The Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory of Everything

Hewlett Packard hates me. I know it. They probably have a dedicated department of developmental technology with specific focus on computers for my house that will self destruct in every possible manner at the worst possible time. Motherboard, we hardly knew ye.

So, after 3 HP purchases all ending in tears, I am posting from a Gateway. Do you have any idea how tired I am of setting up computers and transferring data? By now, I'm good at it, at least. And I have acquired new skillsets, like replacing power sources and putting hard drives in external hard cases. I mean, I know what Serial ATA is now. This should not be happening to me, but my tech friends are probably meeting even now, making yet more plans to widen my knowledge base so I'll have to call them less every time my computer glitches out, which, of course, probably won't happen now that I have finally wised up and not bought another HP.

ANYWAY, on to knitting, right? Uh, no, not really. I mean I have been knitting, it's just that I'm doing something else now as well, something new, and something somewhat related to knitting, at least in about 5 different ways I can think of right now. You see, apparently a few other of my friends decided I didn't have enough hobbies, and introduced me to change ringing. Now any of you who have been following the Tsarina's blog will be familiar with the activity, but for those of you who would like to see some (and undoubtedly mock me) I am sharing the following video of me (and the Happy Goth's husband, who is my primary teacher).



So, you say, didn't I say just a minute ago that I thought this was somehow related to knitting? Why, yes, I did. Because ringing and knitting are both math based, and can have a mathematical relationship to each other. Check out these socks for instance:
which is available from Holiday Yarns here. There is also this scarf (Ravelry link) which I haven't knit, but I will one day, for certain.

One of the other things knitting and change ringing have in common is that you can spend your entire life doing each of them and never learn all there is to know. I love this. I love learning, and the pursuits that have stayed with me all have this quality. I tire easily of anything once there are no more challenges, and although I have learned about lots of subjects that initially appealed to me, there are few I stick with. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I master them all, but too often I learn enough to know that I have hit the ultimate depth of knowledge of something and mastery is only a matter of repetition from then onwards. Can you say boring?

Speaking of boring, I always thought knitting scarves would be boring, so I always avoided it. If for no other reason than that the universe usually conspires to prove me wrong, I present the scarf I'm currently working on. I can't stop knitting this.

Three guesses as to why...

Two colors of Silk Garden, 244 and 267

One scarf to rule them all.

The color changes keep me obsessed. Three days before Thanksgiving my Dad had successful carotid artery surgery. I thought he might appreciate some warmth for his neck. Scar tissue can hurt like hell in cold weather. So I thought about this scarf, which Jared made famous here. Picking out the colors is the hardest part. I wanted something masculine but not too drab and with colorful bits here and there. I think I've succeeded. I couldn't help buying a few more combinations for future scarves. Check these out:
This will be for me.


And possibly this for me too. Because apparently I had no other projects going on and had no yarn in the house.

Yeah.

Then the mail came. Oh, my God.





Need I say I'm on cloud nine?