Crap Day, so far

I didn’t think it was a crap day when I had to head off to work at 6 am today. I chose to enjoy the early sun’s rays as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Even later, on my way into the new office, when I saw in graphic form a seagull picking at the innards of a freshly killed swallow, I didn’t realize this was shaping out to be a crap day. Over two hours on the phone with IT trying to fix our internet connections that have been plaguing us all week, and still it hadn’t dawned on me. And even when I snagged my brand new black pants that I hadn’t worn for more than a few hours on my new desk, I didn’t see the pattern.

It got crappy when I checked my credit card account online and it seemed high. Turns out the flights I cancelled with Orbitz didn’t go through (even though it clearly said it did). Over an hour later they said they don’t have a record of the cancellation – back at the starting point. I’m most frustrated because I just lost $400, unless anyone wants two round trip tickets from Boston to Richmond for Labor day. I’m going to contest it on my credit card, but am not hopeful. And this is on top of losing $200 to match.com. They have a very sneaky auto renewal set up. I didn’t catch it the first time (holidays), but caught it the second time and they refuse to address the issue. I think this is partly why I’m dragging my feet on using the site. At least partly so.

But stiff upper lip and I head out for a now, very late lunch. Figured I’ll revisit an old lunch haunt that was only a few blocks away. Arrive to find that they’ve closed down and moved further away. No longer a viable lunch option. So on my way back, as I curse the blisters starting on my feet, I wonder, what went wrong. The only thing I can think of as I sit and write this is that I’m suffering from lack of sleep. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I’m done with all this crap.

So, enough venting. Even if things are tight these days, money is just money. I’ll finish out my day at work, enjoy the break in the weather, head home and enjoy a nice evening listening to old podcasts and making jam! For now I’m putting on some Lake Wobegon, nothing like Garrison’s comforting storytelling to put you in a better place!

Random Wednesday

Figured I go with the bullet list today:

- By close of Sunday I was two repeats ahead of schedule. Even after going up to NH to visit Reegan and family. By close of this morning, I lost that lead and am behind. I blame it on Mondays and Netflix. They sent me a French film yesterday. My French isn’t that good and I can’t knit lace and read subtitles at the same time. Good movie though – Coco before Chanel. Mondays are just Mondays.

- At lunch I went to return an expensive night time cream I bought at Marshals earlier. I blame it all on the elevator repair guy. I showed up at work a few weeks back only to find the elevator was dissembled in my lobby. I went to the only store that was open to kill time – Marshall’s. I bought some white jeans (love them) and some face cream for my aging wrinkles. I thought better about the crème purchase, returned it yesterday and proceeded to browse. Left after spending more than I was refunded. There goes trying to keep the budget tight. I should have just kept the crème.

- How bad is it that I bought a pair of black pants that look wonderful and fit great, but I have to do the dance to get them over the thighs? Once on though, you can’t tell there was squirming involved. And they look great!

- I’m hooked on home-made jam. I was brought up on it and now I can’t imagine why I ever had the hiatus I had. I was going to make peach jam tonight. Picked the peaches in NH Sunday, they’re ripe. Except I have a school building committee tonight, so I guess jam making will have to wait until tomorrow.

- I have a new homework assignment – to get back out in the dating world again. So I’m gearing up and am about to jump back in. I’ve had the assignment for two days, I’m almost ready. On the upside, the new office is located in an area with a lot of attractive guys who clean up nice.

- How bad is it that I have the knitting itch and almost started a new project last night? While in the middle of a super important deadline project! I blame it on the rain – cozy and snuggled in wool blankets make me want to knit. And I need a blue cardi.

- How bad is it that I want to start a cardi when I have, 4? 5?, more than I can remember almost finished cardi’s in the project basket.

- My plans for this weekend – nothing but knit. I had a weird thought that I might get it all done – the four remaining repeats and the whole edging. I’ve got a new set-up to watch streaming videos now. It’s wonderful, but not that wonderful. I may be deluding myself. But a girl can try.

Being the nonreligous person that I am, I still enjoy the messages this church on my route posts. The latest: "God accepts kneemail."

Blogs

I just sat down for lunch – a break from work. The office is quiet so I turn to my list of blogs I follow. It’s a bit slow these summer months. Still I thought I’d share what I read on a regular basis.

The first group is interestingly the group that reads my blog the most along with my family. Family being mom, and my two aunts in Texas and Arizona. Dad stopped ages ago – the posts were too long. And Nick, my brother, keeps forgetting I have a blog. So if either complain they don’t know what’s going on, I just point out they could check out my blog. The three friends I check-in on regularly are:
- Cece
- Emily
- Jill
They all post regularly (relatively) and interestingly we all lived in the same house senior year. It’s nice to be able to keep up on what’s going on in their lives as they’re spread out. From the outer reaches of the greater Boston area, to DC area to the northwest corner of the country.

I should note that I occasionally pop by other friends’ blogs, but they seemed to have gone on an indefinite posting hiatus. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. I think it has to do with having names at the beginning of the alphabet:
- Amanda
- Andrea


Then I move on to my fashion blogs. I have three main ones that post regularly and offer a diverse range of interest:
- The Sartorialist. Great European style. Wonderful pictures. And for both the ladies and the lads.
- Kingdom of Style. Based in Glasgow, where I visit occasionally for work. Great independent style – more punk and rock.
- Daddy Likey. Funny writing and based up in Portland I think. Always good to see what the latest Chocha moments are.

Then I have the blogs that appeal to my other eclectic interests:
- Yarn Harlot. Most popular knitting blog. Out of Canada.
- Words Between the Spaces. A copy editor’s blog. The entry at the moment is nauseous vs. nauseated. A little reminiscent how I feel after eating five pounds of salad.
- Post Secret. I’m sure you’ve seen the books. An art project where people mail secrets on postcards. It’s been going on for years. Some are funny, some are sad.
- Toothpaste for Dinner. Gotta love your offbeat humor. New cartoon each and every day.

So that’s the blogs. I think there’s a way to get a feed of the latest postings, but I haven’t figured that out yet. So I just go and check out each one when I get a chance, be it morning, lunch or evening.

And on a completely side note. I was scrolling through the bookmarks to make sure I didn’t forget one, when I checked out a famous friends blog (John Llyod Young). We went to highschool together, he won a Tony, he was my senior prom date. It’s fun to see what he’s been up to periodically. I clicked on his latest project and it kicked me over to another site. While I was watching the video, up pops a chat box from another old highschool friend, Charles, that I don’t think I’ve seen since highschool. Turns out I was on facebook and, well, being at work, even on my lunch break, there’s a limit on my time I can spend on that site. Still, I was able to “chat” with him for a little bit. Turns out he’s in Germany, with the Army. He’s been to Iraq 3 times in the last 4 years. We got talking a bit about life over there. He still jumps when he hears a car backfire. I sometimes send care packages over there. But it’s been awhile. He says he has made some good friends with the folks that sent him packages. It’s been awhile since I last sent one, so am adding that to the list to do this week. It’s been so long since the last one, I’m afraid to admit, but think I used the site AnySoldier. Just reading it now, they say even letters are welcome. So that’s what I’ll do. Work on a few letters and a care package. I can’t even begin to fathom what it’s like to serve over there.

Bathrobe

This weekend I got more knitting done than I expected. I thought the trip to VT would put me behind schedule, but instead I left ahead of the game. Sunday I passed the half-way point (for the repeats – don’t get me started on the dauntingness of the edging). But the last two nights I crashed early and lost any lead I had. I’m babysitting tomorrow night, so fingers crossed I have the opportunity to make up some ground there. I’m out of town again this coming weekend and really don’t think I’ll get any knitting done (schedule has me down for two repeats). So that’s my progress. There’s still hope.

This weekend was nice. I was running around Friday trying to get out the door to head up to VT for my dad’s birthday. Half of me wanted to go but the other half of me was screaming that I need to stay in town more and get stuff done around the house. I’m behind on everything these days. And yet, by the time I laid my head down on my pillow Sunday night, I had a nice fuzzy warm feeling which means life is good. Why?

1. Different pace in VT. I was able to slow down, was removed from obligations and was able to relax and do nothing but knit and listen to old podcasts.
2. Nice car. I’ll say it again, I love driving a nice car. The trip up and back this weekend was a pleasure in itself. Granted there were times I knew I was killing my already hopelessly low fuel efficiency, but it was fun getting those horses powering at full speed.
3. Sunday night on my way home I swung by Cece’s for the monthly cards night she hosts. It was a blast playing pounce and laughing and sharing stories between all six of us.
4. Sunday late night. The late night at Cece’s meant I didn’t make it home until after 11 pm, ready to crash into bed. I had asked my landlords to look after the boys since Winston is having some stomach issues. I come home to a nice note and some leftover pizza and cake in my fridge. That would be my barren fridge since I haven’t done a proper grocery shopping for weeks now.

Not too shabby a life if I do say so myself. And on that note I leave you with a funny little note I just had to swipe. It was only the note I swiped and it was from a stay of mine at the fancy hotel I frequent while in the Middle East. [Double click on the image to enlarge and read the text - it's worth it - it's funny].

Fire Alarm

This morning I walk out my front door to be greeted by a big red fire truck pulling up – sirens blasting. We both look at each other for a moment a bit confused (the driver and I). I turn around and look back at my house – to see if there were flames or smoke coming out of the roof. I turned around and saw them pull up to the house next door. As I turn onto the sidewalk, two more fire trucks rush up – full sirens and lights, pretty much blocking off traffic on the street now. But since it’s for the house next door I don’t wait around and am off to start my morning.

The thing that I love about my town/life is that 3 minutes later I happen to be walking into my early morning meeting with none other than the fire chief. And I mention the fire trucks and he tells me it is in response to smoke in the basement. I love it. I love that I’m on the inside track and can breathe a little freer knowing the scope of the call. Twenty minute later I look down my street while waiting for my bus to arrive and see that trucks had left – so no serious damage I imagine.

And as I wait at the bus stop, this little old lady pulls up, rolls down the window and asks me where Joes is. I immediately think of Not Your Average Joes, a restaurant a block away. But luckily, while I pause to process her request she continues and asks, “Where is Joes, Trader Joes?” Luckily she added that second part otherwise she would be heading in the wrong direction. I have a tendency of giving the wrong directions. Wrong in the sense I point them in the opposite direction they want to go sometimes. But not this time as it was pretty straight forward. I wonder if this counts as my good deed for the day?

Subway Sitings

Figured I'd take a break from posting my progress on the knitting.  Mainly because I don't think you can tell.  Although I'm a tad bit ahead of schedule (which I probably shouldn't have mentioned in case I jinx things).

So I figured I'd share some of the pictures from my iphone, now that they are loaded on my computer.  Here are three subway sitings, from most recent:

1. From last week.  I was sitting and knitting and occasionally looking up when I noticed that two women sitting across from me were both reading the same book.   Strange enough to warrant me taking a picture.  Which I still don't do all that discretely unfortunately.  I realized afterward that I know the fellow between them.  We worked on a project years ago.   It drove me nuts trying to remember his name, but I finally did.  But that's not the point - back to the book.  I found on Netflix this weekend that they're streaming the Swedish version of the movie which I've been wanting to see.  But it's in Swedish, which means reading subtitles, which isn't possible when I'm knitting lace.  So will have to wait - but the preview of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looked good.

2.  Apparently I took this June 11th.  I was on my way home, engrossed in my book when I happen to glance to my left and saw this persons shoes.  I did a double take and then discreetly took out my phone and snapped a photo.  Except I forgot to turn the sound off so everyone turned to look at me to see what I just took a photo of, including the lady whose feet I was taking a picture of.  Luckily, just then, we pulled into Harvard and she got off.  Strange shoes though - I wonder how long they take to get on.

3.  This photo I took on May 11th (hmm, strange pattern there).  Again on my way home.  I liked the woman's jacket - the one in the middle.  Especially the collar bit.  I wonder if could knit something reminiscent of the style. I don't think anyone noticed me taking this picture (I may just be kidding myself here).

Shawl Progress

I know everyone has been waiting with baited breath – here it is;

I am half way through my 4th repeat. I was on a roll last night and instead of going to bed I opted to stay up late and keep working. Finally got to bed around 1 am. This morning I managed to get two more rows done on my way into work before I started making mistakes. The first mistake I fixed, the second mistake, a few seconds later, resulted in me putting it away and stopping before more damage was done.

I’ve finally got the pattern down – knowing where I usually make the mistakes. A yo dropped or skipped, or at least I can diagnose the problem faster. And maybe, dare I say it, less mistakes to begin with. I knit round two in one sitting – it took 3.5 hours with little or no errors to rectify. So that makes it easier to forecast: 16 repeats at 3.5 hours = 56 hours. That seems much more achievable.

Except I just mapped it out and, well, I’m still daunted. I’m a little worried how the edging will go – it’s a lot of knitting, and something new for me to work out a new set of errors on. So my revised schedule is to start on the edging on the 1st of September. This will give me a week to see how I progress before I have to give the bride a green/red light about whether I’ll make it on time (and she needs to shop for a new wrap).

So, that leaves me 5 repeats a week to perform. Granted, my naps this weekend were on the longer-than-anticipated side, but I’m out of town for the next two weekends, that will likely put me behind schedule.  But my week day evenings are a bit lighter the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully it balances out.

Finally done with one round of the pattern! 19 more to go. Lesson learned- knit looser. Much looser.

AM vs PM

No picture as it's embarrassing how little I've progressed.  On the upside I have learned more about myself and my knitting ways.  I got home last night, put the new arrival from Netflix (The Happening - love Marky Mark but he does have strengths and weaknesses in his acting abilities and this was not a strength), and plopped on the sofa to knit all night.  I got part way through a row, had to tink back, thought I fixed the error, knit forward, nope, not fixed, tink back, repeat and finally I just put it down and focused on the movie.

This morning, picked up the knitting and breezed through fixing the error and the next three rows.  Caught my bus and got some work done but then am back at an error.  My observations:

1. Working right after I get up and am fresh provides the best results - quality work done quickly.
2. Working after a long days work when it's still humid out = not so good and more damage done then actual progress.
3.  Working on the commute into work (bus or subway doesn't seem to matter), ok progress but eventual error.  Overall, progress.
4.  Working on the commute home - horrible.  Don't even bother taking the needles out.
5.  Fixing errors are best done in a stationary seat, preferably in the morning.

Amanda had a good point of using stitch markers.  I've been counting like noone's business - probably three times a row to make sure I'm progressing correctly.  It's annoying and takes time and is really hard to do with cream yarn on a sunny day in a moving bus with yelling kids.  I get a cross-eyed headache.  So on my way home tonight I'm swinging by the yarn store and picking up a fresh bag of stitch markers.

This weekend I plan to get three repeats done minimum.  It's doable.  My plan is to wake-up, knit, make breakfast and eat, knit and watch a movie.  Take a nap, wake-up and knit.  Eat lunch, knit.  Take a nap, wake-up and knit.  Then dinner, knit and then chores.  The underlying premise being that I will be rested/sated so that progress will be made, i.e. the ratio of progress to set backs is high.  I may be wrong and find that once I've got a rhythm going, there's no stopping me.  We shall see.

Forecasting

Lace work requires attention.  It's not like stockinette or garter or even cabling that can be done while doing something else.  It also uses ridiculously thin yarn and small needles.  I'm out of my comfort yarn weight.  I've spent hours on the project now and only have 12 rows to show for it!  12 rows!  I'm screwed.

I'm still holding on to the idea that establishing the first pattern is slow going but the repeats after will fall into place.  I've already:
1. Dropped a stitch - couldn't find it so just made it up (hope that doesn't bite me later)
2. Skipped a stitch - so that I got to the end of the row and had an extra stitch left over
3. Absorbed a stitch - so that I got to the end of the row and was short a stitch

Granted I'm only 4 rows into the pattern (the other 8 rows were just garter).  But I haven't started over yet, just a lot of tinking.  A friend of mine gave me a heads up about the nupps.  Her advise was to knit them extra extra loose.  I did.  They weren't loose enough.  But I was damn if I was going to tink back yet again to reknit them looser.  Instead, brilliant that I am, I picked up an even smaller dp needle and use it quasi cabling style to purl the nupps when working back past them.  It worked - I got the row done by Park street station on my way in.  Hence why you see three needles in the picture above.

So it is looking better.  I think I've gotten through the rough spots, most of them.  I keep reminding myself that when I've done lacework in the past, you can read the pattern and check as you go along, catching errors almost immediately.  I should know by friday if this theory is indeed correct.  Fingers crossed.

I am thinking I should look into how the life-line works.  So if I do drop any more stitches it doesn't cause irreversible damage and cause me to run screaming from the room pulling my hair out.

Back to the forecasting.  Looking at this week, I have the following knit time:
- Thursday: 3 hours (unfortunately have a meeting that I'm running tonight so can't sit and knit)
- Friday: 2 hours commute time + 3 hours in the evening (no plans - yay)
- Saturday:  10 hours (figuring 4 hours for feeding myself, chores, grocery shopping and vet appt)
- Sunday: 12 hours (figuring I'll just need 2 hours for non-knitting stuff)

So maybe, just maybe, I'll get my two pattern repeats done by the time my head hits the pillow Sunday night.  I've got Netflix cued up, I've been cableless so have a backlog of shows to watch on hulu, I've just updated my podcast subscriptions and rumor has it the humidity and heat will break friday night.  Wish me well.

Food!

There was a delay in posting - this was sent last night to be posted but never made it.

I packed TWO sandwiches today and I'm still hungry. And I'm just leaving work and running late to an evening meeting which means a late dinner. And I'm just leaving work and running late to an evening meeting which means a late dinner.  And my stomach growling during the meeting.

I did get going on the shawl last night.  I have 20 repeats for the pattern plus the edging and blocking which equates to five repeats a week.  Or a repeat a day with weekends off.  I get a quarter of a repeat done during my two hour commute.  So I either will need  to work weekends (a given), have some late nights and get faster!  But I'm determined!

On your mark...

Today is the official start day. I had lunch with Dawn and by the time we parted we had enjoyed a cool brew (root beer), were full of good food (grass roots café) and had purchased yarn. We went around Windsor Button and just pulled out all feasible lace yarn (and even fingering yarn). Then sat down and tried to figure out which worked best for her. She really wanted to go with a color but in the end went with the classic white. For awhile there a nice muted Kelly green was in the running (in several different brands, including the wonderful malabrigo) as well as some autumnal orange/red variegated yarns. She’s an unconventional bride. Her wedding dress is a spring dress from anthropologie that is white with other colors in it. The wedding is a fall wedding. So we were torn. But in the end played it safe and went with the neutral color (and in lace weight so none of my fancy finagling to get the pattern right).  I got 4 balls of the Misti Alpaca Lace (color 100, lot 971) which gives me almost a whole spare ball of yarn. I bought my first pair of bamboo needles – size 3, 36” circulars. I have my yarn, my needles, my pattern – I’m ready to go!

Now the dilemma is that I have no scrap yarn for the provisional cast on. I did buy one other ball of yarn at the store, some Debbie Bliss cahmerino aran, but it cost $9 I think so I’m not touching it. I’m going to be itching to get going tonight when I get home. Wish me well that there aren’t too many false starts before I get my rhythm going. I’ve trolled through some of the ravelry posts already and it looks like a manageable pattern – memorizable and not too fussy.

A special shout out for those who helped me get going on this project. I’m sure this isn’t the last time you hear from me.

Wedding Shawl

My friend Dawn is getting married this fall.  I want to do something special for Dawn.  Dawn is the type of person who appreciates hand made gifts, especially hand knit gifts.  I offered to knit Dawn a wedding shawl, if she wanted.  She loves the idea. Brilliant right?

Except, she's been busy and I've been busy and we're just now finalizing the design.  She likes a pattern from the book, Knitted Lace of Estonia.  It's called Queen Silvia.  We have a lunch date tomorrow to look at yarn. 


So here's my concerns:
1.  I can't just download the pattern.  My back up plan is my friend Cece who has every knitting book ever.  I checked her online library and it doesn't look like she has the book.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed the yarn store tomorrow will have a copy.  Otherwise I can order it from Amazon but it will take time to arrive.

2.  The yarn store we are going to tomorrow is good.  But not like Webs.  We might find something, but we might not.  Many of the local yarn stores I used to go have gone under.  But we have a back up plan, she's interested in the Jagger Spun Zephyr Wool-Silk yarn that Webs carries.  Webs is closed on Sunday, and only open until 5:30 pm on Saturday and I have a vet appointment Saturday morning.  It will be tight and dangerous.  Tight on time and dangerous as I've been steering clear of the store for a good year, to keep the budget under control.

3.  The wedding is September 19th.  I've already told her that it will be tight and I may not make it (managing expectations).  We agreed I'd give her two weeks notice if it won't be done.  That gives me until September 5th.  So best case scenario is I get to start on it tomorrow because the yarn store will have the book and yarn that works.  That's 33 days.  Worse case scenario is I don't get to start until next week once the book from amazon has arrived and I made a pilgrimage to webs (or to be safe have them ship the yarn - sight unseen).  That will only give me about 26 days.

4.  Saturday night, after we agreed on the pattern (yay), I started thinking.  Started thinking, "What am I getting myself into?!"  I'm terrible with knitting deadlines.  I've long given up gifting knitted christmas/birthday presents.  It often resulted in a last minute scramble to find a substitute gift as I wasn't finished yet and my saving grace is there will always be another christmas/birthday.  The last time I had a hard deadline was for my god-son.  I knit him the fish blanket.  I was knitting fishes in the day, I was knitting fishes at night, I was knitting while driving (passenger), I was knitting on my commute, I was knitting on holiday, I was even knitting while hiking.  I dreamed fishes.  And I didn't quite make the first deadline I had - his shower.  Nor the revised second deadline - his birth.  I made it in time for his dedication (christening).  At least that's how I have it in my head (I think it might have been a bit after, but close enough to count).

I did read on ravelry a post for this shawl pattern and they were able to knit it in a month.  So there is hope.  It's not impossible.  Someone, somewhere, can get this done.  I can only hope I'm in the club.

5.  Saturday night, while falling asleep, I suddenly realized something else.  I've never ever knit a shawl!  I've had friends who knit shawls.  I've knit lace scarves.  I've followed blogs where people knit shawls.  But I've never actually knit one.  Not even some small something that I could count as a test run proving I don't mind knitting shawls.  (I'm not a big fan of knitting socks, good to know before committing to gifting a pair).

So this all leaves me a little anxious and rearing to get this project underway.  Fingers crossed it all goes well and I don't give Dawn her wedding shawl after the wedding.