Happy New Season

I'm one of those people that doesn't do very well with New Year's Resolutions.  Old habits are hard to break.  I have success for a few weeks, then life happens and I'm back to my old ways.  One of the ways I've developed to deal with this it to treat each new season as a New Year.  I then make a resolution or two and try to get as far as I can with it.  The Autumnal Equinox is the most recent 'New Year'.  

I celebrated the new season by going to Wool Gathering with a friend.  This was our first time there.  There were over 3 tents of vendors with lots of yarn, roving and raw wool to look at.  This fair didn't have as much raw wool as the Great Lakes Fiber Fair.  I considered this a positive because I have no desire to process my own raw wool.  Here are the goodies I brought home with me:

8 ounces of Merino roving from Ohio Valley Natural Fibers in colorway Chocolate Covered Cherry.

8 ounces of Merino roving, also from Ohio Valley Natural Fibers, in colorway Galaxy

2 ounces Angora roving from Sheephaven Hutchworks.  This stuff is so soft!!!!  My sister has recently spun angora.  I'm going to get her advice on how to work with this.

 A skein of Poems Socks.  I was dazzled by the long color runs.  This will become a scarf someday.  My friend was surprised I picked these bright colors.  I'm usually more muted.

Color Changing Cotton from Wolle's Yarn Creations. This will become a scarf or small shawl.  This color is more along the lines of my color palette. In fact, when I bought this I was wearing a top that was the same color as the center of this skein.

Like any good 'New Year's' celebration, the next day usually isn't too fun.  Unfortunately, I was hit the next day by some sort of stomach bug.  I spent all day Sunday on the couch napping or watching football.  It took about 3 days before I felt completely over the illness.

My resolution this time is to finish a few of my projects before casting on a new one.  I'm nearing the end of My Blue Loop.  I am doing the garter stitch border rows now.  After two more rows and then the bind off this will be ready for blocking.  I'll have to dig out my blocking wires to get this shaped nicely.

I learned a lesson with this project.  When doing a K2TOG on a knit and YO stitch, the position of the YO matters.  This scarf has 4 sections of these rows.  For the first two sections I must have had the YO sitting to the left of the knit stitch.  When I did the K2TOG on the next row, I first put the needle through the YO and then the knit stitch.  As you can see in the bottom of the picture below, the stitches are funny looking and lean a bit to the left.  Because I tend to let projects hibernate for a while, when I came back to this and did the third section, I must have had the YO on the right of the knit stitch.  It took me a few rounds to realize my stitches looked prettier and leaned to the right.  I made sure I did the fourth section this way also so that the scarf will look symmetric.  My hope is that when I block this, the stitches in the first two sections with lay a little nicer.

After I get this scarf off the needles, I am picking up my Taize shawl and getting that thing done.  I'm in the homestretch of it also.  Getting these two projects finished will give me liberty to cast on ButtonBox. I have a gauge swatch in progress.  It looks like I'm going to have to adjust the pattern because my gauge is larger than the pattern's.  I want to make this right so I'll be consulting a few of my expert knitting friends to get advice. My goal will be to have that vest finished by Christmas.

Longest Week

I swear someone added a few extra days into this week when I wasn't looking.  Thursday was especially long.  The excruciating slowness was due to the fact that there were lay-offs at work this week.  Rumors had been flying for about a month.  The general consensus was that the cuts would occur on Thursday.  Management would avoid September 11 and Friday the 13th for psychological reasons. As soon as I got to my office Thursday morning I knew that this was the day.  There were empty boxes and a cart in the conference room next to my office.  They hadn't been there when I had gone home the night before.  Everyone sat at their desk waiting for the 'fun' to begin.  Since my office is along a hallway with three managers, I heard it start.  Promptly at 8:30 one manager called someone into his office and shut the door.  About 15 minutes later the door opened and I heard the manager say "Let me know if you need any boxes." Victim #1.  About 9:30 an upper level manager told my manager to come with him.  Everyone's IM communicator lit up as the two walked past the desks of the group.  20 minutes later the two came back into the area. My manager announced that he was just let go and went to his office to pack.  About an hour later, one of the guys on my team was let go.  By that point we had heard of 2 others in the department and countless others across the company.  After it was all said and done, 10% of the positions at the company were eliminated.

When something like this happens, I have very conflicting emotions.  I feel bad for everyone who lost their jobs.  But, in some cases, I feel that the company was justified eliminating those who did not add value.  I won't go into details about each, but for those cuts that directly affected me, some were horrible mistakes (someone else should have been eliminated instead) and some were necessary. I sincerely hope each and everyone of them is able to find employment in a place where they can be a valuable contributor.  

Enough of this now.  It is over and it is time to move on.  I have a new manager.  He and I seem to be philosophically aligned.  I'm hopeful that that the future holds good things.

My evenings this week were spent trying to participate in activities that kept me from brooding over the events at work. Knitting didn't happen, except at work when I had to pull out my carry-along project to calm my nerves on Thursday.

My current carry-along project is My Blue Loop.  

Somehow when I was knitting the third section of lace, I reversed the direction of that the stitches leaned.  This was not intentional.  I decided that instead of ripping out, I'll do the fourth section in the same direction as the third.  I think it adds symmetry to the piece.  It turns out it was a happy mistake.

Sixth Time

Just home after completing my 6th New Albany Walking Classic.  It is a 10K walking event.  Technically it isn't a race.  I don't think they give out prizes for the first finishers, but they do track time and technique.  It is walking only, no running or jogging allowed.  I believe this was the sixth time I participated in this event.  I'm basing this on how many pieces of clothing I have with the logo.  Several years ago, the organizers included a half-marathon.  I did it that year, but decided never again.  I crossed that off my bucket list and decided I'll stick to the 6-mile event from now on.  After that year, the half marathon was cancelled until this year.  I'll admit enough time has passed that I did briefly consider it.  Then I started having pain in my right hip from spinning, so I figured I shouldn't tempt fate.  My friend from work signed up with me and we powered through this morning.  It was a lovely morning with thousands of our new best friends.  After an after-event refueling of bagels, pasta salad and fruit, we jumped in the car and came home.  The kids were just crawling out of bed when I came home.  Trisha asked me if I did my race.  I told her 'Yes' and I have a finishers metal to prove it.

Not 3 Bags Full...Just 1

 Last weekend Blake and I took a little trip.  We first visited my oldest daughter.  I took Blake, Kristin and her roommates out to lunch.  After that brief visit, we continued on the road to visit my mom.  A few of my siblings and nieces and nephews come by and we had a nice dinner together.  While there I picked up a bag of wool from another sister.  I can't wait to spin this.

Speaking of homespun, I started swatching the BFL that I spun a few months ago.  I am so happy with how it is working up.  It is just as soft and yummy as the roving was. I want to make the Buttonbox vest out of it.  My gauge is a bit bigger than what the pattern calls for, so I will try to convert it.

I have time for a new project now that Kristin's throw is finished.  I have to weave in the ends.  That won't take long.  I'll do that later today while I'm waiting for a cake to bake.  This will be delivered to her later tonight along with her birthday cake.

A blanket for Trisha has been started.  Trisha is a senior this year.  Since she'll be heading off to college next year, I want to give her a throw to use in her dorm.  This is the start of the first square.  It will end up something like this.