One Crazy Fiber Lady

As I finally have a few moments, I thought it was well past time to post an update.  The move started last Friday on the 21st.  I took the Thursday before off of work to finish up packing, though didn’t, as my dad had the guys coming with the truck early Friday morning.  To help me out further my parents’ kept the twins Wednesday night onwards.  I took a break from packing on Thursday to see my children for a bit and to bring Sara and Earl over to the house.  I initially was going to bring all the cats but decided that it probably wouldn’t be fair to torture Duchess by taking her there if neither I nor my bed (her normal spot) wouldn’t be there.  She doesn’t like the kids, doesn’t know my dad and really I was only worried about her for the move.  I kept her home with me. 

Getting her to the house on Friday wasn’t easy though.  She was under the bed when the guys started moving it!  Boy did she scurry like a cockroach when the lights turned on when they lifted up the boxspring.  She disappeared into the closet where she remained for the next 8 hours.  Right before having to pick up the twins from daycare, I dug her out of the closet, twice, removing her from the clothes she attached herself to and finally got her into the carrier.  She stayed in it for the next 12 hours, gate open mind you, crammed in the far end of it.  It wasn’t until 5am on Saturday that she exited and made a beeline for under my bed.  She’s be slowly but surely getting more comfortable and coming out but she did have me scared for a bit!  The other cats settled in in no time and by Saturday morning, I heard Earl and Sara romping around, flying up and down the stairs. 

The bulk of my stuff, bed included, was moved on Friday.  Sadly it wasn’t everything that was in the apartment so I needed to spend a great deal more time there cleaning and packing.  I spent all weekend there. Wednesday I had one of the guys come back with the truck and we sorted everything in the place (Mom helped with the kitchen stuff that morning) and after 5 hours, I had a truck full of "garbage" which he took back to the warehouse.  It was incredibly wasteful.  Something I’m not proud of, but I had no where else to put it.  I did manage to freecycle alot of things, but nowhere near what I could have.  The guys did take a bit, including my kitchen table, living room rug, etc.  Still there was a load of waste.  The rest of Wednesday was spent packing the remaining stuff for a Saturday move.  Im relaxing from that now!  I turned the key to the apartment in a few hours ago, picked the twins up from the babysitter and returned home.  Nice to sit for a bit and certainly nice to have it over.  Now begins the unpacking.  Ugh.

On the job front, I had a second interview with a company last week.  It went really well I think.  I was told that the VP was overseas in the UK working with a client and should be back Monday.  I should expect a phone call.  In the meantime, I should practice my C# (which I’ve been doing anyway).  Sounds like I’m not too far offbase in thinking that they might extend me an offer shortly.

Back to the temp gig.  Remember it was supposed to be a 2 week thing, maybe 4 on the outside?  Well it is still going.  I was called into a meeting with the boss lady and both the guys.  Her first question was how the interviewing was going.  I pretty much told her exactly what I wrote one paragraph ago.  To which she replied "oh you’re scaring me!".  She’s been very honest all along, she’d love to keep me, there just wasn’t a full time position. Well, unless I’m seriously mistaken, they are cobbling together one for me, part developer, part product manager serving as a contact for the clients in their ongoing maintenance needs.  As a beginning point, she extended my "freelance" through the end of May.  Whew. I was concerned as as of Thursday morning I was only there through the end of April and well, had no place to go on Monday!  I’ve been asked to give them a chance to match an offer I get and if they can’t match it, to consider the intangibles.  Fair enough.  They have 2 weeks vacation, pretty standard, but then add in that they close the week between Christmas and New Years (paid!) and every other Friday during the summer (also paid!).  The people are nice, the work varies and they dangled a developer carrot before me with the prospect of building an application from the ground up in the new technology that I want to learn.  Yes.  Life is indeed starting to look up.

I’ve done a minimal amount of knitting recently as train time has been devoted to learning C# still and with the packing, cleaning, moving crap I just haven’t had the time.  I did finish the second sleeve for Ribby on Tuesday night while watching House and started the back. 

I need to confess that I started a new project last night.  My mom reminded me about a week or so ago that Rikki’s wedding is coming up and that my gown is sleeveless.  Being the nutty knitter, my mind began to wander towards knitting a lace shawl to coordinate with it.  Really, I’m not the crazy fiber lady for nothing!  So stash diving I went, pattern searching carried on and finally after a couple of possibilities, I started last night.  I’m knitting the Flower Basket Shawl, pattern purchased probably a year ago and was intended as the use for that butterscotch yarn I spun up.  I’m using some of the laceweight that I got from HandpaintedYarn.com last year in the alpine colorway.  The mid-range color is a perfect match for the dress which is now sitting in my closet. 

So there it is.  The kids are napping, the folks are out for the day at a Power Squadron function and I have some quiet time to relax before I need to start tackling the garage.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I don’t doubt that a regular posting isn’t far now.  Good.  I’ve missed this big time!

Craft on!

I’ve gotten a couple of emails checking up on me to make sure everything was all right.  I’m terribly touched.  It means alot to me to know that I was missed.  I miss everyone too!  As much as I haven’t been posting, I haven’t been able to read the myriad of blogs that I subscribe to.  Sadly, I suspect that when life returns to some semblance of normalcy, I will have to simply start again at Bloglines.  There’s no way I’ll be able to get through over a month’s worth! 

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks.  I can’t believe how long it has been since I posted a regular post.  For those in the WIP Wipeout, please continue finishing  off your projects.  This group has been a great inspiration to finish or declare DOA the sad and neglected projects.  I would like a couple of weeks to get settled before posting another Wipeout update. 

The insanity is almost over.  Moving day is set for Friday.  It had been Saturday but the forecast is predicting some much needed rain.  Additionally, the kids can be in daycare and not underfoot through it all if we do it Friday.  Gives me one less packing day, but one less day in this nutty apartment and one more day to unpack   It will be nice to finally not be technically living in two places.  I look forward to not having to pack up the twins each night and schlep them to the other place to sleep.  I really look forward to not having a herd of people living upstairs from me who lack basic consideration.  Deb got an email full of the latest adventure with the insane Mrs. Landlord, but I think I’ll spare repeating it here.  Suffice it to say that the chick is nuts and seriously wrong.  Someday she’ll remember that underneath the geeky programmer is a lawyer.  I might not be practicing, but I still know how to do legal research and read a contract.  She’s toast.  I can easily say that I really won’t miss her!  I’ve been busy packing, sorting, tossing and freecycling.  It is amazing how much more that I still need to do though.  Almost all the yarn, with the exception of the current WIPS (and the recent purchases), have been moved, along with one box shy of the entire collection of knitting and crafting books, magazines and misc pattern leaflets.  I’m long since committed to this move as you can tell by the earliest relocated items.

I still haven’t gotten any offers on permanent employment, but I’m not sweating it.  I’m still at the temporary gig and will be through the end of the month.  It is pretty promising that it will extend beyond that.  I’m not quite clear on how to interpret some of the recent statements I’ve been hearing as to "keeping me on".  I’m not sure if that means they’ll as for May or offer me something longer term.  Either way, I won’t complain.  It is a good place with good people.  The work itself ranges from dull to challenging.  I prefer variety and there seems to be plenty of it there.  There’s the possibility of completely rewriting one of the apps they support which would be a great task.  With the discovery of being able to buy an individual health insurance policy for about half the cost of COBRA, I don’t have the pressure of absolutely needing a permanent job with benefits on my shoulders.  I can take my time and find the right one.  What?  Me worry?

I haven’t been doing a tremendous amount of knitting as the train time has been for learning new programming languages and with the exception of a couple of hours of tv time, where I sit on the couch idle, I’ve been moving about too much to actually get anything done.  I did manage to finish the first sleeve of my new Ribby and am now read to begin the sleeve cap for the second one. 

That’s all I’ve got time for now.  I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I’m still alive and miss you terribly!

Craft on.

I hope no one has noticed that I’m a day late.  I hope everyone is working hard in getting their WIPs whittled down!  Here are the happy updates:

Claudia:

The Fleur-de-Lys scarf is finally off the needlles! I have started the second
SP sock but haven’t really worked on it, but I am working on Cinxia and I have
6" of the lower body, all around! I decided to take off the needles the wrap I
had started a while back. I only had about 5" and I wasn’t really liking it, so
maybe that’s cheating on the wipe out! I still have to finish the Dolores
Scarf.

Lorrie Valley:

I am almost done with another sock for my daughter.  I’m also about 20% complete
with a knitted triangle shawl.  Completed a baby sweater for my cousin’s baby
(yeah)!

Marji:

I am right where I want to be now.
I have just a few projects on the needles,
which are progressing – however I’ve knit off the off-season knits and will cast
on for rest of pieces (sleeves etc) later in the summer.
This week I finished
Gyrid and cast on for Orangina – my summer knit that needs paying attention to,
and last night I cast on for the Drops Cardi – my spring knit which I can work
on in company or in front of TV.
Did not make any progress on the second Lady
E – must do something about that next week.
And, I’ve started the Stashalong
which means I won’t be adding anything to stash or project pile for the entire
Spring season….Yay!

Kim:

Braid Throw – 99% complete – need to weave in 16
ends. see blog for pic – it looks awesome!

Slip Stitch Sock – 17% completed – purchased
yumscrumpious yarn, cast one, and knit cuff, leg, and heel

I haven’t touched anything else as the throw took
all knitting time and energy. I probably should have my lungs checked as I was
knitting so fast that the Pumpkin colored alpaca was flying.

Nancy (blogless

I did it! They’re done! The moccasin socks are from EZ’s Knitters Almanac. They look kind of strange, but fit beautifully. Good house slipper kind of socks or heavy boot socks in this worsted weight.

The Pi Are Squared is finished! It’s currently dressing in the bedroom with Nikki’s assistance! Item number 2 for WIP update #3. I can’t believe I finished it!!! Have the feeling I may not be posting next week — don’t really think any of the other projects are close enough to finish, but never really know for sure!

Risa:

A whole lot of nothing finished around here.  I did take advantage of the sale that WEBS is having though   Oh wait, this isn’t the Buy More Yarn update?  Nevermind   I couldn’t pass up the sale price of the Cascade 220.  As Deb can attest, I have a weakness for it, not to mention a shopper’s keen sense of Bah-gain dah-ling.  I naturally bought some.  I bought: 7824 burnt orange x5, 8555 black x2, 8400 charcoal grey x4, 8012 doeskin heather x5.  Oh and some other stuff that I’ll mention when it gets here. 

One other purchase that bears noting is the CVM lamb fleece from my favorite purveyors of CVM.  It’s that time of year!  If you want one, head on over there and pick one up quick.  I went for a lamb fleece this year.  This feller sports the name Harley and has some of my very favorite colors.  Which reminds me, two years ago I bought Zeus’ fleece.  Sadly the thing sat in a container in the hallway waiting around for me to get to it.  A couple of weeks ago I decided that that wasn’t proper for such a gorgeous fleece and sent it off to Wooly Knob for some proper treatment.  I got the call, its ready to come home.  I should have it early next week.  Yay!  I can’t wait to try out that roving. 

I’m not entirely sure what I have planned for all of this Cascade, but heck, as Deb said while shopping, it is Cascade, its not like it will go to waste.  I did have to send Webs an email yesterday after the box arrived and I did some math.  I was hoping to get the burnt orange to be  a Ribby Cardi, except I did the math wrong and came up 100 yards short of the requirement for my size.  Yeah, I nearly majored in math.  Simple stuff always gets past me.  Anyway, I sent an email to see if they had a skein in the same dyelot for both the orange and the doeskin (who knows, that could be a ribby someday too, at least I have the yardage for it).  Thankfully they do and have added it to my second anniversary sale order.. which email reveals shipped today.  I might just have it tomorrow. 

Since my active WIP list has been effectively cut down to nothing more than a pair of socks and two shawls, and there’s all this new Cascade in the house, I figured I could start a sweater.  I really haven’t done much knitting in the last week.  I’m still a bit twisted between the job hunting / packing / Yeti that I haven’t been able to really knit.  The shawls are more than my brain really wants to deal with as Birchington is begging for a pattern change and well, the Shetland Tea Shawl is one round away from starting the Madeira section.  I do have the errata for this section when I have the brain power to deal with it.  That left the socks.  While I’m close to halfway through the foot, I’m just not feeling the love for it.  I can’t even make myself knit the thing.  I’m seriously tempted to rip it out, but geez, I finished the first one!  Not sure what is up, except it might have to do with the broken thumb nails (way too short) and the thin metal needles not getting along so well with my knitting style. 

So what’s a girl to do?  Start a new project!  Thankfully I’ve kept the needles, swift and ball winder here while all the other knitting stuff has already moved including the book collection.  I started a Ribby.  I’m using the black Cascade for the sleeves and the body will be the charcoal.  It must be exactly what the doctor has ordered as I knit last night, on the train both ways today (well except the short decongestant induced nap on the way home!) and above the elbow of the first sleeve.  This is the most I’ve knit since before getting laid off.

A few people have asked how the job hunting has gone.  I’ve had a couple of interviews, including another one on Tuesday.  Nothing yet on any of them.  I was contacted yesterday by a recruiter through my resume on one of the boards for a job that’s skills were right up my alley.  It was for my two strong suit languages, programming that is, in NJ.  And get this, for a law firm!  The recruiter was quite interested when I told her I have a Juris Doctor on top of being a code jockey.  She submitted my resume to them.  It would be a 3 month Right To Hire (not sure what that really entails) for a hourly rate prior to hire hititng a little higher than my previous salary at BN.  The hiring salary would be a good step above.  The commute could either be by train, and a longer ride at that depending on what time, or by car without having to deal with NYC exhorbitant parking rates.  I just want to hear something already.  Oh wait, no whining, don’t want to exhaust the good kharma points I must be earning.  On the up side, the short term thing has been extended through the month of April.  Still, I wish it were a permanent job with benefits, but the money is good, the people are nice and the work is doable.  COBRA is going to be a tad expensive, to the tune of $934/month family, so I’d rather get something sooner rather than later!

The move is now scheduled for the weekend of the 22nd.  As I mentioned above, all the yarn stuff left the living room last weekend, along with all the new fiber and current spinning projects.  Not so smart since I still have the wheels here!  While I do have a bit of fiber around here (like two garbage cans disguised as night tables full) most of the wheels have some long term projects going on them and well, that’s old stash stuff!  Heck, not having spinning stuff made ‘24′ and ‘House’ watching difficult this week!  Oh well, I might have to do a little stash diving for next week.

Finally I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and condolences on Yeti.  Once again you people astound me with your support.  Thank you!

Craft on!

Sad news.  I went out to feed Yeti this morning and found him dead. 

I got him in early January 2003 from Chris when he was just 16 weeks old.  A happy outcome from posting a tri-loom for sale.  Chris responded but unfortunately was beaten by someone else.  I recognized her name from another mailing list and struck up a rabbit conversation.  The next day I was on the road to her house to pick out my bunny.  I spent the whole day thinking up the perfect name for him.  Yeti, the abominable snow bunny.  I had had a rabbit as a kid and just loved them, so this was partly a nostalgic act.  It would be heaven to have my own angora supply, so it was a spinners’ act as well.

Foremost though, it was an act to "retake my life" from state that battling infertility had put me into where everything was put on hold.  I conceived the twins at the next attempt.  Maybe it was the new mental state I had entered, more likely it was because I changed my medical options and went with the injectibles.  Who knows.  Chris and I like to think it was the whole rabbit/fertility connection.

Thank you Yeti for the twins.  I’m sad your life was so short.

Goodbye dear bunny.