Long time no post

Okay so I know by now this is a theme with me. I don't post for a really long time then I'm good for a while then no posts again. I promise, THIS TIME, I'm going to keep up on it. It's not like I have tons to do at work.

There have been requests by many people that I haven't spoken to in a while for updates on what's going on in my life so here you go. Don't worry there will be knitting updates as well.

Perhaps I should do the knitting updates first. That way those of you who don't care about the rest of my life don't have to read about it to get updates on my knitting. I have almost finished the socks for my mom. They have been sitting in my knitting bag for months. I had other fun things to do. Like I made a paid of the Cigar gloves for by boyfriend. I made this in black with a blue stripe. I used a superwash dk weight yarn whose name I can't remember right now.

I made a cabled scarf for him as well that I'm just needing to block. Funny thing about that. The night I bound off I took it home and showed it to him and told him it was all done except it still needed to be blocked. Well being the smart ass that he is, he's also a third degree black belt, he pretended that the scarf was hitting him so that he could block it with his arm. If you aren't laughing at that I guess it was one of those you had to be there things.

I also went on a SEX two weeks ago and found a great little yarn shop down here in SLC called Soul Spun Yarns. They had a discount basket and I found 6 balls of pink yarn, all different types and textures, that I just had to buy to make a scarf for my new best friend Kaydee Lyn Bosted Cummings. And yes you have to say all 4 names.

As for the rest of my knitting. I haven't really done much on the projects I already had started. I will post pictures of the stuff that I have done in the next day or two.

Now on to the rest of my life. I have successfully moved down to SLC from Logan and have been living down here for a little over 4 months now. I have settled into my job without any problems. I got my 90 day raise just 2 weeks late but that was my own fault. My job is one of those I hate it and I love it jobs. I hat it because I get bitched at all day every day, but I love it because I'm actually able to do something for the people that have valid complaints.

I'm still with Troy. I love him more than I've ever loved anyone else. Most especially my last boyfriend. But we won't go into that again. If you're a frequent reader of my blog you've already heard all about that.

It's pretty much a given that Troy and I will eventually get married. It's not a question of if but of when. He has this silly rule that we have to be together for a year and a day without my wanting to leave and without him wanting to bury me in the backyard. Less than 5 months to go for that. With the exception of his ex-wife I'm the longest relationship he's had. At least I think I am. He's told me on several occasions that he loves me more than anyone else ever. God, now I'm getting all sappy. Can you tell I'm in love?

We still live with the roommates. The reason for that is because at the current moment I am the only source of income. He's working on getting back into teaching Martial Arts. It's going to be a couple of months for that as he hasn't done it in 7 years and they have reorganized how things work within the company. He has to relearn a lot of the stuff that he already knows because they have changed the system that they used before.

I'm still losing weight but haven't been to Weight Watchers since I moved down to SLC so I'm not sure exactly what I'm at now. I'll have to find an accurate scale and get myself weighed. Perhaps when I go to the doctor next week.

In case you're wondering I'm sick. I have another sinus infection, I think it's the third one this year perhaps more. I haven't been to the doctor yet as I can't afford it until my insurance kicks in on the first.

Other than that I don't think there's really anything else to be updated. I'll try to make sure that I post on a more regular basis but we all know that's probably not going to happen.

Scary Times

I gave my two weeks notice at my job today at the Whittier Center and I'm just a little scared of how it's going to be taken and what the next two weeks are going to be like. I may be a little bit of a basket case these next few weeks. I'm hoping to not get a lot of crap from my mom but I'm sure that I will. I don't know how I'll be able to stand the next 2 weeks living with her and then a whole week on a boat if she goes all psycho on me.

I'm sure she'll be mad at first but then she'll realize that this is a good thing. We'll both be able to move on with our lives. I can grow up and be a responsible adult and she can start having fun again and not worrying so much about me.

I already have a new job lined up. I'm going to be working in the guest relations department of the Intercontinental Hotels Group's SLC office. I'll basically be getting what I do at the Whittier Center as far as pay; but I'll have more hours, hopefully less stress, and benefits.

I'm going to be moving in with my boyfriend and his roommates for a little while then he and I are going to be getting a place of our own. Then I can bring Odin, my cat, down from Logan to SLC. I would bring him right away but they already have a cat, a pug, and four ferrets. I don't think my little man could survive in that house without being traumatized.

I just thought I'd let you all know what's going on in my life. I'll post at you later.

I'm an Idiot

We had Uprising War this weekend and it was tons of fun. I made new friends, hung out with old friends, and got so drunk that I passed out one night. BUT I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures.

I remembered when I was already about 60 miles from home. I was so mad but with gas prices what they are I wasn't going to add 120 miles and about 2 hours to my drive.

We had yucky weather Thursday and Friday but beautiful weather the rest of the weekend. That yucky weather we had caused me to spend money I wasn't planning on spending.

I have a black upholstery velvet cloak that I wear when it's cold or raining. Keeps me warm. Well it just so happens that where I was sitting on Friday the rain soaked my right shoulder. The cloak, having been washed a couple of times, had lost it's water proofing. It bled black dye all over the shoulder of my bright white chemise. I had to go to the vendor next door and buy a new one so that when I warmed up I wasn't wearing an ugly stained chemise. I wasn't happy at the time but it all worked out for the best. I now have two chemises and will be making at least one more tonight when I get home, after I spend some time cleaning up.

Now you may be thinking, "Wait she said that her chemise was all stained and black and ugly." Well when I got home yesterday I sprayed the chemise with Spray and Wash and then put it in my kitchen sink with some Tide and Clorox. Let that brew for less than ten minutes and I now have a bright white chemise again. I did the same thing with the cherry juice stain on the sleeve of my new chemise and they're both back to the way they should be.

Even with the rain and my chemise getting all yucky I still had a great time. I met Troy's best friend Phil and his lady Jen. I met all the henna girls and they gave me free henna



Of course it's a dragonfly. What else would it be? I know that it's hard to see. The reason that it's so light is because I had already put sunscreen on and it wasn't completely washed off. So the henna had a little bit of a barrier to get through before it could soak into my skin. I just have to get another one next time we're all together.

I think that's all I have to say about this weekend. I'm sure I'm forgetting something important but oh well. Til next time.

Quest

Oh my god I had soooooo much fun this last weekend. After rushing around my house to make sure that I had everything last Friday before I took off 80 miles from home I finally made it down to the park. You know that sentence doesn't make much sense but I'm not going to change it. Y'all just have to figure out what it says.

It was almost dark and I had to set up a tent that I hadn't used in oh 13 years. I almost got it up right. Didn't quite have the tent poles where they needed to be on the ground. So I set it up how I believe/remember it should be, with help, toss my stuff inside and roll up and tie the windows so that I can air it out after being in a bag for 13 years.

It comes time to go to bed and I untie the windows and flip them down and, "Shit!", there goes my tent. Damn thing fell down. The people that were in the tent right by mine, Mairwen and Troy, hear me and come out to help. So we get the tent back up. The same way as before and I say thanks and crawl inside to go to bed. I close the outside door, no problems, and as I get to the bottom of the inner screen door, "Crap!", it falls down again. So here I am in a collapsed tent trying to get the door open so I can get back out and fix it again. Troy and Mairwen graciously get back out of their tent and help me put mine back up AGAIN. Only this time we did it the right way and it didn't fall down again. Yeah!

Okay so tent problem fixed. I get back inside after thanking Troy and Mairwen again, roll out my borrowed sleeping bag, toss my blanket over the top, put on my pj's, and crawl inside. Well FUCK ME! but there's a huge ass rock under my tent and no matter where I move I can't seem to move off of it. Okay so it wasn't really a rock just really hard ground and my 27 yo bones complaining, "HEY we're not 14 anymore!! You can't just sleep on the ground dumb ass!" Well I have no idea what time it was. It was late and dark and I was tired. I tossed and turned and went back down the canyon the next AM to buy myself an air mattress. I slept a whole heck of a lot better the second night. That wasn't however solely due to the air mattress. I had me a human furnace to keep me warm.

His name is Troy. Yes the same Troy previously mentioned. Oh did he make me warm, and curl my toes. 4 times that first night, and if we'd had more preservatives it would have happened even more times while we were out there, but damn it he only brought one. The rest were back in his tent with Mairwen and her kids, it would have been a little odd for him to crawl back into his tent to dig those out of his bag. Troy, honey, if you're reading this I know I said it a lot this weekend but DUMB ASS! Eventually I'll get over it and we can laugh about it. Oh wait that was the next morning.

For those of you reading this that aren't members of the SCA and/or don't know these people I'm talking about you may be getting the wrong idea. You may be saying, "But, wait, I thought that Troy was sharing a tent with Mairwen." Well he was but not because they're a couple. It was because he's nice and Mairwen and her kids needed a place to sleep. Mairwen is married. Troy is(was?) single. The question mark is cause we haven't quite figured out what we are to each other yet. Or at least I haven't.

Now that the explanation of why I'm not a cold hearted man stealing bitch is out of the way, wanna know about Sunday morning? We woke up, heard patters on the top of the tent and thought more fucking rain. Troy looked up and saw it starting to collect. Wait a minute rain doesn't collect. It was snowing. So of course, having only lived through two winters in my life I got excited cause I like snow. I got this big ole grin on my face and started clapping my hands. Troy said he didn't like me anymore :( Just cause I got excited about snow. Big meanie. That's okay I forgive, but I don't forget. At least not till the next time I get a kiss. I managed to get a couple of pictures before it all melted.

This is a shot of the camp from the view of my tent. Then I turned immediately around and snapped this one.

You can't see it but right on the other side of the shrubs at the bottom of the picture is a river. Man that thing was loud. Of course, as always, you can click on the pic to get a larger version.

So everyone else, not the people I was camping with, decided that the event was over a whole day early and we all left. Spent the night at my friend Flora's house and her GD rooster kept crowing the next morning. I tell you if I had more energy I would have killed that little fucker, but I was all warm and happy snuggled up in bed with Troy. He was happy too so I wasn't going anywhere.

We all spent the day at Flora's getting their trailer partially unloaded. Set their pavilion back up so it could dry. Set Troy's tent back up so it could dry. Mine is still rolled up in the trunk of my car. I think I'm just going to throw it away as is has a hole in it and eventually buy a new one. We spent all day visiting and laughing and just having a good time in general. I took Troy home to SLC as I was already planning on going down to get me some Wienerschnitzel. I know y'all think I'm wierd for getting excited over places like JITB and Wienerschnitzel but those of you that do just don't understand.

Anyway, we ended up starting Narnia at like 10:15. I was planning on being home at midnight but I had to stay and see it again. It was just as good as the first time I saw it in the theater. So I didn't get out of his place til 12:30 and still had an hour and a half drive back home. I made it home just after 2 and went to bed after telling Troy that I made it home in one piece. Passed out and then woke up and tossed and turned after a couple of hours cause my bed was lonely. It's amazing how quickly you get used to sharing a bed with someone.

I'm sure that I've forgotten somethings that happened this weekend. That happens when you drink and don't sleep well. I'll post more later if I remember anything else.

On the knitting front nothing to blog about. Just got 2 more rows on Icarus done, and of course already planned for another project.

Catch y'all later.

Wow was that quick!

I turned my car in Wednesday morning at 8:30 to be fixed. They told me it would be done by this afternoon (Friday). Well they called yesterday and told me it was done. Had it for less than 48 hours and it's already fixed. The receptionist called a little early so I went down on my lunch break to pick it up but had to come back later. S'okay tho cuz I was able to get a couple more things fixed by going early and asking for them. They had put pin stripes on the drivers side and it looked funny cuz as an 11YO car they had worn off on the passenger side. Fortunately the owner of the shop was there and when I asked him how long and how much to do the passenger side he said he'd just do it for me no charge. Also the weather striping on the replacement door had been torn and badly glued by the previous owner of the car that it came off of so I was able to get him to put my old doors weather striping on. It looks soo purty now.

Now on to fiber related stuff. You may have noticed that I joined the Icarus Shawl KAL. Here is my progress to date.



Now that yarn looks a lot darker in this picture than it is in real life. I was looking for a soft grey and this was the best I could find. It's much lighter and has a slight green tint to it. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for at the time that I was buying the yarn but I was able to find it at the Snake River Fiber Fair last Sunday.



It's 100% alpaca in a very beautiful soft dove grey. I'm making another shawl with that as soon as I'm done with this one. It's normally $27.50 but because it was Sunday and she didn't want to take it home I was able to get it for less than half price.

I also bought TWO whole fleeces. They're Churro and still need to be washed, teased, and carded before I can even think of spinning them. The first one is just a plain natural white.



Although it doesn't look white in the pic. That's cuz it's still dirty and needs to be cleaned. So you can see the $10 on the card sitting on top of that big bad of dirty fleece. I asked the lady running the booth, "So is that like $10 a pound or what?" She comes back with, "No that's for the whole thing." I'm thinking something must be wrong with it then and ask why. Well it was so cheap because the lady that she got it from didn't know how to skirt her fleeces and had been throwing fleeces away for years. So she went down and taught her how to skirt a fleece and gave the wool to this very nice lady. Well she didn't want it and didn't have to do much work to get it so she sold it, to me, for really cheap.

The other fleece is a really pretty grey and white. She is a spotted sheep named Willow.



Again the picture doesn't really do the fleece any justice. This one was a little more expensive a whole $15. So now I have 2 whole fleeces that I need to clean, tease, and card. That's almost 10 pounds of wool. It's going to take me a while to do it. Unless I can find someone with a drum carder that I can use. That'll save me a few hours.

I also bought some already ready to go corriedale roving from the owner of my LYS who had a booth up there as well.



A really pretty chocolate brown. I've spun a little of it up but have left that at home so no pics yet.

I went up with my friend Tola.

Image removed at Tola's request.

Who I'm sure is going to kill me for posting this pic but that's okay she'll get over it.

While we were in Idaho I made her show me where the local Jack in the Box was. For those of you that didn't grow up with JITB you don't understand what a wondermous thing this was. I had a Monster Taco and an Egg roll and it was almost better than sex. I'm not kidding. My next goal is to find a Weinerschnitzel. There are 2 in SLC. I just might go to one this weekend after I'm done camping. And for all you doubting Thomases out there here's a pic to prove I went to JITB.



While I was at the SRFF I also got me a new t-shirt as the one I was wearing had a lovely stain on the front that I didn't know was there until I put the shirt on.



That's a weaving reference on the shirt. In case you don't know a shuttle is what holds the yarn/thread/fiber that you slide back and forth to make a woven fabric. I also got a new tote bag that I have started using on a daily basis for all the crap that wont fit in my purse.



I was also tempted by this



but ended up not buying it as I can dye some of the fleece that I bought.

*Edited for typos

That's all for today. I'll have more to post after getting back from Quest this weekend.

Utah drivers suck!

Just to share what a "wonderful" day I had on Tuesday. It wasn't even 9 yet when this happened.

For those of you that don't know I work a grave shift job at a local plastics manufacturing warehouse and then a second job at the local community center. I was waiting in the driveway of the first job to turn right to go home and change for my second job. Well this guy pulls up next to and slightly behind me, about even with the back of my door. We were both looking left for an opening and when he saw one he took off. Needless to say I hadn't moved yet and he ran right into me. Yes I'm okay.

His excuse? "I thought you had gone." Helloooo do people not have eyes? Could he not have looked to make sure? No. He just steps on it.

Here are some pics of my car that I took right after it happened. You can click on the picture to see it larger.


A close up of my cracked fender.


A close up of the hole in my door. If you look closely at the bottom of my door you can see a piece of the trim hanging off as well.


A view of my whole driver's side door.


A slightly wider view of part of my fender and the door.

Yes that's me in that oh so lovely pose squatted down next to my car. Okay so now that you've heard the story of what happened let me tell you what happened after.

At first he said he wanted to try to pay for this himself and not go through insurance. I'm fine with that. I'm not a horrible person. I can understand trying to keep it under the radar and not raising his monthly bills. So I spent all morning Tuesday getting quotes. I call him Tuesday afternoon and tell him $957 for the lowest and $1824 for the highest. He says it'll take him a while to come up with the money. I ask how long. A week? A month? Just a general idea. He says he'll have to do some checking and get back to me. I'm cool with that. Told him to let me know that night at work. So when I get there Tuesday night/Wednesday morning he says he wants to go through his insurance. Okay fine. So I call Allstate yesterday and give them the policy number he gave me. They say that it's not a valid policy number. Okay fine. They can't look it up by VIN or license plate number. Only full name and address. So I decide to give him another try. I call and wake him up, not that I feel horrible about that after what I've been going through to try to get my car fixed. He says he'll call and get me a claim number or valid policy number by that night, this morning at 12 AM.

This morning at 8:30 when we're leaving work I ask him if he has a claim number for me. He says I didn't call. So I ask to see his proof of insurance to verify the policy number or get the address. He comes back with, (now this isn't an exact quote but very close to what he said) "You know what? I was looking at my policy and realized I gave you the one that's expired, so I'll have to call my dad and get the information." By this point I'm fuming. He has put off my car being fixed by 2 more days because he's either too lazy or too stupid to get this taken care of. So anyway, he made he mistake of telling me that the policy is in his fathers name and what his fathers name is. I know how to use the internet. I love me some http://www.skipease.com. So I find the only person in the state with his fathers name and call. I get his sister, who I at first thought was his mom. I say, "Is this the so and so residence?" Yes, but he's not home right now. "Do you have a son named (blank) that lives in Logan?" Yes. Then I proceed to tell her what happened and ask if the son is still on the Allstate insurance. She didn't know and took my number to have her mother call me back. Doesn't matter if mom or dad call I had the info I needed. SkipEase provided the address for this person so I called Allstate back and got my claim filed.

I don't even care if he's furious with me. I'll get my car fixed in a more timely manner. If he didn't want his father to know what happened he shouldn't have forced me to call. He should have acted like the adult he wants to be and taken care of this 2 days ago. He should not have forced me to find his father and tell him myself.

So I think I'm done venting now I'll let you all get back to your lives. I'll keep you updated on the saga that is my car repair as I get more info.

They're finally here!

If you're just here for the pretties then scroll down. If you're here for what's going on in my life then keep reading and you can look at the pics later.

I have taken a second job working graves at Icon Health and Fitness in the plastics department. What does that mean you may ask. What it means is that I'm very tired all the time and have hardly any time for knitting. Or updating my blog. It also means that I get very dirty and have to change clothes in the middle of my day so that I don't show up to be a manager looking like some minimum wage schmoe. The reason for this second job you ask. The position at the Whittier Center is only part time and therefore not enough to pay my bills. I'm getting further and further in debt and if I didn't do something I'm afraid I'd have to declare bankruptcy. Also I'd like to have some money for my cruise in August.

What? I didn't tell you about the cruise. I'm pretty sure I did. Hold on a sec let me check back in my archives. Okay I guess I didn't. Well, it's my friends 20th wedding anniversary and she has decided that we all need to take an Alaskan cruise to help her celebrate. When my idiot ex left last August I decided that I'd be able to take the cruise as I wasn't going on a honeymoon just 2 months before. So we're going to Alaska. I'm planning on hopefully finding some qiviut to be spun, or if I can't find the raw fiber then some yarn to knit. I'm also planning on taking a zip line shore excursion. Sounds pretty awesome to me. I am planning on taking a lot of pictures while on the cruise and if possible uploading from some internet cafe or something. That way I don't run out of room on my card.

Oh yeah I've decided to take up spinning. Yet another craft that I prolly won't have time for but you never know unless you give it a try. I haven't actually done any spinning yet but I have washed my fleece and started to tease it. After teasing is combing and THEN spinning. Next time I'm just going to buy it already processed. I figured that I'd have a greater appreciation for the stuff if I had to do it myself once.

Why am I taking up spinning? I already have enough to do in my life right? Well I have joined a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Stole that last sentence from their website. So what does that have to do with spinning? Just wait, be patient I'm getting to that. Anyway, the persona that I have chosen is a late period (closer to 1600) Scot's lass. That means that I can use an spindle spinning wheel and still fit the time period. Woo Hoo! No drop spindle. But wait there's more. The most fabulous owner of my LYS had a woman contact her recently that wants to sell her Ashford Traditional wheel. Why is that so kewl. Well because they sell an attachment that will make it period. So I get a wheel for less than new price and I'll still fit. People won't look at me spinning and sneer.

I'm also doing pretty good on my weight loss. Look to your right near the top of the page. 3lbs week before last and .8lbs last week. I only need to lose .6 more pounds to hit my 10% goal. That means that I get a special prize in front of the whole class. Now if you're smart you can reverse engineer that and figure out close to what my original weight was when I started WW. Just to let you know I had already started losing weight when I joined.

Now without further ado here they are! The previously promised pics! Yeah! Woo Hoo! Everybody jump for joy. I'm still getting used to my new photo storage so please bear with me as I try to figure out sizes.


this is some beautiful Opal Unisolid #11 Sock Yarn that I'm going to use to make pink ribbon socks for my friend that has survived breast cancer. The pattern that I'm going to use is this one. It's a free pattern by Lisa Lloyd.


My Next pair of socks will be with this yarn. It's Mountain Colors Barefoot sock yarn in the Elderberry colorway. This picture doesn't so it justice. It's so much prettier in real life.


This is part of a pair of socks that I am making for my mom. I have completed the first sock since this pic was taken and am at the heel turn on the second one. I did it once but somehow screwed it up so I have frogged the turn and will have to do it again.


This is one of my UFO's. It's a mohair shawl that I am making for myself. I bought the multi colored yarn first and then found another yarn that would go with it. I had to have it. It was just so purty. Only problem was that there was only one skein left. I didn't care I bought it anyway. Almost a year ago. Now I'm finally making something out of it. There is no pattern for the shawl. I'm just making a simple triangle garter stitch shawl. K into the F and B of the first st on every row.


This is a bag waiting for felting. I have again felted since this photo was taken. I bought the yarn on ebay. $30 for 11lbs. It was sold as wool yarn but it's not pure wool. I found this out after trying to felt. Didn't get anywhere near the results I wanted. Oh well.


This is what I have so far on my Rogue hoodie. Doesn't look like much I know but you have to keep in mind that for the size I'm doing it's 196 stitches per round. I have now finally decided that I do not want to put on the kangaroo pocket so I can keep going on it and will hopefully have it done by my cruise in August.


This is a close up of the cabling on one of the sides. Isn't it purty.

That's all there is for today folks. Come back later. I'll try to update more than 6 times a year.

Walk America

I know it's been a long time since I last updated this. I figured since it's been a little over 2 months since my last update I'd better let y'all know what's going on in my life. I was laid off of my last job in January and less then a week later became the center manager for the Whittier Community Center. I have been keeping up with the Weight Watchers and have lost 11.2 lbs to date. I go in again on Saturday for my weigh in.

The main impetus for this post was to let you know that I have signed up for the March of Dimes Walk America coming up here in April and will be looking for sponsorship. If you can please give a donation to this very worthy cause at http://www.walkamerica.org/katrinajoy or sign up to walk and collect donations yourself. The Logan walk is a 5 Mile walk starting at Willow Park on Saturday 4/29 at 10AM.

If you don't currently walk on a regular basis here's a good place to start. It has all kinds of information and ways to keep your walking fun. Also a Message Board for moral support and training ideas.

I have also been knitting of course. I have finally gotten the correct gauge for Rogue and am starting row 13 of the body. I haven't worked on it for about a week as I'm still not sure if I want to put on the kangaroo pocket. I'm thinking yes. Unfortunately that means yet another gauge swatch cause that's knit flat not in the round. Perhaps I'll just forgo the pocket as I'm too durned lazy to do that gauge swatch. I don't know I'll have to see what I feel like when I pick it up again later.

I have done quite a bit more on my mohair shawl. It's hard to gauge the doneness of that project though as I'm not sure if I'm going to knit until I run out of yarn or until it looks big enough. On that one I just keep plugging along and when I'm done I'll know. So you may see the status on that one jump from it's current status of 20% to 100% over night.

I haven't done much more on my socks as my cysts in my fingers have been bugging me lately and those little needles and little yarn hurt to hold. I need to work on those though as I have like 3 more skeins of yarn waiting to become socks and they're calling to me. "Knit me! Knit me!" I can hear them when I sleep. It's really annoying.

Anyway I think that's all for now. A lot I know but that's cause it's been a really long time since I've updated. Oh yeah and here comes the ever forgotten promise of pics as soon as I get that software reloaded on my newly updated PC.