Felting

Well I've finished my bag and it's in the washer right now felting. It's been in for approx 20 min and there is no noticeable difference. I'm hoping that I don't have to do it by hand that would suck.

I did a bad thing. I knitted at my desk between calls today. That's a big no no. Especially since the call center is at less that 90% for quality. Oh well. I wasn't told to stop and several people saw me doing it. Hopefully that means that I'll be able to do more knitting and get my projects done faster. I don't take the bus to work like Miriam so I can't do it on my way in or home. I'm stuck doing it when I get home and staying up late. That makes me a not so pleasant person. I'll post a pic of the bag when I'm done felting it.

I just checked on the bag after about 30 min in the washer and there is now a noticeable difference. BTW it's a front loading washer which everyone told me wouldn't work to felt the bag. I've restarted the cycle as it was about the spin and rinse and the bag's not ready for that.

That's all for tonight as it's after midnight and I have to get some sleep tonight. I'll update tomorrow with pics and if I end up hand felting.

--K

Pictures

Okay here they are the long awaited pictures. I have finished the 2 end pockets on my bag and one of the two side pockets. Here's a pic before I picked up for the side pockets.



Looks kinda like a sweater with arms at this point.

I also bought some patterns from KnitKit yesterday. I hope to have those soon. 3 new bag patterns. Yeah.

I've also started working on washcloths for the house. My mom buys those cheap ones that come like 10 for $1. I've got some really purty cotton yarn for those and I'll be sure to post a pic as soon as it's done prolly this weekend sometime.

Here's a picture just for pictures sake. This was what I saw when I looked out the window at work yesterday around 10:45 am. Isn't it loverly?



--K

Self Challenge and Lies

Okay so I lied again and didn't post pics like I said I would. I went home last night and started knitting and didn't stop till after the first episode of ATHF was over. So obviously I was tired and couldn't stay up any longer. ATHF comes on at 1AM on Adult Swim. So I promise on penalty of death to post pics tonight.

Thanks to Kimi for linking to the Self Challenge I've signed up and will be posting updates on this as they happen. Right now I'm 5'7" and 205lbs. I want to get down to at least 160. Looks like I'm going to the gym after work today.

On the knitting front. I have the main body of the bag to felt done and the two end pockets. I have started on the first side pocket and once I have those done and sewn to the main body I'll just have the i-cord strap to do. A 64" i-cord. I am sooooo looking forward to that.

Also it was a nasty day today weather wise. Rain and snow on the bench. blech. When's it going to be spring. I was wearing shorts on Monday and now I'm back in a sweater and jacket

--K

New Project Idea

Thank you Isela for making me spend even more money on yarn and supplies. After seeing your pda bag I now have to make something similar for my new digital camera. At least it wont take me very long. Perhaps I'll be able to make it with the left overs from my large project bag. I've also decided to make Hot Tamale for my maid of honor Nichole.

We'll have to see when I'm done with that bag if I have enough left for the camera bag. I have completed the main body of the bag and am now working on the end pockets. I think it'll be really cool. I've just changed color when I ran out of the one I was working on so the pockets are going to be uneven stripes. one is like half red half black. The other end will be all black, and then the side pockets will be part black part red. I'm not sure what the i-cord handle will end up being probably both colors as well. I'll post a pic tonight as I'm at work right now and with my new schedule I actually get off at a reasonable hour. 7:45 Mountain time. So come back later tonight or tomorrow to see those pics.

Oh yeah I also modified the pattern so the eyelets are in the right place now. That was a pain in the butt. At least I'll be able to hold the straps the way they're supposed be held. Yeah me. I modified a pattern all by myself. Woot!!

--K

Bad Me

Okay so I lied and didn't get my pics up like I promised last Thursday night. Bad me. Sorry I was really busy with work and knitting. I stayed up late almost every night these last few days knitting.

I got the main body of a bag to be felted done but either I messed up somewhere or the pattern I was following is wrong. The eyelets for the strap are in the wrong places. So I have to rip back to that row (I think it's like 10 rows back) and after doing the math figure out where the eyelets really go. It's a very frustrating thing when you think you're done and then find out that you have at least another 2 hours of work to do.

You should have heard the nasty words coming out of my mouth when I saw this this morning at about 3 AM.

Here's my bag shortly before the eyelet fiasco.
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--K

Frogging and Pictures

Well I ended up throwing away 2 of the sweaters that I bought to recycle. One of the mens sweaters as it was almost lace weight yarn and had been slightly felted so it kept breaking when I was trying to rip it apart.

The white ladies sweater was great and I got it completely torn apart and wrapped into hanks. Unfortunately when I washed it the yarn that I used to tie the hanks came undone and I ended up with a huge mass of tangled yarn.

The red ladies sweater came apart wonderfully as did the green mens sweater. I just have the heather blue ladies sweater to tear apart now.

As for what I'm knitting. I started my first ever sock. Wish me luck. I'll soon be to the heel. I have a lot of socks to knit as my local Michaels was having a sale on Moda Dea yarn for half off the usual price and I bought 12 skeins. I'll post pics when I get home.

I also spent money that I shouldn't have on a new digital camera yesterday. A Fuji E510 that was on sale at Staples for $70 less than BestBuy. As soon as I get the software installed I'll be able to get lots and lots of pics on here. Just like my friend Miriam.

--K

Schedules

This is yet another rant about my job there is knitting stuff at the end so if you don't want to read my bitching about Convergys just skip on down to the knitting stuff.

As you know from my previous post, and above, I work for Convergys. Well they have these things called variable shifts. I have one of these variable shifts. What this means that I can start anywhere from 2 hours earlier to 1 hour later than my "normal" start time. I can also have different days off from week to week.

When they want us to come in at a different than "normal" time or on a different than "normal" day they're supposed to give us three weeks notice. I just found out tonight that next week I have to start at 11am instead of 1 pm! What's the big deal you might ask. Well the big deal is my knitting class is from 9am to 11am on Saturdays. That means that I'll have to ruin my perfect attendance at work to be able to go to my knitting class on the 23rd. Argh!!!! Or I'll have to try to get the day unpaid or at least half of it. I am NOT missing my knitting class. I paid too much money for it and by that day it will be half over.

Enough of my ranting now on to knitting.

I didn't do much knitting today but I did go on a S.E.X. run.

I bought 5 sweaters from the local thrift store and I have already frogged one of them. It's in the washer right now in hanks so that I can hang then up with weights on the bottom to stretch them out and get rid of all the little kinks.

I love the thrift store. The 5 sweaters only cost me $14. 3 womens sweaters, White, red with flecks, and a nice heather blue one, and then 2 mens sweaters once again red, and a dark forest green.

Don't know what I'm going to make with the yarn yet but I'll be sure to post pics when I have them all in balls.

So I'm off to frog land to get the rest of these sweaters torn apart and then maybe a little knitting before bed. Once again it's after 11 here. Good thing I don't have to be in to work until 2:15 tomorrow.

--K

Rating Limits

Before I talk about any more of my knitting I just have to get this off my chest. Be forewarned this is kind of long.

For those of you that don't know me I work for a company called Convergys. We do customer service outsourcing. The project that I work on is DirecTV (DTV). As a DTV call center we of course have monitors on the call floor that we can use to check programming if a customer calls in with a problem. When not being used to check programming they are tuned to the channel of the day. Usually some boring sports programming. Well tonight that channel was Cinemax (AKA Skinemax). Not a big deal earlier in the night but for those of you who do have access to this channel you understand the AKA.

Another thing you need to understand before you can get the whole point of this is that these receivers, the box that translates the signal from your dish to your TV, are pretty darned smart. You can block out specific channels, you can make it so that no Pay Per Views are ordered, and you can block out programs based on content and rating. It's called a rating limit and it's very easy to set up.

We were watching Men In Black which ended about 8:30ish Utah time. Well about 8:35 I'm on a call with a customer and all of a sudden I here a women saying, rather loudly too, "Robert you need to change the channel right now!" Robert is one of the supervisors and sits at a desk with one of the few remotes that control the receivers on the floor. What caused this sudden outburst you might ask. Well scheduled after MIB was a show called Lord of the G-Strings. When I look up at the TV I see a close up of a woman's breast with her hand massaging herself.

Now I wasn't offended by the content of the programming it takes quite a bit to offend me. However the fact that this program was even able to start offends me. You would think that in today's litigious society a company as large as Convergys would know how to cover their own ass and not expect the employees to do it for them. There have been several complaints about the programming that we are sometimes forced to watch and yet nothing has been done about it.

I complained once around X-mas time about a very religious program that was on. I can understand the programming running at that time but to turn it on in a call center was not appropriate. Well when I told the Operations Manager (OM) that was on at the time his response was "Well the program is almost over." Not the right answer.

You can be assured that I am going to the Senior OM tomorrow with this, since I know I wont get a response from any of the Jr. OM's. I also wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there is a sexual harassment suit out of this.

Okay enough of my ranting now on to my knitting.

I have several W'sIP. The baby sweater featured in my previous post. I have been working on a guitar strap for my fiance. Pics to come.

Also a, dare I say it, poncho out of the most fabulous ladder yarn. It's called Melody by the South West Trading Company. They don't have a pic of the color I'm using it's a Rainbow variegated called serendipity. Again pics to come.

Also last but not least a cabled scarf for my mom. That was the second project I started and haven't worked on it in a while. Maybe after I finish the guitar strap I'll work on that some. It's not like she'll need it any time soon now that it's spring, almost spring.

Look to the menu bar to the right to see updates on my W'sIP.

Well it's late, just after 11, and I have knitting to do. I'll post again tomorrow.

New to this Blog Thing

I've never had a blog before. I'm kind of new to this; as if you couldn't tell by the title of this post. If I don't post often enough or if my posts are just no fun please let me know.

As you can probably guess from the title and URL of my blog this will eventually be about my knitting. As soon as I get my scanner hooked up to my pc you'll eventually get to see pictures of me and my work.

Right now there isn't much work to show. I've mostly only done pieces that require nothing more than a rectangle. I am however taking a class from a very lovely young woman named Miriam at a LYS (local yarn store) and am working on my first non-rectangular project. A very cute and very bright pink baby pullover. I'll have the pull over done three weeks from last Sat. 04/09/2005. I will post pictures in progress. In fact here's one now.

My First 5 inches!! Yay me!!