Knitamazoo(tm)

Sleep. Something your body needs. Some bodies need more than others. Some bodies can function on little to no sleep. Not this body. I have always been an 8 hour a night girl. I can function on 7 but 8 is my preferred goal. I have not acheived this goal in a very long time. I go to bed at a fairly decent hour (around 10 most nights), I fall asleep pretty quickly, I usually do fine until about 1:30 or 2:00am. I wake up. It could be I’m hot (or cold but mostly hot) or I need to use the uh . . . “facilities” but most likely I just wake up. No reason. I just wake up. I can usually go back to sleep but then I toss and turn and wake up every half hour or so. Fitful, interrupted sleep is just as bad as no sleep for this body. I have my suspicions on why this is happening (and I’m seeing my doctor in a couple of weeks). I have started taking magnesium, which should help but it’s not really working.

I feel like a zombie most of the time. I am constantly tired and cranky. Why is a good night’s sleep so ellusive? And I won’t even get into knitting while you’re this tired. Well maybe I will (but just a little). I am still working on the Mystic Waters Lace Shawl. I completed row 200 last night and thought it was a good place for a lifeline. I started counting my stitches to make sure all was well. Up to the first marker . . . good . . . up to the center stitch marker . . . good . . . up to the next marker . . . over one stitch. Hmmmmm . . . maybe the marker got moved, let me count the remaining stitches . . . just exactly what I should have. How did I get one stitch off? I counted and re-counted. Same number of stitches each time. I checked my sitches against the chart and all seemed well, so why did I have an extra stitch? I finally gave up and put it away for the night. Today I went back to the chart and counted the stitches in the section in question. Guess what? It was the exact number of stitches I had on my needle! Never count stitches (on the chart or your needle) when you haven’t gotten enough sleep.

It’s been awhile since I last posted. My toe is healing up nicely. I am finally hobbling around without the aid of my crutches. The toe is still buddy taped, but progress has been made. There’s news on the knitting front and stories from work.

Let’s start with work shall we . . . there is a technician who is fairly new to our team (abt. 2 months) and he’s not very well liked by anyone else on the team. Word has already come down that we will have to cut 2 people in the next 6-8 months and he knows he is on the list. So he is looking for another job. He had one job interview and they called him to tell him that he wouldn’t fit in there and that he had issues with his attitude. So now he is looking at another job and he asked me if I would give him a reference. I said I guess I could if he really wanted me to. He replied asking if I would give him a great reference. I said that great wasn’t the word I would use and then he asked me to lie. Now I don’t lie for anyone and I told him that. He then proceded to ask me to fib and I told him that was the same as lying. So he keeps pushing me and finally says to me, “You don’t like me, do you?” I didn’t hesitate . . . I replied, “No, not really.” After that we had a good discussion about things he needs to work on and he says he wants to change. We’ll see how that goes.

Now for the knitting news. I am a procrastinator through and through. I always have been and I don’t know if that will ever change. I joined the SSK (Secret Sock Knitters) Club at my LYS. We are to knit a pair of socks for our secret pal, send them little treats for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then on December 1 there will be a little party at the LYS where we will reveal ourselves to our secret pals and give them their socks. I bought the yarn for the socks right after I signed up (a couple of weeks ago). I’ve looked through hundreds of patterns. I’ve cast on 3 different times. I picked a stitch pattern and decided to design socks. After knitting an inch or so of the leg, I decided the stitch pattern didn’t go with the yarn. So there they have sat. I know I have a deadline but I just don’t want to knit socks. I want to knit lace . . . I want to knit sweaters (especially since it’s getting cold here in Michigan) . . . I want to knit anything else possible except socks. I am in the Mystic Waters Mystery Shawl KAL and I’m dying to cast on for it, but I keep telling myself that I need to finish my socks before casting on one more project. So this weekend I decided that I would work on nothing else until I had finished at least one sock of the pair. And what do you know . . . it worked! Here is sock number 1 finished except for weaving in the ends. The toe is grafted and everything. I settled on the River Rapids pattern from Sockbug. It goes along quickly which is a big bonus! I even had time this weekend to work on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I have completed the body down to the cabled part. I have switched over to the smaller needles and have completed row 1 of the cabled rib pattern. I also finished frogging my Salt Peanuts so that I have the yarn to finish Mr. Greenjeans. I’m so glad that I frogged. I was just never going to finish Salt Peanuts. As much as I loved the sweater, the pattern was driving me nuts and I just know that I would never actually sit down and figure it out. I am so much happier using the lovely Malabrigo yarn in Mr. Greenjeans. I can’t wait to finish this sweater. But the socks are my number one priority and I have the same goal next weekend . . . no knitting for me until sock 2 is finished. Can I do it??

In an effort to thwart my grand sock knitting plans, I have managed to schedule myself to teach classes at my LYS for three nights this week and three nights next week. Tonight is the learn to knit class. According to the sign up sheet it is full, but not everyone has paid so we’ll see who shows up. I actually have one more student signed up than I normally would. So if everyone shows it will be a large class. Tomorrow is a felted hat class. This one should be smaller and a lot of fun. Thursday I finish up the mitten class and next Thursday start the next felted clog class. So not much knitting time during the week. I really want to cast on the socks and get the cuff done by the weekend so I can zip right along on the rest of the sock. What was I thinking taking on so much around the holidays? I need my head examined.

Last Saturday night, the hubster and I were watching some tv in our basement rec room. I had gotten up off the couch to take care of something and was navigating the obsticle course which is our basement when I whacked my right foot on the edge of the loveseat. I immediately let out a yell and crumpled to the floor. When I hit the loveseat I heard a very loud *SNAP* as did the hubster over the tv. He jumped up thinking that I had snapped my ankle out of joint and I told him to get me some ice. The toe next to the pinky toe is probably broken. I say probably because I did not go get x-rays. I figured they would take x-rays and say, “Yes, it’s broken” or “No, it’s not broken, just sprained,” buddy tape it to the next toe over and send me home after charging me an arm and a leg. So I’ve buddy taped it and have been hobbling around on crutches all this week. I won’t go into the gory details, but it is bruised and still a bit swollen. Ow!

This unfortunate accident is not without its good points. It forced me to lay on the couch all day Sunday with my foot propped up in the air, knitting. I have also spent almost every night this week on the couch, foot propped up, knitting. So here is the progress report . . .

The Fibertrends Felted Clogs are almost finished. I need to attach the second sole to the second clog, stitch up the soles on both clogs, weave in the ends and felt. These are such a fast knit! I’ve been going slower so I can use them to demonstrate in my class. Normally these can be cranked out in a weekend (or less!). Great holiday gift idea! Just imagine the look on the recipient’s face when they pull the pre-felted clogs out of the box! Priceless!

I think I may have finally settled on a pattern for my SSK Club sock. That has been a struggle. I’ve started 3 times now and hopefully this will be the one. I am working on the cuff for sock #1 so there are no pictures yet.

And finally, I have cast on for the Jersey Shore Weekender sweater. I swatched for this sweater back in August with some leftover Berocco Ultra Alpaca from my Mystery Sweater. I loved the swatch so much (especially since I got gauge!) that I got the same color for this sweater. It’s a lovely deep burgundy. I cast on the 154 stitches I need for the back and knit one row of ribbing last night while we rode out the tornado warning in the basement. The cold front has come through and it’s much cooler here today. I’m hoping for a freeze soon so that my allergies calm down.

Have a fantabulous weekend! *a-choo*

I don’t have children. There are reasons I don’t have children. I love children but don’t want any of my own. I like giving them back to their parents after I’m done having fun with them. I work for a Fortune 500 company, so tell me why is it that I have to deal with children all day at work? I’m just going to leave it at that.

The Coriolis is coming along nicely. I didn’t knit too much last night as I had to teach a knitting class. I’ll get to work on it some tonight while watching the first Red Wings game of the new hockey season! Now as long as I’m not blowing my nose every two seconds due to my allergies I’ll be doing ok. I hate to take a antihistimine as they make me dizzy and sleepy. Not a good combo when trying to knit.

I can’t believe that I am actually thinking to myself, “Hurry up winter!” I wouldn’t say it out loud for fear of being killed where I stand. But in ways I want it to get here so my allergies calm down. Of course then it’s the cold air and the headcolds that make me blow my nose 10,000 times a day. I can’t win!

I have another knitting class starting tomorrow night. We will be doing the Fibertrends Felted Clogs. So far I have 8 students signed up! That’s the largest class I’ve had to date and it will be a challenge. I already know one or two of the ladies from other classes I have taught so that should be fun.

Well I’m off to blow my nose again. Happy knitting!

So this past Saturday afternoon I grabbed the mail . . . bill, junk, bill, junk . . . hold on what is this? The envelope looked suspiciously like a wedding invitation. I wracked my brain . . . I don’t know anyone who is getting married, do I? No . . . I’m sure of it. I turn it over and there on the back is a name. It’s a name that I recognize but I don’t know why. I tax my brain a little more by chanting the name over and over again in my head but to no avail. I just can’t place where I know that name from. So I thought to myself, I guess I better open it and find out what this is all about. As I start to slide my finger under the flap to open the envelope it hits me like mack truck just exactly what I am holding in my hands. My heart starts to sink, my hands start to shake as I pull out the contents of the envelope and my nightmares are confirmed. Ladies and gentlemen, I am holding in my hands . . . wait for it . . . the invitation to my 20TH YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!!!!

I now feel insanely old. How could 20 years have gone by already? When I finally regain the strength in my legs, I wobble into the bathroom and look in the mirror. I certainly don’t look old . . . do I? And as I gaze at my face in the mirror I begin to notice some wrinkles around my eyes. I start to notice the unsightly amount of gray that has crept into my hair. But I don’t feel old so how can this be? As I stare at my reflection in the mirror I begin to think that maybe I should start coloring my hair. Highlights will cover the gray, right?

As I continue to look at my reflection, I find it very hard to believe that 20 years have passed since I walked onto that football field with my 200+ classmates to receive my diploma. I was full of hope, dreams and excitement! College bound . . . I couldn’t wait! Looking back, I’ve been through a lot since then . . . some bad but mostly good. I managed to earn a college degree, make so many friends I can’t count them, met and married my husband, bought a house, lost both of my grandmothers, lost my job, got a new job, watched my brother get married . . . and the list goes on. As I’ve looked back over the past 20 years of my life, I realize that I may not have fulfilled all of my dreams and I am certainly not where I thought I would be at this point in my life. And as I stood there staring back at my 38 year old face, it hit me. It doesn’t matter that I’m not where I thought I would be. Despite some failures and disappointments, I wouldn’t change a thing about the last 20 years of my life. Because even though I’m not where I thought I would be, I know that I’m right where I’m supposed to be! (Now, I need to ask my hairdresser about those highlights . . .)

I know, I know . . . I haven’t posted in ages and now I’ve done 2 posts in 2 days. I hope I haven’t caused any heart attacks.

This is just a quick post, as I wanted to show you all what I am currently working on. Lace has been my knitting of choice lately and I am currently working on the Fibertrends Sheep Shawl. I am loving it! I’ve had to rip it back a couple of times but I’ve been putting in life lines so it wasn’t so bad.

There is that one larger than life YO and I have no idea how I managed it. I’m going to have to try to share some of it out with the stitches next to it and hope that blocking helps. I’m on row 105 of 210 rows and then there is the border. so it’s coming along.

And from the “What will they think of next?” files, scientists have developed an allergy free peanut! Good news for those of us who suffer from this allergy!

Chapter 1

This past Monday night was the night. The night we were to pick up our very first pop-up camper. The day dawned way too early for me as I had to switch to an earlier shift so we could get to the dealership in time for them to install the brake controller in our SUV. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day dawned an hour after I had gotten out of bed bright and sunny. I arrived at work a little before 7 am (yawn) and somehow managed to make it to the end of my shift. When 3:30pm came I was out the door. I’ve never been so glad to live only 1 mile from work. Hubby was waiting for me so I grabbed a yogurt and we hit the road for the 45 minute trip.

We made good time and pulled into the dealership around 4:30. They whisked away our car and started the installation. Since our walk-through wasn’t scheduled until 5:15 we whiled away the time looking at really expensive (but gorgeous) RV’s. When it was about time for our walk-through we wandered back to the service area where we proceeded to wait until almost quarter to six before we started the walk-through. I’m glad we had the walk-through because we discovered that we were short one pole to support the bunks at the ends of the trailer. They stole found another pole and all was good. After the walk-through we picked up a few accessories (porta-potti, etc.) and paid for them. Now it’s going on 7pm and we still have to pay for the camper.

Half an hour later we finally get in to see the finance guy, sign our papers, write the check and all that jazz. By 8pm, I’m starving but I’m confident I’ll be eating soon as all we have left to do is hook up the trailer and go. I couldn’t have been more delusional wrong.

We hooked up the trailer just fine. Then it was time to test the lights. They all worked great. Awesome! Food, here I come! All that’s left is to find out how to work the brake controller and we’re off. The guy takes one look at the controller and says, “Hmmm . . . that light’s supposed to be on.” My heart (and stomach) sinks. So he goes back and messes with the wires for a couple of minutes. Yippee! The light is now on on the brake control. BUT . . . the lights on the trailer are no longer working.

It’s cold. It’s raining. And I’ve been cursed by my father. Every camping trip we took while I was growing up started with my dad spending hours getting the camper lights to work. So I take refuge in the car since it has to be running for them to test the lights and such. I turn on the heat and the heated seat but still couldn’t get warm. I sit. And I sit. And I sit some more. The guy comes and turns on the turn signal and walks away. Twenty minutes later the turn signal is still on and I’m about to put my head through the windshield. I finally reach over and turn it off.

I must explain at this point that I come from a family with lots of blood sugar problems. I think half my family is diabetic and the other half is on their way. I ate lunch at 11:30am, it’s now almost 9pm and all I’ve eaten is a yogurt. Hubby comes over to see how I’m doing and I’m in tears. I tell him to unhook the trailer and get our money back ’cause I don’t want this camper anymore. Instead of doing what I asked he asks me if I have any change. Huh? Turns out that he found a vending machine (from 1965, I’m not joking), and he wants to get me some chips. After losing 65 cents to that stupid machine I finally get a bag of chips which I inhale. That helped for maybe 5 minutes.

Finally around 9pm they figure out that the crazy people who owned the camper before us had changed the plug on the trailer to a 4-prong plug because they didn’t want to change the recepticle on their vehicle to accept the 6-prong plug that comes on this camper. So that meant that there was a wire missing and those geniuses were driving the 12′ trailer without using the trailer brakes. So we unhooked the camper with the promise that they would change the plug on the camper and deliver it to our door.

So by 9:20pm I was inhaling a Big Mac (ugh!) and ready to just be home. But they did do as promised, and delivered this to our door on Wednesday. (If you want to see more photos, click here.)

Not sure if those two things go together or not but here goes. First the whineing. I’m back on moves/removes at work (til the end of this week thank goodness!). This morning when I get to work at 8:30 I open up my inbox and notice two moves for today that weren’t there on Friday. These moves were from the farms (about 15 minutes away) to our downtown campus and were scheduled to start at 9am. Since the move coordinator was so on the ball, I had to print out my tickets quickly and hit the road to get there in time. I found the building without too much trouble and was pleased to see that I only had to move two laptops and two flat-panel monitors (much better than the 21″ monitors I had to move last week, but that’s another whine). I get the stuff downtown and get in the vomit inducing elevator. I find the new office easily and start hooking everything up. First workstation went great. Second one was fine until I went to plug the power strip in. Can’t find the outlet, it must be behind the desk. So I call the move coordinator. She says to hang on she’ll make a call. She calls me back and tells me to wait for someone to come move the desk for me. Wait? Is she kidding? I have better things to do than to wait for someone to come and move a desk. Besides all they have to do is move the desk and plug in the power strip. Hardly something they would need my technological savvy for. But she insists that I wait. So I wait for 5 minutes. Noone has shown up yet (but I didn’t really expect anyone so soon) so I go over and yank really hard on the desk and it moves. Cool! I get it about 10″ from the wall and then I lay across the desk and reach down and plug in the power strip. I pushed the desk back into place and left. Just call me She-Ra or Xena or some other powerful superwoman!

In sock news, I’ve been working on socks for my hubby’s birthday which is next month this Wednesday. I may have one done if I’m lucky. I’ve tried a couple of different heels on it and have ripped it out several times. I’ve finally settled on a traditional heel flap and am working on the gusset decreases. I’ve been more interested in working on the ankle socks I’m making with Cascade Fixation. They are quick and comfortable. I did a short row heel and toe ala Wendy Johnson. She so kindly gave me permission to post my pattern using her heel and toe directions which I re-worded a bit. So if you’d like to knit these fun ankle socks, click the Free Patterns link on the sidebar. Right now they are the only free pattern but I’d like to put more up in the future. (It’s a pdf file so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.)

That’s it from my little corner of the world I like to call Eternally Winter. (It better warm up soon so I can ride my bike!)

and it’s leaving me behind. Things can get so busy at work that I barely have time to breathe let alone add a post to my blog. And then when I get home I have no desire to even look at my computer. I’ve been doing it all day long for crying out loud. And besides, I want to knit. So while I have a quick moment of quiet at work I’ll try to update you all on what’s happening in my small corner of the world.

Not much actually. I was sick all weekend so I really didn’t do all that much. I did work on my sock pattern for awhile and actually did a little something with my genealogy (my other passion that has dimmed since I learned to knit). I did end up ripping my sock out at knit group. Kelly was a little disappointed but she didn’t give me quite the reaction I thought she would. I’m now right back where I was on Thursday night and might even be a little further. I have a few more gusset decreases and then it’s on down the foot.

It’s starting to warm up a little around here. They are calling for a high of 45F today and the sun is shining. We should be in the 60’s by the weekend and I’m hoping the rain will hold off so we can ride our bikes a little.

I’ve also taken this coming Monday off from work for a “mental health” day. I really need it. I thought hard about taking this Friday off, but Friday’s are generally slow and I get to wear jeans and be comfortable. I’d rather take off on Monday when it’s usually busier. I plan on hanging out at my LYS and knitting for several hours. I’ve not done that yet and I’m really looking forward to just hanging out.

Well that’s it. My life is so boring.

They gave me another laptop that needed the motherboard replaced yesterday. I had the thing broken down, installed and put back together in an hour and a half. A huge improvement in time over the first one I did. Plugged it in and booted it up . . . and walla . . . it worked! It didn’t fix the problem we were hoping it would fix but at least I swapped out the motherboard successfully for a second time.

Now that I’ve impressed you with my technical skills let me unimpress you with my everyday living skills. Yesterday morning I was on my way out the door to go to work. I grabbed my purse, knitting bag, put on my coat, walked out the door, stepped off the stoop and realized . . . my keys were still hanging on the wall by the door. DOH! I had opened the garage so I was able to put my stuff in the car and I tried calling hubby’s cell phone. No answer (apparently he doesn’t get a signal in his office . . . the jury’s still out on whether that’s true or not) so I had to call one of my co-workers to look up his office number since it wasn’t programmed into my cell phone. So 5 minutes later I get hubby on the phone and tell him he has to come home to let me in to get my keys. Another 25 minutes goes by before he gets home and I’m a frozen popsicle. So now I have a spare key in my purse so as long as I remember to take that with me I’m golden.

In knitting news, I went to knitting group last night and there were only four of us. We had strong winds, thunderstorms and were under a tornado watch so I think people just decided to stay at home. But we had a good time and I got almost done with the heel flap on my disco sock. I signed up for our instructor’s toe up class last night. She was so nice and only charged me for 2 sessions since I’ll be at Phantom the night of the last class. She said I would only need the 2 classes anyway. And of course I couldn’t walk out of there without buying more sock yarn. First we have this lovely Mountain Colors in the Painted Rock colorway. I can’t wait to see how this knits up! The colors are so luscious and the yarn is soft! I also broke down and bought some more Koigu. This time I picked a much brighter color than I have in the past and I’m really excited about it. I love blue and I think this will look great with jeans.

Have a fantabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend whatever you may be doing! I’m sure I’ll be cranking out more socks.