Too busy to knit!??!!

I didn't knit a stitch all weekend! Friday after school was Rehersal for BIL's wedding. It was long and ran over and the 7:30 rehersal dinner at Uncle Chongs (EVIL!!) Chinese Restaurant didn't start serving food until freakin' 8:45 at which point a bowl of warmish dishwater soup was served to the crew of 100 people waiting. 20 minutes later the next dish came out. We had early soccer games on Saturday (9am game time + arriving early to warm up + field set up = 8:15 am field arrival time = leaving the house at 8 am = getting up at 6:45 and getting the kids up by 7:20 am) so needlesss to say by the time the 3rd dish came out (9:15pm) I had convinced the kids to eat their fill of what was there and was packing up to leave. We drove back home from Union City, brushed the kids teeth and tucked them in a meer 2.5 hours after bedtime.

Get up early. Game on. Both teams played exciting action filled games. I had the grandparents RUSH DD home and get her in the shower while I reminded the team about photo day and packed up the game gear. I get home, shower fast, get dressed fast (well okay I took 10 minutes to put on my panty hose, but it isn't easy with the socks over my hands and I only had 2 pairs and couldn't afford to rip them and have to put on another pair). 20 minutes after arriving at home, I have showered, dressed and styled my hair, I pack up DD and take her to Blush at the mall for a makeover, where they try to tell me I got bumped out of my appointment for not prepaying the day before when I called in for the fucking appointment!? Why the hell do they have appointments if they don't honor them and they don't tell you when you call the day before for an appointment that you have to prepay that day or lose your spot? So when I almost explode, standing there in my panty hose and dress and heels with my make-up compact in my hand and my jewelry in a bag in my hand that I am trying to put on, because they are telling me I no longer have and appointment for DD, they cower away a little bit staring up at the very angry now 6 foot tall (remember those heels) big gal glaring at her with laser beams coming out her eyes and then they take her to a vanity and fix her up . They fix up DD in about 20 minutes (updo, make-up, nails, the works, they are quick). And we are merrily on our way to meet DS and DH (Who upon picking up his Tux on Thurs tries it on, only to have me spot a tiny 4 inch tear in the back of the jacket and has had to go there on Sat to pick up new tux because obviously we didn't have enough to worry about). As a last minute thought, that turned out to be a good plan because we didn't eat again until 6 pm, a quick drive through McD's drive through, back home, eat, finish getting the kids dressed, jump in the car and GO!

We drive up to the church in Union City, arrive 10 minutes prior to when we were supposed to be there (can you believe that I got the NOTORIOUS DH to an event on time!?) and then wait. It felt a lot better to be waiting there, on time, than at home! Amazingly the wedding starts on time. DD proudly acts as flower girl and DS does an excellent and very serious job of being Ring Bearer. We finish with a thousand pics. DD, BIL, MIL, SIL, DH, DS, and me etc. ( I am of course the Amazon in the picture....) Then off to reception. It was very nice. It just took the wedding planners SO long to finally let people dance on the dance floor (reception let in at 7 pm, they didn't start the open dancing until about 9:30) that they had just started and I insisted that the kids and I catch a ride home with my Mom and Dad who were also in attendance. DH didn't like that. He was all mad, like a petulant child that I made the kids leave. DS had actually asked to go home. He was tired. He had gotten up early and played all 4 quarters in an hour long soccer game. As well as performing his very serious duty of Ring Bearer (the priest told him to guard the rings and coins (this was a Filippino wedding) with his life, so he was all worried and took it VERY seriously). So I was obliging to take him home and his sister as well, because as luck would have it, we also had to take out team pictures for Soccer on Sunday morning. We had an early time slot to boot! So we left at 9:50 and DH stayed until 11:15 when they turned on the lights and told everyone to go home... So

Sunday we got up early and got our team pics taken (9:30 am) and stayed at the opening day activities for too long. Grandma and Grandpa picked up the kids at lunch and took them out to play at a park. We spent the day at Sports Authority and Tuesday Morning after dropping off the Tuxes at Men's Warehouse. I think DH wanted to do more, but my Asthma was very bad and it was quite restricting in my ability to get around. So I spent more of my Sunday sitting on a bench in Sports Authority than one should have to. I have a husband who quite enjoys shopping... We took the kids to Armadillo Willy's for Dinner and got back after bed time, it was a relief to get home on Sunday night (9:15 pm), and get the kids in bed, until I realized I should have made some flyers for the Home and School Club and set to work on that until about 1:30 am. Now they are printed and distributed and I no longer have to worry about them. So I should finally have at least a little bit of time to get some knitting done.

I am down to the last repeat of the Tenderheart Shawl. So only about 20 rows to go. Just as I am nearing the home stretch, it occurs to me that I should probably put some nice lace edge on it, instead of the 3 row wide garter stitch I was going to finish it in (like the rest of the shawl). Now I can't decide. Boogers. That is all I have to say, and every time my precious daughter catches me knitting my KF sock, she glares and at and says, "Well, where is MY shawl, huh? When are you going to finish or are you just going to keep making socks for YOURSELF!?" Man, being guilt tripped by a child. Yeah, so what if I started this months ago and it is taking me ages to finish something pretty small and everything else I do is done is 2 months or less. What's the problem? Sheesh, slave driver.

MS3 Finished and blocked.

I finished MS3 yesterday afternoon and had just enough time to block it before soccer practice. I probably could have taken more care in blocking the wing end but I was running out of time. It looks wonderful. It is airy and soft and light. I love the design. Here are some photos before it was blocked. Sad and crinkly the feather section looks like lumps and the beads only show on the wrong side. The edged curl under and you can't see the beads at all. Blocked, you can see every fabulous detail. The edge is uncurled and the feathers are open, every bead is visible. Two thumbs up for Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist. This was really fun and I am looking forward already to next years project.

Guess who cut in line in the queue, ah, if you guessed that luscious Kaffe Fassett Yarn, you are right. I have already cast on for a Chevron sock, with a 10 st repeat. Right now it looks kind of big over 60 sts on a 3.00 mm needle. Still dragging along on the Tenderheart shawl. With DD angrily yelling at me any time she sees me working on anything else. What a slave driver. All missing photos have been added in to the previous posts as well.

Photoshop disc located...

Phew after a daunting search through this messed up computer room of squalor I share with my pack rat husband I have FINALLY found my Photoshop CS disc. I am adding pics to previous posts that were missing their pictures. This whole new computer thing has been a lot of trouble. I don't know how some people can upgrade every 6 months or less. It took me nearly a month just to get everything running. Now maybe I can actually get some knitting done and have some genuine knitting content on my page....

By the way, the Sock Pixie lady is super awesome. Because we were so disappointed in the way the yarn looked, Teenuh (who placed the order) complained about the total lack of red in the red colorways. So the Sock Pixie gal is replacing them for us. That is great. I am excited to get my new RED poppies skein.

Still no pictures.

Heart break city, I can't find my damn Photoshop cd. Now I have fancy pants yarn to post pics of too. Today Teenuh and I went with Cynthia to a Cat Bordhi book signing at Purlessence. She was out promoting her new book about unconventional socks, New Pathways For Sock Knitters. About all I can say, she was unlike any other author I have met. She was quiet and didn't really have much to say.

That said, Purlessence did have some sock yarn on sale to celebrate this book signing. So I purchased some Crystal Palace Maizy, 2 skeins in Nightshade and 1 skein in Bittersweet, this is destined to become socks, with the solid Bittersweet on heels and toes. Not on sale, but undeniably NEEDED was Regia's Designer Line, Kaffe Fasset Landscape in Caribbean colorway, which is MUCH more blue than it looks in that picture.

Also joining my stash are 2 skeins of Sock Pixie. The first skein, Poppy, is a red - brown skein that really disappointed me. The color of yarn on the ordering page is a BRIGHT firey red easing into maroons and brown. In actuality there is no bright red, not any kind of actual red at all, only maroons blending into browns. Teenuh, also ordered a red, Ladybug, which had no brightness to the red either. Hers was a very muddied maroon mixing into just a tiny bit of distinct purple the rest was a muddy blend between the purple and maroon. The second skein I bought, did not disappoint. It was Stormy Seas and was every bit as stormy and sea-y as in the order page picture. It is exactly this kind of thing that reinforces my behavior to only buy things that come in shades of blue - green and occasional purples.... Ah, the yarn is spongy and soft and is dye stench free. Each skein comes wrapped in an individual cello bag, which I found a little bizarre, ever heard of this thing called environment? I would order this yarn again, but defintely nothing in red.... probably some Lake, or Peacock or Emerald sea....

Still plugging away on MS3, I have 20 rows to go until the end. I am going to try and finish it by this weekend, so I can get it blocked. My least favorite part. From what I have seen of other peoples shawls (well except the one woman who hung it on her dummy upside down!?), the wing thrown across the shoulder looks FABULOUS. I am excited to see mine finished.

Umm. Anyone seen my Photoshop CS disc?

Big blog backup....
All caused by a new computer. I got a new computer on Sunday. So I couldn't download my pics until it was set up, but first I had to take hours saving stuff from my old computer. 15 cds worth of mp3's. 10 cd's of photos... Documents etc... All removed from the old computer. Then the new computer was installed, new flat panel lcd monitor set up. Computer turned on. Set up took ages. It wasn't done until Monday evening. Loading drivers for all my usb gadgets, printers, camera's mp3 players, etc. So, Monday night the computer hibernates. Tuesday morning, it is in a coma. Won't turn back on. We punch every button, push every key. FINALLY, about 30 minutes later it wakes up. Tuesday I check my email. install most of my versions of Sims 2 and feel good to go. check my email , turn off the computer, and go to bed. Wednesday morning. NEW COMPUTER DOESN'T WORK!! Dead as a doorknob and utterly useless. A giant paper weight. We spend 2 hours trying to get it booted up so I can at least remove all of my data from it. But NO, it won't cooperate. So we end up returning it to the store with all my passwords and logins and bookmarks and document files saved on the damned hard drive that we can't get into. New computer came home on Wednesday afternoon and has for the last 24 hours performed perfectly.

I have all my programs installed now except one. Photoshop. As soon as I find my disc, I can download and upload photos. The blog should be back on track. Today's thrilling action? Washimg more of the wool and working on Mystery Stole 3 clue 6. Busy weekends and the beginning of soccer season has already cut into my knitting time!!

Wash, Fluff, spin.
(pictures to come to this post as soon as I find my Photoshop...)
Well, I am mostly doing Washing and fluffing and pretty much the only spinning yet is in the spin cycle on the wash.... Processing a whole fleece from a Cormo -X I got from Merry Meadow's farm. This somewhat tedious process has made me sure as sure can be that I don't want to buy another fleece without holding it in my hands first. Because, Boy Howdy, this fleece was friggin' filthy. This naughty sheep must have rolled in the mud, just days before shearing time. Or maybe the moral of the story is, buy washed fleeces instead...
The drum carding is going well. My lovely assistant DD was helping me to crank the handle, but she got mad when I asked her to crank a little slower a few too many times. She wants to crank it like she is reeling in line on a sail boat in the America's cup or something. So, needless to say, the first batch was full of noils from the overly vigorous carding it received, following batts were significantly smoother. So far 3 batts. I don't have a scale to weigh them on. But I am guessing at this rate, I'll get probably 20+ batts of this size from the fleece.

On wings and other things.

Well, I have stared at the wing for 2 days now. Waiting for clue 6. I don't like the transition from clue 4 to clue 5. An error was announced on the beading schema where there are 2 more rows than there should have been between beads. I noticed this, but thought it must have been part of the transition plan. Turns out it wasn't. I am trying to get over it. Looking at what I have now... I am guessing I may complete the wing then will probably decide that I hate it and will rip back and duplicate the left side. I am really liking the feather pattern for the wing though. I think I might flip it and do 2 sides and join it together or Do a magic toe type center and knit out from a center line. Although I believe that Melanie is attempting to design a 2 winged shawl at this point.

I finished DS's socks. I was nearly done by the time I left Boba knits on Sunday. Somehow the ankle on sock 2 didn't come out perfectly matched (it was in fact, horribly unmatched, being 2 WHOLE color stripes off from sock 1) . Later that evening when I reached the top and was about to cast off I decided I couldn't stand the imperfection and I ripped back to the beginning of the heel. To my surprise I discovered that I had actually goofed on the heel and had pulled in 4 stitches from needle 1 resulting in 4 more rows than necessary. Upon reknitting I found that I was now 1 gray row off from a perfect match to sock 1. Sock 2 has 2 rows of light gray (left sock) and sock 1 has 1 row(right sock). So I ripped back again and reknit. It still came up with 2 rows. I tried one more time (you see where this obsessive compulsive thing becomes a problem...) came up again with 2 light gray rows and finally threw in the towel. It will just have to be 2 stripes of light gray. I reknit the sock up to the top counting rows, and gee what a surprise, I am 1 row shorter at the top on the dark gray stripe. I tried adding another row, but somehow, 1 row to my twisted mind made the sock appear longer... I know, how could 1 tiny row on size 2 needles make any difference. I decided since it was already mismatched, just go for broke and have the top off by 1 row too right? Well, here they are in all of their imperfect glory....

Clue5 finished!

Today we had a mini reunion (6 families) with my Las Madres playgroup. We haven't seen most of the kids in 1.5 - 2 years. It was really amazing how much the children had grown and changed and how little all the moms and dads had changed (although we all seemed to have done a fine job of growing at least a little fatter, myself, of course included.) It was really great to be reunited with old friends again, it makes you realize how much you miss them! Time was spent at the park, chatting and taking pictures, so not much knitting was done. Though I did manage to finish clue 5 today...

I am not sure about this whole "wing" thing. The last time people were so excited about wings was when they added them to maxi pads, now 6,000+ knitters can't stop talking about them. My view on the wings : I thought the point of this Mystery Stole exercise was to trust the designer. To blindly and faithfully follow a pattern that would result in something satisfactorily beautiful. So I have proceeded to make this wing. Looking at it as it is, it seems, suspiciously odd. More like the one winged Swan Prince of Hans Christian Anderson's The Wild Swans story than the Swans of Swan lake. I will however work the entire thing and upon completion of clue number 7, decide whether said wing stays or goes. Perhaps this wing will be SO magnificent and SO spectacular, I will want to rip off the front end of the shawl and attach a wing to the other side! Or maybe I will knit clues 5, 6 and 7, have some sort of epiphany and tear the damn wing off and repeat clues 1-4 to kitchener stitch it together, fortunately I am right handed so I am able to do this! We'll see what the future brings. or maybe I'll just hate it and give it away to someone else. That always works good. (Teachers at christmas? Mothers in Law? Friends who don't knit? Small people I know with really bad taste?) Well, I apologize that I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I'll try to do that in the next day or so. It is worth mentioning that both Teenuh and I have chosen the side of EVIL!!! in choosing the color of Odile instead of Odette. Although the fact of the matter is many of the knitters (older or not) knitting this project picked on the side of white, simply because they could see the stitches better (without having to bring in high powered lights and a 100x's magnification lens) than they could with black and I have nothing white in my entire stash.

Look! Pictures.
I have been knitting, I swear! It has been ages since I've posted pictures. As usual we have been a very busy family. Here is the past weekend.

Saturday: Aptos, CA Seacliff State Beach, The Kids TKD beach party.














Sunday: Felton, CA Roaring Camp Railroad, A Day out with Thomas












That is a genuine full scale Thomas, like a dope I cut off Thomas' face in the picture, I hope my sister took a better picture. It was a beautiful day and the only spoiler was my nervous Nephew throwing up as soon as he was on the train! Fun!

Monday & Tuesday Swimming Fun with Friends at a Friend's House

All the while I was making The Everlasting Bagstopper from LionBrand Yarn Incredible. It took 4 balls of yarn. The first picture is the bottom of the bag while still on the needles. The second obviously is finished, ends woven in. The finished size is 15" tall (not counting the handles) 4" wide on the bottom. Instead of using sewn on handles as Amy Singer prescribed, I knitted on a pair of handles using a band 10 sts wide, picked up from the edge, directly above the bottom corner, then made them 15" long then grafted the end above the other corner. I used the size 7 needles so it was pretty tight gauge, hoping it would stretch out less and maintain its wide shape. I have loaded it up with about 10 lbs of stuff to see how much it stretches. It stretches some, but not an unreasonable amount. Loaded up it is probably about 25" long.
Last but not least the Felici Firefighter sock for DS! I made them a little big because he outgrows them so fast and more importantly he won't be wearing them until Fall, as it will be Flip Flops until school starts. Last but not least, I have arrived!! I am finally on Ravelry. I won't be such an idiot next time and I will jump on the bandwagon the 1st time it passes by and not the 100th... At least I am not number 21,500th in the queue... talk about waiting to get on the bandwagon.... Oh yeah only 2 days to MS3 clue 5! Sweet!

I am not a notorious project starter. I am a finisher. I start something, finish it off, then move on to the next project. Lately though I just keep on starting, project after project. Because 3 inches of toe on a sock, a 1/3 finished "Tenderheart Shawl" and Mystery Stole are not enough, I started an Everlasting Bagstopper today. I keep intending to make a bag, but I've never found the right pattern and, though I knew it was very easy to design one, put a bottom on it, make an even number of stitches and then do faggot stitch around until you hands fall off, I was never inspired. However the prospect of wiling away my day at the beach for DS and DD's Tae Kwon Do school's beach party, and the 2 wool projects and 1 alpaca project I had on the needles seemed a little hot and destined to absorb sand faster than the crotch pocket on a swimming suit, I thought I needed to bring along something else to work on. I thought, Everlasting Bagstopper, knit up with something entirely different might be cool. A week and a half ago I happened to pick up quite a bit of Lion Yarn Incredible (which is very pretty but was always over priced and knit up has a texture that eerily reminds me of a crabs lungs/gills when you are cleaning out a crab for consumption) at the local Dolllar Tree for the amazing price of $1 per ball (well duh, it is the Dollar Tree right?)! I switched up the needle size a bit using 7 and 11 instead of 5 and 10.5, using dpns for the beginning instead of circulars then switched to circular once the stitches were picked up. It is coming out, super cool! I LOVE it. It is pretty and sparkly and I am currently using Autumn Leaves, a wonderful brown/copper color that looks great! The online photo of the yarn doesn't do it justice, it just doesn't shine the way it does in person. This bag is going to be the eye catcher of all Everlasting's made and I have a feeling I will be working on it tomorrow (well, later today that is) as I ride on Thomas the Tank Engine under the shade of the Roaring Camp Redwoods!

It's Friday and I grant myself permission to finish clue 4 chart F! Wahoo!

I finished the first sock of DS Felici Firefighter socks while watching Planet Earth when I should have been going to bed. It is really quite nice, it is SO soft. It really is some of the nicest superwash Merino I have ever felt, we'll have to see how it washes up, if it gets all pilly or shrinks some or if it comes out completely unscathed like the SUPERWool I am suspecting it of being. I am surely going to have to order at lease what, 8 balls, nah, I'd need at least 11 (but no odd balls so at least 12 right?) to make the $45 minimum to get the free shipping... Oh what a sacrifice!

DS's foot is relatively (child's size 13/1) small and skinny so I have a fair amount left over in one skein, I'll have to make something small out of it, like wrist warmers or something. Now to begin the next sock. I'll have to go pull out a bunch of yarn until I get to the right spot. Teenuh knows how obsessed I am with getting perfectly matching socks (unmatched socks, like the ones I made from Trekking drive me BoNkErS!!). There is an 8 stripe variation (amazingly enough with only 4 colors) before the next matching repeat so there'll be 2 chunks of leftover yarn, unless Goddess of knitting willing I got nearly perfectly matched balls with similar starting points.....

As for MS3. I am taking my time on Chart f. I have forbidden myself to work steadily on it, until at least Friday, then it will almost feel like a normal clue release....

Running out of things to do.

I made what now sort of seems like a mistake by finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Sunday because I found that nobody else that I know has finished reading it yet!! So I have to sit patiently and keep my mouth shut about what happened so as not to ruin it for anyone else.

After finishing the book I blasted through chart E of MS3. I have started chart F but am trying to pace myself realizing that there are still 10 more days until the next chart is released. Work a line here, work a line there.... I am still working on the Tenderheart shawl and still working on DS's socks. It just doesn't have the same sense of excitement though, does it?

Hooray for clue 4...

Printed and marked all 4 pages of pattern for Mystery Stole 3. I have begun working away. I love it. It is so fun to not really have an idea of what you are doing and just go on good faith that the designer will not lead you astray.

Not that I really needed more to do. I started a pair of ST stitch socks in Felici Firefighter colorway for DS. I almost hijacked the yarn to make a pair of socks for myself. I was working away in a lovely chevron when my mom looked over at my socks and asked if they were for DS or DH because I had finally succeeded in finding a wonderfully manly color. Feeling outed and guilty for being caught in making myself another pair of socks out of something clearly intended for another person, I promptly ripped back the 4 inches of progress and reduced it to the size of DS's foot. This yarn is so very soft and smooth. It is yummy. I am going to have to order some more Felici for myself in one of the 8 fabulous colorways, or maybe all 8!

The Tenderheart shawl, (as I think of it fondly in my head, when my daughter was small(er) she had a speech impediment and was often heard saying "tenda haaaart" in a way that was so very cute) is progressing nicely although I am thinking it is more like Love-A-Lot in the color scheme and volume of hearts. My pattern is working out nicely, although my one concern is that it increases in width more than length and I will have to stop when it is shorter than intended simply so that it doesn't become too wide to be useful. I tried to rework the shawl to have only 1 increase per (rs) row but couldn't quite get the repeats to follow nicely and what not.

Never Ever gonna get in.

ravelry > antsy

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Found you!

• You signed up on June 5, 2007
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• 1076 people are ahead of you in line.
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• 32% of the list has been invited so far

Damn. Why did I wait SO Long to sign up. Maybe I was sort of thinking, "Who would want to catalog their entire stash and all of their FO's outside of their blogs? Surely this madness will blow over. It won't be that popular" (delusional self-talk). Then, "It can't stay in Beta forever, soon everyone will be able to sign up and no one will care much any more." (more delusional self-talk). Then, "Well, if I'm getting on the bandwagon I'd better get moving or I'll be left far behind." Cripes, what was I thinking waiting? #7,052 on the list. Over a thousand people ahead of me. Waiting. I can tell you what I'm thinking now..."Damn! I'm glad I'm not the person who is 11,343 people behind me!" Do the math. I am 7052. 1076 people are head. 5976 people are already in. How much more room could there be!? Isn't the pool getting crowded? There are still 12420 people on the waiting list. Will 18396 people fit!? With all of their stashes and fo's and wips. What could possibly contain this?

I am very impatiently waiting for clue #4. In the meantime, I have been driving myself nuts trying to design a shawl with hearts on it for my DD. I am the world's biggest heart hater, and some how I ended up with a daughter who is so totally into hearts and pink stuff and stuff that is just so girly! I bought this bright pink and purple yarn at Sitches from Helen's Half Pint Farm. I poured through my pattern books. Graphed extensively (started this part 3 separate times over the last 4 months before I sat down and got serious about it.) Began knitting. Ripped back. Re charted (repeat these 3 steps about 20 times, yeah seriously, until I kid you not, 6 AM!) At some point I switched to some waste yarn, so as not to wear out this wonderful yarn. I went to bed when I realized the sun was coming up. Began working on it again the next morning. Repeating those 3 infamous steps. FINALLY I liked what I saw, cast on 8 stitches and started to knit. I am still not entirely fond of the way it is working out, I think it should be more lacy, but I don't want it to be too lacy, since I think she is planning on using it for practical warming purposes and she said she likes it the way it is, though I suspect this is because she doesn't want me to try and redesign it, she just wants it finished. I found things worked out easier if I used a TON of stitch markers, you may have not ever seen so many markers on one project. I am waiting to see how nice or ugly it turns out before I post pictures... You'll just have to wait and see.

Yahoo! MS3 clue #3 finished. This is a shot of only the newest portion. This one went quick. It was fairly repetitious and just cranked off the needles, it was very similar to clue 2 and the pattern was fairly obvious in that you could see if you'd made a mistake as soon as you reached those diagonal lines traversing the stole. Here it is in its entirety still not blocked at all. My edges LOVE to curl under, I'll probably have to starch the edges a little bit when I block it. The only bummer now is that I am done for a WHOLE week. I should have taken my time... savored it a little. The next week will be a challenge, do I knit first or read my Harry Potter book. They'll both probably take about the same amount of time (well okay, the book will probably take me about an hour more than the knitting) How do I decide!? I guess if my Amazon shipment doesn't arrive before the clue is posted, that will decide for me, won't it!?