" title="Knit one, read two"> Knit one, read two

Over the weekend I made my first and, for the foreseeable future, last purchase from Audible.co.uk.

It seemed like such a good idea; I was doing some work for Distributed Proofreaders and needed some background noise; I didn’t fancy listening to music and couldn’t find a film that I fancied either. I decided to purchase one of the Doctor Who audiobooks that had been recommended to me recently and listen to that instead.

I headed over to Audible, which had also been recommended to me, checked that my MP3 device (an iPod) was compatible, checked that I could access the free samples on the website and then selected the book I wanted (The Stone Rose, by Jaqueline Rayner, read by David Tennant). I signed up for an account and paid for the book.

Then the fun started.

It turns out that all Audible downloads are protected by a form of DRM (Digital Rights Management). This means that you need to use software supplied by Audible in order to “unlock” the files. Since they only supply software that will run on either Microsoft Windows or Apple operating systems, I had now purchased a file that I couldn’t even download to my PC since I use Ubuntu, which is a Linux-based system.

A bit of web-searching and hunting through the Audible support forum confirmed that when they said that all iPods were compatible with their audiobooks, what they actually meant was “all iPods whose owners use iTunes” which is not the same thing at all. In fact, the only way I managed to listen to my newly purchased audiobook at all was to download it via iTunes on Steven’s Mac and burn it to a CD. From there, I can now re-rip it and load it on my iPod if I want to listen to it while I’m on the move.

Suffice to say this is less than convenient and I won’t be doing it again.

DRM doesn’t stop piracy; it just pisses off people who want to use items they’ve purchased in they want that they want to use them rather than the way that the seller wants. There’s a further issue with Audible’s DRM in that they won’t publish audiobooks without DRM even when the book’s author and publisher want them to.

There is one silver lining though, while researching all this, I discovered that emusic (a site I’ve used before for non-DRM music downloads) now does audiobooks as well. I’m off to renew my subscription now.

Shopping for cake is supposed to be one of the best bits of planning a wedding and yesterday it absolutely lived up to the hype. Steven and I visited a cake shop to try some samples and chat about what we wanted (cupcakes!) and ended up placing our order and putting down a deposit, which means there is one more thing ticked off on the to-do list.

Then we came home and tried the samples they had given us. (The slices of cake were samples of their different sponges for the top tier cake that we’re going to have.) This was all really good cake and I’m just a little disappointed that I have to wait until November to have any more!

And, to make it even better, since Steven found out on Friday that he passed his final accountancy exam, we decided to open some champagne to celebrate.

You may be thinking that what is in those glasses doesn’t look a lot like champagne and you would be right. Those are glasses of Pimms Royale (1 part Pimms to 3 parts champagne) and they too were absolutely amazing. All in all, a very good day.

Cast on yesterday morning and the whole thing was knitted and properly finished (i.e. all the ends sewn in and everything) in just a couple of hours. It is a baby hat to go with the kimono cardigan that is also nearing completion. The cardigan edging has been knitted on and there is just the seaming left to do. Past experience would suggest that this means the cardigan will be completed some time next year but I’m determined not to leave it that long this time!

Oh, and if the hat seems a strange shape, it is because it is being modelled by a ball of bamboo yarn!

New yarn, new projects and new progress on the old projects. (Okay, that last one was a bit of a stretch.)

One of the disadvantages of being on Ravelry is that I get to hear about yarn sales that I would previously have missed. This has resulted in me being at both the Liberty and John Lewis sales this month and stashing an unprecedented amount of yarn.

First up, at Liberty I got a jumper’s worth of RYC Cashcotton DK in Cashew,

which is already looking like this:

I’ve been needing a project that doesn’t require any brainpower at all as a change from my shawl, more on which later, and which can be combined with conversation and alcohol. I settled on the Katarina cardigan from cocoknits and I’m really liking the way it is knitting up. The yarn does shed a bit but I’m hoping that it won’t be so bad when it is finished.

I also got a jumper’s worth of RYC Luxury Cotton DK in black. Actually, I picked up slightly more than a jumper’s worth so that I could make this into a jumper for Steven. I’ve been having trouble finding a pattern though so this isn’t likely to turn into anything any time soon.

At the John Lewis sale I picked up what can only be described as “rather a lot” of Noro Cash Iroho in this beautiful red. Turns out I am unable to resist half-price cashmere/silk blends. I have no idea what this is going to be other than absolutely beautiful!

Buying new things has also spurred me on to make some progress on older things as well. Now that I have my ball-winder, I finally got around to winding the Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that I bought back in September. These are going to be a pair of socks for me.

I’m making really good progress on the wedding shawl. I’ve now knitted 9 repeats out of the suggested 40 for the main body. I say ’suggested’ because I’m considering making it shorter than the pattern (I’m already making it wider) so that it will be easier to wear with my wedding dress. I’m still delighted with this project; the pattern and the yarn and everything are just coming together exactly as I thought they would and are going to be just as fantastic as I hoped.

I even managed to make some progress on the baby cardigan this weekend. It had been hibernating for a little while since I needed to block the pieces before I could sew it up. It has now been blocked and the shoulders seamed so I can get on with knitting the edging and then finishing the seaming. This is always the bit that I procrastinate for longest but since the baby isn’t due till November, I’m still confident I can have it finished in time.

Apologies for the rotten picture, I was trying to sneak in some photography time before leaving for work and this was the best I could do.