Semi-Precious Shawl

I finished my first shawl of 2012! Most of my previous shawls have been leafy, flowery, but this one is very geometric. Plus, I've been dying to use this 100% alpaca yarn I picked up from a Ravelry friend who discovered she was allergic. The yarn is gorgeous, and the pattern is even more so, if possible.  These pictures don't do it justice; I'll have to wait til it's done blocking to get decent photos. But here are my humble offerings:

I really enjoyed making this pattern. Knitty is so good about making patterns easy to understand. These charts are very straightforward and moved very quickly. I'd love to make this pattern again (once I get through all the other patterns I want to make!) with a lace- or fingering-weight yarn.

I've started working on shawl #2, this time in a gorgeous colorway of Malabrigo Lace. The pattern is Moonlight Sonata, and it's again a departure from my previous style shawls - this time I'm essentially making polka dots! It's pretty awesome. This is (theoretically) what it should look like at the end:

So far, I'm kind of obsessed with this pattern. It's repeated over only 12 rows, but it looks soooo awesome!

No Nerd Wars Knitting Update

So I've decided (after much urging from my boyfriend) not to partake in T4 of Nerd Wars. I get pretty intense about it every time, so I understand why he wants me to lay off. I'm still competing as a Ninja Warrior, but I'm going to concentrate on making things to sell and things that I actually want to make. However, last year, after participating in two tournaments, I completed 49 projects over the course of the year. Not too shabby :)

Since I decided to knit what I want to knit, I ended up knitting a scarf and hat set that I didn't want to make for a co-worker who offered me monetary incentive. It turned out really pretty, but it was a super pain to make.

I did start one project that I'm pretty pleased with: this Semi-Precious Shawl. In that vein, my goal is is to complete 12 shawls in 2012. Not too difficult or time consuming I think. This is what it'll look like when it's finished (in another couple days), only in shades of blue:

I'll of course take requests for specific projects to sell, but this year's gonna be about queue and stash busting.

Computer Frustration

Many computer companies try to make things easier for their users, but actually end up making things epically complicated. My HP has this other operating system called Splashtop that boots before Windows. For the most part, it didn't bother me, but it adds several seconds to my boot time and I decided I wanted to try to turn it off. I googled it and all I could find was stuff about editing my BIOS, which makes me really nervous, so I decided to try to figure it out myself.

And I did. Cuz I'm awesome.

All it took was getting into Splashtop's general settings, resetting it back to factory defaults, which causes the computer to reboot, then when I click the button to start Windows, the option to turn Splashtop off popped up. Yup, I am a genius.  It's still there, but I don't have to look at it. And if I ever decide I want it back, it's still there for me to dredge up again.

Thank you and good night.