Fiber Follies

Well done, Rothane! You dug up a bit of information on knitting groups here and there in our area, and alerted a mitt-full of local forum members to a meeting at a nearby bookseller’s. You managed to round us up into a small happy group, all eager to apply faces to forum identities. It was a grand evening. We knitted, we chatted about knitting and school and work and whatever seemed worth covering.

I’ve got pictures!
Sadly, I was prevented from getting a picture of tashagurl. sigh. I won’t name the bookseller. I will state that it’s a huge chain, highly popular and a trendy place to hang out and be seen. What is this, “you can’t take pictures in here”? I wanted to be a smartypants, but restrained myself. It wouldn’t have helped us. And if I let my yap go, well, it’s never pretty. So I contained myself, apologised to Ms. Nazi (who was regally firm yet coolly polite [condescending?] when informing me that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures), and our group departed soon after. At least I’ve got pics of Rothane, Little Mousling, and wispylittlesnot (who you already know as Precious Child). I coloured in the backgrounds, in a nice chocolate, in the remote possibility the store might appear and be recognisable. Is this really the chain’s policy? Is it posted at highly visible spots in and around the store? I honestly don’t know. I admit I never looked. I never gave thought to it. Whoops. I’ll have a glance round next time I’m there. I really want to be cranky about it but can’t so will acquiesce to store policies. Just believe me that tashagurl is just as picture-worthy as everyone else. I’ll get her at the next SSK! meeting. Our Coffee Shop & Wine Bar is much friendlier to customers. They don’t mind pictures being taken in the shop. It’s publicity. They encourage us to enjoy ourselves. We don’t exactly swing from the chandeliers (which they lack, but the beams look interesting), we talk and knit and enjoy ourselves thoroughly. We have a big round table to meet at, and a choice of plushy sofas and chairs to camp in for the meetings. The Coffee Shop is most comfortably arranged for meetings of any sort.

Anyway, back to the meeting. We five are forum participants at a most wonderful online knitting magazine. The magazine is packed with patterns and great techniques articles-which have given me strong development since I took up the needles last year. Whenever I need insight over a particular technique, I look there first. If it’s not immediately comprehensible to my aging mind, I trek over to its forums. And have discovered a world of knitters with a lot to offer. They are terrific people.

Meet Rothane. She wore a pair of socks she’d knitted. Her socks looked so cool that I was embarassed to pull out my first sock, the Eternal Sock, which I’ve been knitting since April. I’m slow, okay? And it is my very first sock. And it doesn’t look at all sockly next to Rothane’s neatly made socks.

Rothane is working on a cardigan here. She wasn’t too thrilled with some aspects of the pattern, so is freely altering it to suit her taste. She has good taste-just look at how nicely she dressed. Casual with flair. She travelled a fair distance to meet us. We deeply appreciate Rothane’s presence, both at this meeting and on the forum.

Look at the merry countenance on this elfin lady! Hasn’t she got the prettiest eyes? This is Little Mousling. I’m thrilled to meet her, too. She’s working a shawl, using, if I remember correctly, the Magic Loop method? She tried to describe it to me, then in her brilliant manner, told me of how she’d picked up the technique from the Internet. So I’ll go a-hunting for the way to do this. I’m still reeling from my Olympic KAL doily, which began with six stitches of scrawny cotton thread on weenie dpn’s, and grew to monstrous proportions, finally covering 10 hair-thin dpn’s before I got sick of it and cast off. This looks much more intelligent an approach. And I have evil intent to pester Little Mousling when I need help. I know she’s got intellect to spare, she attends Bryn Mawr. If she shares a bit of that brain power with me I might manage to make some of it stick.
You remember Precious Child, I’m sure. Her forum name is wispylittlesnot. That tag goes back to when she was very small and her grandmother once called her that. Naturally the child argued that she was not “wisty”. “Snot” apparently wasn’t a problem.

She’s crocheting Mario stars, probably a toy for the niece or nephew to be born several months hence. She’s quite excited about this child! She is also knitting the baby cardi from One Skein. It’s the prettiest thing, especially in the creamy white she’s using. I rather like the Mario stars. We’re having another Share the Love meeting in September, which I thought might be nice to aim towards the local Humane Society. People donate for the animals, we can too. Mabel came to us with three toys: a fishing pole made by local Girl Scouts, with feathers and a bell; a fur paw which she carries around like fresh-killed prey; and a crocheted ball which she seems to think is her baby. I think of the lovely people who provided for these animals during their stay at the orphanage, and want to be nice too. And those charming stars are adorable. I have a few other ideas, so maybe we’ll pass around a few patterns for ideas-the stars could be a grand thing to make.

The time passed quickly, as it will when people enjoy themselves. I look forward to seeing Little Mousling, the stately tashagurl, and Rothane at the next SSK! meeting.

…then two or three pictures should cover this account pretty well, without too much effort from me. Her name is Mabel.

It was just one of those things. It's in the eyes. You know. When they turn on those mind-control beams. There's no escape.

…is a riot!

Can you tell I got my first package from upstream today?

I’ve never done a SP before, and this seemed a nice way to see what it’s like. Boy, am I glad I did.

I’d found a great yarn for my downstream, and sent it off the other day. I hope she likes it as much as me. It’s Noro Sumile Multi, unfortunately now discontinued. But it sure is pretty, and the discount too good to pass up. I really wanted to keep it.

And today, while I’m embroiled in the Mistaken Corporate Identity problem, I get a package in the mail.

Look at this:

See how everything is neatly protected in poly bags? This is a person who cares. I smiled over the yarn-my favourite colour, green, with lots of flecks and streaks of brightness-reminds me of my gardens and lawns, and very soft, too. I was puzzled over the square…

Then read the note card she’d tucked into the box. This charming person had knitted a square for SSK!’s charity knit-due this coming Tuesday. Wonderful, and a person with a kind heart.

Of course I flipped the square over to the bumpy side after removing it from its bag, but it’s a good-looking knit on both sides.

Thank you, Ewe Spinster!

yellowviola

We'll start out with something pretty. I planted these beauties everywhere, and will curse myself for bad placement next year. Yeah, they're gorgeous. But they've a knack for taking over. By next spring, I'll see thick carpets of them wherever I tucked single plants. Well, they're still pretty.

I was weeding the bridge gardens on Sunday. It was blistering hot, but nice to work in the cool damp shade. Something bit me just below the eye brow. Well, I'll just finish up here then make dinner. As I ate later, I noticed my eye felt strange. It was a bit itchy, but felt really strange.

A look in the mirror showed the eyelid had swollen my eye almost shut! This on Sunday night, and a holiday Monday. Figures. I stuffed myself with copious doses of Benadryl and put ice on it.

Monday morning, the eye was worse. It was hot to touch and looking bruisy. I rang the doctor's famous answering service, miraculously remembering which option to press for a real human voice. Within five minutes the on call doctor rang back, instructing me to trek to Urgent Care for a look.

Now, driving with one eye nearly sealed from swelling proved interesting. I kept tilting my head back in effort to use the eye, which had me looking at the world through the reading part of my bifocals. Everything was blurred and the ride was not pleasant. And when I reached Urgent Care, it was as packed as any hospital emergency department on a Saturday night. Squalling sick children, snuffling and sneezing and coughing and whining their discomfort.  It was easy to see they were terrified too.  A couple of injured ankles limped in, and several unidentifiable illnesses. I had a sock with me so knitted quietly until called into the examining room, which surprisingly was within an hour of my arrival. I waited there an additional ten minutes. Who knew so many people got injured and sick on holidays? I felt badly for everyone, and, despite my terrifying appearance, felt I was intruding on real emergencies.

I walked out with a Px for antibiotics and instructions to keep up the cold compresses and Benadryl. Also was told the eye would be swollen for several days yet. Great.

Now it's Thursday and the eye is beginning to look normal. Whew!

I was starting to feel like I could get everything done and caught up.

I did a deal of stock imaging and tidied up the business web-site. I researched and started writing descriptions.

Wandered from the office to the house in search of coffee. Spotted a packet sat on the window-sill. I went out to fetch it in. Addressed to my business, from my RA. Okay, I get a few of these each year, maybe some changes in regulations or whatever. No biggie, right?

Wrong.

Dead wrong.

In that packet was a Process of Service! I'm being sued! God help me, what have I done?

I read through the documents, soon realising that the defendant name was not mine. Someone, somewhere, had pulled my business name out of the air and decided that I was guilty of some other fool's crime.

Heart pounding, I rang the plaintiff's attorney, who was pleasant enough but noncommital. He said he'd "look into it". Right.

I tried to ring the State Dept, Division of Corporations. Lots of choices on their automated answering service. I chose the one for Customer Service. The recorded message? "We're sorry, the office is closed. Regular office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday". What? This was Wednesday, before the lunch hour, well within office hours!!! I tried other options, and just got a round robin of automated messages. Guess what? You can't call the Division of Corporations to get anything done.

I next called the RA. Of course, they're clueless. Is it that no one knows what happened or is no one admitting what they screwed up?

RA recommended calling FedEx to refuse shipment. Gosh, the nimwits left the thing here without signature. I rang anyway and they told me just seal it back up, noted-Return Item Refused. I could drop it off or have them pick it up.

Before running out to drop it off, I rang my attorney. I'd written notes from all the telephone calls and started a letter showing all the errors that someone had made in deciding that I was this other person and his business that operates over 400 miles away.

Attorney asked me to fax over everything. He then informed me that I can't write a letter explaining that someone's head is up their-oh, I shouldn't talk like that. The letter has to be done by a lawyer in a specified format!

Great. Now I have attorney fees to pay, I may still have to go to NYC to prove that I am not nor ever have been this other business or person, and that I do not, never have, nor would ever have reason to do business with the plaintiff's company.

And they may just decide to put a judgment against my company, which totally screws me forever. And there is no recourse. There is no one to sue for loss of time, loss of business due to fighting someone else's battle, and the legal fees I now face.

Nice, isn't it?