It takes Four

Hi Flan,
My internet is getting turned off today or tomorrow, so this could be the last MN post. So while at Zales today I learned that it takes four sales associates to look at a customer's hand. I was not aware of this prior to today. I was standing at the display counter, in front of the one object that The Mommy has requested (and when The Mommy requests, then The Requestee better comply) and waited.... and waited.... and waited.... Once I was finally spotted by one of the sales associates I thought "ah, now I can relax and enjoy the sparklies whilst having some assistance". Oh how wrong I was. She saw me and then kept looking at the customer's hand. The same hand that three other sales associates were also looking at. I had to ask someone for help.
In my experience mall sales people are the most notorious piranhas on the mall world. They wait for you, smiling their beguiling smiles, luring you in with things that sparkle and glitter, all the while planning their wallet-gouging attack. This is what I was expecting. I was waiting for one of the four black coated drones to smell fresh blood in the water. But no! They were all entranced with the other lady's hand. They couldn't be bothered with me. Never ever ever again. Ever.
On the knitting front... It took slitting only two packed boxes to locate one ball of yarn and needles needed for tomorrow's Yarnover. I have managed to cast on an as yet undetermined number of sts. Hopefully, by tomorrow, there will be the required number of sts and the required 12 rows completed. My ten minute break between 50 minute cleaning binge is up.
"Break time's over, back on your heads"

Vacations are Tough

Hey-
So I sat on the plane looking at my yarn today. Not knitting, just looking. I had been working on the DOL blanket, the pink and green one I showed you at dinner. The border isn't right and I really want the sweater to work out, so perhaps I'll try and liberate some needles and start that one first. I need to sit down and do a different cast on, starting with the pink and then figure out what I'm going to do with the green.
Now that I'm home and have surveyed the scene I'm wondering the feasability of Saturday's upcoming day o' yarn. I would love to go, but am not sure at all if that is going to happen. It would kind of suck to be out the money, but, when it comes to moving, the push always meets the shove and this time is no different. The Hubby has done and ok job of getting his stuff in order. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to include much of the household stuff. I'm alarmed but not freaked (yet). I've put him to bed for the night an I think that I'll start on some of the other stuff so as to better have a handle on the situation.
Thanks for dinner. It was nice to see you. The need to sleep at your house on Sunday after we "move out" is becoming an ever likelier senario. In spite of all that, the new yarn still rocks.

Stress Relief

Work stress is consuming me - I know you understand. This week has involved seating 1200 people, which is hectic at best, and time consuming beyond all reason. As a result of that and several late nights, I'm officially behind on my sockapalooza socks, which are supposed to be sent May 2.

What with a work event for 1200 on May 3, I think I'll be a little late. Time to e-mail the coordinator so she can pass an anonymous message for me.

Of course, I did cheat on my sockapalooza socks a little (They are so pretty I want to keep them, but that's another story). My hands have been hurting with the size 1 needles, so I cast on for a Clapotis in the variegated bamboo yarn my mom got me for Christmas which hopefully will go well with my dress for Erik's wedding. I'll show you tonight when I see you for dinner.

Add to that the fact that I haven't finished my swatches for Yarnover (ACK) on Saturday, and it's a little nuts. I'm glad you had the tour of yarn stores (and Dale of Norway!), and found new needles and new yarn.

(Oh, by the way we sold your bike. Also the bed. It didn't even take that long.)

So we shall see you this evening, before you read this post, for your pre-moving dinner and tour of my apartment. Nice short tour, since it is a studio!

Off to seat another hundred or so people.

Success!

So I finally got everything to work, though I started this post about 4 hours ago, so we'll see how this goes. I found the most delightful needles today! Addi Turbo makes a "naturale" line w/ wooden tips! They were discovered at yarn store #5 (yarn store #6 chooses not to be open on Mondays and Tuesdays, it might have to wait until the trip at Christmas). The Grandma was in the Mini watching the world go by as I ran around. The needles are the perfect combo, a marriage of my love of wooden needles with the happy connect-y bits of the AddiTurbos. Naturally, the gauge is off.
I'm starting my first ever Dale o' Norway patterns. I decided to start with the blanket of the blanket and sweater combo. I have smaller sized needles, but, naturally, they are in MN where I am not. So this afternoon I got to help The Mommy mark where her pants need to be shortened and had to do math so I would have proper gauge. It's a beautiful spring green border on a pink blanket and the sweater will be green and pink stripes. My first ever picot edge. Somehow this seems like a milestone. Enough rambling for now. Hope things are going well. Thanks for making sure The Hubby hasn't starved- yet.

Kathleen's First Post

Kathleen can't get into her account, so here is her first post via Flan's e-mail:

I thought it might be about time for that particular store to have its stale sale. Why the hatred of cotton? At one (out of four) yarn stores I was at in Bellingham they disliked cotton too! Don't they understand that The Mommy won't wear wool?! The Mommy gets to have hand knitted things from the daughter and they will be made out of not wool, so why aren't they just happy with taking my money and saving the judgment for when I leave? Omg- the store where Deborah works is soo fabulous. I have so many pretty things now. I love the family discount. Apparently the teeny town where the 93y.o. gma lives now has a yarn store, so after I take her to lunch in the red mini (which, apparently, she loves) I am going to go to the 5th yarn store of the trip. Oh, Regia is now making a merino/ silk blend. So delightful. I have soo many yards of yarn that I didn't have at the beginning of the trip. Happy.

Actual Knitting Content!

Kathleen is off in Washington state doing family stuff, so I'll continue the posting with actual knitting content.

I went to the fanciest of our local yarn stores for their annual inventory sale today- 20% off everything, selected yarn 30% off.... and was totally disappointed. The store has a record of pretty uneven service to start with, but they are the granddaddy of yarn stores here. Sadly, their markup on yarns is huge, and they have one clerk who honestly hates cotton more than anyone I've ever met and strongly discourages anyone from buying any cotton yarn. I had picked out a lovely shade of yarn to make my very own Gigi, and got so much fuss from her about how heavy it was going to be and how it was a waste that I put all that yarn back and walked out. It takes A LOT for me to walk out of a yarn store. So congratulations to the yarn store clerk for losing a nice large sale. I think I'll be off to one of the more friendly LYS after my big work event in May to celebrate.

In other news, I'm turning the heel on the 2nd Jaywalker for Sockapalooza, and beginning to worry about the deadline. A huge work event on May 3 is eating my life, and I'm not sure I'll finish, though I'm trying my absolute hardest. We shall see.

Obligatory First Post

We decided to start a knitting (and life) blog because I never pick up my cell phone and Kathleen never answers e-mail. But we like eachother, and then Kathleen is up and moving to Alabama! So inspired by the lovely ladies over at Mason Dixon Knitting, here we are.