments were very nice affirmations for me, because they are all such talented knitters.


I got a great deal on some MeiMei Bamboo sport weight on ebay and started on the After Dark Robe from Mason Dixon last week. I’m not very far into it, but that Bamboo is absolutely sinful. I can’t wait to wrap up in it.

Last night, I started a Bunny Blanket Bunny in some pink Red Heart Baby Clouds that was in The Stash. It’s for a baby girl that was born last week. I thought it’d be a cute, quick project for her. I’m already half-way done with that.



I also started a baby blanket for Warm Woolies with some of the acrylic in The Stash. They only accept wool clothing items, but will accept baby blankets made from anything, and they say they need as many as they can get. I had heard about Warm Woolies before, but never looked into the program. Then I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition that was shot on an Indian reservation somewhere out west. It was absolutely mind-boggling that such poverty exists in our country. When I found out that Warm Woolies not only provides clothing and blankets to Mongolia and other overseas communities, but also to several Indian reservations in the US, I decided that I needed to do something to contribute. I think The Stash will be happy to know that it is helping others too.

Lastly, I have half a pair of fingerless mitts done that I’m making for a friend with fibromyalgia. She said that when her hands get cold, her fingers hurt, so we’ll see if these help.

Like everyone, I have lots more ideas running around in this noggin, but my fingers only work so fast. I was listening to Stash and Burn (my absolute favorite knitting podcast) this morning and they were talking about an octopus and how much knitting one could accomplish with 8 hands. Hee hee! I’ve often daydreamed about knitting with my toes so I could go twice as fast.