Posts Tagged ‘stash’

Imagine that!

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I have a blog!

Who’da thunk?!

In all seriousness though, life has exploded in a sticky and messy way over the last few months.

I started dyeing up a storm.

busy-bee1

My lurvely sock yarn is now being stocked in This Is Knit in Dublin, which is awesome. I still get a big goofy grin on my face when I see the yarn wall in there.

As well as having yarn hanging on every available surface in my house, we also moved at the start of July. I cannot stress how much I hate moving house. We essentially lived out of boxes for two weeks, then had some amazingly wonderful friends help us get everything from old house to new house in one weekend. Bear in mind that no moving van was involved. Just my (small-ish) car and the (compact) car of one of the movers.

It was exhausting, but felt really good.

moving-blues

Wow…there’s a sleep deprived face with a mop of bad hair on top.

It never ceases to amaze me how much damn “stuff” accumulates over a couple of years in a place. You can move in with a box and two cases, and leave with a van’s worth. We moved in with rather more than a box and two cases (unless we’re just counting stash here!), but not what we thought was an entirely unreasonable amount considering that we’d just been married and had received a shed load of gifts.

We moved out with a substantially larger book collection (we had moved from one case to 5, having gotten a load of stuff out of storage) multiple book cases and dvd racks, a big ass television, and a huge solid wood bed with a huge orthopedic mattress.

The chaos took a good week and a half to clear (and there are still a couple of archive boxes lurking around, if I’m honest), and was followed by a very happy wedding of two of our close friends. A fabulous day, and a pig on a spit which seemed to excite the boys like Lego at Christmas.

It took three weeks to get our internet sorted. *snort* Still not done with the sorting..I hate eircom even more than I hate moving house, but they are the best option for us at the moment. Can’t wait until our contract is up though, so we can get an ISP that doesn’t take 14 phone calls to get our name and address right, and who won’t sell us stuff that they don’t have.

Sorry…..the whole internet-getting thing has been stressful.

The couple of weeks without internets were strange at first (and by strange, I mean “like caffeine withdrawal”. Or possibly far too much caffeine). It was very odd being offline, but I was very productive in the knitting stakes - though less good at photographing everything.

dreamcatcher

A dreamcatcher for Leah, in Malabrigo lace. Ended up using a wire coathanger as the frame as the drink cup thing just wasn’t working out.

I also got the Gabriel’s wings that I’d been working on finished, which turned out really well, imho.

noro-wings1

It’s now off with a new owner who is very pleased with it.

I knitted up about eleventybillion washcloths, and two fab mobius scarves - one in handspun from DudleyKnitter and the other long enough to be worthy of Doctor Who . Reknitted my colourscape Urchin. Was on a roll so also reknitted my Star crossed beret. Finished off the blackberry clapotis that has been sitting in the knitting basket since Spring. Reknitted the peach tree socks for my mother, who asked that they be made a bit longer so that she could wear them with boots.

By the time the internet was reconnected, I was feeling rather contented in my book-and-yarn-filled cocoon. The manic pace didn’t take long to start again though, as myself and HusBeast were involved in a games convention here, and started running a huge gaming event for 150 international gamers the day after the con ended. Insanity, I tells ya!

Can't sleep, proxy will eat me...

Can't sleep, proxy will eat me...

Last week HusBeast’s sister got married, and we’re currently living in their house, babysitting their 3 and 5 year old as they swan around the Med on a cruise ship for 2 weeks. If sleep is for the weak, then just call me a sissy and pass the blankie.

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Will you do the Fandango?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

A little bit of a geeky reference to a Queen song, just to get things kicked off.

The Ravelympics came and went, and though I didn’t finish my project, I did really well. Vivian was done up as far as the yoke, which considering just how many times I had to restart the cabled project of doom is pretty impressive.

What is less impressive is the fact that I’ve not picked her up again since. Real life has exploded over the last couple of weeks, and unfortunately it hasn’t all been in good ways by a long shot.

Bad times require mindless knitting, so a couple of balls of Sugar and Cream got turned from stash into FOs.

lime-washcloths

Much like handknitted socks, washcloths tend to suffer from a serious case of “why wouldn’t you just buy them”. As the owner of one very sensitive face, I’ve become addicted to the things. They take no time to work up, are fabulously soft yet still manage to exfoliate my skin so that I don’t end up with puberty-face.

mistletoe-cloths

These ones remind me less of Christmas and more of Italy. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking now that Spring is in the air.

In spectacular fashion, I stayed in all day yesterday, despite the fact that it was national drinking day Paddy’s day in Ireland. I was far too domesticated* Did a lot of handwashing (our washing machine is still out of order three weeks later. Bloody nightmare!) and finished a pair of socks that had been hanging around for far too long.

scaramouche

So not my colour, but they’re still fabulously comfy. I love Lorna’s laces sock yarn bigtime.

I also had a slight lightbulb moment yesterday. Not only did I darn a sock (my lovely tofutsies sock) that I’ve been ignoring for weeks and weeks, but in the great rummage for the end of the ball of yarn, I found a perfectly wound cake of Malabrigo silky merino. The cake that I convinced myself that I didn’t have back in February when I was working on my Clapotis, which resulted in wailing and the gnashing of teeth. Slightly embarassed (though very frugal-feeling, now that I don’t have to buy another skein) work has resumed on the Clap. Should be done over the weekend, and then it’s back to Vivian!

The down side to that particular see saw is that cash is tight for us right now, so I’m forcing myself to do a destash-for-cash. I have been feeling rather guilty about my huge box of sock yarn that’s just sitting in my room when we’re managing to just about scrape by on rent and bills. I’ve got some good stuff on the way out, including one of my precious, precious skeins of Wollmeise. If anyone’s interested, it’s up on my trade page on Ravelry.

I’ve also uploaded a whole load of new, shiny and fabulously squishy yarns on my etsy store, so check them out!

*Don’t worry, I still had a couple of drinks. Though that ended with a mad dive to rescue a laptop, a sticky mobile phone and a rather flustered HusBeast…

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The times, they are a changin’

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Life has been a bit of a rollercoaster over the last 8 weeks.

monsta

The Monster is still without arms, legs or facial features.

cardiganus-interruptus

The pretzel cardigan remains about 10 rows and a button band away from completion.

beddy-byes

The bed frame is still taking up most of the downstairs hall, and is still held together by spit and hope….

hope-and-spit

eco-system

The mini eco-system that is the back garden is still flourishing, and the neighbours’ adorable black cat comes to visit and play in it on a very regular basis.

…..so what exactly has changed in the two months I’ve left unblogged?

Lots.

I’ve been doing everything other than blogging, because I’ve been run off my feet on a regular basis. I might not have a proper job, but you’d never know it. I’ve even had to splash out on a proper filofax to keep track of things.

The end of June was mostly spent dealing with tax bits, which I’m still dealing with and am not going to bore you with. By the time my mother’s birthday rolled around in July, things were in full swing. She had her first break out of the rut in two years, and came to Dublin with my dad for a couple of days. As soon as that was over, it was into gaming high season for one of the many gaming groups I’m involved with.

vanessa-olden

All very glamourous, but rather exhausting.

From there, I moved rapidly on to working on a short movie…

belvo-set

digging

…then got my dig on. Indiana Jones, eat your heart out!

Myself and Husbeast are working on a show at the moment as well; the last couple of weeks have been mostly filled with propmaking, painting sets and sewing costumes. It’s awesomely good fun. I’ve missed being involved in theatre and film so much since my dad got sick, and I’m finally starting to make my way back in to it.

I haven’t entirely abandoned my yarny goodness, even though it has been entirely moved to the back burner for the last while. It’s on the way back with a vengence. Have to either fit more hours in the day, or learn to survive on far less sleep in order to cram everything in - that’s the tricky bit.

In an effort to get some mindless knitting going (as nothing complicated should be attempted when sleep depped or stressed) I started my Christmas present for my mother.

tablerunner

It’s the  Adobe table runner from Summer’s Interweave Knits. Amazingly simple, and will look fab when finished and blocked. My mother’s dining table is about two feet longer than I had realised though, so I need to put in some serious time on this yet. The yarn is some indigo dyed fingering weight cotton that I picked up from Avoca. I had been trying to come up with a way to use it, and had my lightbulb moment on flicking through IK. The slight downside is the milage.  Even after finishing this runner, I’ll have enough left for an entire set of placemats and coasters for her birthday next year…..and still have most of a kilo of the stuff left. It’s not making my stash knitdown any easier, I’ll tell ya!

Yup, the stash knitdown. Seeing as I have a yarn budget of precisely zero at the moment, I’ve been reassessing my stash. Some is going to be sold off, because I have a lot of pretty things that I bought in a moment of weakness and will most likely never get around to knitting. The rest is finally going to be worked through, a piece at a time.  I have the yarn to make a central park hoodie for almost three years, but haven’t even downloaded the pattern yet!

Am I the only one to have the bag of yarn for some jumper or cardigan or other lurking in the stash for years? With the pattern picked out, and all the right sized needles ready to go? I may not be crazy lady with cats, but I sure seem to be “crazy lady with RowanSpun”…

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The one where I hang my head.

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

On Friday, it occured to me that I hadn’t blogged in a while. When I realised that it had in fact been a whole month, I felt rather embarassed. Not embarrassed enough to, y’know, remember my password or anything, but still.

On a day to day basis, my life has been rather mundane. Work seems to take up a large amount of my waking hours and thoughts. The last few weekends have been a bit nuts as well. This one is no exception, apart from the happy-making fact that it is gloriously sunny outside. Not hot, just a little warm with a hint of a breeze. Perfect yarn drying weather.

Yup, proper busy little bee, me.

Mmmmdk

Mmmmdk

This bit of lovelyness went up on my etsy store about 2 minutes ago. Organic merino in dk/worsted weight. My washing line is weighed down with more skeins, and they’ll be going up as soon as they’re dry.

Signs of summer are all around at the moment, it seems

blossom

Being the eternal optimists, we’re all hoping that this year we’ll get what’s termed a “proper” summer. Meaning that the temperature will get into double digits (celcius!) for more than a couple of days, and that we’ll get less rain than during the winter months. Seeing as our summer technically starts on Friday next week, I won’t be breaking out my short shorts. I may be brave and put away my winter coat though. Ooooh daring!

I’ve been doing sod all knitting since my last post. My Tangled Yoke is still untouched in it’s project bag, and the scarf and blankie that I started have both been frogged due to apathy. I’ve been reading a huge amount instead though. Mostly what I refer to as “trashy vampire novels”. Since my last post I’ve gone through the first four Blood Ties books (and stopped because I don’t have any more of them), the first of a Kelley Armstrong series (number two arrived on Friday), The Spooks Mistake (waiting for the next one in paperback now), the first two Sookie Stackhouse books (three is in the post, 4 is on my bedside table) and I’m currently wading through Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

Still with me?

I tend to go in cycles with both my knitting and reading. I don’t tend to both at any one time - I’ll either be knitting up a storm or going through books like a crazy woman. Maybe at some point I’ll hit a balance. Not right now though, methinks.

For the first time in a few weeks, I took up my knitting needles on Friday night, and for just long enough to get the toe done on a single sock. Yesterday I got some more work done at it at Stitch and Bitch, and by the time dinner rolled around I’d turned the heel.

bfl-sock

Ain’t it pretty? It’s some gorgeous BFL sock yarn from The Natural Dye Studio. In truth, it has been sitting in my stash for a couple of years now, and I would pet it on a regular basis. Seeing as I’ve become a lot less precious about my stash of late, I thought it high time that this became something that would show off it’s fabulousness instead of hiding it in a blanket box. It’s so much fun to knit.

It’s also the first time I’ve used one of the Knitpicks Harmony needles, or KnitPro as they’re now known in Europe. They won’t replace my Addis I think, but they’re rather nice. I’m hoping that they’ll also mean that I’ll get my sock in progress through airport security in the Autumn. I don’t really like reading on planes. Or should I say that I’m usually trying to watch as many of the “not out in Ireland yet” movies that I can in one sitting, so a nice sock would be a happy accompanient to that.

That’s a while off yet though, so no use overthinking it. Will see how long it takes me to get this pair done first.

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Bloom where you’re planted

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Today is an overcast, blah sort of day in Dublin. The walk from the train station to the office found me feeling overtired and a little sorry for myself (insomnia, how I hate you) but things improved from there, I’m happy to say.

flytrap

My flytrap flowered!! The office has been an insect-free zone for a while now, but it’s still doing well.  If I was feeling particularly philosophical today, I’m sure I’d find a lesson in that somewhere…

The unofficial theme of today seems to be flora. Not all of it faring as well as my pot plant though.

tree

I mean, seriously…

who doesn’t chuck out their (real) Christmas tree until it’s almost March? I can be a total lazy packrat myself, but that seems just a little excessive to me. It did give me a giggle and a WTF moment, so that’s an upside I guess.

The theme of sorting out my stash is continuing (despite little progress in the actual knitting department over the last day or so) and there are a few things that I’m at a complete loss as to a use.

Elann laceweight

Elann laceweight

This stuff, for starters.

It’s Elann baby lace merino. Wonderfully squishable.  Some of my longtime readers may remember me doing a race to the finish (which I swore blind I wouldn’t let happen) to get it knitted up into wraps for my bridesmaids last year.

It was my first laceweight purchase, and I totally underestimated the huge amount of yardage you get with even one 50g ball. I have about two and a half skeins (1372m/ 1500yds, for the record) left over out of my four skein order, and I have no idea what to do with it. I contemplated the Fountain Pen Shawl from the Spring edition of Interweave Knits. Given that it’s black laceweight, I fear that I may go blind and mad if I attempt it. Am I being silly? Or is there some project out there that would be perfect in this yarn that I’ve missed?

Speaking of IK…I’ve been a subscriber for a couple of years now, and in general I find that the Fall edition is my favourite in the year, while the copy that drops through my letterbox in Spring is probably not going to contain anything that I’d knit for myself. For my personal taste, I just find that it has in the past been the weaker of the four magazines.

Not so this time! There are several patterns that I’m absolutely itching to cast on (Connie Chang Chinchio, you rock my fricking socks off) and the big colourwork piece that I normally bypass even got a proper read through.

There have been some unhappy rumblings in the IK subscriber camp for a while now, and it seems that they have really taken reader feedback on board. If only all publications did - I’m really delighted!

I’ll be flicking through my copy some more as I sit with a needle in my arm this evening. I’ve had 4 text messages from the IBTS over the last week asking for blood donors to go in urgently and to bring a friend if possible. They need 300 more donors to make their quota for this week, so if you’re an Irish reader and you are physically able to give blood, I really encourage you to think about it heading in.

After that, it’s Guinness time!


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Stringing along

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Wow….it has been almost a month since my last post. It’s amazing how a day slips into a week, slips into far too long.

To those of you who have stuck around, thank you! I hope you had a great *insert winter festival of choice here* and new years.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs with work and non-work stuff since I last updated. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say that our Blitz party on New Years Eve went down very well, and inspired me to get some knitting done!

I did some pre-party rummaging around, and found that the American Red Cross issued patterns during WW2. Knitting to keep the troops warm, effectively. These are based off servicemens gloves. Nice and thick to keep the hands warm, while leaving the fingers free to deal with whatever horrendous task was assigned that day.

I’ve modified these quite a bit from the original pattern, because I hate seaming. The gauges are also given for yarn that doesn’t exist anymore, or for yarns and needle sizes that have no conversions. I think they turned out rather well in the end, if I do say so myself.

I’ll be making up another few pairs over the next month, and will have the pattern available to whoever wants it then. I’ll also have an optional modification available, that will allow the gloves to be strung together or worn as are.

Why the modification?

It may have something to do with the fact that less than a week after these photos were taken, one of the gloves had been lost. I can’t feel annoyed though, as HusBeast was upset/peeved/frustrated enough for both of us. Happily my ever-growing stash has another skein of the same dye lot in it, so it won’t be any real bother to make up a second one…and a long string like little kids have that will go up the sleeves and across the shoulders. Not me being precious about my knitting though. This was entirely his suggestion. We don’t have sock brownies in our house, you see. We have glove brownies.  Apparently they prefer warm hands to warm feet.

Speaking of stash, I’ve updated things on Ravelry. Lots of new entries, sans photo unfortunately. I’m still camera-less (it’s almost a year!) and the light these days just isn’t good enough for my cameraphone to deal with. Hopefully I’ll “acquire” housemates camera at the weekend for long enough to catch up with things.

The photos are the least of it, to be honest. I haven’t really bought yarn in months. I think I’ve bought……10 skeins since the end of the summer. 7 of those were bargain bin skeins of Rowan Felted Tweed, and 2 full price ones to make up a Tangled Yoke that will circumnavigate the boobages. The other was a skein of the new Kaffe Fassett designed-for-Rowan ColourScene. It’s pretty damn expensive, but lurvely. One of the most expensive skeins I’ve bought to date, actually, which is scary. Will make a great hat though. Probably another Urchin, seeing how I’ve fallen in love with the pattern.

Still, I digress.

I think after major destashing, that I have at least a blank photo and a yardage for everything in my stash up on Ravelry.

I have hit SABLE in a crazy way. I have 26 FRICKING MILES of yarn. Ok, a 50g skein short of 26 miles.

Considering how little knitting I’m really getting done lately (I blame the large number of books that I got for Christmas. Must figure out how to read and knit at the same time without damaging either the book or the wip.) it’s a stash that’s gonna keep me going until retirement. Or until I go completely batshit some day and give 90% of it away.

It’s getting easier to part with. So is a lot of the “stuff” I own. The clearing out continues. The big black bin bags (trash can liners) in my hall have become a permanent feature, full of things that are to go to various people and places are not me. Even more terrifying - I’ve been culling books. Books! Now don’t get me wrong, I still have enough of them to open my own store, but the shelves are getting far less packed these days. There are 2 moving boxes of the little buggers on the landing, ready for departure, and another 2 boxes that need reading by someone in the house (we read a huge amount of the same kind of stuff) before making their way to the landing.

It feels fantastic. Once I got over the initial feeling (it’s not actually like selling your first born. Not that I have one of those or anything) it has just been liberating. The really bizarre thing is that the more stuff I give away, the more stuff I want to give away. It seems that I’ve finally managed to shed my urge to hoard things til doomsday (one of the less than win things I inherited from my mother).

For any Irish readers who might be interested, I’ll be sticking a link up soon to the ginormous list of books (and possibly yarn) up for grabs. It’s a mixed bag, but someone might be interested. I’d bookmooch them, but I have a load of points built up there, and none of the books I’m after seem to come up with any sort of regularity.

That was rather longwinded. A lesson in GaietyGirl needs to get off her butt and blog more regularly if ever I saw one.

Sorry it has been so long. Forgive me?

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Wahoo!

Friday, May 11th, 2007

Camera cables found, photos transferred, smiles all round.

So, to start, here’s the blue scarf of doom that I can now put to rest entirely, having blogged it. It’s being modelled by the birthday girl herself.

Michelle

One down :)

This is the current scarf, for my dad.

dsc00366

It’s going to be finished this weekend (it is, dammit!) and blocked next week. The colourway is entirely different to any pictures I’ve found of it online.That’s my foot crammed into the side of the picture. Did I mention that my room is teeny?

Well since I had my camera out, I thought I’d take another couple of pics, to make up for the ongoing drought here.

First off, we have my little yarn tidy.

dsc00368

The blue blob on the left with the needles in it is the cardigan. I’m not going to post pics til it gets to the stage where it’s done apart from the arms, because it’s knit in one piece and looks silly right now.

Next we have a cone of yarn of mystery yarn in a shade called Lagoon.
It’s a nice colour, but not a very nice yarn to knit with. Still, it’s yarn. It came to me as part of a large box o’ yarn from a destash that my mothers friend was doing.
In front of that is a leftover ball of Kilcarra in Moss, the ball of black is for a craft me-me thing that I should have started months ago.
In the ziploc bag we have 3 balls of Sirdar Blur for starting on as soon as I get done with the current scarf. They will, by the magic of television, be turned into a fabulous lacework wrap for my chief bridesmaid to wear at my wedding.
Underneath that lot is another bag of Blur and a few other bits. I am a one skein ho.

There’s more hiding in the wardrobe, and under the bed. And in the wardrobe of my room in my parents house. Oh, and a bunch went to the new house already.

drawerstash
…..and we all know that yarn kept in desk drawers at work doesn’t really count, cos we haven’t even had a chance to look at (or fondle) properly yet. It’s only just out of the mailbag, for heavens sake!

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I may have a problem

Friday, April 20th, 2007

Ahhh eBay.

I have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate it because aside from melting my credit card, there’s a huge amount of, well, shite on there.
Does anyone really need 15 balls of eye-searing pink polyester eyelash with glittery flecks in it?

….apparently, I do.

Ok, while I’ve yet to fork out my hard earned cash on 15 balls of eyelash, I have a weakness for those wonderful hanks of really, really nice yarn that pop up on a far too regular basis. Like the Lornas Laces stuff from yesterday.
Or the purple laceweight that I’m currently watching, but have restrained myself from bidding on as of yet.

It’s a confusing situation. In real life, I’m all about supporting local, independant businesses, and steering clear of big box stores and those supermarket chains where you can get approved for a mortgage and pay your car loan while buying, I don’t know, avocadoes. However, in real life (in Ireland at least) I’m not likely to pick up some amazing hand spun and hand painted yarn anywhere, never mind for the price of a paperback. (Yarn and books..I need some cheaper hobbies)

Mostly I try to balance. This will be easier when I move house, as there’s a fab yarn store about 2 minutes walk from my new house *squeee*

So how does everyone else buy? Online? Online from places that have bricks-and-mortar shops as well? Only from yarn shops? Do you count down the days til there’s a crafty fair on and load up then?

It’s not like my stash isn’t big enough already. That’s a whole other blog post though!

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Celebrations..sort of.

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

So, I handed over the scarf to the birthday girl, and there were grins all around. It’s taller than her, but who am I to argue with the taste of a 17 year old. I’m obviously not “cool” anymore.

To celebrate, I bought some yarn.
It wasn’t intentional, but I logged into ebay for a quick look, and 15 minutes later I was the proud owner of some fab Lornas Laces.

lorna's laces swirl chunky in river colourway

Isn’t it pretty? It’s in their River colourway, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I may have to temporarily hide it in my drawer at work. My darling other half doesn’t quite know how big my stash has gotten of late, and I’d rather not have 2 large boxes filled entirely with yarn when we move at the end of the month. Maybe I should get one of those storage baggies that you hook up to the hoover and it squishes duvets down to the size of a stamp. I could use the “see? it’s mostly just air” line then.

Think it would work?

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I’m gonna wash that scarf right out of my hair…

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

Well I managed to get the scarf of doom finished last night. Ends all woven in, blocked, the lot. I even succeeded in wrapping it in pink paper and attaching a card.
Go me.
This evening I’ll get a few pics of the birthday girl striking a pose with said scarf, and then I can finally wash my hands of it. Of course, now that I’m about to hand it over, today is going to be the warmest day so far this year…19 degrees (or 66 for those who prefer farenheit).

Cardigan progress…well I’ve finished one of the front sections, I’ve rounded the corner, done some casting off and shaped the armhole. Next step is some mid-line casting on, and I’m back into straight lines for 120-or-thereabouts lines.
Number of lines done on cardigan last night: 0.

I suck.

Well, to be more truthful, I got a little distracted. In my hunt for yarn needles I’d tipped my basket contents on to the floor and found the balls of yarn for the big bad WIP. I took this as a sign and got started on yet another of the squares. Oh, and I also decided what to knit with that delicious Jaeger mohair that I snagged off ebay. Not entirely unproductive, then!

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