Don't Quit Your Day Job

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers.  A big announcement:

I quit my day job.

After 14 years, I have resigned my post at the hospital.  Packed up my fish and left.  Didn't let the door hit me.  Said my farewells and didn't even cry.  Much.

Turns out that even I have my limits; notably juggling my family, my knitting, my writing, and my full time employment left me ragged around the edges.  Turns out that for me, "multitasking" means "doing more than one thing at a time badly". 

So while certain challenges lay before me, I am confident that I've made the proper decision.  And of course, I have Big Plans:

Institute Minimum Household Sanitation Thresholds

Find out where the Grocery Store is

Learn to Cook

Find out what the pets do all day

Go for a walk

Knit

Be waiting for the Smallies when they come home from school.

And this is just the preliminary list of Big Plans.  If things go well, I'm also going to look into getting a social life.  Well, at least find some like-minded knitters to hang out with.

The run-up to my big exit from the rat race has been intense.  When things start going down hill, it really does get faster at the bottom.  Job 1 as soon as I was free of the day job was to assemble and ship the Wisteria kits for Madrona:
 

Behold the glory of the handpainted Wisteria Yarn!  I got to ask especially for the yarn attributes I wanted for this project.  I got to specify the color palette.  I got to confer with the yarn artist.  And then I got to bring home this huge hurkin' pile of beauty to make the kits from!  How's that for a knitters' Dream Come True?  My Madrona students are SO going to love this. 

As for the actual kit-making, I had lovely assistants:

Lookit how Helpy they all are!  We assembled all the kits together, right here on the dining room table.  I asked them if they thought this would make us a Close-Knit family.  Three pairs of eyes rolled skyward, and the dog groaned.

So the kits are mailed, and I can breathe for a little bit.  Thing the Next will be the Catkins project.

And yes, Clementine is adjusting to the new scenery, as well.

Catkins 2.0

The saga of the pussy willow sweater continues.  At last report, I had attempted too much contrast between the stems and the background, but not enough between the background and the catkins.  I took a picture before I frogged it, for archival and comparison purposes:

In this photo, the chart is working exactly like I want it to, but the colors are not doing it justice.  I also regretted my choice to work one sleeve at a time, which made it (somewhat) easier to put it out of its misery.  Kinda surreal to totally frog a knitted piece right out of existence.  I even reskeined the yarn, so it was like the first sleeve never even happened.  Messes with my head.

I thought I wanted to change to a black background, but as luck or alpacas would have it, there wasn't enough of the black in stock.  Instead, I changed to this complicated and textural charcoal gray version with a soft brown for the stems, and kept the fluffy silver angora for the catkins.  Sometimes designs just know what they want to be made of, even if I don't.  This is definitely one of those times:

So much better, no?  I'm back in love with it again.  Note also the two-at-a-time sleeves:  WAY more fun and comfortable on the longer circular needle.  I wonder if my contrast instincts got jacked up because all the colors are natural/neutral?  These shades are so much more subtle than I usually choose.  Turns out working with beige and gray is a completely different prospect than lime and fuschia.  Duh.

This yarn is made for stranding - so delightfully sticky, but still ultra soft.  My esteemed associates at Toots Le Blanc have struck the perfect balance between drape and strength, in my opinion.  And those who require next-to-the-skin softness in their yarn will find nothing to object to either. 

Hard to believe this will be my last post of 2009.  It's true what they say about time flying and having fun.  And boy am I having fun.  All this and a New Year's Eve party tomorrow, too!  Lucky Knitter, me.
 

Pardon Me While I Triangulate

It could be charitably understated that my relationship with direction is casual.  I think that geographical sense must be located in the same group of brain cells as mathematical abilities.  Or as I often put it: "In my other purse".  

The last time I was in a new town, there was exactly ONE turn between my hotel and the yarn shop where I was teaching.  Drove right past it.  Kept on driving for a really long time before the dawning of a sense that Something Was Wrong.  That's ONE turn, Gentle Readers.  Fifteen minutes late to my own class.  Understanding students notwithstanding, it was really embarrassing.  Really?  You're going to teach me to cut my sweater in half, but you can't manage to hang a left? 

My children, with help from their clever and resourceful father, chose a really perfect Christmas present for me this year.  Meet my new best pal, "Tom":

The best thing about this present is how it shows that my family, addition to sympathy for my directional impairment, have offered me actual help.  It's like having a little tangible bit of their love and support with me, even when I'm far from home.  And increases my chances of turning left appropriately in an exponential way.

In unrelated happy news, I promised to let my sock-loving friends know when my new Magic Carpet pattern is available, and today's the day!  Go Here, snap up one of these adorable kits, and have yourself a little Post-Christmas/Pre-New Year hoot.  The yarn and pattern are available there exclusively, so when they're gone, they're gone.  The kits even include the needles, so you have no excuse not to start knitting immediately, and when you're done (which will be before you know it), you can smugly congratulate yourself on having completed something really special, and on supporting an independent, woman-owned business.

And if anybody needs me, I'll be over here, triangulating.