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A little randomness
Oct. 25th, 2025 10:37 amLast night I was knitting; no great surprise there, as I do it a lot. Specifically, I was knitting one of my baby hats. I wanted a peach/russet colour scheme, so I had dug out some Deramores Studio DK in russet for the welt and some Deramores BabySoft DK in what they called coral (more of a peach, really); but as soon as I looked at the two yarns together, I realised that the BabySoft was a lot thinner than the Studio DK. I decided I'd need to bolster it with a strand of 4-ply, so I went firkling in the 4-ply bag and pulled out a nice random yarn which toned. That turned out to be King Cole BabyPrint... and it also turned out to be, as far as I can judge, exactly the same thickness as the BabySoft, so augmenting it was a very good call. The effect is lovely visually, and, as it turns out, the doubled yarn is still slightly on the thin side for DK, as I've had to do a couple more rows than I normally would to get to the point where I start shaping.
While I was knitting, I happened to notice that my Best Online Friend was in voice chat, so I thought, OK, I shall hop in for a while. I stuck my headphones on and joined the chat.
There were a few people there, and when I arrived they were all talking about education, so it was easy enough to join in the discussion. And we were still chatting away when we were joined by a new person, but by now we'd moved on a bit and were talking about Tolkien. We said hallo to the new person but she didn't say anything for quite a while, till there was a lull in the conversation and she said it was one of the most interesting chats she'd ever been in. Which was nice... but then it started to get even more interesting.
Because I decided I was going to try to draw her in a bit. She then said that she'd like to chat but she was exhausted, as she was in the middle of a huge project that was consuming every scrap of her free time. And I asked, as you would, what the project was.
Well, of course, then she talked. In fact, you couldn't have shut her up. She explained that it involved just about every craft technique you could think of, including metalwork, glasswork, 3D printing, and a few others I can't remember, not to mention programming and software design. We then asked what exactly it was, and she said... quail.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't catch that. I thought you said quail."
"Yes!" she replied enthusiastically. "Quail. I am growing quail in my living room." (I should add here that she lived in the USA, but English was clearly not her first language; I think she was married to an American.)
It turned out that she was building a massive quail house that took up the entirety of one wall in what was, from the sound of it, a huge living room. She explained cheerfully that her husband was also obsessed with quail, so the project would bring them even closer together. Then she started enthusing about quail eggs, which was, I must admit, rather lost on both Best Online Friend and me, since both of us have been egg-haters from childhood (and, as a vegan, I get to eat Orgran omelettes now and then, which are based on chickpea flour and taste much better in my opinion!). But, apparently, this lady's quail eggs were the best because she was very careful about what she fed her quail. For those interested, organic grains and a lot of green stuff is apparently the way to go.
At which point another person joined the chat and wanted to know whether I was crocheting or sewing. I explained that I was knitting. Best Online Friend was doing likewise. And Quail Lady piped up, "Oh, that reminds me. I need to knit a sweater for my unicycle."
"Where," I asked carefully, "does a unicycle wear a sweater?"
"Oh, on the forks," she explained blithely.
By this point I was convinced I was dealing with someone who was quite harmlessly, and joyfully, insane. Fortunately, at this point yet another person joined the chat, and I was entirely beyond surprise by now, so the fact that he also turned out to be a unicyclist and a long technical discussion about unicycling therefore ensued was pretty much par for the course.
I haven't enjoyed an online chat so much in years. :-)
While I was knitting, I happened to notice that my Best Online Friend was in voice chat, so I thought, OK, I shall hop in for a while. I stuck my headphones on and joined the chat.
There were a few people there, and when I arrived they were all talking about education, so it was easy enough to join in the discussion. And we were still chatting away when we were joined by a new person, but by now we'd moved on a bit and were talking about Tolkien. We said hallo to the new person but she didn't say anything for quite a while, till there was a lull in the conversation and she said it was one of the most interesting chats she'd ever been in. Which was nice... but then it started to get even more interesting.
Because I decided I was going to try to draw her in a bit. She then said that she'd like to chat but she was exhausted, as she was in the middle of a huge project that was consuming every scrap of her free time. And I asked, as you would, what the project was.
Well, of course, then she talked. In fact, you couldn't have shut her up. She explained that it involved just about every craft technique you could think of, including metalwork, glasswork, 3D printing, and a few others I can't remember, not to mention programming and software design. We then asked what exactly it was, and she said... quail.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't catch that. I thought you said quail."
"Yes!" she replied enthusiastically. "Quail. I am growing quail in my living room." (I should add here that she lived in the USA, but English was clearly not her first language; I think she was married to an American.)
It turned out that she was building a massive quail house that took up the entirety of one wall in what was, from the sound of it, a huge living room. She explained cheerfully that her husband was also obsessed with quail, so the project would bring them even closer together. Then she started enthusing about quail eggs, which was, I must admit, rather lost on both Best Online Friend and me, since both of us have been egg-haters from childhood (and, as a vegan, I get to eat Orgran omelettes now and then, which are based on chickpea flour and taste much better in my opinion!). But, apparently, this lady's quail eggs were the best because she was very careful about what she fed her quail. For those interested, organic grains and a lot of green stuff is apparently the way to go.
At which point another person joined the chat and wanted to know whether I was crocheting or sewing. I explained that I was knitting. Best Online Friend was doing likewise. And Quail Lady piped up, "Oh, that reminds me. I need to knit a sweater for my unicycle."
"Where," I asked carefully, "does a unicycle wear a sweater?"
"Oh, on the forks," she explained blithely.
By this point I was convinced I was dealing with someone who was quite harmlessly, and joyfully, insane. Fortunately, at this point yet another person joined the chat, and I was entirely beyond surprise by now, so the fact that he also turned out to be a unicyclist and a long technical discussion about unicycling therefore ensued was pretty much par for the course.
I haven't enjoyed an online chat so much in years. :-)
