Nina: January 2008 Archives
Sometimes the way to something interesting is via a detour. After admiring a washcloth Sherrie was knitting, I asked for the pattern, and promptly suffered a Stupid Attack and deleted the email containing the pattern. Typical. Too ashamed to ask Sherrie again, I emailed Amy and got it from her.
Then, the yarn. The only cotton in the stash was Sugar 'n Cream in solid yellow and solid beige. Sherrie's was pink and white, and it looked so cute that I just couldn't get excited about doing the washcloth in a solid color. To be truthful, I don't need to be shopping for yarn. Not only does the stash need some serious.....um, minimization, but I'm unemployed and therefore financially challenged. So shopping for yarn makes no sense whatsoever.
Which is why waltzing into Michael's in search of yarn was not really a great idea. But sometimes the fiber gods are smiling. Which is why I stumbled upon this gorgeous, seasonally appropriate and affordable yarn, and then it rang up at a mere $.35 a ball. Oh, yeah. The seasonally appropriate part......the upcoming holiday. Ya know, Cupid, hearts, flowers, chocolate, etc......that holiday. The colorway is called Rosewood, and it's this yummy combo of pink, white, and chocolate brown. Very Valentine.......perfect.
The pattern is Chinese Waves dishcloth. But once I started, I goofed: odd rows are even knitting, rows 2 and 4 are pattern rows. Basically, I repeated row 2 when row 4 should have been slightly offset ....but that's okay. It's just a different outcome. Here it is...
Admittedly, I'm not crazy about Valentine's Day. Not only do I rarely (okay, never) have anything to celebrate, but Feb 13 is the anniversary of my grandfather's death. This does not encourage warm and fuzzy feelings toward this Hallmark holiday. This year, however, I have candy colored cotton yarn. I do not anticipate receiving flowers or chocolates on Valentine's Day, but if I can give away a few handmade Valentine washcloths, I'll be happy.
Yesterday several of us living in the Cobb area had a knitting rendezvous at Starbucks for some yarn and java. A good time was had by all, I believe. Our barista was not only friendly, bringing us samples of Chai, he was even supportive of the knitting! Yep, when he came over with his tray of teeny cups, he was wearing a blue garterstitch scarf handknit by his wife. Pretty color, simple design.....very man friendly. He explained that she hadn't tackled "the mystery of purling" yet. Funny!
Photos below:
Checking out a gorgeous needle set, I believe. Tried not to examine it too closely, lest I start coveting things I can't afford. But it looked like a very pretty set...
There were plenty of handknits being modeled, as well as produced....
My last day at work was Dec 31, so I'm approaching a full month unemployed. That feels really weird, even just to say it, much less experience it. Although there has been effort (phone calls, networking, emailing, multiple resume revisions), I have that rumbling urgency of "must-kick-it-up-a-notch" coursing through me. I'm just not sure exactly how to go about that without getting more stressed out, more desperate. Appearing desperate, I'm thinking, is not going to inspire confidance, whether I'm interviewing or trying to claim benefits at unemployment.
Ground zero at Operation Get-A-Job is looking a little scary:
And speaking of unemployment, the saga continues. It's hard to understand why this is so difficult. The latest is that they sent me a 10 page questionnaire to fill out.
This is AFTER the initial application and ensuring 5 lengthy phone calls going over the details of my last several positions, including contract and temp jobs. Part of me wants to say, "Look: I've been working and supporting myself my entire adult life. I've paid my way and DARN WELL ought to qualify for unemployment the one time I actually claim to!" But red tape is red tape, so I must slog on and hope for a good resolution.
In the meantime, at least I have a knitting acitivity to attend. This afternoon a group of knitters who live in Cobb County are meeting up at a local Starbucks. I'll report back tomorrow!!
Greetings from snowy.....Georgia?! Yep, although that sentiment is rarely appropriate, our burst of wintry weather this past weekend gave us some of the white stuff. I was staying at a friend's house, sitting her home and beloved dog while she was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah (where the presence of the white stuff is more common). Being over there for nearly a week is to blame for the gap between my last entry and this one, by the way. One of these days I'll get a laptop....I promise.
But here is what it looked like when the stuff started coming down...
The last few days have been busy....thus, the absence from the blog. For one thing, finding a job IS a job unto itself. It's a time-consuming, energy absorbing, discouraging business. It's probably difficult enough when one's career path is set and the goal is identifying the right growth opportunity or strategic maneuver. In my case, the challenge is significantly augmented by the fact that I'm trying to move forward without knowing what exactly I want to do. Hhmm....
Wednesday I interviewed with a trade show company that I worked with on my last contract job. The interview went well, and they made me an offer, but there was a lot to think about. I was concerned about some aspects of the job, and the offer itself was much lower than I expected. Friday I agonized over a negotiation letter detailing the things I held at issue, and finally emailed it to the owner. Although I'm not holding out hope that he will be amenable to the alterations I requested, you never know. There are a few other irons in the fire, as well, so I'm hoping to see some result from those, maybe even a meeting or interview, this week.
Friday evening my sister and I had dinner together and saw "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." For the first time since in about five years, she and I had an evening out.....alone. There were NO children in attendance. It was truly momentous! To my recollection, every time we have grabbed dinner, gone shipping, etc. (and those were rare) we've had at least one of the kids with us. So this was a treat: the older two boys are visiting her in-laws, and our parents kept my youngest nephew. It was just the two of us, and it was a very light, relaxing evening....no talk of the heavier issues pressing in on life at the moment. By the way, the Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade frozen cocktail at Outback Steakhouse is FABULOUS!!
Ah, patterns. What are they exactly? More to the point, how should they be used? Are they just a place to start, or are we losing something by deviation?
I was thinking about this in relation to knitting, and life. First knitting.....this little hat
(from a book called "Not Your Mama's Crochet") was begun quite some time ago. I know that because I bought the yarn at a lovely little shop on Marietta Square called The Purly Gates, which has since closed. *sob* The yarn is a substitution, for one thing, but beyond that I took liberties, judged the gauge to be off and the shape to be too small to fit the head of any baby but a preemie, and added rows to increase the circumference. At a certain point, right around the time when I took this picture, I decided it was looking....squatty, not as triangular as the photo in the book, and banished it to the netheregions of the stash.
Once the Christmas knitting was done, I decided that some cleansing was in order, stash included, and out it came. After consulting the lovely AmyDe, friend and skilled crocheter, it was decided that the hat looked fine. Actually, the somewhat scalloped effect of the extra fullness in the crown actually flattered the scalloped pattern, not to mention shaping the hat where it might fit better than the original pointy design. So, full speed ahead, and I'm finishing up this little hat for an as-yet-undecided recipient.
Now....back to topic: did my variation of the original pattern jeopardize my success with this hat, or simply alter the final outcome? Will my hat be better or worse for the experience?
Having just celebrated my 35th birthday, I'm naturally at a point where I'm asking the same sort of questions about my life, especially since I'm not sure exactly where the @!#% it's going right now. I'm unemployed, not sure what kind of employment to be seeking (in terms of a specific job title or career trajectory), and although I enjoy a busy social life and good friends, am still single. To some minds (including my own, at certain moments), this doesn't add up to much. Did I deviate from the pattern at a certain point to get myself here? Are there patterns we should take? What are the repercussions if we don't?
I sent this question out into the cosmos after walking off my frustration early this evening. I didn't get an answer, but the view wasn't bad....
What comes as a bit of a surprise, is that weekends seem to short even when I'm not working. That seems really strange. It would make sense that when one is unemployed, the weekdays and weekends would run together. After all, there's not much to distinguish them, right? Or maybe it's that I've tried to be very structured with my time and make job-hunting be my job, so in giving myself the weekend "off" I've maintained the contrast.
Dunno, but I'm still vaguely bummed that it's Sunday night. I feel like I didn't get enough done. Despite the fact that having paperwork spread out on the living room floor is driving me CRAZY, I still have not hole punched the knitting patterns and put them into my three ring binders. Aaaahhhh!! I just.....can't.....seem....to get to it.
But in the meantime, I'm doing other things. Yesterday I went to see "P.S. I Love You" with my friend Leigh Anne. I relly enjoyed it, despite the fact that it featured two of the hottest actors working in film right now: Gerard Butler and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Okay, okay.....it had everything to do with that. I feel somewhat inclined to develop a raging inclination for Irishmen with rakish grins, but I suppose that only works out in the movies!
And I'm still enjoying my birthday roses from my friends. It's been a few days so they're opening up a bit now--aren't they gorgeous?!
This is not a New Year's Resolution, because everyone knows that don't last. As in, exercise equipment covered in laundry by March, musical instrument abandoned in a corner alongside the instructional booklet bought with it, or, the perennial favorite, diet book buried under a pile of magazines. Uh-huh, the stereotype is in place for a reason.
So I'm NOT making any resolutions, per se, just specific steps to a better-version-of-me lifestyle. First, a formal commitment to less consumption. In the past I've politely declined plastic bags if allowed to carry something out in hand, or demurred in favor of paper, or even toted along my own previously used bags. But quite frequently I would still have to do an unplanned dash to the grocery or drug store, and add to my plastic bag stash. Now, however, I have a designated shopping bag I'll keep in my car for these occasions. Check it out....
It was only 99 cents at the checkout counter, so I thought, "Why not?!" I'd still like to find a cool crochet pattern for a market bag, but I'll get to that later. This is a small step, I know, but I plan to make this a long term change.
More improvements will be discussed as they occur to me.... Right now the most important change I'm looking for is employment! Much time has been spent today and yesterday searchin online and emailing resumes. Hopefully that will yield some result pretty quickly.
After juggling multiple knitting projects simultaneously for months heading into Christmas, I'm now down to .... blessedly little. When I was perusing my Ravelry page it looked like I was down to ONE, literally one single work in progress; but then I remembered the Who Hat languishing in a bag on hibernation status. That needs to be addressed, so I guess I'm at two. Still, this minimalness has a nice feel to it. Maybe I should, *GASP*, finish up these 2 projects before starting something else!!?! (Ummmmm....nah, probably not.)
So here's the "main" project: a knit Log Cabin blanket. Yarn is all scrap yarn, not bought for any one particular project. The black, grey, and pink are all Caron Simply Soft, and the purple and white are Goodwill mystery yarn.
Yarn Snobs, prepare to be horrified by this next statement: I LOVE Caron SIMPLY SOFT!! Really, I do. It has nice, even stitch definition and looks full and puffy next to the slightly scrawnier white and thin-but-nubby purple. Actually, I'll be very happy when the purple is long gone.....something about the texture of this yarn irks me.
This is my first time using the Log Cabin method. The directions say to keep the live stitches on the sides on a length of scrap yarn. I was using my Denice interchangable needles and thought, "Why not just use my longer cables and snap the tips onto each side as I go?" So that's what I'm doing, and it's working great so far. As the widths get wider it may get harder to squish all the stitches down to fit, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there!
Happy, happy, HAPPY New Year to you!! I hope you rang in the new year in style, in a fun and festive way, and of course, safely. (If you're reading this, you have online access and are therefore not incarcerated, so clearly you behaved yourselves.....good for you!)
Here's how I kicked off 2008
