I managed to tear myself away from playing iFish Pond on my iPad last night long enough to get a few more rows in on CeCe.

I think I did about an inch. Doesn’t seem like much, but that is the entire body of the sweater I’m knitting across. The rows seems to take forever to knit, but that’s okay, because the lace pattern is easy so I’ve memorized it, but entertaining to knit. And I love Rowan Calmer, the  yarn I am using to knit CeCe.

But Calmer is a sneaky yarn — it can be difficult to get gauge. Do you remember the Audrey sweater by Kim Hargreaves that was published in Rowan 35? The Ravelry link is here.

Back in the olden days, way before Ravelry, there was an Audrey knit-along in the knitblog world. It seems that there must have been an online group associated with it as well — wait — I think there was a special blog, just for Audrey-knitters. Anyone else remember that?

Anyhow, I remember people having problems getting gauge with Calmer. So it surprised me that I actually got gauge for CeCe using the suggested needle size. I generally have to go down at least one size because I am a loose knitter.

Hopefully I’ll make some good progress on CeCe over the next few days. I’m going away this weekend (see my travel page for a link to the information about the events at Charlotte Yarn, where I’ll be teaching and hanging out) and at this point I’m planning on taking CeCe as my “downtime” knitting, rather than the stealth project I am working on.

Lucy is working on lounging in my lap.

A bunch of you asked questions about the iPad so I’ll attempt to answer them all here.

I got the 16Gb wireless only version — no 3G. Why? 16Gb will be plenty big enough for my usage — reading e-books, and checking email and social networks and web surfing while I’m away from one of my computers. I loaded my entire iTunes music library (which admittedly is not huge) on it, as well as 2000 photos of Lucy and barely scratched the surface of available space.

Why just wifi and not 3G? I have a 3G smartphone, and really don’t need another 3G device. I am looking at the iPad as a laptop replacement while I travel, and most everywhere I go, there is wifi available somewhere along the way. For the few places where there isn’t, I have my lovely little Droid phone for checking email and getting online if necessary. And my iPad is still useful offline, with the games and books I have loaded on it.

Several of you asked about having an iPad vs a Kindle. It’s not a fair comparison — the Kindle is an ebook reader and the iPad is a tablet pc, which has ebook reader capabilities. There’s a heckuva lot more you can do with your iPad that with your Kindle. (I have no experience with any ebook readers apart from the Kindle, so I can’t comment on those).

And I like the Kindle app on the iPad. Very much. The viewing area is larger for starters than my non-DX Kindle. I find the page turning easier — you just swipe a finger across the bottom of the page as opposed to pressing buttons. You can, of course, change the text size, and there are a few color options. I find the sepia page w/ black text option easiest on my eyes for indoor reading. You can also change the screen brightness via a slider control.

(By the way, many of you correctly identified the book I’m reading as Voyager, from the Outlander books. What a fun series that is to read!)

I haven’t tried the iBook reader app yet. At the moment, all my ebooks are Kindle format, because that’s what I had been using.

A couple of you recommended the game “Plants versus Zombies” so I’ll need to check that out. I am not much of a “games” person. There are a couple on the Wii that stress me out so badly I just can’t play them, so I’ll need to take a good look at this to see how stress-inducing it appears to be. The iFish Pond is much more my speed. I can just swish around in the water, make it rain, and feed the fish if I want, or I can try to catch them. Anything that has monsters advancing that need to be slain just raises my blood pressure.

That’s why Scrabble is a good game for me as well. I can play it by myself or with other players.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve not even looked at the knitting apps yet so can’t comment on them.

So there’s my initial take on the iPad. I’ve had it for a few days and so far absolutely no regrets!

In knitting news, I’ve finished one of my stealth projects. You know, knitting I can’t show you.

But this means that I can move CeCe back into the knitting rotation along with my other stealth project.

Lucy seems pleased.

I am still working on stealth projects only, so I have no CeCe progress to show you. Poor CeCe! I hope she does not get a complex from the lack of attention.

I did get a new toy this past weekend.

I caved and bought an iPad.

I had absolutely no desire to own an iPad. Until a couple of weeks ago when I sat next to a very nice woman on a plane (hi Jane!) who had one. Because I never shut up, I of course asked her about it and she let me play with it. And I was hooked.

My iPad arrived on Saturday and I wasted no time in getting it set up. So far, I love it. I downloaded the Kindle app for it so all my Kindle content is available. I downloaded approximately 2,000 photos of Lucy and all my music from iTunes.

In the past when I traveled I brought a laptop and my Kindle with me. Now I can leave the laptop at home and just take the iPad, which in its case weighs just a few ounces more than does my Kindle in its case. Because I have ongoing back issues, the less I carry the better so I am very happy about that.

(Can you tell what book I’m reading?)

I’ve downloaded a few free apps and purchased a few. I bought Scrabble so that the KOARC and I can play over a local network (he has the app on his iPod Touch). And I have spent an embarrassing amount of time fishing for virtual koi in a little koi pond app (iFish Pond) that amuses me perhaps a little too much.

I have added a few knitting apps, but have not tried out any of them yet.

So there you have it. Excuse #5,742 why I have no knitting to show you.

Now that the warm weather is here to stay, Lucy far prefers napping on a silk-covered pillow than her sheepskin.

Except when she deems the a/c to be a bit too chilly. Then she’s in my lap!

Hobbies are a good thing. Knitting is, of course, my number one hobby (and more than just a hobby for me). Here’s another hobby:

Ah yes, sketching Lucy is a great pastime.

Reading books about Lucy is a popular hobby as well.

I am pulling your leg with those photos — the KOARC created those using a free iPhone app called PhotoFunia. (I noted that the app is also available for the Droid, so I immediately downloaded it to my phone.) The description from the PhotoFunia website:

PhotoFunia is an online photo editing tool that gives you a fun filled experience. You upload any photo and just wait to see the magic. Our proprietary technology automatically identifies the face in the photo and let’s you add cool photo effects and create funny face photo montages.

PhotoFunia is free and very easy to use. Just select an effect you like from over 100 different effects, upload your photo, and PhotoFunia will handle the rest for you.

I thought the girl in the first photo sort of looked like me (if I blow-dry my hair straight). And that of course is a real photo of Lucy inserted in PhotoFunia templates.

New Fiber Club!

Just a heads up — have you seen the new fiber club starting at fibre space? It’s called Bundles of Joy and is geared towards projects for little ones. All the details are here.

As you can see, they’ve lined up some amazing designers for the patterns. Between you and me and the lamppost, I happen to know that the fibers and dyers they have lined up are pretty darn amazing too. Even if you don’t have a little one to knit for, you might want to consider the club anyway because the fibers can be used for many things other than baby projects (and you never know when you may find the need to whip up an awesome baby gift).

Just sayin’.

Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Elizabeth D. — the random number generator chose her comment for the Melissa Leapman book giveaway.

Now I must get back to a secret project I am knitting.

And Lucy is hunkering down for a nap.