Knitting Extravaganza! The Scarf Edition

The bulk of what I've done so far in knitting is scarves, with four complete projects.

The first thing I ever knitted was a pale green scarf from a pattern in a knitting book from Better Homes and Gardens. It has an interesting pattern that is wavy on one side and blocky on the other. I think the pattern is interesting, but because I was just starting out, I used a low quality yarn and it was both a pain to work with and not very comfy to wear. The scarf is also extremely short for a scarf, since I was anxious to have my first projected completed, and finished it off a few feet before I should have.

The second scarf was a plain garter stitch, made solely because I found some funky green, blue, and yellow yarn on clearance. My first time making tassels (though they aren't attached right and kind of look funny.) This scarf is long and wide and was my most-used scarf in the my last long Wisconsin winter.

The pink scarf is my favorite scarf I've knitting, mostly because of the amazing yarn used. It was my first time working with luxury yarn. It's baby alpaca wool from Misti Alpaca (also where I got the pattern.) It's a nice, simple diagonal stripe pattern (though I still goofed up the pattern at the end, and bound off the piece before I noticed.) I still have a skein of the same yarn (though in grey) and am looking forward to using it. This piece also showed me that if I was rich, I'd spend lots of money in yarn shops.

I just finished the grey and green scarf earlier this afternoon. It was made for my brother, and is the first piece I've done that I intend to give to someone else. I used leftover yarn from a blanket I knitted, and working in a simple moss stitch, adding a small strand of green every six inches or so. I feel like I could have done the stipes differently, but the uneveness of it kind of gives it a funkier, less-former feel, I suppose. This was my first good experience with this type of yarn (Lion's Brand Chenille) which made me want to stab myself while making my blanket. Also my first experience with fringe.

Noo! Not my laptop!

So, the day after that last post, I set my laptop, open, on the couch, twisted away to grab something, and turned around just in time to see my laptop plummet a foot to the carpet. My LCD screen was totally cracked.

There's been a huge drama about getting it fixed--my laptop is an Asus, all of which have a one-year accidental damage warranty. Except those bought at Best Buy. Where mine was. Where they get rid of the manufacturer's warranty to make you buy theirs. Ok, so I got screwed on the warranty. Whatever, my fault for not reading the fine print. So, the tech guy from Asus said over the phone that it would be in the neighborhood of 300-400 dollars to fix. Ouch, but I love my laptop. Stupidly, I decided to have Best Buy fix it, since I could just drop it off at the store. Now, two things are important to mention here: One, I asked the Geek Squad guy I handed my laptop to if the over-the-phone Asus estimate was accurate. He was it sounded about right. Two, I asked the guy if it was his opinion that it was worth dropping the money on my laptop versus getting a new laptop. He said it was. Then, almost a week after I dropped it off, they called with an estimate--of 800 fucking dollars. For a 600 dollar laptop. I was not amused, and dislike Best Buy with somewhat of a passion now.

Blah blah blah, Brent called Asus, this time it was ballparked at a 200 dollar fix, which makes me think that nobody in the freaking universe knows anything, but as soon as I get my laptop back from Best Buy, I'm sending it to Asus and having them fix it, hopefully for less than 800 dollars. And hopefully by the time I leave the country. *sigh* For awhile I was tempted just to drop money on a new laptop, but my Asus is a seriously nice laptop, so I'll hold off until I know what Asus themselves would charge for the repair.