One Crazy Fiber Lady

But a good cranky lady.  I cranked ye old CSM again last night and churned out another pair of socks.  This time in Duet Skinny - Sailor Girl colorway if I remember correctly.

I do a couple at a time separated by waste yarn.  These socks are a mock rib done on the 72 cylinder over 54 st (3in 1 out) as 72 stitches is wicked big for my wee feet.  There’s a 12 row picot top that you can just make out.  What remains is the toe needs to be grafted and waste yarn removed.  Neat.  This pair remains a bit too wide around for me and since it is superwash, I can’t felt them smaller as I did with the last pair. 

My ebay machine arrived yesterday.  The jury is still out as to whether it is trash or treasure.  It isn’t a serious mess, and I was able to set it up and get it to crank with needles in it.  But only one direction.  The other direction would cause it to jam.  I oiled it up a bit and it went a tad smoother.  I might try that cylinder on the working machine, if it fits.  The maker of this thing is unknown.  It isn’t labeled in anyway, but other than the markings it could be a twin of the Auto Knitter.  The only thing missing is the raised embossing of ‘Auto’ on the crank and the ‘Auto Knitter - Made in Canada’ on the base.    I’ve ordered some new needles for her and will give her a good cleaning over the weekend.  (Mental note, must get mineral spirits.)

Not all socks are being cranked around here.  I’m actually hand knitting a few of them.  Actually finished one on Saturday at a birthday party the kids went to at Tiger Schulmann for one of their classmates.  Only got two new invites yesterday.  Ugh.   Oh well, I had a nice time hanging with the other parents.  Its not something I get to do much.  I drop the monkeys off in the morning and go racing for the train.  Doesn’t give much socializing time.  So it was nice to really chat with the other mothers.  Anyway, I finished the first KnitPicks Felici sock in Firefighter and cast on the second this morning on the train (yes, not immediately, I have been a tad distracted ;)…

That’s about it for today.  I’ll leave you with a picture of my silly girl mugging for the camera.

Craft on!

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Well, its more like a weekly update at this point.   I know it is either feast or famine when it comes to my posting.  I do apologize for that.   I write a lot of posts.  In my head at least.   I snap lots of photos and eventually connect the camera to one of the many computers in my life.  Actually there’s a new one of those for me to support as I finally rebuilt one of my OLD desktops (a 500mhz celeron) so that Alex could play on one and get off my dell laptop.  Kat has one of my mother’s old hand-me-downs in her room and plays Reader Rabbit and Calliou on it.  Fair is fair, right?  Anyway, I had started futzing with Alex’s machine about a month ago only to find that the hard drive in there had died leaving the machine without its primary operating system.  It is fixed now and running and oldie but goodie, Windows 98

I saw this gorgeous sunset last week, I think it was Thursday as I made my way home.

It was a warm night for February and I rode outside on the top deck of the ferry.  You can just see the Statue of Liberty in the distance there.  As always, click to make big.  Surely isn’t that nice today!  We had blizzard conditions that left us with a dusting of snow.  It was a brisk 27F when we came home from a dinner out at Bennigans.  Brrrrr.  Nice to have warm indoor hobbies.

I apparently have my sock mojo back after losing it for far too long.  I cast on one  Monday morning on the train, in KnitPicks something or other in the Firefighter colorway.   This is how I commute, knitting and iPod on knee.  I’m currently re-watching old Battlestar Galacticas in preparation for the upcoming new season.   I can’t wait for that!

I have my first finished socks for the year.  The mojo is back in spades.  These are stockinette socks with short row heel, short row toe over 54 stitches.  The yarn is Sweet Georgia in some colorway or other, I’ve sort of lost the tag.

The truly amazing thing with these socks?  I knit the first one yesterday in about 40 minutes and the other this afternoon (after finishing Alex’s computer).  How did I do that?  With one of these!!!!

After almost a decade of looking, reading and coveting, I finally bought one.  This is a Canadian Auto Knitter that I bought from a local NJ fiber buddy who is upgrading to a NZAK.  It has 72/36  cylinders, electronic counter and a plethora of other accessories.  She even gave me a lesson in how to use it when I stopped on by yesterday.  I’m digging it.  I do think that that lesson combined with my experience with flat bed knitting machines has made the steep learning curve pretty flat.  I haven’t tried ribbed sock yet, but woohoo, the first pair is done.  AND better yet, I made a nice pair with yarn I didn’t really enjoy hand knitting with.  Maybe that mountain of sock yarn will become a mole hill

Finally, Deb, Jessica and Eva have awarded me with the “Make my day award”.  I’m terribly honored.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  You all make my day.

Craft on!

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I don’t quite know how the kids like the Wii yet, by the time I got it set up last night it was bedtime, but I’m digging it.  Kat and I played with Wii Sports until well past that time and she did pretty well.  After the monkeys were in bed, I started to give mom a quick lesson in Wii-ness.  Yeah, two and a half hours later we shut it off having routed through several games of bowling (mom was in a league for years and I played on the high school team), tennis and baseball.  I trounced her in bowling while she got back at me with a KO in boxing ;)  The twins should really like that one!  I suspect they’ll all be playing a bit today as today is their last non-school Thursday for a while to come.

Just to prove I’m not all electronics and video games, I am still knitting.  Dacapo has been my commuting buddy recently though I am getting somewhat bored by all that freakin’ garter stitch on small needles.  Here she is lounging along the river this morning:

I had to buy her a longer needle as all those little stitches wouldn’t stay on the needles.  Every time I pulled the sucker out of my bag, I had to repair the last couple.  I’m using a 40″ now and it is helping a bit, though if I’m not extremely careful and shove her to the middle of the needles, I lose a few still. 

I know some folk were seriously surprised by Jessica’s pronouncement of the end of her sock honeymoon.  Regulars around here might have noticed that I lost my sock mojo around the end of the summer too.  Which is sad, because I really do like knitting socks and I, um, do have a bit of sock yarn around. 

What’s this?

Embryonic socks.  Koigu.  Yum.  I picked this up from Modern Yarn a few weeks back when they got their first batch of it.  Sorry, don’t have the color number with me, but its on the other skein at home.  I’m casting on a pair today.  It will be one of four patterns:  Charade, I Love Gansey (from the six socks knitalong), Hedera (again) or plain old vanila socks.   I’m thinking Gansey.

Tonight is the much loved SnB so the gaming consoles, but not the knitting, will be ignored by me

Craft on!

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I really have to start posting more often.  I mentally compose many posts that never make it to a computer and by the time I actually sit down at the computer to write one, I never know where to start.  There’s also my preference to write in code and not so much in english

I mentioned, sort of in passing last week the possibility of my upgrading notebook computers.  Well that came to pass.  Thanks to the assistance of Nancy and her wonderful hubby, I’m the proud owner of a new MacBook.  I took advantage of a last "use it or lose it" vacation day on Friday and spent some time getting to know the new toy.

If you click and make big, you can see something that totally makes this geek giggle.  I have, thanks to Parallels Desktop 3.0 I have Windows XP running as well. I have the previous version of it running on my iMac downstairs.  The new version has something called Coherence in it which makes it invisible as to which operating system is running the application.  Translated from geek to english:  I can run windows software within MacOS without it being crammed inside another window.  I can run my windows based development suite without having to get an (non-existent) version.  Cool huh?  Doesn’t take much to make me giggle

Besides the geeky stuff, I’ve actually stepped away from the Xbox (mom is seriously addicted now btw) and done a little knitting.  The first pair of socks since early September are now finished!  Woot.  They came off the needles Friday morning. 

Project Info:

Pattern:  own basic vanilla socks.  First was done toe up and the other was cuff down.  Short row heel over 52 st on US1 needles.

Yarn:  Jitterbug in Raphael

Started: ?? Sept/Oct 2007

Finished: Dec. 21, 2007

I wore these yesterday to my sister’s house for the annual family get together.  Very comfy.  Nice to finally have another pair of socks to wear.  I really got to wash the rest of the collection

Another project has been resurrected.  My leftover sock yarn granny square blanket saw some action last night.

You can get a sense of the size.  That’s one of the kid’s matchbox cars in the upper left hand corner.  Took me the better part of an hour to do one round.  I still love it.  I’m finding though that crochet has more impact on my body than knitting.  Shortly after picking this up last night, I was noticing discomfort in my shoulder.  I must rotate it more when crocheting.  I moved my yarn supply and tried to minimize arm roll and it felt better.

Today’s half day at school paired with a full day off for me, meant I could get some knitting done.  I pulled out Kauni and finally finished the body.  The sewing machine is coming out later so I can get some steek cutting done.

I want to wish all those who celebrate a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you have a very happy and healthy holiday surrounded by family and friends.  For our part, we have a nice quiet time at home as there isn’t much else to do ;) 

Craft on!

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Time for the sporadic post.  I haven’t got much today.  I finished the teacher gifts.  Yay.  Well, have to block them tonight and get them wrapped for the party at school on Friday.  Bah, plenty of time.

I finally finished a sock.  Weeee.  First one since September.  The really blows my mind that it has been that long. I did immediately cast on for the second, so at least I’m staying in character there.

This picture is a couple days old.  I’m just shy of the heel.  The astute out there might have noticed that the first was done toe-up and the second is going cuff down.  All of a sudden, I’m out of love with the toe-ups.  Fortunately with the short row heel, you can’t really tell which direction the thing was knit in.  Works for me.  Its nice to be finishing socks again.

My swiss cheese like memory doesn’t actually remember when this happened, but more than likely it was Thursday after picking them up due to the early closing. 

Yes, Kat was wearing short short sleeves in December, during a snow/sleet storm.  I did get her to concede to wearing a sweater at least.  They were both playing different Reader Rabbit titles.  Good thing we have multiple computers in the house!  The little laptop is mine and the larger one belongs to mom.  It seems to have relocated to my room to keep the monkeys from fighting over mine.  I might be relegating mine to the twins anyway as there is the prospect of a new MacBook on the horizon.  Time will tell.

It’s been busy since then.  Friday my office had a holiday party for all our children.  I brought the monkeys in with me on the train and then the ferry.  They had an adventure!  There was a magician elf who did face painting and even Santa made an appearance to hand out age specific presents to the kids.  Moms/dads RSVP’ed for the youngin’s with their ages/sex to make that magic happen.  There was pizza, cookies, fruit snacks, and lots of juice to be had.  By 2:30 that afternoon, the kids were so sugared up that they were running around the periphery of the office.  They had a blast!  I finally got them home at 5. Kat crashed on the train and I had trouble waking her for our stop.  Eventually she roused.  I think the threat that I’d leave her princess painting present on the train if she didn’t did the trick in the end.

Last night was the holiday party for the grownups.  We had it at a nice place on Wall Street near South Street (extremely convenient to the ferry).  The food was great.  They had DJ’s, and an open bar.  Good times.  I didn’t make it home until almost 11.  The technology group is having a gathering at an bar tomorrow night.  Looks like I’ll miss the SnB one more week as I doubt the folks will let me out a third night this week ;)   Oh well. I got home last night to find mom playing the Xbox.  He he.

Finally, I saw this meme on Nancy’s blog.

If your life were a soundtrack, what would the music be?

Here’s how it works:
1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every section, type the song that’s playing
5. next section — press the next button
6. don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool

opening credits:

Hello It’s Me - Todd Rundgren

waking up:

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin

first day at school:

Hello, I love you - The Doors

falling in love:

Celebration Day - Led

breaking up:

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

prom:

Walk on Water - Aerosmith

life’s okay:

That’s All - Genesis

mental breakdown:

All that You Can’t Leave Behind - U2

driving:

Penny Lane - The Beatles

flashback:

To Each His Dulcinea - Man of La Mancha sountrack

getting back together:

Bad - U2

wedding:

Break on Through - The Doors

birth of child:

We’re an American Band - Grand Funk Railroad

final battle:

Miracle Drug - U2

death scene:

Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own - U2

end credits:

We Said Hello, Goodbye - Phil Collins

Consider yourself tagged if you wish.

Craft on!

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Wow, time really does fly when you’re not paying attention.  Days flow in their normal way.  Work, kids, sleep.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Oh yeah, knit on the train.  XBox at night.  I finally found the family timer on it and set it for 90 minutes a day.  I finally got some knitting time last night as I didn’t totally lose track of time and play Puzzle Quest until midnight.

I finished the first of the teacher scarves last week ( I think, lost track of the time and stopped noting when thing were started and finished.)  Here is scarf number two, also in Malabrigo worsted, colorway Amoroso (?).  I finished it last night while watching Project Runway.  See, the timer on the 360 is a good thing. 

Friday night/Saturday I was sort of pushed to finally get an item off the queue and onto the needles.  See, Friday night the twins got robes from my folks for Hanukkah.  Alex’s came with slippers.  Kat’s did not.  I’ve been unable to find her slippers.  Then I remembered Twinkletoes and that I had already had the Calmer in pink marinating in the stash.  So I knit the little miss a pair of the toddler size.  She’s got wee feet like me.

I’ve become the role model for avoiding SSS.  I giggle when I read others quoting my "immediately cast on for the second".  So what does this say about me?

All three are first socks.  I can’t remember the last time I had three single socks on the needles!  Left to right are:  Duet Skinny in Sailor Girl, Regia in the Kaffe stripey goodness and Jitterbug.  It has been a very long time, September to be exact, since I finished a sock!  The Duet was started on 9/11 believe it or not.   I haven’t a clue when the other two were started.  I’m not looking forward to all those second socks! 

The Jitterbug sock has presented additional difficulties and is now on its third set of needles.  The first set were the ebony Lantern Moons that I bought at Rhinebeck.  I managed to snap two of the needles.  WHILE KNITTING.  Not while taking out of purse, or just collateral damage in purse.  No.  I was actually knitting, on the train, and snapped first one, replaced it, and then a second one two days later.  Damn.  I  swapped in a set of rosewood needles over the weekend only to find that the 6" needles do nothing more than piss me off, jabbing me in the hands.  I’ve now gone to the third set, and apparently my favorite needles, Clover Takumi’s. Good.  Maybe now I’ll finish the damn thing.  I have to say, I’m sort of tired of these socks.

This is the first year we did the 8 nights of presents for the kids.  They really "got it" this year.  (As always click for bigger)

Thanks to the snow falling outside presently, no SnB for the second week in a row.  I’ll probably be leaving the office early to avoid having to dig my car out of a large snowdrift at the station with nothing more than a stupid brush.  Have I mentioned before my serious dislike of the white stuff?

Craft on!

Edited to add:  almost immediately after I hit the post button, the kids’ teacher called to tell me that Tutor Time was closing at 2:30 because of the weather.  I gotta leave in 25 minutes in order to get them.   

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Well that was a quick loss of mojo.  Part of the problem has been the eager anticipation of the soon to arrive Kauni yarn.  I know whatever is on the needles will be tossed aside the moment that yarn arrives.  It really is all that I can think about for the last week.  I’ve been debating what pattern to actually knit with it.  There are a number of options.  First is Ruth’s Sweater(pdf).  Then I saw her Autumn Sweater. 

Other’s have followed this same path down Kauni Madness ending at the same place too.  To me, the ultimate is the beautiful Damask (From an out of print Dale pillow pattern).  I’ve thought of little else since I saw it.  I googled my fingers to the bone trying to find a copy of the pattern to no avail.  So I took the graphic, enlarged it greatly, broke out Excel, created graph paper and graphed the darn thing.  I’m now ready to knit this when the yarn arrives, which should be imminent.

As Spongebob would say, I’m ready. Though there is a little crazy part of me that wants to make the plain version considering that I’m planning on making this commuting knitting.  At least before the sleeves enter the picture.  Maybe I’ll hold this version for a second sweater.   Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Anyway.  I seem to have regained some sock mojo.  I thank everyone for their suggestions and commiseration on the sock burnout.  I’ve tucked all the in progress and rewound skeins away and have moved onto a tried and true favorite.  I did go for a new pattern, Baudelaire from Knitty with the Louet Gems in Cherry Red.  So far so good.  It could be a scootch smaller, but fits as is okay.  I’ve been using my new Lantern Moon US1 Ebony DPNs for this sock and I have to say, I seriously love it.

Besides, I think there’s something to this Red Sock…

(BTW, it is now 12 13 to 1 as I write this and another pitcher got chased.  Sweet.  Let’s go Red Sox!)

Finally I have a picture of the under-represented cats in this house.  Sara gets most of the screen time, but last night I found the other two, Duchess of a’Rat and Earl Grey snuggling in a pretty darn weird position.

I like her choice of a foot rest

Craft on!

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Sock knitting mojo seems to be a fragile thing, not to mention easily misplaced.  I don’t say lost as I’m sure its around here someplace, but mislaid somewhere.

I’ve started and tossed aside quite a number of socks recently using a number of patterns and several yarns.  For one reason or another, none have quite cut it.

What’s here?   Working right to left:

1.  Duet Skinny in Sailor Girl, pattern currently is my plain vanilla sock recipe with just the coordinating color on the toe.  There’s nothing wrong with the yarn, it just isn’t rocking my boat, though it has been my ferry knitting as of late.

2.  Union Center WhatNot Sock in Kitty’s Eyes.  Not in sock or to-be-sock state at all.  I tried a couple of patterns including Anastasia and my vanilla socks.  Either the color, the split/pattern and/or size were wrong.  Which is odd because I like the colors.  I might give them another attempt using Monkey but then again, the K2Tog with Anastasia had me rip out half a sock.  Sigh.

3.  Fearless Fibers (etsy) in the Chocolate Pink Cherry, just past the heel on the first Monkey.  This sock was tossed aside when SOS started.  I went back to it this morning, but  maybe its me.  I’m just not feeling it.  Seeing half a plain foot in the project bag from the other end of the wound ball reminds me that it started as a plain vanilla toe up that just didn’t grab me either.   

4.  Lornas Lace Shepherd Sock in Parfait.  Started Saturday as a vanilla but then ripped after the toe to then become Monkey’s.  I tossed it aside last night while watching a super funny episode of Top Gear.  I’m not liking how the colors appear.  This seems to be another example of when I like a yarn better in the skein.

There might be another couple of socks-in-progress-but-not-loved somewhere around here.  I just can’t remember them at the moment.

I’m not entirely sure what to do now.  Did I burn out on socks over the summer?  Maybe.  I think I lost my mojo for a bit then too now thinking back.  Freaked my SnB buds out that night, but was able to recapture it ASAP.  Do I try something else with one of the existing non-favorites?  Do I try a different yarn from the stash (of which there are plenty)?  Do I go with a yarn I know I love (a solid Louet) and work a new pattern?  I do have Wendy’s Asparagus Cable socks and a Claudia Handpaint in a tone-on-tone nearly sock of Lipstick.  I also have a semi-solid Yarntini also in a red.  I’m just scared if something new isn’t successful, the mojo might just be gone for longer. 

Bah.

Craft on!

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While it might appear otherwise, I am indeed alive and well.  I’m seriously touched by recent comments inquiring as to how I am.  It has sadly been a long while since I posted, and I’m sorry about that.  Part of the reason has been that work involves a longer day as I’m now getting home at 7:15 instead of 6:15.  Dinner is now later, which I don’t always get to share with the monkeys either.   I’m trying to adjust to the new schedule and hopefully will get into a real routine that will also include semi-regular posting shortly. 

In the meanwhile, here’s a random Wednesday update as to what has happened over the last THREE (can it really be that long?) weeks:

1.  The twins were on vacation for ages.  Their last day at the old school was August 24th.  They’ve been home, making my mother nuts since.  I did provide her a bit of relief that last week of August when I had one of the girls from school come over for two days.  They finally started up again today at the new place (Tutor Time) and were almost eager to go this morning.  They took to it like old pros.  Alex asked of he could go back tomorrow.  I’ll take that as a good sign, especially since they only go M/W/F

2.  We spent Labor Day weekend on the boat.  The weather was gorgeous and sadly, for most of it, I had camnesia.  I did manage to remember the thing for Alex’s first fish.  We fished off the back of the boat while tied up at our regular slip at the marina.  He caught this little baby using grilled chicken as bait.  It’s not a huge fish, but darn good for his first time out.  The little dickens reeled it in himself!  I managed a few catches too including a small pike, a crab and even a catfish.  It was a very relaxing weekend!

3.  I finished spinning up the second bobbin of that BFL on my Schacht last week.  I pulled out the Fricke eSpinner Friday night and plied it all.  I had forgotten how wonderful that sucker is for plying.  It took me over an hour to ply it all.  Contrary to standard practice, I skeined it and then even washed it immediately.  I set it out to dry in the sun on Saturday.  I’m pleased with the colors and am eager to see how it knits up.  I haven’t measured either the length or the wpi of this skein, but it is all of 4.5oz.  Will be plenty for socks.

4.  Knitting continues.  I have finished not one nor two but three pairs of socks since I last posted.  First up was the Monkeys:

Not sure when I started, or even finished these.  I just know they were done when I started the next pair on Aug 15th.  Notice the lack of monkey-ness on the foot.  I went with the plain knit and opted for a smaller needle than the pattern calls for.  The socks fit my little feet perfectly.

With the leftover Lorna’s in Bittersweet, I knit a pair of socks for Miss Kat.  I did hers toe-up over 44st and used a rib lace pattern on the cuff.  I increased the stitch count the round after the short row heel to accommodate the pattern.  Miss-miss is very happy with her new socks and immediately tucked them in the nearest bag.  I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the chick is a serious bag lady.  Everything is in bags!  Anyway… I’m very pleased with the socks and will prolly make her (and her bro) a few more pairs.  These were started on 8/18 and finished on 8/24 (my former wedding anniversary but that’s for another post

Finally there was a third pair started/finished.  More basic vanilla stockinette socks in STR Silkie Little Bunny Foo Foo colorway.  I believe I got this yarn in a swap with Dorre, for what, I don’t actually remember :)  Couldn’t be more standard.  US1’s, toe-up, short row heel.  blah blah blah.  Started:  8/15 Finished:  8/29.  The preschooler socks snuck in before I managed to finish both socks.

The crochet sock blankie progresses but that, like a few other projects, completely lacks updated photos.  I’m just shy of the armpits on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan.  I’ve acquired the yarn (but haven’t cast on yet) for the Hemlock blanket.  It’s rather high in the queue and I might just tackle it this weekend.  We’ll see.  I also finally dug out the much neglected Ribby that I started so very long ago.  A hidden note in the sidebar indicates that I cast on for it on 4/5/06.  I worked on it off and on, mostly off obviously, but last touched it last winter as a break from Celtic Dreams.  Seeing Deb progress on hers made me remember this bad old thing hanging about and I finally dug it out from the back of the closet where it has been hiding since I moved into my new room last February.  I’m ashamed to admit how far along I was when it went into hiding.  Earl here helped me show you:

I had completed not only the back and both sleeves, but also the right front and had done the lower ribbing on the right.  One evening in front of the TV and I had it to the armpit.  One more night and it was done.  I’ve ordered (and even received) a zipper for it, now I just need to do the fiddly things.  But first it needs a blocking.  {snicker} maybe this weekend.

That should do it for now.  Hopefully more very soon including further catch-up.  Miss you!

Craft on!

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I just had my exit interview.  Let me first say that anyone who is an HR professional, please look away.  I had a horrible experience with my exit interview.  The meeting was kicked off with an opportunity to give any feedback and to explain why I was leaving.  We would then follow with an explanation of the benefits (of which I didn’t need as in a previous life I was a benefits analyst) and COBRA.  So I started to explain that the reason I was leaving was because of the unprofessional, rude and otherwise undesirable behavoir by my director.  That was when she turned the meeting around on me.  Why didn’t I say anything before?  Why didn’t I tell the director that his behavoir was rude?  WHAT?  Oh sure, that would have made it a more comfortable workplace when I’m telling the director that he’s rude.  How could they make it better if no one complains.  First I don’t think they have the power to "make it better".  This is the ass’ nature.  There is no changing it.  What’s HR going to do about it?  Put a note in his folder?  What she did was make me feel unreasonable for being uncomfortable enough to look elsewhere without talking to her first.  I finally told her that I don’t care whether so and so is bothered by his behavoir, the 4 people before me were unhappy enough to leave and so am I.  Whatever.  I’m done.  One more day.  Its not worth the energy.

In happier news, I checked out Tutor Time this morning as the wicked early time of 7AM.  Eew.  The center is gorgeous.  The security is phenomenal.  The program is wonderful and I think the kids will be happy there.  It is also quite a bit more expensive than the current place.  I’m beginning to seriously think that I’d been getting a bargain price.  I’m happy enough with the place that I’ll be canceling the appt. I have for tomorrow afternoon at another center a bit further from home.  I crunched the numbers and can definitely swing it, but I will be knitting from stash more.  A new austerity budget regime is about to commence.  Two more years until public school.

Thanks to the help of the other bloggers on this wonderful internet, I finally found what I’m going to do with all the leftover sock yarn!  I saw this first when Beth posted about seeing one here.  Okay, I’m a hooker too.

I’ve been crocheting technically longer than I’ve been knitting.  Mom taught me to crochet first.  Probably a granny square then too :)  I have nightmares from the 70’s of brightly colored ack-rylic granny squares being seamed together for just about everything under the sun.  No thanks.  But.  One big honking granny square blankie of quality sock yarn, count me in!  Is it bad that I’m looking at sock yarns to see how they would fit in to the blanket?  That center blue stuff?  That’s the leftover of the Lorna’s in the Jeans colorway.  Leftover after getting two socks from one skein.  He he.  Okay, anyone got leftover sock yarn they don’t want?

What else?  Oh yeah, the first sock is definitely done (and there’s a goodly amount of leftover and the second is well begun though I won’t bore ya with progress shots of it as they’ll look alot like the first one.

As to the larger quantity leftover, I’m torn between adding it to the blankie or making pairs for the monkeys.  Grrr.

Anyway, beloved SnB tonight!  Woot.  Can’t wait.  Tomorrow?  Last Freakin’ Day!  woooooot

Craft on!

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