Snuggles For Food

A pair of socks!




Plain Vanilla, I knit the first sock on the plane on the way to the PNW for Thanksgiving and didn't finish the second sock until Christmas. My knitting mojo seems to have disappeared. This is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock Yarn in the Autumn Bounty colorway. I love the little stripes- they make me happy!

I may have also gone out with the guy that I *didn't* have a crush on high school yesterday, and he may have turned out to be a decent guy. There is more to it than that... but I'm not telling yet!

Ranger Man is following the saga with firefighter Mr. M closely, which I think is hilarious. We have also devised a program based loosely on Webster's latest dinnertime diversion tactics whereby the UN could proved a food-for-snuggles program. He seems to think it would work (since it's so nice when Webster does it), but I think that it may violate some human trafficking provisions.

Yes- that is the kind of week that I have had. Random and at times completely insane. Expect the trend to continue!

That is all for now. But tomorrow, the epic knitting month of February 2010 will begin. Watch out, here I come!

Second job!

I finally got a second job! You are looking at (well, reading) a brand new LYS employee! It's either going to be a really good thing, or a really bad thing.

What I think is the most exciting part is that I get to design and teach knitting classes! There are currently NO (surprisingly) classes being taught at this shop at all, so I can literally start from scratch. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips for knitting classes?

It was totally awesome to go to a job interview and get to show off my FOs!

This weekend, after draft one is completed and mailed, I will be winding and swatching in preparation for February. I've even unpacked enough to know where my ball winder and swift are!

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Coming up for Air

Coming up for air long enough to... well, come up for air.

I think the writing part is done, now I've got about a million footnotes that say "Cite this" that I need to find citations for. I netflixed "Julie and Julia" and think that while A and I watch the movie tomorrow night, I will be sifting through documents and notes.

My back finally feels better-enough that I'm going to attempt some yoga as soon as I'm done posting here. I've spent almost three weeks doing nothing but lay on my stomach and I think that's exacerbated the problem to a small extent, so I'm excited to try to move again. I'll make sure to keep my cell phone within an arm's reach in case something breaks again!

Finally, another Christmas FO:



My Grandma liked the first pair of socks that I knit for her so much that I made her another pair for Christmas. These are undulating waves (I think?) from "Favorite Socks" from Interweave in Lorna's Laces greeny-ish sock yarn. Yeah... no brainpower left, guys, sorry.

Oh, and my meeting with the Ambassador was rescheduled. I think he may have been busy saving Haiti last week.

I had another interview last weekend that I will hopefully be writing about soon.

In the meantime, I'm getting back to work.

Gearing up for February

I may not have been doing much knitting in the past few days, but I'm planning on making up for it next month! Hopefully by then, my draft will be submitted and sometime during February there will only be minor cosmetic changes to the text.

So here are my knitting plans for February:

The LYS near my apartment is hosting a month-long Olympic challenge, to knit an EPS sweater in the month of February. I joined that- so I'll be knitting another sweater. There's a "training session" next weekend, to help get the math under control, and then there's a cast on party on the first. I've got some robin's egg blue Cascade 220 that I'll be using. Those sweaters that do get finished in the month of February will receive a $20 gift certificate to the yarn shop- that is plenty of motivation for me!

I also joined the Adventures in Lace KAL with Kate.

I had also pledged to be on a Ravelympics team.

Good grief.

I believe that I'm going to combine the lace and the ravelympics and make a Citron, and save 'bigger' lace for after the sweater is done.

I'm so excited for knitting through the entire month of February!

I talk to The Ambassador today. I spent all day yesterday, and will spend the rest of this morning rereading his book and major report, and also my own research, in the hope that I will sound intelligent. I'm getting more and more nervous about this interview, but it should be really interesting to talk to him, whether or not he likes my ideas. And really, if he doesn't like my ideas... it's kind of too late to change them.

And to close, here's another hat I finished before I left Georgia: Ripley by Ysolda Teague.
I did two versions of this hat, out of one skein of Malabrigo- one size small slouchy version (which I think is pictured below) and one size medium not so slouch version. They were meant to be gifts, but I'm not sure I'm okay with giving them away!



Happy Weekending!

Revenge of the Nerdy Girl

So much blog-less time, there's much to catch up on!

Catching you up:

Right before I moved, I managed to completely throw my back out. As in, I couldn't walk for a couple days. My dad and my brother are heroes and moved all my boxes for me, but as my back is still sore, there is much unpacking left to do. However, I can walk now... so I am not complaining.

Because of the aforementioned back injury, I was unable to attend the hockey game with Mr. M. As I could not walk, I didn't think hockey was a good idea. I believe he has since lost interest in me- which is no skin off my back because he is boring anyways. He was kind of getting on my nerves...

In further revenge-of-the-nerdy-girl news (and added to my "I hate facebook" list), I got a friend request the other night from a guy that looked mildly familiar and was from my hometown but I had no recollection of who he actually was. I messaged him a silly "do I know you" message- to which he replied (get this!) "I guess you were more memorable to me than I was to you. I think you had a crush on me in high school."

He thinks that *I* had a crush on *him*? Seriously? Full of yourself much, sir?

Game on, buddy. This nerdy girl is so ready to show you just how much I didn't have a crush on you in high school.

Because of my back, and my looming *real* first draft deadline, there hasn't even been much knitting in the past couple weeks. I've been working on a pair of socks for my friend A- but the 3 x 1 rib seems like it is taking forever. Probably because I've spent most of the last two weeks laying on my stomach on the floor whimpering.

But the most exciting news of all? It's kind of a long story. Ranger Man's cousin-in-law's uncle (that's the long part) is quite literally an expert in my field. Well... he's a practitioner and I'm a historian, but he was a practitioner during the time period I'm writing about and he's the founder of an important institute in this field, etc. He's a former US Ambassador. Months and months after I asked Ranger Man about his possible connection to this individual (it's a unique last name), he finally followed through and I am actually in correspondence with the Ambassador now. In fact, his assistant will soon be contacting me to set up a phone call. How fancy schmancy is that? He's going to talk to me on the phone, about my research! Eek! I'm going to be spending all my spare time until then re-reading his books/studies so I don't sound like a complete dope.

To make up for my lack of knitting or moving... Here is a very sleepy Webster:

Keys!

Guess what I got today...



Keys!

Blogging will likely be light after today- until I get another job, internet is a luxury I can't afford.

The agenda for the rest of the weekend:

moving tomorrow, hockey on sunday. Hooray! Enjoy your weekends, everyone.

2 dilemmas

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that I am extremely non-confrontational, and that my usual coping strategy is avoidance- when my parents split up, I moved to Georgia partly just to avoid having to deal with it.

Well, now, here I am- unable to avoid any longer. So, here's a quandry... In applying for my apartment, I thought I would need a cosigner, so my dad applied as well (as the cosigner). Turns out, I have enough in my savings account that I don't actually need a cosigner. I found this out because they ran a credit check and my dad's credit literally didn't make the cut. So... my biggest quandry of the day was: do I tell my dad that when my mom left him, she tanked his credit score, or do I simply tell him that I didn't end up needing a cosigner.

I opted for the latter, mostly to keep the yelling to a minimum. It was selfish, and I'm afraid that it will end up being the wrong decision- but I'd rather make the wrong decision in my own apartment (and thus, have the ability to avoid) then tell him now and not be able to get away from him. I'm totally a wimp. And now I want to see my mom even less than I did before.

Much less of a moral dillema is my more frivolous quandry. My new/old work Christmas party is this Saturday... should I go? There has been complete (I mean, 100%) office staff turnover in the almost-3 years that I've been gone, so I'll know few people there. It would be a good opportunity to make new friends, but I'll be spending the entire day moving my stuff (and not knowing where my clothes are), and don't have a date to take to offset my painful shyness around strangers. Seriously? It's not necessary to blush when someone asks you where you went to school. It's not a blush-worthy questions. I wish I could get that through to the part of my brain that controls blushing.

And, just for kicks... Here's Webster enjoying the snuggie (wtf?) we got from my mom for Christmas. He likes it. A lot. I've been using at as a blanket (i.e., without the sleeves)- and every time I bring it out, this is what he does:



must. stay. awake... fail.

Welcome to 2010

So an update on my life:

I start work at my new/old job tomorrow. It's the same company that I worked for before I left here to go to the Island, but I'll be doing something completely different- I'll find out tomorrow! I'm only working part time there, so I'm hunting for a second job.

I found an apartment, and I hopefully move in on Friday. It's within walking distance of a yarn store. Heaven. It's much smaller than our apartment in GA, but it's my own place, so I have no complaints.

Mr. M. has continued to call/text- we may be going to a hockey game next weekend? I'm not sure. It never ceases to be completely gratifying to hear from him. On the one hand, I feel like an awful person for getting this much pleasure out of this experience... but on the other hand, I totally deserve it.

I finished a sweater! Well, almost. It's seamed/hemmed, but the ends aren't woven in, and I'm waiting until we move to block it.



It's the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. If the yarn looks familiar... well, it should- it's been on the blog before. This sweater is much better than the original. This would be a good sweater to wear to a hockey game, no?

Welcome to 2010, it's starting out well.

Why I'm not more productive

This is what happens when I try to write:




Notice how he's helpfully sitting on top of both my drafts/notes pile *and* my computer, all at the same time.

So helpful!