Idyllic Chick

I've been at my current job for about three months now. Not only can I now wear tennis shoes with my jeans every work day, but I've dyed my hair pink and wear my nosering every day. My self expression has bloomed in this venue! But every weekday as I'm getting dressed, I look in my closet and absolutely hate my choice of shirts to wear. I could probably get away with wearing some of my weekend wardrobe to work, but I don't want to do that. Heheh, and Chris said that my Ramones t-shirt would look funny if I were wearing a bra underneath it. =)

So I was thrilled this morning when I came up with the solution to my daily wardrobe scoff: the West Farms t-shirt. It is perfectly appropriate for me to wear any kind of shirt with my employer's logo on it. I have a West Farms camouflage T that I like quite a bit. It fits me well, and it's kind of cute. And it only cost me $12.

I can get any t-shirt I please screenprinted with the logo. The office manager gave me two huge catalogs to look at that have some very cool, high quality t-shirts. And when have I not loved a t-shirt?! Never! Love them! I'm so excited! I'll still have 'work shirts' and 'weekend shirts', but I can now choose my work shirts in the same way I choose my play shirts. This really just tops off the whole I'm-so-happy-with-my-job thing. Mental and physical comfort mean a lot! Yay! Tootie's mom!

Yesterday Lorena, Jenn, Becca, and I went on a yarn buying, meat eating, booze drinking expedition to Knit n Knibble in Tampa. Honestly? It was one of the happiest days of my life. What great fun we had, rocking out to Knitta Please on the way down, and pointing out those fucking zebras in the cow field, Bitch (We are now worried about the quality of Becca's eyesight, though.), on the way home. I didn't get nearly as much work done on Chris' sock on the way home as I did on the way there, but you can blame that on our cute waiter at J. Alexanders who kept plying us with drinks. I had a totally orgasmic cheese burger there. I shit you not. Best burger I've ever had.

Following is the modest result of my personal Stash Enhancing Excursion:

Opal sock yarn! I won this in the raffle! The colorway is... well... there's not a color or theme on the label. Not in English, anyway. But it's bright and happy and kept me from feeling the need to buy sock yarn!

Next up is a skein of Cascade 220 Heather in 'Color 2429'. It a beautiful grassy green, with some lighter green running through it. I will swatch this for the aforementioned Rogue sweater. I was not able to find any wool with silk in it at Knit n Knibble. C&I are going to Jacksonville next weekend, though, so I have high hopes that I can procure a skein there that I can swatch the hell out of.

On the right are two skeins of Dalegarn's Svale in red an black. 50% cotton, 40% viscose, 10% silk. This stuff is sooooft as butter. Or soft as an old t-shirt, which is what I'll be swatching it for. I've got pretty high hopes on that one.

As I mentioned the other day, Susan had a stash of very special knitting needles for me, and here they are in all their glory. In all seriousness, I love aluminum needles. Especially the older, heavier ones. I like the way aluminum and steel needles go click clack in my hands. I know that drives some knitters crazy, but I totally dig it.

Who ordered this drink?!

This is what happens when knitters go shopping.

...but boy oh boy has my head been spinning. A trio of wonderful wimmin friends and I are making a road trip to Tampa tomorrow to Knit n Knibble, a beautiful yarn store that Lorena discovered during Necronomicon last year. (Poop. That reminds me. I still need to email Anne about having a Stitch & Bitch 'panel' this year.) We've been planning this trip for a couple of months, so I've been running yarn ideas and project plans through my head since then, most especially today. I intend to by lots of swatching yarn with the theory that since I can see the colors and feel the yarn in person tomorrow, if I end up liking it for a particular project, I'll go ahead and buy enough for that project later online. Hopefully through the Knit n Knibble site itself, though I have not yet determined if they do online sales. Though I do know that their yarn info pages are extraordinary.

I'll buy two skeins of yarn to sample for Rogue (With the kangaroo pocket, thankyouverymuch.). One will be 100% wool, and I hope to find a skein of wool with 10-20% silk in it. Something like the Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed. Going with the latter yarn would give the hoodie a bit of drape, while also making the fabric more appropriate for Florida wear.

The second project for which I want to sample yarn is based on the Nothin' but a T-shirt pattern from Magknits. I've had my eye out for knitting patterns for tops that I can comfortably wear to work (We have a very flexible dress code, if any dress code at all, but I refrain from wearing my ratty t-shirts to work.), yet still remain true to my punk rock soul. My idea is to take the T-shirt pattern and scale the gauge down so that I can insert a pretty crisp, full contrast, two-color chart of Joey Ramone on the front of the shirt. This pattern has great shaping at the waist, and cute sleeves, perfect for the ringer T look. I plan to rework the pattern based on my own measurements, creating the perfect Ramones t-shirt, sized just right for me! The T pattern calls for a cotton/microfiber blend, and I'm thinking I'm not going to find a lot of that at my particular LYS. Just sayin'.

I'm sure I'll be bringing home a couple of skeins of sock yarn, too. It's hard to resist, that sock yarn. Lower your shields and power down your weapons, and all that jazz.

So like there hasn't been enough yarn babbling, but on Sunday C&I are going to his mum's to celebrate Buddy's (C's grandfather's) birthday. Not only will DadaMama be there, working on one of her first knitting projects, but my wonderful MIL (And really. I do mean that. This woman isn't just my MIL, but someone with whom I would be great friends even if I weren't married to her son. I mean, if I weren't married to her son and we happened to meet otherwise. Like at her other son's wedding or somethin.) apparently has a stash of knitting needles and yarn with which she is going to gift me. These came from the home of *her* MIL, who recently passed away. I think that is one of the most thoughtful and gracious gifts I shall ever receive. Rest in peace, Shirley, and know that I will honor your crafty, airplane fixing/flying heritage to the best of my abilities.

...driving around in this?
'73 Chevy 350. A mere 30,000 miles on the odometer. Yowza. Of course, I'd have to dye my hair to match it. =)

So just when I thought I was over the not-as-horrible-as-it-was-last-time cold that I had, I ended up going home sick from work yesterday. I got a headache around 9:30-10:00 that got bad enough that I went to Publix for some medicine. I thought it might be allergies or latent cold-ness, but the kick-ass meds that I got didn't do a thing for the headache. As I sat at my computer, the headache got worse, and I started getting nauseous and dizzy. Suckin'! So I went home and took a nap. I finally felt hungry after I woke up. I ate something, and got progressively better throughout the day/evening.

So what was wrong with me? I think it was because I wore my contacts yesterday. I don't wear them often, and when I do, I'm not staring at a computer screen. My contacts are a different prescription than my glasses are, and I think my body just didn't adjust well to the sudden difference. Lesson learned. I'll try to wean my way back to the contacts over the next couple of weekends and in the evenings.

This past week I got Samus all seamed together and started the applied I-cord edging. Doesn't this look nice?! I love the clean, finished edge it gives to the sweater. Problem is, even though I've got the cord done down one front edge of the sweater, it's still curling under. I checked the directions, and I do think I'm doing the applied I-cord properly. But I've been doing three cord stitches for every four stitches on the vertical edges, instead of doing that on the horizontal edges. That might be lending to some of the curling, so I'll frog that bit tonight and start at the left top again. The directions also call for a piece of grosgrain ribbon to be added down each edge of the front of the sweater, along with a zipper, and that will help stiffen things up some.

As pretty as the applied I-cord is, I thought it was a real pain in the ass. That is until I did the short row heel on Chris' sock today. This particular heel calls for a purl three together THROUGH THE BACK LOOPS. Purl three together? No problem. Purl one through the back loop? No big deal. Purl three together through the back fucking loops on gawd damn size one needles? Are you out of your mind? Applied I-cord is cake compared to that. But I did the heel, conquering the hellacious P3TTTBL. Damn, it's even hard to type. Blech.

Crapity crap crap. That's my phrase for today. Probably for all weekend. C&I are in no shape to go to Athens. Poop! We both feel better, but it just seems to be one of the lesser levels of hell. I even made this cool Bounty Hunter flag to take to the flag party. I'm sorry Nina and Kristie! We will try to see you soon!

I keep forgetting to mention that the rental house in which C&I lived before we bought the Satellite of Love was finally sub-leased for the summer. I know I hadn't even mentioned to most of my friends that we hadn't gotten out of our lease. I think the financial dread of having to pay both rent and mortgage was so heavy on me that I just pushed it all down until I didn't have to think about it any longer. I understand that this despair could have easily been avoided by waiting until the lease was over to buy a home, but C&I truly felt that this plot of land was meant for us. We are so happy here, and would have done most anything to make it happen. Including strapping ourselves into mega-debt for it. But it's over! And I feel much more relieved that I had anticipated. Plus, we'll be getting some of our security deposit back soon, which will go to good use paying off our taxes. Blecht.

Having just gotten over the worst cold of my life a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised when I became plagued again. Sleep was only achieved last night by the delicate ballet of placing my head in just the correct position at just the right time in order to keep all the snot in the world from shooting out my nose and down my face. But I awoke surprisingly refreshed. I hope getting through work today is easier than yesterday. Neither Chris (Who is even worse off than I am) nor I have mentioned the idea of canceling our plans to go to Athens this weekend. I think we'll see how we each feel today. If we're up to preparing for the trip, then it won't be an issue. But if we don't even feel like picking up the camping equipment and going to the grocery, then I don't think we'll be up for attempting to sleep in a tent on the ground Saturday night. Time will tell.

In other news, happy birthday to my momma!

Since the employee handbook doesn't say much about dress code, and is slanted more towards the landscape maintenance crew instead of us office chickies, today I asked my boss what the unofficial office policy is on things like pink hair, visible tattoos, and nose rings. Without skipping a beat she said, 'We don't care what you look like.'

Wow. Wow! I'm so excited! Due to having a series of progressively fashion-restrictive office jobs, I've never had my hair the color I really want it for more than a week. I've never been able to get the cute little lip piercing that I've craved for years. I have 'work clothes' and 'play clothes' instead of simply clothes that I love. No longer! I'm stopping by Sally's on the way home from work today to pick up hair bleach and Manic Panic. The 20 year old inside of me shall liiiivvveeee!

Eh, not so much! I thought I would be writing about how I *still* didn't get Samus put together last night, but I did get the shoulder seams done (Seamed them up on the new sewing machine. Easy peasy!) and the sleeves sewn up. Now I just need to put the sleeves in the sleeve holes and I'll be ready to do two miles of applied I-cord.

I am pleased to say that World Wide Knit in Public Day Gainesville was a success! I think we had close to a dozen knitters attend, most affiliated with one of our local groups, but some not. We hope to assimilate those rogue knitters into our collective asap. A reporter from the University of Florida's independent publication, The Alligator, and a photographer from the Gainesville Sun were there to get the scoop. I'll let you know if anything appears in print.

I'm happy that a woman working at one of the stores near our meeting place left her post to ask us what group we were with, and if we met regularly. I believe she knits, and had no idea that there are knitting groups in Gainesville that get together on a regular basis. She seemed very excited to know that there is a young, cool knitting community in place right under her very nose. And that's one of the many things that KIP day is all about! Bringing our art out into the open for all to see so that no one is forced to knit alone!

Here is a picture of Lorena (on the right) teach Heidi how to knit. Lynn is on the left. She drove 60 miles to hang out with us today!

With a boy!

Girl's night out!

"Don't touch me with that meat tongue!"

but don't know what to get me, get me this.
in 'lady bee', of course. The site doesn't show how beautifully this sock yarn self-stripes up, so imagine this in dark pink and shades of black and grey:

Despite Blogger's copious problems (Due to them being in the process of updating their software, I believe) over the past couple of days, I have overcome the trials and tribulations it has thrown at me and gotten back on the blogging bandwagon. I'm excited about the built in comments and the ability to blog from my cell phone. And the pink! I'm excited about the pink! If it bothers you just let me know and I'll replace it with something easier on the eyes like fluorescent yellow text on a black background. Also let me know how the comments work for ya. I haven't used Blogger's before, and I'm not sure what the rules and regulations are.