the builder asked us last week to go in and mark all the places that need paint touch ups or sanding down/repainting.
here's all i have to say about that.
don't send a perfectionist to stare at the walls for a few hours, mkay?
i repeat, we have a knitter down.
it was a torturous struggle, lasting several miserable hours. lunch and dinner were witnesses, as well as a few beers, a lousy football game, and lots of curse words in front of little children. oh, the horror.
the lace panels on the skb's sleeves have sealed a decisive victory. a mandate, you might even say. i have conceded to their uberness and my total lack of knitting prowess.
i appear to have suffered a repetitive stress injury and i can not knit. thank you, oh fair cursed lace panel. the intense physical pain of knitting the lace has made me not even WANT to knit. (this is the real tragedy, of course).
so i'm saying fuck it. i ripped out what lace i had managed to endure, and we're going with plain sleeves. i'm happy, the sweater is relieved at not being completely ripped or worse, tossed into the Basket of Doom, never to be seen again. once i'm able to knit again, i will pick it back up and finish my hats too.
it's really a shame that i can still type and have zero pain at the keyboard. i'd kill for another day off.
sigh.
cause i got into grad school, ya'll.
and my jaywalkers? yeah, they're going with scout to the knitty gritty filming in december. cool by proxy at least.
yesterday we walked through the house with the builder and detailed out all the nit-picky things that need to be finished before closing. we are thisclose and i couldn't be more excited. granted i may starve in january, but, (cue scarlett) i'll worry about that later. the last major thing to be done is the landscape junk - retaining walls, drainage, and driveway stuff. yay.
i'm really thankful for a few days away from work. i'm going to knock out the purple sweater and get some finished photos up next week.
after my turkey/sweet potato souffle/pecan pie coma.
have a warm and fuzzy turkey day, ya'll!
Edited to add: pictures!
I've been promising myself I'd post pictures of everything I'm working on. I wish I was a better photographer though. Funny thing about me and cameras. They hate me. Doesn't matter if I'm the shooter or shootee, it rarely turns out well. So I'm skipping that part for the moment. (Pay no attention to my laziness. Move along.)
Simple Knit Bodice. I swear I'm going to finish this. I've knit up to the lace panels on each sleeve, and I have to do the finishing on the neck, then wash, block and wear with pride. And a tank top. And probably a little smirk, cause it's really gorgeous.
Socks in Cherry Tree Hill's Supersock Merino in Old Rose. My feet are set on permafrost for most of the year, so I decided I need lots of warm snuggly handknit socks to keep them warm this winter. Since this yarn works up very quickly, I've finished this pair in a little under a week. Turns out the key for me is to finish the toe on sock #1 and IMMEDIATELY cast on for #2. Even if it's 3 a.m.
Christmas hats. Mad hattering over here so my big ass family will have warm heads on Christmas day. Six down, four to go. Two of those are for toddlers, so I'm ahead of the game. Maybe I should make extras or something. Yes that cream Shedir you see was for me, now it's for Grandma. She's real picky and wanted something complex. Doubt she'll ever wear it...such a tragedy.
Oh! Eunny's little Endpaper Mitts have caught my attention and I'm going to make myself a pair soon.
Central Park Hoodie is still on the menu, I'm just waiting for the yarn to arrive. I ordered some snuggly Araucania Nature Wool in a light brown color from Webs. Mmmmm I can't wait.
.......................
Enough knitting news.
All my paperwork is in to the grad school (thank you Karen!), we close on our house on the 30th (provided the builder type folks meet all our contingencies...p.s. hurry it up boys, this girl is impatient and you're stressing her out), and I have my resume out to several places, so I have some options. I asked for more money today, again (see previous posts on my intolerable lack of patience), but I'm not sure that I'll get it.
Add to that whole mess that I have an incredibly unpleasant co-worker who is about to get the very rude end of Melanie Being Pushed Too Far. I have loads of charm and southern politeness (not to mention an off-the-charts cute factor), and I normally go too far beyond all that in an effort to understand people, but when I go out of my way to engage in conversation with you FIVE whole times a day, you better fucking recognize and respond. I'm way too busy and stressed out to be bothered with somebody's bad attitude. She's stinking up the whole place and making an uncomfortable situation ten time worse than it has to be. The worst part is that it is her JOB to be outgoing and friendly. Ha. Maybe we should switch.
P.S. I take back what I said about the new MCR album. I didn't give it a fair listen, and frankly, I was in a bad mood. It's very cohesive and well done, and kinda reminds me of Green Day's American Idiot. Tight. Well played. An album, not just a bunch of songs thrown together. Me love it long time.
I'm in limbo. It is frustrating. I may become monosyllabic due to the melting of my brain in this time warp called 'everything in my life takes for-fucking-ever'. No wonder I've knit six hats in a week. I need action! Specifically in these areas:
1. Grad school. Still haven't heard about my application.
2. My job. Still don't know if I'm getting a raise at any time or in any dimension. However, work at this point completely fries my brain, so I'm not sure any amount of compensation is enough. The voices in my head want the pain to stop.
3. My house. Can I tell you guys how much I HATE to wait? I might be the most impatient person to ever live. Waiting to hear back from a finance person is just torture. I know I'm approved, now gimme my damn house key, beotch. I have decorating to do.
4. The Simple Knit Bodice. I only have the sleeves left to pick up and knit, and yet, I can't bring myself to do it. The thought of the lace panel on size ZERO needles makes me cringe. And yet if I just made it short-sleeved, I'd never wear it. Damn lace. And I really want to start on the Central Park Hoodie.
Blah.
Not that I'm a raging Democrat (though I do scream in a liberal direction), but YAY!
Plus: woot.
And, thank you Britney. Take him for all he's worth.
...oh wait
...nevermind.
Hi! This week has been super insane, what with the end-of-month work junk, and the knitting on my purple sweater, and the buying of a house.
YES! I said buying a house! We did some budgeting and made an offer this week and the builder is meeting our contingencies. We close on the 30th! It's big and adorable and perfect (except for the things the builder is changing, specifically the driveway and yard/drainage issues), and we're both just crazy excited. (Could I use more 'and's' in one post?! I do that when I'm excited. Insert lots of giggling here.)
See that whole lack-of-a-yard thing? Gonna be fixing that.
Also, I finally sat down today and wrote the Corset Scarf pattern, with some technical help from Denise, as you can see on the sidebar. Let me know if you download and knit it! I'd love to see some of these worked up in different colors. I almost made it in black with red ribbons or totally black with red rosettes, but the Funky Scarf Swap was about funkiness, not so much with the sluttiness. I might make the black for myself, since I'm cool with the slut/goth factor.
So, to the meat of the post...since we're buying a house and almost every cent of our money is tied up, I'm going to be breaking that little vow I made a while back. I'm going to be knitting ALL my Christmas gifts. All of them. Needless to say, every one is getting a scarf or a hat. But I'm quick. I made this decision yesterday, and I've already finished my mom's Blanche hat in Jo Sharp's Silk Road, in a pretty light blue. Tonight I started my step dad's hat in a brown tweed. He's a very brown tweed sort of guy. It's perfect.
My brothers will probably get black hats with various color stripes, and most of the ladies (my grandmother, aunt and SIL) will get scarves. (Lisa, this does not apply to you, unless you want it to of course :P)
I think I'm going to reserve Tuesday nights for our LYS's Sweater Support Group night when I want to work on my own stuff.
Whew. It's gonna be a crazy few months. House, holidays and grad school (January) all at once. Somebody cross their fingers and junk.
