I had a nice post ready for you, with pictures and everything. But sometime yesterday morning the big black box, which Mr. Garter likes to call the “Ready NAS”, went rogue and devoured half the contents of the computer – all the movies, pictures, music, etc. – and we don’t yet know if any of it’s retrievable. These inevitable bouts of indecent comportment in one’s computer help to keep us from getting too attached to material (or digital) things. But they sure do mess with the blogging. And I’m beginning to think we’re reaping a little bad karma this week: we’ve had two flat tires (and what’s the probability of running over a huge nail that destroys the tire, replacing said tire, and then picking up another nail in the new tire the next day? It’s not as if we’re driving through construction sites for kicks), the knitting has gone all ahoo with wonky sleeves and lace that needs ripping (more on that in a moment), and now this. The constant rain I can’t blame on anything but the Pacific Northwest climate – it’s par for the course.

But it’s been an interesting week, overall.

1. On Wednesday I did my first volunteer day on the farm for the CSA we’ve joined (CSA, for those who don’t know, stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a produce co-op.), and I met some delightful young farmers. We transplanted hundreds of squash, cucumber, and melon starts. We also pulled thistles in a thunder-and-hail storm. I felt very dedicated to the agriculture as the rain drenched my cotton pants and the hail spattered mud up under my enormous rain jacket as I wrestled the slippery thistle roots, let me tell you.

2. I wrote letters to the city government protesting the possible conversion of some of the best farm land into a dog park.

3. I re-learned to change a tire – yes, I’ve changed tires before, but I haven’t had to do it in many years, and I’ve never used the kind of jack our new car uses.

4. I went to Mr. Garter’s great-uncle Wilbur’s 90th birthday party.

5. I even made a new knitting friend: Jen and I finally met in person yesterday at Abundant Yarn for a few hours of knitting, yarn fondling, and coffee. We both like children’s literature, Corgis, and Trekking sock yarn, and we want to learn about plant dyes. We also share a desire to be Nancy Bush’s personal servants, but who doesn’t? I’m going to see if I can’t talk her into going down to the Black Sheep Gathering with me next month. Anyone else want to go? It sounds like the Rhinebeck of the West, y’all!

And finally, we turn to the knitting itself. I’m waiting for my friend Rosa to come visit this week and buck up my courage to tackle the crochet edging of Rosalind, so I went ahead and cast on something new – the Viennese Shrug from last summer’s Interweave Knits. I do have a stash of the Morehouse Merino the pattern requires, but it’s for a Teva Durham sweater. And it’s orange. I really wanted this shrug to be a deep, sultry boysenberry color… just like the Noro Cash Iroha that Mr. Garter bought me for my birthday last summer. Of course, the Cash Iroha is a heavier yarn and knits up to a totally different gauge, so I just made some rough calculations and cast on to see what would happen. Overall, I think the experiment will work, but I need to rip back part of the sleeve I knit yesterday and change the rate of the decreases, because currently there’s some rather ’80s bat-wing action going on. I could base-jump off the roof wearing this thing if the lace didn’t let so much air through. (It would be a lot easier to understand if you could see a picture, huh? Pray for the recovery of the Ready NAS, my friends!) Part of the trouble is that there’s no schematic for this pattern – not even a picture of the finished garment that really shows what shape it’s meant to be. Usually IK does a pretty respectable job of this, so I’m a little disappointed. But oh well, I’m chalking it up to Experimental Knitting. If I want to develop my skills as a designer, there’s a lot I need to learn about shaping, so this is just practice. And if the shrug goes completely awry, I’ll just have to cast on for the second Conwy sock. Yes, there’s a first one! It looks great, and I’d love to show you a picture! Sigh. I think I’d better go meditate and detach myself from my computer dependency.