Fluffy Clouds and Crochet Hooks

Retirement, again

2006-01-26T22:54:00.000-05:00

The past couple months have been torturous for me. My life has been falling apart, I haven't thought about picking up needles or hooks in the longest time, and quite frankly I just don't have the time or emotional energy to keep up the blog. I thank everyone for their interest in my blog, for the kind comments I've received over the past couple years. But this is something I need to put in the past, and spend more time living my present and planning for my future.

Goodbye & Good Luck to you all!

**Shannon**

Back on Track

2006-01-11T02:28:00.000-05:00

While I hesitate to say that my personal crisis is over, I will say that it has subsided enough that I'm confident of my place in the world again. It has been a draining few weeks, so much so that I haven't accomplished a thing having to do with fiber or crafting in quite a while. Not a single stitch knit in longer than I can remember. But I have had a chance to work on a collaborative podcasting endeavor I've been invited to join... now if I can get a mic when my paycheck hits the bank, I can record it. The mic headset I just bought in November or December is making me sound like I'm talking into a tin can - I must have dropped it one too many times.

What I have been contemplating lately is my vacation to Disney World coming up in March. Dh & I are planning our first ever getaway - we didn't even take a honeymoon. We're leaving the kids with my parents and fly out on Saturday, flying back the following Sunday. We think. The small problem of not having the money to schedule the trip ahead of time is sort of putting the whole thing on a hit-or-miss schedule. We get our bonus from work on Feb 28th, and then we can put down the deposits on everything. Since we're planning to return in a few years when the girls are old enough to keep up and remember the experience, it won't be a big deal if we have to forego some of the sights due to our late planning. I'm busy reading up on sites that offer tips. My co-worker Joe just got back from a trip he took their with his wife last month and he's full of information. I haven't been to DW since 1987 when I was 10, dh has never been there. Dh is already asking me what knitting project I'll be bringing with me.

Beginnings & Endings

2006-01-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

I was reminded by a post by Theresa on Keyboard Biologist to be so thankful for everyone we have in our lives that make things so much better. She's going thru what I imagine is a personal crisis right now and mentioned how wonderful her family has pulled together to help her thru it. My life is taking somewhat of a destructive turn for the worse, and like her, I'm not going to air all my laundry here, but wanted to chime in and mention how while blogging and journaling can be freeing and theraputic as well as fun, it's also a place where you need to draw the line. There is a time when you have to hold back what's really in your heart or going on in your life, no matter how much you wish you could just get it off your chest. I learned that lesson the hard way when I began talking about a job at one point. This is something more personal. Ironically, it is going to involve digging out journals dated with the year 1996! And how much similarity there is with the upheaval in my life these past 3 weeks and the months of it I endured over the same type of situation back then. Learn history or repeat it... I hope I don't have to repeat the whole saga, this time on the losing end.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T01:21:00.000-05:00

It's 1:22am, I'm still awake, and have to get up at 5:30 to go to work (please, people everywhere, don't call to complain about your bills today! Give those of us who have to answer the phones a break!) I worked on a crocheted shawl, and just realized that I screwed up the pattern, which is why I'm running out of yarn and still have a long way to go. The good news is that it's about 3/4 done - I just may need to go buy a 3rd ball of yarn to finish it. I was inspired by this pattern, but I was only decreasing at the end of each row, not the beginning & ending. My bad. I also finished the first ball of Foliage for my scarf, and can't decide what to do next - if I should try to block it either longer or wider, and leave it with the current 1 ball of yarn, or if I should make it a 1 1/2 - 2 ball scarf, or if I should try to make a hat and if there is leftover yarn add it to the scarf. Decisions! I'm just waiting for Wednesday to roll around. I need to get more knitting done, since I seem to be in a groove right now. Wednesday is my next day off. The good news is that today starts a new year at work, and I don't need to be on 100% panic alert about every little thing... I've got a bit of a buffer. My horoscope said that I should plan big with my new year's resolutions... I haven't made any in years. I'm going to give it some thought. How about you?

Time Flies

2005-12-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

I have no idea where my weekend went. And I got to sleep in today because I switched shifts with someone and don't have to be to work until 12:30. I did run to the yarn shop on Wednesday and bought one of the lantern moon rice baskets and some yarn to make myself a wrap and scarf. Later that night I went out and got some Red Heart, too. Before anyone starts frowning on me, let me explain. I found a pattern in the Knitter's Magazine that I bought a few years ago when I heard about the More Than a Sweatshirt pattern that was being done as a knitalong on the ample knitters group. That pattern isn't the one intriguing me right now - it's one called Ridged Raglan, and it's done with Berella 4, a 100% acrylic yarn that I'm not sure even Michaels carries anymore. I could have paid a fortune for Encore at the yarn shop, if I wanted higher end acrylic, but I'd just as soon pay $1.57 for 7 oz of Red Heart and not feel guilty about it. The picture in the mag is done with winter white and muted green, blue, purple and burgundy, I think... I decided to use light fushia as the main color with pale, med & dark purple and a variegated as the accents. The sweater is worked in sections that have mitered corners at the underarm, so I started with stitches that go up the seem from the side hip seem to the wrist seem. This is the back right side of the sweater. The genius of the pattern is that the seaming is done with a 3 needle bind off, so there's no sewing. I wish they had the pullover version for women, like they do for the kids, but I'm not in the mood to fudge something like that, so I'm going to make the cardigan version. The scarf I'm working on for myself is made from Berroco Foliage, in color 5930, which is navy, green, purple, turquoise and black. The yarn I bought to make myself a little wrap is Filatura Di Crosa Multicolor, in color 4053, which is mainly burgundy with other shades blended in. That capelet or shawl will probably done in crochet, just so that it gets done this winter so that I can wear it.

Burning a Hole

2005-12-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, the yarn store gift certificate and cash I got from my family for Christmas will be flying out of my purse tomorrow as soon as I can get to the yarn store. I am excited - it is not often that money I spend on yarn is not taking away from something that it is really meant for - ie. bills. Now the question will be what do I buy with it? I've been eyeing the drawstring rice baskets from Lantern Moon - those are about $36, if I remember correctly. I can still get a decent amount of yarn if I bought one of those. I've thought about getting another set of Denise needles, but really, how many projects do I want to be able to start - I already have about 100 sets of straight and circular needles - if I was desperate, I could use those. It's sort of like getting a 2nd puzzle mat - I'd like to start a new puzzle I got,but I'm forcing myself to finish the first one and only have one going at a time.

As far as yarn goes, I'd love to work on something small and simple, and preferably for myself. Unless I found a pattern I loved and yarn I could afford to make myself a sweater - it would be a first - I've never completed a sweater for myself. In a bulky yarn I might actually be able to accomplish it. Actually, I really wanted to make myself the More Than a Sweatshirt from Knitter's Magazine for a few years now, so maybe I can look for something that I could use for that, and then the basket would hold the project. I also want to finish a scarf for me and another for dh. His I've got going on size 15 needles and double stranded wool with a mock rib pattern, mine ... I don't even know if mine is still on the needles, I'm so frustrated with it. I'll probably rip out what I've already done, then go double stranded and crochet something with the cool alpaca that I'm going to destroy by frogging it. But at this rate, it'll never get done! And I'm coming to the conclusion that simple & bulky but done is better than a complicated UFO that never sees the light of day.

Episode 3 of Unraveled is coming, I swear! I'm finally 95% over my cough! You'd think that with all this time between episodes I'd have a lot of material set aside, but I haven't really done squat with anything except work, sleep & the holidays lately.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

The holidays always seem to be the longest & shortest parts of the year. It's a chaotic mess of weather, driving, and shopping, which seems to go on forever. And then, around Dec 27th, I'm at the mall still waiting for the wonderful event... Wait - Christmas is over? How did I miss it? I suppose better planning would help me feel more relaxed around the holidays, but the one year I power shopped and got everything bought way ahead of time, it felt like I skipped the hustle and bustle part that I enjoyed. Well, that was before I had kids and lived, worked and shopped 20 miles in different directions! And since we have multiple families to celebrate the holidays with, and I have to work both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, we're actually doing our christmas with my kids tomorrow after work. Then, hopefully, I can at least see them open the gifts from me and my parents. I spent Tuesday night programming "Know Your Name Elmo" so that he says "Courtney" every other sentence, and intermittently mentions the people, animals, colors and foods she likes. The damn toy is for my 20 month old and has a USB port - What is the world coming to??? Johanna is getting a Dora discman and a Chicken Little Cd & book. Hopefully we can find more books on cd for her, and I doubt dh's family took the suggestion and got her some. We tossed around the idea of getting her a mini dvd player, but she watches so much tv that I just didn't want to encourage her spending even more time watching movies. Maybe when we get our tax refund we can get her Hooked on Phonics, if they've come out with a cd version - the BJs & Sams near us only carry the cassette versions and we don't have a tape player for her.

The past few days I've been working on my Gauntlets from the cover of Not Just Socks by Sandi Rosner. I'm using yarn I got from Knitpicks.com, Simple Stripes in the Sweet Tart colorway. What I love about the pattern is that it makes the striping yarn look as if it's actually some sort of entrelac or modular knitting, but it's just the stitch pattern's wavy-ness. Although the stitch pattern is very simple, I find it takes some amount of concentration, and working k2tog with size 2 needles and fingering yarn is somewhat of a pain. I sort of wish that I'd used the plum parade yarn which is sport weight and would have worked up quicker, but on the other hand, this light weight yarn will still be good for these gauntlets although the stitch pattern is a little airy and I'm not using as small of needles as I would if this were a sock project - this yarn would probably require size 0's for socks (it reminds me of the Opal socks I made myself a couple birthdays ago - very thin yarn), but I'm using size 2's. I just hope to have them finished before the cold weather is over.

A few weeks ago I bought Mindy, a girl I work with, some yarn & needles and cast on her first sock project. It's actually her first knitting project period. Well, she hasn't gotten anywhere with it, primarily because I spent about 6 mins with her on a break trying to show her knit & purl. The good news I got today is that we seem to be working the same shift starting at the end of January, so I will hopefully have a knitting buddy on my team. Dh thought I would be upset, he got the same hours as me, 7:15-4:15, but he's off Mon/Tues and I'm off Thurs/Fri. While it's not exactly what I wanted, which would have been both of us off the same days, we're getting 1/2 of what we were looking for - we'll be able to drive together Wed, Sat & Sun, we're both working day shift so we'll have nights together, and my mom will have one of us home 4 days during the week. It sucks that we both have to work weekends, but this will hopefully only last until april, and then we're going to try again for the same shift. Alan keeps focusing on getting thru to our vacation in March/April. We really need that break and the time to spend together. Dh asked what knitting projects I'll be bringing along. :)

Long Week

2005-12-20T05:56:00.000-05:00

This has been the longest week of my life. It actually started taking the turn last Sunday when I started feeling sick, continued all week while I was so incredibly ill and without any sick days to take. And when you're sick and have no energy, every little thing seems like a big deal. This Sunday, still being sick and having gotten little sleep because I was christmas shopping until 11pm the night before, I ran out of patience with my kids at 7pm and had to call dh to take care of them until bedtime because I just couldn't. Today is my friday, and nothing could be better news. Except that dh swapped schedules with one of our co-workers so that we're working the same day shift instead of him working nights. We'll actually be able to do "Christmas Morning" with my kids on friday night when we get home from work. Saturday & Sunday I have to work and then go straight to the festivities at my brother's house one night and my in-laws the other, so we wouldn't have a chance to spend time with the kids for them to open their gifts with us. I love the holidays, but I rarely get to enjoy them with all the hustling from one place to another. Tonight we're going to get the wrapping done, I have a few more gifts to buy, but I'm trying to get everything done by Thursday.

Last night I got my 2nd gumball sock finished. I just need to weave in ends in both socks and then I can wear them. I started my swirl Sweet Tart gauntlets. I'm convinced that these are a great idea since my wrists and arms are so cold most of the time at work & home. I also discovered SuDoku puzzles and bought a book of them as a christmas gift for myself, so I've been working on those at work on my breaks and before bed. They are addictive. I first tried them at shockwave.com.

Podcast 3 will be recorded this week, if all goes well. My voice is mostly back and if I stop to blow my nose every 10 minutes I shouldn't sound too stuffy.

Down & Out

2005-12-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I've gotten another bad cold. I swear, they give my kids flu shots and I get sick every time. I lost my voice today and customers were telling me I was breaking up - it was like I had built-in static. I'm about to get a good night's sleep I hope. I got my new phone today. It's red. The important thing is that I got a pink Bluetooth headset, and !Shocking! it seems to stay on my ear unlike every other earpiece I've ever tried! I started Mindy's sock for her today on our break, hopefully I'll get her to master knit & purl by tomorrow afternoon so she can go with it on our weekend. I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish my spa cloth that I'm doing with orange cotton yarn. I'm starting to think I'll do narrow rainbow stripes on the one corner to liven it up. A design element, if you will. I don't feel the need to invest in another ball of bright orange yarn! Last night I also went and got "Podcasting" from B&N along with a knitting magazine and a book of origami for a christmas gift for myself from my husband. I obviously won't be recording episode 3 until my voice is back.

Sigh!

2005-12-11T03:31:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like I've made more podcasting progress in the past 8 hours than in the past few weeks. I got my RSS feed going, I think. And I figured out how to use iTunes as an aggregator so I've been subscribing to all the casts I've been listening to and updating my iPod. Next on the list is getting a new mic.

After checking in on cast-on.com and reading that Brenda was charged for MB usage because we used up too much bandwidth listening to her, I made a hasty trip to my host's new website (which, ironically, just changed hands and names this week) and tried to find out where my bandwidth limit was. I knew I had one, I just had never come near using it all. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I'm only using a tiny <1% of what I'm allowed. Unless I have some unprecedented increase in demand, this should be fine for now. I can't find anywhere what the overage rate is, but I'm betting it's not cheap.

A big thanks to Caroline at FiberCast for pointing me in the direction of Feedburner. That was the easiest part of this whole production so far!

Incognito

2005-12-10T04:54:00.000-05:00

The problem with the internet and blogging is that while you want people everywhere to read and agree with you, you don't want some people to find them either. It's sort of like hiding contraband under your mattress as a teenager. Like that's not the first place your parents are going to look. My point was proven this week when I got a comment from a possible co-worker, and dh came home with the address of a friend/former supervisor's blog to check out. You try to be as public as possible without disclosing too much. I found out the hard way a couple years ago to try to keep work out of the picture as much as possible. Even though I never gave my last name, the last names of any of the people I mentioned, or the name of the company I worked for, knowing that I needed to keep myself anonymous if I was going to gripe about work, I let a friend who was not so blog savy put some posts about her job on my blog and she *did* use last names, and next thing I know I'm being walked into HR to be fired, no questions asked. So why does work keep slipping into my Fluffy Cloud world? Because it's about 1/2 of my life! More, actually, since dh & I both work there and talk about work even when we're not there. Case in point, I've been up since 3:30 this morning, talking to dh about these darn schedule bids. I've come to the conclusion that the whole mess was designed to keep us from having any damn clue what it is we're asking for, therefore leaving us unable to dispute whichever schedule they end up giving us. It took me 2 1/2 hours to rank them all! And this process is supposed to be easier than going to us and asking what schedule we want... that's the funny part. Anyway, work has been eating up a lot of my life with it's grief lately. I got written up for not using my sick days and coming into work late, so now I am facing a brick wall for 6 months where I can't be late or call in without being put on a 9 month final warning. I'm not giving anyone the satisfaction of being fired or quitting over this. I just got a promotion and I refuse to let them push me out over something as dumb as being 5 mins and 15 seconds late to work. I think I got about 1 row done on my spa cloth yesterday. I still haven't finished the heel on my second gumball sock. It'll probably sit there for ages before I get back to it even though I know I could have it done and wearable in 30 minutes. What's holding me back? The gaps at the corners of the heel where I pick up stitches. It looks sloppy and I hate it. The first sock was bad, too, so I know I need to darn these closed somehow and work on some technique to use on future pairs. But that is the only drawback I've found to the afterthought heel method.

In regards to the podcasting... I got some great hints, mainly that I needed to get a podcasting book. Unfortunately, I don't get paid until the 15th, so you'll have to stay tuned until then for me to get the RSS feed going. But I promise that better stuff is coming.

Don't ya hate spam?

2005-12-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

I don't know what's up lately, but I've been getting the oddest spam postings on my blogs lately. Today's insanity "ahhh, no one has commented on this post because God does not want you to deride his true church. By the way, True believers also believe in naturalism and not wearing any clothes at all...so god argument, sinner." I can do nothing but laugh, shake my head and hit delete.
My new phone order was finally processed - I ordered it last Saturday morning, it was just processed before noon today, I probably won't get it until next monday or tuesday. I really can't wait. I love new electronic toys. This phone has an MP3 player, broadband video, plus I got the pink Bluetooth ear piece (another thing to keep charged! As if the ipod & phone weren't enough!) But, hey, maybe if I don't have to have some stupid wire connecting my ear to my phone, I'll be able to use the phone more. I honestly use my phone less than 100 minutes a month. Probably has something to do with the fact that I talk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at work. Jamie & I talked one night for 3 hours - I'm surprised the phone didn't burst into flames from the shock of it. The key to getting the Bluetooth earpiece was getting it pink so that dh didn't absorb it into his collection of stuff. If he wants one, he's going to have to get his own. We both still need memory cards for our phones, and of course they aren't even the same kind so we do need to buy 2 different ones. If they were the same, I'd probably try it in mine, decide I didn't really need it and give it to him.

Tomorrow is Silly Hat Day at school for Johanna. I made her a truly hideous Fun Fur & Woolease nightmare! It's a red wool ease, rolled brim, stockinette stitch cap that starts with red funfur, then goes to medium blue (still red wool ease yarn), then went back to red & red, with an icord tassle complete with a pompom at the end. I bet it will be warm, too. But honestly, it's absolutely grotesque. Kids love anything furry or shiny, so I'm hoping she likes it when she sees it tomorrow. Hey, if nothing else, it's something handmade with love. And it knit up fast enough for me to say that I could honestly knit her a presentable version in a few more hours.

The gumball socks are literally 1 heel away from being finished. They are on the back burner this week, as I really need to get the spa cloths done. Christmas will be here in no time. Tonight I spent an hour writing my kids names & date on the back of about 60 wallet pictures to sent out in my mom's Christmas Cards. I needed to pick shorter names! Johanna & Courtney is very long... if Jo had continued calling herself Jo Jo and we'd continued calling Courtney CJ, it would have been much easier, but we actually call Courtney "Courtney Jayne" and Johanna calls herself "Johanna" so I guess those names are sticking until they hit first grade and start to pick up nicknames. I'm sort of surprised that Johanna is called by her correct name - they don't mispronounce it or shorten it. I suppose that she's got a lot of years ahead of correcting people, but right now it's not bothering her, or maybe she doesn't even notice when people call her Jo Hannah or Jo Hana. For the most part, once we tell people her name is "Joanna" they don't pay attention to the silent h. What we think is really funny is that Jo prounounces it "Jew-Anna" like my great grandfather who was from Italy would call my grandmother Johann (Jew-Ann) with his accent.

Fortuitous Timing

2005-12-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the midnight madness sale at AC Moore, and of course I took the opportunity to ask Mindy if she wanted me to pick up some sock yarn and needles for her with my 25% off coupon. She jumped at the chance, which was cool - it gave me an excuse to go buy knitting stuff! With someone else's money! What could be better? She warned me that she likes dark, boring colors, like Black. Ok... I thought we were going to get along here, but I can see that we just parted ways on color choices - I like bright, outrageous stuff, she's more conservative. I got Magic Stripes, not one of my favorite sock yarns, but the price was right and she wanted something self striping. I picked up one ball of yarn and a set of size 2 dpns for $7! What a deal.

I came home and worked on my sock, which is now missing a heel and about 2 rounds at the toe before I graft it closed. I can't believe how fast those socks worked up! Now, I might have been thinking about the Crayon colorway next, but a miraculous thing happened tonight: I found my cheat cards for the Weeping Willow shawl! I have these little micro flashcards on a binder ring that I had written down the pattern repeats on, one row per card, and as I finished each row I turned to the next card. Well, the pattern went in one direction, the yarn in another, and these flashcards in a third. I had been stalled on the project because I couldn't figure out where the heck I'd left off. I really want to work on that project. Maybe on my weekend, Wed & Thurs. I also need to start working on the spa facecloths again. Work has been incredibly busy, so I haven't had a chance to work on them there. I just really want to get 1 set done for my one aunt. I think I can handle that during the next few weeks.

Tomorrow is my daughter's "wear your pj's to school" day. Friday is wear a funny hat day, so I'm going to dig thru my enormous stash of fun fur and make her the fuzziest hat I can come up with!

I can almost taste it...

2005-12-01T23:34:00.000-05:00

Completion, that is. Gumball sock #2 is now beyond the heel stitches put on waste yarn, meaning that I'm in the home stretch! I think I have about 6 stripes until I begin the toe decreases. These will definitely be done by the end of this weekend. I'm also into the decrease half of the first spa facecloth, which is from a pattern found in Knit It!, not Easy Knitting as I'd mentioned in one of my Unraveled episodes.

This morning I went to my storage unit to pull out yarn for my aunt. My mom's sister Debbie passed away in August from Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 52. My other aunt, the baby of 4 children, asked if I had yarn I'd like to donate to her to make lapghans for the cancer center. Taking acrylic yarn off my hands - no problem at all. The question was what to give her first. I ended up giving her the chunky red heart and Chunky USA. I also pulled out a small bag of sock yarns for me. :) As if I needed more today, right?

Wednesday I went to Joann's and got a "basket" made of metal and with the look of a school locker - vents on one side like on the top of my Jr High locker. It's bright pink. It's going to be my desktop yarn bin for work. I already tossed in 3 socks in progress (Blues, Crayons, and Gumball) and the cotton for my spa facecloths. Now that the weather is getting crappy around here, I'll most likely stay inside for my breaks & lunches and veg at my desk with my ipod & yarn.

I can't believe it's December already! We're bidding on schedules this week that will be in effect for Jan-March. Usually, they are 6 months at a time, but I guess this time we're going just 3 months. I think they're getting desperate and are just trying a lot of different things to see if any of them work. The big problem for us is that dh & I both work there and are close in seniority, which is how the bids are ranked, but there are almost as many different schedules as there are people, so trying to either get the same days off or the same start/end times is almost impossible. It went fom about 35 for July-Dec, this time is 482 choices! To put into numerical order from most to leasrom t favorable. I guess I really wouldn't care so much except that dh & I really need to carpool, and would like to have at least 1 day off together. It's going to be better no matter what because we'll both be working days, giving us time to spend together with the kids every night no matter what. For the past 5 months, I've been working days and have the kids every night, dh works nights but has weekends off, so really the only time we see each other is Sat/Sun nights after I get home from work. People at work make comments about how great that must be for our marriage, figuring that if we don't see each other we must not fight, but we are just the opposite, when we are together the most is when we get along the best. We started out as friends and I still consider him my best friend, so when we don't see each other for 3 days at a time it gets frustrating.

Oh, and as a side note, I was listening to talk radio on the way to pick up my car from my brother's today and heard that The Medley Centre has banned card games & chess playing in the food court. Love it! It's about damn time they decided to play fair and keep the older loiterers out of the mall. Even though I'm well out of my teen years, it still ticks me off that the security guards and mall managers chase out the teens who are more likely wasting all their money in the mall, yet let the "free refill" coffee crowd hang out all they want. I remember when the mall first opened and I'd go there on weekends with my friends, my mom would make sure I had at least $5 in my pocket so that I wouldn't get in trouble for loitering. The Walden Galleria mall in Buffalo has a 'no teenager without an adult' rule in effect on weekends that I think is a spectacular idea and hope that the Medley Centre folks start something similar.

Socks Galore

2005-11-29T21:55:00.000-05:00

Well, the sock addiction is still in full swing here. I worked on the mate to my Gumball sock that I finished last week. We were on the thruway heading to Niagara Falls this afternoon when it was really crappy out, rainy and miserable. I'd struggled to pick driving projects, but settled on the grey wool scarf (Dh gave me a deadline of Thursday for that to be done - HA! Obviously the man has no idea how long 6 feet of boring 3x3 ribbing with size 7 needles and worsted yarn will take me!) and the gumball sock. Now, the 2nd sock in a striped pair always seems to go quicker for me because I can literally pull out the amount of sock yarn needed to get to a certain point, then just work until I run out of loose yarn. Case in point, I pulled out the 5 stripes worth of yarn that needed to be ribbed. These are going to be identical (instead of fraternal) socks, so rather than measure with a tape, I will just compare the 2 socks as I go and use the first sock as my guide.

Since I do have so many started socks using this Parade yarn from Knitpicks.com, I'm running out of size 2 dpns! I'm actually using the bryspun ones I hate on the gumball pair because I was so anxious to get the pair done.

One of the girls at work saw my finished sock (we were in a training the week before while I was working on it and she doubted my ability to turn what I was working on into a real sock.) She said that she wants me to teach her to knit socks. I told her that it might be a good idea to start with something simpler, like a scarf, rather than 4 dpns and fingering or even sport weight yarn. She said that she's only interested in socks - she likes the idea of her feet being warm. Well, ok, I guess. She has me to help her, so it shouldn't be a complete disaster, but I remember my first sock and how concerned I was about the gaps between the needles, etc. I think I also went thru 2 sets of Brittany #1 needles because they lost all rigidity and strength (sort of like a toothpick if you suck on it for any amount of time will get limp). Unfortunately, she & I don't have the same lunch time, but possibly when we start our new schedules in January we'll be able to have knitting time at lunch. I just got an easy sock pattern using the after-thought heel and woolease/size 5 needles, so maybe we can use that to start. Since I taught myself to knit, I have a hard time teaching other people what to do. If someone had taught me, I might have some idea of how it was explained to me, and therefore be able to explain it to someone else. I can only show them.

Today I watched an episode of Knitty Gritty that featured knit ankle boots. And I can only say - WHY? And I noticed that the same boring episodes of Knit One, Purl Two are on again. I think there were only 6 episodes of that show taped, and none of them are that outstanding, although I love her baby blanket. Can't afford to make it, but I love it just the same. I will say one thing - that show was on about 3-4 years ago when I first started knitting and the hat pattern she did in the round with Noro Silk Garden was probably my first project with "real" yarn. I'd been to the yarn shop before, but hadn't gotten into any of the special yarns, and that pattern is what really prompted me to give expensive stuff a shot. Of course, 1 ball of that yarn is not enough to make a hat that is big enough for my head, but that didn't stop me from making 2 or 3 of them anyway! Just love the way that yarn stripes!

Unraveled: Episode 2

2005-11-27T23:43:00.000-05:00

Finally, here is the 2nd episode of Unraveled: Shannon's Battle with Life & Yarn. I think I finally figured out a work-around for the recording of the show and conversion to mp3 format, it's just a tiresome and drawn out process. Now, be patient while I try to work on the RSS feed!

Black Friday

2005-11-25T23:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, first let me start by saying, due to technical difficulties, I have not been able to get episode 2 of Unraveled into mp3 format, but I'm still working on it.

Today we got up at 4:10am to go do the early bird black friday sales. It was the first & last time we'll probably bother. We stood in line at Best Buy behind about 1,000 other people, and by the time we actually got in the store everything in the ad was "sold out" until the next wave came up in inventory at 10am, of course after the sale was over. I'm sure it makes sense to someone to purposely withold product that you have people standing there with cash in hand, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Dh got a wool pea-coat from BonTon, reg $150, for $48. We got all the kids done at Toys R Us, which was a relief. I went to AC Moore because they had a 60% off coupon, of course spending way more than I wanted or needed. I got wool to make dh a ribbed scarf (boring!) to wear with the coat. Grey! I was trying for red or blue, but he insisted on boring grey. I got some sequined yarn in deep purple to make myself a little coin pouch, and 6 bright balls of crap cotton to make spa facecloths for christmas gifts. I also picked up the Little Box of Scarves with the coupon. I also picked up pads of christmas and pastel scrapbooking paper, for scrapbooks and also for letter writing, etc. The paper is cheap enough if you buy it in bulk packs when it's also on sale, so I don't feel like it's a waste to write a letter or copy a pattern onto the fancy paper.

This afternoon I ran to the yarn shop for another set of Lantern Moon needles, my new obsession. I thought I loved Brittany's but these are better. They are also a lot more expensive. I now have sizes 7 and 10. I decided that if I'm making 4 cloths x at least 5 people, it was worth the $19.99 investment.

I also got my 2nd shipment of sock & shawl yarn from Knitpicks today. I love when the cute mailman brings me yarn - that's a dream come true. I was really impressed with the Color Your Own wool, it's not as thin as the Zephyr I was comparing it to in my mind. Now I need a nice simple pattern to turn those 2 big skeins into an awesome warm wrap. I have so many gifts going. Today my mom mentioned wanting me to make her friend a red felted purse for christmas. I don't mind, the felting projects go fast because of the huge needles. Unfortunately, she didn't mention it before I went to the yarn shop. Now I'll have to make a special trip - Darn!

Oh - My - God!

2005-11-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

Can you believe this? I've been mentioned by name on another podcast! From Europe! I'm totally tweaking here! I got a comment email today from Marie, who mentioned me in her own podcast KnitCast! I feel like a star!

In the wake of this recognition, I feel like I must put out episode 2 right away. The problem is trying to get it recorded without everyone in my family hearing me talking to myself! This is something that my parents would never be able to comprehend and my husband humors me about.

The good news is that I am making knitting progress. 1 sock down, 2nd wedge of my Pie Wedge Ravenswood shawl finished, Clapotis still moving forward slowly but surely.

Episode 2 of Unraveled will be posted tomorrow. And, I am working on the whole RSS feed thing - apparently that's what officially makes an mp3 file into a "podcast" - who knew!?

Sock Addiction

2005-11-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know I'm now completely addicted to sock knitting. I realized that I may or may not have enough to yarn to do the toe & heel on first Knit Picks Parade "Gumball" socks using the afterthought heel. What should I do? Hop online and order $30 more sock yarn, of course! I picked up 1 skein of each of the 3 colorways I bought last time, 2 skeins of the fingeringweight Crayons colorway, 3 skeins of a blue/black colorway of the fingering weight yarn for dh's socks. I love the afterthought heel idea. Now, when I'm cursing about doing the heel in a few days, remind me I said this. But my big hangup with socks is that I get stuck at the heel/gusset because I hate having to pay attention to what decreasing I need to do. I feel like I spend all my time counting and recounting. This method allows me to spend my knitting time actually knitting, and then when the time comes to do the heel, I can choose a quiet time when I have the ability to pay attention to what I'm doing. I've whipped up most of a sock in the past 2 days. I can even get dh's big socks done within a week at this rate. With the sucky winter weather upon us, I will probably stay indoors during my lunch break and just work on my sock at my desk like I did today. The thing I love about striping yarn is that it's so easy to see progress and measure how much of the knitting you want to get done in a specific amount of time. I usually pull 1 stripe of yarn out of the ball at a time so I can see that I'm making progress as I go. I might need to buy more dpns, which I never thought I'd have to do, since I had so many. But now I can see myself having a pair on the needles at home and at work at the same time. I just hope that I don't regret spending the money on the lighter weight yarns. I have a lot of them already, but sometimes the stuff you already have doesn't inspire you. I also picked up some natural undyed lace weight wool to make into either a lace scarf or shawl. I image painting it with dye after it's knit up... with polka dots and wiggles.

Too many choices

2005-11-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

This week I have been doing a lot of knitting, but not making a whole heck of a lot of progress. Last night I was even contemplating declaring myself "done" with knitting once I run out of yarn. Ha! That lasted until this afternoon when I got purple & red woolease to make my daughter a "red hat ladies" scarf for her red winter coat. Last night I stopped on the way home and picked up a book called "Not Just Socks" which has patterns for self patterning sock yarn being used for socks, gloves, legwarmers, scarves, hats, you name it. I've been wanting to make myself gauntlets or fingerless gloves, so that was my first intention, but then I realized there was a pattern for afterthought heel socks, so that's what I cast on for last night with some of the yarn I got from Knit Picks a week or so ago. I also picked up a bunch of new stitch markers (the lost sock fairy seems to be getting into the knitting implement business - I seem to be losing them at Mach speed!) and a Crocheknit cable hook to use with the woolease I picked up today for that scarf. Let me just save you all the wonder and tell you that it's a very long process to get any substantial length built up, and you'd certainly do better with either crochet or knitting than trying to combine them both and coming up with something sort of sloppy looking. I picked up the stitch markers to use on my Clapotis scarf, which is coming along, however I am still doing the set up rows - I have about 30 rows left to go before it's the correct width and I can start dropping stitches.

Oh, another fun thing I did today - went to a new store that opened here, "Steve & Barry's University Sportswear." I've seen the store on my trips to Buffalo but had never been inside of it. LOVE the store!!! Guess where my christmas shopping will be done? Everything in the store is 9.98 or less! Even coats! I'm not a sports fan, but they have other cool stuff like tshirts with cool sayings on them (I got dh a hoodie that says "I see dumb people" and a ribbed shirt he can wear to work, and a New York faux-long sleeve under short sleeve shirt in an awesome shade of pink that I've found I look awesome in - and it came in my size XXL - all 3 items came to 30.17 with tax!) I asked the cashier if the 9.98 or less pricing was permanent or just for the grand opening, and he said that the prices might go up a little, but not much - according to the website nothing is over $10 in any of their stores - but the guy also told me that the Buffalo store also has a high price of 7.98. In my town we had this awesome mall built in 1990, which rapidly declined to 3 anchor stores (ie - Sears) and a few vitamin (GNC/Vitamin World) & sporting good stores like Champs & Footlocker. Even the foodcourt emptied out over time. Well, a new developer bought the mall around this time last year, worked out tax breaks in order to get the ball rolling. They renamed the mall "Medley Centre" ( I remember when they opened the mall 15 years ago and it was named Irondequoit Mall and on our town markers at the edge of town, they said "Home of Irondequoit Mall" - There was such outrage from the townspeople that they eventually took them down - they said that we were much more than a place with a mall. ) What has been really sad for me is that I remember spending so much time there as a teenager, I worked there for several years, at CVS (where I met my husband), Electronics Boutique, Lechters, Lauriats Books. My husband & I met there and had a lot of friends there. And then the place turned into a ghost town, where the only people there were either the geriatric coffee crowd, the power walkers, and the shoplifters. There had been rumors that people were being mugged and attacked there, and of course no one ever made a strong enough point that these incidents were usually urban legends, so the fear started bleeding into the community of snobby suburbanites. People have been critical of the mall since day one, saying it was a mistake to build it in the first place. These pompous assholes are the reason the place fails, because people like them are the ones making the decisions as to what should be in the mall... and they think they have their hand on the pulse of the shoppers in our area. The mall is on the city border, and a lot of urban culture is centered around showing off certain things, like the brand of shoes and clothing, the jewelry, the electronics... and brand name stuff doesn't come cheap. Instead of having those stores in our mall, where it might attract undesirable shoppers, we make them drive across the city and spend their $150 on sneakers in another suburb. Somehow, that was making sense to the decision makers. On the other hand, my wealthy cousins will go out of their way to purchase something "average" at the best price they can find. I'm just hoping that the mall gets back in working order, because it's a shame to see it going to waste. They are opening a kids play area next month, which I can't wait to see. I am the type of person that will frequent a place that I want to see succeed, even if it's not the "best" place to go. I figure that if we all give up on the newbies, places like my favorite yarn shop wouldn't exist. I thought it was humorous to see all the town board folks there to observe the shoppers actually showing up there today... the town supervisor taught me Clarinet as the music teacher when I was in 5th grade, one of the other board members was the career placement person at the business school I attended, failed me on my mock interview because my skirt was too short (ok, now, ya'll know how conscious I am of my weight and that I'm overweight - I've NEVER been accused of wearing anything too tight/short before or since), and the only person she succeeded in getting a job was herself.

Anyway, off the soapbox...

After the mall, we went to lunch and the woman behind me had a kureyon felted bag that was looking as ratty as mine do after a few weeks of wear. I'm going to start a new felted bag using some of the Cascade 220 I have stockpiled. Not sure if it will be striped, intarsia, or solid - I need to think some more about it. I do have that book 1000 knitted motifs that I could use. I've never done intarsia, although I have done a lot of fair isle, so maybe that will be my next challenge. My need for warm things may be going downhill again, they seem to have the temp in my office set to "brick oven" lately - to the point that I'm getting physically ill from being too warm, coming home feeling dehydrated, headachy and nauseated. But a new purse is never a bad idea!

Unraveled: Shannon's Battle with Life and Yarn

2005-11-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, here's my first attempt at podcasting. I will warn you that I was very nervous at the beginning and my script reading is evident. Hopefully I can loosen up for the next bit. Please, any comments are welcome, topics are encouraged. I expect to do more with the next one - this was enough of a trick to put out for now. I need to try out different software - the stuff I downloaded already sucks. Since I don't know any famous knitters, I can't do interviews. Since my software won't allow me to record music at an audible level, I can't do that at this point either... but I'm working on it.

I also received the bag of !!FABULOUS!! sock yarns from Knit Picks today. Very cool striping yarn, enough for 4 pairs for me and a pair for dh. I started a pair of legwarmers today since dh forgot to bring home my sock in progress from work. The cold nasty weather is upon us, I've lost almost 20 pounds, and I'm feeling chilly almost continuously. I'm planning to make myself wool scarves, gloves or mittens, and legwarmers to get thru the winter. I think I might use some of the striping yarn to make Jo a pair of legwarmers, too. At least if it's sock yarn it won't shrink or felt if it gets thrown in the washer/dryer. I'm using a heathered green with hints of red & navy Cascade 220 to make my "Minimal Legwarmers" from The Knit Stitch, a book I've decided I really NEED in my collection. I'm not sure what size to make Jo's... how tight, how long. They will likely need to fit over her pants and under her winter boots. I don't know if I should make them fitted at her ankle so she can wear them around the house without them bagging down and making her trip over them. I have a book of legwarmer patterns, but none are for a size 4-5T child.

Broadcast Background

2005-11-02T04:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's 4:48am and I'm wide awake. Only at this hour of the morning could an idea become so exciting that you can't sleep. I was awoken by a crash as dishes dh had stacked fell on the floor, then of course I was up and we bitched about our jobs a bit, he crashed at 2:30 and I decided to check my email and browse my daily links. I was on Laura's site and decided to click the links to the podcasts she'd mentioned. I listened to a few minutes of Cast-On and thought "Hey, I can do this!" I was a DJ in high school and miss that soapbox. I miss the creative aspect of it - preparing the material for the show, what music you are going to play, what tidbits of information & trivia you'll share, what recent experiences you want to express your opinions about. And what the hell, if no one listens to it, what difference does it make? I'll still have the experience of creating the 'cast. No pressure, no live dead air to contend with, and what the heck - it might help my performance at my job if I'm getting some practice with speaking slowly and clearly. The next step is to get a headset with Mic if we don't already have one around here. I'm psyched. Anyone have any advice?

More Sock Yarn

2005-10-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I couldn't resist the Knitpicks email yesterday, so I ordered 11 skeins of sock yarn last night. Enough for 4 pairs for me and 1 for dh. How could I resist, at 2.99/ball? Dh said, "well, order $20 worth" when I mentioned that there was a good deal on the yarn. I said, "But, button - it's free shipping if you spend $30" and then he said to go ahead, it was better to spend $30 on 10 balls of yarn than hundreds of dollars on a few, like I tend to do. And, I also got 3 balls in a manly-ish colorway to make him a pair of socks. He likes the Regia socks I made him and reminded me that I'd started a pair for him. I didn't feel like working on those, so I pulled out the yarn I got from Smiley's a while back and started a pair of boring ribbed socks from my Vogue Knitting on the Go book (I think it was Socks II). I'm about 2" into the cuff on the first sock, using size 1 needles and green/beige/grey yarn that looks sort of camoflauge-y. I hate ribbing, but I'm going to force myself to follow this pattern. If I finish a pair for dh, I can work on the next pair for myself without feeling guilty about it. I still need to finish up the pair for my mom as well. Those are being done with the Magic Loop method and I get tired of dealing with that in short spurts - it's hard to get back in the groove.

BYO CYO

2005-10-27T22:20:00.000-04:00

Well, today I dug out my CYO Philosopher's Wool sweater and worked a few rows. It's going to get done eventually, but probably not before spring. I bought this kit in Nov 2003 and have been swearing that I will get it done each winter & spring ever since. I think I'm about 16" done with the body, just 3 more inches to go before I start the armhole steeks. At this rate, it will be 2007 before I get to the shoulders, and probably another 2 years before I actually have the guts to cut open the steeks.

Blogger to the Rescue

2005-10-27T14:00:00.000-04:00

What do you do when your website hasn't been updated in a whole year? You figure out how to get blogger to point to that index.html page of the site and start uploading pictures! My family website hadn't been updated since LAST HALLOWEEN!!! I lost FrontPage when I reformatted my hard drive and haven't been able to find the disk for it to reinstall, so I gave up and went with Blogger for now. At least they've updated it to the point that you can upload pictures directly from the interface now (something I hadn't realized in the past). Hmm, I may actually get some pix up on this site now. I've decided to keep this blog going only because I can be more blunt here than where my family goes to see what's going on. And I'm opening that site so that Alan and possibly some other family members can post to it.

I haven't gotten much in the way of knitting done lately since my wrists have been so sore. I did crochet a quick scarf for Courtney out of Paton's Be Mine yesterday. I had to double strand it with a size P hook, the only way to crochet with that crap because it's impossible to see the stitches. I put a 3 stitch hole in it to tuck the other end thru so that it doesn't fall off. Both girls love it.

Yesterday I came to the sobering conclusion that I'm not having any more kids, so I can start doing away with some of the kids patterns and books I have in my stash and also go thru my storage units and get rid of so much stuff I had been saving for baby #3. As long as I don't dwell on what I'm possibly giving up, it should be theraputic to purge that stuff. It's not like we're getting sterilized or anything - we can have another baby down the road if we decide to.

Retirement

2005-10-14T03:34:00.000-04:00

Over the past 3 days I've been giving retiring my blogging life completely some thought. Stuff going on in my personal life is not lending itself to blogging (ie - don't want to get fired from another job because of it), I am starting to feel that the blogs are weighing me down, making me feel guilty, instead of inspiring me to keep on. I love reading other people's blogs, don't get me wrong, but I'm just not feeling that my blog is contributing anything to society. I've found myself content to keep a Word document on my computer that I can add to as a thought comes to me, using actual names and people and places from my life. No abbreviations or riddles. I've been getting spam comments, which is worse than none at all. I don't have enough time in the day to go to work, take care of my kids, and do my homework. My "weekend" was spent reading romance paperbacks for the first time in ages. And I feel like I'm living a slightly more private, secluded & safe life since the recent goings on haven't been published. Sort of like when I only had penpals via email. I think that blogging has taken a lot of that personal contact away - my friends who have blogs don't email, and neither do I if I know they're reading my blog.

Sooo, this may be my last post for a while. I'm keeping my blogs online for now, but I won't be adding to them very often.

1 blankie down!

2005-10-06T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished the knit portion of my afghan tonight and started the crochet edging. Have I mentioned how much I hate to crochet onto things that are already knit, woven or sewn? My mom complained that the yarn isn't soft. Well, it's $3/pound acrylic - what do you want? I'm hoping that a trip thru the washer & dryer help soften it up, and if I need to steam the shit out of it, that's on the list as well. I feel a great sense of accomplishment just from the fact that I used up almost 3 pounds of yarn in a week and actually mostly finished something. Like that adjective phrase? Sorta like my saying that I was almost half done with the bottom of my daughter's sweater coat. Dh was like, "Only a knitter would describe progress like that... how much is that, exactly, 1/8th, 1/4th? You're almost part way done with one piece of a complete project?! And that's progress?"If he knew how painful 100 ridges of garter stitch with solid colored yarn was, he would appreciate my progress!

Anyway, since I'm loving this style of blanket so much, I think I might break out the 3 pounds of "Pound of Love" I got in denim, red & white and make another blanket. That yarn is considerably softer. Maybe the next one will be for my nephew, who is due to be born any day now.

I've been reading about Theresa's trip to Hawaii and her socks in all the pictures they took along the way, and it's been making me wish for an afterthought heel sock project to take along with me to work and wherever. I've never done one and need to look up a pattern. I certainly have enough sock yarn to start a pair.

Dh & I got into an argument over our computers and where they will reside when we move into our studio at some point early next year. My mom & I are of the opinion that we should get computer armoirs so that I can shut & lock the door so my kids can't get into my crap and it doesn't look like a mess when I'm not using it. Dh is of the opinion that the computers need to stay in the basement so that we aren't tempted to clutter the area around the computers upstairs. The options really boil down to him buying me a freaking laptop with wireless broadband access, or getting the armoir... I refuse to be stuck in the basement in the middle of the night trying to surf the web after the kids go to bed because that's the only time I can leave them unattended to come down here. I wish I could just throw out the computer and go back to the old days. I remember when I thought it was so special to get email, now I get zillions of messages, mostly junk, on an hourly basis. I was writing a weekly summary for my IS class and mentioned how people are getting away from sitting at their computers for some things, like we have mp3 players, phones that can keep your address book, schedule, pictures, music, video clips, internet access, instant messaging, etc right on them so you don't have to visit your computer frequently to check into things. I can't wait until I can upgrade to one of our newest phones with a qwerty keyboard so I can email from my phone when I have a chance.

Progress, FINALLY!

2005-10-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

I've been absent for a while, but I have good news - I actually got some knitting accomplished. I'm 3/4 of the way thru the bottom half of Jo's Einstein Jacket. I also got 3/4 of a machine knit afghan done this week. I figured out the seam as you go method on the USM and LOVE IT! The 2nd panel was a little sloppily attached, but it isn't too bad for my first try. The 3rd panel was attached beautifully. I'm going to do one more strip of blocks and then I have to figure out what kind of border I'm going to use.

We had our first AC Moore open here last week and I have been there 3 times already. I got the yarn for my afghan there - Caron 1 pound skeins for like $3 each on sale. I went back and bough a lot more, thinking I was going to run out, but I'm now thinking I might finish this blanket with the 2 solid and maybe need to break into the 2nd variegated skein since those are only 10 oz instead of 16 like the others. That means I can return/exchange the other 3-4 skeins and get my money back or swap for different colors so I can make another afghan. Today I got an oragami kit that is really worthless. Luckily, I used a 50% off coupon. At Michaels I got a ball of narrow ladder yarn, Matrix, I think it's called, in a pretty pale purple to make a scarf to go with my leather jacket that was my aunt's. I also got a rectangular loom which I may return because it's really uncomfortable to use in comparison to my wood one that is buried somewhere in storage. I also got a skein of soft pink yarn for Jo to use. I got her a set of the red heart children's needles which I think will be easier for her to use than the short bamboos I'd gotten. I got 3 wine bottle holders from Michaels the other night and plan to use 2 of them for my needles, and for Jo to use the third one for her yarn & needles.

I've also been on my diet for about 12 days and have lost 12 pounds so far and I'm feeling great. My cousin who I rarely see ran into me today (outside Michaels) and commented on how I looked like I'd lost weight. I don't know if I'm going to stay with the Medifast plan because it's so expensive, but I might try to use some regular slimfast type products instead of buying the expensive packets of food from Medifast. I broke the 200lb barrier, so my next goal is 190, which I haven't been since right after I had courtney 1 1/2 years ago.

Snags!

2005-09-29T22:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight I tried again to work a multi-strip blanket on my USM. This time I decided to go with some acrylic ribbon yarn I got from Smiley's a while back for $1/ball. The first ball went great. The 2nd ball I decided to try using from the outside to see if that would lessen the twisting issue. BIG MISTAKE! Now it's getting all hung up trying to unwind as I use it and I think that's what is causing a problem with the latches of the needles getting caught in the weave of the ribbon. I give up for tonight. Now I know it takes a little less than 1 ball per square, and this blanket is 3 strips x 5 blocks, so I have enough yarn to make this project. It would be a nice clingy spring/summer blanket.

I'm still working on my Knitster illusion scarf and dug out my Ravenswood Lorna's Laces Heaven shawl and started working like mad on that yesterday so that I can get it done and justify the Icehouse skein I saw at the yarn shop Tuesday night. My LYS is growing my leaps & bounds - it's so exciting! Now if I could just knit faster to keep up with all the cool stuff I like! I got out The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville from the library so I could take another look thru that. I'm still contemplating the Einstein coat, although I'm afraid that I'll look & feel like the Abominable Snowman in it. I've lost about 7.5 pounds in 5 days - I'm not exactly planning ahead for a smaller size at this point. I really need to get back to the CYO sweater, as well. I think I have knitters block on that because I know I'm getting close to the sleeve steeks. I finally got my 200 Knitted Blocks book and haven't really had a chance to look at it yet. This winter I want to start a sqares afghan. It will be cold & crappy, I won't want to go out during lunch or breaks, so I might as well have a little project to work on. I'd really like to get a set of Lantern Moon needles, a small Lantern Moon rice basket, and some really classic wool yarn and keep it at my desk so I have a little something earthy in sight.

I have also had the urge to start a pair of afterthought heel socks - something really mindless that I can just knit & knit forever. I have the yarn I got from Smiley's to make dh a pair of socks a few months back that I could get started on. I'm into the instep of the Tahoe socks for my mom. I need to have those done by christmas at the latest. I know I said I wasn't doing handmade gifts this year, but our family seems like it's shrinking faster than it's growing. We lost my aunt but will be gaining my nephew within a few weeks. I feel like I should be making my aunts and mom something special this year.

Co-Workers I could do without

2005-09-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

I was browsing some online websites and caught a link for the most annoying co-workers. They found that narscacistic people were the most annoying because they thought they were better than everyone else, but their bosses and co-workers thought they were below standard. Well, my own co-workers ground on my nerves today, and this is what bothers me - people who speak loud enough for the world to hear, then get pissy when someone responds to their statement/question, etc. I work with a bunch of mid-20's bitchy females that think they know everything and are confident even when they are dead wrong. I can't wait for this 6 month stint to be over so that I can move on to a different team, and hopefully lose touch with some of these jerks.

My diet stuff came in today and I prepared my packets for tomorrow's meals. I'm ready to take the plunge, even set up my phone to be able to post messages to my diet blog so that I can send a quick note each morning with my weigh-in numbers. Tonight I had pizza and coke - a last supper, if you will. I have PMS, so my weight is even higher than normal this weekend. I'm prepared to be miserable for the next 4 days until my next weekend. But I'm crossing my fingers that I also lose enough weight in the next week to make the whole thing worthwhile.

I'm not sure how much knitting I will be getting done over the next 5 weeks while in my first UOP class. I'm getting a little nervous about the whole thing. I start next Tuesday. I powered up my laptop for the first time in months and found that the screen is dying fast... faster than I'll be able to replace it, I'm sure. Now that we're starting to talk about putting our bathroom in the basement and the computers upstairs in our studio, that might not be such a big problem. As long as I can access my computer 2 hours a day, I should be ok. I'm crossing my fingers that these classes are not as hard as I fear them to be. I used to be smart, I can do this... I'm going to keep telling myself that.

1 more day!

2005-09-22T22:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I got the email confirming that my diet stuff will arrive tomorrow, making for a perfect Saturday start. Mondays are days from hell at my job - everyone seems to read their mail and call us to bitch about everything on Mondays. Hopefully by the 3rd day on the diet I should be ok, and if not, well, I'm off on Wed/Thurs - I'll just have to muddle thru.

Today I got some knitting done on my scarf. I'm sorta stuck now because the graph has some hiccups, I think. There are rows that are coded for contrasting color, but are on rows that should be main color, or vice versa. Not sure if they expect me to know to keep knitting in the other color for an extra wide stripe or what. I might look into getting one of the shadow knitting books and find another project to work on. Maybe make Jo a scarf with her name on it? That would be cool. At least I'm using stash yarn and not wasting new yarn.

Illusion Knitting

2005-09-21T21:10:00.000-04:00

Today I decided to catch up on some of the Knitty Gritty episodes clogging up my DVR. I watched the one on Illusion knitting and immediately decided I "had" to start one of these projects. I scrounged thru my stash at home and came up with some pastel Woolease that was supposed to be my very first sweater when I learned to knit 4 years ago. Needless to say, it's still sitting there in balls. I decided to go straight to the "Knitster" scarf design. I thought the process of knitting with these designs inbeded would be difficult, but once you figure out how to read the damn chart, you're off & running. I've got the first star and the beginning of the K forming. This is not a project I recommend doing in front of the tv - I had to sit at the dining room table with colored pencils and post-its to keep my place on the chart. There are 4 rows of knitting for each 1 row of the shape graph, and it's easy to lose your place since there are sometimes the same pattern stitch is done with each color so you feel like you're having deja vu... "I could have sworn I already did K4, P5, K2, P2, K20!" (yeah, back 3 rows and with the other color) But I like how it's coming out. I just hope I can make it another 4 or 5 feet! Or my scarf might just say "Knit" instead of Knitster!

I have to stay up late tonight because dh's car's check engine light came on today. Someone is fucking with our gas tanks, which causes the check engine lights to come on... mine came on this week, too, which is ironic, don't you think? The dealer we got dh's truck from won't let him bring it in and wait for it, so we're just dropping it off tonight and hopefully he'll be able to get it tomorrow before work. My niece isn't going to be with us tomorrow, my mom's going out for lunch with a friend and then to the lawyer with my aunt, and Jo should be well enough to go to school tomorrow, so it will just be us and Courtney for a few blessed hours tomorrow morning. Dh & I haven't seen each other for more than a few minutes each day for 2 weeks.

I can't wait to start my new diet. My mom isn't going to start until after her overnight trip next month, but I'm getting started as soon as the stuff gets here. I was 208 this morning. My mom will have a chance to see how I do on it before she starts. I'm crossing my finger that this is a miracle come true. And if it works, I'm going to recommend my mom's friend tries it. He's about 350 pounds, can barely breathe and is on oxygen and is diabetic among other things. If he doesn't lose weight, he's going to die - it's as simple as that. But because he's so sick, he's not a candidate for surgical solutions. Since this is sort of my all purpose blog for the time being, I may be posting things here, but I also intend to set up a blog specific to the diet so that I can reflect back on it later and remember how I felt, etc. Sort of like giving birth and forgetting the pain afterwards - the excitement about diets seems to wear off at the first or second meal.

Taking the Plunge

2005-09-20T21:32:00.000-04:00

Tonight I researched, and subsequently ordered, a supply of Medifast - a mostly liquid diet that is supposed to take off up to 20 pounds a month. My mom & I saw the ad in Better Homes & Gardens and I immediately thought - wait, you just add water and eat/drink it - I CAN DO THAT! I have long professed that if someone would just give me astronaut food, I'd be a happy camper. I hate cooking with a passion. I don't see the point of spending an hour cooking something that I'll swallow without tasting within 10 minutes. So, tonight I looked into the program and my mom reminded me that there was a coupon code for 1 week free, and we agreed to bite the bullet, share a 1 month supply, and see if it was something we could stick with - it was $215 and that was after a $70-something discount, for a 2 week supply for each of us (I got the regular stuff, my mom got the diabetic line). I've put on nearly 10 pounds since I switched to day shift. The diet is about $300/month, but when you figure that you only need to supply a salad or vegetable and some lean meat for one meal each day, and a lot of water, that's really not that bad. I've been spending an average of $25/week on takeout lunches that are making me gain weight. I weigh somewhere near 207, I think (although it fluctuates between 203-210). I really want to be about 135, although I don't remember when I was last that weight or what size I wore - it was in the 7th grade, I think. I'm going to try to detox over the next 3-5 days that it takes the package to come in via UPS. If this stuff works, dh will probably want to try it, too. He's been trying to do South Beach. He needs to lose about 35 pounds, too. I don't know if we can afford 3 people in our household on a $300/month diet plan. That's more than the mortgage payment! But if it works, it will be worth it... if it doesn't - well, I've wasted more money on dumber things. I'm just thinking that I could be down 75 pounds before my trip to Disney next spring - how wonderful would that be!

In knitting news - it's been slow progress, as usual. I worked on my Tahoe socks for my mom a little in the car this week while I was on lunch. I still haven't gotten that piece of blanket with the dropped stitches off my knitting machine yet. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday. I never seem to get caught up. My week this week was horrible, starting with my boss getting fired on Friday, having no supervisor or point of contact all weekend, and not being able to get caught up on Monday or Tuesday. I might work on Jo's chunky red scarf tomorrow. I've had it in the car but the needles are too small, so I haven't gotten far with it yet. I also need to get back to Jamie's shawl. I've been getting to sleep later & later, the girls won't go to bed on time because they're sick, and I haven't had the time or energy to work on any knitting at home. Now that the cooler weather is coming up, I'm hoping for more loungy time - you know, wearing sweats and sitting on the couch watching tv and being glad I'm not out in the cold/damp/wind/rain/sleet/snow/ice, etc. Of course, I thought I would have more time to knit during the warm weather, and we know now that didn't happen either. I promise myself to get something fibery done tomorrow.

Slow progress

2005-09-14T22:11:00.000-04:00

I haven't been getting much fiber work done lately because things have been so hectic and it's impossible to knit around Courtney because she is constantly taking the pattern or running off with the yarn! Today I picked up a sock that was abandoned in my car to work on while I waited in the car with the girls and my mom went in and looked for shoes. I'm on the instep now, so the clock is ticking down on that project (this is the 2nd sock). It felt good to be accomplishing something for a change.

I also sent in the paperwork required to get my school stuff started. I start Sept 27th, and I'm both nervous and excited. I love school - I almost always have. I'm just worried that I'm not going to have a chance to get my homework done around the kids and work. I'm definitely going to have to work smarter and be more organized - like get out my palm and Franklin Covey planner that are collecting dust and start using them. I have the school year for Jo, the school year for Alan, and now my school calendar to keep track of. Hopefully, if I stay on my meds, which keep me clear-headed and able to focus better - and not dwelling on things that I'm stressed about - I can get thru this. I should be able to get thru 2 classes this year, and then 5 classes next year that my employer will pay for, and then probably 3 classes that I'll have to pay for. Then in January I can start over with them paying - it's a per-calendar-year limit. In the event that we decide to have baby #3, I want to have my bachelors degree out of the way. While I admire mothers that go back to college when their kids are older, I don't want to be missing games & recitals because I'm studying for finals. Better to do it now, get it out of the way, and hope they don't realize how much of my time I'm spending on the computer. Again, this brings up the point of the laptop... Dh is now talking about me getting a more expensive one because then I can get rid of my pc. All I know is that I'm not financing another computer - we've done that a few times and end up paying for the thing long after it's bitten the dust. But, it's not like it's not going to get used - my computer is the one piece of electronic equipment I can't imagine not having... I could get rid of the radio, tv, ipod, you name it - I can not go without my computer for more than 2 days.

In completely unrelated news, a week or so ago I got an email from a friend I haven't talked to in months since we have opposing schedules - I'm now working days and she was working nights last I spoke with her. She sent out one of those general "friend" emails to let everyone know she'd moved back in with her parents (glad I'm not the only one). I replied and gave her an update on what was going on with me over the last 9 months, which has been a lot. She never replied. Then, last night I get another similar group email letting everyone know her cell phone number and had a snotty comment in there regarding her choosing another cell company after I gave her advice on the best deals my company had to offer and offered to steer her away from the junky phones. It made me just go "what - ever" and decide that the last 9 months that I hadn't spoken to her had been the beginning of the end, and now we're at the end. She was the only "friend" I had that still lived in this city, but now I couldn't care less. I've gotten back in touch with my college roommate, who has been there for me during the rough times, and we only lived together for 3 1/2 months 10 years ago. My 17 year old former employee Steph and my former bestest pal Nick keep in touch with me thru AIM when we're all up late at night. I still miss Jamie, but we keep in touch sporadically thru text messaging - she's the type of friend that you can go 3 weeks without talking to, but send a 120 character message and completely catch up with each other.

Am I the only one who seems to outgrow friendships faster than I make new ones?

Changes, changes - Everywhere!

2005-09-08T21:19:00.000-04:00

Well, today was busy & hectic - actually, my entire "weekend" was. Yesterday my mom determined that I'd procrastinated long enough - it was time to find a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding next weekend. I hate shopping, at least for clothes. We went to the first shop I usually have good luck in and found a dress mis-marked for $50 off instead of 50% off - so the $69.99 dress ended up being $19.99 instead of $34.99. Oops - next time pay attention to what you're doing. It's a cute little black number that is going to take some serious undergarments to even out my lumpy figure. I bought a large scarf to use as a wrap... when I told dh I got it he blew a gasket ... "YOU BOUGHT A SHAWL???? ARE YOU NUTS???" Well, it was $9.90 and doesn't require any all-nighter's to finish... I'm not even sure I'll use it - if I don't, I'll return it - no biggie. Then we proceeded to run around the rest of the mall and had lunch at a chinese buffet restaurant - my kids actually stuffed themselves like pigs, which is really unusual - Jo is on an every-other-meal diet lately. I picked up some body wash to use my coupon at Bath & Body (for free air freshner - take my advise... unless you want your house to smell like an apple farm, stay away from the apple scent - it was a big mistake). My mom picked up a picture frame at Michaels and a clearance table cloth at BB&B (all with coupons - my mom is the coupon queen). By the time we got home, I was ready for bed, but it was only 4:30 - luckily, the girls had a nice long nap, so I got a little break.

Today was Jo's first day at school. The bus was 15 mins late, which had dh all in a twit. We hopped in the truck and drove around the corner to watch her get off the bus at the school and took a picture but didn't let her see us because we didn't want her to be expecting that. She was happy as a clam - an aide that spent a lot of time with her at the open house got her off the bus and brought her into the school. She was excited to get off the bus and say goodbye to everyone when she got home in the late morning. She's the last pick-up and the first drop-off, so she's not on the bus very long - the school is only about a 1/2 mile away. We're hoping for a vast improvement in her behavior now that she'll be thriving on a schedule and having that outing every day, whereas she's been home all the time since my mom can't take 3 kids out by herself. We went to the developmental evaluation on Tuesday and they determined that she is not showing signs of autism spectrum disorders at this point, which was a huge relief. Now we're just playing catch up and hopefully she'll be back on track before kindergarten, which is still 2 years away.

I'm also investigating going back to school. I got a call from UOP this morning and started the process of returning to school there later this month. I really didn't want to start this soon, but it might be better to just jump in. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to fit it all in. #1 on my agenda is to figure out a way to buy a laptop that I can set up with a wireless router. UOP uses Outlook Express as it's basis for the "classroom" - everything is done thru a newsgroup type setting, with projects & homework being emailed. My laptop can be plugged into my router, but that doesn't get me any closer to the area where I can watch my kids. Maybe I can sync & then bring it upstairs to work, then bring it back down to sync again... very frustrating. Ideally, I could get wireless broadband if I had a computer that could take an aircard, but that would be an additional monthly expense. Maybe by Christmas I can get a really nice laptop - I just need to find a way to cope for the next 3 months.

I've gotten a really sore right side lately, I think from using my trackball with my arm unsupported so much lately, so I haven't been knitting. I did go back to reading A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber. It's got me thinking about getting back into sock knitting. I still haven't gotten my knitting machine project fixed yet - still need to rip out all that knitting after the running stitches. I'm seriously going to have to start using my Franklin Covey planner to keep myself organized. Knitting, School for me, dh & Jo, work, doctors and dentist appointments, bills... My Dr approved my online medicine order, now the trick is to remember to keep taking it daily so I can keep my head on straight. You know you're poor and mentally unbalanced when you get excited that a 3 month mail-order supply of your medicine is cheaper than 2 months at the drugstore.

I haven't had a chance to sit down with Jo to work on her knitting again. The Encore yarn I got her had to be cut up and thrown out - she kept wrapping it all around the furniture and we couldn't keep spending 45 mins a night untying everything. Then I had gotten her a ball of Kuryeon, thinking that the multi colors would be more interesting - I'm about 1/2 way thru and finally got to green after brown, black, gray and other boring colors. So, I was at Joann's with my coupons last weekend and got her a skein of pastel baby homespun yarn, which I realize is not the easiest yarn to learn on because of the texture, but it's soft and pretty, so I'm hoping she'll like it. I ordered from Crafter's Choice a book of 200 knitted yarn blocks - another attempt to make some squares into a blankie. I figure that I can take a little block with me to work or wherever. I also got a puzzle mat - the kind that you roll up with all the pieces of the puzzle on it and can keep the completed parts together. I've been wanting to work on a big puzzle and Jo loves puzzles, so I thought that we might be able to do a family puzzle project. I'm going to start with maybe a 1000 piece one and work my way up. Assuming I ever finish one!

Knitting in the Dark

2005-09-03T16:58:00.000-04:00

The problem with machine knitting in less than desirable lighting is that you notice after 200 rows that there were stitches dropped and now there are huge runs in the work!!! And I only got a chance to work on it this morning and when I got home from work because the kids were being watched by my dh & parents. Now I have to practically start over and rip out a LOT of knitting to get back to where I started. And I'm also not sure I'll have enough yarn to make the project as big as I want. I'll have to use a neutral yarn to work a border if I don't have enough to make the afghan as large as I want.

A lot of yarn goes a little way

2005-09-01T20:56:00.000-04:00

Today we went to storage and I got out 1 bin of yarn, wool-ease for the blanket I started last night and acrylic in bright colors for the blankets I want to make. I finished binding off the piece of ivory sprinkle blanket I worked on last night and worked a 54 st x 72 row square out of bright variegated Encore Colorspun I bought on ebay a couple years ago (it was supposed to be a sweater for Jo, but cables & variegated yarn do NOT go together!) Tonight I came back downstairs after putting the girls to bed at the obscene hour of 8pm (they'll probably get back up at midnight with my luck - I never put them to bed that early) and cast on with bright red Red Heart and knit until I ran out of yarn, still 54 sts wide. Rather than casting off a square, I decided to just switch to a different color and keep going, so I finished up the ball of variegated and then switched to bright yellow Berella 4 that was supposed to be a blankie for Jo when she was born, using a Project Linus crochet pattern - needless to say, it never got done. Now I'm trying to decide how long to make the strip. I keep saying I want to make a "seam as you go" afghan, but have never tried the technique. And I also can't decide what to do about the wool ease blanket - the piece of knitting is much smaller than I expected once I took it off the machine and let it relax. I have a lot more yarn than I expected, so maybe I'll use that piece for a pillow and start over with strips for the afghan. It's going to be green, navy & ivory wool ease. And I'm beginning to doubt it will ever become a gift for my nephew... I will probably keep it for us, since dh complains that his other throw is too 'hole-y'. I'm also starting to think I should put the Homespun I bought to make my aunt a blanket on the machine and make her a 4 square throw out of it.

What is it?

2005-08-31T22:12:00.000-04:00

In the interest of making some sort of fiber progress, tonight I got out the USM and started a blanket. Only 1 problem so far - I don't have enough wool ease at home to finish it, but I know I have a TON of it in storage. So, maybe tomorrow I can have dh go to storage and pull out some of the yarn I can use to finish this afghan/blanket. It's hard to tell how big the piece of knitting is - 90 stitches wide and 150 rows long. This one will probably be for my nephew. The next one will most likely be made of crappy acrylic and be really scrappy -lots of small blotches of color instead of stripes or solids. I'm going to see if I can find the round blanket instructions - I have 3 Pound of Love skeins I could use to make those.

TGIW!

2005-08-30T23:18:00.000-04:00

Thank god tomorrow is Wednesday (aka Saturday!) It's been a stressful month, and I'm hoping that after the holiday weekend, when Jo goes to school and we get back on a routine, life will go back to normal. And, as if I didn't have enough to worry about, I'm starting to suspect that I have either Adult ADD or an Auditory Processing problem that they're suspecting Jo has. Of course, this information would have been more helpful to realize while she was getting speech & special ed during the past 2 years, but maybe if I let the specialist she's going to see in a couple weeks know about it, maybe it will help with their diagnosis for her. Just a little late on this stuff... kinda like when I found out I had a lazy eye at 24 years old! I can only understand people if I can read their lips - if my glasses are off, forget it, I can't hear a thing. When people talk I have to stop & replay what they're saying in my head so I can process it. What is really odd is that I've had this problem my whole life, but kept passing the hearing tests (my pediatrician was an assembly line physician - they didn't look for anything you didn't complain about). I have a job where I have a headset on and have to rely completely on hearing the customer thru 1 speaker, which means if anyone says anything to me or too close to me, I completely lose track of the customer on the phone. I always did really well in school until I got depressed and just sort of gave up on homework, so no one had any reason to suspect I was having a problem.

In crafting news, I'm depressed that I can't go buy yarn this week during tax free week here in NY - yarn is included in "clothing & footwear." Unfortunately, I'm behind on my bills, and while we came up with a pretty dummy proof budgeting strategy going forward, getting caught up is going to be a struggle.

I caught Super Size Me on cable the other night and hope to change my eating habits... I'm one of those people who eat at least 5 meals at McDonalds a week. I've gained 10 lbs in 6 weeks doing it - not good. Dh is doing South Beach - I can't give up the carbs. I'm actually hoping to re-join a gym. The girls are old enough to leave in the onsite daycare so I don't have to worry about leaving them with my mom. What I really hate is that I spend all that money and usually stop going after a little while after paying for a whole year. Part of me thinks I should just cut the bull and just buy a better treadmill like they have, since that's about all I use there anyhow. I've already decided that if my aunt left me any money (she'd made comments that her 401k was to be divided between the 3 of us - my brother, cousin & myself, but we don't know if she made changes or even had anything in the account), that would be one thing I would spend the money on, a gym membership, so that I can get healthier. Otherwise I'll sign myself up as soon as I can afford it. Alan wants to go back to the gym, too, and he found one that's open after work. Unfortunately, the one closest to my house that I used to go to is for women only. We used to go to a club downtown (same company) a few years ago, but it's a pain to go downtown, have to worry about parking around the corner, crossing all the streets, etc. And I don't feel intimidated at the all women's club. I just put on my walkman and watch tv while I'm there, which is the secret to make time go by faster - music makes it drag, but watching Home Improvement for 30 mins goes by fast.

Sadness

2005-08-26T04:31:00.000-04:00

You may remember back in February we got some not so good news about my aunt Debbie. She'd been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer back in February and had struggled thru rounds of chemo that seemed to do more damage than good. She kept getting infections that landed her in the hospital for weeks at a time. 6 weeks ago she went to a nursing home because she no longer felt comfortable being at home. This morning around 2:25am she passed away. I'm so thankful that I stopped up to see her yesterday and we got to tell each other that we loved each other one more time. I know she's in a better place, along with her parents, but we'll all miss her a lot. She was my godmother and was my favorite aunt to chat with - everyone pointed out our likeness. We were both pretty smart, and she took pride in my accomlishments "So smart, my niece.." Everyone always said how much she looked like my grandmother, but having not known or remembering my grandmother so young, I never saw it. In the past few weeks she's aged years and now I see the resemblance. Everyone said that I looked like my aunt & grandmother, I think I'll need to be about 50 before I see it.

When we found out about her being sick, I went to the yarn store and picked out yarn to make a shawl. I got thru the first wedge really quickly and remember saying that I should have the entire thing completed by April. Of course, like I predicted, saying it put a jinx on it. I stopped working on it, and then felt that if I picked it back up and completed it, she would pass away then. That's how I felt about the wrap I made my grandfather on the USM shortly before he died. I finally did it and then he passed away. Today I brought the shawl up to work on it but never actually sat down to do it because the girls were being out of control. After I heard my mom's cough upstairs, I went up to find out if my aunt had passed away - she'd called at 10pm to say she was staying the night there. My mom confirmed my suspicion. The calling hours will be Saturday and the funeral on Monday. Now comes the work bullshit I have to wade thru to get time off. Aunts don't rate bereavement time. What kind of bullshit is that? And my supervisor wouldn't commit to trying to get my vacation time approved thru his boss, who does have the power to get me off. Dh's boss & A.D. had him pre-approved for this situation weeks ago, and he's just a freakin in-law nephew! He had the same problem when his great-grandmother died and they decided that great grandparents don't count either! Luckily, I will be able to work Saturday if the calling hours are not until 4pm (we're hoping for 4-8pm) - I'll just have to rush home from work when I get out. Sunday we won't have anything going on, but Monday will most likely be the mass, so I'll need off that day. Alan's off because we're going to see The Wiggles on Monday night. I'm hoping that we'll be able to have some peace now. It's been such a chaotic time with her being in the hospital and nursing home for the past couple months, and before that we were worried about her being alone at home for any length of time. And we've been hesitant to use any of our time off because we knew that the funeral was inevitable. Our babysitter left for college yesterday. I'm hoping that the kids are good enough to take with us to the funeral parlor and possibly to church. We may have to call dh's cousin to see if she can watch the girls while we're inside for the mass. They have a small area with a jungle jim. I know my mom is exhausted from all the running around and the stress of all the emotions. We went thru this with my grandmother 11 years ago when she was in and out of ICU, but we were younger then, my brother & I could take care of ourselves, we didn't have to worry about finding babysitters or getting off work. My grandfather was sick but I don't remember for how long, I don't think it was as long as my aunt, and he was in the hospital and had all 4 kids visiting him, so it didn't seem like my mom was there so constantly like this time, when both my mom & other aunt were there almost around the clock for the past week or two.

Anyway, that's the reason I haven't had time to knit or update this site in a while. Hopefully the posts and knitting will resume.

Are you sure this isn't hell?

2005-08-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

I swear, I can't wait for this week to just be over with already. The problem then becomes - when does my week start & end? Tomorrow is my work "monday", is that going to be the end of my bad week, or will it be Sunday (my wednesday)? Things got off to a bad start when I was 17 minutes late to work Monday morning. You'd have to work for my company and be in my position to understand the full ramifications 17 minutes can have on your career. Luckily, this was the first time I've been that late, so hopefully it won't have any impact at all. Tuesday I went home with the mother of all migraines and had to make up my 1/2 day today. I came home with another headache and spent most of the afternoon trying to stay still and quiet - a feat when your 3 year old is slapping you on the head to wake you up. Oh, and when I got out of work I called home to check on things and found out that my dad had lost his job - he's been there over 30 years. They're getting rid of the entire department, which I suppose makes a little easier to swallow versus the past 15 years that he's been coming home monthly giving dates of the next big layoff, the department being picked thru to get rid of a few at a time. I wonder what the suicide ratio is for this city, home of Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Xerox - "The Big Three" of Rochester. They've been laying people off non-stop around here for the past 10-15 years. And there really aren't any other jobs. Valeo just announced that it's closing it's GM parts plant here by 2008 - that's another big employer that's been here forever. There has to be a certain number of people who can't take it and just kill themselves. The constant threat that you can be canned at any minute would drive me nuts. I lived with that at my last job, but that was only for a few years... my dad's been going thru it for decades.

Anyway, that wasn't very good news. Then tonight there was a bright spot. I was watching some of my taped episodes of Knitty Gritty from DIY. Johanna got out her yarn & needles and sat in my lap so we could knit together. I happened to come across an episode where they were teaching how to begin knitting from casting on. They had the rhyme "In thru the Door, run around the back, peak out the window and out jumps Jack" or something like that. I taught her that and she was insistent that she keep on going. We're having some problems trying to keep her hands in a place on the needles that lets the left side slide off and the right side stay on the end of the needle, but she's doing really well for a 3 year old who's been labeled as disabled. Now I want to take her to the yarn shop and get her a little clear knitting bag and some point protectors and maybe let her pick out a ball of yarn. I'm hesitant to go that route since I don't want her to get a yarn stash going at 3! But I chose her first yarn out of convenience - I ran by the yarn shop on my way home from work - and I feel like she should get to pick her first yarn. She's definitely doing better than my friend who I tried to teach a year or so ago. I haven't tried letting her hold the yarn because I just think it's too hard for her to do that much manipulation with her hands without getting tangled or dropping the needles out of the stitches. The important thing to me is that she's interested and persistant. It's after 10pm and I'm trying to get to sleep and she won't let me put the yarn away! I wish I could find some bright chunky striping yarn. I think that would be a lot more interesting for her to work with. I got her some Encore mega chunky yarn that's red with an occassional yellow or navy blotch.

I dropped one of my new fancy needles and the tip is now super sharp where I wrecked the finish. I could cry - $18 needles that lasted 2 days! Not that I can't use them, it's just that 1/2 the rows hurt to touch the tip of the needle to my finger as I work. I hope she gets more in, because I love how pointy the needles are and would be willing to spend the money on a pretty set of size 8's.

More Fiber Therapy

2005-08-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today was a horrible day for me. I actually left work 1/2 way thru the day and went home and slept for about 3 hours. Dh had been a total jackass to me last night, I cried myself to sleep, woke up feeling like my eyes were filled with sand. I used the only eyedrops I could find, generic visine, with my contacts still in. By 9am I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my skull and I had a wicked migraine. I got up to say thank you to Jo's special ed teacher who had her last class with Jo today. She's been coming to our house weekly for 2 years now. Around 4 I went to the yarn shop for some fiber therapy. I walked around for an hour, eventually grabbing another hank of the baby alpaca grande yarn, this time in a light & dark blue marl. I also picked up a pair of handmade straight needles with cool one of a kind knobs on the ends (maybe I'll post a picture one of these days). The needs are soooo sharp, I love them. I'm using the yarn to make wristlets to wear at work in the winter. I don't have a pattern, so I was just going to wing it, but my first attempt didn't come out so good, so I may be starting over again tomorrow. I wish they had the needles in size 8's in a pattern I liked to use for lace knitting because the points are ideal for that. I got Jo short needles last week and some bulky yarn to try to teach her to knit, but I haven't really had a chance to sit and work with her on it. I wind the yarn around the needles and help her pull the loop thru, but she is showing some interest in it. I've been thinking about resigning from blogging. I don't have time to devote to it anymore. It's become apparent that my family thinks I do nothing around the house or with my kids and that I'm a complete failure as a wife, mother & daughter - this is one of the few things I can actually imagine giving up without it killing me.

Just what I needed!

2005-08-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

More yarn! Yippee. This time it's just a big fat hank of some LB Big Wool or something or other. It's huge! I'm making Jo a scarf for her new winter coat out of it. Did I need a new project? No, but at least this is a quickie once I get going. I've determined that size 15 needles are too small, next up will be 17's but there is a chance I'll use 19's. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to let a lot of my stash go. Not the good stuff, but the acrylic crap I'm never going to use. The fact of the matter is that we're spending $160 a month to store shit we'll never use, and a lot of that space is taken up by yarn in boxes, bags & totes. I'm going to keep anything there's a chance I'll actually use one day, but most of the red heart stuff will be donated to the local schools. The problem with yarn is that it's too heavy to reasonably ship to charities that I know could use the yarn. The stuff that's too nice to give away but that I won't use I'll try selling at a garage sale. We're also coming to the realization that we won't be having another child any time soon, and that we're not that great of parents so maybe we shouldn't have more at all. So, we're thinking of selling some of the baby stuff that is taking up room and that isn't essential. I had a good cry over it, but now I'm feeling ok about it, mostly.

The other thing is that we're getting satellite tv installed tomorrow. Our city has this huge battle going between the cable company and the phone company, both of which are offering all 3 services - internet, phone & tv. We've had a cable modem for at least 5 years now and it's been ok, but their phones don't work if the power goes out and they only have 1 phone plan, which is flat rate and includes long distance, but we don't call long distance. Instead, we're going with the phone company's promo for satellite tv, DSL and regular phone service. The tv will have 180 channels & a DVR - no more missing daytime television or stuff on later than I can stay up at night!!! There are also more kids channels, so we should be able to find stuff on at any time, but I'm hoping to have the kids watch less tv now that Courtney is getting older and they are starting to play together.

Last night we put Jo's bed into Courtney's room, and they slept in the same room for the first time. We went out and got them matching Princess bedding sets and blankets, which they loved. They Should, for what they cost!!! This morning they were trying to talk to each other. The problem is that Jo speaks Johanna language, and Courtney speaks Courtney language. They fought over Courtney's binky, which Jo kept stealing from her and putting it where she couldn't reach it. Courtney says "Oh, Man!" and "Oh, No!" - it's too cute.

Things that make you go Hmmm

2005-08-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

Ok, I haven't been paying too much attention recently to my mail. I belong to a newsgroup which I prefer to receive each message individually so that if I feel like responding, I don't have to cut & paste from the digest. This is a list about knitting and has many members - in the past 2 weeks I've gotten 519 messages, and since I just reinstalled everything on my computer, I haven't had a chance to create folders or be bothered setting up filters. That's how I missed the most absurd comment on my blog. I'll share it with you ...

Those who purchase items made from yarn are bamboozled by peagan artists into worshipping false idols. repent and be saved.
God 1
Sinners 0
TCOJCOEMLDS

--
Posted by Elohimus Maximus to Fluffy Clouds and Crochet Hooks at 7/28/2005 11:50:18 PM

Ok, if you're so into church, why can't you spell pagan? False Idols? And if you don't purchase things made from yarn, what the hell ARE you wearing? Ha! I got a kick out of that one.

In non-knitting news, the crew showed up today to rip off our roof and start putting a new one on. One of the guys looked really familiar, but with a tshirt wrapped around his head like a turban, who knew! I told my mom, she said she thought she heard someone calling Sean, and then it hit me - he is an old friend of mine from elementary - high school, Anne's fiancee. He must do this in the summer, because I could have sworn he was a teacher.

Today I went into work for a couple hours of easy overtime. The calls are easy and the people haven't had a chance to get really pissed off before 9am. You can't call a store to check on anything because they don't open until after 9, some of the other depts don't open up until later, so it's pretty easy stuff. I'm finally starting to get into a groove. I missed one of my scores by 0.9% for last month - that was depressing... but I only made it by 0.1% last month, so it's not like a big change in the past 2 months. Working these few easy days of OT should help boost me up so that I can make it this month.

Alpaca to cuddle

2005-07-28T22:30:00.000-04:00

Today I took a quick trip up to the LYS in search of a pattern that I needed for a shawl - I've broken down and purchased one specifically made for the yarn I bought several months ago for the shawl to make Jamie. I also picked up a couple skeins of baby alpaca so soft that Courtney keeps picking up the skein and putting it to her cheek and saying "ahhh" because it's so cozy. I'm making a basic ribbed scarf for myself out of the cranberry & orange softly twisted yarn. I'm not so sure about the size needles I'm using - size 15's. I may need to rip it all out and start again with size 10's or 11's. Pam had some awesome handcrafted needles with awesome knobs on them, but they were expensive and impractical - I use straight needles seldomly and they were between $15-$20 a pair. Of course this scarf is the perfect short, large needle size project for those needles, but I'm resisting. I cast on and knit about 4" of the scarf so far, then I cast on the Gossamer Karabella yarn for the shawl. I can't find the case for my Denise needles, so I had to break down and use the Needlemaster set for now. I'm debating which project to bring to work with me, the shawl, the scarf, or the sock I've picked up again. The sock is actually at an easy enough point that I could probably get a lot done at work. Decreases for the heel gusset are every other row and easy enough to track.

The reason I haven't posted in so long has to do with the fact that I reformatted my computer and haven't had a chance to really work on anything - I'm still trying to rebuild things like my banking files and software. We can't find the disk for Frontpage, so my regular website that hasn't been updated since Halloween is still sitting in limbo because I'm not about to manually type out that html - I'm not that desperate. I did get my ipod reinstalled and cleaned out a lot of the files I didn't really need on it, primarily 3/4 of the Harry Potter #4 audiobook, which was a whole gig of my 4gig player. I haven't had much of a chance to listen to anything lately, since I've been going out for lunch and then playing my games on my phone while I sit in my car. I hope I start getting used to this shift soon. It's been 3 weeks and I still am not in a groove. I still wait and wait for Tuesdays to come so that I can at least go to bed without setting the alarm. Not that my kids let me sleep in, but at least I get more than 5 hours of sleep. Dh is working overtime this weekend, so I won't be able to see him much again this weekend - last weekend he worked OT as well. The only time we see eachother is really on Sat/Sun nights when I get home from work, because I work days and he works nights and my days off he's got to go to work and he sleeps until the last minute (today I did wake him up so I could go to the yarn store.) Only have to deal with this thru the end of the year, and then hopefully we'll both be on day shift and can skip this bullshit. We're hoping to be able to promote before the end of this year and get another raise so that we can afford to skip the sunday and/or third shift differential without taking such a hit in pay. Even if we had different days off, if we were both on days we'd have every evening together. We're close enough in seniority that we ought to be able to get the same or similar days off (like 1 together and 1 different like we had last time).

There is one good thing about this time of year - back to school supply time! I am a paper/pen/crayon/marker/etc junkie! I got myself crayons, markers, colored pencils, spirals, a huge pencil box for work, a sharpener, flexible pencils, a huge pen and tiny pens, the most impractical Jumbo & Mini stuff from Target. I need some coloring books!

Yarn Art

2005-07-14T23:30:00.000-04:00

Well, my desk has been packed up & moved to the opposite end of the building. Now I just have to get there early enough to unpack and organize! Easier said than done. I took home a lot of my personal decorations (pictures of the kids, my model race cars, etc) and I'm thinking about toning down the amount of crap and instead putting a large glass jar or vase filled with cool yarns on my desk. I used to have a square mesh metal basket on my desk (I believe it was intended to be the waste paper can that matched my desk accessories) filled with bright primary acrylic (which was supposed to become a colorful granny square scrappy afghan) and black & bright speckled chenille that was supposed to become a scarf. My cube is much smaller at this job than the previous company I'd worked for (about 1/3 of the space I had there), so it will have to be a smaller container. Maybe some of the colorful cottons I've accumulated, or the bamboo & soy silk? I'll have to dig thru my stash. My mom got me a sign that says "It's all about my yarn" from a craft festival here a couple weeks ago, but I think I'll save that for home.

I did get about 3/4 of the heel flap done on sock #2. My eyes are just too tired to work on that project for long. I think I'm gonna just go for it and rip out the manos sweater. I love the yarn, I just don't know if the sweater is going to work out and I'm stalled at about 8" knit.

What's up with parents these days?

2005-07-13T22:13:00.000-04:00

This is not related to knitting (although I have picked up a long-abandoned sock to complete for my mom - so far I'm knitting the heel flap), but I just had to vent. Today, my local newspaper's website has 2 stories that make me want to stand on the roof and scream! We live on a street that a half mile down the road has a public beach. There are no life guards there, but people still come from the city and swim there. EVERY YEAR, a child drowns! EVERY YEAR! At least one! Well, today the headline was "5 year old boy washes up on shore" which I immediately thought was odd, I mean, usually its that they drowned... this made it seem like no one was even looking for him, and apparently the parents weren't looking, because he washed up dead and was getting CPR from strangers that pulled him out of the water before anyone was asking where their child had gone. What the hell is wrong with people? People give me dirty looks in the mall because I have Jo on a "kiddie leash" around her wrist... ya know, I know where my kid is and no one is going to snatch her, and she's not going to get far enough away from me to get killed. I knew as soon as those sherrifs cars, ambulances and fire trucks were going by that it was another poor kid, who died from lack of parental supervision or a sense of responsibility. My dad turned on the police scanner and confirmed that it was a little boy who'd drowned in the middle of the afternoon on a 90-something degree Wednesday. That was the reason I went to the website for my local paper and tv station... but I also found another story that made me shake my head in disgust... a 1 year old child was hanging from a 2nd story window while her 20 year old mother slept on the couch. Now, I've been known to doze while my kids play, but I make sure the doors are locked and that they can't get into anything. Our house is pretty safe for them, although Jo is smart enough to have figured out some of the locks, including the drawer locks in the kitchen (where we have a drawer of knives) and the fridge lock. We've had to put hook & eye latches out of her reach on the glass and screen doors on the patio door because she figured out the regular locks on those last year. What kills me the most - these kids are within our reach, they're toddlers! A 3 year old was shot 3 times by a cop here the other day - she was apparently attacking him with a 8" knife or something... I'm like - SHE's 3! My daughter is a huge 3 year old, and I'll be damned if I'd be intimidated enough by her to shoot her with a gun - I'd be afraid to push her too hard and give her a concusion, maybe, but I wouldn't shoot her. There is nothing a child under the age of say 6 or 7 can do that we couldn't control and prevent. And I'm using that number because I think that's about when the curiosity for fire starts and kids can be sneaky enough to set a house on fire without you knowing it. My uncle set my mom & aunt's mattress on fire when he was about that age because he was using my grandfather's zippo lighter to find his truck under the bed.

Now, on the flip side, there are teenagers that are beyond a parents grasp, but they don't get that way over night. I watched Brat Camp tonight and I loved it. That's the ass kicking I needed at that age. I still turned out alright - I didn't drink or smoke or do drugs or have sex as a kid, but I was messed up in the head and gave up on myself. I wish I could work in a program like that - maybe not the wilderness part, but something where you push kids to their breaking point so they see what they're doing to themselves & their families. I still blame the parents of the kids that rampaged thru Columbine High School - where the hell were they that they didn't know their kids had automatic weapons? There are parents that notice their kids are out of control and don't know what to do about it, and then there are the parents who don't know anything about their kids. I love the anti-drug commercials they're doing nowadays - they're at least honest about how people think, what parents are afraid of - their kid flipping out at them, admiting to using themselves when they were younger, asking their kids tough questions that they might not want the real answers to, etc. I had good parents, and I hope that I'm a good parent as my kids grow up.

Treading Water

2005-07-09T12:18:00.000-04:00

I got my new phone yesterday. I had to hop out of the shower and throw on clothes to answer the door, thinking it was the guy who bought my brother's car coming to pick it up, but instead, it was the fedex guy with my new poppy-uppy phone. I love it! I have unlimited txt messaging and a web browser that works! I downloaded ringtones and wallpapers for it last night and checked out some of the features and added my contacts to the new phone. I went with a low minute package, so I need to do as much of my customizing after 9pm or on weekends, but that's ok. Last month I used a whopping 15 minutes! With all the gadget excitement, I haven't had a chance for any fiber work. And tonight I plan to come home and go straight to bed. I have to get up at 5 or 5:30am, leave my house by 6am and start working at 7am. When I get home tomorrow I'll probably be too beat to do anything, so luckily dh has Sunday off and doesn't have to be to work until 2 on Monday (although he will have to get up and take care of the kids around 8am so my mom can go to the hospital). Since I'm financially busted, I may stay at the office today and work on the Pie Are Square shawl some more. I started another one with the tonal boucle from Joann's, but I got the stitch count off somewhere in the first few rows, so I'll probably start that over again. I'm starting to think about doing a sampler knit afghan with the Manos. I can work it one square at a time and make it patchwork with a lot of different colors. Only thing - how does one wash a wool afghan???

New Toys

2005-07-06T11:51:00.000-04:00

In addition to my external hard drive, I also splurged on a new cell phone. I was way overpaying by being on dh's plan, so I got my own new line and I hope to have my new phone by next week sometime. It's the Samsung n330, which has this cool pop-up screen. I'm home with the kids today & tomorrow, then back to work nights on Friday & Saturday, and on Sunday, I have to be to work at the ungodly hour of 7am. Either tonight or tomorrow night I may go into work to clean out my desk to prepare for our move. I have a ton of crap at my desk that I haven't needed to look thru in the past 6 months, so I think it's safe to toss. I also have a lot of personal stuff that I don't want to get broken by the movers. The last move was done by some of the support staff, if the girls moved your stuff your desk looked exactly the same after they moved it to your new cube... if the guys moved you, it was all just dumped in a big pile on your desk, and that was if they didn't decide to throw all your stuff in the garbage can like one girl I know. I'm moving to the opposite side of the building, where we started out first out of training. Hopefully, 6 months from now when we do our next move, dh & I can work the same shift and sit near each other again - he's still working nights for now. We couldn't afford to lose both of our shift differentials right now, but I needed to be home with the kids at night, and he's home with them on the weekends. We'll only be able to see each other on Sat & Sunday nights, but this is what's best for our family right now. And, once the kids go to bed, I can actually watch my own movies or tv shows or sit in silence and knit in peace for a change! He's usually got the tv going and he's on the internet at the same time, refusing to put on anything but Fox News, so I have to try to fall to sleep while he's listening to mp3's on his computer and people are yapping from the tv. This morning I got to watch Girl With The Pearl Earring, which I hadn't particularly wanted to see, but it was just nice to be able to watch something that didn't include bickering. The movie was quite good, though. And the girls let me watch it, which was amazing. Now we're back to the Wiggles and Doodlebops and Higgly Town Heroes (but the mom knits on that show, so I got a chuckle out of it today.)

I've been trying to squeeze in a few rows on the Pie Are Square shawl here & there. I am really trying to decide what to do with that Manos sweater. I'm dying to knit with the yarn, but I'm not sure if I like how it's turning out, and I don't want to keep going if I'm not going to like it. I should work on my granny square afghan, which has been ignored for a few weeks now. I also want to get the CYO sweater going again. TOO MANY PROJECTS!!! And my next vacation in a few weeks is going to be filled with a possible yard sale of all my extra furniture that I won't be needing in the next 5 years while we're living in the converted garage. I'll be lucky if I get to do any knitting at all. I'm not even going to think about knitting at work on my lunches, because my planned knitting time seems to evaporate when I plan it. When I worked days before, I didn't go out at lunch, so I had more time to relax. Since we've been on nights together, we go out for dinner every night of the week. And I'm not friends with any of the people on my new team, so I'll probably just grab something in the cafeteria and sit in my car if it's not too hot out. Maybe I'll try to work on something simple & mindless, like the cuff of a sock. The girl that sits across from me colors in a coloring book while she's on the phone - no one has said anything to her about it, but I'm sure if I tried to work on a shawl or scarf or something, I'd get in trouble.

What a Week!

2005-07-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally got my scores at work up to where they needed to be, by 0.1% - is that close or what? I also got recognized for having great quality scores, so that was great. I haven't gotten much crafting done. The past 2 nights have been spent trying to get all my pictures and patterns, etc, transfered over to my spiffy new 120 Gig external hard drive so that I can wipe my computer clean and start over. It's taking FOREVER for it to boot up because it's got so much crap trying to run automatically, and a lot of my files are corrupted, knitware won't even run anymore because of some file that's missing or messed up. I've been so panicked that I would lose the only copy I have of all the kids baby pictures, etc, that I insisted on buying an external drive so that I can move everything and be sure the files aren't corrupted before I clean off my hard-drive. I also got a marble mouse, which is essentially a trackball in the shape of a mouse. My desk has a tiny space for my mousepad, and I was constantly having problems with my mouse, so I have been trying to get a trackball for at least a year now, if not longer. Only problem now is that it doesn't have a scroll feature to browse webpages. I actually have both mice hooked up for the time being, in case I get frustrated and need to use the old one.

As far as knitting goes, I've gotten several more rows on the Pie Are Square shawl. I keep looking at the Manos sweater and can't decide if I should rip it out and use the yarn for something else, or if I should keep working on the sweater and hope to either have enough yarn or buy a matching or contrasting skein for the sleeves. I've been neglecting the crocheted granny square afghan for a few weeks now, so I really need to get back to that. I'm also revisiting friendship bracelet making, buying a huge assortment pack of thread and plan to make one for myself and each of the girls to wear. I used to make them all the time when I was younger. I got a booklet out at the library that I thought would have a lot more complicated info in it, but it just has the basics, which I did need reminding of. I can't wait for monday - an extra day off. I plan to take the girls to the town hall for the craft show and to see the fireworks display at night. I used to love to go when I was in high school because we'd all have gotten our regents scores on our report cards by then and we'd see our friends from school and find out how everyone had done. Each year I see fewer and fewer of my former classmates. Everyone is moving away.

Back to the grindstone

2005-06-26T00:25:00.000-04:00

Vacation is ancient history and we're back to work full force. Today was a great day because it was so slow - we actually had several minutes between calls, which means I didn't have to keep myself off the phone to do the rest of my job - I could go at my pace and still keep up. I also got a lot of help from the rest of my team to catch up some of the big issues I'd had simmering on my to-do list. I actually went back to work yesterday, and did okay, but not great. I'm just hoping that the quiet day today doesn't mean we'll get slammed tomorrow. That's what happened the Sunday before my vacation - usually Sundays are easy - that one, I left that night feeling like I'd been beat down.

I felted my buttonhole bag and I'm happy with it for the most part. I let it dry outside, hanging on the wrought iron railing at the front door. That means that the lumpy spots where I did a crappy job picking up stitches at the base did not get smoothed out. Oh, well. We all know that I'll have it so full of crap when I use it (not in humid weather - no wet sheep smell for me, thanks!) that no one will be able to see those flaws. I had to run it thru 3 cycles to get it felted enough, then I shaved it as best I could. I'm thinking I probably should invest in an electric beard trimmer or something to clean up my bags a little more. I haven't had a chance to work on my shawl in a couple days. I'm at the beginning of a 24 ridge section. Long & painful, in garter stitch with 4 yarn-over's to work every-other row. But it's also pretty mindless, which I should be using to think things over.

Our plans for our house took a dramatic turn of events. Instead of adding a second floor, we're finishing the 2 car garage into a studio apartment sans kitchen, then building a 3 car garage that my dad has always wanted in the back yard. We'll be able to keep 1/2 the area we have in the basement for our computers and my yarn stuff, but we'll have our bedroom and living room area and our own bathroom (hallelujah!!!) in the apartment. We're getting skylights (I am a nut about having enough natural light!) and a window seat that I've always wanted. We're selling off most of the stuff I've been paying to store for the past 15 months - by the time I move again we could have replaced everything for the same money it's costing me to store it at uhaul. I am going to have to start paring down a lot of stuff. We have so much baby stuff that I can't get rid of yet! I am going to have to come up with a better storage system for my yarn, even if it's just buying all matching totes so that they stack better. I'll be able to have my knitting machine out, so hopefully I can get some use out of that again. Right now I don't have time, but this project will hopefully be completed by fall (the garage remodel is the last step of the process), I'll still be on day shift and hopefully both dh & I will be on days after that, so we can have a normal life again. I'm hoping that means we'll be able to spend some time on our hobbies occassionally.

Winding down

2005-06-23T07:55:00.000-04:00

Well, this is the last day of my vacation, and I'm whooped. After being on my meds for almost a week, I'm still having a slight tremor reaction, but nothing major. My mind has not cleared yet, though. I'm counting on these pills to help me focus at work and not get agitated with customers. They did wonders 2 years ago. I'm gonna try to have a nice calm day today, get some knitting done, maybe take the girls for a walk before it gets hot out. Wind down with a movie and go to bed early. Let's see how much of that I actually accomplish. Tomorrow I'm going to have to go in really early to catch up on my follow-ups. I pushed everything to be due tomorrow if I didn't get to it before I left work last week. Not the wisest move, since a lot of my customers could not afford to wait an extra 9 days - hopefully, if they called back, the person they got took care of their issue for them.

In knitting news, I've gotten quite a bit done on the Pie Are Square shawl. Last night I moved it from my Balene II straight 10" needles to my Inox Express circ so that I could see the shaping so far. I've got a few more rows to go before the next doubling row. Then it's going to be a much slower moving project, since we'll be around to 300 stitches for a lot of rows. I'm not sure if I'll need to do another doubling after that. The way the pattern works is that you increase in every stitch in the center back of the shawl every so many rows (EZ is a math whiz for figuring this out!) What *is* going to make this project go faster is that last night I got over my brain fart and figured out how to mark the increases at the sides where you have to do yo, k1, yo. YO, slip marker, k1, yo. I kept wanting to put the marker before or after the entire sequence, which wouldn't work since it's the same k1 that I need to work in every row and the marker would keep moving to the left or right as I increased. So, now that I don't have to keep track on paper of how many stitches I need to knit before doing the increases, it should flow a lot smoother.

I haven't gotten back to the buttonhole bag. While trying to bind off the button holes for the handles I discovered that my stitch count was off. Now I have to undo the first buttonhole and re-center them for the smaller stitch count. I must have done an extra decrease round or something. I'm not going to worry myself about it, I'm just going to get it finished. I also found the last ball of Dazzle for my booga bag, which had been missing since last month. Or maybe I'd bought 4 balls and ball #3 is still missing. Whichever, I now have the yarn to finish the project. Jo's Manos sweater is stalled. I'm not sure what to do about my yarn shortage, and I'm hesitant to continue on with the stripes because I'm at a point where I could, potentially, switch to different colors and have it look like a design element instead of a screw-up. My other thought would be to stop striping and just knit until I run out of one color and then switch to the other, sort of like color blocking. Then, if the sleeves need to be another color, no big deal. My checking account is going to bounce before I get paid again, so buying another skein in the near future is completely out of the question, and I don't have anything really suitable in my stash, besides some navy Lamb's Pride Worsted, and I don't think I'd like that look - the other colors are bright and cheerful.

A Good Birthday

2005-06-21T01:22:00.000-04:00

Monday was JoJo's birthday. She turned 3. This was the first birthday she's really understood the purpose of, and all day long I kept catching her singing happy birthday to herself. *grin* We took her to Chuck E Cheese, where she got free cotton candy at the door and a paper crown to wear, which she was thrilled with. It was her first cotton candy experience since I made some when she was Courtney's age over a year ago and she refused to eat that, too. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to believe it was not stuffing. Then she decided she liked it and would not stop until the whole bag was gone. She kept picking it up out of the plastic bag and putting it to her cheek and saying "Soft" like it was a stuffed animal or fuzzy blanket. We had to rush home to pull everything off a baker's rack my mom had stored in our bedroom that had a ton of my crap on it. She sold it to a friend who decided that she had to have it tonight. After that, we went back out and looked for new slides and chains for our swingset. I got a wicked headache from being inside Home Depot, which had that fertilizer/grass seed/rotting plant smell and was making my eyes hurt. We've been having an ongoing argument over the slide for our swingset. My dad built us our "playhouse" when I was 10. It started out as a swingset and ended up being called our "condo" by my grandfather. It's 20 feet in the air, has a deck, a 6x6 clubhouse on top with see-thru corrugated plastic roofing and windows with screens in them. Underneath are 2 swings, rings and a trapeze bar. To get up to the house, you have to climb a rope & wood ladder. Now, my kids aren't going to be big enough to go up there for at least 3 more years, so we've got some time before all that needs to be worked on (the ropes are snapped on the ladder, I'm sure the roof probably has holes from the trees growing nearer to the roof, etc), but we're trying to get the swings cleaned up. It's been a good 10 years since they've seen regular use, so they are all rusty. We're trying to figure out whether it would be better to replace the chains or get tubing to cover them, etc. And the slide, I almost forgot, I wanted to buy a new plastic slide which has higher sides and I'd feel more safe about the kids using. Dh & my dad picked up an old aluminum slide from the side of the road that they are insisting on using. It has 1 inch sides, which means that Courtney can't go down it by herself because she'll fall off. There is also the fact that we had to duct tape over all the sharp & rusty edges. The slide we saw tonight was $102 not including the wood and hardware it will take to build the supporting platform and ladder, so it's something we need to put some thought into.

My vacation is winding down, only 3 days left. It's been a decent time. We're thinking about taking the girls to the amusement park on Wednesday or Thursday. The weather here is mild, going to be in the mid-70's all week, so we won't be going on water rides. The tickets to get in are so expensive that we might just hold off and go in July when we have a few days off together and can go to the 6 Flags park an hour away. At least then we can do some water rides. Tuesday we're going to the museum for Jo's last special ed class before summer break (which for us is only about 2 weeks off before her summer school starts). Mr Roger's Neighborhood is on exhibit, so that should be fun. I always liked that show. I'm hoping to get some more knitting done. My buttonhole bag is at the point where I bind off the buttonholes/handles. The Manos sweater I'm making Jo is coming along, but I'm beginning to realize that this is going to be a very expensive, very large sweater. Like, it'll fit her in 1st grade. And cost about $50. I have about 6" knit. There's no way that 2 100g skeins will finish this sweater. I could rip it out and begin again, smaller this time, and with a better border. I could say screw the sweater and make myself a hat. It's a tough call, but one I need to make soon. I want to hurry and finish whatever it is going to be so I can move on with some other projects. I haven't picked up the shawl in a few days, primarily because it's a pattern that, although simple, I need to really pay attention to. I'm hoping that I can find some more time to knit when I'm on day shift. Maybe join a knitting group or something so that I have at least a little designated time for it. When we had the store and I was doing that full time, I had an agreement to have a night to myself every week, so I could go to a knitting group or shopping, etc. and Dh watched the girls. I don't have that option for the next 6 months because my days off, dh works nights, and his nights off are on the weekend when we need to spend time as a family once I get out of work at 4pm. I am going to make a strong effort to walk out right on time and get home in a hurry. After the good day we had today, I feel a lot better about being home in the evenings with them. They are starting to follow directions and show interest in different things, and hopefully they'll be a little easier to manage now that they are getting older. For the past year I have not relished being home alone with them because they would tear the place apart faster than I could put it back together. Jo wouldn't listen to a thing I said (now she talks back), and courtney still had 3 modes - sleep, diaper change, and eat. Now they're starting to play together, Courtney can walk around and do her own thing, Jo is talking a lot more. One thing is for sure, I can't wait for July 11th (I start the new schedule on the 10th, but will not be relishing that day - I have to work until 11:15pm the night before, then be back to work before 7am). I really need the daylight. I'll barely see dh, but it's only for 6 mos. Hopefully by the next schedule change, we'll be able to afford both of us working day shift.

Last One Down

2005-06-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

Well, today I visited the last open-to-the-public yarn shop in the city. There are at least 2 other shops in the phone book with hours "by appointment" which means you're interrupting them to browse. I found the owner of this particular store particularly friendly and fun. She asked what I liked to knit, recommended a yarn for me to try felting with, and told me that she's going to be putting a lot of stuff on sale to make room for the fall shipments she just ordered at the fiber shows. The store was tiny, but was full of beatiful natural fibers, not all that novelty shit that the other stores are full of. I ended up with 2 hanks of Manos that I've been dying to try for months. I'm going to try to make Jo a striped sweater with it. I got turquoise and hot pink. I love the thick & thin texture of the yarn. I tried casting on in the car, but I think I way overshot the width of the garment for a size 4-5T, so now that I'm home I'm going to get out a short circ and do this thing in the round. At least then the stripes will match up perfectly.

After I got done at the yarn shop we stopped home briefly to change Jo, who had mysteriously peed around her Pull-Up and got her shorts and the carseat wet, although the diaper itself was barely damp. Got her changed, grabbed some needles and cds and hopped back in the truck and headed to Buffalo. We were in the mall only for a short while because the girls were tired and acting up. Dh found some new pants and belts for work, I got some new disney stuff for me & the girls that was on sale at the Disney Store. Mickey hoodie, Mickey baseball hat and a princesses clear vinyl tote to use as a purse this summer (when I get sick of it, Jo can have it). Jo got 5 new t-shirts, 2 are from Jo-Jo's Circus, one of her favorite shows, probably because we call her Jo-Jo like the main character in the show. Courtney got 1 t-shirt with Tink on it. After that we headed home, stopping to get McDonalds which was mostly stale before getting on the thruway. Tomorrow we're getting up and going to breakfast with my parents and my brother's family. Hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep tonight. Last night dh didn't come to bed until after 3am, at which point I'd woken up and couldn't get back to sleep, finally got up and took a shower at 5:45am, and then slept until 9 or so. I'm just crossing my fingers that my medication doesn't make me sick again tonight. I'd better climb into bed and relax.

I Couldn't Belive it!

2005-06-17T23:02:00.000-04:00

A yarn shop not worth visiting? I never thought I'd say those words, but it's true! Today I went to a store that is admitedly more geared towards needlepoint, but they should have stuck with what they know. There wasn't any yarn worth looking at, except some expensive hanks of hand dyed that I've seen at the other yarn shops as well. I had hoped to come across something unique, but alas, there wasn't a thing. Tomorrow I think I might take my mom to the one local shop I haven't been to before. Hopefully they still have Saturday hours. I found an email I'd sent them inquiring about their hours last August and still haven't gotten there!

Today we had a pretty good family day together. Jo had her class with her teacher she's not too fond of, but we overslept so she was in the room with just the teacher and things seemed to go ok. The teacher knows we've asked to replace her, and today is the last class they were having, so she was in a funky mood. After that, I had to go get my wacky pills from my shrink, stopped on the way home to get the perscriptions filled, then got home in time for dh & Jo to go to Mommy & Me class. I watched the babies until my mom got home. I'd gotten horribly sick and threw up from the medication, I think. My head was spinning. I had nightmares that I was pregnant, because that is the only time I ever get sick. A pregnancy test tonight helped dispel that thought...negative. I've been feeling bloated, gained about 6 pounds in the past few weeks, and just generally feel miserable. I need to go to the doctor for a regular check-up. Tonight we were at the outlet center and I got bright red, sweating like a pig although the people around me were complaining about how cold it was, and I was shaking and weak. I had to go get something to eat. After some food and pepsi I felt better. It was scaring dh to see me that messed up. After dh & Jo got out of class we went to the outlet center. Didn't accomplish a whole lot. Dh found pants that he liked but they didn't come in black, which is what he needed. Jo got a Snow White umbrella, a couple little puzzles, and some undershirts. Courtney got a BooBah stuffed animal and a mini-pillow. I got a new sketch journal since the one I just bought mysteriously got soaked in coke while in my knitting bag in the car. I also got a cute pair of purple lensed sunglasses and dh got a new sunglass clip for his new glasses. On the way there I got a few more rows knit on the buttonhole bag. I think I have about 5 more rounds to go before the decreases.

Great Beginnings

2005-06-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

Our vacation is not going the way we expected. The weather has been horrible, so we've been stuck inside. The girls are misbehaving almost constantly. Dh threatened to go back to work on Sunday rather than "waste" his vacation yelling at the girls. I'm just exhausted, so I'm planning to go to sleep in a few minutes (by 10pm for the first time in ages).

Anyway, the title of the post refers to the 2 projects I got going today. The Pie Are Square shawl is going great except for a couple rough rows where my yarn overs were misplaced and I had to correct them. I've come up with a decent row-by-row cheat sheet, since I've got mental block against figuring out how best to mark the yo, k1, yo increases. I also broke out the soft teal 3 ply unspun and started a hat. I'm not sure if it'll fit me or Jo at this point and it's on too-short double points, so I can't stretch it and try it on. I'm trying to decide if I should stripe it or try a multi-color motif.

We're thinking about going to an outlet center tomorrow, which is about a 45 min ride away. I'll take something to work on, although I'm not sure what. Maybe the buttonhole bag. That's easy enough. I have so many projects dangling, it will feel good to get a few off my plate.

Pi are Square

2005-06-16T01:26:00.000-04:00

Everyone over on the ample knitter list has been chattering on about the Pi Are Square Shawl pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I knew I'd just seen it somewhere, but couldn't recall, so I looked thru my book collection and was devastated that I apparently only own one of her books, and it wasn't the right one. Well, I couldn't let it rest. We all know I probably will never finish this project, but I am dying to start, or at least begin contemplating, the pattern. So, the logical next step was to demand that dh take me to the LYS I figured would have it. Then I looked thru their EZ books and couldn't find the pattern listed in any of them. I asked for help, which I never do. We searched together, but couldn't find it. Eventually they looked it up on the computer and figured out which book it was, but there were none of Knitting Around on the shelf. They checked the back and found me one, thank goodness. I have no idea how much yarn this project will take, but grabbed 2 balls of teal Zephyr. The purple they had was too close to the blackberry Helen's Lace I have in storage.

In other yarn news, my package from Canada came. I was disappointed at first, the box was small and light. But inside there were huge balls of yarn, so that made me feel a little better. It's the unspun 4 and 6 ply White Buffalo yarn. They threw in a pattern, but it's not my size and I don't have enough yarn to make the vests.

Tonight we went and saw Batman Begins. Let me start by saying that I normally don't care for the comic book type movies. This movie is totally awesome! Way better than the other batman movies by far. I had no idea who Christian Bale was until the beginning of the movie - "HEY, that's the neighbor guy in Little Women!" Katie Holms is SOOO too young to be with Tom Cruise! Her name is Katie for god's sake! She is a tremendous improvement over that butt ugly Penelope Cruz, though. Anyway, now I'm gonna fondle my new yarn & book and watch Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story.

Let the Vacation Begin!

2005-06-15T01:34:00.000-04:00

It's official. My vacation has begun. What are we going to do for the next 9 days? I have no idea, but I plan to get a lot more done on my crocheted afghan and a new project I'm thinking about. Everyone on the Ample Knitters list is talking about lace shawl knitting. I should finish the lace shawls I have started, but I'm dying to start something new (again) and with brighter yarn. I'll try to force myself to work on the Weeping Willows shawl, which I haven't picked up in quite a while now. But I'll reward myself with some new yarn, I'm sure. They had some Zephyr in bright teals and purples last time I was at one of my LYS's. I'm going to try to get as much knitting time in as I can while we're driving around this week. I don't want to finish the week off, thinking, "But all I wanted to do was sit around, knit & read and relax, and I didn't!" That's what happened on our last vacation. There's a yarn shop I haven't been to in a couple months, I'll go check them out. Maybe get to check out a new yarn shop here in town, or one out of town if we decide to do a day trip somewhere. Friday Jo has school in the morning and afternoon, I have a dr's appt in between.

We found out today that Jo will be in 1/2 day preschool starting in Sept, 5 days a week with 3 days of speech built into her schedule. She's still way behind in her language and social skills, although she's made remarkable progress in the past 6-9 months. We're glad that she's getting to have this opportunity. I went to 2 years of private pre-school when I was 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 years old, but there is no way we would be able to afford that for Johanna. Not that I'd ever wish for my children to have learning disabilities, but at least this way she's getting the experience without me going bankrupt. And she loves her class there once a week right now. We're getting a different speech therapist as well. The girl that replaced Kate, the teacher we'd had for the past year, is just not with-it. She doesn't connect with Jo on any level, every week is a chore for us to get thru the 50 mins or so that she's supposed to be having class. She throws tantrums and goes crazy. We're hoping to get Kate back, or at least someone else who can work better with her.

Will it ever end?

2005-06-14T00:20:00.000-04:00

This weather is killing me. Hot & Humid until we get to work and it pours! We ordered in chinese food tonight, I only ate about 1/2 my sesame chicken order, thought I'd take it home, but I was still stuffed by the end of the night so I tossed it. What a shame. We stopped on the way home and got new videos from Blockbuster - chick flicks I've been wanting to see, like Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff. I got home and found a package with the books I ordered from my mom's book club (she's done with her obligation now, thanks to me.) Just in time for my vacation - hopefully I get to read some of them. Two are compilations of shorter romance stories, which beg to be read on a sunny or rainy summer day. If it weren't so damn hot, I could sit outside with the girls in the mornings on the deck and they could play while I read. Instead I'll probably settle for sitting on the couch and reading a paragraph at a time in between stopping them from doing dumb things. Our vacation officially starts in 23 hours, and we still haven't decided what we want to do. We got another of our gift cards from our bank (love those programs where they give you points for spending all your own money!), so we've got some free dough to spend. Probably on yarn or patterns for me, probably on music or video games for dh.

If you were going on a road trip for about 2 hours in each direction, what kind of project/activity would you pack to occupy you? Assuming you aren't driving, of course.

Secret Pals

2005-06-12T02:38:00.000-04:00

I've been fascinated with the idea of the Secret Pal Exchange since I first heard about it. At the time, we'd been unemployed and nearly homeless, so obviously I could not join at that time - I couldn't afford to buy myself anything, let alone someone I could not tell my name to. I was just reading on a message group I subscribe to that they're doing a year-long SP exchange. To me, that seems a little extreme. I mean, requiring each person to send gifts each month for an entire year, not being able to give your name? What a thankless proposition. I somehow miss out in the normal Secret Pal thing, not sure who's in charge or how I can sign up, but can someone please point me in the right direction at the beginning of one?

In other news, I rearranged a couple vacation days now that I know my new schedule for work. Instead of having 2 days off for my anniversary, I have a 5 day weekend. I'm skipping the day off for The Wiggles since I get out of work early enough now to get there in time. It's just going to suck that I have all of Aug-Oct without any extra days off, then I have 4 days off in Nov to do Christmas Shopping. But I'll be working day shift and I don't think I'll get as burned out.

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday. Courtney was up from 4:30-7:30 or so when I finally got her a bottle and she passed out. I was exhausted when my dad called down to say he was going to the car show and my mom had already left for the hospital, so I had to send dh up to watch them and he was supposed to let me sleep a while longer. He didn't end up waking me up until nearly time to leave for work, so we drove seperately, since I can afford to get there a few minutes later (my team starts at 2:15, all the other 2nd shift people start at 2). It's been so humid that I don't want to bring wool out of the house. I just need to make it the next 3 days and then I'll be on vacation. I might bring my granny square afghan with me to work on today, Sunday, because it'll be quiet and maybe we can stop and get something to eat on the way to work and skip dinner or get an icecream instead of food like we did last weekend. People steal the food out of the fridge, so you can't even bring a decent meal and put it in the refrigerator until lunch. Anyway, if we're not trying to eat dinner, I'll have time to work on my blanket. I wanted to have it done by Wednesday, but it doesn't look like that will happen. My aunt may not be well enough to be released from the hospital and go back to the cancer center for treatment by Wed either, so I probably have an extra week. Top projects for the next 2 weeks are the granny square afghan, the buttonhole bag, and fuzzy feet slippers.

The wait is over

2005-06-11T06:47:00.000-04:00

Well, yesterday they finally announced the new shifts for July 10- the end of the year. I got the same days off, Wed/Thurs, which sorta sucks, but I'm on a 7-4 shift, which means I can actually have an after-work life, such as eating dinner, playing with the kids and giving them baths and putting them to bed every night, and then actually get a decent night's sleep. This schedule was my 13th pick - and 13 is my lucky number. I got a great supervisor whom I know from the time before my current schedule began and he had to babysit our immature and unprofessional training teams once our real supervisors left us to take over the brand new training teams behind us. He's worked his way up the ranks, which means he knows everything and that I will learn a lot from him. While I like my current supervisor, I haven't learned a whole lot from her. Ironically, dh is going to be on her team, and they're working 2-11 with Saturday & Sunday off. He's got a few people we know on his team, including the guy who I like and dh hates, and he's the supervisor's pet. My team has one girl from my current team, Kim, and a girl I went thru elementary school with, Danielle. Also a guy I sat with while I was in training and blew in for being so horrible on the phone. So, it's going to be interesting. I may actually get to re-join a knitting group now that I'll have nights off during the week. Really, the important thing is that dh will be home with the girls on the weekends and I'll be home with them the other nights. Hopefully, by the next schedule bid we'll be closer to being guaranteed the same or closer schedules. Dh could have gotten a day shift, but we figured we couldn't afford to both lose both the 2nd shift and sunday differentials - this way I ended up losing 2nd shift and he's losing sundays. Hopefully by the next time around we'll have gotten promoted to Sr Rep and gotten the related pay increase and can afford to bid the same day shifts.

Our parents are refinancing their mortgage in order to put an addition on the house for us to live here permanently. It's not going to be cheaper for us to live here, by the time we pay the mortgage increase, tax increase, and insurance increase, but at least it'll be permanent and I can plan ahead. Maybe schedule a vacation to Disney World, paint the walls, buy the girls real furniture for their rooms, hang pictures on the walls. Otherwise, we'd be trying to find a dinky apartment in our school district, because I absolutely refuse to send my kids anywhere else. I'm going to get my craft area, the kids will have a big living room and we'll have a computer lab-esque area for the computers and for the kids to do homework. My mom's even considering adding a little patio off the 2nd story. I got some remodeling software from Walmart to try to come up with a floor plan, but haven't had time to figure out how to use it yet. I just can't wait to have windows, daylight and fresh air in my bedroom! And don't get me started on how awesome it will be to have my craft stuff at my fingertips!

In current crafting news, I worked a few more rounds on the buttonhole bag. I decided to go with my second idea, working the stripe with 1 strand each of blue & pink, at least for now. I may decide to go with entirely pink at some point and have a shaded stripe from blue to pink It poured yesterday, so I traded in my felted daypack for a less-smelly vinyl purse. There is nothing worse than the smell of a wet felted bag after being caught in the rain! Another bonus of working day shift will be that the cafeteria will be open during my lunch and I can stay at work, eat something, and then read, knit, or whatever. As me July 10th, after I've worked on Saturday until 11:15pm and have to be back to work at 7am on Sunday morning, how I'm feeling about the new schedule.

Halfway There

2005-06-10T10:30:00.000-04:00

Well, just wanted to let ya know that I'm officially 1/2 way thru the Buttonhole bag. I've used 2 of my 4 skeins of blue lopi. Now I'm trying to decide if I should just go with the other 2 balls and see how far it takes me and call it done, or if I should add the pink stripe, or if I should do a strand each of the pink & blue and then go back to solid pink or blue? I've completed the standard 10 rounds of even knitting, so at this point I'm in the expansion portion of the pattern, where you can add as much or as little as you want without any other pattern elements to worry about. The picture of the bag on the pattern, here, is of a very shallow bag. I'm looking to have a book-bag size. I'm afraid that color experimentation is going to leave me wishing I had just gone solid, like the green bag did. The fact that it's done with 2 bulky strands and size 15 needles in a pretty dense stitch is making me believe, perhaps falsely, that this thing isn't going to shrink a whole heck of a lot. That's a good thing, since I'll know when the bag is big enough. I wish I had a little novelty something to work into this bag. Maybe a satin ribbon woven around the top? I'm going to give lining this bag with material some thought, since my daypack is leaving green wool lint on my headphones! I'm just glad that this is going so quickly. Last night I cast on for the bottom, picked up 1/2 the stitches to begin the body and got bored so I put it down, then I picked it up again and finished picking up and decided I would just get the 8 rounds of shaping done, but I kept going. Today I finished the first 2 balls and about 12 rounds of even knitting in a section that can have more or less than 10 rounds. I know the sample in the LYS had 10 extra rounds. I'd actually like mine to be bigger than that, even. I wish I could find my cheshire cat bag, because that would give me a better idea of what I'm trying to accomplish.

New #2

2005-06-10T00:32:00.000-04:00

Tonight I watched Legally Blonde (again!) and started my Buttonhole Bag with the blue Lopi I got with my yarn shop gift certificate from my mom for Mother's Day. I've determined that I definitely will need to add another color to this bag, either buying more lopi or using the sage green or navy blue Lamb's Pride Worsted or the pink leftover lopi from the Cheshire Cat bag. Despite what the display bag in my LYS says, 4 balls of Lopi double stranded is not going to make a bag big enough for me. I've never done a felted bag double stranded before, but I'm hoping the fact that it's only 60-something stitches on size 15 needles makes it a quick knit. The owner of my LYS made a bunch of them in a single week, so I'm predicting I should have mine done in about 2 weeks. I am also thinking about making some double-stranded Fuzzy Feet slippers with the mountains of Cascade 220 I have. I must use up some of this yarn so I have room to buy more! :) I've determined one of my biggest problems with getting projects going and keeping them going is that I don't have time to concentrate on what I'm trying to do in between keeping the kids out of trouble and working. I have my lace shawl on hold because I don't have time to figure out what row I left off on! I was able to pick up my sock last night only because I know it's mindless knitting right now. I have at least 3 other socks I could be working on finishing, but they are all around the heel area and I don't have the patience to work the shaping. If I do the fuzzy feet, I'll be ok while I'm doing the ankle and the instep, the parts in between and after are what keep me from bothering with them at all. But I do have some odd colors of 220 that might mix well for some slippers. It's been 90 degrees the past few days, but my feet get cold on the hardwood floor, so I can see myself wearing them even in the summer.

Another New Beginning

2005-06-09T22:02:00.000-04:00

Well, today I cast on for another project for me. I decided to take another look thru the current issue of Easy Knitting and found a zip-up sweater that I liked the look of. I'm using that Miami yarn. I've got about 1/2 the ribbing for the back done - I hate ribbing, especially with size 6 needles and for 3 whole inches! I'm going to need to use more than 1 color for this sweater, but I'm trying to decide how I should mix it up, if I should do even stripes, or color blocking, or random stripes. Make the sleeves a different color from the body, etc. The afghan only got another round or so done on it - the girls were not being cooperative, so I couldn't sit long enough to make it worthwhile. As it was, the two of them tore apart the ball of yarn I was working from on the sweater, but luckily I haven't found any knots from them pulling in every direction.

I need to get some sleep so I can get up early tomorrow. Jo has class, my aunt is in the hospital again, so my mom has to go see her in the morning, and Melanie is getting dropped off early. Today it rained so hard when we went out that we only got to Sam's to pick up diapers & detergent and came straight home. Tomorrow we're supposed to find out what our schedules for July - December will be. I don't care what time I work, as long as it's day shift, but I am curious to find out what supervisor I'll have.

Crochet

2005-06-09T02:59:00.000-04:00

Today I actually accomplished quite a bit on my crocheted granny square afghan I'm making to donate to the cancer center. What I've noticed is that the Red Heart yarn is completely inconsistent between colors, weight wise. The magenta tone is nice & thick, the variegated is almost sport weight by comparison. It's getting boring, now that the piece is larger and it's taking a long time to get around the square each round. I'm thinking of doing something like a log cabin pattern around the outside of the large square, working the entire length of one side, then extending out at the far end. I've never done anything like that, but I assume that it must be possible. I probably won't get around to experimenting on this one, but maybe the next crochet afghan I make. I'd like to have this one done by next Wednesday. I may start going in 1 row stripes, just to mix it up enough that I can get it finished without dying of boredom. Laura was saying how boring it is to just start-t0-finish one project at a time. I'm beginning to think that's the only way I can operate, because I'm so easily distracted that I never finish anything. The difference is that I have so many yarn sources available to me -4 LYS's, one is only 4 miles away, the internet, my own stash. Tonight I was listening to a book on my ipod while waiting for dh to get home so we could make a midnight run to Walmart, so I pulled out the rainbow Opal 6ply sock I started quite a while back. It's just plain stockinette, but for some reason I was finding this project particularly annoying. I think it was the short #2 brittany dpns. The 6 ply yarn and size 11 man's sock are disproportionate to the needles in comparison to my usual size 0's and 4 ply yarn on size 8 women's socks. But I pulled out a couple stripes worth of yarn from the ball and forced myself to work another inch or so on the leg. I sort of wish I was one of these people who only knit a particular item, like people who only knit socks, or only knit sweaters, or only knit bags. That would make life so much simpler. Unfortunately, I have moods where I want to knit lace, knit bulky, knit with 2 hands, knit with beads, knit in the round, knit straight, knit short rows, knit from charts, knit from formulas, knit from patterns, knit freeform, knit with acrylics, knit with novelty yarns, knit with cotton, knit with wool, knit with dpns, knit with circs, knit for kids, knit for adults, knit to felt, knit for friends, knit for family, knit for myself...

Somebody, Stop me!

2005-06-07T00:18:00.000-04:00

I'm out of control. Not only have I gotten more acrylic (and how many times have I said "never again" to that?) in the past couple weeks, I now purchased more wool, probably for more felting, from Canada no less (which means the shipping is outrageous!) on ebay. I've been dying to try that White Buffalo unspun yarn, which reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmerman. Her site, Schoolhouse Press, still sells unspun yarn in wheels, but for one thing it's expensive, and for another, I wouldn't know how much to buy. Well, an ebay store had it on clearance for 3.95-4.99 per 8 ounce puck, so I grabbed 6 of them. The total came to 41.07, over $14 in shipping on $26.32 worth of stuff! I got some 3 ply and some 6 ply. I might try some heavy hats for winter time with it, otherwise it will probably become felted slippers.

I am making progress on the technicolor afghan. I didn't have a chance to work on it today because we went out for lunch and got back later than I would have liked, and my dentist appointment was running right on time this morning, so I didn't have time then either. It's been really hot here the past 2 days, my parents turned on the a/c - tomorrow I may get a chance to sit outside while the girls play in the yard (dh keeps promising Jo that he'll let her go on the slide tomorrow, but then the next day he's always running late and doesn't make time for it.) I need to start getting out and exercising more by taking the girls for a walk or something. I've actually been thinking about going back to the gym, but I don't have the time for it. I ran into a cousin I haven't seen in years the other day, she didn't recognize me, and I barely recognized her. My blonde hair probably threw her off, she's lost about 100+ pounds. She used to make me look thin, now she makes me feel like a beached whale. I don't necessarily feel that I need to lose weight, I need to lose the baby flab that used to be tight. I weigh less than I did when I got pregnant both times, but I'm flabby. It's so unfair!

Finally a Freaking Finished Bag!

2005-06-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

Yes, I finally finished the Felted Daypack by Two Old Bags. It came out awesome. I had a little problem with the 2nd strap, as in I was running out of yarn! I decided to add a "feature" - a salmon stripe - to make sure that I had enough yarn to seam the 1st strap closed. I did decide to go with a 6 stitch icord on the 2nd strap, and to be honest, I don't see any difference between the two. Now I want to find something to embellish it with, although it's nice & smooth and clean now. My mom even commented on how nice & even this one was. It's the yarn. I will never use Woolpak yarn again - it makes a loopy finish and reminds me that the yarn did one time cover a sheep. The Cascade 220 is a joy to work with and felts fabulously! The bag has an odd strap configuration that had me scratching my head and examining the diagrams, photos and sketches on the pattern trying to figure out if I screwed up or if they did, or if it was okay the way it was. The straps come from the front of the bag on the top and attach on the back of the bag at the bottom. Then, you tie the tie cords around the straps at the top front to keep the top from gaping open or the straps from coming around to the wrong side. I don't know - I haven't used it yet, so I'm not sure how effective the design will be. Another thing - it recommended 205 row straps, which are entirely too long in my opinion. Again, as soon as I attach straps pre-felting, I am destined to have made them too long or too short. Usually too long.

We went to the mall today and I made a dash into Michaels, armed with my 40% off coupon, and got another of those knitting bags. I'll have to post pictures. I thought that this one, regularly 39.99 (I paid $26 after tax) had 3 skein pockets, but it actually has 3 on each side. A little larger than I needed, but maybe now I can also use it for my fair isle project. In the meantime, I'm going to be able to take all 3 colors of yarn for my granny square project with me.

Well, off to the casino for a bit. I'm whooped, but dh & I didn't get a chance to really spend any time together in the past week. We wanted to have a date lunch today, with a movie and take out food, but there wasn't a damn thing playing that we both wanted to see.

One cool granny!

2005-06-01T22:41:00.000-04:00

Well, today I made some crochet progress. I found a pattern, free at Walmart, for a granny square lapghan, which I actually got to work. I'm not sure if I'm getting the gauge they call for, but it's more than 1/4 yarn vs. air. My granny squares are ridiculously open when I try to make them, making them completely useless as articles to keep warm under. My last afghan was used as a seat cushion all folded up on my uncomfortable computer chair when I was pregnant and my back was sore. That's about all it was good for, since it was not the least bit warm. Well, I found this pattern and actually got it to work. The secret - only 1 chain between clusters - the other patterns all called for ch3 between, which made them really open. I'm using some wild shades of Red Heart. This is going to be donated to the cancer center, so RH was the best choice as far as durability, washability and expense. I'm using a crazy variegated that's got lime green, teal, purple, pink, yellow and orange in it. Then I'm alternating that with pink & purple solids. When my mom saw just the pink & purple center done, she commented on the "odd combination" but when I told her to look in my tote to see the multi to go with it, she said she understood. These are happier colors. The yarn I bought for my 2 pound afghan is too dull, even if I got a solid to mix with it, it's dreary. I've got about a 14" square done - I'm not sure how big I should make it, and if I should go with square, or increase to a certain point and then start making stripes at the top & bottom but not do any more width wise. I've never done this before, so I'm really not sure what they typically look for from donated afghans. I also splurged at Walmart on another set of hooks. It was $8 for sizes D-K, I think. I'm going to keep that in the one skein knitting tote I spoke about in my last post. Now I'm not sure if I should continue on with the double stranded afghan I had started, or if I should try the "1 chain between" granny with that yarn, too. I have all these wonderful expensive yarns to work with, but right now I'm living in acrylic heaven. The colors are bright and the yarn is cheap. If the projects aren't perfect, who gives a damn? It's not like I'm wasting hundreds here, closer to $10 per blanket. I've always wanted to do some charity knitting or crocheting, but I never get around to it. I'm defending these yarn purchases as donations to a good cause, so I really need to follow thru so I don't feel like a hypocrite.

It's starting to look more & more likely that we'll be staying with my parents indefinitely and adding on a 2nd floor to their ranch to accomodate us permanently. We'd be paying about the same on a home improvement loan and extra taxes as we'd be spending on an apartment large enough for a family of 4 plus all our stuff (I have about 30 square foot x 8 foot tall of yarn & scrapbooking & sewing stuff in storage, plus all of our books & videos & the kids clothes & toys...), but why throw the money away on an apartment, which will still need to be heated/cooled, electric, phone, cable, internet, water, yada yada. And at least we'd be staying in the right school district. As far as we're concerned, that's the only thing that matters - that the kids go to the school district I did. If we go ahead with the plan to raise the roof and add an additional floor, we'd have 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, and rec room/studio. I dream of having my elementary school art room in my house! Wall to wall cupboards and drawers and large tables with stools. Ok, well maybe we'll have to settle for my butcher block kitchen table, which is already paid for, but can you see what I mean about the cupboards? Room for my yarn and scrapbooking supplies and sewing machine, maybe the counter can be built to stick out far enough to clamp my USM onto. Large cupboards that the kids can keep their toys organized in. Maybe I can find that chalkboard paint and have a huge blackboard right on the wall for them to draw on. And now that I think about it, I should probably also plan to have built-in computer desks for dh & I. I love built-in elements. Like my parents added on to our first house when my brother was born, and they turned my defunct long bedroom window that led into their new bedroom closet into child's built-in desk & book case, which I displayed my doll collection on. We have so much crap that built-in furniture is probably the only way we'll be able to fit it all into 1100 sq feet. One marvel that I've come to love - cd storage binders. The kids have about 40 dvds, and rather than having a few boxes full of dvd cases like we have the vcr tapes, I have one binder with all their videos so they can choose what to watch and I don't have to worry about it becoming a mess all over the living room as they take each one out and try to stack them into towers. It makes me wish I'd broken down and gotten a dvd player for the living room sooner - could have just gotten dvds instead of all those video tapes in the past year. Anyway, I think we'll spend at least a little time on our vacation looking thru design books and floor plan ideas. I just hope I get a little time to spend on knitting. Our last vacation was ruined by the car salesman from hell - I am not letting that happen again. Hopefully, we'll have enough time for fun, relaxation, and catching up on things. I want to get the girls pictures taken, dh wants a family portrait, but I'm not too sure about that. We'd like to take them to an amusement park or something fun for them, but I'm not sure where. We're still up in the air about whether we're going out of town without them. We wanted to visit Jamie in Pittsburgh, but she's working M-F, and I really don't want to be gone for the weekend and leave the girls home. My mom has them 24x7, I would like for her to get a break while we're home. Tomorrow we're having a date lunch, dh & I. When we first started dating, we did this a couple times. We got take out chinese from a place he liked and I hated (not that the food was horrible - it was passable, but not great - but they used something in the food that made me unbelievably ill, made me sweat and thrash in my sleep and have crazy nightmares) then we'd go to this older theater that we never go to anymore because about 6 nicer onces have been built closer to us in the past 15 years. We'd eat the food in the old CRX hatchback that we had back then, then go see a movie. So, I decided we should do it again, for old times sake. Even at the risk of running into dh's ex-girlfriend who I believe is the manager of that theater now. After we get done there, we'll probably pick up the girls and go out for the evening if the weather is nice. Not sure what we'll do, but I feel like I need to get them out in the fresh air as much as possible since my mom has no choice but to keep them inside all day when she's home alone with them. Our yard isn't fenced, and although we did close in our back deck, the wood is splintery and the deck is painted dark and gets really hot. If we stay here permanently, maybe I can talk my parents into a pool - the only other thing I really wanted if I had a house, besides the yarn room.

I love a deal!

2005-05-30T23:05:00.000-04:00

Today, in honor of Memorial Day, the craft stores had extra coupons, and of course I had to rush out and use them. I got a cool new yarn tote that holds one skein of yarn (like a RH Super Saver sized one) and the work in progress. It's called Good to Go by Eagle. I got it at Michaels with a 50% off coupon, so it came to $10. I went to Joann's and got 2 afghan books that were on sale for 30% off, a crochet hook that the patterns called for, and used the 40% off coupon off one of the books and an extra 10% off my entire purchase coupon, too. I got $52 worth of stuff for $27.50 plus tax. Love it! Of course, I tried granny squares again, because I love the idea of doing the granny square afghans, however, mine come out more open than closed and are not even slightly insulating! I dropped from the recommended hook down to a size G, and I think that will help, but the hook I have is a Bates and I hate those - I need my Boye one, but I think it was sent to storage with the Mile a Minute afghan I was using it on.

And an annoying incident - I can't find the 3rd ball of Dazzle to finish my booga bag. I had it with the rest of the project, and now it's nowhere to be found! I stayed up a couple nights ago and actually got about 100 rows of my first daypack strap knit. All I can say is "Why?" Why would you do a 7 stitch stockinette strap when you could do a 6 stitch icord??? The pattern even says that they had to stitch theirs closed after knitting it to make it look neater. I'm leaving mine flat - the heck with seams! I can't wait to get it finished! My purses are driving me nuts - I need a new one! I'm starting to think of making another "Cheshire Cat" type bag from the Lopi instead of a buttonhole bag. I used the same yarn, so I know it'll come out the same way. Remind me to shave the entire thing inside & out before putting in the handles next time! That's really the SIZE bag I need... A huge stretchy carpet bag that can fit anything & everything. I could spruce it up with some cool buttons this time. Maybe line it with fabric so fur doesn't get in my ipod or cell phone?

Today I went to lunch with an old friend & employee, Steph. She's 17, just graduating from high school. She doesn't know how to get to her own home. I swear, I drove around her neighborhood for a good half hour and finally her mother drove her to where I'd finally pulled over and parked! She could not give me directions for how to get there! The directions I'd gotten online (she'd told me to look it up there because she had no idea how to tell me to get there) were useless because the road was blocked and I couldn't get to the side street I was looking for. When we finally got to the restaurant, the kids were relatively well behaved and afterwards we went to Toys R Us and got Jo a new viewmaster & some discs for them, got Courtney a leapfrog doll that sings the same 1-10 song over and over again, and diapers. Dropped Steph off back at home (which was amazingly easy to find when you're going down the right streets) and went home. The girls were cranky and tore the place up. I was trying to work on my afghan project but it was useless - they are fascinated with yarn and books - bad combination when you're trying to use a new pattern book and yarn! I watched the tape of the nascar race from Sunday and tried to work on the afghan, but it was coming out too stiff once I'd switched patterns & hooks, so I give up.

The past day or two I've been looking thru the Ample Knitter's website. I've been a dormant member for years now. I remember how gung ho I was about their More than a Sweatshirt KAL, couldn't wait to get the back issue of Knitter's magazine that had the pattern. Tried to find the perfect yarn for it. Well, then I got it and it sat & continues to sit after at least 18 months now. They have UFO Monday's - where you dedicate your knitting time one day a week to unfinished projects. I should be dedicating all my knitting time to that, but let's not go there. What it got me to thinking was whether anyone has ever come up with a system that works to get you to knit and complete projects on a schedule? A lot of us make plans and lists of things we want to accomplish - for me, it seems that writing it out is a guarantee for failure. But then I remember Ann, a woman who was on a few of my other groups, who said that she had one large project that she worked on for at least 1 hour every day. After that was fulfilled, she would either work longer on that project (she submitted afghans and sweaters & stuff for judging in fairs), or she would work on charity stuff or other projects. I asked her how she got so much knitting done, and she told me about this system, but also pointed out that her sons were grown, and I was pregnant & had a busy 18 month old at the time. In other words, I was not likely to accomplish as much as her just due to the pace my life was driving me to keep up with. But, honestly, don't I deserve an hour a day for myself? If I were working days, I'd be putting the kids to bed around 9pm, and I can spend an hour knitting and still pretend to get a decent night's sleep. I have so many projects to think of. I went thru a spurt one weekend where I seemed to knit constantly - I sat in the recliner and picked up one project, sat on the couch and immediately picked up another. I knit & knit & knit on those 2 projects for a few days straight. I think one was small like a sock, the other was a bulkier gauge, so I got a break by switching between them. Dh asked when I was going to knit him something, and my mom told him that he'd have to find a special place for me to sit to work on it, because that was the only way I seemed to accomplish anything. I keep saying I'm going to get a little project to take with me, but when I get a break I'd rather talk to the people around me or walk around than sit & knit. I got this one-skein bag that I figured would be totable, but now I'm not sure what to put in it. I remember when I was working on my CYO sweater at the mall... The amount of knitting time I had seemed to work in indirect proportion to the amount of yarn I had to work with. If I only brought enough of the colors to get thru 5 rows, I'd be done by noon and looking for something else to do. If I brought enough to do 16 rows, I'd only feel like knitting 4. Maybe I can start by making myself knit 1/2-1 band per night on that sweater so I can get it finished by August and be able to wear it in the fall. Of course, if I dedicate myself to that, I won't have time to do my summer weight tank tops for me & the girls. See the trouble I have figuring out what to work on? I may need to use my USM and get moving on some of these projects that I have piled up, just to get them off my mind.

Quiet

2005-05-29T00:19:00.000-04:00

Well, today was a nice, easy day. Apparently very few people were worried about their high phone bills and didn't give us a call to complain about it. I actually got caught up on my follow-ups, which is the bane of my existance on any given day of the week. They actually sent home 3 people from each team. We decided to stick it out and take the easy day to get caught up and boost our numbers. Tomorrow promises to be even lighter, and I'm going to bring a magazine or a small knitting project to work on between calls. Maybe my cell phone cover? Crochet with a tiny hook is less conspicuous than knitting needles, even on a small project. And I want to work some more with the bamboo yarn. I also need to map out a tank pattern for the girls so that I can work on that with the Miami ribbon yarn. I think I can actually go up to a size 10 needle with that yarn. At least on a kid's size. I wish I could take the crochet afghan with me, but that's impossible because it takes a huge grocery bag to hold the 3 pounds of yarn and project in progress.

Tonight's big laugh was that no one on my team knew what a Heffalump was! Uh, hello? Have you been in a bubble? There was a movie about them! Which was how it came up - I wanted to rent it on the way home. None of the people on the team knew, and someone asked if our acting supervisor, the guy I was talking about last night, knew what it was. My response, "Ha, A's not going to know!" Well, he was the only one who did!!! I almost fell over, in fact, if the chair hadn't caught me on the way down, I would have. And he's about 30-something and has no wife or kids to blame for the knowledge. He says he saw it on the coming attractions on E! channel. That at least dispelled the notion that I'd dreamed it up!

Opposites Attract

2005-05-28T00:13:00.000-04:00

Well, today I went to work alone (dh's day off) and had a fairly low stress day. On my lunch I decided that I need to start journaling again. I don't have as much time as when I was obsessive about it, but I think it would do me some good to have someplace to scribble meaningless stuff I can't get off my mind, or write out song lyrics I love, etc. I used to keep a large hardcover sketch book I got cheap at B&N and some crayons & colored pencils & markers in my bag when I worked overnight shifts and could afford to dedicate hours to my own persuits while on the company's dime. Those days have been over for a long time. I'm looking forward to going back to day shift, when I'll hopefully have a chance to eat lunch and work on a project, read or write. I used to write a lot, too. I'm going to dig out some of my abandoned journals just for the heck of it. I have about a zillion of them. Today in my reverie after I ate my flurry for lunch, I sat and thought about a guy at work who everyone hates, but whom I am drawn to like. He's got a dry, snotty sense of humor and comes off like a pompus ass. A lot of people call him a prick. That's the reason I've decided that I'm going to break him down until he's nice to me. Because I can. When I was in high school and college, I was always friends with the most standoffish guys in class. Why? Because I love a challenge! How? You stroke their ego. Make them think you believe them to be as great as they see themselves, and you'll become their sidekick in no time flat. Is that what's going to happen here? Not hardly. I'm not trying to be his best friend, I'm gaining his respect and he's starting to relax a little. I'm having fun with it.

Now, about the knitting. Today I spent my slight bit of energy trying to read more of At Knit's End. Not a single stitch is knit, but I did make a to-do list that included the afghan to donate, the felted daypack that is so close to completion, the button hole bag which I'm dying to start, Jamie's shawl, and the tank tops. Only 6 weeks until our new schedule starts - I'm hoping that the day shift schedule allows me more time to work on projects. Or at least get enough sleep that I can focus on one when I've got the time. I'm also going to see my shrink in a few more weeks and my medication should help tremendously.

40 winks! Please! Just once!

2005-05-27T06:14:00.000-04:00

It's 6:15am, and I've been awake at least an hour already. I went to bed only 4 hours ago, so you can imagine me sitting here with eyes crossing and hair going in every direction. If you must, you may also imagine my not-even-close-to-being-even fake tan, which I discovered yesterday after the Micromist finally developed after I'd left my home for the day in short sleeves. We went to the zoo and to Chuck E Cheese to get the girls out. We had a good family day for a change. We didn't have naps, so Jo went to sleep when we got home, so tired that she was crying herself to sleep, babbling about nonsense between sobs. Courtney, on the other hand, was up until 10:45, when I finished watching In Good Company (which was not the movie I was hoping for - is it just me, or in all romantic movies these days do the characters NOT end up together? Stop wasting 2 hours of my time if that's how you're going to end it!) She was still awake but I could tell she was getting tired, so I put her in the crib and let her cry it out for a few minutes until she passed out. The result: 2 children up at 5:10am. Tonight I swear, I'm coming home, putting on my pjs and hopping into bed without stopping. Thank god I have Monday off! I sent an email to my youngest friend, Stephanie, to see if she's got plans for Monday. She's all depressed over her best friend, whom she's had a crush on forever and never fessed up to, and now they're going to college in a couple months in opposite directions and she's tweaking. Aren't you glad you are past that stage? Don't get me wrong, I had a couple outstanding years at the end of my high school career, but I'm glad that turmoil is behind me. For instance, I'm married and I don't have to worry about how to hide my camoflage-patterned tan from the dh, because he couldn't care less... in fact, if I hadn't asked him if I really had stark white spots on the back of my arms (I noticed this as we pulled into the parking lot for the zoo, thru tinted glass windows into the side mirror of his truck), he probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

This schedule is really starting to get to me. I can't wait to be on days. Dh will still be on nights, so we're barely going to see each other. But I hope to at least be well rested, since I won't be staying up waiting for him to get home. I hope I get a 7-4 shift. I guess a lot of people don't like shifts that start that early. I want to get in & out as soon as possible. Miss the rush hour. Get home in time for dinner at a decent hour. Spend some time with my kids before putting them to bed. Maybe get some knitting done.

Red, White & Blue

2005-05-26T10:09:00.000-04:00

Ok, it has nothing to do with the holiday weekend coming up, but I am in the middle of a new project I picked up last night, worked on for 2 hours, then gave up and restarted, this time taking the easy way out. My mom suggested that I make a blanket to donate to the cancer center where my aunt receives treatment. They have quilts and afghans to cover the patients, some of whom are there all day (it's an outpatient dr's office type facility, not a hospital). Well, of course the excuse to go find a pattern and yarn was a welcome one. I got my coupons and went to Joanns, Michaels & Walmart, and ended up with 3 Pound of Love bundles, one in a denim blue, one in bright red and the other in white. I had originally picked up just the blue to use to make my nephew-to-be a blanket, then I got the red off clearance. At another store I picked up the white and decided to make it a 3 color afghan to give to the cancer center. I tried a giant granny square pattern, but I can't handle the smaller hooks and the size I find comfortable leaves so many holes that it's not warm. So, I got out the N hook and decided to do it double stranded in stripes, Red/White, White/Blue, Blue/Red, Red/White, etc. The starting chain was an approximate width worth of stitches, the pattern I'm using thus far is 1 row of sc, 1 row of dc, 2 rows of sc, then change colors and repeat.

Courtney woke up promptly at 6:30am. I gave her a bottle then got my eyebrows and lip waxed and my highlights redone. I took a shower and sprayed on the tanning stuff I completely forgot I picked up. Hopefully I don't turn orange after I go out! We're supposed to be taking the girls to the zoo and/or chuck e cheese. I threatened Jo every time she acted up yesterday that we wouldn't go to chuck e cheese today if she was naughty. And she remembers that she is supposed to go there today. I guess I should wake dh up so we can get going.

Smile!

2005-05-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

What's better than this much yarn arriving? The fact that I snuck it into the house without anyone knowing. The orange, teal, and pink aren't as vibrant as I was hoping for. The green & brown sock yarn isn't quite self-patterning looking... more like camoflage variegated. I'll have to see how it works up. The pastels along the bottom are for tanks for one or both of the girls. I did get my iPod sock done. I'll weave in the ends before posting that picture. The book I've been listening to on my iPod has been fascinating. I actually listened to it for about 2 1/2 hours this morning while the kids were playing and watching tv. I just printed out the pattern for the Buttonhole Bag, which I want to get started on. That yarn is bulky and then it's also used double stranded - it'll go fast, I hope. I found at least 1 glitch in the pattern, hopefully that's the only one.

"What are you making?"

2005-05-25T00:20:00.000-04:00

Ok, you've got to go check out this wonderful entry on my LYS's website. Pam, the owner, is so sweet & funny. She hit the nail on the head. And in case anyone hasn't picked up Stephanie's book "At Knit's End..." Do it! It's a great book. One that you'll laugh as you read, making the people around you wonder if you really have lost your mind.

It was a rough day. I was up until almost dawn with Courtney. Ended up sleeping until close to noon. Got up and chased Jo around trying to get her dressed and her room straightened up for her class this afternoon. Got to work, found I had a zillion things to do today, only half of which got done. On my lunch I went to visit my old best friend, Nick, at the mall. I stopped at the foodcourt to grab a burrito and then headed in the direction of his store... I got around the corner and ran into him walking towards me, completely not recognizing me. I'm standing there like a dumb ass, waving, saying "Hey, Nick? Hello? It's me?!" I've gotten my hair highlighted and got contacts since I've seen him, and he completely didn't know it was me. Yeah, I said he was my best friend 6 months ago. Guys! Hmph! He was heading to the bathroom, so I said goodbye and left. After that, I went to the computer store to see if they had an ipod charger/fm transmitter thing for my ipod. The darn things only have an 18hr battery life, so I've got to charge it all the time. The shop had one for $69.99. Uh, no. Walmart has one for $33. So, my lunch was really a waste. After lunch wasn't much better. At least during my break I got to knit a bit on my ipod sock. My neighbor laughs at me knitting. She thinks it's only for old people. She's been living in a trailer park, so I guess she hasn't heard that knitting is cool again. I mean, come on, it's been all over the place for at least 4 if not 5 years now, at least in my city which is always behind the times.

Tomorrow I'm staying home and watching the girls. My aunt has her chemo appt. I'd made arrangements to switch shifts with someone and thought I had tomorrow off and was working Thursday, but when I looked at the schedule again, I saw that it was tomorrow that I had to work. I panicked, knowing I couldn't do it. Luckily, I have a great friend at work who offered to swap with me. Maybe I'll make her something to thank her for bailing me out at short notice. She actually appreciates my crazy arts. I'm hoping for some uninterrupted knitting time so that I can get at least one felted bag done and the shawl re-started for Jamie. And the ipod sock needs to get going. That I think I might be able to work on while watching the kids because it's small enough to fit in my portapocket pouch. Cross your fingers that my yarn comes tomorrow!

Not Knitting

2005-05-24T00:44:00.000-04:00

Maybe I should have a blog about what I didn't accomplish each day... it would be more accurate. I did get a few rounds done on the ipod sock. I think it's going to look cool - the stripes are reasonably narrow considering that the ipod is so much smaller than a foot. I was crossing my fingers that it wouldn't be a widely striped piece. I need to hurry up and finish it because I have that ribbon yarn arriving in the next day or two (hopefully when I'm home and can hide it!) and I'm gonna want to start a new project in those cheery colors. I swapped days with someone at work, so I have my normal Wed off, then I work Thursday, then I get Friday off. One of my old friends is working in the mall near where I work, so tomorrow I might go visit him. He's the one I was trying to make Leo from Knitty.com for. I haven't seen him in a dog's age and I put the tiny needles and endless ribbing away in storage.

Ooh, and I found out today that my sister-in-law is having a baby boy, thank god. We've got 3 girls in this family, and my brother really needs a son. Maybe if I start now, with 5 months notice, I can make him a little blanket or something. In bright colors! No pastels. Maybe Paton's Melody? Does anyone know how that holds up in larger projects? I only made a scarf for Johanna from it, and learned that it does not hold up in fringe.

I'm having a shit time trying to work with iTunes. Let's just say that it makes you either want to smash the computer or buy an iPod, so I guess they're winning. I bought a car with an MP3 player, now I just can't burn a freakin cd to play in it!

Delinquency

2005-05-22T01:08:00.000-04:00

This has nothing to do with knitting and everything to do with growing up. Tonight we stopped at the grocery store on our way home. Dh needed cold medicine and I needed to wander. It was 11:57pm when we got there. An hour later, we are finally home. We ran into an old friend, who was buying a case of beer. She's 20-something so that wasn't anything unusual. Unfortunately, her friends decided to get out of their truck and pee on the retaining wall between the parking lot and the next street over. In front of a sheriff. We'd stopped to talk to Sarah in the foyer of the store and realized that they'd pulled the people out of the truck and searched it. The passenger is only 17 years old. We decide to drive Sarah across the street and wait for them to come pick up her and the beer from us. Arrest avoided. Can you imagine? Contributing to the delinquency of a minor? Dh said that in case he was upset about getting older, at least this proved that there are some dumb things we don't have to worry about anymore. We have a few younger friends, but we try to steer them in the right directions.

I couldn't help myself

2005-05-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

I've got to start knitting faster. I just ordered 36 balls of Bernat Miami to make myself and at least one of the girls summer tops. It's a ribbon yarn, 100% acrylic, and dirt cheap right now at Smiley's - 99 cents a ball until May 30th. I'm going to make mine orange & pink striped with possible aqua trim. I got one of each of the pastels to make one of the girls a tank or short sleeved sweater. Yarn similar to this stuff is like $3.99 a ball, so I couldn't pass up the deal. And I picked up some green/brown patterning sock yarn. That's for a pair of socks for dh. A completely pink-free yarn for him. The Swizzle yarns I kept buying for him all had pink in the patterning. I'm trying a different technique for the shawl for Jamie. A faux dropped stitch look. I'm using the gossamer stranded with Lorna's Lace's Helen's Lace and a size 8 needle and a size 17 needle. Just a garter stitch stole. If I get a few inches done and don't like it, I'll try something else.

Well, off to research how I'm supposed to wear these new contacts. It'd be too much to ask of the eye place to tell you all the details.

Pump up the Volume!

2005-05-20T02:07:00.000-04:00

I'm such a retard... I bought one of those Belkin FM Transmitter thingamabob's prior to buying a car with an mp3 player built in, or an iPod, so that I could play my mp3 cd player in my old car over the stereo. I never even opened it for a few weeks, so my first try using it was with my iPod, which I was woefully inept at using (dh showed ME how I'm supposed to scroll - I am a retard... and Apple could use some help writing their user manuals so that I wouldn't have to interpret what they were saying. In other words, a picture would have been helpful!) I could tell that the transmitter was hooked up, because it was blocking out the other radio transmissions, but I couldn't hear my songs. I wasn't turning the volume up!

Today I cast on with the Lullaby I bought a couple weeks ago and tried to start knitting an iPod sock, but I think it's going to be too big. I also went and bought size 17 needles today so that I can re-start the stole for Jamie. I'm not sure if I'll use those needles, though, or try size 15's and single strand it. The 200 yds or so were fine for a triangular shawl, but might not be enough for a rectangle. I can un-do the shawl, if I need to, I guess, but I don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary.

Tomorrow we have a bright and early appointment with Jo's teachers and coordinator to go over her quarterly progress reports. I can't wait until this home based crap is over with. I like the teachers, I hate the inconvenience of having people in my home. After that, I'm hoping to get some cleaning up done in the basement and then go to work a little early if possible so that I can get caught up on some things. I got regular earphones for my iPod so that I don't have to fiddle with the ear buds, which are not my favorite - I had a cheap pair in high school that I loved, but other than that, I really hate how they tend to fall out of my ears if I move. I find that I get a tremendous amount of work done if I have headphones on and can't be distracted by what the people around me are muttering. I'll bring a lunch and get some ipod sock knitting done on my lunch if I'm lucky. The more I think about it, the more I think I'll use the florescent Regia sock yarn I have in my stash, if I can find it, because I only have 1 ball and after having 4 little feet to make socks for out of it, I haven't gotten around to it yet. Might as well make a cool technicolor iPod cover out of it!

I Give Up

2005-05-19T00:42:00.000-04:00

Today's Knitting Progress: I knit another 3/4 ball of yarn on the Dazzle booga bag. That finishes ball 2 of 3.

I've been up in the air about the shawl I made Jamie. I hate the way it came out. It'd be ok for me, but not for a gift. To refresh everyone's memory, I used Gossamer double stranded in a purple shade and garter stitch triangular shape on size 19 needles. Bad, bad idea. First, I cast on with the backwards loop method a la Elizabeth Zimmerman... that was not the cast on for this project, much too rigid. Then, I increased by knitting into the front & back of the 2nd and 2nd-to-last stitch on every row, which made for a very tight edge and a looser material in the middle of the piece. Then, thinking that I'd make it nice & drapey, I cast off with a size 35 needle... which made it expand exponentially on the long edge. So, I've decided to use the 2 remaining balls and size 15 needles and do a garter stitch rectangular stole and call it done. I got that idea from a link I followed from Laura's blog. They used Kid Silk Haze, which is close to this yarn. I'm not sure if I should use single or double strands. Probably double so that it's a little warmer even though it will be very open.

I'm thinking about knitting an ipod sock for my Mini. I had been thinking of making a cover, but now I'm thinking that something closer to a "sock" might be the way to go. Ribbed. Now I have to decide if I should use some scrap sock yarn (Laura, you've seen some of my sock projects, I don't have anything solid or even tasteful to send you, or I would). Maybe the leftover Sassy Stripe - pink & orange variegated? I bought that shiny cotton yarn last week to use, but I'm not sure that'll be elastic enough.

I need to get a razor and shave down the spring green felted bag so that I can start using it. My bag from Bath & Body Works is falling apart at the seams, literally. I need to get a few more of these easy & mostly-finished projects out of the way so that I can start some new projects like the buttonhole bag. I really ought to finish the CYO sweater body so that I can get that sewn & cut open.

Tomorrow dh is going to see the new Star Wars movie in the morning, then he'll get home in time for me to go to the dollar theater to see The Wedding Date by myself, then I'll get home and he'll pick up the baby sitter and we'll have like 2-3 hours of guilt free time out. Jo was pretty good today. We had a quiet day. I got her a pad of 'incentive charts' for marking with happy face stickers when she obeys and follows directions, and I picked up a toy that has letters on big beads that she can string together. She keeps walking around with it, it's a candy jar shaped container, and the beads look like giant M&M's, and saying "Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka." I pointed out to her that the guy in the candy shop had a scoop like hers and gave all the kids candy out of the jars. Tonight I saw the preview for the new Charlie & The Chocolate Factory movie for the first time on television, and it's also coming out in Imax, but I'm not sure if it's in 3D or just large format. I haven't kept up on the previews for upcoming movies. I used to check out Dark Horizons for all the trailers, but I just don't have the time anymore.

No Knitting

2005-05-17T00:53:00.000-04:00

It was a rough day at work. I hope that tomorrow, my Friday, is better. I had a supervisor really tick me off today by essentially making fun of me and calling me weak. This, from a woman whom I watched take a similar call and completely caved in on all the rules when push came to shove. She basically called me unsympathetic because I was not breaking the rules for the customer. I'm not a hard person, I have compassion and try to be understanding... However, I'm working for a company that has rules, and if your equipment is damaged and our technicians determine that the cause is liquid damage, really the only thing that voids a warranty, you're shit out of luck. So, that really wrecked the day.

I'm trying to decide how to edge the shawl for Jamie. I have to finish that, finish the straps on the felted daypack, and finish the Dazzle booga bag. Theoretically, those are all easy projects. I wonder how many months it will be before I get them done. I'm dying to start the Buttonhole Bag, but I know I have to finish at least 2 of my other larger projects first.

I'm also hoping to get to a pair of socks to finish for my mom. I think I'll try to pick up the Girly Stripe ones that are mostly done - just the feet of the pair are left. Or the other Tahoe sock, which is somewhere near the end of the heel shaping, I think.

More Yarn

2005-05-13T10:44:00.000-04:00

Well, yesterday I went to my LYS and picked out more felting wool. I know, I'm nuts. But the Buttonhole bag they have on display is so adorable, I couldn't help it. It was done with burgundy and black lopi, but I'm doing mine in periwinkle blue. What makes it so cute are the random buttons sewn on the outside! I'm really wondering how many bags one person could possibly need! I'm not done with the straps on the felted daypack yet, I've got a booga bag made out of Tahki Dazzle (which I hope felts!) half done, and now I'm planning a buttonhole bag! I still need to edge the purple Gossamer shawl. I'm about 75% happy with how it turned out. It's too wide and my cast on and increases are too rigid along the edges. It would be ok for me, I'm not sure I like it well enough for a gift item. I should have gone with a stockinette stole. Live & Learn. I still have 2 full balls of yarn left, so theoretically I could start over, but I'm not sure I really want to. Maybe I'll work it on the knitting machine every-other-needle. Then I'd just have to worry about edging it. I'll have to think about it.

Another project I've been contemplating is getting back to socks. I find that I go thru phases where I can knit several in a row, then can't stomach even one round on the tiny needles. I have the Opal 6 ply socks on the needles for Alan's socks. What makes me stop and then ignore socks in progress is the fact that you have to pay attention to the shaping steps. If I could just knit around & around forever, it wouldn't be a problem, but knowing that I'll have to keep comparing one sock to the other, or counting rows before decreases or when to start the heel flap... it just makes me want to bury them back in the drawer.

As soon as I get the shawl finished (hopefully this weekend, or during my days off next week), I need to get back to my cell phone and ipod covers. I bought a cover for my ipod and am totally disappointed with it. I was looking for something to keep the button from being pushed and the thing playing the batteries dead in my purse. I ended up with a rubber cover with lanyard that is just long enough to be uncomfortable to wear. I'm going to need to knot it or something to make it hang higher. The good news was that although the price tag on the package said $35 (something I didn't notice until afterwards), the shelf tag said $22, so that's what he charged me. It wasn't even worth that much, IMHO, but whatever. I decided that I'm going to make a cover that goes over this one, from the top down, sort of like a birdcage cover. I just reviewed the paperwork that came with my Mini and found that if I use the hold button, the thing won't turn on accidentally, so button pushing isn't such a big issue anymore. I was thinking I'd have to make something rigid enough to prevent the buttons from being pushed. I think I'll use the Berrocco Cotton Twist for that - it's a bright and cheery colorway. I'm using the Bamboo to make a cell phone cover. I might put a handle on it, since I think it's too heavy to hang around my neck as originally planned.

Yesterday I went back to the doctor to get my contacts checked. I ended up asking for the prescription glasses to correct the astigmatism but that I'll wear over my contacts. Mainly at work or if I'm somewhere I need to be able to see further clearer (ie - searching for dh in Target or Walmart - I can see, just not clearly very far). Those glasses are cool diamond shapes! I got more generic full-prescription glasses to wear if/when I'm not wearing my contacts, but since I can wear these for 30 continuous days, I don't plan on wearing the glasses much at all. Hopefully by the end of the year they'll have toric lenses available in the Night & Day line. That would be awesome.

I absolutely do not want to go to work today. I got a not-so-nice email from my boss over one of my stats being unacceptably high. Dh is at his great-grandmother's funeral today, so I can't even call him for my weekly pep talk. Going in to work on his day off has always been tough for me. I'm used to going in with him 4 days a week, so I miss him on my first day back after the weekend. Jamie left yesterday, and I'm going to miss her, but I think I'll survive. We met yesterday for breakfast before she left. We're thinking about taking our vacation to Pittsburgh to visit her and go shopping (PA has much lower taxes and probably better malls than NY) before heading to NYC for a day or two. It will be a miracle if we can make those kinds of plans - I can't imagine driving in NYC! Or parking, for that matter. But we want to go see a show and at least one yarn shop while I'm there, dh wants to see the statue of liberty.

My cough is still holding in there, and my kids are both sick & miserable. Jo's first class with her new teacher went horrible. Good thing I was already not planning to send her to the mommy & me class today, because she is really too sick to be around other kids. I was already not planning on her going because dh won't be home to take her and if I took her I'd have to leave early to get home and drop her off before work. Now I don't have to feel lazy about it. I just need 1 full night's sleep and I think I'd feel a whole hell of a lot better, but every night for the past couple weeks, one of the kids or the other has been up all night. Courtney's been sleeping in our bed, but she's restless and flops all over the place, hitting us and kicking us in her sleep. Last night dh went upstairs to check on her and she'd thrown up from coughing and choking. Of course I pick her up and she pukes all over me, so my fresh flannel jammies (it went from 85 to 30 in 2 days here!) were ruined. She had to be changed and then I brought her downstairs for a bottle (I fell asleep while she fed herself - something she's just learned to do) I'm crossing my fingers that she's ok tonight. And Jo's been having horrible coughing jags in the middle of the night. That worries me because we don't have a baby monitor in her room, so I'm not sure that I'd know if she was really in trouble in the middle of the night with her asthma, and her door is double gated so she can't get out to wake someone up. Might need to buy another monitor, which seems foolish when she's 3 years old. Dh tells me that if the girls go to bed early, he's going out to a movie with one of our former employees. Not sure how I feel about that - and I'm wondering what her parents are thinking, letting a 17 year old girl go to the movies with a 29 year old man! Granted, they know he's not a rapist or anything, but I don't think I'd let my girls do that. Especially with all the craziness going on around this country lately. Sick, it's really sick. Speaking of which, did you know that Lionbrand, who has to jump on every bandwagon going, has a pattern out for that ratty blanket they had covering the runaway bride's head? First, who'd want to make something so unattractive, and second... who needs a second - the first reason is enough to question their sanity!

Almost an FO!

2005-05-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

Well, in the past 2 days I knit an entire shawl. I used Karabella Gossamer double stranded on size 19 needles. Unfortunately, the 110 stitches wide is too wide, IMHO. So, I ran a piece of crochet cotton thru the cast off (long) edge, wet the material, and hung it with the top edge gathered together so that it'll stretch lengthwise and hopefully dry into a narrower, longer piece. One of the things I noticed in my LYS today was that even their novelty scarves are blocked to death. I'm not a big fan of blocking, normally. I don't have an appropriate set up to do it, so I just don't bother. I just hope that I didn't wreck the yarn by doing this... it's looking like a drowned cat right now.

Goodbyes

2005-05-09T00:12:00.000-04:00

Tonight it's really hitting me that our friend & co-worker is going to be leaving us very soon. Jamie started training in the same class as dh, and since January she & I have sat next to each other. We've done shopping and lunches and trips to the casino together. She is the only friend I've had the past 4 months, really, at least in real life. She's going back home to Pittsburgh, where her husband was transfered & promoted in his job, and she transfered to another call center down there. She won't be coming back here, she has no family here. I have no reason to go to her, except that they have lower taxes and a bigger mall. We'll email occassionally, but I know from past experience that we're not going to be bonded like lifelong friends. I'll be starting over, with no one except dh to go anywhere or do anything with. Now I'm struggling with a way to say thank you, what gift I can give or item I can make her. And if I don't find the perfect gift before she leaves, will I mail one to her after she goes? Maybe a buttonhole bag? The lys had a cute one made with burgundy yarn and brass heart buttons. Do I have another felting project in me?

Happy Mother's Day!

2005-05-08T10:34:00.000-04:00

My mom surprised me with a gift certificate for my LYS! Woo Hoo! She got my sister-in-law a flower or shrub thing for her lawn... do I need to tell you how much more I appreciated my gift over that? I just wish the shop wasn't closed today so that I could go shop! Oh, well. I have plenty of new stuff to work with for now, and if I bought more it would probably just sit for the next year or two. Better to hold off and wait for something new & different to come in.

Last night I got home from work and Courtney woke up and stayed awake flopping all over the bed for a few hours. I took nyquil and struggled to keep track of where she was in bed and was afraid she'd fall off and onto the concrete floor. She woke me up bright & early this morning around 6:30. I feel a lot better today, however I am still stuffed up and will sound horrible on the phone. Amazingly, I've been wearing my contacts for a few days and they haven't given me any problems. I'm having a little problem trying to see at work, not sure if it's the bad lighting or the monitor, but I might ask the doctor to prescribe glasses to make up the difference between the contacts and my regular prescription. I've done that before, when I was in college, to help me see the board from my seat. The contacts correct my vision enough that I can do most things without glasses, like watch tv, drive, and knit.

Today I will try to work more on the Phoenix shawl. I really need to finish the straps on the backpack, but it's boring, so I'm going to hold off on that until I'm off on Wed/Thurs. It's not a portable project right now because the straps are attached to the bag, and the bag is huge. I can't wait to felt it!

More Yarn

2005-05-06T01:24:00.000-04:00

The past 2 days have been fun... I've gotten some new yarns to try. I decided to go look for some Manos on Wednesday morning, but when I saw what the LYS had in stock I was totally unimpressed. Just not my colors. I decided to go with some smooth fibers to make an ipod and cell phone cover. After much deliberation, I ended up with 3 balls of yarn and a bottle of wool wash. Then, today, I talked dh into taking me to one of the other yarn shops where I picked up 4 balls of soy silk and some stitch markers. The name of the game this week is to try new & different things. I'm tired of felting. I'm 1 1/2 shoulder straps away from finishing the felted daypack. I'm crocheting the Bamboo yarn into a cell phone cover. I love the bamboo, but it reminds me of linen and I just want to make doilies or book marks out of it. Definitely not going to become an article of clothing for me, at least nothing that would require washing. It's just too delicate for that. It's made sort of like a 2 stitch i-cord or something. I hope the Phoenix has enough to do either a top or a shawl for me to wear this summer. I need to go research that now.

2005-05-06T01:23:00.000-04:00

My reward for finishing a project, the green felted ugly bag. My thought was to make something from cotton or another non-hairy material to cover my cell phone and/or iPod. I ended up with Berocco Cotton Twist, Berocco Lullaby, and South West Trading Company Bamboo. I also picked up some lavender wool wash, since I'm nearing the completion of my felted day pack and would like to come out of the wash smelling non-wet-dogish if possible. I've begun the cell phone cover with the Bamboo. I will say this about that yarn - there is a great amount of it in each 100 gram ball. I think I paid $13.75 for it, though, so I suppose that I should be expecting my money's worth.

2005-05-06T01:22:00.000-04:00

And for Mother's Day, I chose Phoenix by South West Trading Company again. It's a soy silk yarn. Not entirely sure what I'm going to make with it because I have no idea what kind of yardage is in each ball, but it screamed "summer weather knitting" to me. I got the green & purple stitch markers because they were green & purple, and I've never seen those colors before. The iPod was already mine, but the translucent pink cover with lanyard is new. Now I can wear my ipod around my neck and protect it from bumps and scratches. The iPod itself is blue (the store was out of stock of pink and I was too impatient to try a different store) and the cover is pink, which gives it a funky look that changes with the direction you're looking at it.

TGIT!

2005-05-03T07:16:00.000-04:00

Thank god it's Tuesday! This week has been an utter nightmare. It started last week, actually, when I came down with the sinus infection that is finally beginning to subside. At least I don't have anything green coming out of my facial features. My teeth still hurt and I have a slight sore throat & lingering cough, but other than that, I'm feeling a whole lot better. I don't even feel the need to pound my head against a hard surface! Unfortunately, Courtney's got a headcold now and she's completely miserable. I think she's also got some top teeth coming in, which makes it that much worse. She's been up all night the past week and it's wearing us all out. Dh stays up with her until 3am, she'll fall asleep for a little while, then I'm up with her from 4am until 6am, then my mom has her from 6am on. She went to the doctor yesterday and has lost 6oz in the past 5 days since she was there last wednesday because she's not eating. Hopefully she'll be better the next couple days so we can catch up on some sleep. Today is my Friday! It's supposed to be beautiful weather for the next 4 days, so I'm hoping the kids can get outdoors. We bought a plastic red wagon that has the fold-up seats so we can take them for walks, except then it's been raining.

Dh was invited to go to a forum with the CEO of the company today - they let him know this yesterday afternoon with a note that full business attire was required, luckily before lunch, so we rushed to the mall for him to buy a suit and have it altered in time to be at this thing today looking professional. Just what we needed to be doing, spending $300 on suits and alterations! His last suit cost more than that and he outgrew it within a year and after only wearing it about 5 times. This time he got a 2 for $200 deal, but the alterations are costing $80 extra. He has to leave early to go pick them up from the tailor. God help the scheduling department if they cancel him for this event - I will beat the $296.50 out of them! Just kidding.

In knitting news, I still only have about 7 rounds left on the felted daypack. I haven't had a chance to work on it the past few days, but I think I'll stay in for lunch today and finish it up. Or I'll work on it on the way to work, if dh & I drive in together (not sure, since he has to go to the mall). I can't wait to get it finished up. I think this bag has the potential of being a nice spring/summer bag. Not sure how big it's going to be after felting, but I'm hoping big enough to carry the essentials. And I'll have enough of the salmon and teal yarns left to make an ipod cozy and maybe one for my cell phone as well. I'm actually thinking that I need a pocket on the outside of the bag for the cell, but I'd have to create the square and stitch it on after felting, to be sure it was the right size. The ipod cozy would need to have cardboard or stiff material of some sort on the inside to prevent the buttons being pushed, because every time I get it out of my purse (currently, it resides in an old makeup pouch) it's running. Not that it can't be recharged, but I don't like the idea of it running for no reason. The owner of my LYS said that people are using needlework canvas to stiffen the bottom of felted purses, so maybe I'll have to look into something like that. Otherwise I'm going to have to order an actual case of some sort.
The bag project is reminding me that I love my Denise needles. They are just so easy to work with! I need to stop and take inventory and make sure that all the parts to the set are accounted for - I have a tendency to just keep starting new projects all over the place and then have no pieces left in the case.

Everyone is going to the Maryland Sheep & Wool fest, except me. I was thinking that I should have sent money to a friend who is going to buy me something, but it's this weekend, so there's not really even time to do that. Hopefully the show in Toronto is going on this fall and the fast ferry between here and there will be running again. Of course that may be the last time I go to Canada because they're starting to talk about requiring passports to go between the US & Canada in the next year or two. Um, yeah, I'm not about to pay $100+ each to go to a place just as dumpy as where I live the rest of the year and who has worse weather, thanks very much.

Green Gunk

2005-04-30T11:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, it was a sinus infection that had me so messed up this week. I'm on antibiotics and hope to feel back to normal soon. In the meantime, it's Tylenol Quick Release for me. That works way better than the Dayquil Sinus I attempted to take yesterday, which despite it's ingredient of tylenol, didn't touch the horrible migraine-grade headache I had. At night I'm taking an allergy/cold/sinus product that knocks me out so that I can sleep. I'm giving my contacts another try today, but I'll bring my glasses to work in case my eyes can't take it or I start getting that green gunk coming out of my tear ducts again. Bad visual, I know, but I've never had this problem where I wake up with my eyelids glued shut by this gunk.

In knitting news, I'm about 15 rounds from finishing my Felted Daypack body, then it's just a matter of some icord ties & straps and I'll be done with it. I spent quite a while last night winding the hank of Cascade 220 into a ball so that I could go back to the teal for the rest of the body. I just couldn't handle getting out the swift & ball winder and making room to set it up in the laundry room last night. I'm packing a lunch to take to work today so that we don't have to go out for lunch, and hopefully I'll be able to get the bag's body finished tonight. After this, I'm not sure what will be next, and I don't want to jinx anything by mentioning it.

Like a Chicken...

2005-04-28T21:20:00.000-04:00

Today I felt like a chicken with it's head cut off, running around doing all sorts of errands, meanwhile my head was floating somewhere near the top of my body. I've got some wicked head/sinus cold thing going on and it's making me feel like crap. Started with a sore throat earlier this week. I should have gone to the doctor, but I figured it would pass and I'd be fine. My throat is not bad if I keep myself drugged with Tylenol Rapid Release gels, but I am not sure I have the stamina for a day on the telephone tomorrow, and if I can't talk, they'll send me home. My SIL has been home for 2 days and will be staying home tomorrow to let the antibiotics she got today work before going back to work and exposing them to whatever she's got that has her lymph nodes and glands so swollen she's got eggs sticking out of both sides of her neck and can barely breathe. I just took a 2 hour nap and woke up feeling physically better but with a bad sore throat again. I'll probably call the doctor first thing in the morning and pray they have a morning appointment open, otherwise I have to take at least a 1/2 sick day.

We left the house this afternoon around noon with the girls, hit the drug store to pick up a prescription and some cold medicine for me, drove thru Taco Bell for some lunch, then went to my Aunt's house so dh could fix her computer (her brother, my uncle, keeps surfing porn and dating sites and screwing up her computer with all the viruses he picks up on them). After that was taken care of, we went to the eyeglass place so I could pick up my trial pair of contacts (they never called to say they were in, I finally called to check this morning and was told they were there). So far, so good. Since I have a cold and my one eye has been sort of oozy from my sinuses being stuffed up, this probably wasn't the best time to start wearing them. After that, we went to Walmart to pick up the rest of the car accessories, so now I have both license plate frames and seat covers. I had only gotten 1 frame the other day but after discussing how we don't want to promote the dealer, dh decided to get another frame and take the dealer one off front & back. Next is to get a bumper sticker to cover their decale on my trunk lid. I'm adamant about this. GM is going to hear a lot of the shit that went on when they send us the survey in a couple weeks, let me tell you. And it's sad because I bought my last car there and it was a wonderful experience, but the place has gone downhill and was completely unprofessional in my opinion. We call to get our deposit back, and they transfer us back to the high pressure salesman again? They also over promised and under delivered and raised our expectations about four-fold, then start screwing around with our arrangements to the point that we would have left the dealership with only 1 vehicle to our names, and a stripped down one at that? It's all going in writing. Don't piss me off, people. That's all I'm going to say. You've been warned. And on to the rest of my day, we went to Blockbuster, where I went to get out of the car and decided to make sure both videos were in the cases, and of course Monster was still at home in the dvd player. So, I got Garden State to replace Wimbledon. Wimbledon was a cute movie, guy and girl meet, fall in love, try to ignore the love, end up together in the end, yada yada. Sub-matinee rating, in my opinion. Now, Monster, on the other hand, felt somewhat like Groundhog's Day. Hooker is raped, kills asshole. Then hooker continues to kill asshole after asshole, stealing their cars and then dumping them a few days later. Christina Ricci plays a desperate young lesbian who is apparently uncapable of getting a job and depends on the hooker to go out and get them money - she was annoying. You'd never know that Charlize Theron plays Aileen, though - that was about the only amazing thing about the movie. I'll probably cancel the movie pass at Blockbuster when it's up next week because I've seen just about every new movie that I wanted to watch, and I can get digital cable with a lot more channels than I have now for the same price I'm paying for the movie pass.

After blockbuster, we went to the final walmart in town and about 5 minutes after dh got out and went into the store, Courtney woke up and started screaming. Of course cell phones don't work inside walmart, so for 20 minutes I kept trying and trying to get ahold of dh. I almost got into it with the woman who had parked next to us. She was busy bitching at her pregnant teenage daughter (seemed like she just found out - daughter was carrying a shopping bag that had parenting magazine's logo on it, they were talking about vitamins and the bag obviously not containing condoms) and left her cart at the front corner of our parking spot. It was windy out, so I waited for the dumb broad to get back in her car, said, "I don't fucking think so" and got out and put the shopping cart in the return rack, which was literally about 6 steps - 1 parking space - from where she left it. She started screaming and swearing at me, I ignored her, but I really felt like punching her in the face by that point. I suffer from parking lot rage, apparently. :) I just don't understand people who are that lazy and disrespectful of other people's property. It's been a rough day, all around. I came home and laid on the couch until dinner was ready, then ate and went to sleep for a couple hours. My parents went out and the girls were terrors for dh. I went upstairs to help put them to sleep and dh screamed at me to go back to bed. I stayed and gave courtney her bottle and put her to sleep. Dh got Jo her bottle and medicine and put her down. They aren't feeling that great themselves and have been whiney all day long. Now I'm going to try to watch Garden State and get some more rest. Or not - courtney just started whining again.

A Done Deal

2005-04-27T18:27:00.000-04:00

Well, yesterday we closed the deal on our second new vehicle in less than 2 weeks. I got a brand new, RED, chevy Cobalt LS. It's small, it only has 4 cylinders, but it's CUTE, and sometimes that's enough. I've gone with a lady bug theme. We went to 2 different Walmarts last night trying to find all the accessories but still couldn't get the seat covers, so tomorrow we'll probably go to the other store we saw them in last week. I got the seatbelt covers, steering wheel cover, visor cd holder, trash bag, and license plate frames with the lady bugs on them. Then I found a cute ladybug pillow in the children's bedding section, so I got that to put in the back window. I need to find the floormats, seat covers, and some sort of blanket to put on the back seat to protect it from the kids. I'm excited. This car tells you how many miles you get to the gallon, how far you can go without running out of gas, even what temperature it is outdoors. When it's raining, it knows to put on your headlights automatically (NY state law that you have to turn on your headlights if you have your wipers on). And the wipers go faster when you're driving faster. Today we had a setback with the car. I was at the pediatrician's office and trying to rush home so dh could get to work on time and I couldn't get the key to turn. Turns out the freakin thing has a locking stearing wheel which I've never had before, so after reading the manual, calling dh, and calling a friend who had warned me not to put the wrong key in the ignition because we have the passlock system (and of course I tried to put the key for the Aztek into the Cobalt this morning) to figure out how to get going, dh had to call the dealer and found out that the stearing wheel locks if you touch it after you take the key out. My brother swears my Alero had that feature, but I know that it couldn't have - I drove the thing for 4 years and never had this problem.

I was watching the news today and found out that my Radio & TV teacher must not be teaching at my old school anymore - they had a new teacher in the segment. I hope he's on to better things, because he was an awesome guy. It's going to be our 10 year reunion, I haven't heard anything about a reunion party. Dh's 10 year went by without being recognized, but he went to a smaller private high school.

I haven't gotten any knitting done lately. Today I woke up feeling like crap, with a leaky eye and sore throat. I got the new Joann's ad today and they have the rainbow boucle (the tonal bocule) on sale for $6 a ball (instead of $7.99). I noticed it stockpiled when I was in the store last week, so I figured something was going on. Still only 3 shades - pink, light blue and black all fading to white as you knit. They have some sort of dropped stitch pattern stole made with it in the ad. I'm going to go to their website and see if they have any mention of the yarn on there yet or a pattern. I was trying to do a faroese shawl with it, but let's face it, I don't have that kind of time. Too many increases and decreases for me to worry about.

Finito!

2005-04-25T00:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, at dh's urging, I actually finished the ugly green felted bag. That means I clipped the long strands from where I changed colors and where I ended off and left a tail, and put in the handles. The bag is really atrocious. I bought some beads on a ribbon but I think that would make it all the more gaudy, so I'm going to try to live with it au naturale for a few days and if I can't stand it anymore, I'll glue on the ribbon. The bag is a completely different shape than the others I've made, but I still hate the way the woolpak yarn felts into a curly sheepy texture instead of nice & smooth like Lamb's pride, Cascade 220 or Kuryeon. Of course, I knew that after the way the purple one came out last year, but I thought I'd give it another shake. Never again. I even let my mom throw away the scraps that were leftover. I'm seriously thinking of getting some cheap electric clippers or shaver and going over the entire surface to even it out. The test of how useful the bag is going to be is still yet to come. I need to dig out my new Franklin Covey planner and see if that will fit in the bag. I didn't give it a gusset although I did block the bottom square.

What's up next? Hell if I know. I actually went into the yarn shop and didn't come out with a single thing. I have too much invested in yarn to buy more at this time. The options for my next projects from stash are varied. I could do dh's Opal 6 ply socks, the Ravenswood shawl, the 2 pound afghan from cheap acrylic, the CYO sweater that's been holding it's breath for 18 months. Another option is to make a simple single-crochet blanket out of the tonal boucle pink & white yarn I got from Joann's. They have a lot more in stock now, still in blue/white, black/white and pink/white. I want to see how it works up before I buy more, but I can totally see all of us in knit hoodies made of that stuff. Now that I have my iPod, I can listen to the audio books I downloaded from audible.com ages ago while working on my knitting. Dh couldn't believe I almost filled my ipod already. I have even more songs downloaded onto my computer, but I only picked my playlist that I'd downloaded to cds and a bunch of audio books, which are taking up a good amount of space.

Toys

2005-04-24T19:11:00.000-04:00

Well, my week's vacation (well 5 straight days off, anyway) is over and I feel like I didn't accomplish a damn thing. I didn't get to sit around, knit, read or watch movies like I wanted. I didn't exactly do "nothing"... We sold a car, bought a new car, may be buying another new car next week (to replace mine), went to Syracuse to the bigger mall there, went to a comedy club with friends from work, went to the casino, had Courtney's 1st birthday party, made several other shopping trips including walmart, joann's, target, B&N, got my eyes examined and ordered new contact lenses. We also got some new toys, including a portable dvd player and a blue iPod mini for me. There was a big article in the paper, and I was already leaning towards buying one, but that really put the urge back into me. So off I went, and bought one today - just a 4 gig one, but it was the normal $199 + I got the extended warranty for $65 because I know at least one person who's had a problem with her iPod, and I don't want to be a sucker if the thing dies on day 366 or something. I feel horribly guilty about spending so much money on myself, but dh got his PSP that cost $311 a few weeks back and now a new car, so I figured I deserved at least a little splurge. I watched Closer on the way to/from Syracuse. Horrible movie despite some decent actors. I love Natalie Portman & Julia Roberts, I hated the movie. I got Wimbledon tonight and still have yet to watch Monster. Courtney's been staying up until late every night, so I don't get a chance to even watch it on the little dvd screen while Alan's playing video games, watching the news, or watching his dumb videos. I also got the new Debbie Macomber fiction-knitting book, A Good Yarn, which I've just started. I doubt that this one will compare to the original, though. No one I've seen has the accompanying pattern booklets for either book. I hope they do come out at some point, either at the knitting store or the chain bookstores.

Do you have an iPod? How many songs do you have on it?

One is a Lonely Number

2005-04-20T09:05:00.000-04:00

First, knitting content... I'm still working on the spring green bag. I can't believe how big this bag seems to be - I don't remember the other bags having to be this big pre-felting. But, the ball of yarn is getting hollow, so I know I'm almost done. Dh won't let me get any new yarn until I finish this bag, so that's my motivation right now.

Well, we sold the truck. The new owner drove it away while we were at work on Monday. Unfortunately, GMAC is on crack and wants to charge us a laughable rate for the Aztec even after they demaded $3700 down. Uh, no! We have the money to put that much down, but I just don't think I should have to. So, we said, "Uh, we'll get back to you by friday on that." On the way to work yesterday dh was excited at the thought of us going with one car for a while, save some money and then buy something. I was less than thrilled - it would mean I'd be giving up my car, and I hate feeling like I can't leave the house. So dh went car shopping on his lunch (they changed my team's lunch break so that they weren't at the same time, so I went to Michaels to check out crafty stuff on my lunch, he checked out cars on his). A dealer right around the corner from work has exactly the truck he wanted, and at a price we can probably afford, but it would be a loan, not a smartbuy/lease. I was looking at the Aveo's... They're about $10K and get awesome gas mileage. Only think was that I looked them up online and they seem to be on the weak side as far as horsepower. Not sure how they'd handle in the winter, either. Anyway, I like my car and I'm planning to keep it for a while longer. We've got a lot of errands to run today before I drop Dh off at work (so I can keep my car - not that I have anywhere much to go).

Help a Friend in Need!

2005-04-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

Please consider going to this website and signing up for some free trial or discounted program and help me get a FREE IPOD!!!! My friend gave me the link to the site ages ago ... not sure if she got her ipod for free or had to pay for it, 'cause I know she has one, but I never got around to signing up for one of the offers. Well, we were checking out the Drudge Report site tonight (dh and his talk radio fetish - talking about the cover of Time Magazine being so horrible, we got home and checked it out on Drudge's site) and I saw this link again for free ipods. I figure, what the hell, might as well go for it. I signed up for a trial of Napster, which is free for 2 weeks, then you get billed monthly if you continue the membership. I just need 5 friends to follow this link and sign up for one of the offers to get my FREE 20 GB IPOD!!!! Or you can get an ipod mini, if you'd prefer. And then if you refer 5 people, you'll get one too! This would totally make my day! Please think about it and leave me a message if you do decide to sign up, so that I can keep track of how many people I need to hassle. The link is http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=8679808 if you can't follow that giant link.

Jackpot

2005-04-16T22:06:00.000-04:00

Today's Knitting Progress: I got another stripe and a few more rounds done on the green felted bag.

I couldn't believe it, but I think we've got the truck sold. What are the chances? We put it out on the lawn yesterday before we left for the car dealer, had that one guy come test drive it last night and then a couple more today and actually had 3 offers and the final one was the highest, so we called the other guys and said, Sorry, no deal. We're getting exactly what we wanted for it, which is enough to pay off the loan on it and put $1,000 towards the downpayment on the new car. I am not cut out for this wheeling and dealing stuff, it was making me nauseus this morning when dh was outside talking to these people. I don't know why I've been so anxious lately... last night I felt like I was going to throw up over the whole car buying & selling thing. Monday we have to go pay off the loan and get the release slip from the bank so the guy can give us the rest of the money and pick up the truck. I'm on vacation again Wed-Sunday, which I'd not been thinking about when dh told the dealer we'd pick up the new car Friday morning at 11am. I'm thinking - I hope they have the ducks in a row if I'm going to be to the other side of town by 1:30pm! Duh, I have the whole day off. It's a good thing because we'll probably have to dick around with the insurance agent again. Last time we started getting paperwork in the mail that our coverage was being revoked because we didn't get pictures taken. We bought the car literally 2 miles down the road, they couldn't go down there and take the damn pictures before we picked it up? They drove across the county to handle the paperwork when I got my first car and had it insured with them! Anyway, we're hoping to go to the casino at some point during our 5 days off. My aunt came home from the hospital today, so I'm not sure what my mom's schedule is going to be like. Dh wanted to go away over night, but I don't see that happening. Maybe thursday night we can go to the casino late or in the early afternoon. Maybe we'll go to the one dh hasn't been to yet. It's further away, but I had fun the last time I went, when I was pregnant for Courtney and had just lost my job. What sucks about casinos is that if you're a non-smoker you're coughing or at least reaking of smoke by the time you're out of there since smoking is still legal inside. I'm just not used to being around smoke anymore and it's overwhelming.

I browsed a bunch of my saved links for yarn websites and didn't find anything to buy last night, and believe me, I was in serious need of some retail therapy. I suppose that's a good thing, but it was also disappointing. I really wanted to find something inexpensive to buy just to have something to look forward to receiving in the mail. I think I'm gonna go back to the catalog craft sites now and give'm another once over. The green felted bag is coming along nicely and seems to be bigger than the purple one I made from the same type of yarn last year... must be that I used a larger needle last time or something. I still have quite a bit of yarn left... not sure how many rows I've done, but I know last time I didn't make the number that the Booga pattern calls for (64 or 86? I can't remember). I've been thinking of using my coupons from Joann's when I don't have anything I really "need" to stock up on Fisherman's Wool. It dyes and felts wonderfully... not sure why I never thought of that before. And it's normally 8.99, so the only time I'd ever buy it would be with a coupon anyway.

Aztek

2005-04-15T22:10:00.000-04:00

Today's exciting news is that we may be getting a new car next Friday morning. We went and filled out the papers for a 2005 Pontiac Aztek - Black with the Rally Package (that means it's a man's minivan). We were originally pretty much settled on a Vibe, but the price of the Aztek was lower than the Vibes they had in stock and with the SmartBuy it was right in our price range. It even has a cooler for a console between the front seats. It's going to be dh's car, but we're getting something automatic this time so that, if necessary, I can drive it. His current truck is 5 speed manual transmission, and I can't even warm it up in the winter. When we're driving somewhere longer than across town, especially at night, dh usually prefers me to drive because he gets drowsy, but if we've taken the truck he has no choice but to stay awake because I couldn't drive it. Now, hopefully we'll find out on Monday if the financing has been approved. Then it'll just be a matter of selling the old truck. We had someone come test drive it tonight and they beat the shit out of it, which pissed dh off. Why do people think they can treat something worse than the owners do? If it had been my car, I'd have stopped them and made'm walk back to their car, seriously. The last time we sold a car ourselves, the clutch mysteriously gave up as soon as the kid got out of the car from test driving it and we reparked it on the front lawn. He still bought it after we replaced the clutch. We lost our asses on that car. My dad kept throwing time & money into it, trying to get it sellable after dh blew the engine ("You mean that check oil light really means something? I only drove it another 120 miles after it came on!) Now this guy was like, "there's a dent over here...i noticed some rust over there... " You're buying a 7 year old car from a private buyer - it's not let's make a deal here, it's take it or leave it. You can imagine what type of customer service rep I make some days, huh? I'm not worried, though, it will sell.

My LYS has the new knitting related novel by Debbie Macomber, A Good Yarn, I think it's called. I wanted to go get it today, but we spent all our time at the dealer and then went to dinner with my parents. I'm almost done with Honeymoon by James Patterson. Some of his books just go so fast, like Sam's Letters to Jennifer. I actually felt ripped off after reading that one - I was done with it in a few days and it was expensive in hardcover (and I expected it to be more like Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, which was much longer).

I'm having an off day. I'm not exactly depressed, more like anxious and about to jump out of my skin. I think shopping will help, so I think I'll window shop the yarn stores online and see what's new and exciting. What are some of your favorite online stores?

Time to Catch Up

2005-04-12T08:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I don't think I knit a stitch, and ya know what... I don't think I'll knit any today either. I'm trying to make a mental list of all the things I need to get done during the next few days and thru the next couple weeks on my days off. I actually have a cushy schedule for the rest of this month. Today is my last day of my normal work week (Fri-Tues, but this week I called in sick on Friday, so it's only a 4 day week for me) and I have tomorrow off, but then I work Thursday because I switched with someone to get Saturday off because my parents have an anniversary party to go to, and I took Friday off because I thought that was the day of the party originally. So, to recap, I worked 4 days, 1 day off, work 1 day, 2 days off, work 3 days, then have 5 days off(started off as just Sunday for Courtney'd bday, but then we took Sat off in case we didn't want to have the party on Sunday, then it seemed dumb that I would have my weekend Wed/Thurs, go back on Friday, then have Sat/Sun off, so I jumped on the waiting list to get Friday off and yesterday they gave it to me), work 2 days, have 2 days off, then I go back to my normal schedule. Love it, love it, love it. And believe me, I needed this! Hopefully I can get all my follow-ups done today so I don't have to worry about coming back to a nightmare.

Yesterday we got our phones activated and when we got home we programmed them and put in our contact lists, etc. My brother is getting my old phone, so I had to basically remove all my personalizations, except I left him my ringtones and games since they're already paid for. I'm not sure I'll love this new phone, it has some odd features to get used to. And the push-to-talk is a novelty sure to wear off. The phones have beep-beep alerts when you're doing the 2-way thing, but not quite as obnoxious as the Nextel one. And, you can do 2 way calls without speaker phone on, which I wasn't expecting. We actually just used the 2 way right now for the first time besides testing and it took a little getting used to, but over all worked better than having to dial, wait to connect and then listen to the ringing.

As far as my time off goes, I'm hoping to get a lot of errands that I've been putting off done, like getting my eyes examined and getting new glasses &/or contacts. I got an ad for 1800contacts in the mail the other day and I went online to see what the prices run there. You've got to buy quite a few boxes at a time, from the looks of it. In the past, I've gotten disposables 2-4 boxes at a time from the place in the mall, and the last time was when I was pregnant for Jo, and I never got it refilled again for some reason. I think it had to do with them telling me that I couldn't wear disposables for a week straight without removing them like I'd had with my previous prescription. Listen, folks, if I can't watch tv in bed with them until I fall asleep, what good are they? I'm hoping that now that they've got the 30 day extended wear again (seems like those keep getting pulled shortly after release, or at least my eye doctor stops carrying them) I can get something that is safe enough to wear at least 1 week straight. Every brand of cleaning solution bothers my eyes, and I probably never get them clean enough anyway, so the fact that I was putting in brand new lenses and not messing with them every night and morning was great. I also need to find a new OBGYN since my old one refuses to see me anymore because I haven't paid the bill for Courtney's delivery yet (When I get my tax refund I'll be sending them the payment along with a nasty letter to let them know that if anyone should feel the doctor-patient relationship was damaged, I should think it would be me, the one who delivered the first child without any doctor but still had to pay for the delivery, and the second time had a student stitch me up so badly that I was in pain for 9 months!). And I have to call my shrink for an appointment to get my prescriptions refilled. And I should probably call my primary doctor to get a physical, I think the last one I had was before I started college in 1995.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the time off. I plan to get my money's worth out of my Blockbuster movie pass (traded in my first 3 movies for Little Black Book, The Terminal and The Little Mermaid II for Johanna), since I can watch the movies and swap them again in the same day if I feel like it. I'm not sure I'll continue the membership after this month because it's $29.99/mo, and for that I could be getting digital cable instead of cheapo cable like we have now.

My mom just got a call from my aunt. She's having a hard time breathing, her blood counts are low, and they asked if she wanted to be put on a ventilator in case she stops breathing. They're "Not Hopeful." I feel helpless. We thought she'd be home by tomorrow, so neither my brother nor I have been to the hospital to see her, and I will be a mess if I see her on that machine like my grandmother was all the time before she died. I feel like throwing up. Dh loves that song about Living Like You Were Dying, but it makes me cry every time I hear it. I wish I could be like that guy in the song though.

Bad to be Back

2005-04-10T02:04:00.000-04:00

I felt like throwing up this afternoon as I walked towards the door to my job. I'd actually been fighting the feeling all weekend and my extra day off. Even worse than walking in first thing and realizing you've got a lot of stuff due that day is the feeling that you had stuff that was already overdue last week and is going to be piled on top of all that stuff you'd scheduled to do yesterday as well. The job nags me, I think that's why I hate going in on Fridays when Alan has off and I have to drag myself to the door without him giving me a push along the way. Then, I found out my boss took off yesterday, today and tomorrow (must be nice!) and I have voicemails waiting for me from customers who didn't get whatever they thought they deserved on their next bill. While I think for the most part that I do a good job, it's not an easy or fun job. Definitely not fun. About 3 times a week I get a great call where I feel like I didn't ruin everyone's day. No, you can not upgrade, no I'm not going to give you a $500 credit because your teenager went crazy with text messaging, and NO, I'm not going to let you out of the early termination fee! But occassionally, you end up with a customer who is really glad that they called, like when we over charged them and they never noticed, but now they're getting the next 2 months of service for free. Or when someone finds out they can get a new phone for free.

I wish I could knit while I worked. There are times when I'm sitting on hold and wish I could just get a few stitches knit. Unfortunately, I have to settle for the time I'm at home. Today I bought the new Easy Knitting. There was at least 1 pattern that I liked. The new Knitty is out and that was ok, but nothing "me". Cleaves is making me seriously consider making myself a sweater out of Lamb's Pride Bulky. Doubt they make that in superwash, though, and I'm scared of washing wool.

We stopped at Walmart on the way home so Alan could get some jeans that didn't come up over his gut. 2" around the waist makes a big difference, I guess. We avoided the electronics dept completely, which was a first for us. I got wrapping paper for my niece's first birthday gifts. Can you believe that 1 year ago tomorrow I'd gone into false labor? It was Easter. Unfortunately, Courtney has to wait until the 27th for her birthday.