In My Copious Free Time

Props to L

For the picture over there. Knitting as conceptual art. :)  Notice the proximity of the pom cocktail -- a requirement for learning to knit socks.

Headachy thoughts

28 March 2005 (another relocated post)
Ever the nomad, I pulled up roots today and moved to a new office space. Previously I was in a very large open space where as many as 5 other people worked, all positioned along the perimeter. But my role shift away from managing all those people means I don't need to be in that space, so I have the option of a little more privacy and quiet for the first time in a while. So I moved into a smallish space with a real door that I'll be sharing with F, the president's assistant and general go-to guy. I relocated my 2 BABBs (that would be Big Ass Bulletin Boards, of course), plugged in my lamp with the green mulberry paper shade, lit my pomegranate candle, busted out the new mousepad and notepad...and it felt like home.

Nice little dinner tonight. Tilapia filets baked in foil packets, asparagus and mashed potatoes. I feel like having a milkshake, though. Hrm.

I took a long bath to try to kick this headache and managed to knock out some magazine reading. The last month or so has been a combination of Joe working miserable hours or being miserably sick, so I haven't had much me time and the magazines have been piling up. Lucky, Allure, 1 Newsweek, and Marie Claire. So many more to go. I see a lot of baths in my future now that Joe is moderately healthy and working normal hours.

Oh, Joe was sick? Affirmative. It started while he was "away" (in Saratoga) for NEGSA. Fever, congestion, aches. He left the conference early and came home Tuesday night. The fever was gone in a little over a day, but lots of congestion remained. We weighed the option of not going to visit friends that weekend, but figured that with the fever out of the way that he was on the road to recovery. Well. Arrived at friends' home, hung out, went to bed way late. Joe woke up at some undogly hour in excruciating ear pain, fumbled around for a big ol' dose of Advil and went back to bed. We got up the next morning and left Alex with friends and went to a walk-in urgent care place. Yep, ear infection. And make it a double. A fun morning like that can only be topped by a little perforated eardrum in the afternoon, complete with gacky ooze. We could have gone home, but figured he wasn't contagious anymore, and if we were home, he'd just lie in bed and feel miserable. At least at our friends' house he could be entertained while he felt miserable. ;)

Some nice things about the weekend:

*I learned sock knitting (this would also rank right under Joe's ear woes were I to list the worst parts of the weekend -- don't ask me what has possessed me to knit socks). First, it's like knitting with toothpicks. Second, the toe of my sock is quite funky. I'm trying to accept the fact that this is okay it will be inside my shoes. Or at least 5 feet away from my eyes. (I'd say my hypercritcal eyes, but the damn thing really does look funky. This is a fact.)
*I had some really, really excellent Mexican food, delicious sweet potato fries, and tasted a yummy pom margarita.
*I visited 3 yarn stores and only bought 4 skeins of yarn. And a pair of size 1 circulars.)

Anyhow, we got home late Sunday night and Joe proceeded to stay home sick all week. Go figure.

We hired 3 people last week. One is a former employee, and I'm glad he's coming back -- it's like a return to normalcy. Plus he gets to manage all the people that I'm not managing anymore. Poor guy. But it'll be nice to have someone around that can appreciate things like Seinfeld, orange Mr. Sketch markers, fonts and evilness. (I'm always coveting J's Evil Four.)

Oh, on Friday morning I got up and ran. :) I powerwalked to the track at Foofy Private Girls' School only to find it covered in snow, so I ran around the surrounding neighborhood. This is very different for me as it's hilly terrain and not easily measured, and I'm used to running on the flat, quarter-mile track. But it felt great to run again -- I felt great all day. Hell, I even had a great hair day and I'm chalking it up to the run as well. :)

Awesome weekend

(I'm moving some entries from one journal to another here. I'm not quite sure why yet. But go with it for now.)

21 March 2005
We had a terrific time with some great friends this weekend. Wonderful food, wonderful company. On Saturday the guys hung out with the kids while the women drove into the city. We visited The Yarn Co. -- nice stuff, but very disappointing in terms of size and overall selection. We did have an excellent lunch at Rosa Mexicano...sooooo yummy. I was impressed with the guacamole-made-tableside (though I don't eat the stuff), I had a delicious tortialla soup and chicken enchiladas...and mooched a bit of pomegranate margarita.

That evening the guys went out to play pool (They came back early as the pool place was "too dirty" -- oh, how we laughed at them. Shamed, they retired to the deck to drink scotch and smoke cigars.) and we sat around and knit. L tortured us, er, I mean taught us how to knit socks. Why I am knitting something on needles the size of toothpicks that I could go to Target and buy for $3 is beyond me. But I'm doing it.

Friend 1 and her husband took Friend 2 to the airport for her flight since they were heading that way to go home anyway, and Host Friend and I went shopping. We had planned on heading home around 4pm, but our gracious hosts invited us to stay for dinner, so we happily accepted. :)

And to think I have to do this twice

I'm not thoroughly hating sock knitting. Of course, that might be because I'm working on the foot portion, having somewhat forgotten the horrors of the toe. Of course, I'll soon reach a point where nature demands a heel and will be forced to turn one. It might not be pretty. But I'm not hating it. Not completely. Maybe just a little. ;) That said, I was ->this<- close to buying more sock yarn yesterday.

Totally delightful weekend. /me ignores the laundry portion of the weekend when stating this... Parts of Saturday were spent knitting on aforementioned sock while sipping chai at B&N. I also went up to Saratoga and felt up some yarn and wandered around through the myriad shops. Amazingly, the only money I spent was on the chai. Sunday was more or less a repeat of Saturday, except that I had Alex in tow. And we went to the toy store. And to a different yarn store. And to Cracker Barrel. And funds were exchanged for goods at all stops. I did skab some new pinkandgreen yarn for another scarf and got ideas for a couple more things. And we basically had a great time hanging out. :)

Oh, right. This thing.

I kind of forgot I had this. What to do, what to do...

I think I'll keep it for now. Or until the wind changes, or something all non-committal and Poppins-like.

I've been knitting this evening. Still working on the dogdamned Klaralund. Unleashed a hail of curse words when I realized that I am doing it wrong. (Should be KPKK then repeat, and I've been doing KPK repeat.) My stupidity is surpassed only by my laziness, so I am continuing in this fucking incorrect vein.

Last weekend I learned the invisible cast on thanks to L and a delayed Independence Air flight. I have two skeins of ultra-cute pinkandgreen sock yarn and The Skinniest DPNs Ever (okay, they're 1s) just waiting for me to get to them.

In the meantime, I did knit 2 scarves as xmas gifts. Both were Trendsetter "Segue", one in colorway  126  for my MIL, and colorway 119  for my sister. Both were drop-stitch with long fringe. Both I wanted to keep for myself. So today I bought myself this. The ribbon is actually more orange and purple than grey and blue, but you get the drift.

Feeding the todo:

• Solve fucking ice dam problem
• Survey damage caused by fucking ice dam problem
• Do laundry
• Sweep
• Go to office -- double-check materials, finish copying idea book to return to KS
• Edit ad to find poor sap that is going to take my job so I can do something that a) I like more and b) doesn't involve managing anyone but myself.

Friends Don't Let Friends Rib Knit

This is my new motto. So, take 3 on the cami ribbing was a winner. Amazing how well things go when you know what you are doing. Of course, rib knitting is painfully slow. At least it is for me. If I EVER say I'm going to do a 1x1 rib scarf, shoot me, please. It will be for my own good.

Anyhow, I finished the ribbing (done as a front piece and back piece on straights since I don't have circular 3s), moved both pieces and joined them on circular 6s, and I'm about 4 rows into the knitting in the round.

Oh, and the yarn for the Karalund Along arrived yesterday! Amazingly fast since L just shipped it from DC on Saturday. Go, USPS. It is gorgeous! I was a little apprehensive that it would be too brown and/or earthy, but it's very vibrant.

Month of Frugality, day 1

Not too bad. I've resolved to only spend $100 on knitting and $50 on scrapbooking this month, along with various and sundry other cutbacks. Oh, and I'm limiting myself to the purchase of 2 magazines to augment the cubic buttload I get by subscription.

However, last night, L talked me into knitting http://www.chicknits.com/chickami.html along with her. I just happen to have enough Berroco Softwist for it, in black, so I figured I'd give it a go. So I'm using my stash, which is a Good Thing. I did not, however, have the correct needles, so I went out to AC Moore today and got some bamboo circulars in US #6. I also picked up some decent stitch markers and a skein of Patons Katrina in pink (for future baby hats since it was 50% off). So $16.83 off my $100 budget so far.

But, oops. I didn't realize I needed #3 circulars to cast on with -- I thought the pattern started with 6s. So instead of doing the ribbing at the bottom on circs, I'm doing the front on the straight 3s I have, then moving that piece to holders while I do the back ribbing. Then I'll join them when I move it all to the 6s to start the body.

Of course, my singular inability to read for comprehension means that while I'm now on the 4th row of the front ribbing piece, it took me three lengthy tries to get to this point. Thanks to Tr for some on-the-spot wisdom on rib knitting, and to Sa for being there to muddle through to understanding with me.

The funny thing is that I have this rep for being a BI. But my little experiment in frugality has been very popular today. Go figure.

Long time, no knit

A flurry of work and traveling around has left me with very little time or energy to knit.

That said, I did start and finish and object last weekend and have worked on two ongoing projects this week. :)

Last Friday at about midnight I cast on for a baby hat. I started with the baby hat pattern in Stitch 'n Bitch but did a bunch of things differently. I sized it up (cast on 80 sts instead of 64), used different sized needles (9s), and a different yarn with a different gauge (Patons Katrina). Plus I didn't have any circs short enough to do the project, so I did the whole thing on dpns. It went pretty quickly and after knitting off and on all day, I finished shortly before midnight on Saturday. It came out very soft and feminine -- exactly what I was going for. I couldn't be more pleased and I plan on doing more baby hats soon -- almost instant gratification! Pictures to come soon...

Yesterday I was BIed into a knitalong that will start in September. The project is the Karalund sweater from Cornelia Hamilton Tuttle's new pattern book for Noro yarn. I'll be using Silk Garden in colorway #84. Thanks to L, the yarn is on its way to me now. :)

Details of Karalund-Along:
http://www.knithappens.net/index.php/knitone/blog/klaralund_along_anyone/

Photo of colorway I've chosen:
http://www.ethknits.co.uk/images/Noro/Silk_Garden_Samples.jpg

Now I just have to wait until September to start it. :)

That's me

Slowest Knitter, Ever. I think I got 4 or 5 rows done on the booga bag last night. At this rate, I can carry my Medicare card in it when it's done.

Weekend Update

Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon: the two most beautiful words in the English language.
-Henry James

Were he to consider one more word, he would have probably settled on "three day weekend."

The summer has already been so busy, and will get busier still, so we decided to lay low this weekend. No cook-outs, no traveling. Unfortunately, Joe had to work. Which left Alex and me to just hang loose. There was much procrastinating of chores and yarn shopping. :-)

Actually, the weekend started off with a call from L as I was leaving work, telling me about the luscious new yarns Knit Happens had just received. She mentioned Kollage and Himalaya recycled silk. I definitely want a lot of Kollage, but didn't think I needed the recycled silk. Until I saw it at Saratoga Needle Arts. I got 2 skeins. Plus a bunch of Berroco Softwist in black for a tank. Plus some Manos cotton stria in tangerine and Amsterdam by Lana Gatto in Fire something-or-other (really cool fuzzy stuff). Plus assorted needles and notions. I suppose I should throw in some links for all the yarns. Maybe later. ;)

Saturday night I finished a felted version of the Hip Knit Purse from Sweaterbabe. Oh, the lessons I learned about felting. First of all, I altered the pattern to account for shrinkage, but it shrunk much more top-to-bottom than side-to-side. So it's a good bit wider than I anticipated. And I started a new ball of Manos for the strap, and the color difference is pretty noticeable. Ah well. It's cute. It isn't perfect. I learned a lot. C'est la vie.

For the 4th we really did nothing -- Alex and I went to Barnes & Noble, Joe worked more. I worked on and off on my booga bag. We watched fireworks on TV.

Today Joe worked even more and I stayed in to do laundry and such. Made some yummy salsa chicken stuff in the crockpot. Remind me to never, ever, ever do crockpot cooking when I am home all day. Torture, pure torture.
Then tonight I started this blog.