First of all, holy cow! I don’t think I’ve ever had 8 comments for one post! Thank you all. (Btw, the title means absolutely nothing. It’s just the post number and I just felt like keeping it just to be interesting.)

I haven’t heard about the Acquisitions job yet, but then again I don’t expect to hear anything until after I leave for Maryland. It could be a very interesting week, in addition to all of the Maryland Sheep & Wool excitement.

The last few days have been really great. I can’t remember why they just feel great. The Archives reading project where I was reading and organizing the shelves is finished. It took me almost 20 hours to read the entire Archives department but it’s done and I’m very relieved. Now I can leave town without thinking about what I have to do when I get back. I also got my hair cut on Thursday, which always puts a bit of a new spring in my step. She cut almost an inch an a half off and my new spring do feels fabulous. The best part is that even when I let my hair air dry it looks cute - always a huge plus in my book! Another plus is I don’t have to lug my hairdryer to Maryland. :)

Wednesday at my knitting group, I finished another afghan square and started the 11th square. I haven’t gotten very far on the 11th square because I’ve been busy working, baking, knitting the new sock and making Project Spectrum postcards. The sock is coming along nicely, slowly but nicely. I think once I get the pattern down a bit more it will go a bit faster. I’m using the “Go With the Flow” socks pattern from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005.

My latest baking adventure was into whole wheat bread, oooh. It’s a recipe from one of my favorite bread books, the same book that we use for pizza crust with few additions and baguettes. The bread turned out very nicely and we used it for tomato/basil sandwiches on Friday for lunch.

I talked to Amie yesterday to finalize some of our plans for my trip to Maryland. And somehow we got onto the subject of how I feel like my knitting has become a bit stagnant. I don’t mean that I’m not knitting, more as in the projects I have planned that I have yarn for just aren’t that challenging. Sometimes I don’t think I want challenging because I want to relax and knit but other times I want something that won’t only wow my husband but also wow me. Sort of the same feeling that I had after I finished the Barbara shawl. I’m sure I’ll feel that way after I finish the Hobo sweater that I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about. Amie seems to think that Maryland will change that. I hope she’s right. Not that I don’t love a good pair of socks but I feel like that’s the one place I’m making myself try new things. The afghan squares are definitely challenging but they are so small and by the time I’m almost finished with one, I’m tired of the pattern anyway. Granted I have two sweaters that really need to be finished and I’m trying to keep myself to no more than five projects on the needles at any one time. I think back to when I was living in the city and knitting as much as I am now and I knitted a lot of sweaters. I also had friends that encouraged me and were knitting things more complex than I was, which made me want to challenge myself even more. And I had the money to do that back then (or so I thought). I also haven’t felt much like spinning either, it just seems like my hands don’t want to work the way they are supposed to. When I try spinning, my drafting is bulky and then I have a hard time getting the fiber to do what I want. Maybe this trip to Maryland is exactly what I need. Or I’ve just reached a bit of a knitting plateau and a spinning lull.

And finally, Chloe is so perfect at the strangest sleeping poses that I just can’t resist.

Have a great week. After I leave for Chicago on Wednesday to fly to Maryland on Thursday, I won’t blog until I get back on Tuesday next week. I’ll try to post one last time before I leave.

The interview yesterday for the Acquisitions position went well. I had to work yesterday morning, came home for some lunch with the dear husband, took a nap and then went back to the library for the interview. It went quite well and I felt pretty confident about it. All morning to pump myself up, I had a mantra going through my head “I’m the best person for the job.” I think it worked, now it’s just a matter of waiting to see if the Acquisitions manager agrees, I truly hope she does.

Monday wasn’t a great day for me, I worked a double shift and I was just plain tired. But even on my worst days at the library, it’s still the best job I’ve ever had (even if the pay is about 1/4 of what I used to make) and the bad days are better than my good days at some previous jobs. To make my day better, I brought home Party Girl with Parker Posey. It’s one of my favorite movies and always reminds me why I truly love working in a library. My attempt at cheering myself up worked. I also managed to knit 1/3 of my tenth square for the great american aran afghan. (I upgraded the afghan page just in case you’d all visit it.) When I’m working on the squares I remember why I loved this afghan so much in the first place. It’s so fun to try out all of these different cable patterns, even when I’m frustrated because I twisted a cable the wrong way 10 rows back. I’m nearly out of yarn, so I’ll only be able to do one more square before I have to buy more yarn, which might be a while. I’ll post a photo of the square when it’s finished.

I keep forgetting to mention this. S from work, who is moving and can’t take all of her yarn, was so kind to give me 8 balls of fingering weight sock yarn that she bought in Germany. She said she’ll never use it and figured I could use it. To thank her and repay her for her generosity, I’ve decided to make her a pair of socks out of the yarn. I’ll still have six balls of yarn for my own use. I started the socks on Sunday but have become obsessed with the current afghan square.

Tomorrow my mom leaves on a quite long trip. She’s going to a conference then on to a multi-country foreign trip with my aunt. I hope they have safe travels, especially when they will be gone for three weeks.

And next Wednesday, I begin my travels to Maryland for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I can’t wait to finally meet Amie (my hostess, thank you ahead of time!), Bess (my library school cheerleader), Martha, Clara, Jennifer of Spirit Trail and others. I’m sure I’ll meet so many others that I’ve only known through the Knitters Review forums for years. Since I’m traveling so far, I also signed up for a Novelty Yarns class on Sunday and Amie is dear enough to loan me her Lendrum wheel for the class.

This was going to be such a short post, it just keeps growing and growing. Lolly mentioned the other day on her blog something about being a process knitter vs. progress knitter. I’ve been thinking about it the last day or so. How many of us with blogs are progress knitters just to have something to post on the blog? I know there are days that I have nothing to post just because I haven’t made a lot of progress on a particular project. I might also stay focused on one project longer if I thought that it would be interesting blog material, but unfortunately the long projects just aren’t that interesting when you’ve added one inch to a 21.5 inch body. Maybe I shouldn’t focus so much on the photos of knitting and what I actually have to say, Martha and Bess are good examples of this.

Finally, just to clear up any confusion (Brandi) regarding the new nephew. Bryan’s sister is pregnant and is due in August.

It’s been such a busy week that I’m truly enjoying having a day off. Of course on my day off I can’t stay away from the library. I went in to do my volunteer work for my homebound patrons. Sometimes it’s hard to get myself to go in for volunteer work, but once I’m there I always remember why I like volunteering so much. There are millions of books that I would love to read (okay, maybe several thousand) and a lot of them that sound good, but I know I’ll never get around to reading, I send to my patrons. There are also a lot that I send that I know I would never read (mainly Regency and Harlequin romances) but as long as the patron enjoys it that’s all that matters. That’s what I love about books, there are so many that everyone can find something they like. It’s hard for me to understand those that say they don’t like to read books, possibly since I’ve been reading books since I first learned to read. Just like with knitting where I’m always wanting to start something new, I’m the same way with books.

I’m taking a bit of a break from socks for a few weeks. Instead I’m working on afghan squares for the Great American Aran Afghan that I’ve been working on for almost four years. Nine squares are now complete, including this one that I just finished and I’m working on the tenth square now.

It’s about that time of year to start thinking about Christmas gifts and I already have several planned. So just to let you know since several people that I’m making gifts for read this blog, the projects won’t be mentioned or even photographed until after the gifts have been received. I’ll just mention that I’ve been working on Secret Project Number __. With a new nephew on the way, I’m also getting ready to start that project, which I’ll have photos for.

I have an interview on Tuesday for another position in the library. I’ll still be a shelver, if I get this other position it will be another part-time job. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My oh my what a wonderful weekend it was. Lovely outside, indeed. Saturday morning, Bryan and I went to the park and threw the new frisbee Bryan bought a few weeks ago. It was so funny, a guy riding by on his bike stopped to give us tips on throwing the frisbee. I don’t remember the last time I threw a frisbee. But his tips really worked and we were tossing it like old pros after that.

What else is a girl to do on a lovely spring weekend? Knit herself a new pair of spring socks, of course. I started cast on for them on Thursday evening, started knitting Friday and finished them tonight. I don’t remember the last time I made a pair of socks this quickly. (Having size 5 feet helps.) Probably the first pair of socks that I made for my grandmother over Thanksgiving weekend 2001. The yarn for these socks is Cascade’s Fixation, color 9946. When I met up with Miss M yesterday for a bit of knitting she said they looked like Easter eggs. I think they’re the perfect spring socks.

It’s been such a great day. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, there are sounds of kids playing outside and the scent of beautiful magnolia trees’ wafts through the air in the park. It’s definitely Spring (more like June temperature-wise) and I love it. Today I decided to do a “Happiness is…” entry today, sometimes I just need a little reminder.

Happiness is…
Walking to work and half way back. Bryan was on his way to campus, which is half way to the library, so I had a walking companion half of the way. It took me about 55 minutes to get to work but it felt so good to be outside. (I normally drive and it takes me 10 minutes.) Then after work, I decided instead of taking the bus home, I would just walk back to campus and meet Bryan after his staff meeting. In all I walked over 4 miles and I feel so good. I know I won’t be crowned the exercise queen in this lifetime, when I do something like this it always reminds me how good it feels to get out and just walk. Hopefully, it will motivate me to get out and walk more. The sun was so bright today and with my fair skin, I decided I needed a great walking hat. (It’s straw on the top of the brim.) Now if I had a garden, I’d be set.

Happiness is…

A black kitty cat who enjoys sunning himself (he even looks brown in the sun)
and loves to stretch out like a dog.

Happiness is…
Having great friends to go out to dinner with before our knitting group. And having a wonderful knitting group to unwind with.

Happiness is…
Having the gift to teach others to knit and possibly teaching a class this fall.

Happiness is…
A husband who loves his hand-knit socks so much that he wears them weekly and if they’re clean sometimes twice a week.

Happiness is…
Having a job that I love and am enjoying working on a special project to read the archives’ shelves. (Reading the shelves is going through and making sure that everything is in the proper order.)

And finally, happiness is…
Finally finishing another pair of socks! They are true knee socks and don’t match exactly on purpose. Unfortunately, it’s too warm to wear them right now. My goal this month was to finish these socks, they have the Project Spectrum colors (orange and yellow) and I wanted to finish them so I can be ready for May whose color is green. I plan on working on my Crazy Green sweater more in May.

It was a pretty quiet weekend around here. Not a lot to report in life or knitting wise. Bryan was fighting a cold that hit him hard for a few days but definitely not as bad as it hit me. He ran a fever on Wednesday night but that broke by the time he woke up on Thursday. The congestion and cough never developed so he’s feeling almost 100% already. Lucky boy.

I finished the second Lilly sock. Immediately after finishing it, I cut and reknit the foot of the sock. Unfortunately, my first pair of toe-up socks using the Socknitters’ lessons didn’t work out for me. I need some practice on where to start the increases for the gusset. And I also had too many stitches around the foot so it was quite large. With the foot reknit, the sock fits my right foot perfectly, it’s a bit tight on the left foot, which is larger. Now to do the left sock which will be four rows longer than the right sock for it to fit better. The bottom sock is the reknit sock and the top sock is the “old” sock. The next photo I post of these socks will be the finished pair ready to wear. I’m sure you’re all getting sick of seeing these socks, I know I am, I’m so ready to be finished with them. Of course, now it’s getting too warm to wear knee socks. I’m sure there will still be cool days in the mid-50s this spring that will be perfect for these socks.

I’ve been so obsessed with finishing these socks that I literally haven’t picked up any other knitting at all since last Monday. That’s about it. Have a good week.

After a sleepy morning, I’m finally awake. It’s only 11am and I’ve already had an unintentional nap on the couch. I completely blame Chloe for this one.

George has been begging me to teach him to spin since I got the wheel but I just refuse to do so, especially when I’m working on some yarn. So he’s just decided that sleeping on the treadles is good enough for him.

The last several days have been pretty normal. Going to work, reading, knitting, taking an inventory of my stash. On Saturday, I wound the Garden yarn into a ball and decided to knit a swatch out of it to see how many yards I’ll need for a vest. I was expecting it to be DK weight but it really puffed up after its bath. I knit the swatch on size 8 and 9 needles, so it’s definitely not DK weight. I’m not that happy with it in stockinette stitch, at least not on the knit side.

I much prefer the purl side. The colors seem to “pop” more in reverse stockinette. (The color is more true in this photo too.)

Since last week, I’ve made some progress on the Lilly socks and the Hobo sweater. I’m about half way through the sleeve on the second piece of the Hobo sweater. Only about 65 more rows to go on the cuff of the second Lilly sock. Then I get to rip out the feet of both socks and reknit them. :) I was talking to a woman at work who knits and she asked about my snowflake vest. I told her about the problems with it and the other projects I seem to be reworking, she said I’ll have negative projects for the year. And I said that at least I’ll be happy with them. By ripping out the feet on the Lilly socks, I know I’ll be more likely to wear them a lot.

Now to the stash inventory I just mentioned earlier. I don’t know what hit me but Sunday I woke up and decided I wanted to take an inventory of what yarn I have and the projects that I have planned for the yarn. It was very time consuming but well worth it. And some yarn that I had forgotten that I even had. (My fiber stash is small enough that I can see all of it on one shelf of my bookcase. No need to take an inventory, yet.) What I found surprised me a bit:
- out of 74 sets of yarn (over 175 balls) only 17 sets have actual projects planned for them (When I say sets of yarn, I mean several balls all purchased for one project.)
- nine sets are for socks, less than I expected, four of which I want to keep for myself
- 11 balls are Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride for all of those felted bags I’d planned to make back in 2002
- 5 balls are for hats
I’m not at a loss for yarn and don’t have to worry about running out of yarn for the next five to six years. The other thing that surprises me is that only four sets have been purchased/gift certificate redeemed in the last year, and all of those have specifically planned projects for that yarn. Two sets are from secret pal exchanges. Also this inventory does not include my own hand-spun yarn. The one problem with doing this inventory is that I really want to start a new pair of socks!