Moth Heaven

The News in Brief

My pay for the Bird in Hand Mitten class I taught last week at Yarns in the Farms was a yarn I could not resist casting on with.  Dream in Color Classy in Strange Harvest. I have buttons in the stash that completely justify this one.  This is, surprisingly, a flattering color for me.  Go ahead: you can say it.  Puke yellow. 

Good, though.

To prove to you that I totally deserve a new project, here is Sylvi blocking.

Perhaps that is a little too abstract to serve as proof, but the other photos aren't nearly as arty. What's left of this project is half of the second sleeve, seaming, the hood, and then (fanfare) the petals.  I'll probably be toting this one along at Spa this coming weekend.

In wheel news: The Mister drove off to Oneonta yesterday to meet Andrew Watson halfway between here and Burlington to exchange the fragile parts of the wheel that we might be able to salvage.  Andrew has gotten no response from UPS, and I fear they may stonewall him.  It's nice that in this culture of our small businesses can count on this from big businesses, isn't it?  

The Mister left me this on the kitchen counter when he left.

 

I know spring is coming, because these little guys are now in the supermarket, and because JCrew has shorts in their catalogue.  There is hope.

I Give You my Heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrt

Emily sent this Valentine along, to cheer me up.  It's a pirate.  Get it?

Drowning My Sorrows

We're still waiting for UPS to tell us how they're going to apologize for ruining the Watson wheel. My husband points out that even if UPS covers the insurance for the wheel, the retail "cost" won't cover the impact on Andrew's schedule, the shipping costs and time of getting the new wheel to me (because you know we're not going to trust them with this again), or of the very special and now lost wood used up in the wheel that UPS would then own.  If they cover the insured cost, then they in effect "buy" the wheel, and it disappears into the black hole of the UPS warehouse (or landfill) of such things.  The treadles are lovely things, book matched and simply elegant in their graining.  The drive wheel took Andrew 3 months of solid work, and the prospect of having that thrown away makes me just weep.  I know he will likely do the same.

Small and inadequate consolation: cheery Bird in Hand mittens to keep for myself.

I'm knitting them as a demonstration pair for the class I'm teaching this fortnight at Yarns in the Farms.  My five students all have the prettiest yarn choices: it makes me want to make about 6 more pairs.  For mine, I am really loving pink and green this winter, so these fit my colour jones. The cast on edge is the turned hem facing, so it will just be the slightest hint of Ganong Wintergreen pink. I will use the pink again for the flowers.

And there's mystery knitting, of course.  I can't show you, but I will say that it's something for the spring issue of Twist, and that Kate designed it.  It doesn't erase the broken wheel problem, but it does make me smile a little to myself.

I don't know what a best outcome for all of this would be.  I'm hoping that UPS will buy me a new table, a new crank, cover gasoline and hotel costs for the exchange of broken thing and then the replacement trip, and add a little bit for "intangibles", but I think that is as likely as ice in the Sahara.  That would mean they had a soul, and we all know that corporations don't have such things.

UPS stands for U'll Probably Suffer

Just so you understand what UPS did to Andrew Watson's custom built shipping container, here's what the box looked like when he sent it from Burlington, Ontario three days ago. This is not my box, just an exact copy that he makes for every one of his shipped wheels.

It is as strong a box as he can build according to the UPS regulations.  If he made any more of that box, it would have to be secured to a skid, and cost twice as much to send anywhere.  He's very proud of his boxes which have so far brought 216 wheels securely to their destinations.

Until now.

This is what the wheel looked like when it arrived yesterday.

Where did the box go? 

It would appear that the original box had been damaged in some way, which Andrew assures me must have approximated the impact of a Mack truck or hurling the thing from the top of a moderately tall building onto a sea of stalagtites. He knows because he did the American Tourister treatment to one of those boxes when he first started building them, and made nary a dent in it.

And the UPS people thought this would be a way to disguise their little problem.

The box is still there, sort of.  You can see that someone taped the top of it to the new box, with all the shipping information still on it.  

And inside the carton, the wheel was still secured to what part of the box they didn't mangle initially, although the crowbar they used to pull what was left of the original container apart did a bunch of extra damage.

The true damage was to the wheel itself, which suffered a structural crack in the table that compromised the rigidity of one of the legs and the incredibly important drive wheel support.

and they crushed the crank, which killed the trueness of the wheel.

Andrew and I are awaiting UPS's decision in the matter.  Anyone who works for UPS who sees the photos is of course mortified, but no one can tell us exactly what happened, or why they charged Andrew for Hand Care, when they obviously threw the thing around like a testy gorilla with some play luggage.  Just fyi, when I opened the package up, all the "fragile handle with care" markings and the "glass" stickers were oriented upside down in way they packed the new box.

More when I have something to share.

And the Oscar for Best Drama Goes to: UPS in the roll of handling the delivery (or not) of Julia's Watson Wheel

LYNNFIELD, MA,  US	02/05/2009	6:48 P.M.	THE PACKAGE WAS MISSED AT THE DESTINATION LOCATION / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
	02/05/2009	11:39 A.M.	THE PACKAGE WAS DAMAGED IN TRANSIT. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH THE DETAILS / ALL MERCHANDISE IS BEING DELIVERED. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS OF THE DAMAGE
	02/05/2009	6:13 A.M.	OUT FOR DELIVERY
	02/05/2009	2:35 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN