Thanks for the link. I don’t have KP store my card info but I don’t think they will let me remove my name and address. Over at ravelry they were saying how the KP customer service had gotten to be not so great. I don’t know if KP was where the breach occurred that allowed fraudulent use of my card but at least the bank was quick on the draw and realized the use was out of pattern for me and declined a number of charges, the ones that did go through were refunded as soon as I submitted the required form. Maybe I’ll email KP and tell them that as I believe their site was at fault and they didn’t notify me I have no intention of ordering from them again. When this happened before I never found out how my acct. number was stolen and at that time I never had ordered online. Lovely world we live in.
I always shield with my hand when I enter my PIN. It amazes me that more people don’t do it. Anyone standing near you could see what your PIN is and there are cameras all over that crooks could look at and get PINs to connect with card useage. We all need to be more vigilant and aware.
Unfortunately cards get hacked and sites get hacked all the time. As far as I know I haven’t had fraudulent charges recently. Since it happens so often I’m not sure that the recent rash of hacking can be attributed to KP. With all the Christmas shopping at the time KP was hacked I think it could just well be any popular site. :shrug:
I’m pretty sure I use Paypal most of the time. I won’t stop shopping there just because of this incident.
It is frustrating. The way KP handled this has annoyed me a little, but at the same time I feel kinda sorry for them because they are fighting a losing battle against very determined gangs who make billions a year on thousands of these scams. Some of these chuckleheads are building their skills for the big leagues or helping to fund such organizations. It’s all very dire.
I think it may have been someone on this site who gave me the idea, but tomorrow I’m going to start using a gift card VISA for every transaction. My credit union sells them inside. I don’t think there is much reason to continue to work from my checking account anymore. I have a few things that are directly drafted, but the CU says they can fix that. Yay!
I think my yahoo account has also been hacked because I got a message saying I can no longer send emails without typing in a special code because of suspicious activity on my account. :nails: I checked my sent messages and nothing weird has been sent from my account, but its still an unnerving thing to have happen. I’m not sure I like the internet right now. :pout:
Warnings of suspicious activity make me wary. The call I got from my bank was recorded, I thought it was a phony call to get me to give out info and so checked w/my local branch. Found out it was valid. I’d just looked at my acct. online that morning and all was well was why I suspected a phishing scam with the call from the bank. The reloadable VISA seems like a good idea. My concern is what charges are associated with the use of one? I’ll have to look into it. I tend to use cash for a lot of local purchases, I only use bank ATMs. Even they aren’t 100% safe. I do use my card for gas. Maybe that’s a convenience I should forgo.
I got a Verified By VISA phishing email last week informing me that my card had been suspended. It looked so real that I called my bank. They told me that Verified By VISA is real and most retailers online are moving toward working with them, but that the email wasn’t real. I almost clicked that link. My credit union also said they would be happy to help me establish an account with Verified By VISA. They are really super helpful about online security and I need to start taking them up on it, because I’m a little too thick for this mess.
As far as card prices go, again I’m very lucky that I’m with a credit union. From their website:
“Applicable Fees and Charges: The fee for issuance and handling of each card purchased online is $2.50. The total cost of the cards will be debited from the account you select. After the twelfth (12) month of inactivity a $1.00 fee will be assessed each month until all funds on the cards are exhausted or activity resumes. If your VISA Gift Card is lost or stolen, an $8.00 replacement fee will be deducted from the remaining balance to be applied to the replacement card.”
To me, that’s a great deal. I hope your bank doesn’t charge you too much.
Mr Rie would tell you to always pay cash at the pump unless you have one of these gift cards. He still hasn’t recovered from getting scammed. Don’t mess with a man’s ride I guess. 
We only bank with the credit union. They make us change our password online regularly and have close accounts when they suspect fraudulent activity and issue new cards. We feel more comfortable with them than a bank.
That’s a good idea. I work for the federal govt. (VA hospital) so I should switch over to the Credit Union there. We’ve gotten tired of US Bank; they charge extra for everything. And just this Christmas, I ordered a bunch of Peet’s Coffee online for friends and relatives one day. The next day I went to get gas and the card was declined. The customer service rep said it was because of the extra unusual activity the day before. ??? Like, somebody’s going to steal a credit card and buy all their friends coffee? Maybe, I guess, but it seemed kind of crazy to me (especially when I needed gas!)
It’s good that they are paying attention though.
True! Hey, I am just now trying the circular join (have been preoccupied by trying to buy a new car the past 2 days, an equally daunting task) and I am still doing something wrong. I tried both Marina’s and Grumpy Grandma’s videos and the join somehow doesn’t happen. I get this huge long piece of yarn inbetween the two needles that I have to pull through by hand to tighten the stitch. I’ll keep trying, but something is wrong.
Wait! I think I have it now…I wasn’t wrapping the yarn around and cinching it tight!
How long are your needles and how many stitches do you have? If your needles are too long for the stitches, you’ll have to ‘shorten’ the cord by pulling out a loop of it about 2/3 of the way around so the stitches will be on the ends in order to ‘join’.
If you knit a few rounds, you can tighten up the stitch where you joined and it should be fine. Until the end is woven in the stitch will tend to loosen.
When joining in the round, this is what I do for that first stitch. I knit the first stitch with both the working yarn and the tail. I drop the tail and finish the round as usual with the working yarn. When I begin round 2, I have a double stitch now for that first one. I knit the two of them (working yarn and tail yarn) stitches together. Pull the tail tight. This closes up the gap. Pull the tail tight again for rounds three and four. After that, you don’t have to. Continue knitting around and around and you will have no gap. To avoid ladders when switching needles, move the first stitch as close to the tip of the needle as you can get without it’s falling off. Then knit as usual. The needle tips are tapered. Knitting that first stitch near the tip makes the stitch smaller and tightens it. Pull the yarn as tightly as you can while making that first stitch or two, then relax and finish the stitches on the left needle as normal. This works for both double pointed and circular needles using magic loop.
Another thing no one ever told me. I had to figure this out for myself because none of the magic loop or double point instruction videos tell you this. Always be sure your working yarn is coming from inside the tube or BETWEEN the two needles, not from behind the back one. If you place the working yarn behind the back needle, you will get an unwanted yarn over at the end. This will give you an unsightly huge gap where the work joins. Always be sure the yarn is placed BETWEEN the two needles when switching from one needle to the next.
Okay, I guess I am sort of a dingbat! I have a 16 in circular needle, and the yarn I have is very chunky velour-like baby Bernat. I tried casting on 60 stitches, and it was easy to join initially, but then it would become sort of “unjoined.” with a longer and longer piece of yarn that I wound up pulling through every stitch. Did this, frogged, and started over a few times. I then got a good join and knitted quite a bit. It then became apparent that the finished “hat” would be the size of a hula hoop! So then I just cast on 45 stitches, but had great difficulty stitching around because they got spread way out, and I had to DRAG them up the needles for each stitch. Not fun, and my hands (which seem to be a real weak link in this knitting thing) were hurting. The bases of my thumbs hurt so much I actually put a microwave corn bag on them so I can fall asleep.
I then tried a smaller needle (12 in., I think) and the hat looked too small, and it was sort of cumbersome to knit. I think I need a needle size that falls between the two. I really think it’s just an equipment issue. I also got the book “Circular Knitting Workshop,” so that will help as well as the input from the 'collective knitting brain!"
I think this is something that was happening and accounted for several of the times when things came “unjoined.” I can see that I just have to experiment and find the stuff that works. I now have a needle that is 29 in. and I will try Magic Loop next.
What’s funny is that the cable was actually doing this by itself (protruding out) part of the time, and I would do my best to push it back in. D’oh! It never occurred to me to just let it hang out! Live and learn! “Tomorrow is another knitting day!”
What cast on are you using?
Once you have joined you will just keep knitting around and the rows will lay on top of each other, so you shouldn’t be coming “unjoined” once you have a few rows done. Was the cast on just a bit loose?
It sounds like you may have tried to knit with something other than the working yarn because you shouldn’t be pulling up any more yarn than what’s needed to form the stitch. Sometimes if I’ve used the longtail cast on I will try to knit with the leftover tail and I pull a loose string through, but its an easy fix to undo those stitches and pick up the working yarn.
I’m probably misinterpreting what you have written but it may be that your project is longer than you want. Are you knitting from a pattern? Can you post a link if you are?
If your project really is wider than you wanted then you are probably adding in extra stitches when you didn’t mean to. If you want to maintain sixty stitches without any increases, one thing you can try is adding some stitch markers. You could do one stitch marker every ten stitches for example, with an initial marker that marks your first stitch. This way you always know where your new row starts. Then as you knit up you can check to make sure there are only ten stitches between each marker. This is what I do anyway.
Forty-five stitches should be put on dpns I think. If you don’t feel comfortable with those, then you should check out the magic loop technique.
Are you knitting a hat for an adult or a child? There are many free patterns on Ravelry for bulky yarn. The pattern can help give a starting point for what needle size to try and with what stitch count. The baby hats can be great practice for circular knitting as they are fast.
I was wondering if she’s using backward loop cast on. That one is only good for a few stitches not a whole hats worth…