Tuesday, October 31, 2006

A-ha! & Boo!

Noooo. Not the band, although I do like them (are they even still recording?), I mean I finally found something about the folks doing the urban knitting, at least I think it is the same group. There are no photos of the column that I have in my previous post, but surely there aren't two rival gangs of urban knitters tagging the city?! Ye gods! What is the world coming to? I wonder what the initiation rite is like...

On other fronts, I'm about two repeats (6 rows) of finishing the the thumb gusset decreases and then it is just the cuff, baby. I'm ready to get these gloves off my needles. Not because I no longer love them, mind you, just because I really need to get them finished before 11/22 (surgery day) and I really don't want to be up all night on 11/21. LOL There's no reason they can't be finished very quickly, unless I start procrastinating. Hey, it can happen. Things are really crazy right now and it would be very easy to get lazy. You know that slippery slope, it goes like this: Oh, I have plenty of time to finish this project. No need to rush. I know! I'll work on this other project for a while, spend some time with this nice yarn over here. Ooooo, squeeze in some spinning time, that'd be nice. What?! What do you mean I'm out of time?! What the...!?

Yep. I dare say we've all done it. I'm determined to NOT do it this time.

Today is my boss lady's last day. We're having a nice big party catered by Macrina Bakery & Cafe. If you watch the Food Network, Road Tasted (Paula Deen's boys) included it in their show on Seattle. Yummy, yummy food. Two of my student employees and one librarian also had a birthday this month, so we are celebrating everything all at once. Then I'm going home (early) to get my house and kids ready for the big Trick or Treating event. In typical Seattle style, it will be FREEZING tonight. (It either rains or it is the coldest night for weeks.) It is supposed to be in the low 30s (F) tonight, so my youngest, Princess Jasmine, will be freezing her tummy off even with the cape I made for her. But boy! Am I glad I made the cape! I'll be sure to get pictures and get them posted as well.

I love Halloween. It is so much more fun as a grown-up, I think. I can buy my own candy, so no more depending upon the neighbors to pick out "good" stuff. I can dress up any way I want, and even wear it to work (which I did this year, you know, the party and all). I can decorate my house as much as I want, and I can watch all the scary movies I want (after the kids go to bed). Ahhh. October is my favorite month, my anniversary month, and although it is cold today, it is gorgeous outside! The leaves are so nice, and since the rain has been pretty light this month, they are still on the trees. Puget Sound is very blue, the mountains are crisp and clear, the bald eagle is sitting outside my window at work on the giant E of the Edgewater Inn (a Sesame Street moment, if you will - Eagle on the E, get it?) and, just, Wow! I love Fall. Can you tell?

Happy Halloween!


Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Knits are everywhere!



I know I've read something about this somewhere, but do you see the colorful blob on the post by the tree? That is a nice cozy scarf for the column. Someone, or many someones, are knitting stips and grafting them together. I assume they mean to cover the entire column. This is a column that supports the monorail at Seattle Center & I drive past this every day.

When I first noticed it, it was a much smaller band of color. It took me a while to think to use my camera on my cell phone instead of trying to remember to bring my camera in the car. I would probably have gotten a nicer close-up shot of the thing with my digital camera, but then again, the entire column would probably be covered byt the time I remembered to bring it. I'm curious as to whether the knitter(s) will stop where it is. The current height would require some sort of ladder to reach the scarf. If they bring it lower I think they will risk someone "finding" a nice warm scarf, or an entire wardrobe of scarves. It is fun to look at though, so many colors. A nice way to get rid of those odds and ends left from other projects and such. I always get an itch to go knit for a while after I've looked at it. (I ALWAYS get stuck at the traffic light at this intersection, so lots of time for contemplating knitting.) I just wish I could remember where I read about it, I know it was a blog. Hmmm. I'll have to try to track it down later.

On knitting news, I'm decreasing in the thumb gusset and that is going well, but still a good bit to go before finishing the gloves. I know I'll have them done before my surgery though, so I'm not worried. Of course, I've probably just jinxed myself now... Still no pics for that yet, I have to figure out where the software is now. My DH has been working hard getting things set up, he just hasn't communicated it well to me. Gee, that never happens. LOL

The costumes are all but done, just some hand sewing to put on the clasps for the cape. The sewing machine died in the attempt, however. I got a new one (mine was a 1968 Singer, so it was probably time). My new baby is a Brother PC210 & that puppy is AWESOME! It threads itself! Did you get that? OMG! This thing is so awesome and sewing is an absolute dream! I think my DH was feeling guilty about his recent purchases and talked me into replacing my machine rather than repair it, again. I didn't struggle too hard, though maybe I should have. Now all I want to do is sew stuff. I've been thinking about making myself a new knitting bag. The one I've been using was a gift from someone, a shopping bag from New Zealand, and it has not held up well to knitting needles that lost their point protectors. I'm starting to lose things out of the holes. LOL. So maybe after the costumes I'll make myself a bag. Or two. And maybe a needle holder...

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Plugging away

Well, the thumbs are on and I'm into the thumb gussets. As far as I can tell, I'm in the home stretch. I finally have enough length to try them on and when I did, I found that the "errors" at the join don't really show that much when you have them on your hands. So, I've decided, no ripping. If he doesn't like them, he doesn't have to wear them. He was warned, after all, that they would be my first pair of gloves and might be a bit wonky. LOL

Other news is that Himself got a new computer for the house. Originally it was to replace the PC I usually work on, but once it arrived, he changed his mind about getting rid of one. I won't say how many we now have, but let's say that I think it is excessive. (However, polling of other with a family member working in the computer world would indicate that we are about average for those folks.) Our house is a total wreck as we move things around to accomodate the new machine, just when I was trying to accomplish a major clean/purge. You'd think these things would mesh, but, no. I really isn't working out that way. Anyway, all my pictures are transitioning between machines and I'm going to be delayed posting any updated photos for a few days. Sorry.

I'm losing a bit of knitting time this week to Halloween costumes as well. My oldest has decided to be a bat for Halloween. I cannot find a bat costume anywhere, so we are improvising. Improvising = mom is sewing bat wings for a costume party this Saturday. Have I mentioned lately that I have no spare time in my life? Well, now I have less. I'm a total costume wh*re, however, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE making them (and yes, wearing them), so I'm enjoying the opportunity to do something, I just wish I had more time to enjoy the process.

Work continues to spiral into chaos. I'm waiting for my psycho boss to screw me over one last time on her way out, I know it is going to happen, but when? In the meantime, we (the librarians and about half the students) just wish she'd go now instead of waiting until the end of the month. She is no longer doing anything work related to this place & she's really in the way, piling on work she needs done to help her do her new job while we're struggling to get the work done for our job. >sigh< She really thinks she's helping us out here. Have I mentioned she's crazy? Tick, tock, tick, tock... at least there is an end in sight. That's better news than I've had for a while, so I'll try to be grateful for that instead of dwelling on the struggle that can't be changed.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Ready to add the thumb


Woo-Hoo! I'm making progress now, ready to graft on the thumb. I'm still not sure I like the way the other fingers look at the grafting point. Although I'm pretty sure I did them all the same, I apparently didn't because some of them look a little off (and others look fine). I sort of want to rip back and start over, but I'm afraid I wouldn't actually improve on my current job & that I wouldn't finish the project if I rip it back (before the surgery). I think I need to make a final decision before I graft the thumbs. Don't you? LOL

To seek perfection or not? That is the foolish question. Hmmm. How compulsive do I feel right now? Maybe I should try sewing up the fingers and see if that improves the look, or count how many look normal/weird and make a choice based on percentages or something. Argh! I have enough chaos in my life right now, I really don't need to create more. Anyway, I tried to get a picture of the problem area, but it just won't show clearly in the photos. I've included a close-up, but I don't know if you can see anything. The problem is at the join for the finger second from the right. It looks a bit like a purl. I'm wondering if maybe I can just put some sort of arty stitching there later. Hmmm....

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Knitting again!

Yes! I got all the fingers joined and have successfully made two rounds on the main "body" of the gloves. I think I'll have to wait for a few rounds to see if the join looks okay. I'm not sure what I'll do if it doesn't because I REALLY don't want to rip it and try to put it all together again.

I forgot the camera today, so I'll have to get a picture tonight and post it later. The important thing for me is, I'm back to the knitting part & I worked out the two-gloves-on-two-needles thing. The optimism (or is it just determination to make it work?) seems to have paid off there. Just suck it up and do it, right? I'm insanely relieved when that works out. I have a theory that if I don't know what I'm doing and just bully through it, it will usually work out okay. If I think about it too much, I'll screw it up for sure. Funny, I don't mind fixing my mistakes when I bully through something, but if I overthink it and screw it up I'm cussing my way through the fixes. That's probably why I'm approaching knitting the way I am & I should probably apply that approach to more areas of my life.

I found out yesterday that my boss is moving to a new position. Its a secret, so don't tell anyone! LOL We've worked here together for just over 8 years (she started a month before I did) She's been pretty psycho for the past, oh, two years, so it is a really good thing. (No really, I mean PSYCHO.) I've looked many times over the past year for a new job, but librarian positions in Seattle can be hard to come by. Still, now that I know she's leaving I will start to worry about who will replace her. More bothersome, should I go for her job? >sigh< I'm not impossible to please, I guess I am just used to worrying about job stuff. And I've been thinking about the phrase "better the devil you know than the devil you don't". Perhaps I just lack confidence in the folks who will decide on her replacement. Hmmm, and now perhaps I've just said too much...

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

This may take a while

Well, it's a good thing I was so optimistic before, 'cuz I'm not feeling it now. Zowie! I've picked up stitches for 8 fingers more times than I can remember. No matter how carefully I check, it seems that I get several fingers in and find that I picked up the wrong thing on a finger back towards the beginning and have to take everything off again and start again. I'm using waste yarn, well actually I'm using floss, but I still have mangled things several times. I'm sure I'm learning lots of neat things that I can use again the next time I make this pattern. That's what I get for modifying a pattern instead of just finding the right one to start with.

I'm okay with it. Really. I haven't given up, or decided to hate the project or anything, I'm just spending a lot of time getting things back on the needles. (Something like 2 hours, but with very little cursing.) Well, I think I've got them all on, but now I'm a bit confused at how to make it all work on the magic loop. I think I've just gotten myself confused because of the trouble I've had picking up the right stitches. I'm sure now that everything is properly on the needles I'll be able to figure it out and get going again. I hope. (ooooo, look, I might have a little optimism left after all.) Anyway, we'll see how it goes at lunch today. I feel like I will be fine once I get all the fingers joined up and all the fussy bit is done. Maybe a little brief trauma when the thumbs are joined, but by then I will be able to apply lessons learned from all the fingers. >sigh<

It is also the first week of the term for my school. I've got tons of new students and classes coming through for info literacy tours and it is taking up too much of my time that I need to be spending on other tasks. Also, I'm training two new student employees this week and they take up quite a bit of time as well. There's a new class being offered for incoming freshmen and the faculty have put off their planning till the last minute. That means they are all showing up here at 7:15 am (or calling) and asking to bring a class into the library later that morning for a tour. Um, NO. Plan ahead & make reservations please. Jinkies! It seems to be making me a bit cranky, so I'm really hoping to get back to knitting soon to help soothe my soul. Also, there was no House on last night (baseball was on instead) and I'll be missing that for a few more weeks. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike baseball, I just want to watch my shows when I'm knitting at lunch. Oh well, at least my other shows will be on the rest of the week.

If I get the knitting going again, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Monday, October 02, 2006

10 little fingers done

Woo-Hoo! Well, I've finished up the fingers & now it is on to the rest of the glove. I'm anxious to get going for fear that I'll get stalled worrying about whether or not everything will fit, work, etc. Why on earth do we do things like this to ourselves? Isn't it enough that I've already learned so much and gotten so far so quickly on this project? >sigh< I really must work on that Devil May Care attitude. I won't skip gauge, but I must simply learn to let the rest go. Most of the time... LOL

On another front, I finally got in to see a orthopedic specialist about my wrist lump. My GP was right, it is a gangliar cyst. So I'm sending a BIG raspberry out to the crazy rheumatologist who wanted to treat me for arthritis and put me on a life-long course of crazy strong meds. I'm also going to write a letter or two, but somehow the sound of a raspberry is so much more satisfying right now. Ha!

The other side of that is that I am scheduled to have surgery to remove the cyst the day before Thanksgiving. I was taking the week off anyway, so I won't have to take extra vacation time, which is nice. OTOH, I won't be able to cook either. I'm one of Those People who enjoy cooking the meal (maybe just because it is never a large crowd of people), so I am actually a little sad about that part. Then again, I will be so glad to resolve this thing (since JANUARY!) that it will be a fair trade. I will have a wrist brace for 10-16 days. I don't know if there will be physical therapy with that as well, I forgot to ask. The doctor thinks knitting is great therapy for the hands (isn't he a nice doctor?) but isn't sure how long I will have to wait before I can start knitting again after the surgery. So. I'd better get cracking on the gloves. I'd really hate to have some amount of them to go when I have surgery. I'm pretty sure I can't knit with my toes...