Happy Hump Day

I finished up a small bag for my iPod. I just wanted a little protective bag, to keep it from getting scratched up when I throw it in my purse. I had some ribbon yarn in an interesting rust color and even made up a chart for a cool design and did some colorwork on it. I’m a little disappointed with how it came out. I used black to add the design and it’s very muted against the rust color. I did learn some cool stuff though: Ribbon yarn is scratchy, it’s also a pain to seam and weave ends with.

I was supposed to have snazzy pictures of said iPod bag but alas, technology and I are not getting along. My home computer is a wreck, it crashed badly last week to the point it would not boot. I had two options at that point 1) reformat the computer or 2) reinstall windows only. In an effort to save information on the hard drive, I took the reinstall windows route. Well, that was not a great idea. Yes, I save the info, but other programs are acting all screwy. Right now, when I connect my digital camera to the computer it tells me that it’s connected until I go to transfer pictures, then it won’t read the camera. I can’t seem to uninstall the software for the camera, and it keeps giving me error messages when I try to reinstall. This isn’t the only program that is doing this to me either. I’m beside myself. I know what I need to do. I need to save EVERYTHING I want onto cds and then reformat the computer. It’s the only way; I need to start the thing over from scratch. Part of me says well, it’s not that bad, the other part of me says it’s not even worth it.

In other news I’m very cranky. I don’t know whether I want to scream, cry, or throw something or someone against the wall. I’m so exhausted too, I’m sleeping but I wake up feeling as though I haven’t slept in days. My face is breaking out, I’ve been late to work two days in a row, my mind keeps wandering, I can’t focus and I’m forgetting things. I had a skein of yarn in my hands this morning that I was suppose to put in my knitting bag now I have no idea where the yarn is. Obviously I put it down somewhere but where is anyone’s guess.
Okay enough complaining. I better start working, after all it’s Wednesday (hump day) there’s only 2 days left of work for the week after today and there’s only 8 more hours before I can go home tonight.

Merry, Happy, yada, yada

Wow. I wish I could say I have a really great knitting update, but the only thing i've knitted in the last several weeks was a swatch for an idea I have for an I-Pod case. Things in general have been crazy.

Christmas was lovely, I got some really great gifts including a sword, cds, dvds, several cookbooks, charms for my nomination bracelet, a swift (YAY!) and a gift certificate to my LYS. I'm so tired and it snowed last night. I best get showered or i'll never get to work.

duck & cover

AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all I have to say!

How do you spell I.N.S.A.N.E.

This was suppose to be a limited stress day for me. The boss isn't around, I should have been free to catch up on work. Instead I am far from relaxed.

First off I will admit, I'm not the best teacher in the world. I get very impatient with people. For quite a while now my boss and I have agreed that our payroll department needs to be kicked into the 21st century. They are still doing timesheets, certified payroll reports and union reports manually. This is leading to a lot of wasted time, which could be spent on other things. Our payroll manager is quite happy and does not want to change anything she does. Our other payroll clerk is more open to change, but in her attempts to make things better she is bittting off more then she can chew. Today she decided to some of her certified reports in excel. Great! Except for the fact that she doesn't know how to create a spreadsheet or formulas, etc. So, I've been spending a good portion of my day in there working with her. I've asked my boss more then once to please send the two of them to a class, he keeps saying okay, then nothing is done. I don't mind helping people, showing them how to do something, but she is not even grasping the basics.

The situation is complicated more by the fact that neither of these women is computer savvy at all, They have no idea how files are stored on our network, or even what a file is. I just want to scream, but I can't.

Then, my new assistant was pulled from me this week because our billing coordinator was behind and needed help. This week was scheduled to be more training for her since I was catching up on work, and that's now pushed back. This morning I'm at my desk when I here her paging over the intercom she is filling in for the receptionist, she never told me, I called the Billing coordinator, she never told her either. There is too much work to be done down here for her to be filling in on the reception desk. GRRRRRRR...

Of course there are the comical moments at work. One co-worker left work at 9:30 today came back at 12:00pm. Where did she go? For a botox injection. She is on company time getting a botox injection?????? Brilliant, just Brilliant!

End of the Weekend

Another Turkey day has come and gone. It was nice having a long weekend, and tomorrow back to reality and the drudgery of work.

Overall it was an okay weekend. There weren't any major catastrophe's and there weren't any major family blow-ups. That my friends is a very good thing.

Darling Tim came home from Ireland on Wednesday, I was so happy to see him. He's seen better weekends to come home to though. His flight was delayed 2 hours, he landed to pouring rain here in New Jersey. Thursday after a cup of coffee, his tooth started hurting him really bad. It was horrible to watch. Ambesol and motrin was all we could do till he could call a dentist. His dentist couldn't see him till next Thursday, it got so bad by Saturday we had to call my mom's dentist, and he wound up having to pull the tooth. I was in quite a bitchy mood the last few days as well. I came down with a head cold and was so miserable and achy. It seems to be much better thanks to vitamin C, sudafed, and some TLC from Tim.

In knitting news I did do a bit of knitting this weekend. I started a pair of socks in this really cool hot pink color, I am not going to show a picture because I frogged them tonight. I worked all the way down the cuffs, the heel, turned the heel, picked up the gusset, was starting the foot, and tried the thing on it was too big. Oh well, I'll start again new. Not a big deal, it went super quick.

I also have been working on some christmas-y ornaments. Some quick, easy mittens. Here they are, nothing fancy, they use up odds and ends though and are super cute.



I also got a package from my secret pal in Washington. She sent me 2 skeins of Reynolds Lopi, the book "Knit One, Felt Two" and some lavender soap. She rocks!



I've got a package all ready to send out tomorrow for my pal, it's going to Maryland so she should have it by Wednesday.

As you can see I also attempted to change my blog a bit. It didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to. It looked quite different when I was previewing it. It's better though, I'll fix it later. Keep Knitting

Squirrels !!!!

I love squirrels, I know they are rat's with bushy tails but I think they are so cute.

Today I went into NYC to have dinner with a friend. We were meeting at 4pm, I was going to leave extra early to go yarn shopping but that didn't quite work out, I did happen to take a stroll through Washington Square Park and saw some squirrels. I didn't mean to, but I got on an express train and wound up at west 4th street so, since I was walking to astor place, might as well cut through the park.

People who have been around me when I see a squirrel know that I'm a little freaky, I talk to them and take pictures. I admit it's a little weird, here is what's weirder. I do it when I'm alone too. Oh well, just call me crazy squirrel lady. Here are some pictures from today.







P.S. Timmy, if your reading this: I love you , I miss you, see you Wednesday!

Aggghhhhhh!!!!! I'm going insane

Agghhhh!!! ((((((SCREAM!!!!!))))))

My job is kicking my ass and unfortunetly it will not be getting better anytime soon.

So what else is new? I haven't posted in over a week, I haven't had home internet access in days, and i'm usually too busy here to post. I took a self-imposed breather yesterday to catch up on e-mail and decided to post today because if I looked at the power point presentation I was created one more minute I was afraid my head would explode.

Not everything is bad I think I found my photographer and Florist for the wedding, and we picked invitations out last weekend. They are so pretty. Darling Fiance leaves tomorrow for Ireland for a few days. He's heading home to check on the wedding arrangements there. I miss him already and he hasn't even left yet, he will be home in time for Thanksgiving. YAY!! It is definetly love or insanity when he comes home to be with my nutty family for Thanksgiving.

In knitting news, I bought Stitch 'N Bitch nation on Sunday. There are a few things in there (the news boy hat, rockstar bag) that are on the to-do list if I can get finished with what i'm already working on. My main project right now is the "Flower Hat" from Interweave Knits, I really like this hat.

Just another Manic Monday.

I really wish I weren’t here at work. I keep looking over at my knitting bag longing. I started up a lace scarf with some cascade 220 that I had sitting in my yarn stash, it feels very good to want to knit. This last week was horrible as far as knitting goes. I have so much I want to get done, but I never feel like doing it.

Work has been horrible the last few weeks and I’m exhausted. I come home, and do not want to do anything but go to sleep. I’ll pick up a skein of yarn pick up a set of needles then sigh and crawl back into bed. It’s very depressing the lack of motivation and depression I’ve been feeling when I’m home.

I’m sure it is not helping matters any that my bedroom looks like a tornado went through it. That is depressing itself. Every night I come home and look at it and say “okay tonight I’m not going to bed till it’s clean.” Then within ½ an hour I’m crawled into bed miserable again.

I want to try and clean tonight but I have other things to worry about. I think the exterminator is coming again tomorrow, so I have to empty out all my kitchen cabinets again.
I can’t wait till tomorrow. There is a knitting meet-up again. In the past, the northern Jersey knitting meet-ups have been just a little too far away for me to want to go. The last two weeks they have been a few minutes from where my father lives. I went last week and had a blast; I even finished up a hat. It was nice to get out for a few hours, sit back, knit and talk to new people.

R.E.M.: The morning after

R.E.M. rocked Madison Square Garden last night, and got to be there. I feel very spoiled, myself, fiancé, sister and soon to be brother-in-law were all sitting in the 6th row 5 seats to the right of center stage thanks to my fanclub tickets. I have never had the pleasure of watching a show from that vantage-point, and it was amazing.

The set list was keeping very much in line with what they have been playing over the last two weeks. It was a decent mix of old and new stuff, my personal highlights of the night: “Begin the Begin”, “Sweetness Follows”and “Life and How to Live It” because I have never heard them live before.

I had my digital camera with me and Tim and sister tried getting pictures but yet again I was stupid and never thought to replace the batteries until it was too late. The camera barely made it into the first song. They got me 6 pictures. Here are the best two. The first is of Mike Mills; their bass player and my favorite band member since I started listen to them in 1991. The second is of Michael Stipe. He really goes all out to make his performances, interesting.





This was the Fifth time I’ve seen them since 1995. Each of these shows has been so special, and each has been unique. To Tim, Liz & Frank, Thank you for being dragged to another show, and for putting up with me being a bitchy freak. To the guys in the band: Thank You, Thank You! See you next time.

Life: an update

I’ve been really bad, only updating the blog once a week, but I guess it’s better than nothing. It’s been crazy.

My fiancé was robbed last Wednesday for the second time in 15 months, the jerk-offs got out of there with his DVD player, playstation, cable box and telephone among other things. No-one was home, so nobody was hurt. But it really sucks and it’s a horrible violating feeling. He has finally decided to get out of the Bronx (Thank God). Over the next month we will start the process him moving in. I’m very excited. Unfortunately, our apartment will not be entirely our apartment until my sister moves out sometime before my wedding next April. Everyone seems very happy with the arrangement, I’m sure there will be an adjustment period for him and I, but it will be fine.

My job is driving me mad. I’m not going to go off here too much. There is just a lot of work and too few people. It’s a drama fest here. I can see light in the tunnel, but I can’t tell yet if it’s the tunnel exit or a train, so I guess I’ve got to wait and see.

In knitting news: I decided that the rogue hooded sweater is going on hold until I’m in a better frame of mind with less outside distraction. I knitted all of three rows of a hat last week and that was it. The hat matches scarf I had finished in September I’ve decided to go back to the scarf, make it longer and add some sort of edging. I’m hoping all is relatively quiet at work today and that I can get out at a decent time. There is a knitting meet up tonight and I really want to go.

I don’t want to forget this. My secret pal sent me a package last week. I received it Wednesday night. That was the day Tim was robbed, so the package was nice uplifting thing to come home to and made me very happy. I have a very thoughtful and generous secret pal; she really found great stuff that suited me. I got a book of hat patterns, a skein of kureyon to knit up a hat with, ginger altoids (these are so good), point protectors, the cutest retractable sheep tape measure (Sheeeepies!) and peppermint patty lip balm (my lips taste like mint chocolate, it’s yummy!) Here is a pic of everything.



Thank You so much secret pal!

P.S. R.E.M. this Thursday at Madison Square Garden!!!!!

I am a complete moron!

I love to learn.

I hate having to learn things the hard way.

I have no other way to say this other then, I am a complete moron. I've been working on the sleeves for rogue, I have already frogged them once due to two noticeable errors. This time I've been careful, the cables are looking great. However, it did come to my attention more then once that I don't seem to be increasing enough stitches for the number I am decreasing. Did I stop the first time this thought occurred to me and check the pattern? NO! Did I stop the second time? NO!

So today, I am nicely minding my own business during lunch, knitting away merrily I realized I'm almost finished with chart for the sleeve cable, so I pull the rest of the pattern out to read the sleeve portion again. That's when it hits me. I had only been increasing at each end every 6 rows that's 2 stitches. I was suppose to be increasing 4 2 on the ends one before the 1st marker and 1 after the second. DOH!

What can I say other then I am a moron. I hate learning lessons like this. Always triple read the pattern and always trust your gut instinct, if it feels wrong when your knitting: IT PROBABLY IS!

Blogger ate the post

On Thursday I posted a nice little post recapping my week and it's gone. I want to say blogger ate it because I remember checking to see if it was there and it was, but now it's not. Oh Great, now I'm rambling. It's 11pm and I'm wide awake and I'm rambling.

Okay a recap. This was not a great week. I started off sick. Not cough, cough, hack sick but ewwww gross stomach bug and fever sick. I was out of work on Tuesday and Wednesday. You would have thought I'd get a lot of knitting done, but not really. I still haven't rectified the yarn situation to finish charlotte's web, so I started working on Rogue Wednesday afternoon. I casted on for both sleeves worked about 4 inches went to bed and the next morning to my horror I found..... *gasp, could it be* .... Two mistakes. One was a whole where I twisted a picked up stitch wrong, the other was some funky thing going on with the cable. (NOTE: funky thing is what happens when I try to use a dpn instead of cable needle and I twist the stitches 180 degrees on the needle before I knit them off) (2nd Note: Yes my knitting is THAT spastic!)

Anyhoo, I ripped back the sleeves to the hem and restarted yesterday. The cabling is coming VERY nice, here is a picture of one of the sleeves, the picture does no justice to that cable pattern:



In other news the work front has just gotten interesting. One of my bosses was laid off (I'm not going into it here). It will be very interesting to see how the next few months shape up. I'm both very excited and extremely nervous, you never can tell if these things are as good or bad as they appear.

I almost forgot, my SP e-mailed me the other day to tell me a package is on it's way. I'm so excited, that was a highlight of the week.

Well I should try to go to bed. I have a feeling I'm in for a rough week at work. I already worked on some stuff for a few hours tonight; it's never a good sign when you take work home over the weekend.

I lost a post!

I know I posted yesterday, but now my post is gone. Am I imagining things? This is weird.. If it doesn't come back, i'll have to repost.

PSA

My R.E.M. tickets are in the mail.

This Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by me.

Look Ma I Caught A Fraggle!

After a particularly horrible day at work, I went to the mall with one of my friends tonight. This is what I found in Suncoast Video...



Gobo and Boober from "Fraggle Rock" ! It's the small things that make me smile.

A Charlotte's Web Update

The update is this. I have to put Charlotte officially on hold. Now, you may ask why? Well the answer is quite simple, I , Heather have made a grave tactically error: I do not have enough yarn. I finally made it to where you start to add in the fifth color, and realized, I'm not sure I have enough of the forth to do the remaining 8 rows of alternating left, so I definitely do not have enough of the fifth color to make it to the end & fringe. I bought exactly 1 skein each of the 5 colors I chose. I told myself to buy a 2nd skein of the last color, but I did not listen. I thought this might become a problem and last week when I stopped over very quickly by Knit NY, I didn't see the color on display, but alas that is what I get for not being extra careful.

Where does that leave me now? In search of either a 2nd skein of the color I have here, or picking up two skeins of something that goes with what is already done. It's a busy week of appointments looking for a wedding DJ so I will not make it to any stores to shop. I may just find the yarn online and wait it out.

In any case, you live and learn, and boy did I learn. Here a partially picture of my shawl with the remaining balls of yarn.

Blah!

I"m sitting here debating whether I should even update or not, I guess since i'm logged in I will. I'm feeling under the weather, I have a slight cold nothing a little sleep and hot tea won't cure. I'm also depressed, but i'm not going to get into that. The two combined have left me with very little energy and the desire to absolutely nothing. Thus, no knitting updates.

There has been a highlight to the last few days. I found the bridesmaid dresses I want for the wedding and my sisters have been fitted and the order is in. That's one less thing to worry about.

R.E.M. ALBUM DAY!

R.E.M.'s new album "Around the Sun" came out today. It's 9:15 in the morning, I have no way of getting it until lunch time. Darling Fiance called me at 7:52 to let me know he picked it up a copy for himself at a store in Grand Central Station on his way to the office.

I've been in a horrible mood since yesterday. I think it's the change in weather, I don't want to be near people. I'm cranky, and would just like a good cry. There is one positive spin to not wanting to socialize, I'm getting knitting done. The booga bag is done, it just needs to be thrown in the wash & felted up. I've got 42 rows left on Charlotte and I started the scarf from "Knitting on the edge." Now if I could only work up the balls to cast on for "Rogue" we'd be in business.

Knit Out NY

Yesterday was Knit Out NY in NYC, Union Square to be exact. What a beautiful day for a knit out, too bad it wasn’t slightly colder. It was suppose to run from 12-5, I arrived in Union Square at around 11:20 and after a quick look around Barnes & Noble hoping to run into some Knitters Review members I decided to walk around and see who was setting up. At 11:30, Red heart, Lion Brand & Clover were already handing stuff out and there were a good deal of people there already. There were a lot of free Red heart & Lion patterns, clover was giving out some needles, and they were setting up for the fashion shows. Debbie Stoller, Lily Chin and Nicky Epstein were there among others.

At 12, I sat in on two demos that Nicky Epstein was doing. The first was on edging techniques. This woman is fabulous. What a great personality, nice, and patient. Her techniques are simple, straightforward, and the results are nice looking. The second demo she did was on using flowers as embellishments. Using some of her Edging techniques, she created the great flowers for bags, hats, scarves, anything you can think of. It was great. After the hour with Nicky Epstein, I wondered off a bit looking around again, I went to the NY knitter’s guild booth to say hello to Helen (of Troy) from KR. By that time (a little after 1pm) it was crazy there too many people, Union Square is a busy place to begin with and this was horrible, you’d walk to a table and people would push you out of the way for a pattern you can get on most websites. Oh well. The sun was shining and there was little shade, I was by myself so I decided not to stay around for the fashion shows I went shopping instead. Stop one was back to Barnes and Noble to pick up “Knitting on the Edge”, I did walk back to the author table to see if Nicky was still around to sign it, but she was getting ready to judge one of the events. On my way back out, I walked past the learn to knit/crochet tables, the line was wrapped around the corner. It made me think about volunteering to teach for next year’s.

From Union Square I walked down to the knit café, it was a madhouse in there so I just kept going to downtown yarns. I didn’t find anything, so keep walking, and remember it was a gorgeous day. I took a stroll down to Purl Soho, I came out with three skeins of Koigu, I am going to do a variation on a box stitch scarf in “Knitting on the Edge”. I also found a copy of “Socks Soar on Circular Needles” discounted 40%. I was very excited about that. I was looking for something for my secret pal, but I’m still hesitating on what kind of yarn I want to send her. I better get my creative juices flowing.

Saturday at last!

First off I'd like to thank my Secret Pal for the e-mail she sent yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise and really made my day. Alas, that was the most exciting event of the day. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Darling Sister has asked me to look at wedding dresses with her today. Tomorrow is Knit-Out NY I'm hoping that will be a lot of fun. I may schlep over to Purl Soho if there's time when I'm done.. We'll see.

OUCH!

I’m not sure but I think I may have a knitting related injury. Several weeks ago, my left thumb was aching for apparently no reason. The day before, I had worked for several hours on my Charlotte’s Web shawl. Darling Fiancé joked that I may have “knitters thumb” (very original huh?), I did think, “Maybe I had overdone it with the knitting”. I noticed that the thumb and index finger on my right hand kept falling asleep as I was knitting, so maybe I was stressing the left thumb as well.

I picked up Charlotte yesterday morning to get in a few rows before leaving for work. I hadn’t touched her since before going to Vegas. Again, as I was knitting the right thumb and index finger kept falling asleep (that feeling of pins and numbness is horrible). Then by yesterday afternoon, the left thumb was aching, I couldn’t grab a glass without having a horrible pain. Last night I rubbed “tiger balm” down the thumb before bed; it is much better today, just a slight ache.

It’s very peculiar, the numbness and pain does not occur when I knit anything else. I’ve been working on other projects the last few weeks with no side effects. I knit for 2 hours on the plane Friday and was fine. Yet, ½ hour on Charlotte, and I miserable.

Here is my best guess on why this is happening. I am TERRIFIED of dropping stitches on Charlotte. I have never done lace before and honestly do not know if I could properly pick up a dropped stitch in a lace pattern. This has never ever been a concern before, I know what knit and purl stitches look like, I’ve picked up stitches before without batting an eye, heck I’ve even purposely dropped stitches down as far down as 10 rows to fix a mistake. As a result of my fear of dropping stitches on charlotte as I get further and further into it, increasing stitches, I think I am clutching the needles harder then normal. This is the only explanation. I may go home tonight and check my gauge again, I’d bet I’m tightening up. Oh well….
Other then that life is going pretty well.

I'm Back (with pictures)

Back from a few days in sunny, Las Vegas on the company dollar. The user conference I was attending turned out to be less then informative, but never decline a free trip on the company, and overall it was a very nice few days.

Vegas is sensory overload, everything looks so over the top. I didn't know where to begin. Now, I live just across the Hudson river from Manhattan, I'm in Manhattan at least once a week and Vegas is like nothing I've ever seen. The first night we were there Tim took me to the "Venetian hotel" I've seen pictures of this place with the gondolas and painted sky ceiling I was still awed. My dad was right, when you walk into that place you have no idea what time of day it is. We were put up at the Mirage hotel and casino, most famous for Siegfried & Roy. It was lovely.



I've never been to Vegas before and there was so much to see, I didn't get to see half of what was there. One of the highlights though was the fountain display at the Bellagio hotel. I got there Wednesday night while Tim played in a poker tournament. I watched the display twice, I could have stood there all night though.



Yesterday, we had a late flight back so my fiance and I were able to see the "secret garden" of Siegfried and Roy which is a white tiger/lion and dolphin habitat. It was a nice quick tour. Here are one of there dolphins and a sleeping kitty. I love the kitties.




I brought some knitting but didn't do any during the day or night. I was strickly knitting on the plane rides coming and going home. Going out there I finished up the "mistake rib" scarf I'd been working on. Coming home I started working another booga bag. I had a very nice talk with one of the stewardesses on the flight back about knitting, So, if you see this Hi Pat!






I was all excited when I checked my e-mail today. While I was away I got the info on my Knitters Review Secret Pal. I can't wait to start spoiling her.

That's about all for an update, I'm very tired and need to catch up on my sleep.

Hello, Goodbye

Just a quick hello and goodbye.

I'm leaving in a little while for a business trip. They are sending me and a co-worker to a conference in Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas! I've never been there and my darling fiance is coming so this should be a lot of fun.

We'll only be gone till Saturday, but it's still nice to get away from the office.

Summer leaving a chill

I am so cold right now; this is starting to get out of hand. It is slightly chilly here today, right now it only in the upper 50’s for some reason though, my office is like an icebox. I have no windows in the fishbowl I work in, I don’t have a radiator in this room, and the only ventilation is from the HVAC unit which blows down from the vent above me. Yes, they have the A/C on today. Oh my kingdom for some heat. I just ran out to the car and grabbed a sweater and sweatshirt. One I’m wearing, the other is draped over my legs trying to keep in some heat. One would think that the offices of a company that installs and maintains HVAC units would be a temperature controlled environment, but not here. No sir, there never seems to be a happy medium, just very hot or freezing cold. Oh well…

Would it be inappropriate to keep a lap blanket in my room for when it gets like this? In the winter, I always keep fingerless gloves in here for the days my hands get too cold. Would the blanket be over the top? I think I’ll make one anyway.

It was a crazy weekend with a good deal of rain. I didn’t have much time at home so I didn’t get any laundry or packing done. That means I have to cram it all into tonight, I don’t have too much packing to do since we’ll only be in Las Vegas 3 nights, but I always over pack.

I’m up to the fourth color on Charlotte, and she looks really good. I afraid to take her to Vegas, maybe I’m just overreacting, but I have horrible luck. With my luck I’d pack her and then have the suitcase searched and her come undone, or I could take her on the plane. I could switch her from my addi’s to Denise then I probably wouldn’t have a problem. Uggghhhh… Maybe I’ll just cast on for Rogue and take that with me. I’ve got a 5 plus hour flight, and I need to keep busy since I hate flying. I’ll come up with something tonight.

Scarf

As promised here are a few pictures of the Quickie scarf, modeled by my lovely little sister.

I swear the yarn made me do it.

Last night I'm in my bedroom reading "interweave crochet" and minding my own business when I hear this tiny voice.

"Heather? Heather?"

I look over and there is a ball of Lamb's pride Bulky yarn in "Turkish Olive" Peering out of my stash box.

"Knit me" it says.

"No, no I replied", my lovely Charlotte is right over there and I will not work on anything else right now, that would be neglect."

"Neglect?", replies the lamb's pride "You want to talk about neglect, last winter you knitting me and my pal into a 31/2 foot scarf then frogged us and wrapped us into these balls. You haven't looked at us since."

"Your right, your right" I replied.

So I grabbed the largest needles I have (size 35) Held 2 strands of the lamb's pride bulky together and casted on six stitches and just started doing a simple garter scarf. Three hours later, I have an approx. 7 foot scarf. This morning I added some fringe, and Ta Da: A rather nice looking, Very QUICK, finished Christmas gift.

Pictures of said scarf to come.

And the Charlotte goes on..

I've been able to get somemore work done on charlotte this weekend. The missing skein of Koigu was found, and progress is going slow but steady. Knitting has been quite meditative this weekend, and I've needed it as a few memorials are being held this weekend, in honor of a friend who passed on last week.

Just a short update for now. Keep knitting!

Fall Knitty

The fall edition of Knitty is out and I'm impressed.

I'm completely in love with blaze. I think I need to kick my knitting up a notch to get through a few projects projects on back burner. Darling future hubby doesn't want me buying any more yarn, however, if I finish some big projects I can justify it. I wish I had two extra hands.

Koigu, Koigu where are you?

"O where O where has my Koigu gone
O where O where can it be?
It's a skein of yarn
that's made of wool
O where of where can it be?"


I had picked up Charlotte last night after not touching her since last week and am merrily knitting along when till I got 4 rows from where I would begin the 3rd color. I stop to get my 3 remaining skeins only to find, one is missing.

I thought all three where in the bag with the pattern but they weren't. I'm worried, but not too worried. My room looks like a small tornado came through it. The darling fiance was helping me clean out my closet Sunday because I was complaining about not having room for clothing. He found that I keep my stash in two drawers of my dresser and said, "No wonder you can't fit clothes in here." This started two projects. One was me going through my dresser and closet and getting rid of old clothing I'll never where again. While he started to move my stash into a plastic container for storage. He gently let me know he thinks I have plenty of yarn and that I shouldn't need to buy anymore for a while. I think the missing skein of koigu wandered off during the cleaning efforts. I took the yarn for Charlotte and put it on the bed telling him not to touch that yarn since it was for my current project. It's not in the plastic container with the rest of the stash. It may be in a box buried by the bed. I guess I'll be finishing up the cleaning effort tonight to find it.

Here is a picture on Charlotte as she currently stands. The lighting in this room does not do justice to the colors of this yarn. The MIA skein is mostly a lovely lilac color.

Wow Tuesday already

Goodbye summer, where did you go?

This weekend was a little on the hairy side. I finished up work Friday and treated myself to a nice manicure and pedicure. I took my mom out to the mall, and wound up finding a Tiara there. I was so excited. I just need to order my veil, and my bridal attire is complete.

Saturday night my fiance and I found out that a friend is in the hospital after being in a fire. He is in pretty bad shape, we went to visit the last two days. Everyone is keeping there fingers crossed, lighting candles and saying prayers that he will pull through okay.

That's it. Just a short update.

Days of my worklife

Welcome to day three of "Days of my worklife", otherwise known as what else can go wrong at work. Things have been crazy this week. One of the two bosses is out, our billing clerk is out, and one of our payroll girls is out. Where does this leave me? Well, I'm taking care of some of the bosses regular duties (along with a list of crap), trying to keep an eye on the billing department (and sweating that all will not be well when our billing manager gets back from maternity leave in a week)and I'm now helping out in payroll.. AGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that sometimes you just need to scream. I want to go knitting at Barnes and Noble tonight but I'm not sure I'm going to get there. I didn't get home till past 7 on Monday and I really have to get a dent into the billing filing. I've also been in quite a foul mood when I have been getting in. Maybe I should just skip it again. I'll see how the day progresses.

Charlotte in Progress

I casted on for Charlotte this weekend and I’m well into the second color to about row 50. This is my first lace project. It’s not too bad so far, I did have to rip out and start over twice, but now that everything has clicked into place, it’s pretty smooth. I love working with this yarn, and this pattern.

Finally some breathing room

The last two weeks have been hell. It started with the passing of a very close family friend, who left behind a wife and two very small children. His police funeral was the saddest thing I have ever been to, and most of my family was quite numb for several days. Beyond that, work has been kicking my butt. We had some corporate auditors in last week which involved my boss giving me various tasks of running around gathering information for them and this week 3 co-workers are away so I'm helping out picking up the slack, in addition to my own work of course. Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel and I see breathing space, yesterday in particular was a perfect day combining work and knitting.

My boss had signed the two of us up for a IRS/SSA seminar in Manhattan. I had assumed it was an all day affair until I was leaving work on Tuesday, he handed me the paperwork I was going to need, and said "it ends at 1pm tomorrow, and we're not coming back here afterward. See you there."

I had a lovely trip into the city, arrived about an hour early, sat in starbucks right near the federal building the seminar was being held at and quietly sipped coffee while reading "Zen and the art of knitting".

The seminar was quite boring,what do we expect from the IRS and Social Security but we were finished by 1pm. Eugene asked if I was heading back to NJ and I replied no I was going up to 14th street. So he suggested lunch. We hoped in a cab up to Union Square and had a lovely lunch in an outdoor cafe. When we were done, he left for home reminding me "remember when we get in tomorrow, it was a all day seminar." I laughed, waved and heading down to knit New York.

It was there that I was finally able to get the yarn for my Charlotte. Huzzah!!!!
I had found 4 lovely colors and was hesitate on the fifth, a lovely girl that worked there was trying to help me find the 5th. I picked one and she went down to get me my yarn. She came back up and had found a different color(not displayed on the floor) that went with the original four better. I sat down, did some knitting and then rounded off the day by meeting up with my darling fiance.

All and all a well earned day of relaxing. On that note I'm off to shower and head to work.

Random stuff.

Friday night I started to cast on for Rogue, didn't like my cast on row, ripped it out, and did not recast. Instead I started a scarf yesterday. It may turn into a X-mas gift for one of my cousins.

While driving to my fiance's yesterday I saw something odd. Well odd for driving in the NYC area. There was a truck pulling an animal trailer, I assumed there was a horse in there until we both got off the highway. At our first traffic light i'm looking and realize it was a llama. A llama is not something you see everyday in the Bronx, I can only guess they were heading for the zoo. Like a good knitter though i'm looking at the fur on this llama and thinking "what great yarn that would make".

Pictures

Technology has decided to cooperate with me tonight and I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my latest finished objects.

Here is the "Shapely Tank" from hell.



In all honesty is wasn't that bad of an experience. It was my first adult size sweater/tank object. The basic construction was simple enough. I learned to be more careful when picking up stitches around necklines. I learned my sister is a heck of a lot smaller than I originally thought, and I finally have gotten the knack for neat seaming.

Here is my other recently finished object. The "French Market Bag" from the fall 03 Knitty. This one seemed to take forever to make because I kept throwing it on the backburner. This bag is super simple to make and cascade 220 is a dream to felt. That is indeed a Teddy bear sitting in the bag, that is the "Birthday Bear" my fiancé sent me in May. Awwww.......



That's it for now.

Techno Woes

Technology is not being good to me. My cable modem has been losing its connection on and off over the last several weeks. The cable company claims it is not there fault but is the wiring in the house. Until I can have the situation rectified, I'm stuck. If that weren't bad enough, my digital camera is acting up. I have pictures to post of some completed projects and I cannot retrieve them off the camera. I may have a bad memory card.

I was at the family reunion all weekend, so didn't have the time or patience to cast on for Rogue. That's to come this week hopefully.

Tickets….

I got my R.E.M. tickets. 6th row center stage, I’m very happy, VERY HAPPY. Those are the best seats for a full concert I’ve ever had.

Off knitting topic for just a minute.

R.E.M. announced this weekend the dates and venues for there upcoming tour. Ahhhh….. Life feels so good when R.E.M. is coming to town. Fanclub tickets go on Sale tomorrow at 1pm.

More Yarn

My search for Koigu is again in vain, only a few days after my escapade in NYC I tried the one decent store in my area for Koigu. I went in looking and the owners daughter asked if I needed help, and then she recognized me from last time I was there about a month ago. She let me know that they still hadn't gotten the shipment in, but it should be in by October. ((SIGH))

So, I turned my attention toward Rogue. I had toyed with the idea of making it with Cascade, but since said store didn't carry it I looked around a bit. I found some Jamieson shetland double knitting. The gauge is 22-26 st per 4 inches on size 4-6. Rogue calls for 18 per 4 or 4.5 per inch. I was fairly certain that if I swatched on size 7 needles I would be close, the salesgirl looked at me like I had 4 heads when I asked for her opinion, she said "no the yarn states 22-26 stiches for 4 inches on size 4-6 needles, you won't be able to get 4.5 stitches an inch". (By the way I think someone on the Rogue knit-a-long did use this yarn). The conversation went back and forth between me and the sales girl regarding whether I'd be able to get swatch this to the right gauge. Long story short, I bought the yarn in black, my gauge on the 7's was PERFECT, and I will never ask for help in that particular store ever again.

Now here's an interesting story for you. On the drive home from the yarn store. I received a call from an old "friend" of mine. This person never calls unless she wants something and tonight was no different. Apparently she's looking for a copy of a pattern I have. In the course of our conversation, we were talking about yarns. She was commenting on some Koigu in her stash and how she used it before and didn't like it. I asked her what she made with it and why she didn't like it. She told she made a booga bag with it, I said "you mean with the yarn from me" she said yeah. I had extra skeins of Kureyon from an ebay auction I won and she wanted 3 so I sold them to her. I told her Koigu and Kureyon were not the same yarn, she said they were from the same company, I said no they weren't, and then a comment came from her about her not caring because she was not a yarn snob. Our conversation ended a few minutes later and as I hung up it dawned on me.. I think she was implying that I was a yarn snob!

I called up my fiance (He knows this women) and told him the story. He started laughing, I said "what is so funny?" he replied, "You know she just implied your a yarn snob?" I'm glad I amuse him. Actually the situation is sort of funny especially if you know the person in question. Oh well, I'm an equal oppurtunity knitter and proud of it.

Finally

It's finally done. After me putting it off and putting it off, I finally finished seeming the shapely tank for my sister. I completed it tonight while over at my uncles house. Of course everyone looked at it and reminded me of how it is too big for the sister in question. Oh well... At least its not unwearable. I also finished off the french market bag today at work and felted it before heading over to the uncle's. Cascade 220 is great to felt with, and the bag came out looking great. It only need one cycle in the wash, anymore and it would have been too small for anything. It's kind of funny right now while wet, it smells like a dead animal. I hope it's okay when it's dry.

Charlotte is not Charlotte yet

I went yarn shopping this afternoon after work. I was hunting for some Koigu to make my "Charlotte's Web" no luck. I ran around to several yarn store in NYC and I wound up with 3 skeins of Kureyon instead. Oh well! Charlotte is not meant to be yet.

Knitting doldrums

I've gotten very little knitting done the last two nights in spite of my best hopes.  It was my Mom's birthday yesterday and we took her to dinner on Tuesday and then cake last night with some uncles of mine.  I'm still hopeful to have the "shapely tank from hell" seamed tonight.  Who knows maybe I'll get the last few inches done on the body of the "French market bag".  Wait, that's probably too much to ask for, oh well..

First post

So here I am creating myself a blog.  Why?  I have no idea.  Is it merely because it seems to be the thing to do now, or is it just another outlet to for me to go on about my knitting?  Be the judge. 
 
Okay so about the knitting.  It seems to have taken on a life of it's own lately.  I have one too many projects going on at one time.  I've actually had to force myself to concentrate on one project to knock it out before going on.  Right now it is "Shapely Tank" from white lies.  I'm doing this for my sister out of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in a horrible mint green color.  It's taking me forever to do because the color is horrible.  I finally finished the back of it today.  Tomorrow I'll start blocking so I can finish it.  I cannot wait to be done with it.