I did a bit of stitching on Monday morning but haven’t done a stitch since then. I got notification from my bank that two $600 PayPal transactions were withdrawn from my bank, supposedly transferred to my PayPal account. I responded quickly to confirm that they were not authorized by me. A couple of days later I noticed they had indeed been withdrawn from my bank account. Turns out, in my haste to respond to the original notification, it was to an email address that isn’t monitored. I checked PayPal and the money from my bank didn’t go into my PayPal account so it must have gone into some hacker’s account. Damn!
I submitted disputes with my bank for the two withdrawals and crossed my fingers they could track down the unauthorized account they went into. I’m not worrier (I have trained myself for that) but it was in the back of my mind. I also had what I thought was decaffeinated tea that evening so couldn’t fall asleep until 4am. Listening to my audiobook didn’t help. I got an email a day later that the funds were put back into my account. YAY!
I have changed both my PayPal and bank passwords.
The same day I learned about the bank/PayPal fraud, I got a call from my financial planner to set up a meeting for next week. I needed to find some information for that meeting and was having trouble doing it. I was also not sure about a couple of things that would have caused a big problem with Skip’s estate - yet another concern that night of insomnia.
I finally did find the documents I needed and after making a couple of phone calls, learned that everything was good and I didn’t need to be concerned after all. Glad I didn’t fret too much.
I’m planning to do the Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas Stocking Knitalong which will run from November 1 to 24. Every day, 6 rounds of the knitting design will be revealed. Today I realized that November 1 is tomorrow so I whipped out to the big box craft store for the yarn for the project.
They’re using Rowan Norwegian wool which I didn’t even try to source, so the Patons Astra is about the same weight yarn. I believe I did last year’s with worsted weight - Probably Patons Canadiana - but they didn’t have the right colours when I was shopping today. In fact, what few Patons yarns they did have left were all shoved in a small area. 98% of the yarns they sell now are their Loops and Threads brand. Not impressed.
I also picked up yarn for a hat I was commissioned to knit for the husband of a friend. To keep the cost down, and to use non-scratchy yarn (he shaves his head), I went with Patons Canadiana. Fortunately Michaels had most of the colours I need for this pattern.
I used some creative licence for the colour selection:
I have some orange in my stash that I’ll use for the puffin beaks and some navy blue from my stash for the dark blue above the puffins. I didn’t need to purchase full balls of those two colours.
I started the hat and added one more repeat of the puffin pattern because the recipient has a big noggin. I also added a couple of rounds of the darker yarn above the ribbing before starting the puffin’s design.
I pulled my usual dumb stunt of forgetting to change to a larger needle size once I finished the ribbing. I realized this on the 7th round of the chart and had to rip back to the solid part to change needle size. Of course all this was happening while getting up and down to hand out Halloween candy.
All has been corrected. I had 24 Trick or Treaters - the most since I started recording in 2018. We have mostly retirees in my 40 year-old neighbourhood.
I don’t remember but there must have been a ban on Halloween in 2020 because of COVID.
I got word today about the dates for next year’s Pastime Pieces retreat and I should be able to attend as I don’t have anything planned for that weekend yet.
I’m looking forward to starting the knitalong tomorrow. It’ll probably just be the toe of the stocking in green like last year.
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