When last we left our intrepid heroine, she was working hard on both work and home, wrapping up yarn club and getting ready to host different branches of the family. When was that? Wednesday of last week? Wait until you hear about the last seven days.
First off (because this sets the tone for the week), on Thursday, my computer started making an ominous sound. A sound I've heard it make before, about a year and a half ago. A scratching, unhappy, "trying to think" sound. The sound of whatever robotic brain is inside my computer... dying a - hopefully - slow and agonizing death. I say "hopefully" because slow and agonizing would be better for me than fast, as "slow" might give me time to get some of my files off. Sure enough, Friday... same sound. More often and louder. Saturday morning... two different blue screens of death. First time I tried to turn it on I got a Hard Disk error ("Please run the Hard Disk test"), and the second time I got a Boot Drive error ("Please install an operating system on your computer!").
This has happened before, like I said, about a year and a half ago. The computer was still under warranty and I had Geek Squad protection, so back then it was about $10 for a couple hundred dollar repair that had something to do with a part of the motherboard burning out. Literally burning. The thought that this was happening again made my eyes cross and I got a little bit of a twitch in my forehead.
So Saturday afternoon, while Cetty did a really fun raku firing with her daughter and grandchildren... I drove into Gainesville and bought a new computer. "What sort of computer do you want?" the guy asked me. "I'm not sure, but I can tell you what I *don't* want... ANOTHER HP."
Fortunately, because when this happened before, I became a little insane about saving data, I'm backed up in about three different places. I was able to get mostly everything transferred over (and anything I forgot I will be able to get off Carbonite over the next month). And that means that I didn't lose anyone's yarn club information and that while it was tense, timewise, I was able to get March yarn club in the mail on Monday before going to the airport and picking up other travelling family members. Whew!
Meanwhile...! In ceramics, I've been working hard on those stitch markers. I feel l'm racing against the weather, trying to get them finished before it gets warm enough that people are planting gardens! Oh, and my one-pound butter dishes were much remarked upon by the many people who've been through the studio in the last week or so (and we've had so much company we've used up two of the four one-pound blocks of butter I had to buy for the photo shoot!).
In soap, Wild Mint & Ivy has been listed! I've also listed a swag bag, great for the yarnies, full of soap, lip balm, lotion, and a set of stitch markers all in a project bag (these are just like the prizes Caitlin and I made for the 15-in-2015 -along we gave out in January). You can find those here. I'll be talking a little bit about both of those on Friday!
I'm also thinking about another guest soap set, this one with herbal fragrances. So far I'm contemplating Sage & Lemongrass, OSmanthus, Rosemary Mint, Tortuga Hills, Advice from a Caterpillar, and the new Wild Mint & Ivy for the six fragrances. What say you all?
In yarn, March yarn club is out the door, the next round of yarn club is listed (no spoiler pictures there, of March's yarn) and I have three sets of this round of club left over - two sock and a worsted (there are spoiler pictures there of all three months). The price on those extra sets of Jan-March club is not the discounted, club price, but the retail price of the yarn (and I didn't have any swag left over).
I'm also on the fence between a new limited edition colorway, and a new permanent colorway for the shop. While they'd both show up eventually, most likely, I only have base yarn right now to make one of those two choices. What colorway name appeals to you more - "Irish Cranberries"? Or "Golden Years"?
In knitting, I finished a pair of socks using some End of the Row Yarns I bought over summer last year (that's an incredibly fast stash turnaround for me!). And I'm trying not to cast on for ALL THE THINGS because I thought this would mean, finishing those socks, that I had room to start another three projects or so, and then I found two or three projects I'd started and never entered into Ravelry. Hahahah whoops.
OK... that's my week so far. What about y'all? What are you working on?