New Jigsaw

My new pc crashed on Sunday. A fullblown megadeath crash, with everything lost and a full system restore required. I'm lucky that in 20 years of spending hours a day at a pc, at work or at home, I've never actually lost data (smug, moi?), but on Sunday night I didn't feel very lucky.

When I ran the backup, the system told me I didn't have the right to access my photos, or my music, or anything else, but after several cups of tea and a large glass of wine I managed to find a workaround - I copied the files I wanted to access to a different location and when the system asked me to give myself permission to do this, I did. Ha. It's always satisfying when human ingenuity outwits computer logic, although I can't say it happens very often.

I don't think it was the new pc's fault, by the way; I think the culprit was the dreaded Microsoft Update, which I might eschew from now on. So all the tweaking and downloading that I did on my new pc a few weeks ago to make it my very own has had to be redone, sigh. And have I copied all my music and photos to an external drive now? You bet your sweet patootie I have.

Anyway, before all that, I got the Swallowtail blocked. I did the last couple of rows and the cast-off in the darker yarn again and I don't think it was a terrible mistake. But however impressed I am with myself for having done the Lily of the Valley pattern - and I am - go on, click - I don't feel any great love for this item. I would quite happily give it to the milkman, if I had one.

The handspun merino / bfl has arrived from Heike and is heavenly.
But before I get on with the Forest Canopy Shawl for the baby, I'm doing a quick bow-tied bolero for the little pink person. It's the one from Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. I knitted this for her twice when she was tiny, in finger-breaking cotton and in stripes, but this time I'm using the prescibed yarn, Baby Cashmerino. I love this book, in spite of the fact that I am driven mad by its lack of schematics, but I'm not so keen on the yarn. Given that it contains merino wool, acrylic and cashmere, it really ought to be softer.

I think it's going to be too big, but at least that way it'll fit her someday: I started off on 3mm needles and ripped that as it came out too small and too stiff a fabric: I'm quite a tight knitter. I've done the back and one front. She doesn't like buttons, so the ties should go down well. I'm knitting it in the same colour as the book photo shown above, although I didn't realize that until after the yarn arrived.

One of my favourite websites at the moment is this webcam at Loch Garten which shows the ospreys' nest with three chicks. It's so close that you don't really get a sense of the scale; you could be forgiven for thinking that the mother is about the size of a chicken when in fact an adult osprey is, well, enormous, and can have a six-foot wingspan. It's got live sound too, so you can hear everyone chirping. I thought the pc was making a funny noise the other day, but it was just the ospreys - not often you can say that.

To celebrate the arrival of the handspun, I've added a new jigsaw in the sidebar, which is a picture of the beginnings of the shawl. I think it might be rather a difficult one.