Happy New Year!

I don’t believe I’ve talked about it here, but a few years ago I began treatment for a thyroid disorder.  I had had all the classic symptoms: exhausted, freezing, hair loss, memory problems, and weight gain like you wouldn’t believe.  Over the course of about 4 years, I’ve worked with my doctor to find the right levels of medication to get me back to feeling like myself.  Finally, in July, I think we got to the right point.  It feels like almost suddenly I’m doing all sorts of things that I remember doing but for a long time couldn’t bring myself to do.  I’ve read more books in the last 6 months than I think I did in the last 2 years.  And now I want to really get back to knitting again.

I had done some cold sheeping while I was unemployed, but the knitting and the spinning weren’t happening except when i felt they really needed to, such as for gifts.  So, thankfully, lots of yarns hasn’t been coming in, but it also hasn’t really been getting used.  I’ve decided that this year I should try to keep myself knitting on a regular basis.  I’m going to do that by making up a personal sock club — one set of yarn and pattern for each month.

Rabbitch Toe Jam sock yarnI’m going to start by concentrating on a pair of socks I started for the husband back in August but hadn’t really been working on.  Thus, my January sock club is a pair of Thuja socks knit out of Rabbitworks Fibre Studio Toe Jam (70% Merino 30% Silk) in The Gathering Storm.  The fun and excitement will come when I try to figure out how I did the heel on the first sock.

Anyone home?

Have I really been away from my knitting blog for almost a year?  I have no idea how that happened… well, maybe a little I do.  The funding for my job was cut at the beginning of November, and I was let go.  I pretty much stopped knitting or spinning for several months as I descended into a funk.  I knit a couple of things that were requested, but otherwise I lost all love of the things I love for awhile.

I got through the holidays and the new year and started to come back to myself.  The knitting started up again.  The photo taking has been woefully inadequate, but I hope to be rectifying that soon.

Meanwhile, just here to remind myself I have a blog before things get to crazy with the training I’m starting next month.

All good things…

I haven’t been able to bring myself to post about this until now.  At the beginning of October I was laid off, the official word being that my position has been eliminated.  November 1 was my last day at work.  I spent the month of October trying to wrap things up and say good-bye to the job I loved.  It’s terribly depressing to have to go into work each day knowing that it’s all coming to an end and not because you chose so.  There are several reasons the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, but most of all I feel extremely bad for my coworkers who will most likely have to pick up the slack without the compensation.

I think I spend the month of November grieving the entire situation and accepting the fact that change had occurred and I was going to have to deal with it.  I’ve been looking for new work in my field, but unfortunately, a bad economy is really not the atmosphere to be an archivist in.

Meanwhile, in the knitting realm, all I’ve been actively working on has been finishing off the baby blanket for my sister.  I have finally gotten to the end of the knitting portion and for some masochistic reason have chosen to used a sewn cast off.  I started the cast off at Purlescence Yarns, and in 3 hours I managed to get through half the stitches.  I hope to have it finished by the end of the week so it can go in the wash and be done.

A Good Goggie

My mom called this morning to let me know that Comet had taken a turn for the worse over the weekend and that they put her to sleep this morning.  Comet was a good, old dog, and we got to love her for 16 years.  🙁

Cleaning out the cobwebs

Time flies when life is crazy.  International travel followed by the introduction of a new family member (see right) along with the stress of an archival collection move to prepare for at work has kept the days rolling by without note here.  But, mostly, the addition of a puppy has taken up most of my time.  There hasn’t even been a lot of knitting, and there’s been no spinning since we got her in October.

Her name is Lily, and we got her from a rescue that takes dogs out of kill shelters in SoCal and brings them north for adoption.  Lily’s mom was the one actually rescued and then discovered to be pregnant.  Mom was a white cockapoo, and there have been many guesses as to what dad may have been.  The general consensus is either wire-haired dachshund or some sort of terrier.  Lily’s nickname is Troublebutt — she’s 7 months old as of last week and has been having loads of fun finding news things to make a mess of.

With the Winter Olympics (and thus Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics) about to commence tonight, I thought it was time to do some spring cleaning in the old blog.  I’ve done away with the large gathering of dust bunnies Russian spam and installed a shiny new post.  Of course, I have no idea if there’s anyone out there still bothering to read.

Now to decide on projects.  For the Ravelympics, I’m on Team Suck Less, and my project is going to be to spin for a complete project.  I just haven’t decided yet if I will be spinning for socks or a lace shawl.  Decisions, decisions. I have some superwash corriedale from Spunky Eclectic in a pretty colorway called Soul Windows that would make nice socks.  But, I also have some Dark BFL also from Spunky Eclectic in a colorway called Myrtle that would make a pretty Bitterroot.

For the Knitting Olympics, I’ve put my name in and said I’d be knitting an Ishbel shawl with some of my handspun shetland romney laceweight yarn.  (Oops, signed up saying it was shetland, oh well.)  I haven’t really done a lot with my handspun yarn because I sometimes upset myself by only seeing the imperfections in the yarn as I’m knitting it rather than the loveliness of the project.  So, my challenge is to knit a project with my handspun… and actually finish it.