Clara's Window

Hooray hooray, Clara's Window is now coming to you via a satellite modem! Life chez the farm has suddenly gone James Bond on us. It only took 9 weeks, two 30-minute trips to the satellite store, countless phone calls, and six separate visits from the installer... not to mention a $40 "tip" to make sure the dish wouldn't be visible from the road. Way back during the stone ages of reconstruction, I made sure the entire house was wired for every possible type of networking technology. Funny enough, I forgot to buy the actual gateway/hub. So for now I stand at the kitchen counter with a maze of wires leading deep into the bowels of the basement. Didn't I say country life was grand?

While not placating the satellite dish installer, I spent the weekend stripping the stained-glass windows in our so-called piano room. (I say this not to be pretentious but because the room is stuffed with two pianos.) These lovely old windows date back to the house's initial renovation in 1893. But the substance that was supposed to eat through 23 layers of paint and peel away with the flick of the fingers turned into a solid putty-like glue. So I scrape and scrape and scrape. In other news, here are some potentially reassuring details for you about Operation Freedom. For those of you who fear I've sold out and will start selling yarns, patterns, and everything I'm supposedly unbiased about in KR, don't fret. The boutique is all about those wonderful extras we wish we could find but never do. This means fine paper goods with knitting imagery, limited-edition finds, as well as a few fun extras. (Was that a Knitting is Better than Prozac mug I just saw? Hmmm...)