Monday again

Once again it is Monday and I find myself at work… the last place I want to be. I have no idea where I’d rather be or what I’d rather be doing, but work just isn’t it. It’s just a blah day… there’s no motivation to do my job, not even my paycheck.

My Thanks
Thanks to everyone who shared their sympathy over the fridge situtation. I think it’s a problem in any workplace with a communal fridge. I think it was just the last straw for me last week, and I snapped. But, a loud angry blog posting is probably better than me actually yelling and throwing things in the breakroom. (I don’t get out-right angry easily, but when I do I have a tendancy of throwing a fit… usually I just get pissed off or frustrated and I might give people looks and fume, but I tend to keep it to myself.) I’m thinking of inveting in a mini fridge. Kenmore makes a 1.7 cubic ft mini fridge that’s only like $60 at Sears. I figure that’s a worthwhile proce to pay to not have people taking my food… and who knows over time, if they keep doing it, the cost of lost food could eventually add up to the cost of the fridge.

RAOK’d!
Sunday, when I finally got around to checking for Saturday’s mail, there was a package from Marina containing a couple of lovely lavender sachets. I like lavender… I like all herb-y sorts of scents. One sachet came to work with me today in order to try to establish a sense of calm in my cube. *Crosses fingers* Here’s hoping it’ll work. I think the other will find its place amongst part of my wool stash. I have cedar balls in with the wool that’s in a dresser drawer, but my overflow is in plastic storage without anything to chase off pests or keep it from smelling plastic-y and stale. So, many thanks to Marina from me and my yarn!

Actual Knitting Content
I unofficially finished the Wool Peddler’s Shawl last night. It’s unofficial cause I am still working on the cast-off. I decided to go with the sewn cast-off from Knitting Without Tears; I think it gives a nicer edge, which I think this shawl deserves. But, it’s going to take forever. I started casting off last night and got about 8 inchs done in about half an hour. I think part of the problem is the ass long end I’m using, but I’d rather be using too much for the cast-off then run out an inch from the end, which happens more than I like to remember.

As soon as the cast-off is finish I’ll be casting on for the shawl for me… it shall be mine… mine, I tell you! Bwahahaha! *Clears throat* Excuse me, yes, I shall be making a shawl for myself. Of course, I could also cast-on a sweater for myself. I went to my LYS on Saturday and they were selling all their Cascade yarn at 20%. Couldn’t pass up a sale, now could I? I picked up enough Cascade 220 for Mariah in color 4148 (I think)… it’s a heathery mauve color.

I also got to pick up my drum carder while I was there on Saturday. Yea! Drum carder! Let the rejoying commence for my precious is in my grasp. Sadly, I’ve been so busy it is still in the box. *pout*

It’s That Time of Semester
While I have not yet redeveloped my eye twitch from last semester, the next 2 weeks could see it coming for a visit. I have a 20 page paper on the history of a California library (I’m researching the Mountain View Public Library) due in a week. I have 2 small Web projects due this Wednesday and next Wednesday. I have my History of Books and Libraries final exam on the 16th, and my final Web project is due on the 18th. *ack*

Secret Pal
A trip to the post office on Saturday saw off the last package to my secret pal, a goodie package to the person for which I’m a secret pal angel, and finally, the felted kitty bed for my sister’s new kitten. Yea!

Unfortunately, my secret pal (the one that was sending me goodies) has not revealed themself. Secret pal, are you out there? Are there email problems again? Have you revealed yourself in your blog and I some how missed it (actually, that wouldn’t be that hard… I had so much of a back log in Bloglines that I only skimmed the blogs, and then Bloglines started making me login every third blog.) If you have tried to get a message to me and I have missed please try my email again, or post a comment here. For now, whoever you are, thank you for being my secret pal. 🙂

Nothing to report, not really

The fiber blahs
Nothing new is really happening on the knitting front. I’m still working on the lace of the Wool Peddler’s Shawl. It’s going much smoother than it was when I didn’t know how to count. Since I finished the Cappucino socks, the Wool Peddler’s Shawl is the only thing I’ve got going. Maybe that’s the problem… it feels weird to only have one thing to work on; I’m used to having a choice. Maybe I should start considering what to do with my Brook’s Farm yarn with more seriousness. Another I don’t know if I want to work on 2 shawls at the same time… especially since both of them would be out of a wool/mohair worsted yarn. *blah* Too similar. Maybe another pair of socks is in order. They’re so nice to carry around in my purse. I also have the Noro that I picked up at Knitting by the Sea with the gift certificate my sister gave me for Christmas (they were having a sale… everything was 20% off… I got 3 skeins of Noro Kuryeon for a felt bag, and 2 skeins of a superwash sock yarn is this great light turquoise color)… I think if I were to do another felted bag out of Noro, I would make it wider than the first one (which I made following the Booga Bag pattern). Too many things to contemplate just for one new project. (And a felt bag out of the Noro would only take a couple days.) I want to make myself a cardigan, but I have sort of made that a reward for losing a certain amount of weight (that is a ways off… although I’m starting Weight Watchers on Tuesday so maybe I’ll get then quicker than I am on my own). I might just make the reward knitting myself a Rogue sweater, and make a cardigan now so I’m not cold at work.

I’ve been wanting to do some spinning, but by the time I get home I feel uninspired. I spun up some singles out of this merino fleece I just got… I washed a small sample (needed 2 soap baths), let it dry, then carded it. But I haven’t even bothered to ply it yet. I dyed some of the light grey romney roving I have thinking that might get me going, but nothing.

It’s a bit frustrating wanting to do these things, but feeling a lack of motivation.

Secret Pal
Maybe I’m feeling the knitting blahs cause I am procrastinating working on my secret pal’s last installment. (Since she isn’t going to get it any time soon… it’ll probably wing it’s way to her closer to the end of the month and the end of Secret Pal 4… I’ll divulge.) The main part of this month’s shipment is going to be a handmade needle case. I am going to experiment first and make one for myself (my needles are getting out of control). But working on this requires getting my sewing machine set up properly again… and possibly getting additional bobbins, which you can just see me rushing out to do.

RAOK
I’m a little worried that I RAOK I sent out last month may have run into problems. I had Delivery Confirmation on it, and the post office claims it was delivered. But the person I sent it to never acknowledged it. So, now I’ve got thoughts running through my head like the postal person delivered it, but only left it on the door step and someone happened by and took it, running off to enjoy yarn and chocolate by themselves. *gah* What can I say, I have an active imagination. I will just have to hope that it did reach it’s intended recipiant, who is now busy rolling around in yarn with a mouth full of chocolate. *grin*

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday

Okay, I know I said socks… which is why I cast-on a felted kitty bed Monday night. I had the front and back of a sweater that was the second try at getting some Peace Fleece I bought back when I first started knitting a couple years ago into a sweater, but it just wasn’t happening… the front and back have been laying around for several months, and I had no compulsion to knit arms. So, I ripped the back out and started a felted kitty bed for my sister’s new kitten. I think the socks will come next.

This morning I made my way to the post office to send off a RAOK package, a Secret Pal package, and finally my best friend’s birthday and Christmas gifts (his birthday was at the beginnning of Nov., so I’m a little late). This is my first actual RAOK to go out; it was kind of fun to put together. I found a cute stuffed, floppy sheep on sale (sales are great), some candy, and some yarn from my stash that was languishing… all off to a new home. I hope it helps to cheer up the recipent.

I keep thinking about what kind of shawl I want to make out of my Brooks Farm acquisition… I’d love to do something top down, but I’ve only got 1000 yds; I’d hate to run out before I got to the bottom. I could do a basic triangle from the bottom up but I don’t know what sort of design I’d want to use. All of the patterns I’ve found that I like either use lace weight instead of worsted, or call for more yarn than I have. I will have to think on this more…

Yet another week?

First, many thanks to Erica who reveled to me the secret button for individual post comments. How silly of my to have been looking in the code of the template for something like that.

I don’t know why I’m feeling so run down… geez, I hope I’m not getting sick… no one around here has been sick that I know about, so I have no idea where I would have gotten any germs from. Of course, it could be the weather that’s doing it… 2 big storms right in a row followed by a week of temperatures that sometimes approached 70 F (this may be CA, but 70 F in January is just wrong)… suddenly things are starting to bloom again. This is our green season… the rest of the country is frozen solid under multiple feet of snow, and our hills are being transformed by their green spring finery. Yes, I’m sure those who are living in piles of white at the moment are jealous to here that it was sunny and warm here, but remember, our green will be gone within a few months as everything dries out until we get rain again come December. It’s kind of dreary living in a place that’s brown most of the year. So, anyways… yeah… flowers = pollen = me sneezing my head off.

But, thanks to a couple of nice members of FiberRaok, I can get myself some nice tea to help if my throat and sinuses decide to rebel. *grin* I also received a great welcome ecard from another member. Everyone in this group seems so friendly, it’s really quite nice. I’m looking forward to being a part of it… just need to figure out how to manage reading so many blogs.

I actually have some picture to share today. Yea! Hmmm… of course, now that I’m trying to get to my photo hosting service to get the links, I’m getting tons of page not found. They must be having problems. *pout* I’m sorry, you’ll just have to wait… but anticipation can make things better. :/