Just another manic Monday, Tuesday, etc

you are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You
adorable, but a little out there. It's alright,
you might not have it all, but there are worse


which happy bunny are you?
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The sun has finally popped out. We've had rain the last few days. Sorry I couldn't have sent some to So California.

Mortgage paying work is crazystupid. Monday it was announced we're buying a Northeast bank and the dreaded email asking how much transition work I've done has be circulated. I've had tons....11 years of transition and merger work...I don't want to do that again...UGH!


Yarn paying work is still lots of fun. It was a busy Saturday at Ewe Knit Kits and Yarn. In addition to the usual customers, we had 3 new knitters in looking for lesson. And, 2 ladies from New Orleans stopped in around 4:00 and shopped until 6:30! We stayed open to make sure they had everything they needed.

Another customer spent an hour or so matching Eros, Charm and Charming with Mohair for scarves. She had some great color choices. Browns and turquoise, yellows and blues.

On my knitting front....I swatched for Optically Delusional sweater from Simply Knit. I'm using Zara and it's really nice!

And the Collared Shawl from The Purl Stitch is coming along. I'm on the bottom rib of 200+ stitches. K2, P2.......

Suki's babystomach is sooo unbelievable but at least Rory has her study tree back.

......and speaking of BEAUTIFUL....to news lady on the oldies station the word is BE AT TI FIED...not BE U TI FIED.

Knitting news

Sorry about the rant this morning. It seems to build up and once I let it go, it's gone .... until the next time.

Surprising news for Ewe Knit Kits and Yarn last Friday. An interview that Bobbie had done in the summer and had forgotten was printed. The article discussed teens knitting and mentioned Ewe Knits. We were really busy on Saturday with requests for knitting lessons.

I loved the way the younger generation of knitting wannabes attached the process. Just give me what I need to get started, size 15 needle, a fuzzy yarn, a book, and let me at it! The older knitting wannabes wanted to wait and purchase for the class.

My felting students left with almost finished projects. One ran home, finished her i-cord and brought in a felted bag a few hours later....Go Sharon!

Oh, and Bobbie ordered Crystal Palace bamboo circulars. Didn't have 5 minutes to try a pair though. Maybe this coming Saturday.

Speaking of which, some of our scarf ladies will be meeting at the store to compare scarves and help one another select yarns on Saturday. What's interesting: these ladies didn't know one another before coming into Ewe Knits. Now they see one another grocery shopping, etc.

On my knitting front....Collared Shawl has 340 rows. I'm going to stop at 360 I think. Then it's picking up and knitting the trim/collar.

And the Zara yarn from Elann arrived for the Optically Delusional Sweater. BEAUTIFUL! Perfect colors. I'm itching to get started but I'll wait until CS is finished.

Very disappointed in the Mano's. I blocked it on Sunday and it's scratchy and it's stretched! It's tooooo long now. I'll pick up a bottle of wool wash on Saturday to see if that will help.

My bet is that David Smith will lasso himself that purty little blonde that likes artists. Howdy Partner!

Pity party

When I began this blog it was with the sole intention of tracking my knitting. But I have to talk, to tell someone, and Coco (dear sweet friend who lets me rant without judging) is out of town. So you get to hear...or just page down if you don't want to know....my mother is a selfish, manipulative woman who isn't happy until she's playing one sibling against another. If I say if over and over today maybe this boulder that is sitting on my shoulders will shrink to a pebble.

Is it my fault that my 45 yo sister has joined the Merchant Marines and will be gone for 3 months? Or that she has no money and might end up loosing her house so she moved all of her furniture to my mothers? Or that she quit a job that paid well, had great benefits to go back to a job she had for 10 years that paid $6 without benefits?

Or that a brother borrowed my mothers car and now she doesn't want to ask for it back because "I don't want to bother him. Will you call him for me?"

Sorry mom, I'm not getting involved again. I always end up being the bad guy, this big sister who offers to help and then gets told to mind her own business. Not playing that game ever again. Nope.

Told her that AGAIN last night and of course she cried and asked me why I had to be difficult. Difficult? (The daughter that paid her mortgage, made sure younger brother and sister finished Catholic high school, got younger brother through 5 years of college with as few loans as possible, didn't celebrate a holiday at home for 20 years because it was important for another brother to have all celebrations at his house because the kids needed "traditions" and now the kids are grown I am no longer invited because "it's just too many people at the house" so that leaves me alone with my mother becasue my sister wants no part of being with her, the youngest always makes other plans and the one that now has her car doesn't celecbrate holidays because he changed religion and they don't do that kinds of stuff and the one with the "traditions" doens't want to drive the 4 hours to get her and take her up to his house, and went to every therapy session she wanted to have to "work out our problems". )

So our phone conversations always end up with her crying and me feeling empty and wondering what life will be like when she dies.

That last part has been there for the past year. What will Thanksgiving and Christmas be like when I don't have to hear "it's just not "name holiday here" without your brothers and sister".

So I'm going to compose an email to my 4 siblings telling them that this Christmas it's on them to entertain our mother. Me? I have other plans.

How does Jacko do it?

I have a tiny tiny tiny pimple on the end of my nose. It really hurts!

The MidTown tunnel re-opened 3 days ahead of schedule! They pumped 44 million gallons of water out of there. Wonder where the water would have gone if the gates had been closed? It took me 25 minutes from the time I started the car engine until I walked into my office this morning with a smile on my face.

Worked on the Collared Shawl the other night. I messed up a row. I should have stopped when I got tired, but I didn't. So I ripped back 5 rows. It's waiting for a quiet time for me to get back on track.

Last night I worked on the Mano's scarf. I casted on 140 stitches and using sz 17 needles stst for a few rows, then garter stitched a few rows and I'm back to stst. My plan is to bind off and have a long skinny scarf. I want to add fringe on all 4 sides.

Purple Fish is dry. Think I'll play around with some buttons tonight.

Placed my first order with Elann yesterday. Zara...french blue and lily. For the Optically Delusional sweater from Simply Knit.

I need to loose that password!

Tuesday

90% of the people I work with are on the west coast. I'm on the east. I had gotten spoiled having my mornings to work on documentation, read emails, and not really expect any calls before 11:00a.m. with Noon being the ususal. My new manager is an early bird. Gets to work no latter than 6:30 a.m. and since there is no one else at work yet she calls me .... several times. I'm losing my free work time.

We had a beautiful Sunday and Monday. Weather was perfect. Not much humidity and low 70's. The mosquito's are still bad though.

Bess talks about her parents aging. I'm right there with ya Bess. Trying to nudge others into a change in lifestyle doesn't work. I've learned that the hard way with my mother. For years I tried to get her active but she is content to sit in her home and throw a 30 year pity party. I had to accept that. And it's still hard.

Muhammad Trial is beginning here. Malvo next month.

Taught a felting class at Ewe Knit on Saturday. Each of the ladies had chosen the same Fiber Trends Party Purse pattern. After a 1/2 hour of redeciding on yarn colors, we got to work. Next week it's gussets and i-cord.

Purple Fish from Knitting Bags felted beautifully! I did something wrong with the twisted cord though. They're not long enough to meet. I'll add another length. I think a differnt color will work nicely. And my concern about having enough room in the opening to do the embrodiery comfortably came to fruition. It's gonna be tough to get into the small hole. I may do something with tiny buttons.

Began a simple scarf with the Mano's del Uruguay . It's lovely to work with. I want to fringe all 3 sides.

And I continued with the Purl Stitch Collard Shawl in Alpaca. 120 rows so far. I'm liking it much better now. It's very cuddly.

No Traffic today

I decided to work from home today. No traffic stress to deal with. And it's a three day weekend. It's gonna be a good day.

Rob at Blackdog posted a link to a soup recipe the other day. Friday I think. Anyway, made a pot last night. First time I've used canned stock. Very tasty. Very easy. Thanks, Rob.

Implementation of the Fall MC/V Mandates went very well. No tech problems at all. Yeah Team! Will spend today reformatting a document I inherited for one of my other projects. It's in a Excel spreadsheet. It's all text. It has macro's that shouldn't be there. It's not an easy doc to update and what you see on the screen isn't what prints. My Excel Expert friend tried to fix it. She said it would be easier to redo. It's going to Word where it belongs.

No actual knitting last night. I looked through my stash to plan a few Christmas gifts. Knitted hat for my sister, felted hats for my nieces, maybe knitted seaman caps for the men.

Grissom and the gang are becoming toooooo graphic for me.

It's their fault...No it's their fault

5:35 p.m. pull out of the parking garage
7:24 p.m. arrive home
miles driven - 14.7

My leg ached from pressing on the break in the stop and go traffic. They're still blaming the closing of the MidTown tunnel for the congestion. I dunno. I think tonight before I leave the office I'm going to pack a snack.

Kohl's is opening two stores my shopping area tomorrow. They sent a $10 gift card for me to use. That's nice. It's good through the 18th or 19th. Ad says 19th, card says 18th. The ad sheet they sent is nice. I like slick paper ads.

What I don't like are stores that have coupons in the newspaper every week that you have to cut out and bring in to get the discount. Why not just give me the discount when I come into the store?

Finished 2 pattern repeats of the Collared Shawl . I'm using Alpaca. I don't think I like it. The pattern is okay, it's the fuzzy look the yarn has I think. This is my first project with Alpaca. My thought was to block it while it's still on the needle and see if I like it.

And another thing. I'm getting gage but the shawl looks awfully small/narrow. Perhaps after blocking it will stretch.

Jack and Serena didn't have a strong case last night...it was a no win from the begining.

Posted speed .. 55.
My average speed .. 65.
My guess of the speed of the cars passing me .. 75.
Finding a furniture truck in the left lane next to the HOV doing 60 and getting behind it and not being stressed when getting to work.....priceless.

Rumors were flying yesterday that the project I'm working on which has been touted as the most important project of this year and it will save tons and tons of money has been cancelled. That's okay, I'm also working on the second most important project of the year and it's gonna save tons and tons of money too. But I'm still hoping they'll see the need to offer me a retirement package at the end of the year.


I decided on Cascade 220 for the Persian Carpet Bag that is in Folk Bags. Bought about 8 hanks on Saturday. It's not on my wip list yet. Since it's knitted in Fair Isle from charts it'll be my "Sunday afternoon and all is quiet in the house and I can concentrate" project.

I also picked up my first skein of Mano's del Uruguay in variegated color 113. I had the pleasure of winding about 50 loose hanks of this yarn (in different colors) into skeins on Saturday. I guess those are the right words. It comes in hanks tied at several places and in order to fit the on a shelf you have to twist them so they form nice little skeins. Such soft wool. And nice patterns.

So what's in my WIP basket update:

multi-directional Scarf in Soft Twist was worked on for a little while during Show and Tell at Guild. I'm not liking it. It's in the frog pile.

Side 2 of the Lucky Purple Fish from Folk Bags is completed. I'm teaching a felting class beginning Sat at Ewe Knit Kits & Yarn. I'll save the fins and straps for the class. And I think I'll change the twisted cord for an i-cord.

Purl Stitch Collared Shawl in alpaca has been frogged, the chart studied and 26 rows knitted last night. Rory has a pretty Yale dorm room, Paris is back to her old self and Luke is going to try to act tough and stand up to his half brother.

Whew!

Who designed interstate off ramps that are also the on ramps? They're very stressful for me.

I walked into the Guild meeting last night with nominations for President and Secretary on my head. The lady who said she'd like to be President was not committing so I said I'd do it if she didn't want to. At the very last minute she decided she could do the job. Then another lady spoke up and said she'd like to be Secretary. YES!!!!! I get to enjoy the guild meetings ... for the next year at least. I did tell our President-elect I'd chair a committee.

Dark beginnings

The last home without power because of Isabel should be back on line today.

It's dark when we begin our early morning walks now. Not much movement in the neighborhood. Quiet. Lights on in the bedrooms upstairs and in the kitchens downstairs. Flash of a TV screen tuned to local morning news. Bailey has a hard time distinguishing objects in the distance so our walks are slower now. He has glaucoma in his left eye and will eventually loose all of the sight in the eye. A cataract is forming in his right eye. He's ten and healthy otherwise. So we walk at his speed in the dark.

Little bit of trivia I heard at lunch today. In the movie "The Patriot", the first and last word Gabriel says is the same...Thomas. "Thomas, wait for father". "Father, I'm sorry about Thomas." Don't be concerned, he says many words inbetween.

Vickie Square knitted her Lucky Fish in red because it is a color the Chinese believe brings luck. Wonder what the color purple means? Time for some research.

Purple Lucky Fish side 1 is completed and Luka is alive!!!! All is not dark in John Carters world.

A new route to take

10,000 still without power. Two weeks today. People are standing in lines for hours to apply for emergency food stamps.

My biggest gripe: TRAFFIC!!!! After spending 30 min to move appx 1/2 mile on Monday and Tuesday, I found another route to get home yesterday. It's a few more miles, but I'm moving! I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is to just SIT and inch and inch and inch....what's it doing to my brakes?

But the good news is that I've worn Obi everyday this week! I enjoy wearing it. Might have to make another. Changes I would make: a little longer in the back.

I finished a scarf design for Ewe Knit Kits. It'll be a free pattern for our customers. Sample is done in Debbie Bliss wool/cotton. Simple drop stitch pattern, very long. I'm going to add fringe on all four sides.

My new knitting love is the new Interweave Press book by Vickie Square Folk Bags! I scooped up the one copy B&N had on their shelf last night and have already finished the first half of the Fish Bag. I'm using Cascade 220 in a bright purple. Hmm, wonder if the color in the book has any significance? I guess I should have read the pattern introduction but I was too antsy to get started.

The carpet bag will be next. I need a Fair Isle challenge right now. And there's another one that is stripped and loopy...pattern reads for flat knitting....I'm sure I can change it to knit in the round.

Can't wait for Bobbie to get the books in. It's going to be a big hit with our customers. And why didn't I wait you might ask?....I'm impatient!

So what's in my WIP basket?
- Purl stitch Collared Shawl in alpaca (actually needs to be frogged. I tried to read the chart using a flashlight...LOL)
- Mulitdirectional Scarf in Soft Twist
- Lily Chin Simple Shawl in Socketta (not liking the pattern at all)
- Dale Salt Lake City Olympic sweater (needs a binding off at the neck and steeking)
- wool beret from ??? can't remember (it's in the car for emergencies)

So that's my story for the day......