One Crazy Fiber Lady

Well, only two FO’s to shows 🙂

First up, I done finished that Birthday Cowl last night at SnB. ¬†Here’s a self portrait taken on the way to the office this morning.¬†

Birthday Cowl

I loves it.  Again, it is MmmmMMmmMalabrigo in Cinnabar.  Used less than one skein.  Kept my neck nice and warm this morning.

What else, oh yes.  It is hat/mitten season.  I gave the monkeys a choice between store-bought this year and mommy knit.  Alex was all over the store bought and I figured that little miss who asked for no more handknit sweaters cause they took too long would go that way too.  Surprised me when she said mommy knit.  So mommy started knitting last night.  I bought two skeins of MmmmmMMmmmMalabrigo in a pepto pink that she just adores.  I found a CTH pattern for little kid rolled brim hat and coordinating mittens.  Add in needles and I was ready to go at SnB.  By the time I headed for home I had started the reductions for the crown.  I finished weaving in the ends this morning on the ferry where I also cast on for the first mitten.  

mmmMalabrigo in Child's Rolled Brim Hat

I just checked the tag, it is “Shocking Pink”. Aptly named indeed. I’m converting the mitten pattern which is written flat and sewn up. Makes no sense to me. I can knit in the round 🙂

I’m off to figure out where the hell my stored procedure is trying to convert a varchar to a uniqueidentifier. ¬†Joy.

Have a very happy halloween!  Trick or treating for me this afternoon.

Craft on!

Like some, I was never fully sold on the concept of the cowl. ¬†I know I have regular contact (including seeing her on the ferry this morning!) with the guru of cowls! ¬†Having seen the ones Jessica finished, the final stroke was Hillary’s newly finished cowl. ¬†

I dug around in the stash bag and found a single skein of mmmmmmmMalabrigo I picked up from the sale bin at Modern Yarn a few weeks back.  I see the cowl light now!

 

Birthday Cowl

The color is Cinnabar. ¬†I’m using US8 over 99 st. ¬†MmmMMmmmMMM. ¬†I started it last night and am looking forward to wearing this!!

Nothing else to report today. ¬†I worked from home yesterday as Kat wasn’t feel well so I had far less crafting time than normal. ¬†She’s fine today and went off to school, stubbornly wearing a light dress without tights. ¬†Weird kid refused to even wear socks, oh and totally carried her coat. ¬†Ugh. ¬†

Craft on!

Just like the wheels on the bus, spinning wheels like to go round and round.  Mine are actually getting some regular usage now, for some odd reason.  I started last night after dinner in the den with my Vermonter, spinning up another 1/2 bobbin or so of the CVM roving whilst the kids played.

After they went to bed, I moved upstairs to the new girl…

My Reeves

She and I are making some pretty yahn together…

Zarzuela's Toasted Banana SW Merino

¬†For a change, the fiber is yelling at me what it wants to be when it grows up, this is my future Honeybee Stole (ravelry link). ¬†I have four oz of the stuff and fortunately Jessica had more. ¬†She delivered another 2 braids to me last night so I’m definitely going to have enough yardage in the end.

Just so you don’t think I’ve given up on knitting, I made excellent use of almost two hours in a webinar at the office yesterday. ¬†Rather than letting my attention wander or doodling as I normally do (and did during last week’s webinar) I took my sock in progress with me. ¬†I had cast on for the second of the little princess socks while sitting with Chris, made it through a couple of rows of the toe and left it. ¬†Well, I’m now past the heel working my way up the cuff. ¬†Sweet. ¬†Hope there’s another webinar soon 🙂

And here’s Kauni progress as of this morning. ¬†I’m just shy of halfway through the second sleeve now.

 

Second Sleeve Progress

I’m pleased.

Craft on!

Now that I think I sufficiently teased you all yesterday, it is time for the details. The twins and I went on a nice little road trip yesterday to CT to visit a dear friend.  Yes I saw her last weekend at the festival, but that was all too briefly and she was busy paying for a new wheel.  My comment to her post was innocent enough, but it set the wheels in motion.

Wheel Ho 😉

Now that’s the way to be surrounded!¬† There you see Chris flanked by her two (yes TWO) Norm Halls with her lovely Reeves in front.¬† She let me spin on the new Norm Hall. I wants one.¬† But I digress, that Reeves in front?¬† The 24″ Oak is well, no longer hers, but mine, tucked way in the back of my mommy mobile:

Reeves in motion

I don’t have any super fabulous pictures of my new Reeves, but I’m gonna link to Chris’ intro post of when she first bought it :)¬†

Beyond playing (and paying) for wheels, we had an excellent day, beyond 3 hours in the car.¬† Can I just say, I’m glad I bought those dual dvd headrest mountable screens for the kids.¬† Kept them mostly quiet for the trip.¬† Need more movies for the car as I got tired of listening to Little Mermaid ;)¬† That and I need to find them better headphones so I can skip listening to it at all!¬† Lunch at the super healthy McDonalds, awesome ice cream next door (darnit, I can’t remember the name of the ice cream parlor) and then kid runaround time at an excellent kid park.¬† It was really nice to spend time with Chris.¬† Thanks Chris for an excellent day!

I spent some bonding time with the Reeves after dinner, feeding it some of Jessica’s fiber.¬† I pulled out a braid of 4oz of SW Merino in the Toasted Banana.¬† Somewhere someone has a photo of me wearing the roving around my neck at a fiber gathering at Jessica’s.¬†¬†¬† Anyway, Reeves apparently loves to spin FINE.¬† No pictures as the lighting is terrible in my room and there’s no way I would have been able to get a good shot of this last night.¬†¬† I foresee a long happy relationship with it/her.

I did a little rearranging in preparation.¬† I moved my desk in the den to the corner so that I could put a wheel down there.¬† The Vermonter is now living in the den where I can spin and keep the kids company while they play.¬† Already put that to use on Saturday night after dinner when I pulled out a huge bag of recently rediscovered (like Friday night) roving processed by Wooly Knob of what I assume to be CVM.¬† I spun up a full bobbin in an hour or so.¬† Forgot how much I love that wheel.¬† Anyway.. so now I have a production wheel in the den, and the two Schacts and the Reeves (appropriate somehow – though this isn’t a Schact-Reeves) in my room.

As Lizzy pointed out, I still haven’t shown the last addition to the herd:¬† the ashford joy.¬† Well, still don’t have pictures of her.¬† She’ll be used sparingly as a real travel wheel, primarily on the boat or where there will be lots of long distance schlepping (like across a fairground), otherwise, the Ladybug gets the travel call.¬† While this isn’t mine, this is her twin 😉

Guess I need to do some updating to the wheel roundup again 🙂

Oh yes, since a wheel came in, something needs to go…

Craft on!

How about a show of hands as to who thought I would actually stay monogamous to Kauni until she was complete? 

Should be no-one, especially if you’ve been reading around here for any length of time :)¬† As Harriet put it yesterday, project monogamy is for wussies.¬† It should come as no surprise that I cast on for something else last night.¬† Using this:

Two forms of crack

That’s a skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze that has been in stash for a bit.¬† Not sure how long and what I was going to do with it, but there it is.¬† I dug in the bead stash and turned up this tube that I think goes divinely with that yarn.

I started one project, Ice Queen, from Knitty.¬† Even went for the modified beaded picot cast on instead of provisional (blah blah) that I saw discussed on Ravelry.¬† Except I realized, KSH is a bit itchy near my face.¬† A cowl of that stuff just wasn’t going to work.¬† But I had gotten hooked on the idea of using these two forms of crack together.¬† I let the power of the interweb and ravelry work for me.¬† I turned up this pattern, the Angel Pearls Beaded Scarf from Sivia Harding.¬† I love her patterns.¬† How could you not?

Crack in use

Kauni is still my commuting knitting though along with a pair of plain socks for those stolen moments.

I don’t have much time today. ¬†I have to finish up the testing on two different changes I’ve made and need to get them done by tomorrow. ¬†Tonight is another early night out for me as mom is out visiting Rikki in PA and dad’s sweet but impractical car has only two seats. ¬†I need to leave early to pick up the twins. ¬†I wanted to show the recent progress on Kauni. ¬†

Negative Image Sleeves

I’m not sure if you can tell what you’re looking at. ¬†I folded the sweater in half, put one shoulder lower than the other and laid the sleeve in progress on top of the first sleeve.

I like it. ¬†I’m on the bottom half of the first chart now. ¬†Yay me. ¬†I try not to think about what’s left to do, like all the hems, including the rippage of existing hems. ¬†I might let my monogamous attention wander a bit. ¬†I’m considering a small piece of neckwarmer type lace as a quick distraction. ¬†Also, while Alex has requested store bought hat/mittens, Kat declared her want of handknits. ¬†Makes up for her not wanting me to knit her more sweaters. ¬†Punk.

Craft on!

I want to thank everyone for their advice and commiseration to my post yesterday. ¬†I do like the idea of the voodoo doll and might just knit one if it comes to that. ¬†While the hormone situation hasn’t quite played out fully yet, it isn’t quite so bad this morning.

First, yesterday we had our team meeting (H, J and myself) to discuss status and then data modeling for the big bad project. ¬†During the course of the data modeling part, J turned to me and said that it didn’t matter to him how it was designed, I was coding it. ¬†Awesome. ¬†That’s a big item that wasn’t on the project plan that he handed me last week. ¬†Cool.

Second, after the meeting, H and I were trying to diagnose a problem that client services sent to me. ¬†When we decided to try something I noted that I just missed an automatic event and said that I’d have to trigger it manually. ¬†This is the change that I referred to yesterday. ¬†She’d asked whether I’d done it. ¬†I said that I’d completed that directive last week. ¬†We got to discussing the “directive” and she apologized for having it come out that way. ¬†I told her that while we agree that the task change and email were properly from me as I am the point person, I do know that any change requires a broadcast email. ¬†Additionally that there is a nice way to get a peer to do something and a not-so-nice/bossy way of doing it. ¬†She apologized right then and there. ¬†On the way home, I got a long email further apologizing for the tone of the directive and how she hadn’t meant it that way. ¬†And again, this morning, she apologized to my face, making sure we were okay. ¬†Call me a sucker, but I think she really means it.

She’s a bright girl, young (think this is her second, err third, job since getting out of school) and not a US native. ¬†To some extent I know where she’s coming from. ¬†I haven’t always taken the nice route myself. ¬†Had a boss several jobs ago tell me to play nice with others. ¬†It’s been a lesson that I’ve learned over the years, how to work well with peers. ¬†This might just be the beginning of that lesson for her. ¬†She is genuinely nice in other areas, including inquiring as to how the kids are, how my weekend was, etc. ¬†I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt this time. ¬†I think maybe in a few days, I’d like to sit down with her and have a heart to heart, we’ll see. ¬†If something like this pops up again, mom suggested I gently prod her like I do with the twins for “please” and “thank you”. ¬†Can’t hurt, right?

Anyway, I feel better.

I noticed last night that while the second sleeve on kauni is one shade off the beginning of the first sleeve, I didn’t really notice that the colors are reversed. ¬† What is the foreground on one is the background on the other.

Second sleeve

First sleeve

¬†I’m now a 1/4 of the way through the sleeve. ¬†I might just finish this sucker afterall. ¬†This project monogamy isn’t a bad thing is it? ¬†I am getting tired of it though. ¬†Oh noes.

Craft on!

It must be that horrendous time of the month as something is bothering me far more than it normally does. ¬†I think I mentioned in the past that my predecessor at this job has returned. ¬†She (H) left the company about 5 months before they hired me. ¬†She came back a year later this past spring. ¬†Now my boss (J) pulled me aside before announcing to the group at large that she was returning, to assure me that my role wasn’t changing.

When i took the job it was a combination of production support and new development, along with bug fixes. ¬†Unfortunately, since H has been back, it has become far more production support with very light development, even as we enter a phase of completing rebuilding the product. ¬†I also hear alot of “When I did that job I had not only that production support, but also the coding. ¬†I had alot to do”. ¬†Add in the “this is how I did it” crap. ¬†Its like they broke the position in two when she came back, giving her all the plum developer things and left me with the crap. ¬†I’ve been asking for more to do, even going so far as to put in my self-assessment that I’d like to be busier. ¬†Still, i get the crap work and i feel my C# coding skills getting rustier and rustier. ¬†The project plan is out for the next release which takes us to June and honestly, I don’t foresee must in the way of real development for me while the rest of the team gets to code away. ¬†I’m like a footnote on the development chart. ¬†Again.

It doesn’t help that she treats me like a very talented admin. ¬†”Change that process so it runs every 15 min and send out an email to the client services team”. ¬†What? ¬†I know that if I change something that affects them to let them know. ¬†I’m not stupid. ¬†I might not be a “Lead Engineer” but I’m not your secretary. ¬†

Honestly, I don’t know what to do about it. ¬†Do I talk to my friend in HR? ¬†In her HR role or as a friend? ¬†(Don’t want to burden her, she’s getting married this weekend.) ¬†Do I talk to my boss? ¬†Do I talk to H and ask her to quit treating me like her assistant? ¬†Do I ask her what the hell her game is? ¬†Do I just ignore it and wait for this time of the month to freakin pass so it doesn’t bother me quite as much? ¬†Shit.

I do like the company. ¬†I do like the people I work with. ¬†I like the product. ¬†I just don’t like sitting around babysitting an automated production process, tweaking it every now and again, and being sent the crap work to fill up part of the day. ¬†Oh yeah, that part of the day is after business hours when the load is off the system, so much of it is done at night. ¬†At home.

Ugh.. y’all don’t come here to read that. ¬†Sorry.

I snapped this on the way to daycare/train this morning.  Definitely going down, but the next car will be a hybrid, what with all my local driving!

Even better, I get to pay that AND keep my arse in the car 😉

I’m back to working on Kauni after taking most of the weekend off from knitting. ¬†The second sleeve is progressing, and amazingly enough the color sequence is just one shade off from the first sleeve.

I have a nice warm lap full of wool on the way to work now.

Craft on!

I hope no one was counting on seeing pretty fall pictures, or shots of whacks of knitters/spinners or even sheep.¬† I had serious a serious case of camnesia even though I made sure to charge the battery Friday night.¬† Oh well.¬† Nothing new from me.¬† I’m trying to remember the last time I actually did take good festival pictures.

Anyway, for the first time in a long while, I actually stayed over for the festival.  When posing the age old question of Saturday vs. Sunday to my father, he suggested both.  Sold.  I drove up early Saturday morning, leaving my house at 8:00 and entered the promised land at 9:30 where I promptly met up with my weekend buddy, JessaLu. 

Saturday was very crowded.¬† Even early in the day.¬† So much so that I don’t think i will be going back next year on Saturday.¬† It is now too crowded.¬† Maryland crowded :(¬†¬† I didn’t do much shopping, but mostly socializing, reveling in the chance to see festival friends (Carole, Margene, Kim, Laurie, Cheryl, Kathy, Marcia, Marcy), local friends (Ina, Kim, Deb, Nancy, Chris, Jessica) and meet new friends (Lynne, Scout, etc.) – wow all that linky love was exhausting!¬† I apologize if I did not include you, the weekend is always such a whorlwind that involves blogging buds, festival buds, knitting buds and spinning guild buds all mixed together with the sites and sounds of the festival.

The weekend included sitting in the lobby of the hotel watching the Red Sox with fellow festival goers. 

While there are no pictures of the festival itself (and while I was tempted to take a shot of the folks in the lobby knitting to the game – I spun, my camera never came out), I do have photographic evidence of my much restrained weekend purchases.¬† Also note that I came home with one LESS spinning wheel then I went with 🙂

• From left to right, even worsted weight yarn from Wild Apple Hill Wool in a charcoal color to make another sweater from A Fine Fleece.¬†
• The white stuff is 1.5lbs of SW Merino/Bamboo from Sheep Shed.¬†
• In front of that is a small supported spindle and bowl (which are barely visible).¬† Two braids of BFL from Susan’s Fiber Shop.
• Next up is some interesting fiber that is set up to stripe.¬† It is a 4 color progression with each color being 1oz.¬† I bought 8 oz of it.¬† Not entirely sure how I”m going to spin it, but I’ll figure it out.
• In front of that is a skein of laceweight and a skein of sock weight (both in the grey) from Tongue River.
• The white mass is just about 2.5lbs of a border leceister roving to spin enough to make another sweater from A Fine Fleece.
• Lastly, I picked up two Grafton batts.
• Not shown were two little furry sleeping kittens in basket beds for the twins.

All in all, a rather restrained weekend for me.¬† I could have gotten more but I’ve become a touch more descriminating at festivals now.¬† I look at all items as to what I’m going to do with it rather than how darn pretty it is.¬†

Craft on!