One Crazy Fiber Lady

Seeing as today is Wednesday, it is WIP Wipeout Update day!  While I haven’t received very many updates from the wonderful participants, I can only assume that is because they are so busy knitting and finishing up their WIPs!  The updates I did receive?  Wow you all have been busy!  Keep up the great work!

Nancy (blogless)

I finished my toe-up-2-circ socks with
the afterthought heels. Knitpicks free pattern from their website. Vera Cruz
colorway of Opal.

In addition to the sock pair pic I sent
you several days ago, I also finished one moccasin sock and am about 1/2 way
through the second of the pair!

Jill:

I’ve finished 2 pairs of socks, frogged 2 other WIPs that were destined to be
dismal failures and am working on Hubster’s Manly Sweater, still. I am not at
all convinced it is the sweater for him but oh well. If he hates it,
it’s in my color of green so I’ll just snatch it. LOL.

Lisa:

This month I have finished my
daughter’s pullover and a garter stitchblanket.  And I am almost done with a
pair of socks – just starting the decreases at the second toe.

Kim:

1.    60% completion of Pumpkin Bulky Baby Alpaca
Weave throw (was at 40% when started)

2.    90% completion – Periwinkle Wrap from Louisa
Harding new accessories book – Started (while in waiting room at hospital) and
completed knitting  – need to weave and add button (90%)

3.    40% (was about 39%) on Philosphers Wool Color
Your Own Cardi. Sleeves are completed, 1/2 of body completed, but the extra %
not done is for steeking and finishing.

 

I still have approximately at least 5 other WIP’s,
which will update on later on blog. Am currently trying to assess the level of
WIP dementia and taking inventory of stash as desperately need to do stash
reduction.

Risa

I haven’t finished anything.  Except I finally pulled out the new Majacraft winder and started playing with it on Sunday night.  I skeined up the bobbin of BL/Wensleydale that I plied a couple of weeks ago.  Been so long, I’ve forgotten how long.  Last couple of weeks have really been surreal.  Go figure.  Anyway…yeah, I was watching the Sopranos while doing this   The yarn weighed in at 285yd/6.2oz, rather close to the stats for the first one:  308yd/5.9oz

I have made some progress on the second of the Blah Buster socks.  The eagle eyed among you will notice that I’ve switched back to the pointy metal dpns for the second sock.  I found myself fighting too much with the cable and just wasn’t enjoying it.  Enjoyment really is what the knitting is about so I decided to quit fighting it and change the needles.  I am making progress but this pair is taking forever!  I don’t think I really like the toe-up business though. 

No pictures, but I’ve also been working on Birchington!  OMG.  I know.  Been forever since I played with that beast.  I’ve got about 7 inches of the quatrefoil border done which puts the shawl, blocked at maybe 34" in diameter.  I definitely want something bigger, but I’m tired of the lace pattern.  I might just thread in a lifeline, transition to a new pattern and see what comes of it.  Definitely a lifeline this time as I’ve now ripped it back twice without having one.  I can skip the fun that comes with that, especially with a stitch count for the round at well over 400.

The wip list in the sidebar has noticably shrunken.  But not from finishing items, nor pushing them off onto the On Hold list.  I’ve finally faced facts and declared a couple of projects DOA.  The first of which was Birch.  A lovely shawl that just hadn’t been touched since at least July.  Having done the center of Birchington in the same lace pattern, I just wasn’t motivated to work on it.  Another factor in its demise was a conversation Deb and I had with a woman in a yarn store during our last crawl regarding a rather awkward shape to it.  I’m going to frog the little bit that I have done so far and stick the crack Kidsilk Haze away for another project.  Who knows, it might become Kiri.  While yes the lace pattern is the same, I like the construction of that shawl better.  But I’m open to suggestions for a good lace pattern for the crack.

FLAK was also declared DOA only yesterday.  I’ve decided that I just don’t enjoy the knitting of it.  It actually hurt my hands to work on it, and again, not what the knitting thing is about for me.  Working a worsted weight yarn (in this case Elann’s Peruvian Highland) at 5.5st/in on size 4 or 3 needles just really wasn’t much of a good time.  I might try it again at some future time with a lighter/less dense gauge and bigger needles with better points.

Checking the WIP list I find I can cast on for something, or should I address the On Hold.  Not sure at the moment.  Might just sleep on it.  I wouldn’t mind a nice quick, easy project.  I do have the yarn and the pattern for the Not So Shrunken Marilyn cardigan which Deb is working on now herself.

A quick update on the job situation.  No offers yet but my temp gig’s commitment was extended definitely through the end of next week with a tentative on the following week.  Works for me.  No bennies but a check is definitely nice.  I still have the bennies from the old gig, for a while.  Fingers crossed that I don’t have to do the COBRA thing for too long.  Blech.

Again, a big hand for all the participants in the WWO!  Yay ladies.  I’m proud of you!

Craft on!

I’ve been doing a little more knitting recently.  I finished the first sock, cast on the second one and have finished the toe shaping.  Well I did say a little more, not a heck of a lot though.  Still a little twisted inside, but hopefully things will settle down shortly. 

As for the interviews?  Thanks to everyone for their happy thoughts.  Thursday’s interview seemed to be a great waste of time.  The posting that I had responded to on Monster was misleading.  While it stated that familiarity with a particular language/technology was a bonus, it turned out that it was the required language/technology that was the core of their company.  I had the skills in the posted requirements, but not a great deal of familiarity, certainly not enough to rate as the expert in it that they required.  Not a huge loss, it would have meant a lousy commute and I was sort of hoping that it wouldn’t pan out.  I don’t relish the idea of driving each day into the GWB (George Washington Bridge) traffic.  It can be pretty ugly and so can I sitting in traffic.  While it would still be an hour commute, it would be a far less civilized hour and I’d lose my knitting time to boot.  What could be taken as a positive sign is I got a call from the folks I interviewed with on Monday, they were curious as to my last salary was and what I was looking for.  Sucker me was honest with them, and following a history of this, undersold myself.  While it might mean getting less than I should, it could mean I have a better chance at the position since I’m probably cheaper than others.  On the whole, it also means that they are considering me and haven’t just filed my resume in the circular file following the interview.  I still have one more week at the short term job and they seem to be looking for other things for me to do afterwards.

I fulfilled all my obligations to the prior employer and should be getting my severance pay shortly.  They needed me to turn in my VPN security key (which I did the next day) and bring back my laptop (which had a hard drive failure the week before).  Talk about sensitivity, when I asked for a receipt for the laptop, while I got it, the person was insulted that I didn’t trust them.  Right.  I was protecting myself.  I don’t trust the company and I wouldn’t put it past them to claim I’d never turned it in.  It has happened to others I knew, not there, but other companies, and I wanted to nip that whole thing in the bud.  It had nothing to do with my trust level of the recipient, it was the company.  Get over it. 

I gave 30+ days written notice to my landlord on Monday that I would be vacating as of April 30th.  Thursday, I was coming home to change out of my interview suit and ran into Mrs. Landlord, who was just getting home as well.  She mentioned she received my notice and understood.  However, because I’d only given her 30 days notice (um I guess basic math isn’t one of her skills) they’d be coming in to start doing repairs.  Also to fascilitate showing the place (she’s a realtor), they’d be putting a lockbox up and would try to limit when people could come and see to maybe the latest being 7:30.  Awfully generous of her, but she seems to be a little light on NJ Landlord Tenant Law, she also forgot that while I might be a programmer by profession now, I am also a lawyer.  I did a little digging yesterday and found out that in no way could she put a lockbox.  She has ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to access my unit in any way without prior notice, except for emergencies and/or to make periodic inspections.  She’s also been in violation of the Security Deposit Law in that she hasn’t been turning over to me the required written notice as to where my deposit is, nor giving me the yearly interest on it.   She and I need to have a little talk.   I’m going to offer up leaving by the middle of the month, instead of the end, in exchange for pro-rated rent and the return of my entire deposit.  I’m betting she goes for it.  She sees dollar signs for the rent increase she can get for this place.  The neighbors, who have the same style house, rent out the same apartment for at least $500/month more than I am paying.  Talk about motivation  

Today I’m off to rent a storage unit to house a few things until construction is over at the folks house.  My loom and the Lendrum Saxony will probably be heading there in short order.  I just won’t have space for them until the sewing/craft room is finished.   I’ve really got to get  packing as  I have some 3 weeks to get everything done.  While I’d rather be working, I think that at the end of next week when my gig is theoretically up, I’ll take some time off and just get it done.  I’ll also file for unemployment then too.

Someday this will all go back to being a knitting blog.  I hope sooner rather than later~

Craft on.

Edited to add:

Mrs. Landlord is a f’in b*tch.  I just spoke with her and she is so deluded that she believes that her telling me that she’d be putting a lockbox was really "she might be putting a lockbox".  Not to mention that she believes I gave her consent to come in any fucking time she chose.  Oh and because she’s a REALTOR and she knows what she’s doing, I should relax as she would be with whomever came in to look at the place.  Right.  Makes me feel so much better.  And then she reminded me that she has the key, doesn’t need the lockbox.  Not for long sweetie.  I’m changing the lock.  Today.  She’ll have no choice but to abide by my terms.  I must be here when they are showing it.  Oh and fuck her, I’ll keep possession until the 30th.

After a short delay, we have our first update of the WIP Wipeout participants.  I’ve gotten a fair number of updates and hope the others have posted on their blogs.  I have linked on the sidebar all participants where applicable.  If you want to send an update for next week, email me at crazyfiberlady AT gmail DOT com. 

Anne:

I’ve finished my mother’s hat (she’ll be here in about
an hour, so I’ll find
out then whether or not she likes it – I’m really not
holding out much
hope…), and I’m one sock down of my pair of
Sockapalooozas – and the other
one has been started. Oh, and some progress
is being made on the Illusion
Scarf.

More to the point – I HAVEN’T cast on for my gloves yet! Nor for
the baby
tam jacket that I’m longing to get started on.

However I’ve
discovered the Sunrise Circle Jacket, and it’s begging to be knitted – I
_will_ be strong!

Donna:

I finished my first WIP tonight – the Skinny Stripe Socks that I test
knitted for Jessie.

Hope to have pics posted on Wednesday.

Now for a very rare Sunday post.  What with the whole changeup in the employment situation, I can’t very well blog during the day.  Besides, I had a great day yesterday and I didn’t want to wait. 

Deb and I visited three yarn stores, and a great cafe yesterday in Montclair.  This is the third installment in the adventures through NJ yarn stores for the two of us. It was a beautiful day, if a little chillier than I like it, but really, it was about yarn, food and spending time with a good friend.  I did a little retail therapy. 
After this past week, I kind of needed it   Not to mention Modern Yarn had offered up 15% discount for by medal winning Olympians and I couldn’t pass that up!  I got the yarn I had planned on for my next sweater.  From left to right, 9338, 9440 an d 8420.  They should be good together in fibonacci stripes.  I got three skeins of each color so I should have more than enough for a basic long sleeves cardigan.  Besides, as Deb said, it is Cascade 200, it won’t go to waste.  I can’t wait to start this and have the sweater queue jockeying around in my head.  There’s chances the FLAK sweater is going to be declared DOA as it just hurts my hands to work on it.  But that’s for another day.

I also went for the potato chips of the yarn world, like I really needed more…  First up is a skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock in Fall Foliage colorway.  I found this little number on the 40% off shelf.  I couldn’t very well pass up that bah-gain now, could I?  Didn’t think so. 

I also found this skein of Diakeito Diamuseefine yarn in a traditional sockweight.  With my tiny feet, this skein should be enough for a pair.  It was different and colorful. 

Those were my purchases from MY.  A nice, bright store, with well organized and displayed yarns.  I really liked it.  One thing I really liked about it were the baskets of yarn on the table with a vase of needles for sampling.  Deb found this skein of a really stretchy yarn.  I played with it for a moment and guessed correctly that it was the Cascade Fixation.  I plucked a set of US1 needles from the vase and sampled it.  I have to admit, the tiny bit of elastic in that cotton yarn definitely made it very appealing.  I’m going to have to add some Fixation to the stash soon.  If it hadn’t of been for that basket, I wouldn’t have even considered buying any.

Off to Stix-n-Stitches where two skeins of GORGEOUS laceweight yarn in "Blue Blood Red" jumped into my hands.  There was no getting rid of them and the price was very good.  I knew when I was beat and paid for the little buggers.  Right now, I think they are going to be the Super Spiral Shawl from GOL, but we all know how well I stick with a pattern plan.  Stix-n-Stitches is a great store too.  I liked the big comfy sitting area, the huge book selection and walls of yarn.  There was plenty of designer yarns, but a goodly selection of the basics.  The two stores are worth the trip, which really, isn’t a very far trip for me.  Google put it at some 11.5 miles or so.  Oh and Carole, that makes 13 new skeins for Buy More Yarn!

Lunch was very yummy grilled chicken, basil, mozzeralla cheese, arugala rolled in a whole wheat pita.  It was yummier than I expected and good enough that I finished the thing in no time flat.  Dessert was really to die for.  I had this wonderful cake that had the first layer being cheesecake, topped with an equally sized layer of chocolate mousse.  The whole mess was drizzled with caramel and chocolate.  It was divine.  Together with an espresso and good conversation, I was a very happy camper indeed.

A short visit to Ely’s revealed a sock yarn that had jojoba oil and aloe vera to make it "eaiser on the hands".  Huh?  I haven’t found sock yarn to be hard on the hands.  Well except one that I found a little scratchy, but really, I can’t complain about sock yarn.  If you want it easier on the hands, how ’bout leaving a little of the natural lanolin in the wool rather than stripping it so clean that it now needs an injection of other stuff.  It was pretty, but the idea didn’t sit right with me.  And the yarn crawl was over much too soon.  I did have to get back to do a little packing and pick the kids up from my folks house.  It was a beautiful day and I always have fun with Deb.

I have an interview tomorrow afternoon so happy thoughts please.  I also got an email from someone I sent my resume to through a posting on Monster.  They wanted to know what my schedule was like this week and they’d like to see me.  Neat.

I’m going to spend the sorting and probably some time with my shredder.  Time to part with years old paid bills and the like.  No reason to move junk, right?  The shorties are enjoying The Big Comfy Couch now and tonight I get the TV for the Sopranos!  Woo.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull off a daily posting, but I am planning on a WIP update for Wednesday, so everyone get to work!  Could all participants send me a quick update via email so I can post it, I don’t want to miss anyone.

Craft on!

Once again, the support you’ve all shown me has me astounded.  I’m speechless.  I’m dumbstruck.  I’m so incredibly touched that words just fail me in trying to convey how very much you have all meant to me.  Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart.  I’m going to slowly if not surely, work my way through and answer each and every comment, though it might take a while.  I actually have stuff to do at work now

Work today was very cool.  Did the whole HR thing, which means that I won’t be considered an independent contractor and get stuck footing the bill for taxes/fica.  I was hired as a temporary employee, filled out a W4, amongst a load of other paperwork.  The people are very nice, the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable and the work interesting. 

I got a voice mail from a peer of the woman I sent my resume to last night, you remember the wife of my wonderful former coworker.  He wants to interview me.  I’m hoping to arrange something for tomorrow afternoon.  The place I’m working now is shutting down at 4 for a St. Patricks Day party.  Nice huh?  I have to remember to dig out something green to wear.  If not, I have the new boss’ blessing to interview if Ihave to.  She understands the whole needing a full time job with benefits thing.   I like her. 

Okay, this is a knitting blog after all so I must chat knitting.  I have been doing some.  Not a heck of a lot of it though.  Too many other things going on, not to mention the replacement of night time knitting with blogging and email writing.  I wouldn’t trade those emails for the world, don’t get me wrong!  I have been working on my Trekking socks and finished turning the heel this morning.  I’m about 2" into the cuff now.  It’s been my purse knitting.  I downsized the purse for the whole interview thing so I’m carrying a bare minimum of stuff.  Note though that there is knitting included in the bare min!

Anyway, lets hold off until next Wednesday for the first of the WIP WipeOut updates.  Hopefully there will be plenty of progress to post about after a week!  For those of you who would still like to join, the more the merrier.  If you’ve dropped a comment or an email and I haven’t added you to the sidebar, please bear with me, I’ll get to you.  I hope to dig out from under the email and get current again this weekend.  When I’m not packing that is

Craft on my lovelies!

I’m so totally touched by the outpouring of support, prayers and good wishes, that I am almost at a loss for words.  Once again, this community is one I’m completely surprised by (though I shouldn’t be by now, but am nonetheless) and deeply touched.  I thank G-d that I found you all and you let me be part of this group.  Thank you each and every one for your kind comments and emails.  I’m going to answer each one individually but wanted to issue a mass thank you first. 

Yes, the whole firing thing totally sucked.  I could have definitely lived without it.  It isn’t the first time, sadly its something like the third (2 in 2 years – talk about an ego killer!), but it has definitely been a while since the last one.  I am a believer in what most of you have been telling me, that while this door has closed, a window will open.  I also believe that things surely do happen for a reason.  That reason might not be so clear at the time, it eventually does.  My last "downsizing" (um, I’m all of 5’0", I don’t really want to be any smaller lead me to look elsewhere for a career.  I had been in the Employee Benefits arena working for Ingersoll-Rand, doing statutory compliance (ERISA) as well as some other lawyerly things.  When they fired me, I sat with the NY Times Sunday classified checking out other options.  This was in ’97 right at the beginning of the DotCom boom.  I had HTML skills and decided to give it a go.  I tinkered with my lawyer heavy resume and qualified technically as a HTML writer for a consulting firm.  My very first assignment was B&N.com, who put me on their payroll a month later.  Over the years there, I developed much deeper programming skills and changed positions a number of times.  So what started as heartbreak being fired resulted in a whole new career.  Without the dark, there is no light.

Where am I going with this?  Oh yeah.  After leaving the office yesterday, I sent an IM via my cell phone (yeah, I’m a geek, wanna make something of it? to my former boss as a "heya fellow former b&n’er".  We chatted for a bit as he sympathesized greatly with my plight having been there not so long ago himself.  Anyway, last night he called me.  Would I be interested in a temporary job as a programmer at his current place?  Of course!  He requested that I get him my resume ASAP and he’d take it from there.  Once I got the twins down last night, and finished my post, I dusted off the resume and updated it for the last couple of years.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to write the thing from scratch.  I emailed it to him last night.  This morning, I got a phone call, could I come in for an interview. No moss here baby.  I was on the 10:34 train into the city, in their offices by 11:34.  At 12:15, I walked out as a hired employee.  I start tomorrow morning at an hourly rate that nearly doubles what I had been making.  Plenty of light there baby!  At a minimum, the job is 2 weeks, maybe more like 4.  If they have other work come in, we might extend it if I’m still available.  They know I’m looking for a permanent fulltime gig and told me that if I need to take some time for an interview, do it.  They just asked that I don’t leave before finishing a 55 hour commitment. Awfully fair if you ask me.  I have to report in tomorrow morning to HR to get the paperwork done.

Up for more light folks?  Well after leaving the new place, I walked  few avenues over to the old place to return a signed release form which activates my severance package, a pretty decent one overall, and clean out my cubicle.  I ran into a friend of mine in the elevator lobby.  He’s sent my contact information over to his wife, who happens to be Director of Internet Production of a company that is LOOKING TO HIRE A DEVELOPER!  I got an email from her this evening and will be forwarding her my resume before the night is out.  Several other former coworkers suggested I send them my resume.  Networking.

Whew. So it does look like that I’m going to land on my feet, running.  The stress and despair I felt yesterday, not to mention doubt of myself, are gone now.  I had a lousy night sleep as everytime I tried, my mind replayed the conference room scene again and again on a loop.  Though with each repeat, I thought of something that I wish I had said to my boss and/or the HR VP (never good to see him in a conference room).  I know it wasn’t a lack of ability of mine, it was a failure of him as a manager to keep his people working.  I can’t deliver if I have nothing to do.  I’m not doubting myself in the slightest.  Hell today’s interview was barely an interview.  They’d read my resume, my former boss KNOWS what I can do, heck he was the one who got me into programming in the first place and taught me most of what I know.  It was more of a "this is what we need you to do, are you interested?" meet and greet. 

In the end it does look like bn did me a bit of a favor, pushing this baby bird out of the nest.  I’d gotten comfortable there, allowed myself to be marginalized, but stuck with it out of familiarity.  Well that and the wonderful coworkers who I will miss seeing daily, but hope to maintain regular contact.  Hopefully I’m about to embark on something, new and exciting.  I’m now looking forward to that journey.  I’ll relax when I have medical benefits beyond the severance package, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.  Things do indeed happen for a reason.

Now I must send my resume off to a few more folks before doing some much needed work around here.

WIP Wipeout updates tomorrow.  I hope you all have been working on them.  I have the energy to do some tonight!

Craft on and thank you from the bottom of my heart! 

This is going to be quick.. and ugly.

I was fired today.  Well, let go.  Sounds nicer that way, not to mention you qualify for unemployment.  8.5 years at the damn place and not so much as a warning that it was going to happen.  Bastards. My boss told me the following:

"We don’t have much work (not what he said a month ago when I asked him for something to do) and based on the goals that he set for me last year (um if he set any he never ever communicated them to me) I hadn’t made any changes, so if there was work, he didn’t think I had the bandwidth to do it.  It would be better for both of us if we just parted company now."

Better for whom?  Certainly not me and my kids.

Screw bn.com.  Shop at Amazon.  Their prices are better and I suspect they treat their employees better.  8.5 years I was there and I was branded by association with a particular project that turned out not so popular.  I was banned from working on other projects because of it.  They set me up to fail, stuck me off on the side where there was nothing to be done.

I’ll work on my resume tonight, have myself a margarita and start job hunting tomorrow.  I can’t say if I’ll be posting updates to the WIP Wipeout tomorrow, I hope you all understand.

Damn.

I’m pleasantly pleased by how many have decided to join me in the WIP Wipeout attempt to tame the beast.  It will be a far more pleasant task when with good company! 

Well the non-knitting WIP, aka the move, has been tentatively scheduled for the weekend of April 15th or the following.  Depends on the weather the weekend of the 8th as the folks need a day to get their boat ready to launch.  Dad is going to see if he can get some of the guys from work and a truck to assist in the whole moving thing.  I spent some time on Saturday with an online floorplan layout tool trying to figure out what could move into the new (old) room and where it would best sit.  I think I’ve got something that will be workable until the construction is done and I get a larger bedroom.  I put together a carload worth of rubbermaid bins, the kids summer clothes and a bucket or two of yarn.  After their nap, I schlepped everything over to the new (old) house.  Being that it was sooooo nice on Saturday, the short people stayed with the folks and played in the backyard while I packed up another load with first a stop at the much hated Kmart to buy more bins.  At this point 90% of the yarn has moved.  Amazing.  I’ve kept all the WIPs at my place as they’ll go last.  Makes the whole move seem real now and a symbolic heart is no longer at my place.

While I was emptying the sock yarn shelf of the yarn cabinet, I figured I’d photograph what I had.  I found later  3 more pairs worth in a different cubby so they aren’t represented with these.  Count ‘em.  38 pairs worth.  That doesn’t include the pairs that can be made from the left overs for the short folk.  It also doesn’t take into account that Kristen has made a pair from some single skeins that I bought 2 for.  I’m somewhat embarassed by the sheer number of skeins here as I hadn’t a clue there were so many of them.  Potato chips indeed, you surely can’t just have one! 

While today isn’t Wednesday, the official update day of the WIPEOUT, I do have a finished object to report!  Nope, not Klaralund, though I did sew up her side seams.  I have to do the whole sleeve thing, but that shouldn’t take terribly long.  Maybe tonight, tomorrow at the latest.  I decided to finish off the Diamond Fantasy Scarf.

Project Details:

Yarn:  Fleece Artist Merino – less than 1 skein
Pattern:  Sivia Harding
Needles:  Clover US5
Started:  12/23/05
Finished: 3/12/05

I really could have finished this far faster had I focused (there’s that word again!), not to mention kept the index card box in a short folk safe environment.  I love it.

This was under the OTT light Saturday night right after I finished it.


During nap on Sunday I decided to block it.

I’m always amazed by the magic of blocking when dealing with lace.  The scarf (shawl for us shorter folk) didn’t look like much and the yarn didn’t feel all that great until after that soak with Euclan and the magical blocking.

My little spokemodel is showing the way to wear this thing.  What you can’t see from the pictures is the lovely variations in reds throughout the yarn.  The camera just isn’t picking up on them for a change.  Maybe when the sun comes back out, I can get a better shot.

The spokesmodel hopefully learned yesterday that mom doesn’t issue idle threats.  Playing princess, she reclined in her brother’s bed, while he and I cleaned up their room last night (recovering from the mass dumpage of toy bin onto floor).  I threatened her with going directly to bed and skipping bath time if she didn’t get her butt in motion.  I did make the "pick em up or I’m throwing ‘em out" threat and even came in with a garbage bag.  That was sufficient to get Alex working.  Nothing would budge her highness from her reclined position.  Until we were done that is.  That was when she announced she was going to "keem up".  Too late sweetie.  I plunked her on the dressing table, fought her into her jammies and left her having a true hissy fit.  I took Alex into the bathroom, leaving the baby gate across the doorway, and gave him a bath.  Kat sat for a while in my rocking chair in her room, standing at the baby gate being cute and then hissying again because I said no to her request for a bath.  She’ll get a bath tonight instead.  It was sort of nice bathing just one of them.  Haven’t done that in a LONG time.

Craft on!

Here’s my pathetic attempt at a button for the WIP Wipe Out! Please copy to your server, blah blah blah. There’s been a pretty darn positive response for this informal KAL.  Just a review of the whole thing:

Rules:
1.  Reduce thy WIP list.

That’s it.  Nothing more than that.  Purchases aren’t forbidden.  Perish at the thought.  There’s no banning of casting on new projects, that would be as popular as a root canal.  Feel free to cast on, provided of course that the old projects are getting completed.  The goal is to get the WIP beast under control.

MY goal is to wind up with a total of 3 to 4 knitting projects.  Total. 
1.  Sweater
2.  Sock
3.  Lace

That means if I finish a sweater, I can start a new one.  If I finish socks, I can cast on for more.  Got it?  Wednesdays, we’ll update progress.

Participants – see sidebar!

Here’s hoping the WIP beast can be tamed and that those folk on the fence decide to join us.

Craft on!

Mom called me at work yesterday to tell me that Alex had bypassed the safety latch on the bread door in her kitchen.  Swell.  Shouldn’t really surprise me much, he is very mechanical.  Not to mention, my parents like to tell the stories how I managed to get around all the safety setups they had used when I was little.  Now I have to make sure the baby gate gets closed between the hallway to the bedrooms and the kitchen before I go to bed.  I appreciate all the suggestions on using a gate in their doorway.  I’d been doing that during weeknights since they started escaping.  I stopped putting it up when they turned to sitting at the gate and crying/whining/calling for me from it.  Since they are headed for my bed anyway (I should count myself lucky that they aren’t going elsewhere and wrecking havoc), I might as well leave it down.  They go to sleep in their beds nicely every night.  I’ll content myself with that and welcome the cuddly warm things in the morning while it lasts.  Thanks to a touch of congestion and a dose of Benadryl last night, my first visitor didn’t arrive until 5:30AM.  Very late for him.  The other didn’t show until it was time to get out of bed anyway.

I got home, turned on the TV and was greated by the news.  Yippee.  I was getting tired of seeing snow/no-sound or trying to watch broadcast on a 5" B&W {shudder}.  Must have been a general cable outage.  I’m glad its back.  I got to watch I Love Toys on VH1.  I totally enjoyed their I Love the 70′s and 80′s programs.  The Toys is just as much fun.  I have my buddy ReplayTV set to record the final episode tonight as I believe the season finale for Battlestar Galactica is tonight.

I seriously doubt y’all come and read to see what I watched last night, if anything.  You want the knitting right?  I’ve got some for you!  I finished the knitting on Klaralund last night. We have two sets of fraternally striped twins here.  I love the colors and how they worked up.  I’m hoping to get the pieces sewed together tonight or at the latest tomorrow.  It all moves rather fast when you focus on it.

Speaking of focus, I’m going to make a concerted effort to buckle down and Wipe Out my WIP list.  Sounds like a good name for a KAL doesn’t it?  I’ll host if anyone is interested.  Want to reduce your WIP list, get those projects under control?  Button anyone?  I’m seeing a wave, a surfboard and some yarn in there someplace.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Wipe Out Wednesdays where everyone’s progress is posted?  Personally I want to get back to having 3 maybe 4 projects on the go at any one time.  One sock project (they barely count but they do take up the needles), One Sweater and one Shawl/Lace.  Add in maybe a hat / mittens / small kid thing.  I’d love to have some company in taming the WIP monster. 

In that vein, I’ve pulled out the Diamond Fantasy Shawl and have gone back to work on it.  I’m just shy of halfway through the last repeat.  Woot!  I had to take a break from this shawl as the kids got to my box where I’ve kept the pattern.  Back when I started the thing, I wrote each row of the chart out in notation on index cards.  I’ve kept those cards in a clear plastic closable box, putting the done row at the back of the box and keeping the rows yet to do at the front.  Well one day while I was making dinner, I found the short people playing with index cards.  You got it.  They found the pattern box and had taken all the cards out, messed around with them and totally futzed with my order.  Then came the Olympics so I was so thoroughly distracted that I didn’t get the actual pattern out and figure where I was.  Fortunately it was only one of two rows and a quick consult with the chart solved it for me.  Whew.  I put it in my bag last night and it was my commuting knitting this morning.  Thankfully I only need the pattern card for the very beginning and ending of the right side row so it isn’t necessarily a couch only knit. 

In the cleanup, I put the Nachaq "On Hold".  With 60F weather today (was I really bitching about snow just last week??), I don’t think a warm lacy head-wrap is going to get much more usage this winter.  It might get another shot as some of the other projects drop off, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.  On Hold is much like HIATUS for a TV program.  They very rarely return from that state. 

I’m torn over what to do with Birch.  It really has been sitting untouched since July(ish).  I did work a row or two on it about a month ago, but that was it.  I like the whole working towards the tip action, each repeat getting shorter.  But it really is sitting and doing nothing.  And I have Birchington I need to finish as well as the STS.  We won’t even begin to go into the number of projects (lace and otherwise) that are clamoring in my head! 

The theory is that if I focus on one or two (or three) I can actually finish them faster and move on to the next.  Good theory.  I just don’t want to resent a project because it is standing between me and what I really want to be doing.  I had that happen two years ago when I was working the Icelandic Shawl.  It was my first big post-children, back to work knitting.  As it was something I had so looked forward to working on, I really wanted to finish it and wouldn’t let myself work on anything else until I had done so.  I seriously came to resent the thing, leaving it in my purse unworked for days on end, not knitting at all!  I finally cast on for a sock and before I got halfway down the cuff, I was back at the shawl and pushed on to finish it.  I don’t want to torture myself that way so if I can keep the project count under 4ish, with proper project planning (make sure at least one is train/lunch friendly), I can do it. 

So if anyone wants to join me in a WIP WIPE OUT, drop me a comment or an email at crazyfiberlady AT gmail DOT com.

Have a great weekend!

Craft on!

Edited to clarify:

WIP Wipe Out isn’t a complete wipe out of the wips.  I’m the last one on the planet to advocate finishing (or tossing) all active wips.  It is more of a resolution to attack one’s dusty arsed pile of once loved projects and either finishing them or putting them to their final rest.  At the very least, it is a goal to tame the beast created by raging cases of startitis.  There’s no prohibition against casting on something new, as long as you’re finishing things and the WIP beast isn’t growing.