Procrastinating and Felting

Well, I'm suppose to be working, but I can think of many other things I'd rather be doing.

I finally got around to felting the booga bag I made back in September. I know I know it took me over 4 months to throw something in the washing machine. What can I say, I am the queen of procrastination. (please excuse the poor picture quality)



I also felted two swatches for a couple of iPod cozies, one for the future hubby, and a replacement one for me (I really don't like the original one I made). The black one was made from a random skein of alpaca (I decided this yarn is too nice to felt, so I'm going to save it as an accent to a future project.) The purple one is from some reynolds lopi, I'm gonna go with that one. It'll make a nice think case, so my iPod won't get all scratched up in my purse. I'm going to try to work in some color, but I have to see if I can figure out a chart that takes into account the percentage of shrinkage once felted.



In the news of the Charlotte's web shawl, I only have 26 more rows to go, granted there's a fair amount of stitches per row, it's still only 26 more rows.

To gift knit or not to gift knit...

A friend of mine is pregnant and expecting her first child in June. This past weekend I received a phone call from her mother discussing her baby shower. Immediately, I started thinking about what cute knitted things I could make for this bundle-of-joy-to-be. Visions of hats, booties, sweaters and blankets in pastel colors and soft luscious wool ran through my head.

Then it hit me: What if she doesn’t appreciate hand-knit gifts?

Do you spend the time, money and energy on making something that will probably be looked at with a sneer of indifference? No, of course not! I keep trying to tell myself that this woman was an art history major, that she can recognize the time and love put into a hand-knit item. Then I tell myself “well, she’s always been a snob too…”

It’s really a shame that I’m actually wasting time thinking about this. It’s also a shame that some people are so shallow.

Promised Picture

I've been completely wrapped up in craziness and keep forgetting to post up pictures of my attempt at making an iPod bag. (See my post from 12/29)

To Dye For

I had a major hair dying mishap last night. The lovely Natural Light Caramel Brown haircolor I used on my hair last night turned it a not so lovely shade of auburn. My sisters said I looked like an oompa loompa from willy wonka. I've used this color before with no issues, so I'm very disappointed. I called Clairol's help line this morning they said that to tone it down I need to either go to a salon, or wait up to 4 weeks before I try it again. Ick.... I'm not sure what to do right now other then to wear a hat.

I haven't been a red head in over 3 years, I really hadn't wanted to go back either and certainly not less then 3 months before my wedding. Oh well, at least it's not the day before.

Game On

From the depeths of hybernation she has stirred. The project that has been haunting me for months. Charlotte's Web! Tossed upon the shelf of UFO's, testing my patience, silently tormenting me to finish her and mocking me each time I returned home from yet another fruitless trip to the local yarn store for the magic skeins of yarn that would finish her. Finally, this weekend, I found it, the second skein of color change 5 that matched the original color I picked. No more dragging this shawl around looking for a fifth color that might work as well as that lovely purple mix I orignially pick. No more well meaning clerks telling me to just finish it off in a solid color.

I had bought the original yarn for Charlotte at Knit NY months ago. I bought exactly one skein of each color. While working on color 4 I realized I was not going to have enough yarn, I needed an extra skein of color 5. Back to the store, but it was gone. I have been to numerous stores multiple times over the last several months trying to figure something out for a fifth color, never happy. I'm really happy now. So my dear 4/5 done shawl Charlotte I have one thing to say to you : GAME ON!!!

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.