It's a mashup of stuff!

Hey, did you know that Ada Lovelace was inspired by jacquard looms and how they used simple cards with holes to let a heddle move or not let it move in the weaving process.  She saw the looms at work and added that knowledge to her thoughts on what Charles Babbige's Analytical Engine could be, to form the very basis of our modern computer world.  And did you know that history would have passed her by but for Alan Turing? And that those cards were the first example of what we now call binary code?

And that is your what I think about thing for today.  On to knitting.  Or not knitting.

I did a bunch of sewing yesterday but that meant I did not quite make my go through the fabric pile goal.  I am okay with that, since it means that a thing was made, but more importantly that the next thing I make will be even better.  I am going to work on sewing and fabric again today.  If that doesn't happen I will have a problem.  I am trying really hard to resist the urge to buy a fabric I do not need but want.  I caught myself again this morning, looking desiring, and then managed to whack myself upside the back of my head before the fatal keys was punched.  Checkout is my nemesis.  

This fabric problem is just like the yarn stash problem only older and percolating for much longer.

But at the same time, there is cheery news on the knitting front.

I received my package from one of my local stores that stocks Briggs & Little and the deep purple, which will be needed to get down the back of the vest, is a reasonably close match.  They may vary a wee bit but it will be on the back and I won't notice it.  Or it may be that like my red sweater, once knit, washed and ready to wear, I couldn't see the difference at all.  

I did knit just the smallest bit in the evening.  I was watching a doc about Ada Lovelace and it just seemed comfortable.  I have to say, mail reception means I feel much more zippy about knitting.

In this package with my two purples, I also picked up a skein of sock yarn.  This is a very pretty thing, and will be perfect for the vanilla part of the   I Scream Socks  from the Operation Sock Drawer Book by the Knitmore Girls.

There are blue specks and red, and pink and purple.  It is a perfect tweed, and will look like sprinkles on top.  One of our yarn stores in town are doing this sock and while I love their kits of hand dyed yarn, it would mean not wearing the socks when they are done or destroying them in the laundry.  I want the socks, but I am going to find a washer and dryer friendly solution for it.  The only problem is that I have none of these colours in my stash.  None. I did think about using what is on hand, but there is a story connected to this desire.

When I was a kid, we did not go without but I think mom and dad were still pretty careful shoppers.  We had cornflakes and rice krispies to supplement our porridge, but raisin bran was a special occasion thing.  We had vanilla ice cream but never chocolate.  Once in a while we did have neopolitan ice cream though. It was a very special thing to get a pail of anything beyond vanilla and we were all allowed to have just a wee bit more chocolate ice cream on our cones than the other two flavours.     Neopolitan reminds me of dad and the silly things that you remember from childhood and thinking of that every time I wear a pair of socks makes me happy.