Yarn Fumes

I've been stressed out recently from work and weird mood swings. So my form of therapy? Yarn shopping! I traveled up to Large Marge's Yarn Shop up off of 40 East in the Normandy plaza (this much detail is because my GPS lies about where it is). Large Marge is a wonderful lady who just opened the store in place of the Celtic Knot, which closed a little while back. She's still getting her yarn stock in, but the atmosphere is laid back. There's lots of places to sit and relax and knit. There's also movie night! The 21st is the first one, I'm going to try to attend, they are watching The Princess Bride.

I looked around and saw the Deluxe Worsted Yarn by Universal Yarn (in Caribbean Sea). The colors were vibrant and drew my eye and the price was pretty good. I debated about what to make with it. I finally settled on making Amused (definitely click the link, it's a very nice pattern), even though that used a superwash wool. Here is the yarn I bought, unfortunately, my camera does not do it justice. It is not this blue. It is more of a dark-ish blue/green.


So, I couldn't resist the sock yarn either. I'm a sucker for all things sock yarn. Do I actually make that many socks? No, not really, but I aspire to. I think my goal of learning to make two socks at a time, will help that. I feel kind of wussy changing from DPNs, because I really like using DPNs, but I have real problems with "second sock-itis." Oh and here is the yarn, it's
It's Tubular x2 by Scarlett Fleece (in Raisin Berry).


I always find yarn shopping kind of relaxing. So I like to think it helped after my recent sleep issues.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Knitting

I have made slow but steady progress on some of my knitting projects. I've worked some on the Monkey Socks, the Central Park Hoodie and the hat part of the 5-hour hat and gaiter.

Over Christmas I actually ended up making 3 of the quick hats from the hat/gaiter pattern. I made one for my niece, my mother and sister. I think they all liked them. After we got back I decided to make one for myself. I'm making mine a little different, I added a ponytail hole. So basically after the brim I knit back and forth for a few rows instead of around, then started back in the round after I thought it was big enough. I looked through my meager quantity of buttons and found a neat black and white button of a face. So I will add that for when I wear my hair down or it's short. I think it should be interesting. I don't have a picture of my modifications, but here is what the rest of it will look like:


The Central Park Hoodie is moving along. I really enjoy working on it. For the first time I actually don't mind purling. It's a 10 row pattern with a cable on row 3, so it's short enough to keep interesting. I only have 2" left on the armholes for the back, then I start the shoulder shaping. I plan on knitting both fronts at the same time, also the sleeves. Hopefully that will be a little quicker, if a smidge more confusing. Here's what it looks like so far:


Finally, the Monkey Socks. I completed a whole sock and am about 3 repeats into the leg of the second. I have such a hard time with second socks. Motivation to knit them is low, low. I feel like a wus, but I'm going to learn to knit two socks at once. There are a couple techniques I can use. Anywho, here's the finished sock, no pictures of the started second one. None of these pictures do any justice for the colors of this sock. It looks much more vibrant in real life.


Hopefully, I will keep the slow and steady knitting pace, though I would prefer if I could pick it up some. I swear, at some point the knit meter will get updated, I really like knowing how many yards of yarn I've knit.

So, how about the rest of my trip? It's been a week since I got back, I should probably write about it, since the longer I wait, the more I'll forget. Here is the link to all the pictures, take a look: http://picasaweb.google.com/smilingkid/NewMexico#

On Friday I went to deal with some work stuff. After getting lost, par for the course, I made it to my destination. I learned a whole bunch of interesting things being worked on. I liked the group and the work. After this work bit, I was done and got to hang out with my uncle, his wife, her kids and my cousin. Before dinner my cousin and I drove up to the base of the Tram for Sandia Peak. Here's one of the views:


For dinner we went to Garduno's, my uncle's favorite. They have guys who come around and sing, decent food also.

Saturday we took a trip to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is an artsy type of town. Lots of street vendors and cute shops. I didn't end up buying anything, but it was fun to look at. It was a really pretty day. Though I guess all the days were pretty when I was in New Mexico. Santa Fe is north, as evidence by the snow:


There was also this interesting lady, I believe she was outside of a church:


After Santa Fe, we went home and hung out. We had spaghetti and garlic bread. Watched the Notebook, which was sad. But before all of that, I got to see why Sandia, is called Sandia. Apparently, sandia means watermelon in Spanish. The mountains were named such because of the pink color they get at sunset. Everyone had mentioned it, but until you see it, it's hard to believe. So here is a picture, thought it's a smidge more orange than it actually was.

Wish I had a camera

So the Emmy girl and I went for a walk this morning. After overcoming inertia we went down to the Nature Preserve right near our house. The Nature Preserve has ponds and beavers and ducks and all sorts of nature-y type things.

It's been pretty cold lately, so the smaller ponds were frozen, and the large Duck Pond was mostly frozen. There was some snow and ice, it was a really nice temp for a walk too. On the way back I walked down to the water's edge. It turns out the ice could hold Emmy's weight. Of course I didn't let her go any further than the length of her leash. I played a little cracking the ice near the shore. We proceeded further to find two Canadian Geese standing in the middle of the pond. That was pretty cool and I really wish I had a camera. Then I saw about 10 ducks trying to find a place to land that wasn't iced over. They finally found a spot and they were all noisy talking to each other.

Overall, it was a good walk. Very nice, sometimes I appreciate this area more than other times.

PS

Don't believe the knit meter over there to the right, it lies. I've actually knit a bit since the beginning of the year (I've added to the Central Park Hoodie, Monkey Socks and the "hat"). I just need to weigh and measure to fix it.

Sleepless

I can't turn off my brain, which in turn means I can't sleep. I really hate when this happens, but at least it's Friday and I don't have to be up tomorrow.

I think that I'm not exactly in a place where I can deal with the frustration at my job. I really like my office, the work and the people. I just don't think I want to be a manager. It seems that there is wave after wave of frustration. I haven't learned to let it roll off, but I also don't know if that's what I should do.

I can definitely see how some managers stop caring, but I don't really think that's a solution. I worry if our folks are happy, what we can do to keep them happy, how not to burn them out. All this worry and I know that eventually it won't matter. It's frustrating. Lots people try to work our people into the ground, because of course they should be able to do everything, quicker and with a smile on their faces. Yeah, they love their work, but there's only so many REALLY important things. Frustrating.

So, what would I be doing instead? Who knows, laying on my couch being a lazy bum? That sounds nice. Not sure the hubby would appreciate that much.

Maybe tomorrow I will feel completely better, after some sleep.

Guilt Feelings

So, it's early Sunday morning (0543) here in Albuquerque. Today I leave, my flight is at 0830. I'm just waiting for folks to wake. I'll add more pictures and info about the trip to Santa Fe when I get back home.

I feel kind of guilty. I've decided that if I would be taking someone's room (the room in which they regularly sleep), I will just try to stay in a hotel. I spent last night at my Uncle's house and ended up kicking his step-daughter out of her room. I feel bad for this fact since the hotel I was in was really close to their house. I didn't realize that the step-son was still at home while going to college. I did know this fact yesterday, but I thought they would be sharing a room (stepson and stepdaughter), but she's sleeping on the couch instead.

Give me an air mattress, pullout couch or a hotel, but no more taking someone's room.