It's been a long week.

This week has not been fun.

A lot of crap went on at work this week, nothing that had to do with what I do or how I do it, but rather it concerned people, their own agendas and their true natures coming out.

We had people working at an off site location that were told that they were to move in to the building I'm at. One of these people was determined to get me moved out of what he said was the corner window office. So through a thinly disguised rationale designed to advance his own agenda, he succeeded in convincing the powers that be that I should move, since I am not a division employee, rather a headquarters employee assigned to the field. So through his lies and whining I am again moving to another office, without the new carpet I fought for, and with less space. And to top it off, I have known this guy for probably more than 10 years. When he needed help to get promoted I helped him and also gave a good recommendation. Amazing. I have no desire to even look at him. His behaviour along with several others this week has been quite revealing as to people's true colors. Oh - and this all happened when I was working in Phoenix and wasn't around to present arguments in person and expose his true nature.

So today, when I looked down at the needles I was using I noticed that I had bent the heck out of one. It must have been when I was knitting pissed, thinking about some of the crap going on. Too hard on the Addi I'm afraid. I didn't get much knitting done, except for Thursday night when the plane home was delayed and didn't get in until almost midnight.

Sorry about the tone of this. It's my only way to express my frustration without coming across as a person who is not a team player at work. I wish I could have retired, I would have walked out this week.

Speaking of teams, Gators are in the Final 4 tonight. Probably will be another heart attack game. I listened to the last one on the radio so I didn't have to watch and worry about a choke. I'm looking forward to getting some good knitting done today, though I have to make one of the boys a costume for a play.

Sun is out, I'm not at work, it is looking like a good day!

Can you say shawls?

It's a shawl day. I broke these two out of the stash and will try make some good progress on them this week. I'm a little down on my sweater knitting lately. I need a dress form to fit me. I looked at the My Twin forms at Joann's this week, but am not sure that is what I am looking for. Anyone out there know where I can get one made to my measurements?

It sure is a pretty day today. I wish you could look out the window with me. What a change from Saturday. I don't know if you saw it yesterday, but we had rain mixed with show, and let me say this I have never seen snow flakes that big in my life. The flakes were the size of quarters. Granted it turned back to rain, and there was no accumulation, but it sure was interesting to watch. Leaves are out, I'm watching the lilacs, can't wait to see them. I'm not sure how many rose bushes I lost during all that snow, but it is looking like three.

Classes went well yesterday at String. I can't wait to see how the beaded bags turn out. And the Fair Isle Jazz scarves are coming along, just in time for Spring (oh well, they will look great next fall).

The Sea Socks Cruise is about a month away. Woo hoo! Boy am I looking forward to that.

March madness - I was so disappointed yesterday, and part of me thinks today just might not be a good day for the Gators. I hope I am wrong. I don't know if I can watch.

Have you ever checked the Foxy Knits web site? www.foxyknits.com. 200 colors of Koigu. I need 14 for a new project. I'm hoping they can help me out.

Enjoy!

RIP IT!!! Or shall we say Hello Kermit?

I am so in the frog pond. Make that, the get new yarn, and start the whole dog gone thing over, pond.

I have been working on the Forest Path Shawl. By the way I hate nupps. Purling 5 stitches together on size 3 needles is driving me crazy.

Anyway, I have been working steadily on the shawl this week, and kept asking myself, this is a masterpiece, why am I not making this in white or cream? But I kept going with my green, because of the leaf theme.

Last night at 10 PM, after ripping out the lily of the valley motif for what seemed like the hundredth time, I said to myself, that’s enough. Time to start over in the right color yarn.

So I trotted down the hall way to the stash that can rival anyone’s, and decided what white lace weight yarn that I wanted to use.

I pulled out a monster cone of 100% Alpaca cream lace weight from West Valley Alpacas that has been in the stash since May of 2003, waiting for the right project. I then trotted back to the bedroom, put on the food channel and cast back on.

I’m on row five of the seed stitch bottom. Here we go again!

March Madness starts today. I’ve picked my brackets. Go Gators!

Trains

I knit on the train. Granted it’s the light rail and my trip is only 27 minutes long, but that’s what I do.

What I like about knitting on the train is that it is my time. I plan what I want to work on that day, and that’s what I knit. I might not knit on the same thing for weeks, but that’s also part of knitting on the train. Each day brings a choice, and the opportunity to enjoy my time doing what I love.

I choose my project, my knitting bag, whether or not I want to read or listen to my Ipod at the same time, and I look forward to my knitting. Be it lace, fair isle, socks or a sweater. I like it all.

Traffic jams don’t bother me. It can snow all it wants. I’m not stuck in it.

Who wants to drive? Not me, I’m knitting.

When in Salt Lake....

I'm back from another road trip. This time I was off to Salt Lake City for a couple of meetings.

I finished my meeting early on Wednesday and when I got back to my hotel room, after changing out of the business clothes and throwing on jeans, I grabbed the phone book. I was thinking that there had to be a LYS nearby that was open, and who knew what things they carry?

Let me tell you something, I am so glad I did. I walked on over to the Black Sheep Wool Company http://www.blacksheepwoolco.com/. Next to a bridal shop (gorgeous gowns in that window), and upstairs is a great little shop with Rowan yarns, natural fibers, buffalo yarn, and assorted other items. By the way, they have one of those seats on the banister for people who cannot climb stairs easily to get upstairs). And then there is Betsy. She works there a few times a week, and knows my buddy Pam who is one of the shop's yarn reps. Betsy designs, knits, and drives a convertible.

After buying some yarn for a dragon Dale for my little guy, and needles (of course) we got to talking and Betsy invited me to go eat appetizers and drink wine with a friend of hers. (She fits right in with the rest of us spiders doesn't she?) We ended up over at Oasis where I had a great salad, lobster linguine and a few glasses of Kendall Jackson.

Betsy's friend Lisa joined us at the restaurant. Lisa is a knitter who has a great "real" job. She puts on the Utah Arts Festival www.uaf.org. She also teaches at Black Sheep - Fair Isle, Norwegian Knitting. She was working on a sweater out of the third Jameison book - I'll have to look at this one, mitered squares, looked very interesting. She invited me to a knitting retreat at Alta - that's Alta as in "altitude" not as in "all" and I'm going to this one. I just haven't told the other half yet. Another friend of theirs joined us at the table, so there we were, all four of us knitting and drinking wine for over 2 or so hours. I had a great time, met some nice knitters, I hope I have another trip out there.

The knitting up at the top is my Fair Isle Jazz scarf sample for class. I wasn't sure on my choice of colors, but they seem to be okay.

I'm in a little bit of a knitting slump, or should I say period of frustration. I have just got to get a dressmaker's dummy in my size. Being short waisted, and oh so critical of my finished projects, I am never as happy as I could be with my finished sweaters. That's probably why I like to knit shawls, they fit no matter what. I am working on a open work pullover, and I am going to rip back to the armholes maybe later today. I have other things to work on, so this is being put aside until I figure out how I am going to change the shaping.

Well, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. We might go to the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade later on. Later....

P.S. Worked on the Forest Path shawl. Haven't really done entrelac lately, but this is a beauty that I want done for the cruise (hopefully). Boy do I like lace.

It feels strange...

I listened to music and knit on the train this morning. It feels like forever since I have been able to enjoy my commute in. No lectures to listen to, no studying, I'm free. Wow, life's little pleasures.

I'm working with Alpaca. It's slippery on the Addis, driving me crazy when I put it down and then find out that stitches have walked the plank when I put my knitting down. But I am determined! Major progress will be done, on this relatively BORING knit.

Have you seen the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan? It's super high on my must knit list.

Short post, I have time to knit tonight. Isn't that cool?

I'm Back!

The test is over, in the books, finished, done! Don't know if I passed, I was not happy Tuesday afternoon, and you never know with the multiple choice - it always comes down to 2 answers. But I'm done!

It's beautiful outside, a gorgeous day in God's country. We are supposed to hit the mid 50's today, hooray! After Friday's bone chilling cold, and it wasn't even in the minus's I'm ready for spring. And not to get too personal, but thong underwear and wind whipping up your coat and cutting through your pants just does not go well together!

I've lost 15 pounds. I only weigh 2 pounds more than I did when I got married. And thin clothes from the closet fit. Too cool! More working out though, the lower half is taking a lot more time to get in shape than the top.

March is a major finished object month for me. I have class projects to knit, cruise stuff that I need to get done before the end of next month, and things I would just dearly like to finish and show off. Some of the knitting is boring, but the end is worth it. I should get some knitting done during March Madness. Go Gators!

We are going to lunch today with the other half's family. My nephew put it together. It's all a little strange, he came in from Omaha. I think he is going to announce that he asked this girl to marry him, who is the sister of my other nephew's wife. Need a score card? So we will see. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.

I saw a hawk today, sitting on the roof of a house 6 doors down from mine. I was on the way back from the gym, it was still pretty quiet outside. He was pretty impressive. I think he was a red tail hawk, he had some beautiful coloring. Speaking of this morning, isn't it nice that's it's getting lighter earlier? But with the time change next week, back to dark in the morning. There's just something about the sun being up when you go to work, and not darkness.

Well, chores await me, the house is a disaster which I let happen since Christmas because of the studying. Had to buy a brand new fridge because our only 6 year old one bit the dust. The vacuum cleaner is in for repair. I must have house gremlins playing tricks.

Enjoy the gorgeous day!