They just don't make them like they used to

I know it's kind of silly, but I'm feeling a little sad today because I took my old 1985, rabbit ear, 13" analog TV to be recycled this morning, and not because it didn't work.  It worked perfectly as long as it was hooked up the cable.  Sure the UHF dial was missing, and it wasn't capable of being hooked  up to modern devices like our now obsolete dvd recorder/vcr, but it still had a decent picture and worked for watching tv in the sewing room.

It was the first big purchase that I bought with my own money, that I earned from my paper route when I was 12.  It was a big deal for me then, I felt so grown up walking into Best Buy knowing that I had finally saved up enough money to buy it.  It cost me $110 + tax, which seemed like a lot of money back then.

I had this tv for 28 years and never had a problem with it, in that same amount of time I'd also owned 4 vehicles and was always happy to upgrade.  The only reason I decided to part with my good old trusty tv was because we just hadn't used it in the last 2 years.  We upgraded our main tv to a digital flat screen, moved the one from the living room to our bedroom and the one from our bedroom downstairs to the sewing room.  My little tv just sat on the living room floor unused.  My son wanted to put it in his room, but there's no cable hook up in his room so it wouldn't him any good.

I took it today to the recycling drop off and handed it to the guy.  He said, "I used to have one just like this in my room when I was a kid.  Brings back memories."

It sure does.

On the needles

It's been a busy summer, but now I'm finding more time to create.  Usually I only work on one project at a time, but I broke that rule because I had to many ideas floating around in my head.

The first one is finished, so I did actually accomplish something.  Actually I've knit 3 of these hats in the last month.  It started as idea, and the first one came out a little to small so I put it in the shop as a child's hat.  Seeing how cute the first one was my daughter requested one for herself, with steampunk buttons, and after I saw how cute her's was I decided I needed one too but with a cool chunky button I bought from a seller at Zibbet.

Next is a sweater I'm knitting for myself, unfortunately I'm not making much progress.  I'm finding it very boring.  If I ever finish it, it will just be a plain hooded cardigan to wear around the house.

Next is a scarf/cowl that I'm making for the shop.

And last, although I don't have a photo because I haven't actually started it, I'm in the process of designing pants for myself again.  I have a pattern that I need to make a few tweaks to and then I can start cutting the fabric, but I have a good idea where I'm going with it.  I'd show you the sketch, but I'm a really poor artist.

How did I go so long without these?

In exchange for some yarn, I received a couple knitting books that I don't know how I went so long without them. 

Cast on, Bind off is just what it says, a book full of different cast ons and bind offs and when to use them.  Until recently I no idea there was more than 2 ways to cast on and this book came at the perfect time when I was finishing up a project and needed a bind off that would stretch just a little.

I haven't had time to really look at the finishing book yet, but I'm sure it will come in handy when I get closer to finishing the sweater I'm working on.