Almost Done

Blocked, unpinned, just waiting for the back to dry the rest of the way...then on to the zipper.

I have nothing to say about this picture

Really, what would I say? The jockeys say it all.

My Favorite Vacation Story

Kahlo is running a good contest over at her blog, so I decided to roll out one of my favorite "vacation" stories. You will understand why "vacation" is in quotes soon.

My great grandmother died, and my parents, myself, and two brothers all drove down to PA to bring some furniture back. It was winter, and we all loaded into the surburban for the drive from RI. At some point it started snowing. Then it snowed more. Then traffic kind of...stopped. In the middle of New York, and we were under the Tapenzee Bridge. Or the GW Bridge, I forget. It was apparently snowing sooooo hard that the interstate closed. So my parents, brothers and myself, along with miles upon miles of other people spent the night and most of the next day sleeping in the car and hanging out on the highway. And believe it or not, people were really nice!! There was a bread truck and the driver went around passing out bread to anyone who wanted it, people were doing shuttle runs up to some ghetto store and buying coffee by the jugful to pass out, water and juice boxes showed up from somewhere, apparently liquor was making the rounds as well. We got to play in "traffic", in the snow. The best part, one of the reeeeeally big trucks was letting all the kids come and sit in the cab and honk the horn and pretend to drive a big rig!

As far as vacations go, it was a really cool one. Which was pretty good, cause it was just supposed to be a family visit to pick up furniture and not have very much fun at all.

A Break from Insanity...

I feel quite remiss lately, having abandoned my blog for so long. I've done some bloggy-pondering, some knitting, some goal setting, some traveling, and lots of new things at my new job. In order to feel more organized, I will tackle this rather overdue post in lists.

1. New Job: wonderful, confusing, hard, looooong. Eight days of orientation, then one week of work. I will only say for the sake of my own and my jobs privacy that I am working as a Social Worker with students in a day treatment program, it is a wonderful group of people who really love what they do, and I could stay here for a very long time. Drawbacks? MANY hours spent doing paperwork (which I will get faster as I learn) and learning-by-stumbling the complex computerized documentation system. I am learning a lot about my own learning style as a professional.

2. New Job Part Two: after my first week of work, I had the privilege of attending a 35 hour, week long training seminar on neurodevelopmental cognition. Interesting? yes!! It filled in a large gap I had in my own knowledge base (you know, being a social worker and not a teacher) and will be an invaluable tool for me as a professional. I can't begin to think of all the ways this will help me help my students more. Drawback: JUST as I was getting going in my new digs, bam!! A week out of the office.

3. Traveling: Last weekend, the northern portion of my bro and sis in law's wedding reception, which started last fall in Georgia. This was the party for the northern folks, and a great excuse to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, neices and nephews who we see so rarely. This weekend, a wedding for friends in New York, and again a time to see much missed family. And I accidentally fell in love with my next new toy. Oops.

4. Finished knitting: Urban Aran is off the needles!!!!!!!!!! a few last ends to weave in, then blocking, then sew in the zipper (which I had to order from a sewing store in Illinois or something). Need a wacky zipper? The Zipper Connection is great and has a wonderful selection, which as I discovered, is quite hard to come by.

5. The Goal Setting: I have recently fallen in love with a couple new sweaters:

This one here if from the fall interweave knits, and is a cardigan with an AMAZING cable around the yoke. I will skip the high ribbing and maybe do a turned hem , or check out one of the knitting on the edge books and see if I like anything better. This MIGHT be the sweater for the sea-green cashmere from the last post, but the gauge might be too small for the yarn.
And my goal sweater...ohhhhhhhhhh...oh wow, I'm just overwhelmed by this sweater!!! I will make the sleeves long (cause I live in Maine) and the neck higher, maybe by 2 inches, still low but not nipple low. But guess what...I don't want to change the color at all!!!!!

So before I tackle this one, I'll be taking a fair isle class at the local yarrrrrn shop. Cause this is not a learning sweater!!

6. The bloggy-pondering: I've been tossing around the idea of re-designing the layout and colors and stuff. Make it a bit more classy and less cutsie. It might take a while though, so don't check back tomorow hoping for a new look ; )