Dangers of the Internet

I may be more curious than some others, but I think many of us wonder what ever happened to our 7th grade crush or the old college boyfriend. The advent of social networks has now made it possible for us to satisfy that curiosity. I recently joined facebook and have been a member of Classmates for several years. Through those two I have caught up with old friends and acquaintances. But recently, I have had the two most diverse reactions to my inquiries. I have been looking for my college sweetheart for the last 20 years. We did not have a good end to our relationship, but I was long over it. He was never active in the alumni association so that avenue was closed. I really didn't want to hire a detective to find him, so I tried some of those online services such as people search. That too was a dead end. I tried to find him through Classmates, but he wasn't there. After joining facebook, I thought I would give that a try, although I didn't hold out much hope. Lo and behold, he was there. I sent him a message and he responded. We had some conversations but it turns out that he really feels guilty about his behavior towards me back then. I had told him that I wasn't interested in picking up where we had left off, but I would like to be friends with him. I didn't hear back for a while and decided to check my friends list. He wasn't there any more. I was upset and thought he had unfriended me. He eventually answered me saying it was a computer foul up but he didn't try to refriend me when it happened. Unfortunately, it turns out that he can't deal with his past behavior and the fact that I had forgiven him. Or maybe it's that he's now engaged for maybe the 8th time to a woman who is young enough to be his daughter. ( He's 62 and she's 36.) That was the bad encounter. Now for the good one. I was searching for some names of old friends on facebook and found my old high school boyfriend. We had a nice conversation, laughing about the fogged windows in his old car and agreed to keep in touch now that we had found each other. As I get older, I find I want to reconnect with those from my past. It's like putting on that old sweatshirt, warm and comfy.

Now to the knitting. I have been plugging along on the ramie/silk top I mentioned in the first

episode. I have about 7-1/2 in still to go to the armhole bind off and shaping. I'm finding seed stitch a bit boring and am still on the back.

I have until July 20 to finish this. Any bets that I will make it? I think this is worse than lace. I did sign up for a KAL with Knit n Knag based on Norse mythology. I got some yarn from The Sanguine Gryphon (the recommended yarn) for it in a lovely green and brown shades. Unfortunately, the color is either retired or discontinued now. The first pattern clue comes out today. I will have to resist the urge to start it. I am so behind in so many KALs I don't know why I signed on for this one, except I love her designs. I haven't started the Winter KAL from Goddess Knits. Part of that was because I just found the right color beads for the hand-dyed yarn I got from my friend Wendy. The beads Wendy suggested looked too purple against the

multi-shaded blues . I've finally found a navy blue matte bead that looks good against the wool. I have the MMario MMystery KAL to finish. I'm more than half done with it, but put it away to do the Ravelympics. I also got the Moonfleet KAL from The Unique Sheep through EarthFaire. I bought a kit from Ellen that included the pattern, wool and beads. I did do the swatch for that shawl with the darkest color of the Eos gradience I purchased. Here's a picture of that. The second repeat has the beads while the first does not. I did a swatch for gauge because I have a finite amount of each of the 4 colors in the gradient. I wanted to be sure I would have enough to finish the shawl. But I normally do a gauge if one is given. I always do one when I'm designing so I know the finished product will fit and to plan the shaping of the garment. I have to know how many stitches I need to increase or decrease and how many rows I have to do it in. Well, I'm off for today. Gotta get back to my challenge top. Au demain (for the non-French speakers, Bye.)