2 Laptops, 1 Book, 2 Sales, Much Frustration, and Some Random Knitting Content

Is it possible to have an entire month of full moons? Or at least full moon behavior? Because I'm here to tell you that it's been a bit of a wild ride since I last posted.

Remember the Blue Screen of Death? The one that tolled the death of poor Inspiron 1000? Well, that was only the first computer disaster to befall me as I struggled toward the end of the Book That Wouldn't Die. I killed an Averatec too. Now I'm used to burying a laptop every spring but two laptops in a three week period is a record even for me. I also killed the television. The same television we bought last spring after I somehow killed the other television. (All I did was push the ON button. Honest.)

By the time I was galloping toward the finish line (a timely Kentucky Derby reference) I was so paranoid about dead computers that I had a removable hard drive in the PCMCIA slot, three thumb drives sticking out of the USB ports, and an external floppy drive in use. I wasn't taking any chances.

I finished it about ten days ago. Then changed it. Then finished it again. Then tinkered with the ending. Then untinkered with the ending. Then added an epilogues. Then ditched the epilogue. Then wrote a new epilogue. Then ditched that one too. Lather rinse repeat. Seventy extra pages later I came to the conclusion that the book ended the way it was supposed to end and no epilogue was necessary. Now I wait to see what my editor thinks about that decision . . .

And in the middle of struggling with dead laptops and a book sorely in need of a last chapter, I sold two more books to Berkley. The books will feature Chloe Hobbs, owner of a very special Vermont yarn shop where yarn never tangles, sleeves always come out the same length, and you always, always get gauge. (It's tentatively called The Sorcerer's Daughter for reasons I'll tell you about soon. )

I did pull out my own (tangled, uneven) knitting last week to celebrate. Remember the grey Step socks I've been working on for two or three years. (Okay, so maybe it's only six months. It just feels like two or three years.) I had two Magic Loops going and was whizzing right along. Finished the leg(s). Finished the heel flap(s). Finished picking up the gusset stitch(es). Ooops. Forgot the turn the heel(s). Bad knitter. Very very bad. And may I be the first to tell you that ripping back Step wasn't any fun at all. I tried to salvage the heel flaps but the slipped stitches kept bobbing and weaving and generally tormenting the needle until I gave up and ripped back their arrogant butts right up to the leg and redid them.

I now officially hate these socks with every fiber of my being and only an irrational desire to have the last laugh over a hunk of knitted fabric keeps me from consigning them to the bottom of a parrot cage.

Oh, and did I tell you I fell off my yarn diet? Last month I bought Rowan Denim. I swatched it and almost swooned from its general wonderfulness. After washing and drying, I remeasured and it lost nothing horizontally but did shrink 25% vertically. But oh how soft! How strokable! How purely luscious it is.

Which, of course, awoke the slumbering Yarn Beast who now wants to ravish and pillage WEBS and Elann and Patternworks and frolic naked in a mountain of Noro . . . any Noro will do.

Speaking of Noro, are you ready for another contest? How about a I Finished the Book and Only Lost 2 Laptops in the Process contest? Sounds good to me. Come back tomorrow and there'll be pictures of some glorious vintage Noro Implessions (10+ skeins) and details.

I'm so glad to be back!