Designaknit and CSMing

Had a lovely two-day course at Metropolitan learning how to use DAK 8. It all made perfect sense at the time - I found the computer aspect of it easy enough, but some of the programming is a little strange because some bits of code belong to big software companies. Who knew? Which explains why DAK7, though not that old, is still limited to the old 8 character filenames I thought I'd seen the last of a long time ago. I've "designed" my first DAK garment, a simple round neck jumper with 38" chest using the standard garment sizes, so we shall see how it turns out. The only odd thing is, although it show the welts and neck, it doesn't tell you how to work out the neck ie how many stitches to pick up - so Knitware has an advantage there unless it's somewhere else in the program and I haven't found it yet. The ladies either side of me had Windows 8 and struggled with it a bit - one lady hadn't verified her existence to Microsoft so couldn't create new folders anywhere... and we couldn't sign her in because no network - there's little mobile signal there as it is, and certainly no wifi! I guess it's a security measure, but, really? I think I'll carry on with my 2009 macbook with parallels and windows XP, thanks... Oh, and the BnB at New Farm, Wettenhall - really nice, lots of lovely little touches, lovely warm room and excellent brekko. Would definitely stay there again (they also have a camp site but you'll not catch me camping in February!). Sad to say, the Old Boot pub, supposedly haunted, which served such lovely evening meals when I stayed there last, is falling into disrepair.

Refrained from buying anything at Metropolitan, but only because (a) I'm a bit skint this week and (b) we'll be back there in two weeks or so...

Saturday saw me driving down to Theberton in Suffolk for one day of a two-day CSM event, organised by the Vintage Krankers. Got there at 11am, desperate for coffee. Lovely to see everyone again (a lot of them were at Bristol last year), but the last bit, a 45-50 minute drive on a winding A-road through little villages wasn't fun, and even less so in the dark in reverse. They don't believe in much street lighting down there! Sold two pairs of socks (took the Etsy "shop" on the spur of the moment) and cranked a further two pairs whilst I was there - could have done more, but packed the machine away early, not realising the pub over the road didn't open until 6pm. I always like to knit a pair if I can, it's a kind of OCD I guess! Had lovely grub at the pub, and then got back on the road, cursing myself for being pig-headed/skint and not booking a BnB - having got involved in this via Facebook (which isn't great for organising events if half the attendees don't use it!), I thought there were only 5 of us confirmed so I wasn't actually sure it was going to be worth the drive. Having said that, it would have been equally as dark a drive home tonight anyway. I just really needed a day at home to catch up on email etc. But it was a lovely day, and I'm an old cynic, scarred by the infamous events of '09 and '10. If we could have moved that little community centre and pub somewhere a bit more accessible to a nice straight A road, it would have been perfect. Finally got in at 11pm and was so fired up my sleep was wrecked. But it's bad every night now so it's hard to know what's normal for me these days! My brain desperately needs someone to invent an off switch... :S

Anyway, some pictures - this was late afternoon when it was just us CSMers, there was a lot of interested onlookers in the morning.








Yesterday's efforts - apologies for the parlous state of the carpet, but it's original to the house so about 14 years old and gets a lot of yarn abuse! :)


Gotta love those rainbow and silver lurex socks! Think I might keep these for myself!

Howard very kindly showed me how his machine has wooden bungs/packing, so I might try and get himself to do some woodwork for me as transporting the CSM rolling around in a plastic tote is not ideal. He also made sure I found my car keys - had somehow put them in my pocket and was frantically scrabbling in my bag in the dark. It was a tedious drive back to the A14, not least because it took me several attempts to get through to the Cog on the hands-free, and I was beginning to think he'd gone to the pub without me! Somehow he missed the 'phone ringing....

Current mood: relaxed but tired, if that makes any sense!