Gah! Delayed Wednesday

[altivo]

So of course today was the Folk & Fiber Fest or whatever it's called. Went to look at the exhibits and booths at 2 pm and took over the guild table at 3, stayed until closing at 6. At least the questions were intelligent, but they should be when you're at an event that exists solely for people who already knit, sew, weave, crochet, or whatever. There was plenty of activity, but I honestly didn't see a lot of people carrying loaded shopping bags so I suspect that merchants are going to be disappointed again this year. People are looking but not buying.

And maybe that's not surprising when you have a hundred sellers and over 90% of what is displayed is yarn. How much yarn could anyone need? Show us something new, different or imaginative, please.

Meanwhile, Gary is having problems with Windoze. AdAware (an unreliable program at best in my experience) informs him that he has some kind of Trojan called W32.TrojanDropper.Delf and offers to remove it. When told to do so, it says it was removed, but it's still there after a reboot.

Trying to research this thing produces a number of reports claiming that AdAware gives false positives for it, and also claiming that it is a real nasty piece of work that will download tons of spyware and advertising onto your computer unless you get rid of it. The later sites all offer to sell you a "removal tool" but give no useful advice about removing it yourself. They claim to tell you, but say generic things like "Go to the control panel and uninstall the W32.TrojanDropper.Delf" software. Right, sure.

So he decides to go back to a prior checkpoint, a handy feature of XP. Except it apparently doesn't work. No matter what checkpoint time or date he chooses, it comes up with an unhelpful message that the restore was "unsuccessful" but gives absolutely no information about why and nothing useful about how to fix it.

And people just can't understand why I hate Windows and Microsoft so much.

Comments

[jenwolf.livejournal.com]

Well yes, it is a fiber fair, so most of the vendors are going to have yarns or rovings. Still, there are several vendors selling jewelry, a few with buttons, and a couple quilters. At least one needlepointer, two soap/lotion sellers, a gentleman with lovely woodworking, and a shop that makes childrens art into tee-shirt designs. I myself bought a small knitting bag and some pattern tamers, ribbon bookmarks with magnets inside, to mark which line of your pattern or chart you're working on. Sales this weekend haven't been phenomenal, but considering the economy, they've been pretty good.

Anyway, I'm glad to have finally met you yesterday.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm glad we got to talk a bit. And I forgot to ask if you got all those cherries into the freezer last week.

Yes, yarn is inevitable, I agree. But it's also likely that many or most of the shoppers in this instance already have a closetful of yarn at home. Things I keep hoping to see but don't would include natural dyeing materials, including mordants, tools like enameled pans, and seeds for plants like weld, madder, and woad. The woodworking you mention was nice, but didn't seem to offer anything really new or unusual to me. Tools for fiber preparation, like combs and cards, though present, are in short enough supply that there is little to compare. There weren't even as many knitting needles or other small yarn working tools as I'd expect. Those are small and easy to pack in and out. Did you see a lucette, for instance? Or rug braiding tools? Neither did I. Not even many drop spindles were in evidence.

More unusual techniques (or at least out of the mainstream) such as Tunisian crochet or Scandinavian nålbinding use specialized hooks or needles that ought to be available, yet I haven't seen them. Heck, I didn't even see a tatting shuttle.

I miss the Mielkes. They used to always be at these events with a wider variety of the less common stuff, but I guess either they weren't selling enough or else the family has dispersed so there aren't enough of them left to make it to all the venues.

[jenwolf.livejournal.com]

I will talk to the vendor coordinator and ask her if she can find more people who are willing to sell those sorts of things at future fairs. I'm sure they're out there, but it may have been too expensive for them to come this year. The event planners really do want this fair to be more open to all forms of fiber crafters, not just knitters and spinners.

And yes, we did manage to pit and freeze about 25 pounds of cherries last weekend. I kept some out to bake a delicious cherry cobbler for dessert.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Cherry cobbler. My mom used to make that. I have her recipe but never have the cherries any more.

I did break down and spend some money today, but not for yarn. ;p Irish linen, Wensleydale wool, and bamboo fiber for spinning. And a wooden tapestry needle that may be adequate for the nåallbinding.

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

Wonderful Windows messages.

"Oh, there's an error!"
"Why?"
"Ask the computer guy -- he'll know!"

I think Windows was sort of made for first-time users, which is probably why it caught on in a big way. The problem is that the Start button is only a 'Start' button the first time you use it. Then that word starts taunting you every day.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Windows, the operating system designed by morons. "We promise not to confuse you by telling you what went wrong."