Fast Forward

Some day (soon I hope) I will be happy that I chose to get Vista and the newest versions of all of of the Office programs on my new laptop but right now... not so much. Don't get me wrong, I love my new toy. Now I can blog on my couch and play Hearts and Chuzzle till my fingers cramp. I'm just having trouble getting used to all the changes. I'm also frustrated because I can't share the documents on my computer with any other computer. I have the 2007 version of Word, Excel, Outlook etc and older versions can't recognize them at all. Not one little bit! Ugh!

None of the features that I'm used to using are in the places that I expect to find them. The annoying help dude - the paper clip, wizard or other figure that pops up and asks if you need help with whatever it is your doing - is not here. I never thought I'd miss it since I usually shut it down. Where is the help button anyway? For that matter, where is the "save as"? That would solve a lot of my problems. (ETA - I did a little surfing last night and I finally found the mystery button that hides all the stuff I was looking for. I am so relieved.)

When the technology starts getting to be too much it's time to go play with fiber. Since Charlotte arrived I've been craving fiber. On the one hand, I really want to feel all of the different fiber before I buy it. On the other, there are so many gorgeous fibers out there and I want them all now. There are some really gifted dyers out there!

I am trying to pace myself because this is exactly the type of impulse that resulted in last year's stash explosion. A friend was at our house recently and noticed my new wheel (which he thought was a loom - duh). When I told him that I was learning to spin he took a quick look around and commented that I really don't need any more yarn because, in his words, I have more yarn than some small countries. This is definitely an exaggeration but the size of the stash really does require me to stay on my yarn diet.

Even so, I did exempt fiber from my KFYS 2007 rules so I've done a lot of online fiber shopping lately. Mostly Ive resisted purchasing but the other day on Ebay my finger slipped and a few days later a box arrived at my door. This is Roses For You Targhee from Susan's Spinning Bunny. If I needed to justify this purchase any further I could point out that Targhee is something I didn't have in my stash yet. But I really don't need to rationalize this at all. I just like it.

This past weekend I was spinning the Romney and a little Corriedale and, going from one to the other turned a little light on in my head because there is a huge difference between the 2. I now have Coopworth, Corriedale, Targhee, Merino, Finn and Blue Faced Leicester in my small fiber stash. I need to dedicate a little bit of quality spinning time to each one before MDS&W. In order to spend wisely at MDS&W I need to know what I like. Writing this down it seems so obvious. Anyway, I'm going to try not to buy any more fiber until I've tried each of the fibers I already have. I cannot promise that my fingers won't slip again but I'm trying.