the jkc project

A Sense of Impending Doom

I had a little scare yesterday. 

(Warning.  This is not for the faint of heart.)

.

.

.

 

.

I found this:

walking around on the floor in our back entranceway.  I had no compunctions about killing it right off, but, I can't stop thinking about it.  Can they smell my yarn?  What if when I stomped on it, it left a trail of eggs on the floor that I carried in on my shoe that are now in some of the dust buffalos in the corner, like a time bomb, waiting to hatch and infest all of my yarn.

Should I be worried?

(Tell me the truth.  Please.)

A Fabulous Week

(Public Service Announcement:  For those of you here for the knitting and only the knitting, scroll down until you see pictures of the luscious Cash Iroha.  I promise you, it's there.)

I'm starting to panic a little - I can feel the seconds slipping away (it's Thursday already!) and soon my week off will be over and I will be back to work.  I've been trying to make the most of this week, seeing as they don't come around that often.

First thing I needed to do was go shopping.  I went up to the Tilton outlets on the lookout for some new work clothes, and as always, Tilton didn't disappoint.  I also scored huge on the sale rack at our local Ann Taylor.  There is no better feeling than walking away with a cashmere sweater at a 85% discount.  Yes, I scored that deal and it made me giddy on the inside.

(I should admit this now.  I like to shop.  For things other than yarn, though I also love the yarn shopping.  I'm serious about my shopping, I like to look around, weigh the options, touch, feel, ponder the selections, and I'm not happy about it unless I feel like I got the right thing for the right price.  It is not coincidence that I spent the first day of my week off shopping.  Ahem.)

But, discount shopping and prancing around in my new clothes all by myself is not the only thing I've done this week. 

I also mailed in my application for licensure to the Commonweath of Massachusetts Board of Public Accountancy.

WhooHOO!

I unpacked these boxes, cleaned out my closet and made a bag for Goodwill.

I need to do something with those.

Also, I started on the garden.

Okay, I shopped for stuff for the garden. 

I can't wait to have fresh herbs this year!  I'm keeping them in the window for now, and then in a week or so, I'll put in some of the veggie plants in containers outside.  (Not purchased yet.  Which means: more shopping!)

And I stirred up the compost bin. 

This is the first year we've been composting, and I cannot tell you how excited I was to find that under the most recent layer of compost fodder was a rich dark fabulously amazing compost.  I did it right!  I mean, composting just means that your dumping all of your organic waste and letting it decompose, but we've been doing it in a garbage can and I wasn't sure it was going to work right. 

But, it did!!  I must be really good at throwing stuff away!!

Also I brought the Crown Vic in for maintenance.  Poor thing is leaking coolant everywhere, threatening to overheat, sieze the engine and all that fun stuff.  We'll see if she makes it past this....  if you could keep your thoughts and prayers with her, it would really mean a lot to us.  We're just not ready to lose her.  Thanks guys.

So, by yesterday morning I was feeling like it was all work and no play around here.  So I decided to lounge in bed for awhile, reading and knitting.

Yes, it was as fabulous as it looks.

That's the Hourglass sleeve V.2, and I must say the no-seam hem is a wonder.  It looks just like I think it should and I am extremely glad that I ripped and tried again. 

(phew!  It only occured to me after the fact that I could have taken the one sleeve off the needles and started the second sleeve in the new manner, risk free.  I mean, if the other way didn't work well, then I might have ripped it all FOR NOTHING.  But it all worked out.)

So I spent most of the early part of the day yesterday knitting, and then I went to pick Eric up for the second week of the Cunningham Cup.  I contemplated bringing my sock to knit while golfing, but decided it wasn't a very good idea.  Has anyone ever knit while golfing?  I'd love to know how it worked out.

So, here's the sleeve after a morning of knitting on it.

I'd like to get more done on it today, so I'm going to wrap up what might be the world's longest post about nothing at all and get to it.

The Harlot: An Aerial View

Kate took a picture of me, taking this picture:

It's almost like a relay picture.  Piece them together and you'll get a good idea of what the scene was like.  Crowded does not begin to describe it.

Good Times

I don't know where even to begin.  Today is the first day of my in-between-jobs week.  The week I'm supposed to catch up on life.  You know, wedding spinning stuff, laundry, taking the knitting crown vic in to the shop,  knitting cleaning out the corners of the house spinning where big stacks of unpacked boxes hide. 

You know.  All the important stuff that's gone by the wayside lately.

I don't even know what to write about Thursday & Friday, which I got to spend with all my knitter friends due to Stephanie's signings.  It was like the best of all worlds. 

On Thursday night I got to hang out and have really interesting and funny conversations with some of my favorite people.  And I bought this:

(Below the roving is seen some of the stacks of books I need to find a place for this week.  Guess what in the picture I'd rather be working on.)

Friday night was like Thursday night blew up (in a good way).  Everywhere I turned there were knitters, good friends I see often, people I wanted to catch up with, people I hadn't seen since SPA, knitters who I had only previously known through their blogs.

On top of it, Friday was my last day at my old job, so it was like 48 hours filled with more goodness than I could handle. 

It was almost like a dream sequence.

I can't even begin to do it justice.  I'm sitting here in my PJs, exhausted from the rest of the weekend, trying to figure out how I'm going to launch my week off, and the words just aren't coming.  I don't know how to describe how silly and fun it is to hang out with people who share a passion.  And who can see the humor in how passionate we are about it.

It was just good times all around.

Confessions of Busy-Junkie

I started writing this post and I realized that it was going to sound just like a hundred other posts I've written.

"Life is a whirlwind."

"So busy lately."

"Not much knitting."

And yes, life has been mind-numbingly busy lately.  But I have to admit, it almost always has been for me, and probably always will be.  I thrive on busy.  I love juggling a million different things, and if I don't feel adequately challenged, I am miserable and miserable to be around, and it's not long before I fill up my time to the point that I am *busy* again.

(Side Note:  This is exactly the reason I started knitting.  I quit a job where I was working a million hours and almost every weekend, and BOOM all of a sudden I had more free time than I could handle.  Knitting practically saved me from going out drinking every night because I didn't know what else to do with myself.  Up until that point, being in my early twenties, that's what we did for fun.  We worked a lot, and when we weren't working, we went out for drinks.  It was fun while it lasted.)

Busy this past week has looked something like this:

It's springtime!  It's time for friends, and dinners, and ducking out of work for an afternoon of sushi and leaving drinks, and rounds of golf, and the true herald of spring, as seen above, the first lobster dinner of the season.  No quite warm enough to have been eaten outside, but nice enough to have all the windows open to air out the place.  (Picture courtesy of Kim.  You know, my awesome friend Kim I always talk about, but can't convince to learn to knit.)

This time of year gets my blood flowing.  I want to see all my friends that I haven't seen in months because it's been too cold, too dark to want to leave the house.  There are book signings, and sleepovers and family parties and I love them all.

Unfortunately, this sort of busy usually means not a lot of knitting.

In fact, there's been negative knitting.

Hourglass this weekend:

Hourglass last night:

In doing my first picot edge for my Jaywalker, I learned how to hem using a provisional edge, picking up and K2tog.  I wish I had learned this BEFORE I cast on for Hourglass, because I was really unhappy with my cast on edge, and had serious concerns about how nicely it would seam up.

And so on Sunday night I unceremoniously ripped the whole thing.  I'm not really upset about it... it's mindless stockinette that goes fairly quickly, and as it's my first sweater for myself, I want it to be perfect, because I know me.  Something like that would bother me to no end, and the sweater would never see the light of day.

This yarn is way too gorgeous to sit in the back of a closet people.

Gotta run!  It's 70 degrees out and I'm off to grab lunch with a friend.  It might be the last normal work lunch I ever grab in Boston.

Strange.

Rookie Mistake

Good News:  It's Marathon Monday!

Bad News:  I'm at work.  This may be one of the only offices downtown that DOESN'T close for Patriot's Day.

Good News:  My office is practically on the finish line!

Bad News:  Getting home tonight is going to be near on impossible.

Good News:  I'm going to wait out the crowds here.  It's Spa Week (like Restaurant Week) and I've booked myself a much needed massage, at a steep discount.  Score!

Bad News:  The three week notice was a Bad Idea.  Getting through these last few days is going to take a gargantuan effort of determination and will.  It was a rookie mistake giving three weeks notice.  It has become painfully obvious that the two weeks is standard for a reason....

-----

It was a fabulous weekend - full of sunshine and visits to yarn shops, and visiting with friends.  There was yarn and margaritas and baskets full of chocolate and a quiet morning with coffee and a big dinner with family and all the jumbled fun chaos that goes with it: kids running around (and puking!), food food food, wine, hanging around singing Journey tunes while my uncle played the piano. 

A fabulous weekend, without much knitting.  (I know, hard to imagine, but what can you do?) 

Whatever Works

Done in a fit, caught at work with no freaking hair tie to be found anywhere:

Being one of those people who CANNOT STAND having my hair in my face or weighing down on my neck, I am ridiculously tickled at how well these knitting needles dug up from the bottom on my bag worked in a pinch.

Just another reason to love those Addis.

Ode To the Queen

Oh, Crown Vic, Queen of Cars,
you are so ghetto-licious
with your big curvy rear
and no hub caps.

I'm sorry about the new car, really.
Driving you was fun, most of the time,
especially when other cars
thought I was a cop.

I remember bringing you home,
cleaning out the glove box and
finding the first of your surprises:
gooey melted candy, gross.

But not like when we discovered
the dead mice in the intake,
or the dead snake in the transmission;
that was worse.

You drive like a big comfy couch
barrelling down the highway,
and you steer like a boat.
I will not miss your lumbering grace.

Don't feel bad.
This isn't because of your fit last weekend
hissing and steaming;
or your very high mileage;

but because it's always an adventure
getting behind your wheel,
and my new job told me that
I can't drive an adventure to work.

Don't go doing anything hot-headed.
Even though your trunk can fit many dead bodies
it is not big enough
to fit even the smallest SUV

I think.

Soapy Gin

On Friday night, I went to an open mic for the first time in years.

My first apartment in Boston was not actually in Boston, it was across the river in Cambridge..... and much like Cambridge is an eclectic sort of place, it so happened that I moved in with an eclectic group of roommates, one of whom hailed from California. She was here to pursue graduate study in opera singing, and in addition to working as an office manager in an architectural firm, was launching a pop band on the side.

I loved living with this roommate.

(All were great roommates, but the girls I especially loved living with and miss all the time.)

She is smart and spunky, and most of all she was (is still) working hard to pursue her dream of having a successful pop band. I used to go to all of her shows, open mics, cd release parties, and part of what was so special about it is that I knew her.

I knew the crappy ex-boyfriend that inspired the songs, and I understood what drove her to write a song about Sunday mornings, and I saw the blood, sweat and tears that came from trying to get this effort off the ground and I could see the joy in her eyes while she was singing, and the pride and exuberance on her face when they finished laying down the tracks for a new cd.

Because I *knew* her, it was a whole different type of dialogue between singer and listener. Song lyrics can make you very vulnerable if the people who are listening to them know you. After the show, a stranger will walk away and if you're lucky, they will have liked your music. For a friend, you have handed them the keys to heart, and you have to face them the next day with that knowledge. I feel very fortunate to have shared that with my roommate. It was a very special time in my life.

Those years had receded in my memory until last Friday night.

One of my most favorite people in the world was the featured artist at a local coffee shop, and while her art is poetry, it was the same sort of evening...

pre-show gathering with friends, laughter and munchies
getting ready for the show
arriving early to get the good seats
anticipation
The Show
relief
giggles and fun
post-show noshing
talking into the wee hours

Anyone who has read her knows that Elisa has a gift for language. Her poetry was beautiful and painful and raw and true. But it was the courage with which Elisa shared her poetry with us, her friends, handing us the keys to her heart, her pain and her love, that was what made the night truly special.

Obligatory Knitting Shot:

Much progress made during the open mic. Finished it last night, all that's left is to Kitchener up the toe and cash on for number 2. Because the best knitting advice I've ever gotten was to immediately cast on for the 2nd one.

Unless you dig wearing mis-matched socks.

Catching Up

For everyone who's been looking for wedding updates, I did a catch up post here.  Now that we're caught up, I'm pledging to post more regularly.  This is when all the juicy stuff starts, right?  5 months out?

There reason it's there is to spare the rest of you who want nothing to do with the *gag* the wedding stuff. 

I totally understand.  Knit on.