here and there…

While this blog has sat neglected all weekend, we spent a good portion of our weekend either playing World of Warcraft (or, WoW), GTA:San Andreas, or Half-Life 2.

Actually, the last two, he played, I did other stuff.  If he played GTA:SA, I would probably be sitting on the couch next to him, knitting.  If he played Half-Life 2, I’d probably be playing WoW.  My night-elf is level 13 right now.  My pet companion is a big green spider.  (Ironic, considering spiders give me the heebie-jeebies).  Maybe I should get a screenshot of them before Blizzard decides to shut down the beta testing and wipes the characters.  :cheese:

I did get the baby sweater for the SIL’s kidlet done.  Well, finished knitting, anyway.  I still have to weave in the ends & attach the buttons.  Then I made a matching hat.  Got that done in like, two hours.  It’s funny, that hat.  It looks like it wouldn’t fit on my cat’s head, but it’s actually really stretchy.  Just k3, p3 for several rows, then start shaping for the top.  To be fair, while it’s really a generic pattern, I have to admit I got the idea from Wendy.  She posted the pattern there, I figured it would make a good hat for a baby, too.  All I did to adjust was use size 6 needles and baby yarn (or sport weight).  The nbr of stitches is the same (72), although I didn’t knit up 10 inches of length before shaping… probably more like six.

Next up, in addition to the blanket for the same baby the sweater & hat are for, is a matching hat for the mint green sweater that I’ll be giving to my sister’s baby.  Will probably use the same pattern.  The yarn for this is a little heavier, probably between sport & worsted, but since my sister’s daughter is almost six months old, a little larger of a hat will be ok, that way she’ll be able to grow into it.

I’ll probably just go on a hat making spree… I have yarn I can use to make my nephew & other two nieces some hats, too.  Hats are quick & easy, and I’m sure the kids will probably like them.  Or not, but I’ll make them anyway. 😊

playing catch up…

I have started to slack with my posts here, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that only one of us can be remote-desktop’d to home, and I try to refrain from posting very often while at work if I can’t RDP.

Plus, with our current schedule, waking up at 4:10a and leaving by 5a to head to work, then finally leaving work at 4p and getting home by 5pm-ish, leaves very little time to eat, catch up on some shows on TiVo, and then off to bed by around 8:30-9p…  I spend maybe 5 minutes on my Powerbook skimming email (either before leaving in the morning, or just before bed at night), just so it doesn’t pile up.

So, there really isn’t much time for anything like blogging.  Unless I do it from work (like today).

Work was busy this week.  A little more than usual, it seemed.  It actually made me really glad we got moved to the 2nd half of the week, so we only have to endure 3 days of “normal business hours” instead of five.

I’m working on three knitting projects right now.  One, which is nearly complete, is a huge afghan the husband requested, in purples & blues.  It’s about 6ft wide, and will be about 6ft long when it’s done.  And dayam, that thing weighs a ton!  Oh, made of miscellaneous yarns, all acrylic (and some leftover chenille on one section).

The second is a baby afghan for my sister-in-law’s baby, due in Feb.  Only just starting it, maybe have about six inches done.  Also acrylic yarns, but “quality” acrylics from the LYS I work(ed*) at.  In lilac, yellow, & a multi-color pink/lilac/yellow (three strands held together).

The third is another baby sweater.  I decided instead of giving the mint green one I made earlier this summer to the SIL for her baby, that I’ll give that one to my sister instead (she had a little girl in july), and make a new one in white & pink for the SIL’s baby.  It’s a top-down raglan, maybe 1/4 done.  Also quality acrylic from the LYS.

I also have a few UFO’s sitting in wait…

• - a men’s sweater, originally intended for a brother, but I think I’ll give it to my dad when it’s done.. in red heart acrylic (yuck)
• - a cardigan for myself, in Lion Brand Homespun.  It’s in moss stitch, which I got really bored with really fast, so this one may sit for a while before I pick it up again.  Got about 1/6th of the back panel done, and that’s it.
• - socks for myself… Lion Brand Magic Stripes (?), purple/white/gray… working from toe-up, but haven’t gotten to the heel on the first sock yet.

I think that’s all the UFOs.. And I have a project in mind that I’ll work on after I finish Josh’s afghan, (mainly because I need the size 15 needles the afghan is currently using), which should knit up pretty quickly as it will only require two skeins of boucle.. a shawl that I can wear when I go to restaraunts that leave their freezing cold A/C on that always seems to blow straight onto me while we’re dining…

That’s about it for the knitting.

I decided to join Blog Explosion (yeah, I know everyone else jumped on that band wagon like, last week or something… so I’m slow) to see what kind of traffic it can really give me.  I just signed up today, so my blog is in the “waiting for approval” status at this point.  If you visit via BE, please be sure to drop a comment to say hi so I know it’s working for me. 😉

Well, I guess I should get back to work.  Oh joy.

the sweater was…

Wrong.

Ok, so now here’s the question.  I am not yet done with it, I am in the middle of the first of the sleeves, but the body is done.

Do button holes really matter all that much anymore, which side they’re on?  I’d rather not rip it out and start over just for the sake of which side the button holes are…

decided…

After finishing the body of the sweater, I looked at it and decided, either all green, or stripes.  Mainly because, being all one piece (seamless), the sleeves actually started earlier than where I’m picking them up, and making them all white from here would look really…. off.  So I’m starting with green, and will switch to white a couple rows in, and decide whether to keep striping or to rip back and just finish all green.

Of course, when it’s finished, I can’t post a photo until after it’s been given to the recipient (which will probably be in either December or January.. whenever the shower will be)... so you’ll just have to wait until then to see it… and the booties, and hat. 😊  Probably going to make another hat (to go with the green sweater), and possibly another sweater (to go with the other hat & booties).

Well, time to go to work at the yarn shop.  Tah for now.

presumptions…

Speaking of knitting…

Why is it, just because I’m of child-bearing age, that everytime someone sees me knitting something that even resembles anything baby-like, they automatically assume that I’m the one having the baby?

Even the ladies at the yarn shop assumed that when I showed them the booties I was working on a couple weeks ago.  “Is there something you’re not telling us?” was the alluded question.  “Oh, you’re having a baby?” was one of the direct questions.

It’s fucking annoying.

Yes, someday when it’s my turn to have a child I will most likely knit something for him or her.  But until then, it’s not safe to assume that just because I’m knitting something babyish that it’s for a yet-to-be-even-conceived child of mine. Gah!

Please, oh please, if you see someone knitting a baby item, don’t ever assume it’s for them.  Resist the urge to ask them if it’s for their baby… Keep it to a simple, “Oh, how cute! Who is that going to be for?”, and that will do just fine, thank you!!

decisions…

I’m almost done with the body of the baby sweater I’m working on.  One more row and then binding off, then it’s on to the sleeves.

I’m using mint green (I know, some ppl really don’t like mint green, but it’s what I had in a color that is pretty much unisex), and at first I thought I may not have enough of it to finish the sleeves, but then found I do have a whole other skein of it sitting in a bag.

Before, when I thought I didn’t have enough left, I toyed with the idea of making the sleeves either all white, white with a little bit of green at the ends, or white & green striped.

Now that I found I have another skein of green, I can also do all green.

I’m getting a little tired of looking at just green, so I may either do white with green at the ends, or the striped…

So what do you think?  Should I go all green, white, striped, or white with a touch of green at the ends?

job#2

They’re cool with my schedule change at job#1… There will be a seasonal part-timer* starting at the beginning of October, and another at the beginning of November, so losing me on Mondays & Tuesdays won’t be too big an issue.  Plus they also hired another part-time girl last week, and she’ll be working as many mornings as she can until her job with Wal*greens goes through, and then only if the shop calls her and asks her to work.

So it’s all good.

* = snowbird

the sweater said it’s a boy…

I’m knitting a sweater for my yet-to-be-determined niece or nephew, courtesy of Josh’s brother & wife.  I found a pattern online that would make it seamless (which is cool, ‘cause so far I absolutely hate seaming), and followed the pattern… and got about four inches of it done before realizing the button holes are on the side for “boys”.

Not that it really matters too much which side the button holes are on these days…

But there you have it.  The sweater says it’s a boy.

They have an appointment on the 25th to find out the sex of JoJo (see the MIL’s blog for details on the story of JoJo).  So, we’ll see then if the sweater is right, (and the MIL too, I think, also thinks it’s a boy?) or if 95% of the rest of SIL’s family & friends are right in thinking it’s a girl.

Whee!

day 2 at job #2…

Second day, same as the first.

No, really.

Taping painted canvases again.  I thought they’d never end!  But they’re done!  Well, the stack they wanted me to do, anyway.  :cheese: I’m sure they have some more hidden around there somewhere.

Anyway, I got that done by 2pm*, so after that I tidied up an area where there are a bunch of magazines… people are so sloppy when looking through stacks of magazines.  I mean, really, how difficult is it to keep things in a neat stack?  Quite difficult, it would seem.  Meh. It only took like 10 minutes to straighten those up.

Then I wandered each isle looking at the different yarns, picking them up and putting them with their mates if they’d fallen… etc.  Watched the full-time gal ring up a couple of customers, watched her staple a small painted canvas to a stretcher frame.  Wandered the yarn isles some more.  Basically tried to kill two hours ‘til quittin’ time.

Oh, and I found out what that ‘spensive yarn is.  It’s actually by Trendsetter, called “Blossom”.  However, it’s custom dyed by a company called Prizm.  So that pretty much doubles the price.  And it’s $90 for only 8 oz of yarn.  🐛

I don’t need any special dye jobs, so I’m contemplating asking the boss to order me a bag of one of the standard colors.  I’d get twice as much yarn for about the same price.  Will have to think on it, though.  One of the reasons for picking up this job was to put the extra $ toward either A) our vacation to Flordia in December, or B) for Christmas fundage.  I may have to squeeze in some yarn purchases though.  I don’t know if it can be helped.  :cheese:

day 1 at job #2…

It was actually very nice.
Laid back & relaxing atmosphere, very nice owner & manager.

I was doing peon work, but you know what?

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