07.12.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 11:05 pm by Shari
Is it bad to pat myself on the back for being all domestic? I’m so proud of myself for getting to together enough to buy the cherries and get the jam all done in the same evening. I even came home after work and had a nap before getting started. When I realized I had fallen asleep, I thought the plan was doomed, but it worked 
I was concerned about the age of the pectin that I had. I don’t even wanna say what the “best used by” date was on the box. But I can tell it’s jelling just fine. I made 6 cups plus a little scraped out of the bottom of the pan. It tastes good too.
I got 3 qts of cherries and used nearly 2 of them. So there’s another qt left. I just ran across a recipe for Pineapple Cherry Jam - hmm… that sounds good too. But then again, just eating them sounds good, so I guess I’ll probably eat them and see what’s available next weekend to do some more jam of some sort. A couple kinds of berries sounds good to me.
The mice apparently missed TWO of the sunflower seeds, not just one. So I decided I’d go ahead and plant the rest of the seeds hoping a few of them will come up. Then I’ll have a planter worth of dwarf sunflowers.
Still plugging along on the 2×2 Sockotta socks. The remaining balls of yarn are about 1/2 dollar sized at the most, and from what I can figure, about 2″ more of knitting to go before I quit. I’m DETERMINED to use all of the yarn on these. Definitely fold down cuffs.
I did some training in the frame shop yesterday and today at JA’s. I thought I was just gonna learn about design and setting up the orders. Umm… apparently not - I did some fit and finish today too. I guess if it means a chance to pick up some additional hours that’s a good thing.
Time to hit the hay. I have a few errands to be run in the morning before working at S. I’m thinking of running to Williamson Hardware to see if I can find some cotton rope, basic wood spring clothes pins and a cherry pitter. They’re good for all kinds of stuff you can’t find anywhere else, so hopefully my luck will hold there.
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07.04.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 9:23 pm by Shari
I’m sure of it. The birds opened the package of sunflower seeds and cracked them open, leaving a pile of the hulls next to the package. So Barb stops by the store one day and gives me a partial package of dwarf sunflower seeds. I know better than to plant them outside. I plant them in peat pots inside and what happens? I go to look at them and find that SOMETHING has neatly dug into the centers of the peatpots and removed the seeds. Okay - if you have a nice suburban home, you might think that mice are squick. I understand that. I don’t like them, but it’s one of the realities of living in an OLD farmhouse in the country. No matter if you try to get rid of them, they do come back 
So, there will be NO sunflowers at our house this year. I am NOT going to try it again.
I didn’t get a chance to pick strawberries for jam this year, but the orchard guy at the corner has cherries so I bought some today. I’ve gotta make sure i have some jars, rings and lids and hopefully in the next couple of days I’ll get more to make some cherry jam. (You didn’t think I wouldn’t have started eating these already, did you?) I found a recipe using Splenda that I think I’ll try. Don’t know why I’m feeling all domestic, but I’ll take advantage of it while I do, I guess.
Yesterday was a paid holiday - WOOT! Got together with Barb and we went gallivanting. Stopped at Village Yarn and Fiber in East Rochester, then popped across the street to Patricia’s Fabrics, Golden Thread, Let’s Bead and the little restaurant for lunch. My only purchase, besides lunch, was the cutest knitted bunny patten from Plymouth Yarns, but saw some great quilt patterns/ideas and was way inspired by the bead store. I fell in love with some Happy Feet yarn (only $6.00/skein, about 190 yds/sk) in color “16″. After ravelling it, though, I’m glad I didn’t get it - didn’t like it’s look so much when it’s all knitted up. They did have a semi-solid green that looked pretty nice too, but heaven knows I have enough sock yarn to keep me busy this summer and then some.
Speaking of socks - the sockotta ones are about 3″ above the heel, so whenever I am ready to stop, I can. I decided I’ll try to persevere and knit as long as I can so I can fold them over. I’m going to learn a 2×2 tubular rib cast off for these too. I have enough yarn for at least another 6-8″ I believe.
The other pair in progress is Paton’s Kroy Strips (Cyan stripes) and are about 4″ down from the top of the cuff. These started with a tubular 1×1 rib cast on and I’ll probably do just 6″ on the leg before starting the heel.
Baby girl is in the area this weekend. Another whirlwind trip, as usual. She arrived at 11 and we met at Panera’s for lunch today. Then I went off to work and she went off to visit friends. She’ll head back “home” tomorrow morning. She brought me a Mother’s Day gift - a cute “mom” mug and some more drink sticks - cran white peach, I think it was. It’s weird adjusting to everything she can’t eat - she’s found that eating gluten free has made her stomach much better. The summer picnic will be interesting - Grandma will be suggesting she eat all kinds of things that she’s found she can’t. I want to be sure she’s got options to eat that day without feeling that she has to explain it all.
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05.15.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting, wls at 12:39 am by Shari
There’s definitely been a change in the call volume at work. Mondays are busy since the centers were closed all weekend, but as the week goes on, the volume goes down.
Therefore, I get to knit!
I remembered the magazine for the sweater. It’s Knit ‘n Style June 2009 and the sweater is the Lacy Summer Cardi - upper right of the 4 shown on that page. I’m doing it in VC Eggplant. I decided that since it’s not a buttoned sweater and I can liberally block, I’d go for the size L and hope it doesn’t look too small. So far it’s looking pretty good. I started it and did a skein worth of knitting and decided I’d made too many goofs and needed to rip it out and restart. Now I’m nearly finished the 3rd skein of yarn and about to the armhole (I’m doing the fronts and back as 1 piece, at least to the armhole). I bought 9 skeins of yarn for this, hoping to have enough to full length sleeves rather than the elbow lengths shown. I think as long as I make the armhole with the first 3 skeins I’ll be fine.
The pattern isn’t too difficult, but somehow I keep managing to mess it up. I’ve gotten much better at detecting and correcting the errors. The best thing I did was to chart the pattern (it’s just written out in the magazine). I do find that there’s just some times that I just gotta put it aside until I can do something on break or lunch and focus just a tad more. I’m thinking, too, that once I know what row I’m on as I start the armholes, I’d better chart the bindoffs and decreases, figure out where I am in the lace for each edge, so I can work on all 3 pieces and keep it all straight.
The other current knitting project is a test knit of socks for Nicola, an acquaintence from Ravelry. She calls them Gin and Tonic because the cable and lace element looks like slices of lemon and lime that you’d have adorning your drink.
Gotta admit that the cable is more fiddly than I enjoy doing. I usually do cables sans cable needles. This one, though, puts 1 stitch on 1 holder, 4 on another holder and has 6th (and 1st) stitch crossing a total of 5 stitches. Not really doable without cn’s, so I have to improvise. I don’t have any cn’s small enough, tapestry needles are too slippery and heavy, toothpicks (at least the ones I have) are too rough and keep grabbing the yarn. Like Goldilocks, I’m sure I’ll find something that will be just right, but in the meantime I’m fighting it.
I love the pattern apart from the cable crossings every 6th row. I’m loving the yarn - Jojoland Melody Superwash. I’m also trying some new to me needles - KA 36″ circs in size 2. I need to file the tips of this just a tiny bit because I’d prefer them a little more pointy for this pattern. I’ve deviated from the pattern a bit in that I’m doing Magic loop rather than working w/ 5 needles. I have a feeling I’m going to deviate when I get to the foot - maybe skipping the actual cable crossings and just using the lacy portions on the top of the foot. I will revert to the pattern as written, though, when I get to the toes.
However, the socks hit timeout yesterday because I dropped some of the damn stitches. I grabbed them, but need to rework a couple of rows of stitches in one section, so need the time and brainpower to fix without having to tink 2 or more rows of both socks.
I tried to get girly this week and do my nails… They looked so nice on Monday when I did them. By Wednesday they were looking worn at many tips and a big old gouge in one. Tomorrow the polish is being taken off and we’ll see if I bother again.
My other girly thing this week was wearing the new necklace I made. This weekend I’m going to demo this necklace at the store. I decided I’d make one for myself in advance and wear it Saturday. I used hex cut beads, using a dark blue w/ ab for the darkest color, a light but w/ ab for the middle color and a crystal for the light. I also did longer strands (remembering how I always felt choked by what others considered a “standard” length - not anymore, but that’s a lesson learned) and not quite as many strands (do I ever follow a pattern as written????)
Anyway, it turned out great and I wore it again today. I need to make a bracelet to go with it, but there’s lots of beads left and I figure that’s a good project to do during the demo. Hmm… I’d better think of doing some earrings to match too. I’ve also done some poring over the bead stash at home, thinking of who needs one in the colors that I have available in appropriate volumes.
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04.16.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts at 2:36 pm by Shari
and I made it!
My metrics look mostly really good. One of them isn’t hitting the goal, but that one has to do with getting in the queue and out on time. I get in on time at the beginning of the shift, but getting out on time is sometimes difficult due to being on a call, so I can’t do a lot to change that one and I’m not going to sweat it.
The end of the season brought a change to the types of calls. Mostly they were problems with getting the e-file done, or payments for e-files. Also people are up against a deadline, getting pretty peeved and need someone/thing to blame, so there’s more frustration and anger that needs to be dealt with. During the rest of the 3 months I only had 2 times that I had to direct a call to the OOP due to a threat of legal action and last night I had 2 in one shift.
Somewhere along the line I started getting random Mac calls, and was doing well with resolving them, I guess, so for nearly 2 wks I got almost exclusively Mac calls. Since there were a couple of common scenarios occurring, I got pretty good at tackling them even though I am not a Mac person at all.
I’ve gotten a little more knitting done of late - working on a cotton tote bag that I thought I’d use for a gift, but now that I’m seeing it come off the needles, I’m thinking I might keep it myself.
Nearly time to head to JA’s to get some time in. I won’t be able to be there tomorrow morning, so I’m putting in the time tonight. And of course, I’ll be there on Saturday, as always.
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03.03.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, wls at 8:01 am by Shari
1 yr ago right now I was under the knife.
It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.
If I had some time today, I’d stop at the doc’s office to weigh myslef, though I’m pretty certain it’s still the same - about 135 down from when I started w/ Dr. D.
Surprise, surprise, I don’t have much to show for myself in the crafting area. I’ve been slogging along on some socks. Yesterday I had my sock in progress in my hand as I shut the car door. I’ll bet you can already guess, right? The needle got slammed in the door. 3 crinkly bends in my formerly beautiful size 1, 32″ addi lace needle. I did straighten it by hand and continued to use it. Feels funny, but workable.
Work continues to keep my busy. We’re only working 5 days a week at the f/t job right now, so I catch whatever overtime I can, but it looks bleak this week. I might only work about 60 hrs this week - that’ll feel rather odd.
OK, so this is isn’t much, but it’s more than the last post. And off I go for today’s pre-work errands.
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12.06.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, Crafts at 9:26 pm by Shari
is here. Click on the play button and go to about 5:50 into the piece to hear about the food bank he works in. I liked this better than the AP article that I posted last week.
I’ve been working on Christmas gifts. Won’t talk too much about them here just in case any of the recipients are reading… I’ve settled on a “same for all” for the nieces and nephews - a fairly small project that I’ll wrap in see thru cellophane and let them choose their own.
I’m also making some reusable giftbags to wrap other gifts in. I’m using this tutorial, and probably making some of my own changes to it. The first one, my test drive, worked out really well. I’ve decided, though, rather than sewing them right sides together, turning and topstitching, I’m going to serge the 4 sides of the 2 square pieces, then do the rest on my regular machine. I think it’ll turn out great. I picked up red and green thread so I can do a 4 thread overlock that’ll be red on one side, green on the other. Should be cute.
The leftovers (I’m starting with fat quarters and there’s scraps) will turn into criss cross coasters (tutorial here) I should get 1 coaster for every 2 bags I do… I’ll probably commit a fat q or two to just coasters though so I can have a couple of sets to show for my efforts. I had bought a set of 20 fqs a while back - all in burgundy/deep green/gold - perfect for Christmas but not Christmas fabrics per se. Got a great price - it was clearance and I was able to get it on double discount day, so I scored 20 fq’s for 7 bucks!
Today I did a birthday party again and we (again) did a sculpey photo frame project. It’s turning into a nice project to do, so I’m going to make one of them up for display. I’m torn between doing it in a very cohesive manner or doing it so each of the tiles shows different ideas of things the kids can do on theirs. Probably the second is better to give them more launching points. I did this frame as a demo and use it to show and share the idea, but we don’t do the antiquing and we use a smaller frame. I also bring in a bunch of other rubber stamps and Wilton Fondant cutters so they can make letters and shapes to layer on their tiles. Our biggest problem is getting them to cut tiles to accurate sizes, so I’m working on ideas to make that happen better. Anyway, it would be good to have one in more kid-friendly colors and the size we’re using to make it more appealing to both parents and kids.
One fun thing that we do when we do this party is to have each of the kids make a bead (or two) so the birthday girl (well, so far it’s been girls) gets to string a bracelet on memory wire and go home w/ her frame as well as a gift that everyone contributed to.
Here’s another fun project with Sculpey that I demo’d awhile ago that gets lots of good comments. And next Saturday I’ll be demo’ing this one, which turned out adorable as well.
Well, it’s time to put some time in on website work so I can pay a bill or two this month.
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10.31.08
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 11:19 am by Shari
It’s over 2 wks since I last blogged. Why? Dunno…
I’m still working on my blue marl encore pink wrap cardigan (that doesn’t sound like it makes sense, does it?)
I’m still working too much for too little.
I taught a 2 wk learn to knit class at the Webster Public Library. There were several requests for a crochet class there, so that might come up sometime.
I’ve applied for more jobs - and have heard nothing. For the most part, the applications seem to have the indication that it’s gone into an “active” file, ie, “Forgetaboutit - we’re not interested in you”
They’ve mentioned, yet again, that I would be good at one of the full-time positions at Jo-Ann’s. I’m beginning to entertain the thought.
I haven’t been walking enough, but miraculously the scale is finally beginning to move a little bit again.
I’ve been spending too much time on Ravelry, thinking about all the projects I should be doing and not getting much done on any of them
3 hrs til I leave for work - maybe I should go do some of that knitting right now!
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10.04.08
Posted in Crochet, Crafts, knitting at 6:35 pm by Shari
Finally getting around to posting pictures of these long done projects:
My patriotic socks:
A series of hats:
And not so long finished, a candy corn trick-or-treat bag:
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08.31.08
Posted in daily life stuff, Crochet, Crafts, knitting at 9:47 pm by Shari
Well, not really…
About 2 wks ago, Amber started acting a little lazy. I didn’t think much of it for the first days. So she wasn’t eating much…well, not at all. And when I tried to go for a walk with her, she was hanging back rather than trotting ahead. Then she STOPPED eating. This is the dog that Chuck has nicknamed “Hoover” for how quickly she inhales her food. Even with lots of treats mixed in, she wasn’t eating… Even when I tried to put her favorite food in her mouth for her, she wasn’t eating. So, that Friday we went to the vet. The possibilities were heartworm (test was negative), congestive heart failure (EKG was fine), something in her stomach (the x-ray looked fine), liver infection or disease (can’t quite tell - liver looks okay in the x-ray but that didn’t rule anything out, and her serum looked too yellow). So, $400 later, we went home with an antibiotic in case it was a liver infection and to wait for the blood work results. The next day (Saturday) I worked all day. Chuck was home and heard someone at the door, but thinking it was someone else, didn’t go to the door. Sunday evening I happened to check the mail on the off chance it hadn’t been checked the day before. There’s a bottle of medicine and a note from the vet (the visitor the day before). Turns out she has anemia, and as we check further, it’s probably an auto-immune response. The medicine is Prednisone - a dose 8x higher (!!!) than she was on when she was younger. Argh! But, she’s finally eating again and tonight she actually went for a walk with me - about 1.5 miles, and was still trotting just ahead of me when we got home. It’s such a relief to see her eating and walking… Now we just have to deal with her being on the prednisone, hopefully get that ramped down sooner rather than later.
One fun thing last weekend was that I finally got to see the baby girl. We got a couple of pics of us together, but she’s holding them hostage in her camera, afraid I’ll post them :( She’s back in grad school now, has a place to live and is looking for work down there. She’s also talking about going into nursing once she gets this masters degree done.
I’ve been hoping against hope to hear good news from my job interview (it was just over 2 wks ago) and have procrastinated on re-working my resume. It’s time to bite the bullet and get that done. I suspect that whatever decision was made, I wasn’t selected for the job and I’m a little chicken to call to confirm that. So I HAVE to kick butt and launch a serious job search. I did get some health insurance lined up this last week - it’s terrible insurance, but it’s coverage that gives “creditable coverage” so when I get something else, our pre-existing conditions hopefully won’t be a problem. In the meantime, though, we have to self-pay our scrips so I’ve been researching programs to get help with that. The fun of unemployment… or I should say, hubby’s unemployment.
I have done at least a little crafting. I finished my swirly crochet headband, sewed another one, sewed a “rag quilt” style pillow cover, finished my first patriotic sock and started the second, and got some lockerhooking done. And some knitted samples for the store. Wow… sounds like I’ve actually accomplished something!
Chuck thinks it sucks, but despite the “holiday” I am working tomorrow. So, it’s time to head to bed so I’m up and at ‘em in the morning.
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06.30.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, Crafts, knitting, wls at 8:49 pm by Shari
… that bike I was just on? I think I managed close to a mile tonight, in 2 little jaunts down the road a bit and back. I can’t believe I was afraid to get on the darn thing! I made Chuck watch me just in case I fell or something. So I survived, though I was WHIPPED when I got back. I wasn’t just whipped, but my butt is very sore too. This is definitely something I need to work up to a bit more and then make it part of my exercise plan. A new seat is probably not too far in the future as well. Chuck need a new seat too, and would like to swap out the handle bars on his bike so he’s not leaning so far forward and putting so much pressure on his hands/wrists.
Yesterday I went walking on the Erie Canal for a bit. Not too far - started at the parking lot of the Box Factory and headed east toward the 31F bridge. Along the way I saw a sign for Thomas Creek Wetlands but I kept walking… a bit further down the path, I saw what I was guessing was the other end of a path through that area. Sure enough, when I followed it, it was a path through the wetlands. From the villages website:
THOMAS CREEK WETLANDS WALK
- Liftbridge Lane East
This 13-acre recreation and historical site encompasses both Thomas Creek and Irondequoit Creek - the once provided water for farming, and power for grain and lumber mills. The Wetlands Walk features a connection trail, elevated boardwalk, observation platform and interpretive signage.
The elevated boardwalk was nice… I didn’t so up on the platform, nor did I spend time reading the signage. I figured I’d save that for the next time I head over there in 2 wks.
Another place someone told me about today is found at the Friends of Webster Trails site. Laura mentioned that her husband really likes riding on the Gosnell trails. I’d already been told about trying the Whiting Road trails, so now I have more to explore. It sounds like the family walks/hikes on the 3rd Sundays of the month might be nice to do sometimes too.
I’ve made some progress on that sweater I mentioned recently. The bottom band is applied the whole way around, the shoulders are joined (3 needle bind off) and all the existing ends are woven in. We decided at sit ‘n knit today how far up I should sew the side seams and the general thought is I can probably go without adding sleeves. So tomorrow I’ll try to get the seams sewn and those last 4 ends worked in and see how it looks. With a little luck it’ll be great like that and I’ll be able to wear it next week to sit ‘n knit.
I also whipped up a little crochet headband, after talking to Eidolons (from Ravelry, also an IRL friend) about my hair dilemma. I want to grow it out at least a bit so I can walk into a salon and say “Do whatever you think will work!” I know the current length won’t lend itself to much but my current style, but letting it grow out is hell! So I need some way to hold it out of my face, at least sometimes. Those plastic headbands just make the ends stick out, and an even width tubular one makes the back flip up too much, so this is graduated from skinny under the back hair to wider at the top. I’ll add a little elastic and see how it works and then improve from there (if, indeed it’s plausible to continue in this direction at all).
Tomorrow is probably going to be a long day. I have work, as usual, and then a party that I’m doing from 4:30 til 6:30 and from there I’ll go to sit ‘n knit at Louise’s. The party should be fun - a smallish group of just 6. It’s a project I’ve done myself before, but not with a group of kids. We’re making sculpey clay tiles to apply to wooden frames. They’ll texturize them with stamps and the pat the tops with brilliance ink pads. My only real concern is if there’s enough time/space for baking all the tiles we’ll be making. My plan, though, is to start sliding them into the oven as soon as some are done so they get staggered. That and taking an extra toaster oven to work.
So I’d better finish getting myself together for tomorrow - find some of my own stamps to take, make sure the toaster oven is ready to go, knitting bag ready for the evening and on to get a good night’s rest.
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