Crazy!

Ok, so, um, the building across the street from my office is ON FIRE. We think it got struck by lightening.

I need to start carring my camera around a la Crazy Aunt Purl. But maybe the nice intern with the camera phone can hook me up. Because there were firemen with axes chopping into buildings!

Also, look what I did!



You should too!

Knit Night! Woo!

Tuesday Night was Ann Arbor Knit In. It rocked. Everyone liked my secret knitting project, which made me happy! And Ingrid brought along her Mum! And it was awesome. Here they are, with Ingrid debuting "Preppy", which she had just finished seaming! It was the first official trying-on, and I got to photograph.



And that's good, because I'm going to break in and STEAL that sweater. I want it! I might knit it myself though, once I realized that Ingrid is very smart and did that up all fair-isle-like, NOT intarsia.

must not steal sweater
must not steal sweater

AND! There was another felony-worthy debut when Emily showed up wearing Grace!



Check out that super-swank sweater! And it was done in Kid Seta, which is essentially identical to Kid Silk Haze, so you know I love it!

And Sarah came, working on her second sock! They're so cool with that green and purple action. Hmmm...

stealing others knitting is not nice
stealing others knitting is not nice



Look, you can see the first all-done sock on the table next to her.

And Kim is plugging away on a tank ALL FOR HER! (and look how happy she is about it!)



But I totally didn't get out the camera until after Denise and Elecia had left and Libby ran away from her boring meeting and came and talked to us a bit. And I ate a big piece of Key Lime Island Cheesecake. It was tasty.

And we totally snarked all over the latest Interweave. But I am totally in love with the Greek Tunic Sweater. This weekend I'll do my own full review!

AND! Tomorrow, or, er, TONIGHT! Thursday! Casa Dominick's! 7ish! Sangria! Knitting! Talking smart! Be there or be sorry!

I'll trade ya' for it

So remember the red dishcloth I knit? It wasn't for Project Scrubbie, like the other ones are. It's the Double Flower pattern from here.

Anyway, I made if for my friend Jen, who was offering to make us all mugs, but obviously couldn't do them all for free, so we brokered a crafting trade. I gave her the dishcloth and she gave me this:




Isn't it awesome?! I can't wait to drink some tea out of it tonight!

Saturday at the Yarn Store!

Ok, so right now, my knitting is a big secret suprise, so uh, no pictures of that. But I did document my Saturday working at Knit A Round!

You can't really see but there are lots of felted fish hanging in the window!




See the fishes?



Pretty, pretty fishes!



LOOK AT MY FISH! Isn't it awesome?!



This is the work table where we knit and eat and stuff when we're not helping customers.



Look! We have a whole wall of Koigu! I couldn't even fit it in one picture! It's a crazy Koigu Wall of Beauty!





Look at my sample, up there selling yarn!



We wind yarn for our customers if we're not too busy. If we are really busy, then we will try to wind a skein and you can leave your yarn and pick it up later, all wound up! Or you can bring it in later to wind.



There's this guy who likes to come and stand outside the window and watch us wind yarn. He was there to watch me wind this beautious bevy for customer making a mitered square poncho!



Do you see the Fiesta La Boheme?! The Prism Wild Stuff and Eyelash?! The Colinette Isis?! Plus the great shades of Casacade 220 to pull it together?!



*drool*

Sitting at home, all alone

Last night I was invited to 2 seperate knittin' nights. But, dude, I gotta write the resume. But how could you not miss this face?




So, what do you do? Knit these:












And really miss this guy:

Who? Me?

So um, who else drank a whole bottle of champagne by herself last night and wrote drunken post cards to Crazy Aunt Purl? and then tried knitting before swearing a lot and ripping a bit before realizing that ripping is an act best done sober.

Oh, only me?

She got me down

Yo. Ingrid has a great post today about last night's knitting debauchery.

And you know what? After that I did just say "oh fuck". Loudly. Because I have ripped that project too many times. And nothing's cooler than ending your night talking to the man who is NOT in your house and feeling lonely and frogging something.

ai ya

And yeah, so um, Sweetwaters was having a manager's meeting next us last night. It was FUNNY because we can't control ourselves.

So when they asked "what are the qualities of someone you want to put on register" and they were all like "friendly, upbeat" and I was all " someone who can count change correctly"

I mean, really? SOMEONE WHO CAN COUNT CHANGE CORRECTLY.

Elisha also said something devilishy snarky and funny, but I can't remember now, which is sad, because I wanted to share the snark love.

Face, meet Palm

So, um, yeah, I know, like, there haven't been a lot of pictures or anything but, um, man, yeah, I've, like, been real, busy, you know?

Any you know what else? I totally just typed "busty" instead of "busy". Which I am. I mean, I am both busty and busy. Because I know y'all wanted to know that about me.

The truth is this. Job searching is killing my knitting time. After a weekend of procrastinanting via knitting, I got hard on myself and set down some rules.

Rules like:
You will not even touch those needles until you finish the latest draft of your federal resume and send it to Dan to make sure you didn't put that you're busty under "special skills".

Yeah, girl, I know those needles are where you want your laptop to go on the coffeetable, but you know what?! Once you pick them up with your awesome new project, you will be all "it's only 46 stitches. I can totally do a row and it will be ok". Because I KNOW YOU. (because I AM YOU! bwuhahahaha) Just put your laptop in your LAP like the name says you should and DON'T TOUCH THOSE NEEDLES.

Or last night:
You will not go to knit group until you find 3 jobs to apply for. Which you will then apply for tomorrow night.

So, I didn't get to knit group until 7.30ish, because I was JOB SEARCHING (and then parking-space searching. What was up with last night downtown Ann Arbor?)

AND I TOTALLY MISSED THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Because there will be an article about us in some Ann Arbor guide.

And my knitting queen divaness will not be photographed.

My ego can't take these dissapointments.

Shawl

So... recently both Kate and Stephanie have created a beautiful Birch Shawl from Rowan #34.





It is not well photographed in the magazine. I mean, Rowan knew it was wonderful enough to warrent 2 photos, but neither showed off its beauty! But... then I saw a sample at the yarn shop Lynne works at (which isn't the one I work at, so it shall remain nameless.) And OH. MY. GOD.

I mean, just look at all it could be:



(That photo was ruthlessly stolen and uploaded to my own server from Melanie, whose blog I don't read, as it's in German, but whose picture I found via Google Image Search)

Last year (before I worked at a yarn shop and was therefore a lot less enabled on yarn-binging) I spent some of my birthday money on some slate blue Kidsilk Haze for this shawl.

It's aging.

I think this summer I need to knit it. But maybe I'll wait for my birthday to roll back around.

But Stephanie's commenters have renamed the yarn.

It is now known as Cracksilk Haze. I will start calling it this, but I will not be changing my email address.

I want! I want! I want!

Serious Book Lust.

It's in Japanese, so I can't find it on Amazon, but I can find it here

Blah

Dan left yesterday. *sigh*.

I mean, on one hand, I can watch the girliest, silliest TV ever and knit and not get smart comments from the peanut gallery, or, um kitchen as it is in my house.

But... but... :(

And that really pulls into perspective everything that must get done before I move in August. Like, finding myself a job. I worked a lot on my resume last night. puke.

The other day, Dan went Yakov Smirnoff on me and said "In Soviet Russia, resume writes YOU" and frankly, after staring at it for a week, I'm starting to feel like it!

My friend Katy loves writing resumes and cover letters, because she just gets to talk about how awesome she is. I look at my working life boiled down to a page and think "this is all I've done with my life?! I stressed out every night at my job for a year, but my job was only these 4 innocous-sounding lines?! What?!"

I also knit a lot last night. Sock now has about an inch of ribbing. Sock should be done this weekend, which is nice, because it got cold again, so I'm wearing socks and real shoes for the first time in a month or so and am thinking how nice the Koigu socks would look with today's shoes.

On the Road Again...

We went to Houston this week to see Dan's family.

It was a great visit. I read a lot. Especially with all that free time that I didn't want, but American Airlines (EVIL! PURE EVIL!) shoved down my throat anyway.

I'm always a little weird about flying with knitting. It's not that I think they'll take it away. I often don't check luggage (but this time I did and the knitting was in it) but just, I don't take it out in the airport that often.

Maybe it's just because I know it'll make others nervous.

Maybe it's just that I don't get to read that much anymore because I drive to work now, instead of taking the bus and I relish the long stretches of reading time interupted only by some pretzels and ginger ale.

Of course, I kinda wish I did have my knitting, as I'm not used to flying *with* someone and when Dan would want to talk I was all, Dude, I'm reading. Go away. Oh but the seatbelt sign is on, so you can't. Oh well.

I did start the other sock and am about an inch away from turning the heel, so it's not like no knitting was accomplished.

In other, very sad news, Dan leaves for DC tomorrow.

Which means I need a job, so I can buy yarn when I join him in a few months.

Rocking the Ugly Shrug

Lets talk about what's so very wrong with this picture.

1. The puffed sleeves.
2. The fact that said puffed sleeves do NOT hit at the shoulder.
3. How the waistband kinda hits at nipple height and does not cover the boob.
4. My double chin action

Let's talk about what's right
1. I'm wearing Renee, that means she's done.
2. That piece of Peanut Butter mousse Chocolate Cake. It was yum-tastic to the max.

Big Thanks for Denise for the pic!

Big Weekend Fun!

Dan took me on a suprise mini-break this weekend!

To Niagara Falls!

I had to wear a poncho!

See. Everyone looks like a dork in a poncho!

Um, I did some knitting while I was there.

Slowly Slowly

Last night was dedicated to Renee's seam-sewing and end weaving-in.

Both Bridget Jones movies later, and I'm still not done. UGH. And tonight's Knit-In A2 night. and I really want to go, but it will not be the most condusive environment for this last never-ending seam. gargh. So conflicted.

Bigger update coming, but I have a lot of picture uploading to do. It's been an exciting few weeks in Jennie-land.

Also, I've updated my Secret Pal questionare. Or at least, I'm going to when I'm done posting this.

Must Be I Wasn't Invited

How does a size 6 circular just WANDER OFF?

It has been in my knitting bag for a month now. A MONTH! Why is it no longer there? I have done nothing else with it!

How does this happen?

And, more importantly, WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO?!