The Priciest Shawl Ever

I started the Catkin shawl in December of 2014.  The yarn cost me about $65.  So not a cheap project.  I know, I know...lots of people send way more.  But that makes it my most expensive shawl.

But it is beautiful yarn.  And the pattern is gorgeous.  All is good.  For a while.

I knit on it until late January.  And then fail.  The designer and I were speaking different languages it would seem.

So I put it in a time out.  For MONTHS.

Fast forward to mid-November.  I had some time to sit down and look it over.  Figured out what was wrong. 

Things click.  Bam.  It is going great.

I used by ereader for my patterns.  I love e-ink for books.  It isn't as good about pdfs.  But it works.

Then crash.  My Kobo fell from a waist high shelf.  Not high.  Onto a wood floor.  It had happened before & in worse places.

Not a biggie...or so one would think. 

It was dead.  *sniffle*

I had a backup (long story).  So okay.  The wifi is glitchy.  Hooray.  I can read.

I decide last Saturday to put my SD card in the old one & use it.  I had been letting DH use it.  So I felt kinda bad taking it back.  But he insisted it was fine.  He has an old Kindle.  First gen.  No light.  But he does like the hard buttons.  It is okay.

So I am knitting while waiting for DD's Girl Scout meeting.  And then the Kobo slipped from my fingers.  You see where it is going...

Another dead one! 

*sigh*

Two dead Kobos in less than two weeks.

*hangs head*

Is it fair to blame the pattern on that.  Probably not.  But it feels like this pattern is out to get me.  *laugh*

It was a Kobo Aura HD (which they no longer sell.)  I recall it was pretty pricey as e-readers go.  I think around $175 or so.

But I wanted to support a company where you can have a portion of the book sales support an Indie bookstore.  Mind you, my ebooks purchases won't make or break anyone's bottom line.  But it is nice.

I looked.  The Kobo Aura H2O which is the replacement for it is $180.  *sigh*  Too much to blow right before the holidays.  And honestly, the Glo HD is probably just as good for what I want and $50 cheaper.  I like the bigger size.  But it isn't that much bigger.  *smile*

But in the span of the two years I have had my Kobo, I have come to realize that pdfs on the Kobo suck.  They just are a pain in the tush.  I usually convert the patterns to an epub format to get them to work better.  And then break out the charts into pdfs to get them to be more easily readable.  Not fun honestly...

I needed something that wasn't going to run me as much right before Xmas.

So long story short.  I got the $50 Amazon Fire tablet. 

And I also have to confess.  So far, I really like it. 

After tinkering for a couple days with different ereader programs, I think I may have found a perfect solution for me with Moon+ Reader.  Hooray!

The Pro version has the ability to highlight rows.  It also has a rectangle function.  So I can draw a rectangle over the row & move it around as needed which is handy.  So hooray!

Only downside of the app is that it requires storing to the device to edit the file.  *sigh*  So I have to put my pattern on the device rather than the card.  The Fire is small.  It *claims* 8 GB.  But in says there is 5.6 GB with only 1.17 GB free.