Idiot's Happiness

Okay. I am a Dim Bulb, as evidenced on another blog. But the eBay ventures triumphed! Ho-o-o-o-o-ly cats! Haven't bid on eBay for at least two or three years. Won't again unless prompted by necessity.

Camera is an absolute PEACH. It's now down to dueling cameras, using a vintage manual and, more improtantly, careful handling of a volatile 13-year-old. Results not all in yet, but everything on eBay camera is in expected functional mechanical order, including (unbelievably) built-in light meter. Kid, though, could go wiggy. Happy discovery that both print and slide b&w film are still available for OOOLD cameras such as this Retina IIIc. Awesome. The young man in the camera shop nearly fell down when he saw the Retina. "Oh, I LOVE to see something like that come in!" he said.

And re the almost certainly mad purchase: knitting needles better than expected given uneducated description and less educated gamble. Not exactly all the same length, not all matching color, but at the risk of making a bad joke it's the true gauge that actually matters.

The gauges seem to mix among European and American--numbers certainly don't correspond to each other in many cases. But I have American and the odd numbers out match American sizes. And gauge can be translated easily from European mm to American (uh-what-unit?) size. What I'm sayng is, even if the numbers are not the same, the appearance and ultimate gauge is. And the materials do match re pairs in plastic or metal, and mostly metal, and quite impressive. Some are slightly bent from zealous handling, but this makes no difference in actual work-up. There are even a couple whole sets of double pointed needles (dreaded dpns) for socks and mittens.

Ooh, laah, no regrets! 4.99 sterling, worth every penny even when you add international shipping. Think of cold little kids who could have hats or gloves knit from these. Happy.