Toronto Knitter's Frolic

Well, the Toronto Knitter's Frolic was good to me this year.

I got a few different yarns, as well as a drop spindle that I'm currently trying out (there will be more on that later, I promise!)

First, I got two skeins of Juniper Moon Findley in "Snow."

Unless I completely change my mind, it's going to be a DROPS Morning Sky Cardigan.

I also got a skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label, in her new standard colour "Aurora" (If you remember, I got several skeins of Aurora in her Etsy update, and I'm really glad this is becoming a standard colour!)

This going to be a pair of Birch Leaf Socks, from the book "A Gathering of Lace". I originally planned for these to be made with my leftover skein from my Gox Socks, but then I used my other skein to make the Foare socks, and I think the lace will show off the variegation really well.


Last but not least on the yarn side, I also got a skein of Angel Lace from TurtlePurl Yarns, in the colourway "Deep Ocean".  It's gorgeous stuff! At 1312 yards per skein, it goes a long way!

This is going to become a Roseleaves Tunic, also from "A Gathering of Lace."  I've been meaning to make this for a while.  Originally I was thinking I'd do it in a superwash merino lace, but this just was too awesome to resist, and it's not like I'm really going to machine wash a lace tunic, anyway.

I do have one lesson learned, though -- next time I go to the Frolic, I'm going to try and bring a lot more cash. The credit/debit terminals can get cranky with so many wireless signals, and not all vendors take credit/debit.  But the Frolic is still absolutely awesome, and I'm definitely intending to go again next year. :)

Completed the Quest for New, Warm Fuzzy Slippers

Yeay for quick-knit projects to help me use up my overflowing yarn cupboard.  Even better when I get warm feet out of the deal.

Anyway. . . 

The Purple Purl put up a 'Slipper Quest', both in their Newsletter, and on Ravelry.

And here is my (finished already) contribution, in the form of my Lollipop Slippers.

They're a DROPS pattern, that I tweaked, and they're done in bulky-weight yarn (In my case, I did them in a skein of Misti Alpaca Handpainted that I got at the Purple Purl's Pre-Boxing Day Sale.)

The pattern did come out a touch big, hence the addition of a crochet edging and the twisted cord laces.   But they're absurdly warm, which is great with the cold weather we've been having.

Also, they're my first entry into the 12in2014 challenge for this year.  Yeay!

Scarf is done (or, progress on the Christmas Knitting!)

So, the Entrelac Scarf for my Father is finally done.

Yeay! 

It's nice to have something off the needles, since several more things will be going on the needles in the next little while.

There's another KAL here on Ravelry that's all about Christmas knitting, so I'm going to enter that with my remaining Christmas Gifts.

Also, that KAL challenges you to make one thing for yourself, as well, so I'm going to make these (non ravelry link here), using Briggs and Little I got early in 2013.  The DROPS patterns are actually really nice patterns, even if sometimes the instructions are a touch vague (but that's probably just due to the translations, I suspect.)

Technical Acheivements

My laptop is now back up and working wonderfully.

Yeay!

I am however, fighting a cold.   But that's secondary.

Because my laptop died, I needed some way to access the internet for work.   I've been meaning to buy a tablet computer for a while now, so my laptop not working (plus having the paycheque to actually pay for this tablet) meant that I had the impetus to actually go -get- a tablet.

I quite like it.  More then I thought I would.

I don't like the touch-screen keyboard, but as a small note-taking device/portable day planner/to-do list/portable knitting library it works great!

However, I had one puzzle to figure out, and having figured it out, I thought I would share.

Most of my digital knitting patterns are in PDF format.  That was easy. All I had to do was to download the PDF reader app.

However, some of my patterns are websites (the two that come immediately to mind are the DROPS pattern site and the Knitty E-zine.)  Now don't get me wrong, I love both those sites.  But I didn't bother to pay for data on my tablet.  Data is absurdly expensive for what you get here in Canada, and most places do have available wi-fi.

This did mean, however, that I couldn't access the pattern websites when I was somewhere without wi-fi, like, for example, on the subway.

Now, on my computer, my work-around was simple -- I just saved the entire web page with the pattern I wanted to my hard drive.  That means that in case the website was down, or eventually expires, I still have the pattern saved.  But you can't do that on a mobile device -- at least, not easily.

What you can do, however, is use the Mozilla Firefox Mobile Browser, and use its 'Save as PDF' function.  This allows you to save a web page as a PDF, which then can be read off-line.

Puzzle solved!   I have to admit to finding this quite a useful little feature!