Drive By

I'm downloading photos from my camera and since it says it will take eleven minutes I thought I would do a drive by post.

In no particular order.

1. Last night on the way home from work late at night my favorite to listen to at late night radio station was playing Christmas music. This amused me to no end.

2. I love my shift of working four- ten hour days so much that I go around randomly telling people this. Mostly to other people at work that don't get to work four- ten hour days. It's amazing my chair hasn't been messed with out of spite.

3. However, it's exhausting. Three days a week all I do is eat, sleep, go to classes about work, and work. I even think about my job while eating and sleeping.

4. I've always been really good at my job but since this change I've become a superstar. The stack of awards I've racked up since March is going to collapse my desk. And I'm modest too. Seriously, my chair will be messed with one of these days.

5. But with the good comes the bad. My department, and my team in particular, we are being jerked around like a dog on a leash. The awards are because I can switch horses in the middle of the stream without complaining. Well, without complaining to the people that matter at least.  In the last five months I've been told four times on a Friday that starting Monday I would be doing a completely new job. Which is fine. Fine-ish.

What isn't fine is the day they say- "ok that's enough. We don't need this any more. We trained a new department to do this you are going back to your original job after lunch". After I've taught myself everything I can with no training about a new system, or a new way to present, or whatever and on my own time, going back is deflating. Mostly I'm excited to know more but part of me is just suppressed rage at the lack of control and the lack forewarning.

6. I was randomly invited to an award meeting last Friday and did not get an award and was rather surprised. That was the same day I found out the meaning of "The cake is a lie" and I went around muttering that to myself. It was very fitting. For context none of my awards came with a meeting or with anything, really.

7. I just found out that FTW = For The Win and not WTF spelled backward for emphasis like I've thought for years. I found this out by watching Castle.

8. I've been watching Castle, Grimm, Doctor Who and the X-Men movies streaming over my compter. That's right. I've finally joined 2010 and bought a subscription for the instant teevee downloads.

9. I knit while watching the teevee and the reason I have so many photos it's taking eleven minutes to download. I hope to posting them here soon.

24

My current project, Lichen, knit out of hand spun yarn.

I don't have time to talk about it because it has an important deadline looming. Really, the only reason I took a photo is to capture what 24 hours of knitting looks like. That was cast on at 7pm Saturday and this is how much was knit by 7pm the next day.

I did sleep 5 hours, went grocery shopping, cooked and even cleaned my place for the length of an ABBA CD but the rest of my time was spent knitting. My ring finger is still tingling and it's midweek. I've hardly knit a stitch since and it's due on Friday so my goal, when I get up in the morning, is to finish it.

Reuse

I'm still working on the Weasley sweater. I'm still not buying any yarn to make it and am only using Cascade Eco scrap yarn. Except I'm running out of scraps.

The solution was to unravel a vest that I knit back in 2010. I had worn the vest all the time but the shirt I wore under it wore out. Without that shirt it was no longer fitting into my wardrobe. I decided that I was more excited about the blanket than keeping the vest until I could find a new shirt. I go cloths shopping about every other year so It was going to be a while.

I'm so excited to be working with a new color. 

Dye Lots

I haven't been swapping this year so for knitting community I've been joining KALs (knit a longs) instead. This one was sponsored by the Doubleknit podcast and the goal was knit a project that we has queued up long ago but never got around to knitting. Mine was a pattern I discovered back in 2009 the Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck by Heidi Kirrmaier.

The yarn was even older than that. It was my first real yarn (real=real expensive) and I saved up to buy a skein or two of it at a time back in 2006. My life was going to hell those few months and I would walk to the yarn shop on my lunch break and buy a ball as a treat. I then added to my pile until I had a sweater worth. I can't remember if I didn't notice the dye lot or if the first order ran out and a new one came in before I had enough. 

 The two dye lots are completely different. One is a smooshy and plump and the other is more string like. The colors are just related to each other and not at all a match. The thing is, this is not at all noticeable in the skein and doesn't show up until a few rounds are knit. I didn't even know I had two dye lots until I was part way through the sweater. Once I realized I planned the rest out in a trendy color block stripe design that is so popular now. 

Yarn is seven skeins of Rowan Summer tweed knit on size 5 needles. I didn't like the cast on number in the pattern so I changed that and then every single thing after that too. By the end of the second paragraph of instructions I set it aside and just designed my own sweater as I knit, looking at the pattern photo once and a while for inspiration. I'm quite pleased how it turned out and with the J Crew rolled edges. It's a sweater that I had wanting to knit for forever and it took the KAL to get it acomplished.

Rain, Rain, Rain.

This is the view from my front door.

It's rained every day this week and most days last week too. Instead of the small gurgling stream, at this point, with every rain it turns into a raging torrent. I've never lived so close to water and I enjoy watching the stream crest. I didn't know that it was such a physical thing. That it's possible to watch the high point move down stream as a wave and from that moment on the water level drops like a plug was pulled.

There are two ducks that moved in this winter and have stayed. On days like this they sadly stand on the grass just looking at their home in betray and horror. I'll be walking past them now as I go fetch my laundry with the same hunched miserable look. It wasn't raining when I started the load but it began poring before the wash cycle finished. Poring to the point that the stairs to my apartment are waterfalls and I can hear the roaring water even inside. The dryer cycle it over and I could stay up until the rain stops but it's midnight and I still need to fold and put away before bed. There is no sign that it's letting up anytime soon so I go out into the rain and I'll say "hi" to the ducks and they will waddle farther onto the grass with their bright orange feet and we will all be wet together.