It hasn't just been slackness...

Golly it's been a while...

Way back when, I posted a photo of our computer and said that it was a case of when it crashed rather than if. Turns out that when was mid-August 2007. And the computer was not alone... The electrical fairies had a wee party at our place and within the space of a couple of weeks we lost the computer, the toaster, the vacuum cleaner, the dishwasher and the stereo. The washing machine also started making ugly noises but we gave it a stern talking to and so far it's still running. The vacuum cleaner and toaster were quickly replaced but the budget wouldn't stretch any further.

Then one day, as my partner leant across the defunct and dusty computer to grab the dictionary, it made what he describes as 'an electric noise' (we are neither of us very technical). So he tried switching it on, and lo and behold, it whirred into life. Go figure. He called me immediately with the good news. "Quick! Try the dishwasher!" said I. Turned out there hadn't been a general self-healing of appliances and I had to mop the floor when I got home. But at least we had the computer back.

Except that within 24 hours, and before I could blog, or reply to emails, or check up on The Yarn Harlot, or Eclair, or Justine, or Andi, it made another very ugly electric noise and shut down again.


We kept trying it every few days but there was nothing so we gave up. Katie, however, with the sheer tenacity of a four year old deprived of the Wiggles' website, kept it up - day after day, week after week. And in December, what do you know? On she went. Since then we've had a couple of weeks where the on switch fails to respond, but mostly, we're up and running


Which is where the slackness comes in....

Partly it was that at about the same time the computer went bung, so did my knitting. In July I had agreed to go back to my old job for three months, and by August I was getting increasingly reluctant to give it up. So I didn't. Which meant less time for knitting.
Then all my patterns and pictures and inspirations were on the %^$%^&* computer, which made it tricky. I was (and, indeed, still am) three quarters of the way through my first ever adult garment (neck warmers and socks don't count) - the Sunrise Circle Jacket. But without the pattern...
So I wasn't knitting, which made a knitting blog a bit redundant. And I was also worried about tempting fate - if I started blogging surely the computer would collapse through sheer spite.
And then there was the whole issue of how to start again...
I remember (god I'm old!) back before email, when we would write letters. And if you left if too long to reply to a letter it got unbelievably awkward. First you had to apologise, which only served to remind people how slack you were. Then there was all the news you had to squeeze in, and the longer you left it, the harder it got, because there was more and more to say, which made the whole thing seem so totally daunting, and (if you were me) eventually you just gave up. This is what I've been going through...

But now I figure enough time has passed that probably no-one is even still there! And I've started knitting again, which gives me a reason to blog (although I haven't dared approach the jacket until I'm sure I haven't forgotten how to knit). So here I am. And here I hope to stay...