Saturday, September 23, 2006

A Good Start

Here we are -- my finished Olympic Knitting project, lounging on the LazyBoy (no Chesterfields here, this is California, not Canada -- that's a different blog).
So it's only what,...7 months too late.
I hate button bands...picking up (I can never get the sides to match), then lining up the button holes (the initial math only gets me so close -- I keep forgetting to include the stitches for the actual buttonhole -- so rather than refigure it out I just tink and add or substract a stitch until they're spread out properly). Anyways its done, off the needles, knitting bag reclaimed, leftover yarn (1 full ball and then some of the teflon wool, 1/2 a ball of the karaoke -- enough for a hat, but we're not going there) ready to be returned to stash. Not sure I like the long stretch of hot pink, but I do like the fact that it's done.
I was listening to Birth of Venus while finishing it up. I download books from Audible and listen on my iPaq. Up until now I've been using ear phones. Cris told me about FM transmitters that allow sound to be transmitted to an FM radio frequency which allows you to listen to your audio (from your mp3 player, ipod, portable CD player) on any FM stereo (home stereo, boom box or car radio). Cool deal. It's amazing what technology they come up with these days. I'm not much of a technophile. Yeah, I have a mobile phone (hot pink razr, of course, w/ matching bluetooth -- but I only *just* got that part), and I listen to books on my iPaq which I sync from my PC laptop. However, I'm not one to leap to new technology. That iPaq, it's at least 3 years old. Digital camera 2.1 mega pixels. I still have a win98 desktop (yes, it runs) and my laptop is running win2K. What's even more surprising is that I live high tech more than 40hrs a week being a computer programmer, in the electronic design automation industry, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Go figure. I'm actually afraid to try new things. And rightly so! The first FM transmitter I bought actually made the batteries in it explode -- in the car -- while I was driving! I had my husband return it (I hate returning things) and I bought another, different one (more expensive) from another store (not taking any chances here). This one, however, bypasses battery power when I plug in the car adapter -- I checked by turning the device on and plugging in the adapter while it wasn't connected to the car, and it turned off. So far so good. Anyways, I used it last night while finishing my project -- listening to my audio book on my iPaq but through our boom box. Amazing. I was able to move around and pick up my band, line up my buttonholes and knit until it was all done. Truly F.A.B. Like my setup?

2 comments:

Vivian said...

The vest looks lovely, and congratulations for finishing it. I feel like I haven't finished anything in ages.

Glad to know you are not a technophile -- if you are, I probably won't be able to understand a word on your blog.

Cris said...

I love listening to a book while doing the non-knitting stuff of knitted projects, such a blocking. My new lace yarn has started softly chanting. I need to get my other projects done before it starts screaming!!!