Artfibers 4-1-1

Last Friday, free from the bonds of employ, found me downtown running some errands. The kinds of things you can never find time to do when you have a j-o-b. I returned some clothing (I don't really need new clothes for the job anymore), went to the library and checked out some books to read (I haven't done that in such a long time that I had to renew my card), and also made time to stop by Artfibers.


[Side note: Monkey cannot be apart from the camera for two seconds. He loves it just that much.]

Anyway, every other time I have visited, the store has been filled to the brim with shoppers. Several times I had departed sad and yarnless, because I was intimidated by the large quantities of yarn found on the cones.

However, last Friday afternoon, I briefly had the place to myself and was able to chat with the lovely proprietress. I was fretting because there was a gorgeous yarn that I wanted, but couldn't justify a 250 gram purchase.

Now, if you already know this I wish you had told me and shame on you for not doing so sooner, but she graciously informed me that I could wind off as much as I wanted in increments of 50 grams. Wha? A whole world of luxurious yarns were now at my fingertips. I decided to go with Ming, a silk and extrafine merino blend in hues of lovely pinks and purples.



I'm planning to make the Koolhaas hat (from this season's Interweave Gifts issue) and a coordinating scarf from this yumminess.

So, the question of the day, am I the only one who didn't know about this?

Q@L Time

I crafted this character back when I was stuck in a mind-numbingly dull job. The inspiration came from a most excellent KITH (Kids in the Hall) sketch which had a character (Tanya) who proudly proclaimed that she could quit at lunch--because she's a temp. (Hence the line "I can quit at lunch...I'm a temp." Just brilliant.)

Thus Q@L was born. At that particular time, it was only a distant fantasy that helped me (and others) get through the day. I mean, who REALLY does that?

Well, it turns out that thanks to the lovely state of CA, and it's at-will employment laws, anyone can.

As a society, we are definitely conditioned/trained to stick things out and remain dedicated to something even if it makes us 100% miserable. ("Stay the course" anyone?) I say, forget it. Why should anyone commit to a toxic relationship--especially if it involves employment where you end up spending most of your waking hours anyway!

Today, I decided that I had had enough. And though I didn't exactly Q@L, I did manage to QAL (quit after lunch). And I'm not looking back.

Sidenote: I read recently that large amounts of stress affect women more than men, and can lead to premature aging. I don't want any part of that, thank you very much.

So, I'm sorry, new company, that we had to break up. I'd say that it's not me it's you, except that would not be true. It was definitely YOU.

Now, it's time to go knit and listen to Kelly Clarkson.

Scarf Time

I was hoping to finish at least one sock before I started the new job. Sadly, that didn't happen. Due to some unfortunate knitting mistakes, I am a pattern repeat away from finishing.

Once I started the new job, which has been more stressful and time consuming than I could have ever imagined, I decided that I needed some good mindless knitting to unwind after work.



Enter this scarf, made from Artfibers Valparaiso (50% baby alpaca, 50% merino color #6) using a drop stitch pattern also purchased from Artfibers. In the store, they knit the pattern with a laceweight mohair. I loved the pattern, but wanted to make something a little more substantial.

Current length: 3 feet.
Length to go: as far as I can get with the 284 yards that I have.

Raindrops on Roses...

And whiskers on kittens. Yada yada yada...



I'm starting a new job this week, and am trying to keep an open mind and stay positive. However, the universe seems to have other plans for me and my happiness/sanity.

First, there are the commuting woes...

Tuesday morning I missed my Caltrain due to bad traffic and had to wait 1/2 hour for the next train.

Wednesday morning I decided to take bart to Milbrae and transfer to Caltrain. Seems like a reasonable idea, right? One would think. However, this is how the rest of the morning commute went.

• made it to station in time to catch bart train
• train went into tunnel and power went out
• we proceeded to sit sans power for 5 minutes. Now, I only had a 9 minute window in which to catch the Caltrain, so I was starting to sweat it a little bit.
• we get to the SFO station and are informed that the train is having technical difficulties. We proceed to hold for another 4+ minutes. Also at the same time the train operator keeps using the train PA to ask "Dave" if he is there. "Dave, if you're there let me know. Dave? You there?"

Basically, you can guess what happened next, but just as we were pulling into the station my train (and everyone else's who was still on that godforsaken train) left.

At this point I had two options. I could either sit there and wait 1/2 hour for the next train (side note: the caltrain does run more than every 1/2 hour, but during commuting hours lots of the trains are express trains and only make certain stops. So, approximately every other train stops near my office.), or I could take the train in 10 minutes to the station before my stop and walk 1.3 miles to my stop.

What would you do?

I chose the latter. On the plus side, it was a good way to break in my new walking shoes which cushioned my feet in slipperlike softness during the walk. However, I was also carrying a bulging laptop bag full of software and laptop etc.(a story for another time) and it was awfully heavy.

Basically, I ended up making it to my normal station just as the train I could have sat on my butt and waited for arrived. So I didn't save ANY time.

On the plus side, I got a little exercise.

On the minus side, even though I had gotten up at 6am and left my house by 7:15 I didn't get to work until after 9am. Which meant I had to stay late.

It was so frustrating that I actually considered driving today to avoid the public transit nightmares. But I didn't. This morning I smoothly made my early express train and it all worked out.

When I was pretty irritated yesterday, Griffin IM'd me the above photo of a box o' kittens. So, Nootsie, this one's for you. It's hard to be miserable and sad when you're looking at a box o' kittens.

I've got nuttin' honey

Just got home from my first day at a new job in a new company performing a new role. It was exhausting. No time to blog :-( and not much sock progress to report.


Monkey waits for his mama to come home from a very long day of work.

I can report that I was able to kick back and do lots of touristy things while my parents were here to visit, including but not limited to:

• union square shopping day
• craft store day (just me 'n mom)
• union square + ghirardelli square + cable car day
• half moon bay hike + barbara's fishtrap + half moon bay downtown day
• tour of jelly belly factory in fairfield, ca
• browsing/milling about san anselmo

Just typing all o' thing stuff is making me sleepy. Time for a nap!