Yes, I have been assimilated into the “borg” community of folks who are “Bluetooth Enabled.” You know, those rude people that walk around seemingly talking to themselves, but actually on their concealed cell phone.

Christmas Gift
I requested, and received one of these newfangled (okay, not so newfangled) devices.

This cute little gadget is a wireless headset that is compatible with my most recent cell phone. I can carry my cell phone in my pocket and make or answer calls by simply smacking the side of my head. Technology is amazing.

Most of the technically facile readers of this blog will be snoozing by now, because this technology is not even close to cutting edge. But for me, it’s new and exciting (sue me, I’m old).

Also, rest assured, that I will only be using this headset in the comfort of my car. I refuse to be one of those people that walks around all day attached to a wireless, electronic leash.

Current Knitting
I mentioned my latest two knitting projects, and here they are.

Tweed Pullover
Here is the coned yarn tweed pullover, which is being done on US3 needles, and will have a simple reverse stockinette fabric.

I know it doesn’t look like much, because my digital photography skills suck at trying to capture dark fabrics. Here’s a closeup of the fabric that provides further proof of my photographic inabilities.

The color of the yarn is much darker (think black hole, sucking all light out of any space it encounters), and the pattern stitch you’re mostly looking at is a broken rib stitch.

You will all have to come visit me in Pennsylvania to see this in person. It really is lovely.

Colorblock Pullover
This sweater is much more photogenic.

I’ve already measured out about 100 lengths of yarn in each of the 8 different colors, and wound them into butterfly bobbins…all ready to work into the next row of colorblocks.

Thaddeus doesn’t want me working on this sweater…it takes away from my time on his tweed pullover, and besides which, I’ve “…already made a dozen sweaters like this.” (his words, obviously)

Readers’ Comments/Questions
Regarding the patching of my brother-out-of-law’s sweater, Michelene writes, “Joe, if it’s not to presumptuous of me to make a suggestion, what if you remove the same section from both sleeves and rework the blue-grey bit in a new color?”

That might be a perfect solution. If the first one goes well, I’ll consider doing the other sleeve as well. Thanks. I’ve also noticed that he rolls the cuffs up on the sleeves, and I might be able to get away with just taking out the same length on both sleeves, so no additional knitting will be necessary. Not sure if I have enough leeway to get away with such an easy fix.

Marilyn writes, “Time for brunch at the Stockton Inn as a January bluesbreaker? Huh?”

Yes, I could really use a knit-friend get-together. Hopefully global warming will keep the weather nice all month.

Tres asks, “Anyway, and at the risk of sounding like a shill for Apple, have you thought about switching to a Mac?”

Yes, a lot. The next computer we buy will definitely not be a Windows-reliant computer. Unfortunately, I don’t have a say in my work computer.

Teresa says, “I use Money 2002, and had a version of Quicken which I played around with- the only reason I didn’t upgrade was it wouldn’t import my accounts, I needed 2004 or later. Did you not have this problem?”

Actually, there was a very small window of versions where you could export a file from Money and load that file into Quicken, and I wasn’t able to do that. Money allows you to export a “strict QIF” file that some versions of Quicken will let you import (not 2007). I had to get most of my history (3 month’s worth) from my on-line account holders and create the rest manually with this last conversion to Quicken 2007. But my last upgrade to Money 2000 (from Money 199?) was a complete disaster as well (MS support told me I had too much history to import).