All a bit quiet

Well I absolutely love my new car.  I'm not a confident driver, and it's not something I would choose to do  as a "passing the time" kinda activity........ well it wasn't! But all of I sudden I have the urge to get in and drive - anywhere! I've only been about locally so far, because there is the cost of the fuel to consider, and the weather has been atrocious, but it's really comfy, easy to manoevre and visibility is good.  Plus when I started it up at my sister's the other day Mr4 (my DNphw) said "Oooooh what a lovely sound the engine makes" - See diesels are good!! ;)

The socks were very well received - which is great.  I was worried as they weren't black, but apparently they will be worn! :)

Not much else going on round here due to rain, more rain and even more rain.  It's got so serious I have even done a bit of housework!! *shock*

Having Hope - Having Faith

 

I've had this yarn for ages - 2 skeins of Bushcraft that I bought in the early days of the Yarn Yard.  When n sold this yarn she donated £1 from every skein to the Everyman Cancer charity, and that is a charity close to my heart in the last couple of years.  After staring at it in my stash for the best part of 2 years, finally the perfect pattern came to light.

Having Hope was designed by Diane Mulholland, and the pattern is being sold in aid of Cancer Research.  (It's also available on ravelry here)  

These have been knitted for a birthday present for a very special friend of mine, and there are a thousand reasons why this has all worked well right now.

Tee Hee!

Only a wee picture til I pick it up............ but this is my new baby! A Peugeot 206SW with dog friendly bootspace (and also chicken feed friendly and heavy shopping friendly)  Diesel engine with a whopping 64mpg, and only £35 RFL cos it's so small.  The test drive proved it does actually travel uphill under it's own volition (better than old diesels then - and indeed my micra!) so the deal was done.  Very happy, very skint... and now looking round the house for things I can sell...... anyone want a Spaniel!?????

Do you Backup?

I very rarely advertise products or services (apart from yarn, obviously!!! ;) )   But, in the search for an online automatic backup service (automatic being the most important bit!) for some financial records, I found this  Mozy.com..... and just thought that some of you might find it useful for backing up...... well, errr Knitting patterns???!!!!!

It's a free service for up to 2gb home use, (click on Mozy Home at the top, then look on the left hand side for the free service), or $4.95/month for unlimited and I also have to tell you that the link above is a referral link so if anyone does sign up I get an extra 256mb free. However, I don't need the extra space so that's not why I'm telling you!

You download a  little piece of software to your PC/MAC, select files or folders you want to backup (it also starts by suggesting some "backup sets", including your internet favourites, emails and contacts, and your My Documents folder, but they can all be changed) and how often you want it to backup - it suggests once a day.  The first backup obviously takes an age, but subsequent ones only seem to take around 5 mins.  It's not a file-share service so no-one else can access your data, unless you give them your password, and it's run using 448bit encryption and then 128bit SSL transfer, so it's pretty secure.

Backup is something most of us are notoriously bad at, and only when disaster strikes do we realise we should have been more prepared.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it!!!! :)

Yarn Yard strikes again

My dear friend Piglottie sent me a voucher for the Yarn Yard for my birthday.. and finally I got round to choosing something delicious to spend it on.

 

On the left is 100% superwash Blue Faced Leicester, and on the right 75% wool/25% Bamboo.  I decided that as they were a gift I wanted to try two fibres I hadn't tried before. Also, although the greens mix is very much my normal colour choice - I also wanted something different and special for some lovely socks (or maybe something else) and chose the brighter pink/purple mix - which I have to say is gorgeous.

So, my dear friend, thank you so much for your wonderful gift. I will enjoy knitting them up immensely and in the meantime, I'm just going to hug them for a while! :)