05.15.09
Posted in knitting at 8:32 pm by Shari
The socks with the fiddly cable… got frogged to the ribbing today. I’m beginning to be sorry I was doing them both at the same time - would have only frogged 1/2 as much knitting. Oh, well - the major mistake I was making causing the cables to come too frequently, so in the big picture, I’ll be doing fewer fiddly cable crossings than the path I was on.
Onward ho… Gotta get a repeat or two done while I remember what’s wrong so I can read the knitting going forward (and find a substitute for tiny cable needles)
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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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04.29.09
Posted in wls at 11:52 pm by Shari
The last meeting to let folks know if they were staying or going are done, so I can officially say that I’m staying on as an off-season agent - doing the same job, just a much smaller group of folks doing it. At the same time, we get to move. We’ve been in a leased area, away from the main location, for the tax season so they could ramp up and have enough room. But that area is far too large for the off-season, so we go back to the company’s main site for the next however many months. That will happen this week. The other location is just 1/10th of a mile further from home, which when you are talking about 26.3 and 26.4 miles, is nothing.
Fortunately the Y is nearly on the way to the new-to-me site, so the other step I took this week is still a good one. I signed up at the Y (one of the ones close to downtown) so that I could start taking water aerobics classes. I had gone last week to get all the info on signing up, but didn’t do it until the first class I could attend. That was yesterday. Today I’m only a little bit sore - surprising because we did a lot of arm stuff that I expected to make my shoulders very sore.
I’ve been working on a sweater in Vanna’s Choice purple yarn. It’s from… umm… damn, the magazine’s in the car and I’m not going out to get it. Anyway, I had done 2 full repeats (12 rows, just over 200 sts) , into the 3rd when I decided that I had to restart it. I had decided to do the fronts and back as 1 piece - no big deal - and to decrease 1 stitch at the edges - the one that would disappear in a selvedge. Well, I kept finding myself off a stitch here or there, and thinking I had corrected it, but i finally decided enough was enough, it was time to go back to the beginning, re-start the lace and try to keep a closer eye on it for awhile. Derrick thought I was nuts when he saw me rip it all out, but I know myself and I’ll be happier having a more solid start on it.
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04.21.09
Posted in wls at 8:57 pm by Shari
So it looks like I have gotten what I want, but it’s “confidential”. Since nobody from there knows about here, I think I’m safe saying that I know where I’ll be working after the tax season finishes winding down. I’ll leave it at that for the moment.
I promised myself that if this came to pass, and since I’d be on a regular schedule that dovetailed perfectly with the Y’s aquafit classes, I would re-join the Y and go back to taking water aerobics classes. To that end, I stopped this morning on the way to work at the Y and got info on joining. The joining fee is exactly what my “health dollars” will reimburse me for. I also stopped tonight on the way home and bought a new bathing suit. Found something that actually looks pretty good on me and hides the saggy skin of the gut and upper thighs. Doesn’t is sound like everything is aligning for me to do this?
So Monday morning I’ll arrive at the Y about 3o minutes before class, routing number and cc in hand to join and go to my first class. I am really looking forward to this because I KNOW that I love the classes, I know it’ll get me moving away from the plateau I’ve been on for way too long and I’ll feel so much more energetic after the classes. There’s plenty of time after class to get myself together before work with a bit of time to spare, so even if our workplace moves, it’ll continue to work. Win, win, win!
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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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04.07.09
Posted in wls at 10:46 am by Shari
… I’ve accomplished next to nothing, as long as we’re not counting the hours put in at work.
I’m continuing the f/t job but switched my hours for the last 2 wks of the season. I’m working 3 - close, meaning that if there’s calls in the queue at 12, you stay until all the calls in the queue have been handled, and finish the last call you’re on. Only 2 days so far, but I got done at 12:15 the first night and 12:45 the second. Last night I had 3 team leads over my shoulder telling me how to resolve the problem I was dealing with. Think they were anxious to have all calls completed? Anyway, I KNOW it’ll be different as these 2 weeks progress - getting later and later. As I said when I volunteered for the change though - you can do almost anything you need to if you know it’s only for 2 weeks.
I have some knitting and crochet done, but it’s all little samples for classes at JA’s. Scott, one of my coaches at the f/t job, assures me I’ll get lots of knitting time during the off season. Of course, that assumes I actually make the off season team. That’s yet to be revealed. I heard a rumor that we’d know yesterday, but I’ve also heard that it’ll be next week, so I’m still waiting and not assuming the worst yet.
Stupid weather - a couple of inches of snow last night. It’s within my general “we’ll get a storm during the 2 wks after my birthday” guideline. Hopefully it’ll be the last of it for the season?
One cool thing that happened, though… I got an employee of the month award for February (and found out on April Fool’s day)! It’s different from the earlier recognitions because this one is from the company, not the team. The big deal is that you get privileged parking if you work at the main site since parking there is pretty scarce. That doesn’t impact me since I don’t work at that site, but it’s still pretty cool to have that recognition. I guess there’s a recognition dinner somewhere along the line that I’ll be invited to as well - though with my schedule, I probably won’t be able to go. Oh, well… my name was recognized and it’s fodder for my resume for an internal transfer if/when I need to take that step.
So now that I’ve pretty much blown the entire morning off, it’s time to get ready to go out into the white world.
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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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02.20.09
Posted in daily life stuff at 12:51 am by Shari
I really did mean to get to blogging before this….
…and I really, really don’t have time to update my blog right now….
…but I really, really, really want to say I’m still alive and kicking…
…and working 75 hrs a week the last few weeks.
At least I’ll like the paycheck that I’ll get tomorrow in a few hours.
I promise I’ll get back with more sometime! (but I won’t promise it’ll be soon)
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12.28.08
Posted in daily life stuff at 9:23 am by Shari
Oh, my gosh… last night was the first time EVER that I could go shopping with the baby girl, we could both pick out lots of clothes IN THE SAME STORE, the go to the dressing rooms and keep trying things on, show them to each other and decide if we should get them or not. How fun is that?
Normally, it would be her taking me along and I’d watch her try stuff on, or very rarely, I’d go to one of the few plus size stores and she’d have to watch me try stuff. Now that I’m in XL’s, I can shop in some of the same stores as she does!
And, I got a top to wear for the new job!
So Christmas - It was pretty quiet. We went to Mom’s and saw the baby girl there. We also visited w/ my younger brother, Brian, and his family. Went to church on Christmas eve, went to Brian’s for b-fast on Christmas day and had dinner at Mom’s place. Mom and Shaun seemed pleased with the things I made them. I did take pics of what I did for mom, but haven’t taken them off the camera yet, so that’ll be another post.
The new job starts tomorrow. I’m trying to have low expectations. I’m anxious, though, about what it’ll be like, what the environment will be like, if I’ll be able to find a place to walk during lunch, etc. For the next couple of weeks I’ll be working there days and then 3-4 evenings and Saturdays and probably some Sunday’s at JA’s. Once I know how they do the scheduling at Sutherland, I’ll have to start working up new schedules at JA’s to work with the Sutherland schedule. It’ll be an exhausting few months, for sure.
Time for a shift at JA’s today so I can have next Saturday off.
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12.17.08
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting, wls at 4:24 pm by Shari
It’s almost Christmas - a week from today we’ll be getting ready for church about now. Am I ready? NOPE… but I’m getting there. Lots of knitting I want to get done, but there’s lots done too. I have a short term goal of Sunday for all of Chuck’s family - take it all to Mary then and she can distribute for us during the week. Then part of my family isn’t until the 3rd of January, so I have some breathing space (despite the news below that starts 12/29)
I was just upstairs trying on some of the many clothes I’ve gotten from friends recently. Yesterday I came home with 2 black trash bags of clothes. Unfortunately a bunch of the tops are short sleeves and big enough to be questionable as to whether or not I should keep them for myself right now or not. Still, there’s a number of tops that will be great for right now. Also a couple of prs of slacks that looks like they’ll work. Then there’s the bags I got a couple of months ago that I wasn’t quite able to wear at the time and they’re mostly looking pretty good right now.
One reason I need to go through clothes right now is to sort out how many “business casual” outfits I can come up with since I just got a f/t job and that’s the dress code. Most of what I’ve been wearing is too big or jeans, so not appropriate. Much of what I just went through is dresses and/or too light weight for the season. The jumpers are fine, but I know myself and know I’ll want to mix it up with slacks as well. I have a pair of black cords that are too big but mint condition, so I’ll take them in a bit so they work for me. And the pair or two of slacks from yesterday’s haul. I’ll go with what I have for the moment, see what the atmosphere is when I get there and sort out what else I need to do to update the closet.
It was good to find that the clothes that didn’t fit are now fitting. My weight hasn’t wavered much these last couple of months, but everyone keeps telling me I look like I’m losing - I guess it’s moving around or something. Just today I FINALLY saw a shift in the scale, so maybe I’ve started to shift past a plateau.
So the job - it’s doing tech support for Turbo Tax users at Sutherland. Money’s not great, but it’ll be consistent. I totally feel like I can do the tech support/customer service role. I’m not super crazy about the idea of some mandatory 6 day work weeks, some weeks of mandatory 10 hr days, blackout weeks that include a weekend that I was hoping to get away to visit the baby girl and the fact that the schedules will include times anywhere from 8am until midnight, in the city, 27 miles from my house. But hey, it’s a job and that’s important.
Tonight is support group - always a good night for me. I’m hoping the schedule on the new job isn’t going to interfere with that too much. There’s so much uncertain until I get through the 2.5 wk training period and see the first schedules, but I’m going to make it work. Apparently the schedule will change, but have some consistency in several week blocks, so even if one month is out, hopefully the next will be fine. Can’t sweat it though.
Wish me luck!
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