Well, this made me LOL

I'm not a crochet fan; never have been. I have yet to see the crochet item that doesn't make me think of granny squares or macrame. Which makes me think of ABBA. Which makes me convulse and break out in hives due to my severe allergic reaction to ABBA.
But I digress. This is what made me LOL:


I absolutely love the thought of crochet designs based on non-Euclidian geometry. It's almost enough to make me want to order the book and learn to crochet. Almost.
How did I find this treasure, you ask? It was an article on the Beeb Online - the book won the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year. Luuurrrrve it!!

Oh, Baby!

Knitting porn. You know what it is. This arrived in the mail today. So far, I have refrained from drooling excessively, but I make no promises. I have many projects on the go, but many more floating around in my head that I'd like to try to make. Hopefully, this book will help, because the other book I got was no good for what I wanted to do - all knit in the round, very traditional type stuff. This one has shaping, different sleeve settings, different necklines, the whole kit and caboodle. It will be so easy to combine it with my Nicky Epstein books to do some ubercool stuff. I can't wait!

Since I got my new laptop in December I've been having trouble accessing the brilliant Ysolda Teague's website. I posted on Ravelry that I'd been having issues, and asking if anyone else was having the same problem.
Turns out I was completely alone, but the theories that were posited were great! One was that CSIS had blocked her site, deeming that cool Scottish knitwear designers were a hazard to Canadian security. But other Canadians weren't having the same issue, so there went that idea.
Another knitter thought that perhaps someone (or some critter) I share my home with could have blocked the site on me. I could see Bronte trying to toy with my head that way. Rosebud's paws are too huge to be able to type, and Sulis is doped up on painkillers after having her ovaries yanked, and I don't think she's mature enough to come up with such a cunning plan, anyway. Her brain isn't at the cunning point yet.


<-- The closest Sulis has ever come to using the computer.


Then, a knitter who is also a computer scientist in Australia offered this advice: perhaps Ysolda changed her server and my server hadn't updated my DNS. I have no idea what that means. I get the big idea, but beyond that...
Anyway, she gave me the name of a site to go to that walked me through changing my TCP/IP settings - and it worked!! Now I can keep up with Ysolda, who makes me thing that she has the most amazing life.

It Begins!

I started the Belle Epoque jumper a couple of years ago, when I was still huge. I did swatch, because I was substituting the yarn, but the swatch (as per the Yarn Harlot's warnings about swatching) was a lying a$$hole. So let's name the swatch Andrew, after my ex-boyfriend who possesses the very same 'qualities'.
As a result of Andrew's lying, the sweater was huge! And this is when I was huge, too! So it was frogged and the lovely Lana Gatto Venus mohair (now discontinued, so no link, sorry!) was added to the stash. I have been wanting to redo it ever since, and now that I'm 80lb lighter, it's time!
So last night I casted on, and in a size small no less! That will give a wee bit of negative ease on it, and I think that will be better instead of loose, which may look a bit shapeless in an empire-waisted tunic. Here is what I have so far, which isn't much, but as usual I came home from school and slept for hours because the freaking apnea still isn't under control and I'm constantly exhausted.


Here is a closeup of the Crocus Bud pattern, as much as it shows after only 1 repeat. But check out those nails! I'm on fire :) !!

Ta-dah!

Just in case you didn't believe.