Wednesday, April 16, 2003
At what point does one become a dead-beat blogger? Because I fear I may have reached that point :-( I'm sorry for my lack of posting lately, it's not that I don't want to, it's just that... I don't want to. Let me explain: I'm still trying very hard to find my stride in this new 40 hours of work a week world. My last job, the most I worked a week was 28 hours, and that wasn't every week. As a matter of fact, I pretty much set my own schedule, my boss was so flexible. I has set days to come in, but whenever I wanted a day off, all I had to do was say "Hey Joe, can I have such-and-such day off?" He never said no to me. So this work 40 hours a week, every week, Monday-Friday 8-5 thing is really throwing me off. The first week was horrible. I cannot explain how horrible. I was ready to quit. Last week (the second week) was much better. I had time to blog, just nothing was happening, so I didn't blog much. This week things are a little rougher than last week, but not as bad as the first week. I'm just trying to find a balance. I really like my job, and while I'm there the time really flies. But the time at home flies FASTER. I have about six hours between the time I get home and the time I go to bed. And that sounds like a lot, except I help make dinner, do the dishes, lay out clothes for the next day, pack lunch for the next day, straighten up the apartment, sometimes run errands and on and on. I've had some time for crafty stuff, and sometimes quite a bit, but it still doesn't feel like I get much done at night and blogging would take away from that even more. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging. But when it comes down to it, I'd rather do than write about doing. But even more than that, I'd like to feel like I have time to do both. And right now, I'm just not feeling that. Maybe it's because one of our biggest clients is in town, maybe it's because I didn't get enough sleep over the weekend, but this week is just a little more crunched. So, I promise to try to get a nice chunk of an update up, at least over the weekend if all else fails, but in the meantime please forgive me if you've been looking forward to a post from me. Now, I have to go out because two liters are on sale and we drink a lot of pop. For a quick fiber synopsis, Bob is stalled, Box Office is chugging along at the speed of a slug (not for lack of me working on it, it's just that spinning that fine is SLOW) and I went out last weekend and bought all the weaving stuff I need and have the loom half dressed to make a set of dish towels out of cottolin. Pictures and details when I feel as though I have time to breath. And yes, I would like some cheese with this whine :-) XXOO
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Well, I would be writing more... but there's really nothing to write about. How many "worked on Bob, spun some Box Office" posts can you all read? Because that's what I've been up to :-) This week has been much better than last. I've been able to have some time to relax and unwind and I've had time for fibery stuff. Tuesday I worked on Bob for about an hour and a half and yesterday for maybe an hour. I'm up to 9.5" on the body and it's slow going. I need to start figuring out how much length I want for the body. When I washed my swatch, it shrunk quite a bit lengthwise so I need to take that into account. I want the body to end up being about 15" long, so I'll probably have to knit about 18" (don't quote me on that, I'll need to do some measuring and calculating to make sure I'm right.) But it that's the case, I'm more than halfway there. Yea! Because my focus has been on Bob, not much Box Office has been spun, but I keep doing a bit at a time at odd moments. I'll probably end up focusing on it more over the weekend (which I really can't wait for!!!) So, I'm off to work. Tonight it's girls' night out with Mom, then tomorrow Mark and I are celebrating our 100 days of living together by going to the sneak preview opening of our local amusement park, King's Island. I'm looking forward to it, as long as it isn't too frigid! Make it a great day!
Monday, April 07, 2003
Sorry about my absence from blog-land this past week. Last week really was just totally god awful. I was frazzled over starting a new job and trying to get into the swing of things, REALLY frazzled over working 40 hours a week for the first time, and on top of that, things just kept going wrong. Mark and I were at each others' throats all last week. We just couldn't get along for some reason. We're fine now though. I know part of it was my anxiety over the new job, but part of it was definitely him! And it also seemed like every little thing that could go wrong, did! To top it all off, I got next to nothing done all week fiber-wise. But I made up for it this week! First, one of the pics from the 31st that didn't come through: (at least I hope you'll get to see it this time!)
Here's my swatch all nice and blocked next to my whopping 240 yard less-than-half-ounce skein. It's now all neatly wound into a ball thanks to my handy-dandy yarn winder and some day I'll start the scarf. But first, I have other projects on my mind. First off, Bob! I really want to get this sweater kick started again. It sat for more than a week untouched, but I worked on it today and tomorrow and I see noticeable progress. I'd say I've done about a third of the second ball:
I'm going to make a committment to knit on it for at least fifteen minutes a day until it's done. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's more than I've done on it lately and I'll probably end up doing more than 15 once I sit down and get started. So, there's Bob. Not real fancy or exciting, but plugging along and vaguely resembling a sweater. It's going so slow, that although she swears up and down I'll finish first, I think Lori may win the race :-)
And onto other current projects. I've currently abandoned the Sockotta socks until I can come back to them at a calm time. They just keep getting holes in the one toe seam and I don't know why. The short row stitches just stretch on the one side for no reason I can figure out. Extremely frustrating. So, they're on the shelf for the moment, especially considering they were my bus knitting and I've found an extremely cheap parking lot and I'm now driving to work (yea! I started really searching intensively after being forced to sit next to a man who smelled like alcohol, cigarettes, and feces. what a combination... bar and dirty diaper. Ugh!!!) I also took a break from Box Office to spin something completely different. I'm already through the first of three batts that make up four ounces. It's Tammany's Pride from Crosspatch Creations and Three Bags Full, and I'm loving it!
I'm spinning it much thicker than Box Office, so it really seems to be flying by (heck, human hair is much thicker than Box Office! J/K!). I spun this whole bobbin just on Saturday and Sunday. I'm going back to Box Office now, but I'll do the other two batts whenever I need a break from Box Office. I figure every half ounce I'll take a break from spinning what my friend Arlene calls "frog hair" and go back to this lovely stuff. It's so textured and fun! I love the colors, too. I was originally going to make socks, but I don't think it would make comfortable socks (at least for me... I hate footwear unless frostbite threatens, so if I wear socks they have to be barely noticeable and I'd really feel these!) So now I'm thinking hat. There's definitely enough there for a stocking cap for me, like I made for Mark. Or I may spin up two other coordinating colorways and make a striped scarf. We'll see. It was just nice to spin up something different for awhile, and now I'm eager to get back to Box Office, so Tammany's Pride served it's purpose. Whatever I end up making out of it will be a bonus! Now, I'm off to get re-started on Box Office, and hopefully I'll be un-frazzled enough to write again tomorrow :-)
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
So, I just got back from Two Weeks Notice, which I loved except for about the last half hour. It was not my kind of ending. Too sticky sweet (and demeaning to women in my opinion) So, I'll just avoid that soap box for now. Anyway, work is going ok, I still haven't mastered it, but I'm working on it, so we'll see. And I certainly haven't mastered the Sockotta socks, which are still being a pain in my rump. That's all you're going to get from me tonight seeing as how I'm pretty frazzled. I feel like I've been running around non-stop since Monday morning. Tomorrow I'm going to try braving going out to lunch instead of bringing it with me. This makes me nervous because I'm not sure what I want to eat, how much it will cost, how long it will take me to get there, eat, and get back and generally being a big frump because I'm going outside my comfort zone. I'm too young to be a frump! So I'm going to be quite brave tomorrow and venture out into the wide world and like it! Wish me luck :-) Maybe I'll get to do some KIPing. We'll see.
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
For some odd reason, none of the pictures I editted and put in my blog yesterday will come up. I tried some old pictures that were in other entries and they're working fine, just not the ones from yesterday. Which really stinks :-( And is also incredibly frustrating. I'm not sure what the problem is, but hopefully I'll be able to figure it out soon. I survived my second day at my new job. I'm pretty tired tonight, we'll see how I feel after working five days in a row! I think I may be a zombie Friday night! Anyway, I tried sewing up the holes on the seam line, but it didn't do any good, so I ended up tearing out the toe of my first Sockotta sock. I already started the toe again and I guess I'll try it again on the bus tomorrow, but if I get holes again, I'm not sure what I'll do! The yarn is wool, cotton, and nylon, so maybe the added cotton means it's not as elastic as plain ol' wool, and won't bounce back from the short row toe. Which means I may have to do the sock bottom down instead of toe up. I've never done a sock from the ankle to the toe (heck I've only done three socks toe up) but I've done enough fuzzy feet that I understand the basic concept. Other than tearing out and restarting the sock, I haven't gotten much fibery stuff done lately. I really want to start putting in a concerted effort on Bob at night so that I can finish my very first sweater (which is also now my first knit along with Lori - yea!) and start wearing it to work. I really have stalled on a lot of things the past couple of days, but this is a big transition and hopefully I'll settle into a rhythm and have more free time for fibery stuff soon. With Box Office temporarily off the wheel, I want to get into a bit of something new before I start spinning the remainder, but I can't decide what. I have too many choices :-) Cry me a river, huh? Anyway, I'm off to bed. I'm so zonked!
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