Slow day at work

I apologise in advance for a photo-less post, but I'm at work and don't have a camera with me. Or anything interesting to photograph either :)

A couple of months ago my work-computer started acting up and sometimes refused to start at all. I've since then mostly used my small, pink computer instead, which is fine most of the time. I haven't invested in an Office package, but work a lot with OpenOffice instead. The only problem is that the reference management program I use, EndNote, doesn't work with OpenOffice. SO now that I'm going to do a lot of revisions to my second article (we've decided to turn it into two publications instead, as it is so large), so now I'm really going to need EndNote. So this past Tuesday the office computer guys were here to install Word on my pink computer, which of course didn't work. The program just won't start, and no-one seems to know why. So the whole thing ended up with me now working on my VERY SLOW, old work computer. I should really be getting a new one, but my work situation is a bit complicated. First of all, my main supervisor had a stroke this spring, and we don't know when he'll be back, so it's hard to get the large purchases through. And second, I'm not sure that I will be here longer than the end of March (which also more or less depends on what happens with my supervisor), so it might be stupid to actually buy a new computer that I won't use for more than a couple of months. But this computer is SO SLOW!

On a much happier note, I was a t a knitting café at Garnverket yesterday, and it was very nice and cozy. It's so nice to sit in the yarn store, surrounded by all that lovely yarn and all those lovely knitters, and just talk (and knit) the night away! I'm almost up to the finger decrease on the first Moose mitten, and now that I'm not knitting any lace I can focus more wholeheartedly on these. I've learned a lot about yarn dominance since I began these, because it was very obvious this time. I'm a continental knitter (a picker), and I hold my yarn in the left hand. And when you knit like this with more than one colour, the yarn you hold the farthest to the left will dominate over the other colour(s). Unfortunately it took me more than half of the first mitten to realize this, so the second half looks a lot better. I hope I can fix this at least a little bit with blocking. On the other hand, the second mitten will look terrific! I really should knit them the same way, but it also feels stupid to do it "wrong" now that I know how to do it right.

I'm also knitting away on my green bolero, and this is such a fast knit! I'm almost down to the end of the arm holes, so I'll son put it together. I'm basically only knitting on this in public when I need to not concentrate on a pattern, or when I'm very tired. I doubt that it will be done before Christmas, but I'm ok with that. I hadn't planned on wearing it on Christmas eve, or on New Year's either, so it can take as long as it likes.

I haven't had much time to spin either, only a little bit. I think I'm spinning the yarn way too tightly, as the yarn almost curls up on itself, but I'm not sure yet how to fix this. I need to find a balance between the too tight spin and the too loose (where the yarn comes apart). I think I'll go on YouTube tonight and see if I can't find some good tips. And Ilsefin had commented on my last post, so now I know which wool is which! I'm so happy that I had actually guessed right: The brown and white fiber is the Shetland Humbug, the white is Coriedale, and the grey is the Gotland wool. So now I don't have to wonder any longer.

Oh, and yesterday at Garnverket, Ulrika was working, which was so great. I haven't seen her for a very long time, and it was fun to get to talk to her a little bit, even though she had customers almost the whole night. Which of course is great for Garnverket, I think it's going well for that store! But she had read my last post here (and she apologised for commenting in swedish, apparently it was early in the morning and she was in a hurry), and offered me and Anna some undyed yarn that she had gotten a while ago and never used. So now we have four or five hanks of undyed Lion Brand Wool (I think it was worsted weight) that we can play around with! She is just so supernice, and always thinking of others! Anna and I are so grateful, and we will have so much fun dyeing these! I think that we'll probably not use as many colours on each skein this time, but that will be just as fun!

Ok, now my lunch break is officially over, so I guess I have to get back to work. I'll see you this weekend!

/ Jenny