I finished the slippers for my aunt the same day that I started em. That's a nice, quick project! I think they turned out quite a bit tamer than the other pair. Hopefully she'll like em just as much tho ;)

In other news, I got called into my manager's "office" today (really just a larger cubicle). Turns out there is a "fast track" team that learns every function really quickly, and I got picked to be on it. There were 4 openings because people on the team had moved up and on. So I am sad to be leaving my team so soon...they are really nice... but glad that I am going to be learning lots of new stuff that will hopefully keep me from being too bored. Cause I so am bored.

I made these slippers for my aunt a couple of birthdays ago. Turns out she loved them beyond all belief, and kind of requested a pair for her bday this year. I made her the poncho already, but I decided to hunt down the pattern I used and make her a new pair of these. I trudged to my craft room and pulled out my binder full of printed patterns/ free pattern leaflets, but had a lot of trouble finding the pattern. I couldn't find it online either. I was so convinced that I had printed it out and kept it, that I reinvestigated this morning and I did finally find it. But all the searching convinced me (not that it took much) that my binder was TOO messy. So I headed out this morning to office max, bought a big 2" binder and 200 page protectors, and set out to organize. 3 hours later I have a binder full of beautifully organized patterns. The only thing I did to divide them was print out the subject title on a piece of brightly colored paper, which sticks out since all the patterns are on white. And I found that I had a lot of doubles in my pile of mess.

Oh yeah, and I started a new pair of slippers too...in red. They won't be *quite* as crazy this time around ;) I also swatched for Kepler, and I think the Bernat Denimstyle will work. I get gauge just fine, but am a tiny bit worried about the marled yarn obscuring the cable. Only time will tell... Now I just need to finish the cardigan I had already started...I have the back and fronts done...and am pretty far on the first sleeve, woo!

Because you asked...

An elephant ear is a giant piece of dough which is deep fried and then dusted with powdered sugar or cinnamon. I prefer the cinnamon, mmmmmmmm. Here's a tasty pic:



My fave part about the pic is the name... "mmm greasy elephant ear" just about sums it up!

Whew!

It's been a bit of a busy weekend around here. Saturday when I got to work I saw that my deskshare partner had moved all his boxes. Unfortunately he had also moved my computer...argh! So I had to call a manager and she had to place me at someone else's desk for the day, which is never fun. It just feels so much better at my own desk. At the other computer I couldn't get cd's to play either, so I had to sit and work in silence alllll day...argh.

Once I got home, I got some calls...one from a friend from college who called to do something the next day, yay! We made a date and she drove up. When she got here, we decided to go to the county fair! There was lots of food, a few rides, quite a bit of games, but hardly any shopping. There was lots and lots of animals tho, which we looked at and petted a bit when noone was looking. I gorged on french fries and a big chewy elephant ear, mmmmm.

Today I got back to business and worked on my sweater for several hours. Here is what I have to show for it:



That's the finished back of the sweater. I've also made about 7" progress on the front left...this sweater sure is a quick knit. The sewing may be a PITA tho, since the yarn is fluffy and there are 2 additional buttonbands to sew on. But I'll manage.

This morning I gathered up my Joann's coupons and headed out and bought these cute buttons (click on them to make them bigger). I had a tough time finding enough of any button I liked that would match. Plus I thought it needed a shank since the yarn is so fluffy. There were some nice leather ones, but either they were (a) not washable OR dry cleanable, (b) not the right size, (c) not enough of them, and/or (d) packaged one button per card and about $4 per button. Since the pattern called for 7 buttons and I had managed to find 3 coupons, I was looking for some with 2 or 3 on a package. I finally found these, but I only bought 6. The other package looked like it had a slightly different color, and besides I never button cardigans up to the neck anyways. So I think I will just leave that button and hole off.

Well, I am going to get back to working on the sweater now...but not before declaring that I am going on a yarn diet. Hopefully it ends up more like a yarn fast, but I will allow myself to buy yarn for a few reasons. If I need it for a present/sale (particularly if someone requests it) and I have nothing in my stash that is suitable, then it's ok. OR if I am working something out of stash yarn but I need a little bit of something else (like novelty trim, contrasting color, or just more of the color I am using), then I'll buy some for that. I haven't bought any yarn outside these guidelines for over a month, so I just need to keep going with it! :)

I finally finished those darn washcloths! I made 16 for xmas gifts, to make sets with my handmade soaps. All the ends are finally woven in, all my cotton I had bought for it and a few other random skeins are used up, and all that is left is to block them when i gets sooner the day. Yay!

My next project is one I started before and ripped because I had goofed it. It's the chic cardigan from hip knits. Here is the pic from the book:




I'm kinda glad I goofed it before, as the size I was making woulda been waaaay too big. So now I am making the medium, which is 43" but I think it's sposed to be big. So that should be ok. I'm also using a different color. Namely, the one on the right.

Work is going pretty well. I was surprised with an award earlier this week. Apparently my buddy (the person I get resource assistance from for an hour each day) thought I was doing really well and so she nominated me for it. I got a certificate, a candybar, and an entry into a raffle. Well, today someone else nominated me for ANOTHER one. Woohoo! The girls who sit by me from my class are a bit jealous ;) Now, I just have to resist those 2 candy bars so this sweater will still fit when I get it done... teehee!

As promised, I have a pic of the poncho I whipped up this weekend. Here she is:


My mom modelled it for me today. I used one full skein of Joann's Sensation Rainbow Boucle in the red tones colorways. For the pattern I kinda started with the Martha Stewart poncho, but because my gauge was diff I just kept going with the main pattern and did a row of sc around the bottom edge instead of the border from the pattern. The rest of the yarn I used on sc rows around the neck. It was quick and simple...and I think it turned out quite well. It took me awhile to find a poncho pattern since this is a relatively new yarn and it works up at a strange gauge. I did use the N-hook, as the pattern calls for. And the pattern I used is: here. This will be gifted to my aunt for her bday, this November. She looooves red :)

First day of work...kinda

Today was sort of my first day of work. Well, it was the first day I was actually on the floor with the rest of my team instead of in a training room with the rest of my class. I was very worried about today, especially since I had no phone receiver at my desk and my email system wasn't working. Plus it's just a new thing...that's always a bit scary.

BUT it was so nice! When I went in my desk was all decorated and there was a welcome sign, a card from the team, a balloon, a vase filled with m&m's and a plastic flower, and other various things. And then at 8:15 we had an ice breaker where we met the team. A little after that we learned we had a mentor, to help answer questions about the company and such. Oh yeah, and did I mention that one of the coaches baked TWO cakes and the team ordered pizza and salad for lunch. (The cake was very very good too...that lady has had a catering business for 10 years and makes everything from scratch). We also had another meeting with our manager, not to mention that I had my daily hour meeting with my buddy, who is really nice and answers specific questions about my work. AND the phone and email situations were already being taken care of when I got there. I love my team!

I know I promised pics, but it was stormy yesterday so it didn't happen. I really do want to get the poncho up, so that should be soon. As for the sock yarns, I will photograph those if anyone seems interested. I also have a little vogue knitting book and some needle holders.

Off to relax some now and let my stomach settle down (tooo much tasty food)

Calling All Scraps

I have some sock yarn that I will probably never use. It's pretty and all, but I just don't knit on the itsy bitsy needles that much, plus I rarely wear the socks I knit (my feet are prone to itching from them). Sooooo, instead, I thought I would see if anyone wanted to trade. What would I like in return? Well, believe it or not, scraps! I'm not really looking for your basic worsted acrylic scraps (I love them too, I just have enough), but anything else is fair game. Any color, any texture, any size. And as long as it's got at least ~10 yards, it's good.

When I am stuck in a crafty rut I like to turn to scraps to make something that is at least interesting texturally and has a wide variety of colors. I've done a scarf and mini-shawl (stole?) in scraps so far...pics of them later. So, if anyone is interested in this (particularly if your scraps just sit around neglected), drop me a line. I will work on taking pics of available sock yarns later.

I also whipped up a poncho this weekend from a skein of Joann's Sensations Rainbow Boucle yarn. It turned out pretty nice, and was really quick...I'll work on snapping that in a bit too. Oh yeah, and my tennis sweater! ;)

Today was the first day of my 7th week at work, whee! It went pretty fast, actually. We got our buddies, who we can reference an hour each day for questions about our work. Also, we got attendance certificates. You get one of these if you're not late or absent (unscheduled) in a 6 week period. And they're good for a $10 gc of your choice (with tons to choose from). So I should get that in a few days, yay. And on Friday we have a Grill and Chill, where we get free food and there are thousands of dollars worth of gift cards raffled off.

In crafty news, I finished my sweater that I had been knitting for months, but haven't photographed it yet. I will get around to that someday. Also, I've knit a total of 5 washcloths for xmas presents so far...and am well into my 6th. These are going to go into packages of 2 soaps and a washcloth each...I think I need about 13. I actually have 2 other washclothes knit in a variagated yarn that I might use for this as well.

In movie news, I saw 2 films this weekend. On Saturday night I saw Wedding Crashers, which was so funny that my stomach was a bit sore afterwards. And I've developed a thing for Vince Vaughn lately, so that doesn't hurt. On Sunday I finally got to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I have been really looking forward to. I must say that it was absolutely stunning visually, and I enjoyed the ending. I did miss the songs from the first one and some of the extra rooms. Mike Teevee was a lot more fun this time around, but Veruca Salt a bit less so. I will def get it when it's available on dvd tho :)

That's about it for now. I'm having difficulties finding time and motivation to write here. Especially since I feel like I should have pics, and I def don't have the time or energy to mess with that. But we'll see how it goes...