Hey Big Business - Quit Ripping Me Off

I'm on a rant today. And I've got two things that have been irritating me for awhile so your stuck hearing about them.

Let's start with my vacuum. I bought a vacuum about a year ago when the old one, the one that was my grandmother's and probably could have withstood a nuclear war, gave up. Now I know I should have just had the old one repaired. Shoulda, coulda, wish I woulda ... But I bought a new one. Nothing special, just a regular dirtdevil featherlite from Target, sale price $45. Note the price - pretty good deal.

Here are my issues. The first one is that the featherlite is anything but... it claims to weigh 11 pounds. That may be true, but they aren't 11 pounds of easy to maneuver, pliable, throw it on your hip material. It is 11 pounds of hulking, giant pieces of hard, unmovable plastic. And it is so heavy on the stairs. But this isn't my biggest issue with my lovely vacuum. My big issue is the price of the filter I am required to buy. That lovely little filter is ..... wait for it ..... 27 bucks. Yep, the filter is half the price of the vacuum. That filter is to be replaced every year. The bags my old vacuum took were like 5 bucks for 3. Thanks dirtdevil, you got me. You and me, stuck together. Sure, filters last longer, but not when your husband throws it away the one and only time he runs the vacuum and then you realize it a week later when you go to vacuum and it is running funny and naturally the trash guys picked up yesterday and ... hence you are now out $27 bucks. LOL - that is what some dirtdevil guy is doing right now, cause I am going to be stuck buying his filter once a year (although I am sure he would recommend more often) for a long, long time.

Now my other irritant. Laundry detergent. Hey, have you ever actually read the directions on the side of your detergent? Of course not. You have been doing laundry for as long as there has been dirt, you don't even remember when you started doing laundry, it just has always been there, always will be, there won't be one day you won't have laundry in your basket or your machine (unless you are nudists, in which case, this probably doesn't effect you as much). Anyway, that little plastic measuring device and/or the lid you use for a measuring device have little lines on them. And guess what, the highest line is not for a large load of wash - NO - it is for an extra large, sometimes extra, extra large load, like something at the laundromat that when you were in college you stuffed all your clothes into and gave it all the quarters you had and came back later to some semi-clean clothes.

I never filled up the laundry measurer to the top, but for crying out loud, it basically needs to be half full for a regular load of laundry. Hey Tide, I don't need bubbles following me down the street during a rainstorm. This has been bothering me ever since I taught C how to do his laundry and actually looked at the directions.

Why can't these companies just do honest business? Just include the laundry dispenser for regular loads - if I do a giant load, I'll use it twice. And the filter thing - that is just wrong. It can't be more than $2 worth of material and .50 worth of Chinese labor on this thing and I am being generous, so someone is making $25 dollars or so on my filter and yours.......

Snow Day?

Well, it isn't really a snow day - there is no accumulated snow here. But it is a cold day - no school due to severe cold. I know, I know, I also walked to school in blizzards uphill both ways. What can I say? I even stopped the neighbor girl from walking up to school, no one really expects to stay home just cause it is really, really cold. Although a big smile came over neighbor girl's face.....

So I have lots to little stuff to catch up on. Yesterday I finished Mom's Cardigan (the Mom in that being me, not my mom, sorry Mom!) . I just had buttons to put on, and I don't know why I hadn't done it. It wasn't difficult. The sweater is made of Rowan Magpie Tweed wool, which I bought 2 summers ago at Judy Ditmore's moving sale. So, that kept with my yarn diet, although I started it way before the yarn diet. And I wore the sweater yesterday afternoon, cause it was so warm and cozy.

I have my fingerless gloves on as well in this next picture, cause it was chilly and I was knitting. My little shadow, K, is of course with me.



I plied some yarn I spun from my latest fiber purchase at Distaff Day. Let's remember that purchasing spinning fiber is not the same as purchasing yarn, although the results do end up the same. More yarn. But handspun yarn is special, it has the love of me in it. Whereas millspun yarn only has the love of machines, until it is knit, then of course, it will have the love of the knitter in each stitch. That is what you get when you handknit articles - love in each and every stitch.

There we are winding up the new spun yarn on my niddy-noddy off my jumbo bobbin, which really is jumbo. Sometimes, I think they come up with words that are just meant to sound silly - niddy-noddy? Really? No one could come up with a better name? How about skein winder? I mean, we have a ball winder to wind up yarn into balls? Wouldn't the next logical step be a skein winder to wind up yarn into skeins? No, instead we call it a niddy-noddy. Let's face it, if I told you I am going home to use my niddy-noddy, you would think I am going to do something that is not proper for a knitting blog. Niddy-noddy, indeed.

Poor hubby has had to go out in this freezing weather, no cold days off for him. He wore his wool socks today even though he works indoors, it really is that cold. I also have my wool socks on. Love them. So far we have had stew and chili during this cold spell, it makes the house nice and warm and cozy, which brings a big smile over the husband's face...

Ahhhh, I guess that is enough random ramblings and showing off for today. Happy Cold Day to you!