Out with the Old and in with the New

My phone.

This has been my phone for over nine years. I didn't start out with plans of not upgrading but it worked fine and I was keeping my expenses to a minimum and time slipped away.

Then about three years ago it became A THING at work. People would walk past my desk and go "Oh. My. God. Is that a phone?"

They started checking up on me every week to see it I had updated it. They would stop in front of my desk, pull out their phone, and make a lunch takeout order entering it on the touch screen. I got to say, I enjoyed the attention and the monthly rate couldn't be beat, so I made the pact to keep it until it died.

It died. So dead.

Finn saw to that and one last time it was the center of attention when everyone was called over at the Sprint store to look at the damage done. His teeth pierced the glass screen and the metal casing. It's mostly dented but in spots they went clear though.

My new phone doesn't even have buttons. The GPS driving directions are cool but they drop me off at the wrong place about as often I get myself lost, which is embarrassingly often. It does some other things very well. It excels as a walking buddy playing my favorite podcasts. The camera is pretty neat too, but really, the playing to podcasts is the best part.

It doesn't end there.

My favorite sweater for the past seven years and Suni-e chewed some holes in it. Bad Cat.

I had planned to repair it but I also started knitting a replacement because it fits perfectly. Once I realized the new sweater was just a darker shade of the old I decided it was too similar to have both in my wardrobe. I still have the old one but it's on it's way out.

The sweater is Cobblestone by Jared Flood. 

The pattern is wonderful! There is shaping to raise the back of the neck and lower the front so I don't have the choking feeling. And the neck opening is a trim neck sized instead of the huge flash-dance-falling-off-the-shoulders look that has been the thing in knitting patterns the last few years. Sadly, the look isn't intentional but there are just too many neck stitches.  

I took the techniques and applied them to another sweater. I started out following the Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters but changed everything to the point it's my own design. 

I have so many ideas for the next sweater. I foresee many more original sweaters this year.