Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Ah, four day weekend, here I come! And tomorrow it's time for cake and presents. I already know what Mark got me because I picked it out. I'm on a gigantic silk streak, so I got myself a big ol' box of dyed and undyed silks from thesilkworker. Her's are so beautiful (but expensive) that I'm going to try my hand at silk dyeing. I've done wool and I tried silk once, but it didn't turn out too wonderfully. Part of it was my technique, but an even bigger part was the crummy silk I used. So, I figure I'll start with the same stuff the master uses and see if that helps. Plus, I've picked up a couple of tricks since my last attempt, so I'm feeling a little more confident. Work on the shawl has slowed down a bit since I've been so butt-kickingly busy. I didn't get any work done on it Monday, and then just two rows yesterday and two so far today. So, like I said SLOOOOOOW. But I'm more than halfway through the lace, so it's getting there. My goal is to finish it on Saturday, though, so I have to get moving. I'm off tomorrow, so I think I'll stay up late tonight and get some real knitting time in. And once I'm done with this shawl, I can get back to more spinning. I've been so obsessed with working my way through this shawl and getting to have an FO that I've pretty much ignored all else. I pet my new silks every day, but I haven't gotten any serious spinning done, but I'll have to remedy that! Anyway, I tried to get a good picture of the lace, but it's not showing up very clearly. I'll try again when it's finished and blocked, but here's the lace on my shawl in progress.
Like I said, I couldn't really get a good detail, so all you can really see are the yarn overs, but there's a ridge going down the center of a two lobed leaf pattern (at least, that's what I think it looks like). The picture of the lace in the book is much more clear, but I'm pretty sure putting that on my blog would infringe something (you know a copyright or some such nonsense :-) just kidding) So, hopefully I can get a better picture later so you can see all my hard work. In other new of my life, I'm getting happier with my job again. My supervisor is keeping me on secretarial work instead of the other more physical job because he thinks I'm doing a really good job at the admin stuff and doesn't want to lose me, so I'm very complimented and happy about that. Also, my supervior complained about the two new people while we were alone the other day, so I now know I'm not the only one who doesn't like these two and I also know he sees their work, sees mine, and knows what kind of quality he's getting from whom. That doesn't make my job any more stable, but it's nice to be appreciated, so at least I'm happier to be there now. Anyway, I'm off to get some progress on the shawl. Here's hoping the birthday fairy has a big fiber load this year :-) Not like I need any more fibery stuff, but oh well :-) I'm young, maybe I'll eventually use it all :-) Have a great day everyone!
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Just a quick post to say that things are settling down and that I'm doing much better than the other day. And with my birthday on Thursday, there's always presents to look forward to! And I'm taking a four day weekend to celebrate my birthday, so things are looking up. Taking this time off means that I have to work tomorrow and I normally have Wednesdays off, so my body is confused, but it will be happy to sleep in four days in a row. Have a good one! Shawl update pics soon.
Saturday, January 25, 2003
Well, it's the one month anniversary of me starting my blog. I was planning a big entry for today, but some things are going on in my life and I'm very unhappy right now. I don't know when this will be resolved, but until it is, it may be a while before I post. Sorry for the bummer of a post. Anyway, I'm working on my shawl to keep my sanity and hopefully this will all blow over soon. If I'm feeling up to it, there may be some pics of the shawl soon, because I finished the first repeat of the lace (only five more to go :-) Blessings upon everyone, and I hope you're having a great weekend.
Friday, January 24, 2003
Sorry about all the crabbiness yesterday! Today went much better (except on the knitting front, where I'm still quite crabby, thank you very much! You'll see why if you read along). Work was still crappy, but I only worked a half day and it wasn't as god awful as yesterday. Besides, it's hard to have an awful day when you only work until 11:30. So, I came home, went to T.G.I.Friday's for lunch with Mark, then we went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was as marvelous as everyone said it was. My mom said she might want to go with us, which was a surprise because sitting still for that long is not her thing. I was hoping she would go with us, but when we finished lunch and I called her to see if she still wanted to go, she wasn't home. I was really bummed that I hadn't even been able to get ahold of her, but when we got to the movie theater, there she was waiting for us. I was so happy to see her! I felt awful though, because we were a little late because our server was really terrible and lunch took forever. But we only missed the first minute and we greatly enjoyed the rest. It was so great being there with my two favorite people. Anyway, after the movie we popped over to my mom's house to pick up a few things, then headed back to the apartment. Going to movies during the day has a strange effect on me. During the beginning of our relationship, Mark and I would go to the movies once or twice a week because there's a second-run theater close to my house that has cheap tickets and it was a cheap date. We'd always go to the 9:30 shows and when I got home it was bedtime. Now, whenever I go to a matinee, when I get out I expect it to be the middle of the night. But it's not! And it's such a bonus to me, like I got eight extra hours. When we got out of the movie, it felt like the lunch and movie were "today" and like my morning at work was "yesterday." So my afternoon started out great, and I thought it would be a good night. I took a nap when I got home from Mom's, then got up and did some knitting. Things were flowing along smoothly, I started out in the middle of row five and worked from there. I THOUGHT things were going great, took a break in my knitting for dinner, settled down with Mark to watch some TV, was going along on my shawl, got to almost the end of row eight and found a mistake in the beginning of row seven. So, I "unknit" nearly 500 stitches (I am unable to rip at this point. It is very difficult for me to get ALL the stitches back on the needle. My only viable option is to reverse knit, undoing one stitch at a time) and now I'm back to the beginning of row seven, less than two rows done today :-( I'm quite grumpy about this, but I'm glad I went back and fixed it because it would have been an obvious mistake (obvious to me at least) that would have upset me every time I saw the shawl. So, now that won't happen. But I'm so frustrated because I did the body of the shawl, a whopping 113 rows (that's a lot to me, at least, even if it is garter stitch) in five days and in the past three days I've done seven rows. *Sigh* I was really hoping to be a whiz and finish a whole shawl in a week, which would make me feel like uberknitter extraordinaire, but it looks like no such luck. I'm off to knit some more and see if I can get some more done for today. Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading! Hey, by the way, I joined the knitter's webring recently, so my number of daily visits is going up. If you read and you like what you see, I'd love to get tagged! It really brightens my day when someone likes my work enough to comment. Anywho, make it a great weekend, and I'll update you as a plod along on my shawl!
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Wah! I've had a rough couple of days! I finally got to the lace last night and only got to do half a row of lace before I had to go to bed (or risk being a total zombie at work). Then, I had the day from "enfer" (excuse my French... if you're wondering, enfer is the word for hell in French :-) Anyway, I'll explain the giant hassle at work later. Then, I finally get home and have a crappy night to round out the two days of poop (it doesn't help that I'm PMS, too... or is that too much information? If it is TOUGH! :-) Just kidding! Anyway, so long story short, Mark may be forced to work Valentine's Day because the other night manager is conveniently taking vacation from the 14th to the 21st. Our first Valentine's Day in the apartment and he'll be working. Arg! It's not his fault, but it's still so tempting to be mad at him. I didn't want him to take this job in the first place anyway. He already works Saturdays and Sundays, now they're going to dump this girl's Friday shift on him. This SUCKS! Sorry, just need to vent a little. In knitting news, I'm on the fifth row of lace (big whoop-dee-doo, right?) The knitting has really slowed down since I hit the lace. Hopefully it will go a little faster tomorrow and Saturday because I'll finally have some free time. We'll see. Sorry for the negative post tonight, it's just been one big floppo of a day :-( Sleepy time, tomorrow is a new day, and it's bound to be better since I only have to work a half day. If you have any extra, please send a happy thought my way, I need them!
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Woohoo! Jenni's learning HTML... and referring to herself in third person, apparently! Yes, this pretty new color scheme only took me an hour to accomplish. God, I feel like such a loser when it comes to all things computer. I'm figuring them out slowly, but it's just not my cup of tea. Next, there will be new pages linked to this one, a gallery and a 100 things about me list (which I'm trying to write... unsuccessfully) And after that, I'm going to try to make a button to represent my site. I'm thinking of composing a butterfly out of roving and yarn artfully arranged. Or, just a cute butterfly graphic if I can find a free one! After that... who knows! I may also start posting my pictures as pop-up so that my page doesn't take so long to load. I know that would make it easier for people with slower computers to see my site. Anyway, I like the new color scheme, but I'll probably change it continuously! I love rainbows, so I decided to go with rainbow lettering on a white background. My original try was a caribbean blue and green theme, but it was hard to read, so I figured I'd go with rainbow. Anyway, so there's the big change of the day. In knitting news, I made my "quota" yesterday to get halfway from where I was to the lace, so now I just have a few more rows until it's time to start the lace. Yippee! I'm sad about the lace, though. I had been thinking of doing the lace in stripes because there are six lace repeats and I thought it would look nice if I did a black-gray-white-black-gray-white sequence, one color per lace repeat. But now looking at the lace, I see that the lace pattern would look horrible done striped, because the motifs are interlocked, so even though I would be doing one repeat in one color, soem of the motifs would be half and half color-wise. Boo hoo! So, now I have to decide if I want an all black shawl or if I want to do the lace in a contrasting color. I don't have a lot of color choices and none of them are appealing to me, so I guess it's going to be an all black shawl. I wonder if there's anything I can do to liven it up. I'm thinking of doing some embroidery on the garter stitch part. I'd be happy to hear any suggestions! If you've faced a similar problem, how did you solve it? I'll let you know what I decide! More tonight hopefully.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Well, as promised, no pictures of the boring shawl in progress! This is for two reasons 1) I promised 2) there has been very little progress thus far today. I got two rows done at work during lunch, and that's it so far! I hope to get some done tonight after I blog (as a matter of fact, I hope to get to halfway between where I am now and the lace, and then get the other half done tomorrow and then start my lace on Thursday. Cross your fingers xxxxx xxxxx) Anyway, so to keep things entertaining, I do have some colorful pictures to post. Here's a quick explanation of what they are though, and why I'm posting them. With most of my hobbies (spinning, quilting, tatting, bobbin lace, soap making, glass bead making, jewelry making, polymer clay, etc) I have a very large stash. For some hobbies, the stash is VERY large, reaching the point where if I were to begin today, at the age of 22, to start using up the stash, never buy anything to add to it, and work constantly to reduce the stash, I would probably not come to the end of the stash before I died at the age of 100. Anyway, I am now getting the urge to accumulate large quantities of yarn, even though I am a slow knitter and don't do an incredible amount of knitting. Add to that I have a huge spinning stash and when I work on that, my yarn stash will increase because I'll have homespun on top of store bought. So in an effort to keep myself from buying more yarn, for the next few days I'll be laying out my already moderate sized stash of yarn for you. This will serve two purposes. Pretty pictures for you (since I won't be posting the growing garter stitch triangle until it gets more interesting) and it will also show me that I have enough yarn to keep me busy for the next year, so I don't need to buy anymore! Ok, so here's the beginning. I'm going to start with the sock yarn because it's the most tempting. It comes in tons of pretty colors, it's relatively cheap (cheaper than buying enough yarn for a sweater, that is), socks are a fairly quick project and it COMES IN TONS OF PRETTY COLORS :-) I'm a sucker for pretty colors! Anyway, here's the sock yarn I have now:
So, I have enough for five pairs, plus the pair I have going now. Assuming every sock takes me 12 days, like the first one did (but they'll probably take me longer because I was so excited about that first one I worked through it pretty quickly) I could make nothing but socks and it would take me 144 days just to go through the sock yarn I have now. Add on top of that the fact that I don't even like wearing socks! I do want a pair or two to wear around the house during the winter because hard wood floors can really get cold, but I really don't need that many pairs. After I finish the red/white/black/gray pair that I'm working on now, I'm going to make myself a pair from the Lorna's Laces Child's play at the top right corner of the picture and after that will be a pair from the brown/black/white/gray JaWool jaquard that is in the bottom middle of the picture, which is the yarn I bought yesterday when I went to get my circular needle for the shawl. After that, I'd like to make a pair for my mom, and I probably will have to get some yarn for that pair because all the yarn pictured is wool and mom wants cotton. But that's beyond the point I'm trying to make to myself. I don't need anymore sock yarn! I have enough to last nearly five months of steady knitting! I know that my stash is really quite small compared to many people's (laughable, really), but I want to keep it pretty small, because I don't have room for another huge stash! Tomorrow: why I shouldn't spend $130 on yarn for a single sweater (eep!) when I've never even made a sweater!
Monday, January 20, 2003
Ok, just a quick entry tonight. I'm back to work tomorrow, so it's back to early bedtimes (yuck!). I didn't think I was getting very far on the shawl today because the rows are so long and they are now each taking forever (at last count I was up to 171 stitches per row... Wow!) but I just measured it and it's up to 27 inches across the top edge, so that's an 8 inch increase from yesterday! At this rate, I may start the lace on Wednesday or Thursday, which I would be thrilled about! Anyway, here's the latest pic:
Until I get going on the lace, it's going to continue to be boring, so no more pics of that until the lace part, I promise. I'm sure there are very few people interested in the growth of a garter square triangle. You'll probably notice that now it's on a 36" circular needle as opposed to the two straight needles it was on yesterday. It was getting too big for its britches, so I ran out to my new favorite LYS and got a bigger needle. It's already to the ends of the needle as you can see, but I can scrunch up the stitches and still fit quite a few on. I can't wait to get to the lace! Anyway, while I was at the yarn store, I also got some new sock yarn to make a pair for Mark because ever since I finished the one sock and he tried it on, he's been wanting me to make a pair for him. So, I'll be making him a pair after I finish the red/white/black/gray pair and the rainbow pair. His sock yarn is a brown/white/gray/black jaquard that he is in love with. Seeing as how I picked it without him there and he's so thrilled with it, I'm feeling pretty good about my selection. Ok, time for bed! More tomorrow.
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Well, I'm plugging away on my shawl. I had planned on working on it while I watched Alias tonight, but it's a repeat, so I thought I'd go ahead and blog. By the way the first entry from "today" is actually from last night, so I guess you get a two-for today :-) The beginning of this shawl is very simple, you begin with a few stitches, then increase with a few yarn overs every other row. So it gets bigger and bigger. I'm now up to over a hundred stitches! However, this shawl works the opposite of my attention span. I'd so much prefer to cast on 400 stitches and work my way down to 10 than the other way around! In the beginning, I could do a row of 400 stitches because I'm so excited about the project, and I could stick with it because each row would get shorter. Instead, the easy part is in the beginning with this shawl, and I can already feel my attention pulling away. But, I really only started it because I was so excited about it, I never intended to do it start to finish with no interruptions. I just figured I'd get a good start on the boring part when I was excited about it, put it down when I get bored and be that much closer to done when I pick it up again. My socks are waiting for me to pick them back up again, and I'll probably oblige within a couple of days. But, I'm not totally done with the shawl yet, so hopefully I'll get some more done on it. Here's what I have so far:
Like I said, so far it's very boring and plain, just lots of garter stitch with a double row of yarn overs down the center and a single row along the edge. It's now about 19 inches along the top, and it will end up being about 74 inches, so I still have a ways to go. But I'm pretty happy with the progress I've gotten, considering I've only been working on it two days. I love keeping a blog now, because I can keep track of how long projects take me, including "time offs." I can also keep track of ideas for projects that pop into my head. Unfortunately, a lot of ideas pop into my head :-) Enough ideas that I could work on them for the rest of my life and not finish the ideas I have now, let alone the ones I'll get in the future. Arg :-) The torture of being creative. It's a blessing and a curse! Anyway, I'm off to work on the shawl while it still has a tenuous hold on my interest. Hope everyone had a happy and safe weekend. No work for me tomorrow! Hip hip hooray!
Another nice fiber day! This morning I sorted through my patterns, looking for something suitable for the "Courtship" colorway I'm spinning from my new silkworker stash. I always find thumbing through patterns very satisfying, so I had quite an enjoyable morning. I finally settled on Hanging Vines from Jackie ES from Heartstrings. It's a lovely lacy pattern and I have enough silk to make the narrow scarf (10" x 60") This scarf isn't going to be for warmth, so I don't have a problem making it smaller than usual. I spin much finer than the yarn called for, however, so I'll probably have to do quite a bit of swatching to decide on needle size and number of pattern repeats. That's all part of the fun, though. In more fibery news, after lunch while Mark and I watched some TV shows I taped for us, I worked on my sock and I'm now past the toe and pretty well into the foot of the sock. I'm very excited about having a pair of socks to wear that I knitted myself. I just hope I have enough yarn to knit two more. It looks like I will, but you never know. I guess I'll find out :-) And I can always order more yarn if I have to. I know that's a bad practice, but I don't know what else to do because I wasn't expecting to be knitting three socks from two balls of yarn. If I don't have enough, I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. After Mark went to work Mom and I went to Hobby Lobby because she's hating working with the homespun, which is heaven to weave with, but not so great to knit with. Which makes me worry because that's the yarn I've already bought to make my first sweater. Uh oh :-) I guess we'll see how that goes! While we were there, I saw that Caron Super Soft (another of my guilty acrylic pleasures, along with Homespun) was on sale for $0.66 a ball. Since I had been thinking about the Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls that morning because I've always liked it and I ran across it this morning while I was pattern perusing, I decided to go for the gusto and get some Simply Soft to make myself a shawl to keep at work. So, for a grand total of $3.50 including tax, I now have enough yarn for a shawl. I know I could do better yarn wise, but it's cheap and feels nice and is machine washable. Plus, it's just gonna be for work, so nah nah nah. I know there are knitters cringing across the world at the thought of an acrylic shawl, but they can... just go knit with the yarn they want and leave me alone :-) Of course, in the throws of my extrodinary find of the day, I started the shawl, so now I have yet another work in progress. I've already got a good five inches done on it, and I'm off to work on it some more, so hopefully I'll work it up fast so that I can wear it this winter. Anyway, it's late so I'm off for a bit more knitting and then sleep! Good night all.
Friday, January 17, 2003
Ah, Fridays, you gotta love 'em. I know I do. I only work a half day, Mark doesn't work, I can stay up as long as I want... as Martha would say, it's a good thing. All things considered, I had a heck of a day! Work is not wonderful, but I'm glad I went because the guy who's taking my job called in "sick" (a.k.a. his kids and wife were home because of the snow, so he must have had that 24 second flu I've heard so much about :-) Anyway, it made me look really good that I came in today and my supervisor even made a comment about how he can always count on me, so I'm glad I ended up going in, though I was so tempted to call in myself because of the roads. Anyway, 11:30 rolled around pretty quickly and I headed home. And what was waiting for me when I got home? These!
And as beautiful as they are in this picture, they're a million times more beautiful in person. I took 20 pictures trying to do these justice and I just couldn't. They're just too lovely. These are all from the silk worker, purchased from ebay and her website. If you've never ordered from her, you are missing out. I just can't emphasize how completely better her silks are than anything else I've ever tried. They're so soft with gorgeous colors. It inspires me to start refining my silk dyeing technique to get mine 1/100th as lovely as hers. And I'm a very bad girl! There's a box with two more on its way to me :-) There will probably more coming to live with me after my birthday :-) I'm crossing my fingers. Anyway, after drooling over my silks, I had some lunch then headed out with Mom and Mark to Jungle Jims, an awesome grocery store in town. Mark and I love shopping there because it's an "international market" which is just a fancy way of saying they sell all kinds of exotic foods. Since the Italian Market on our side of town closed down last year, it's the only place we can get all the cheeses we love. As a matter of fact, about a year and a half ago while we were there shopping, we were asked to be in a commercial for the store, which was really fun, and also led to us being asked about a hundred times a day by people who vaguely knew us if we were in a commercial. The funniest thing about the whole experience is that while everyone we know saw our commercial a hundred and one times, neither Mark nor I ever saw our commercial. Wierd, huh? Oh well, we got free groceries out of the deal. Anyway, so we went grocery shopping and got tons of stuff, just some basics that we wanted, but that the local stores don't carry (J.J.'s is on the other side of town, about a 45 minute drive, so we don't get out there very often). While we were there, we decided to be very bad and bought ourselves this:
It's a triple chocolate cake and I just finished my slice and boy was it good :-) Wish you could have joined us! We also got ingredients to make our favorite meal, which is our home made pizza. We make the dough ourselves (no pillsbury, sorry doughboy) then rub it with olive oil, put thin sliced garlic, shitake mushrooms, and carmelized onion under the cheese, which is a mixture of regular provolone and aged italian provolone, and then on top of that we put green and red bell peppers and roma tomatoes. Yum! It is so good! So, we got home from shopping, then unpacked everything and I crashed for a nap. I sleep walked (or is it slept walked?) last night, and I'm always exhausted when I wake up after my night time activities. I talk in my sleep a lot and sleep walk a moderate amount, which is a sure sign to me that my brain never turns off. When I'm awake I'm always thinking (most of the time too much, as I mentioned earlier) and when I'm asleep I'm apparently still busy. It really creeps Mark out when I sleep walk and talk, because he thinks I'm awake and I do really wierd things or talk about bizarre things. Like last week, I tried to convince him that I was in dire need of a silver thimble and that he had to help me find it (it was three am) Well, this time he just found me wandering around with the phone. My eyes were open, but I have no recollection of this. I find it humorous that I do this (except for the time I tried to let myself out of my hotel room in Italy. That could have ended badly! I'm so glad someone caught me!) but I know it creeps a lot of people out and I wonder why that is. One too many horror movies, probably. I'm a sweet little somnambulist, I promise. I haven't hurt anyone yet (though I'm told I get REALLY angry when someone doesn't understand me or tries to send me back to bed). Anyway, I can always tell when I've been sleep walking because I'm exhausted the next morning. So, I napped, then cooked dinner with Mark, and then it was finally time to try some of the silk. I settled on the blues/lavendar/pink colorway to spin first, and it's turning out very lovely. I'm spinning it on my new Jensen (which I named Charlotte) but I'm not sure what I'll make from the yarn yet. I should probably pick a project before I get much further, because I find it easier to model the yarn after the project than the other way around. I love the little sachet that Theresa made for Wendy, so maybe I'll just spin enough for a small project like that just to get my feet wet in silk spinning and knitting. Anyway, so there's my Friday! I hope yours was as awesome as mine! Have a great weekend!
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Happy almost Friday everyone! It is a very cold snowy day where I am, perfect for curling up with some tea and knitting, but where was I? Work, of course! Today wasn't so bad though. I've really been down this week with my work situation, but today I just felt better. While Mark was at work yesterday, I went over to my parents' for dinner and did some real venting to my mom. The thing that upsets me most is that this is supposed to be such a happy time in my life, and I'm so blessed that I should be happy, but I'm just so unhappy right now because of the job. What's going on at this point is that the new people who came into the department are making it pretty clear that I'm a step above mud because I'm a contractor, and that's making work really miserable and uncomfortable. But yesterday I finally did something about it. I called my contact at the temp agency and discussed my options with her and then I applied for a couple of jobs that I found online. I'm just going to keep pluggin away and find something that makes me happy and is more secure. And for some reason I just woke up feeling better today. I made it through work and when I got home I straightened up and took a shower, then my mom came over. And look what she brought to cheer me up:
See what I mean? I'm so blessed! I have really good people in my life, I have enough money to pay my bills, I just moved in with the love of my life and we're happy together (except when he acts like a butt... Men! LOL) and a zillion other blessings. So there's no need to let a job bring me down. Anyway, you probably didn't come here to read all of that, so here's some fiber news for you. I decided last night to go ahead and make a whole other pair of socks from this color way so that I have a whole comfy pair with all the lessons I learned from my first sock. I've nearly rounded the toe, only a few more rows and I'll be knitting in the round. I'm really enjoying sock knitting. I'll just be happy when I have a whole pair to wear. Of course, as soon as Mark saw me modelling, he decided he wanted a pair, so now I'll be making some for him (not that I mind). Now, the only question remaining is what to do with the first sock?? Should I frame it? Yes, I'm still that proud of it, imperfections and all. I love each and every one of my finished objects with a love that transcends inperfections. This is how a mother must feel about her children. You know, a mother with a child that screams and pull hair of strangers at movie theaters who thinks that her baby is the sweetest child God ever put on Earth? I'm that kind of a mother to my sock :-) Well, okay, it's not that bad of a sock. It's more of a child who gave themselves a haircut sock :-) But it's my baby and it's the sweetest sock God ever put on Earth LOL. Ok, bedtime for Jenni, she's been up a little too long. Lalala. Have a good one :-)
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
*Drumroll Please*
It's a sock! *Loud cheering in background* A real honest to goodness sock! Yea! It's not perfect, but it's mine and I made it all by myself. I FINALLY finished it last night. I thought that I'd be finishing it the last three nights in a row, so I was bound and determined to finish it last night. I've been having a really stressful time between work and fighting with Mark, so I needed some relaxation last night. So, when I got home from work I cleaned the bathroom (not for relaxation, just to get it out of the way. I have a hard time relaxing when there's a chore hanging over my head). After that I watched some TV, had dinner, went to my parents' to get the printer hooked up for mom (I had planned on the relaxing to begin much before this) but then, when I got home, after fixing the printer, THEN the relaxing began. I ran myself a big bubble bath and sank into that for the next 45 minutes with some candles and soft music. In case you're curious, my music of choice was the Norah Jones CD, Come Away with Me, which is soft and mellow, but also has some great sexy songs that satisfy my inner vamp. After the lovely bath, I gave myself a pedicure. By then I was feeling quite relaxed, so I was ready to tackle the sock. After a few more rows of ribbing, I tried it on (after the nailpolish was dry, of course) and they were finally long enough! Much celebrating occured! I then turned to the Twisted Sisters Sock Book for inspiration on what kind of bind off to use. I decided on the invisible bind off, but as my tapestry needles are still at my parents' house, I had to do the enire thing pulling the yarn through loops with my crochet hook. Very frustrating. But I stubbornly kept at it, and it was finally bound off! More celebrating occurred :-) So, I tried it on and took a picture, then raced to my computer to update my blog and realized... that I'd left the cord that connects the camera to the computer at my parents' house when I stayed over there on Monday. NOOOOOOOO! I was quite upset that I couldn't share this moment of moments, but I made it through. But today I went and got the cord and now you can witness the gloriousness of my very first ever sock! Whoopee!
I'm in love with my sock, but here are definitely some things that I will change in the next pair I make. I made the heel too long and narrow, so I'm not going to decrease so much next time. Also, I'd like to try and do a neater job of going back to knitting in the round after the heel on the next sock. I managed to close up the biggest holes, but there are still some spaces where I finished turning the heel. And I made the cuff too big, so it's a little loose (but not loose enough to be slumpy). So, now I face a dilemma. Since I made the sock so short, I probably have enough yarn to make an entire pair of socks from the yarn I have left (for a total of three socks out of two balls of yarn) But I'm not positive that I have enough, so my dilemma is, do I have a pair of imperfect socks that I won't wear very often and play it safe yarn wise, or do I keep my first sock forever as is, imperfect and wonderful, and put my new knowledge to use and create a pair of socks from the leftover yarn that will fit better and therefor be worn more often. My instincts tell me to make a whole new pair and just keep the first sock for posterity, but to be honest, I don't know if I want to make two more socks from the same yarn and postpone making my sweater for what will probably be an extra two weeks. But I do want a pair of socks that fits well. Decisions, decisions. Right now I'm considering starting a pair of socks with a different yarn while I consider my options. That way I have something to do and don't make a hasty decision. Any insight into my situation would be much appreciated. Anyway, I think I will bask in the glory of a finished object (even if it's only half of a pair!) and go fondle some yarn while I consider my options. Have a great day!
Monday, January 13, 2003
Well, the sock isn't done yet, but it's closer. I started the ribbing, which is being a real pain in the wrists. It's k1p1 and the movements of bringing the yarn forward and backward are really making my wrist hurt, which makes me worry about how my wrists will feel when I'm in my fifties after 30 some years of knitting. I need to put it down every couple of rows and roll my wrists to keep them from really aching. Plus, ribbing is sloooooow. I started the ribbing when I figured I was about half an inch from being finished, but I've done well over half an inch and I still don't like the length of the sock. I really wanted to get that sucker done last night, but between gaping at Alias (Vaughn and Syd almost stayed at a quaint inn in Nice... sorry, but isn't that moving things a little fast, and doesn't he have a girlfriend??? the cad! if he wasn't so cute...) and the ribbing is slow, so between those two things the sock didn't get done. But now I'm going to go work on it, so maybe tonight! If not tonight, definitely tomorrow because I don't have to work on Wednesday and I'll be able to stay up as late as I want to finish it. I'll post a picture when I'm all done!
Sunday, January 12, 2003
My last entry may have technically occurred on Saturday, but it was really my Friday post (I only missed Friday by a half hour LOL) Anyway, there was no posting yesterday because I didn't make it around the heel of my sock and I knew I'd find it difficult to keep my promise not to post more pictures ;-) But today the heel was turned! I'm now working my way up the cuff! Yea! I'm quite excited about this. The color lines don't quite match up, but oh well. I'm happy just to have turned the heel. I think there are some improvements that could be made, but for my first heel I'm pretty happy with it. I'll make the matching sock's heel the same way, but I'll try something different on my next pair (which will be some Lorna's Lace in the color way Child's Play) I did a short row heel and I went down to twelve stitches, which was really quite narrow. Next time I'd probably make the foot a little longer, then reduce the heel less, maybe to 20 stitches instead of 12. Anyway, enough talk, time for pictures!
There it is, my glorious, beautiful heel! It's probably not even a mediocre heel, but I'm just so happy with it! It's like that scene in the movie Castaway when Tom Hanks finally makes fire and he stands there with his giant torch saying "I have made fire." Well, picture me standing there, cradling my sock "I have made a heel." I feel quite smart and talented at the moment. I know, those of you who have made a zillion pairs are probably raising your eyebrows, but I don't care. I realize that I didn't move mountains, but sometimes it feels that way. I just really feel like I've learned so much making this one sock. I understand knitting so much better, just from the past 10 days of knitting. I hope I finish the second sock as quickly (or quicker) but I don't know if I will. I was so motivated on the first sock because it was all so new, but as soon as this first one is done I know I'll start longing to start my sweater. I am very excited about the sweater. I just have all these ideas floating around, but I'm trying to not let knitting become like all my other hobbies, where my stash has exceeded my life expectancy. I have some yarn, and I got some more for Christmas, but I'm trying to draw the line. I have enough for four more pairs of socks, a pair of felted ballet slippers, and enough laceweight yarn for about seven scarves. Here's the yarn I got for Christmas:
There are three 600 yd cones of Zephyr silk and wool in cream, black and blue; four mini-cones of 2/30 gemstone silk, two in blue and two in silver; three balls of doceur et soie, two black and one red (to edge a grey moebius in the works); two balls of fun pon-pon I'll be using as a carry along with something; and four balls of sock yarn, one bright jaquard and one norweger, which is what I'm working on now. On top of that I have enough Lion Brand homespun for a sweater and three scarves and hats. So, I have enough yarn to keep my busy for quite awhile because I am a slow knitter. But for some reason I have an urge to go get more sock yarn and to go get enough yarn for a sweater: a really cute, fashionable sweater in really expensive yarn! I get such urges when I'm poor :-) And when I have plenty of money, I won't want the stuff anymore. I'm a mystery wrapped in a conundrum :-) Anyway, to give you an idea of my stash-aholic-ness, here's a picture of a recent trip mom and I took to my house to drop off some of my quilting fabric:
This is the back of my mom's car, a small SUV. Her hatchback is full, and this isn't all of my fabric. Now, you must understand quilting was my first fiber love and I started when I was fourteen, so I've had awhile to accumulate it, but it's still way too much stuff for one person to own? But would it rip my heart out to get rid of even one fat quarter? Yes. I am an American ladies and gentlemen, hear me consume! I can get pretty mad at myself about the sheer amount of stuff I have, but then at the same time I don't want to give any of it up. I am such a hypocrite, but I comfort myself by petting my fabric. I'm just as bad with wool, too. And toiletry supplies, and I haven't even made soap in over a year (but I really want to get back into it). My hobbies go in phases. Right now I'm on mainly on knitting with a large side interest in spinning. Before that it was purely spinning, and before that lace knitting, then tatting before that, and spinning again, and tatting again, then glass beads, then soap, then bobbin lace, then quilting, then... well, you get the idea, I'm sure. And I'm already starting to get some renewed urges in the bobbin lace department. I really want to start spinning my own linen and silk bobbin lace threads. Arg! I do not have enough time in my life to go through with all the ideas I've had so far, let alone the ones that I'll keep having for the rest of my life! I think it's so unfair that we don't get to decide our life span. I hope to live a good long life, but the horrible thing is that I could die tomorrow, or even tonight I guess, and then I won't even finish my sock, let alone my sweater and... okay deep breath! Anyway, I'm off to watch Alias (I am so helplessly in love with Vaughn! Yum!) and hopefully finish my sock. A few more rows and I'll start the ribbing, which will be about a half inch and then voila, a sock is done! Cross your fingers for me that I can finish it tonight. Today has been kind of a rough day and I'd love to have that little bright spot, that I finished my sock.
Saturday, January 11, 2003
Well, today went better than any other day this week! I had to work a half day, which went very quickly. I moved my office yesterday and the guy who's taking my job who I have to train moved into the new office with me today, so that took up a lot of time. I helped him get his stuff in and we talked and got to know each other a little. He's a nice guy, but I still don't like that he took my job. Anyway, then I jetted home and had some lunch, did some errands, took a nap and then got ready for our big evening. Mark and I went out to dinner and to see a stand up comic we like. Dinner was great, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, favorite because the food is good and we used to go there ALL THE TIME when we started dating. It was yummy food and great company :-) Then, we headed over to the place the comic was going to be and waited out in the cold for half an hour waiting for them to open the doors (we did not know the doors would not be open, otherwise we would have taken longer at dinner!) We've listened to this guy's CD and seen him on HBO, and he's really funny, but he was off tonight. A lot of his jokes just weren't funny. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give him a six tonight and that's a shame because I usually give him a nine. The opener was actually funnier than the comedian we were there to see. Oh well. On a scale of one to ten judging the whole night, it was a ten. We had a really good time and it was good to get out of the apartment, plus we did something different (neither of us had ever seen live stand up) so it was fun. I got kind of dolled up for it since it was out "first date" living together. For anyone who might wonder what I look like, this is an ok picture of me. This isn't how I usually wear my hair, but I was trying something different.
Anyway, in fiber news I had a really fun time last night with my mom. We ate lots of chinese and did lots of knitting and a good time was had by all (all two of us, that is :-) I even started turning the heel on my sock! I'm so excited about this. Below are two pictures of the sock progress. One is from Tuesday and one is from yesterday just before I started turning the heel. I know it looks a little short to start turning the heel, but I like to wear my socks tight, so they'll be stretced out more. So, here's Tuesday:
And here's yesterday:
I know I'm including way too many pictures of these socks, but I'm just so tickled with them. I find it amazing how projects just grow before your very eyes, especially the first time you do something. It's almost on the level of a miracle to me, like "you're telling me I take these sticks and this string and a little elbow grease and then you have socks? WOW!" I guess I'm easily impressed. Anyway, I'll try to resist the urge to post more pictures until the heal is turned and I'm back to knitting in the round. Oh yeah, and for Kate, look what I got in the mail:
an alpaca blend from luckyduckfarm
and another llama blend
they are both so incredibly soft and luscious! I can't wait to dive right in! I only got four ounces of each, so they'll be small projects, but they were too lovely to pass up. She has some more alpaca blends on ebay right now, and it's so tempting, but with the move we're so poor that I should save the rest of my Christmas money for a rainy day when I really need some inspiration or a pick-me-up. But it's hard when so many beautiful things exist in the world that are calling my name and are so easy to buy :-)
Thursday, January 09, 2003
WARNING: VERY LONG ENTRY! GET A CUP OF TEA AND GET COMFY IF YOU INTEND TO READ IT ALL!
Sorry for the couple days of no posting. Life gets in the way sometimes, ya know? I actually wrote a blog entry on Tuesday while I was at work, then saved in on a disk thinking I’d cut and paste it when I got to my parents’ house that night, but then I forgot the disk. Duh. I already went ahead and posted that entry, so you could see what I was up to on Tuesday, if you were interested. For today I’ll go ahead and post all the fiber stuff, then the non-fiber stuff, so you can stop reading whenever you stop being interested :-) My socks are still coming along, but I’m not to the heel yet. I hope to have them a least to the heel after tonight, because I’m having a mini knitting party. Mark has to work tonight, so my mom is coming over. She’s treating to Chinese and we’re going to sit and knit together after dinner. I’ll be working on my sock and Mom will be working on a scarf she’s making. There was a great big sale at Hobby Lobby last week: all knitting needles and accessories were half off and Lion Brand Homespun (my favorite blanket weaving yarn) was on sale for $3.22 a ball, which is a great price. So, while it was on sale I bought a bunch of it, enough to make my first ever sweater and enough for three hat/scarf sets for charity. Mom’s going to be making the scarves, and I’m going to be making the hats. And as soon as the socks are done I’m going to start my sweater, which will be a hooded pullover. I actually got the pattern from Lion Brand’s website, so all in all this is gonna be a cheap sweater :-) The colorway I picked is called Romanesque and I think it’s really pretty, it’s a light pearly grey with dark green and purple accents. I still haven’t had a chance to spin lately, and I’m really jonesing for it! Maybe I’ll spend some of my time tonight spinning. I still haven’t decided what to spin though. I think spinning for socks would be good because it would go a lot faster than spinning for lace and I don’t have a lot of patience right now. Plus, I’m just really into socks right now, with my thus far successful first attempt, and the inspiration of the Twisted Sisters Sock book, which is so colorful and fun. Well, that’s about all the fiber news for now, so if you’re not interested in more of my whining about the job and the move, stop reading now!
Whiny rant about moving and my job
Okay, before I really get going into my whine, I want to just say that I know this blog has been incredibly whiny and I just want people to know that’s not how I usually am. There has just been so much going on that I’ve been kind of overwhelmed and not viewing things in the most positive light. I realize that I am incredibly blessed in every single aspect of my life, from love to creativity and even to money. I know I complained about spending $150 on networking supplies, but I also must say that I am so blessed to have one let alone two computers in the apartment, that I live in a country where technology is readily available, that I have a store near me where I can buy networking stuff, also that I have a job that pays me enough that I have the money to buy the stuff and that I have the intelligence to know what to buy and install it myself. So just for that one thing, I have about a hundred blessings. I try to realize how lucky I am, but sometimes I get caught up in a pity party and I really need to find a way to stop that. Anyway, with that said, onto the whining LOL. First of all, I spent Tuesday night cleaning all my files, old emails, etc off of our second last computer so that my mom could give it to a co-worker whose computer is a true dinosaur (I didn’t necessarily wanting him reading old emails to me from Mark, and I didn’t want to take up his memory space with all my games). Then, I disconnected the computer my mom’s keeping, took the desk from it, cleaned everything, then put up the new desk, and put all the stuff on it, but I didn’t connect it because Mom wanted to get going. So then we packed up the cars with the computer desk and chair and the old monitor (there was no way I was going to buy a new monitor when we had a perfectly good extra one). We then lugged all that up to the apartment, and in the process I nearly fell down my stairs with the computer desk riding me like a kid on a toboggan (and I was going to be the toboggan, not a good position to be in, trust me). But we all survived, so that’s good. After all that I was too tired to do anything, so I watched my tape of Alias from Sunday night, then went to bed (I love that show so much. Marshal is just so sweet. Vaughn is ever sweeter, though Rrrrrrrrrrroowww!) Wednesday I ran errands most of the day while Mark waited for his computer to be delivered. I had to reconnect Mom’s computer, get all the addresses of my ebay auction winners, mail the auctions, get stamps, grocery shop, and make a special trip to our favorite bagel place for bagels and hummus. At that point I stopped at the apartment for a late lunch, waited around to see if the computer would be delivered so I could take Mark with me for the rest of the errands, but it didn’t’, so then I went to the electronics place for surge protectors, plug adaptors, printer ink and paper, and some CD cases (all of which I forgot on my networking shopping spree, because all I was thinking about was networking). I had another errand to run, but I knew it could wait and I was tired, so I headed back the apartment, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? A UPS truck in front of our apartment! At 3:00 when Mark had to work at 5:00 :-( So, we spent the next hour and fifty minutes in a furious rush of networking activity! We were installing software, installing network cards, plugging in Ethernet cables, attaching hubs and routers, adding filters to our phones, etc etc etc. And at 4:45 I announced to Mark, it’s done! We turned on our computers and were greeted with… an error message! A cable in your network is not connected! So with five minutes before we had to leave to get Mark to work on time, we’re jiggling and pushing everyone one of the zillion cables connecting the two computers and various other hardware. We restart the computers and… another error message. At this point I am screaming at the computers “You are connected, all the cables are connected, why won’t you work for the love of GOD!” It is now past time for us to leave, so we grab out stuff and head out the door. I get Mark to work in the nick of time and continue onto my parents’ house where I’m having dinner. I spend time in their company and calm down, and my mom decides to come back to the apartment to see our new computers. And I get home… I turn on the computers figuring I’m going to figure out a way to whip these things like the bitches they are… the computers gear up… Windows opens… and… NO ERROR MESSAGE! The darn things resolved themselves somehow while I was gone. And there was much rejoicing. So, Mom and I talked and cleaned up boxes while I loaded games onto the computers. I was so very happy. Once again, when I feel something new for the first time and it’s a reasonable success (as with socks or networking), I feel like the queen of sheba. So, even though it took a little while to realize that it was all connected, I did it right the first time, and I am quite proud of myself. So tonight my blog is coming directly from my own humble apartment and for this I am so very grateful. You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone, i.e. a computer in the comfort of your own home. I know I only went without for a little over a week, but it was tough. Yes, I know I’m a wimp!
Anyway, onto work stuff, if anyone is still reading! Here’s the situation: I graduated from college in May with a B.S. in psychology. When I started, I had intended to become an art therapist, but ended up changing my mind for many and varied reasons, one of which is that it’s not a recognized field in my state. But, I decided to stay in psychology because I love it. So, it got to my senior year and I was tired of school, in a huge way, I was ready to be out in the “real world” and I wasn’t sure what I would do in grad school even if I decided to go. So, I worked out a plan where I would take a month off after graduation, then go to work with my boyfriend for the summer making low money, but with lots of schedule flexibility so we could really enjoy our summer together, and then I would start looking for serious jobs. Well, the working with Mark thing fell through because the company he works for is trying to get a more “serious” staff that is dedicated to the job and will stay on for a long time so that they don’t have to keep training a new batch of sixteen year olds every week, just to have them quit a month later. And so they didn’t want to bring me on because I planned to be there such a short time, even though I had worked there before and they knew I was a good worker. So, this sucked, but I ended up taking the summer off. I applied for a couple of jobs early and was offered a position at a bank, but it was in a VERY bad part of town and the money was horrible (I could make more at a pizza place) so I turned them down. So, it started getting closer to the fall and I still had no idea what I wanted to do. So, I thought it would be a good idea to go to a temp agency for maybe a year, I’d try lots of different things, find one I liked and start applying in that field. I chose a certain temp agency that we’ll call ATA (a temp agency) because I heard that they provided all the temps for a certain Giant Corporation (we’ll call in GC) and that GC used ATA to screen potential new employees. So, I wanted to work for GC because they have a fantastic benefit plan including stock options that ensure every employee who plans it right will be a millionaire when you retire. I thought this would be a good place to work until I had enough money to open my shop. So, when my “handler” called with my first assignment and it was a GC I was ecstatic. Plus, it sounded really important, I was going to be gathering research for a new department that they were establishing. Also, the pay was incredible and the assignment was to last 2 months, which I thought would be a nice period of time for an assignment. Well, I got here and my job description changed a couple of times, which I was ok with, and finally I settled pretty firmly into the position of purchaser for this new department. Early on I was told that the group I was in COULD NOT hire anyone, so I was stuck being a temp. I was ok with that because I thought if I stuck around long enough, I’d show what a good worker I was and maybe they’d eventually see that they had to hire me because I was so valuable. Soon, my supervisor was seeing what kind of work I did and was quite impressed. He couldn’t hire me but started thinking of ways he could keep me around. Now, ATA has a policy that the temps can only work at GC for 999 hours in a fiscal year (some stupid legal thing) so this was going to limit how long I could stay there, and my supervisor didn’t want this. So he started talking about me switching to a different temp agency without this policy and having me stay until he could hire me, which could be months or years. I was very excited about this, because it was a good job with good pay and I enjoyed well enough for a “straight job” (a.k.a. non-fiber job :-) But, I was told that they really wanted GC employees filling these jobs but no one was interested, which is why they had temps. And I was also told that at any time if a GC employee decided they wanted my job, I’d be bumped. This was not a problem for awhile, but as I wrote on Monday, over the holiday a GC employee decided that he wanted my position, so out I go. I’m really unhappy about this. But, ever since we decided to get the apartment, I’ve been saying I need to find a permanent job because this temping stuff just isn’t sure enough for my sanity. I’m still on my first assignment, so I don’t know how long I might be off between assignments. I could have a job the next week, or not for months. I just don’t know because I’ve never been there. So, this is the nudge I need to get looking for permanent jobs. I’m trying to see this in a positive light, but I’m really upset about it. I just hope I can work it out. My supervisor said he can see keeping me on until June, but starting in February, I’d be moving to a much more physical job that will be messy and take a lot out of me physically. I’m grateful he’s trying to keep me on, but this isn’t what I want to do. I’m thinking that with my psychology degree, human resources might be something good to look into. I need to take a look at the want ads. There’s a big job fair coming up on February 4th that I’ll probably check out, but I really want to start looking before that. I’d actually like to have a job lined up before that. I guess I’ll just have to take it one day at a time, put out the effort and hope for the best. Well, if you read all of that you deserve a gold star! If you could send some good thoughts my way, I’d certainly appreciate it! Lots of love and here’s hoping you’re blessed and you realize it. Make it a great day!
Well, I’m feeling a little better today than yesterday! Today hasn’t exactly been great, but much better than yesterday so far. Of course, today Mark’s having an awful day, so I’m feeling bad for him. But turn about is fair play. He took such good care of me yesterday, so I’m going to take really good care of him. He was supposed to make dinner tonight, but I told him to forget it, I’d treat to a delivered pizza, which is going to be a rare treat in our poor little apartment. That really perked him up, as much to be taken care of as to not have to cook. In the good news department, my supervisor is out of the office today doing jury duty, so I have the office to myself and get to work on my blog during my lunchtime :-) Yea! In more good news, my new computer arrived at the apartment today! And poor Mark, he only got his new speakers. The computer and monitor won’t get there until tomorrow. I feel really bad for him. He has today off, so I wish his computer had come instead of mine so he could play with it while he’s at home. And I can’t even set up the new computer because we weren’t expecting it until Friday, so I hadn’t brought over the computer desk and monitor yet. Arg! But, I may be able to pick up that stuff tonight so that I can set up my computer tomorrow while we wait for Mark’s computer. The one thing I really love about my job is the schedule. I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and a half day on Friday, so I get a nice break right in the middle by having Wednesdays off. I can’t wait to sleep in tomorrow! My body forgot how to wake up at 6:15 during vacation, so the last couple of days have been rough trying to drag my tired butt out of bed. So, very soon I will be able to post to my blog from my own apartment! Woohoooooo! I’m very happy about this development. Before I can use the computer, though, I have to figure out how to network it with Mark’s. And to do that, I’ll need Mark’s computer, so I’ll have to conquer that tomorrow. It promises to be quite interesting. I know some things about computers and I’m savvy enough to install my own ram chips and Ethernet cards, but installing network cards and getting all this up and running will be a whole other ball of wax. I think I’ll be able to figure it out, though. In fibery news (which is what this blog is supposed to be about, anyway) I’m almost to the point where I start the heel on my first sock. I’m kind of nervous about this, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to figure it out like I did with the toe. I’m also getting serious spinning withdrawal, so I’m trying to decide what to start spinning. I’m thinking I might do some spinning for sock yarn, but then I’ll have to decide between the Crosspatch Creations Quinilla in Blue Jeans or some of my own hand dyed roving that the Twisted Sisters book has me wanting to spin. Hmmmm… decisions, decisions. Also, I just won four different auctions on ebay in the past week that I’m paying for with my Christmas money, so I’ll have to look those over and play with them as well. Two are silk from the silkworker and one is llama and one is alpaca, both of those from my very favorite ebay vendor, luckyduckfarm, which is who I got the lovely black llama blend from that I posted earlier. But spinning these new ones is going to be my reward to myself for getting everything moved and in its rightful place, so I may not get to spin those for awhile LOL. Maybe they’ll inspire me to finish the unpacking! We’ll see. Have a great day everyone!
Monday, January 06, 2003
Well, that just rounds out my crappy day. I've been writing for the past half hour, my dad turned on something in the basement and blew a fuse, and I lost my whole blog entry. Oh well, I'm just being whiny. I went back to work today and it was not a good day. I found out that a permanent employee decided he wanted the job that I've been filling for the past three and a half months (I'm a temp). So, now that I did all the ground work, he's going to jump in right before this new division is started and look like he's really got it together. And I'm expected to train him and get him acquainted with all my work for the next couple of weeks. I knew this could happen, but it still is poopy. Loosing my entry was the last thing I needed, to waste my time like that when I have so much going on today. I'll try and write tomorrow, but it's more likely I won't write again until Wednesday. Hope everyone had a better Monday than me!
Sunday, January 05, 2003
I never thought I'd hear these words come out of my mouth but... I'm tired of spending money!!!!! In the past week I have spent more money than I have in the past month, and that's including all the Christmas shopping I did! We've been to the grocery store three times in the past weeks, once for cleaning supplies ($100 on cleaning supplies :-O and twice for food and basics like saran wrap. Then there was the trip to the drug store for the basics like bandaids, tylenol, etc that was another dent in the pocketbook. Then there's our new down comforter and the cherry on top of the sundae today was $150 in computer parts so we can network our two computers together! AAAAAHHHHHH! My plastic is smoking! We have the money, but just barely at this point. This is crazy. And there's so much more I want to do to spiff up our apartment. Just for the bedroom I have the longest list. Some are simple, some aren't. Here's my bedroom decorating wish list, in order of expense :-) (aka which will be done first!)
1. Garbage can (this is neccessary, I'll probably get it this week)
2. Rug to go next to the bed (because hardwood is cold when you first get up)
3. Wallpaper border to get some color on the walls
4. "Scarf" type drapes in blue to accent the white drapes
5. Headboard
6. Footboard
7. New chest of drawers for Mark ('cause his is just butt ugly and abused!)
Here are pics of our bedroom before decorating:
 
And here's after:
So, it's come a long way, but there are still some finishing touches I'd like to put on it. And my list is longer for the other rooms! But, I am lucky that I made some nice stuff to put around our place. I did a lot of weaving while I was still in school and had access to the school looms. Here are pics of a mugrug from a set I made for the livingroom and a placemat from a set I wove:
The only room that I consider completely finished is the bathrooom. I wouldn't mind a couple of extra towels, and I'm looking for a cute basket to keep my make-up in, but it's decorated nicely. I love our shower curtain! It's all happy and dotty. Speaking of my bathroom, I have to go home and clean it! Wah! The joys of having my own place :-) Actually, it's still pretty clean, so I'll probably put it off for a couple days. I have to go back to work tomorrow, so I want to spend some time relaxing tonight, and mentally preparing myself for my return. I don't know why, but I'm actually pretty nervous about returning to work. I've only been working there and I've been gone for two weeks now for the holidays and the move. What if they decided that they don't need me anymore? And now I'm out in my apartment and I'll be poor and won't be able to pay the rent and then I'll be living on the street! (Yes, unfortunately my mind really does work this way. They'll still need me, I'll have a job, and even if I don't Mark can keep us afloat until I find another job, and if he can't my parents will help us, and if they can't help us, they'll at least let me move back in. But I have this mind that goes to the worst possible scenario and then I obsess about it until I'm in tears knowing that I'm now homeless, when I'm sitting in a warm apartment with two months' worth of bill paying money in the bank. I really hate how I do this to myself and I'm trying to find ways to stop it, but so far I haven't been very successful. The best solution so far has been to divulge this all to a loved on in a tearful rant and then I feel a little better. I feel so bad for my mom and Mark when this happens, but they're pretty used to it by now. I'm so lucky to have people who love me in spite of this little personality flaw. It takes a special person to love someone as crazy as me!
Anyway, onto some more fiber news. The sock is progressing very nicely, I'm more than halfway to the ankle. I'm only making a short ribbed cuff, I don't like wearing socks in the first place, but my feet have been so cold lately, I decided to make myself some socks, but I'm compromising by making them short. That will be the most comfortable for me. But I am loving knitting socks! I wasn't sure I'd like it, but I wanted to try to see, and I love knitting socks! I've been learning so much from knitting these things! I feel like I invented socks, I'm so happy with these things! I even fixed a drop stitch all by myself without tearing back. This is a big accomplishment for me, believe it or not. I just really feel like I'm learning a lot about knitting just from this sock! Here's my progress on it so far:
I just feel like the cat's pajama's. My next project is going to be my very first sweater! I got the pattern off of Lion Brand's web page and I got a bunch of Homespun on sale last week at Hobby Lobby. I also got enough to make three scarves and matching hats for a homeless shelter. I decided it's time I gave back because I have been so blessed. I can't afford to give much money right now, so I'll have to give my time and I figured I might as well enjoy it, so I'll be knitting for charity. It makes me feel like I'm giving part of myself, which in my opinion is better than money anyway. I know some charities may not feel that way, they may prefer the money, but I'm doing what I can for now. I hope everyone is having a great first week of 2003 and hopefully I'll be blogging more soon as I'll have a computer at the apartment (at least within the next week!)
Saturday, January 04, 2003
God, I miss my computer! I was going to move it to the apartment tomorrow because I couldn't have internet in the apartment until Monday anyway, but Dell was having such good deals on new computers that my mom decided to keep the computer I've been using and buy a new one that I can have. I told her to keep the new one for herself, but she's not real computer savvy and it used to this one, so she is actually happier with the older one. So, I'm getting an awesome new computer but I probably won't have it until Friday, and it's killing me! I want to blog so bad, I have so much to write about, but I hardly have any time to be on the computer. I've been spending a lot of time with my mom, but we usually go out and when I'm at the house, I usually check my email, read the blogs I love, and that doesn't leave much time for writing my own. Plus, my ebay auctions have ended and that's taken away from my blog writing time because I've been trying to email all the winners. And on top of that, trying to get settled into the new place is taking a lot of time. But I'm loving living with my honey. We're getting along so well, which I was worried about because I knew the move would be stressful. But we've been doing great. I love that we started the new year in our new place. We stayed there on the 31st and started off the new year there. We finally have all our furniture delivered (there's still some things we need, but we'll go shopping for them later). Our couch and chair finally arrived on Thursday, and I'm only now getting to post the pictures of them. Here's me in both our couch and chair.
 
I love our new furniture! It's so big and comfy. The chair is the perfect place for me to curl up and knit. Speaking of knitting, I'm getting a little done. I worked on my sock last night to keep myself entertained while Mark watched the OSU game. It's getting pretty far and I'm very, very proud of it. It's my first sock and I know I'm not doing anything special, but I really feel like I've invented the wheel. Here's a picture of me modelling my sock last night.
It's already a couple of stripes longer, because this is from last night and I worked on it more today. I'm very sad that my move had such crappy timing. First of all, moving the week after Christmas was pure madness. Second of all, it kind of threw a shadow on Christmas excitement because of the sadness of moving away from my mom and all the packing I had to do on my vacation. And third, this weekend was my fiber groups three day retreat and I'm missing it because I didn't want to leave Mark on our first weekend together and I knew I'd still be really busy. But I stopped by to visit them, but now I miss them so much and I'm so sad I'm not there, because Mark is working until one in the morning and I'll be home alone anyway, and I'd much rather be staying up laughing and fibering. Oh well. There's always next year :-( I miss them though. It was so good to see them today, and I hated leaving. Maybe I'll host a mini-group in my new place. Anyway, I'm going to run home now and do some more arranging or something. In some good news, it's finally stopped raining and I got my new Jensen to the apartment safely. It's supposed to snow tonight, though, so I'm glad she's safely tucked away in the apartment, safe from any weather that may have gotten on her during the move. I hope to be able to write some more soon and show off the apartment and some of the things I made to decorate it. There will be mucho blogging after I finally get my new computer! Goodnight!
Friday, January 03, 2003
Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days, but things are crazy busy. But here's a quick pick to show you what I've been doing in my very limited free time.
I started the first sock last night! I'm about to start knitting in the round. I'm very happy with how it's turned out so far. Now I'm off to hunt down some lunch!
|
|
