I swear I didn’t forget I had a knitting blog.

I wish I could blame everything on my thesis or Ravelry, but I really can’t tell you what happened. I even fell behind on reading my bloglines subscriptions. I’ve only just recently gotten caught up on everyone except The Yarn Harlot… I think I’m in March for her. I even slowed down on the knitting and stopped spinning for quite some time.

I think I may need to do some house cleaning around here. *notices that old photo host closed account* Yeah, definitely need to do some housecleaning. I hadn’t moved all my photos over to flickr, and when I hadn’t logged into my old photo host for a period of time, they took down my account.

So, things to do:
1. Fix photos
2. Actually post some knitting content (such as I finished the Diamond Fantasy Shawl listed in the Current Project on the sidebar and I have pictures)
3. Post more often than I had been (that should be easy *grin*)
4. Look into moving blog to my own domain (I had started this back at the beginning of the year and ran into the speedbump that I need to upgrade my domain server stuff, which took a little time)

I think one of the reasons I went into archives is because I love boxes. I mean I really love boxes. There’s something about them that makes me happy. I don’t know if it’s the tidy organization they present or if it’s the slight air of mystery they can possess.

I’ve been in my new job for almost 6 months now, and I’m still loving it. I’ve processed some small collections at the folder/item level as well as a large collection on the box level a la Greene/Meissner. I’ve learned to use a pallet jack and had to wear a respirator.

So, the new year is off to a slightly rocky start. There have been some communication issues with various things.

And now I just found out that my LYS will be closing this week after being around for 30-40 years. With so many other yarn stores in the area, I won’t really be out a place to buy yarn and needles, but I will be out the place I hang out on my free Saturdays.

On the knitting front, I should be casting off my Diamond Fantasy Shawl tonight. Then, I need to clear off my guest bed so I can actually block it. It’s a gift, so the sooner I can get it done, the sooner I can actually send it off.

My sister requested another pair of wool socks for her cold Japanese apartment. So, that’s what she’s getting for Christmas (a few weeks late). I’m working my way down the cuff of the second sock. Being stockinette stitch they go quickly even with calf shaping. This pair is out of the Socks that Rock Mediumweight in the Fairgrounds colorway that I got as part of the Rockin Sock Club in 2006. My sister said she doesn’t really care what color the socks are as long as they keep her feet warm, so she’s getting the colors I disliked from the sock club.

I’m not really into New Year’s resolutions, but I am thinking that with the new year I am going to try to post at least once a week (instead of the every other month I did last year). Of course, I already missed last week… I’m just going to pretend it didn’t count because it wasn’t a full week. 😀

Happy New Year!

First off, I love my insurance company (USAA). The offer they gave me for my car was a little about dealer’s resell. They are nothing but good to me.

Second, I am somehow actually managing to get some knitting done even though I’m coming home from work exhausted three days a week. (The other two days are nothing compared to the labor intensive days.) I am currently knitting away on a Diamond Fantasy Shawl for a friend in Fleece Artist BFL, which is super, awesome, nice to knit and came in a huge hank for the price.

Third, hmm…. don’t have a third. Life has been work and school with knitting while watching stuff off the Tivo. If there is a third, I’d have to say that it’s probably me being underwhelmed by the winter issue of Interweave Knits as well as the class list for Stitches West. *shrug*

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Originally uploaded by zardra.

I got the call from the body shop saying my insurance company was declaring my car a total loss. I had removed everything from it when we dropped it off (I had a feeling), so I just released the car to them. Now begins the process of waiting to hear what they will offer me for the car.

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Originally uploaded by zardra.

Ouch only begins to describe…

We were sitting at the stop light at South Fourth St and E Reed St in San Jose waiting to get on the highway when *wham*. Came out of nowhere… I don’t even remember squeeling tires warning us before impact (there is the possibility that there weren’t any). Guy was going fast enough that he pushed our car a good 8-10 feet down the street. The scary thing is there was only one set of skid marks, and they were from our car because Josh had his foot on the brake and the transmission in 1st. The guy in front of us got a glancing blow, which left a small scratch on his bumper. He said he heard the carsh behind him and hit the gas (the light had just changed and cars were starting to go).

We got a police report and the guy who hit us got a ticket (and a lecture from his father), but I’m not entirely sure what he was cited with.

I’ve already made a claim with my insurance company, and the Corolla has been towed to a body shop. But both the tow truck driver and the body shop guy agree with me in thinking that the insurance company will probably total the car. The back passenger door won’t open and the panel is crimped right along the door opening. The panel on the other side has a barely perceptible bend to it. The trunk door, even though it flew open, still got bent vertically in the middle. The muffler is dragging on the ground and the spare tire area is now visible when you look at the back end.

One of the things that I thought was funny (got to find humor somewhere, I guess)… when the guy hit us the little compartments in the dashboard opened and spewed out the stuff they were hiding, and even the windshield wipers jumped.

Let me just say… those VW crash commericals have it right.

I should probably mention that the husband and I are okay, very shaken up (which the scotch should help with), but okay. We’ve already have an appt with our chiropractor for the morning cause it feels like there was a bit whiplash action going on (boy, is my head going to hurt tomorrow).

For some reason, I thought it had only been about a month since my last post. [Looks at last post] Um, yeah… so I was off by a month. But, life has been rather interesting in the last two months.

I had an interview at the end of June that I approached as being more of an opportunity to practice interviewing than as a real chance at a job (I didn’t think I met the qualifications well enough). A couple weeks later, I was offered the position. So, the end of July was my final two weeks at the tech company that had employeed me for the last seven years. Apparently, I was more ready to leave than I had originally thought. I spent two weeks with short timers disease trying to document how I spend my days so my coworkers could attempt to fill the gap I was leaving behind.

August 1 was the first day at my new job as the Documents Archivist at a local museum. The last four weeks have been spent settling into how things work and getting to know my new coworkers. It’s a big change. I’m doing what I really enjoy and what I’ve been training to do. I now work with about 45 people rather than 150.

So, that’s the mean reason I haven’t posted in two months or why a couple days ago was my first time logging into Ravelry for the first time in several weeks.

In knitting news, I’ve finished my sister’s socks (need to wash them and take pics). I’ve started myself a pair of pota-whatsits (aka Pomatomus) out of some STR in Mustang Sally from last year’s sock club. I also started myself a plain grey, st st cardigan (well, not so plain… I’m going to attempt steeks with this one). I think I’m going to rip out my Mystery Stole 3. The yarn just isn’t working they way I want it to (which is probably a good thing since I had officially decided on wing vs. no wing). I think I’m going to pick up Melanie’s Leda’s Dream for the Wool Alpaca.

I ask for 2 reasons… the first being that they are predicting a triple digit heatwave to plow into the Bay Area over the next few days. [ugh] I melt when it hits about 80 F. I did convince the husband to set up the a/c in our bedroom so it would be ready to go as the heat rolls in. It’s a sad little air conditioner, but it makes it so I can sleep at night when July comes around. Why is it sad? Because when last year’s July heatwave hit us with 115 F for 3 days, the little a/c struggled to keep it a chilly 90 F in our bedroom. Course, a 25 degree difference is big when it gets that hot.

The other reason I am curious as to the weather conditions in Hades is because I actually managed to have both the time and energy to tackle my fiber room yesterday. Several things were picked up and put in the trash, while other things made their way into a bag for Goodwill. The big thing of the day was talking the husband into braving Ikea… where I hadn’t known they were having some sort of sale. [ack] But, I knew exactly what I wanted/needed so we were able to avoid the display area altogether. I got a new bookcase, a couple of magazine “racks” (which will be put to other uses), and a cork board. And once again I was completely amazed by people’s inability to understand how elevators work… people, the green arrow pointing skyward means the elevator will be going up, not down, no matter how much you really want to get back to your car right this second with your cheap Swedish furniture.

From there, it was a short adventure to Office Depot across the street, where this archivist finally procured a filing cabinet. This is all important as most of the mess in the fiber room is piles of papers from my classes. Now, I can put them in some sort of order in pretty purple hanging folders rather than the floor.

At lunch today, I hit the place with the nice plastic tubs I use to hold my yarn. My stash has outgrown it’s original constraints. This new tub will allow for some rearranging and some actual inventory to take place. I may even take the time to photograph my yarn so I can put it up in Ravelry.

I happily knit away on my Flower Basket Shawl for the suggested number of repeats that the pattern told me my yardage would support (I had 500 yds of lace weight cashmere, and the pattern says, that for the scarf shawl size in lace weight, 425 yds is needed). I sat down to do the bind off last night, and off-handedly look at my ball of yarn. Wow, that’s a lot of yarn left over, I think, I was only expecting about 70 yds.

So, in the effort to be scientific about it, I pulled out the kitchen scale this morning. It weighs in at 22 grams. That is sort of a lot… well, how much did I start with? No idea, cause the ball band only lists yards. [sigh] Thankfully, the Just Our Yarn website lists yds/lb. Myne supposedly has 6400 yds/lb, which figures out to about 400 yds/oz, which means the 500 yd ball should have weighed 1.25 oz, which is 35 grams. And I still have 22 grams left in the ball. So, I have used less than half, when I should have used almost all. I’m pretty sure I counted my repeats correctly.

So, I weighed the shawl, trying to exclude the weight of the needles. It weighed in at 17 grams, which is close to the 13 grams my math (35-22=13) told me it should have weight. WTF? Maybe I did miss a repeat, although when I count them, I get 8. Course, when I try to stretch out the shawl a little it looks really freaking small. I sort of took gauge into consideration when I started (I had a finite amount of the yarn, and wanted to make sure me and the designer agreed so I wouldn’t run out of yarn). Maybe I’m getting a slightly lacier gauge, that would account for using a lot less yarn, right?

I think I’m going to have to rip back what I’ve done of the bind off and the edging. This make me sad because I wanted to start working on the first clue of Mystery Stole 3, which was released today*. And there’s always the worry that I’ll rip back, add a few more repeats, only to run out of yarn on the last row. [grr]