Friday, September 05, 2003

 

Last night, I had the pleasure of stitch'n and bitch'n with Kathy, Kate and Amy and it was great fun. This is the first time I've met Amy, who noticed me while I was feeding the parking meter and I hear "It must be you, I recognize the sweater"...she's a fun chick for sure.

I got some more work done on my toe-up broadripple sock, but didn't get a chance to finish my koigu sweater. I'm not too worried because I don't know how to put it together. I'm supposed to single crochet the pieces together and I don't really crochet. I'm waiting for my mom to visit next week to help me out. She's an excellent crocheter so I'll have no problems. The weather this morning is perfect for it and hope it stays this way. I love fall.

And I got a little note from my friend Leslie (the one I "enabled" back into knitting). She finished her scarf made from two balls of Venezia ribbon and I thought I'd show off her scan of it here since the colours look so amazing:

And here's a closeup

I might have to go back to Romni and get me some of that (like I need more yarn).

And, if you've been following my drooling over Colin Firth, he's in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival this week for the premiere of his new movies, Love Actually and Girl With a Pearl Earring. I'm resisting the strange urge to become a groupie!

9:51 AM

Thursday, September 04, 2003

 

So last night we parked ourselves in front of the tv to watch the modern day Pride and Prejudice that is, Bridget Jones's Diary. All that Colin Firth this week is divine. I have to see more of his movies (I have Shakespeare in Love, seen Valmont many times, but I know there's got to be more!)

Anyway that afforded me enough time to finish the body of my Koigu sweater. HOORAY. So today I decide to procrastinate from the thesis a bit and block it. The sleeves are too short. I made them in the winter so I don't remember what I was thinking, but I have to undo the cast off and knit about 20 more rows on each one so they'll fit the schematic (which works for my arms). I don't know if they just shrank in the bag all these months, or if I stretched too much when measuring, but they're too short. And no amount of blocking will work. Damn.

But in happier news I got a lovely e-mail from Theresa last night with this photo:

The kureyon that she graciously offered to re-route to me (seller won't send to Canada if you recall) has arrived and has been inspected, and will be sent off to me really soon! I love that she sent me photos. I had pretty visions of my jacket (see August 26) before I drifted off last night, and no nightmares about learning entrelac knitting!

And, I forgot to mention a wonderful chic named Christiane who offered to trade me her copy of Noro 1 (the pattern book I needed) for some yummy grey tweed silk from my stash. Hopefully our gifts are crossing postal paths as we speak. This internet knitting community is great fun.

11:47 AM

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

 

I got this in my email just now and I have to share:

You have been banned from this forum. Please contact the webmaster or board administrator for more information.

I guess Squawkbox tv doesn't like negative criticism...hee hee. (And now that I'm banned I can't even contact them for "more information").

I feel like such a sh*t disturber--I haven't been banned from anything for a long time.

11:29 AM

 

I knit a whole bunch last night. I parked my butt on the couch, put in my Pride and Prejudice DVD and worked like crazy on my Koigu sweater. Craig and I have seen it about 10 times, but we still can't help but watch every episode in one or two sittings. Yesterday was no different, we watched for 4 hours because we had to see the end, and I'm looking a bit tired today. But, I did manage to get to the shoulder shaping on the sweater so it'll be on the blocking board tonight.

And since I was in a rage yesterday I didn't post what I had done on the long weekend. First I finished with the mousies. I made 13 in total and got bored with it so they're off to get stuffed today. I also made progress on my toe-up broadripple socks:

They're not as nice as the top down version especially at the top because the pointy bits run the opposite way, but I still like them. They're going to be a Christmas present for someone--I'm just not sure who yet.

And in my screwed-up comment news: I posted a terse but politely firm letter expressing my dissatisfaction with the way Squawkbox TV dealt with me to the message board they have for support and well today I went to see if there was a reply and they deleted it! Of all the nerve! I was just expressing my opinion of their service (and I must stress I was all politeness) and I guess they couldn't take the heat. I didn't even receive a reply. So I posted once more, asking why they didn't reply. I bet they delete that too. Ah well. I know the comments are gone for good and I have an alternative service so I'm not mad anymore. I've just learned that you get what you pay for. I just hope blogger doesn't ever pull something like that.

10:47 AM

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

 

Alright, I've added another free comment service I got from here, but I still want my old comments back to download, so I have a copy. I mean what's the point of blogging if I can't have my comments too. I'm not sure how I will put them in my blog again, but I'm sure as hell am not going to pay them any money. I've wrote them a nasty note to that effect (I created another free account to talk to them). I just don't like having my service suspended without any notice or options except to pay money--it's just in bad form. I've left up their comment box for now until this is resolved...I'm not holding my breath though.

10:28 AM

 

So I come back to my blog after a nice long weekend at the cottage and find this:

This commenting account (SBX-GWUUCVXDA) has expired.

This means that the account owner has not renewed or upgraded their account. SquawkBox Basic/free accounts must be upgraded if they are heavily used over a prolonged period of time.

If you are the account owner, to continue using this comment account you must upgrade your account to SquawkBox Pro by clicking on the link shown below. The link will take you to PayPal where you can renew your account. Accounts are upgraded typically within 24-48 hours following receipt of payment.

Subscribe now - just click this button for secure encrypted subscription via PayPal!

So I click and it's 14 pounds a year to subscribe. That's more than 30 bucks Canadian! For that money I could almost buy a full year of typepad hosting! And to make it worse, all my comments give you that freakin' message. So now I have to pay in order to get my comments back--or else they're gone for good.

I want to write them a nasty letter saying that they should have at least informed me of the change before turning my comments off and in their message boards I find this:

Hi,

In order to plough further resources into SquawkBox, we will shortly be introducing some changes for heavy users of SquawkBox.

From 1 August, high-volume comment accounts will need to be upgraded to Pro for continued service. If this applies to you, you will be prompted next time you login to SquawkBox or whenever you post a comment. Once you have upgraded your account (and we've verified your payment details) you'll have continued access to your comments - plus loads of additional SquawkBox features!

SquawkBox will continue to be free for most users of the service. This change will affect fewer than 2% of current SquawkBoxers.

We hope that these changes will enable us to continue to develop and expand the service for the benefit of everyone.

They could've sent that to me! Then I could've considered my options. And to make it worse, I can't seem to contact them for more information unless I pay!

I know it's a free service and they don't owe me anything, but that doesn't mean they should go around shutting users down without any notice. Now what to do? And of course, you can't even tell me because I don't have any freakin comments! And no, I didn't back up my comments because I can't with the free service, and yes I'm mad about that too.

9:39 AM