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Well folks, my J O B lasted 5 weeks.  I quit on Friday.  I feel wonderful.

Yesterday we drove down to Rowayton to have a seafood lunch for my son-in-law’s birthday.  We had a great time.  When we went back to the car we saw two “Murphys” (that the name of their golden retriever - hence all golden retrievers are Murphys) and the one of the Murphys got in the birthday picture.

 I’ve been busy knitting these past 5 weeks to alieviate the stress.  Here are some of the things I’ve accomplished:

The Minnowknits Vest and Hat - still needs the ends woven in.

 A single sock for May - I was panicing about keeping up with the A Year In Socks in Ravelry so I haven’t completed the second sock

The Nutkin Socks for April — this picture doesn’t do the pattern justice

Annetralac Socks for June -  this a pattern for times when you can concentrate

The Mothers Day sweater - back and front done, sleeves on the way!

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This morning I woke up to a fit of coughing.  I’ve had this allergy attack for a couple of weeks now.  I think it has to do with this being the first spring in our new condo, which backs up to the woods.  This is also high tree pollen week. BEAUTY 

I turned to look out the window, as I always do, just to watch the trees in the morning, and to check the condition of my corner of the world.  At first glance I thought the trees all had blue flowers in them.  When my mind registered that this couldn’t be true I realized that the sky was so blue beyond the gaps in the leaves it looked like flowers.
I then ran out to the kitchen to get my camera and tried to recreate my first look.   What do you think?

Speaking of Beauty:  These are my Mother’s Day flowers:  

 J O B CREATES LOST BRAIN CELLS

 This marks weekend ends 4 weeks and 2 days on the job.  I think my mind hasn’t really dealt with my being back at work.  I called my daughter and left messages earlier this month to find out what to get my 3 year-old grandson, Jake.  I thought his birthday was May 4^th, but she reminded me it was May 20^th.  I get to take him to Toys-R-Us on Sunday to pick out his present. 

I also thought I missed my newest son-in-law’s birthday.  I was so upset that I did I fired off an email that had the words of the song (Happy Birthday to you) in it.  I called last night to invite them out to dinner to celebrate his birthday and Beth told me it was June 6^th.  He probably thinks I’m crazy, and maybe I am. 

KNITTING 

I finished the minnow knits vest and it’s really cute.  I started on the matching hat and brought it to SNB Newington to check the size progression and the consensus was that it was too small, so I have to frog out about an inch and make it bigger. I started on one half of a sweater pattern called Mother’s Day Duo for Mother and Daughter.  I used an acrylic and cotton yarn that is, and I still find it had to tell yarn weights unless the label specifically tells me) going pretty fast.  I finished the back and have cast on both the left and right side to do at once.  Let’s see if I can do the mirror images for the arms. 

I am also dying to cast on for the Annetrelac Socks that I found on Ravelry.  Chris is making a scarf out of the Entralac  pattern and I love the look. But before I do I still need to finish a pair of May socks, so I think I’ll do a bulky quick pair, good for winter nights.(wikipedia:  Entrelac is a knitting technique used to create a textured diamond pattern. While the end result resembles basket-woven strips of knitted fabric, the actual material comprises interconnected squares on two different orientations.) I find I’m much more organized when I use Ravelry, but I also find I get lost for hours, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that.  I CAN NOT go there on a work day morning.

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I chose to write this morning because I have been catching up on my blog reading and saw Amy Tan Ridley, a R&B Singer singing in the subway and now am a fan!

I tried to embedd the UTube of her singing, but you can see it at my son-in-laws blog here.

 Here is the Kitty we got last fall, she’s still not a year old. This a picture of Pricess Fluffy in April 2008

   And here she is in May 2008!!  Whose cat did the groomer give me???????

I didn’t realize what a small cat she is.  She weighed 11 lbs before grooming.

I’ve finished my sweater with the yarn from Kris’ Painted Sheep Yarn: 
 I’m debating putting a kangroo pouch pocket on it, but I need to figure out how.

I’m also making a Minnowknits Vest and Hat #175QK with Breeze Heirloom yarn.  It’s handwash or dryclean only, so perhaps it’s not good for a kids vest, but I love working with this yarn and love the colors.  The pattern calls for bulky yarn but this seems to be DK.  I didn’t want to do all the math to make it work, so I just cast on for the largest size and used the recommended needles for the recommend by the Heirloom (size 5) and let the size be what it came out to be.  FYI I cast on size 8 and it’s a size 2.  It’s almost finished.  I still have to do the arm band and I intent to redo the neck band. 

I figured out how to make a smooth edge when decreasing.  I didn’t perl the last stitch and then just bound off on the knit side.  Probably everyone knows this, but wow, now I know. See how smooth (the color is off but it’s the same vest as above) the bound off edge is?  That 4 rounds of bindoffs!!

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I feel like I’ve knit the Nutkin Socks over and over again.  It’s not a hard or complicated pattern, but I keep loosing concentration.   First I made them too small, now I messed up the toe decreases.  And I’m not mentioning that I have no clue on how to do a short row heel.  I just used a traditional heel.

 To ease my frustration I started a multi-color vest.  At the NeedleArts sale and found a great Austrailian wool with a touch of lycra in it and the colors were perfect.  I just bought a bunch of skeins.  Did I mention it’s an 8 ply and knits easy?  Did I also mention it’s not bulky and that’s what the pattern calls for?

 My work around was to cast on for the largest size and see what happens.  I figure that I could find someone to give it to as a baby gift.  The size 8 works out to a 2, just as I expected given the needle size and yarn recommendations for the pattern and what I actually knit with.  Not a problem I have a perfect candidate, my nephew’s little girl, Alora whose birthday is 5/5/08.

 I cast on in the purple finished the back and it went quite quickly.  I cast lime green for theleft front measured after a couple of inches and noticed I was either  knitting tighter, or because the first five stitches are seed as opposed to st st it was a half inch too narrow.  Yep, I ripped and will cast on with additional stitches for the width.

 I have officially completed 5 days of my new job.   I love the commute, 4.5 miles up the Berlin Turnpike.  I hate that I have to get up at 6-6:30 to get ready.  It takes me an adverage of 30 - 40 minutes to read the paper, eat breakfast and make lunch.

I finally found out what the benefits are.  Most importantly pay day is bi-weekly and the first one is next Wednesday (YAHOO) 2 weeks vacation and if I remember 5 sick days. 

 I already told them that I have to take 2 days off in June to see Bette Midler in Las Vegas, and want some to leave some Thursdays early to play golf.  Am I demanding or what?  I have also stayed until 5:30, an extra half hour every day this week, missing this weeks golf game

 My sweet hubby bought lobsters (my favorite) for dinner Friday night as a surprise celebration for completing my first work week. proving once again that he is the sweetest man.  He even said that he’d take on the laundry (he has owned the kitchen for a couple of years now).  Between that and the cleaning lady every two weeks, I may still have lots of time to knit and he still has plenty of time to play cards.

I’m reading a Tami Hoag novel, mystery.  It’s a good bedtime read and listening to xxxx on tape.    I checked this morning and still not any movies that call out to me.  We did watch “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the other night with a very young Jack Nichloson.  After all these years it’s still funny.

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This the new me.   I changed my avator because I have a second interview.  Please keep y0ur fingers crossed for me.  I still kept the background because it is the closest to Olympia Diner where I meet on Wednesdays for Stitch N Bitch.

As I mentioned before, Needle Arts in Vernon is going out of business and Dinah and I hit it on friday.  I am going to show you my new stash - while my hubby is out. :)  Here it is:

Red Lopi (things got wild and this got thrown in with my things, and I didn’t mean to buy it,

Opal Sock Yarn - sock yarn doesn’t count as stash right? (BTW, I’ve turned the heel on the Knitkins socks)

Some cute buttons

and a group shot of the 50% off sale.

and last a BIG Splurge even at half price - some hand painted 100% wool new zeeland wool.  Love that yummy color.

I finished another Evanovitch book, plus The Maltese Falcon for the BIG READ and How to Talk To A Widower.

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My friend Dinah and I went to Vernon today and I increased my stash by a couple of hundred dollars.  I had a moment of panic because I have just laid out my stash to picture and list it on Ravelry and wondered if I really needed this.   I do.

 There was only a few skeins of sock yarn left.  Some Plymouth and Opan, but that’s about all.

 There is still lots of other stuff.  Dinah and I are going back next week.

I am almost finished with the little striped sweater, just need to decide if I want to put the Kangaroo pouch on it.  Kris G said she’d send me the directions on how to pick up the stitches and for the pattern.

I went for a job interview today.  The good news is that it is just a short distance from my house.  I have been in contact with my references and one of them told me that he was called.  I think that’s a good sign.

 Aetna has made me a deal.  Here it is.  In order to get over the fact that they cancelled me retroactively back 90 days they have offered to cover me through May 1, 2008 from 11/30/07, the date they cancelled me.  I just have to pay 5 months coverage @ $459.00 / mo.  Good deal from them since I haven’t used the coverage. 

 Tell me why is it when you are being cancelled by the auto insurance agency they send you a registered letter and Aetna can just say, oh, we’ll refund the money, SOL.

 Breath, Breath, Breath,  Ok, I ‘m calm now, and going to play with my new stash.

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I took the advice of the A Year of Socks group and started 2 socks from each end of the skein.  I was moving along quite nicely and was just about to turn the heel and as I usually do I tried them on.  Well I tried to try them on.  64 stitches cast on is just too small for my size 9 feet.  Actually the cuff is hemmed rather than ribbed and doesn’t have the give and that’s the part that was tight.

 So what did I do? Put it with my other WIPs? No, I carried on and frogged both socks and now with 2 balls I’m back to where I was . . . ready witht heel.

I am in love with the pattern, it’s an easy one to remember.  The heel is a little different than I’m used to, but I think I’ll be able to do it.

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Well I’ve been busy knitting socks, even though my personal life (funerals, babysitting grandchildren and my granddog, Easter, and my continued dialog with AETNA trying to get reinstated with health insurance) have been intruding.  I made a twin set of the MaryJane Socks as shown in the May issue of Creative knitting.  Aren’t they cute????

I have been lost in Ravelry again and someone in my “A Year In Socks” group wrote about a sock book, “2-at-a-Time Socks” which I immediately went to Amazon and bought.  Amazon was nice enough to suggest that I also buy “Knitting in Circles Around Socks” which I also bought.

I increased my sock non-stash items and have cast on the “Nutkin” sock (a free pattern from Knitzi). 

It was suggested in the sock group that we try knitting two socks at a time from each end of the skein.  So far, I’m tangle free, but it’s a struggle.

 I feel so organized with my Rivalry!  I just have to get my stash listed.

 I’ve applied for a couple of jobs (the insurance issue), sadly.  Sadly because it’s now golf season and I was hoping to join an 18 hole group that plays at Blue Fox Ridge and become a memeber of SNUGA.  The best laid plans of mice and men . . .

 Until later . . .

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I read in the paper today that Dick Cheney is in Iraq in furtive meetings for how the war will end.  This meeting will not be binding through the USA because it hasn’t gone through the senate.  That said, I must rant and say what a sneaky SOB he is. 

IMHO, I think that he did so much “work” for the RCN that they “owed him”.  Mr. Cheney, IMHO, is a person of such character that he was probably deemed “unelectable”.  So to fulfill the promise, the RNC made him Bush’s vice president so he could rule from behind the scenes.  Now tell me what business does he have making deals unofficially on behalf of the USA?

On the knitting scene over the weekend, I was going to continue gung-ho on my sock industry but when I cast on with the painted sheep stash I thought it was too pretty for socks and would make a better sweater.  So I started a generic child’s sweater, altering the pattern so I could knit in the round until the armholes.  Then when I went to pick up stitches for the arms the pattern changed, and not for the good. 

So I cast on 54 stitches and am knitting them length-wise.  I don’t know it this will work but its fun trying (and remembering to write down what I’m doing so I can do it on the other side).  I couldn’t figure out how make ribbing on the cuffs this way so I just knit the cuffs with a garter stitch for the first ten stitches on one end.  On the other end I increased 1 stitch.  We’ll see how it goes.  Or maybe I’ll buy some primary color wool and do the arms in a solid color. 

Note:  Tuesday I hit Sit N Knit Too and Judy helped me find a Crayola blue for the sleeves.  .

I also made a baby hat with my 1824 Mission Falls Wool Lavender stash yarn.  It’s from the One Skein book by Leigh Radford.    I’m making a white one with the other skein of stash yarn.  My daughter’s friend had twins in November so I thought I’d give them to her to send on.

  Those hats completed, I think the baby had should match the booties and I’ll make a couple out of the new Dreambaby.  I think the booties will count as “socks” for my Year In Socks Group, don’t you?

It’s fun sorting through the stash.  That’s my on-the-back-burner project to get my stash organized and on Ravelry.

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