2007 January « Melissa Sue’s Craft Corner

Archive for January, 2007

Jan

I hate technology

By Melissa 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

When did I become so dependant on technology? Was it when I got my TV at 15 or was it when I got my personal computer at 18 or was it after I got married or divorce? I can’t pinpoint the exact time or even the month or year, but somewhere along the line I came to depend that the technology would always be there for me. So much so, that when the computer doesn’t want to recognize my camera I get frustrated. Then when the computer finally recognizes the camera and loads the pictures to my computer, then they don’t want to upload to my flickr account. Why is it that this only happens when dad (aka Technical Support for this house) is away from home?

I am just so frustrated with technology that instead of the pictures I promised all ya’ll get is this rant against technology. Hopefully this will smooth out overnight and ya’ll will get those pictures tomorrow afternoon.

Jan

Sorry, the days have just flown by

By Melissa 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, it has taken me a while to get into the swing of things with the new job. Yes, that means that I decided to take the office specialist job. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn, but I have gotten the most critical things learned. I have to admit that counting over $3,000 a day in cash is a little intimidating (and that is a small day, some days it is over $5,000) and then there are the checks, credit cards slips, and debit card slips. I just wish the manager would get my codes for the vault and the computers already. She supposedly requested them Monday, but one of the other managers checked for me today and the requests were put in around 9:30 last night. Oh well, it just means more of a hassle for me and the managers since they have to keep coming to the office to give me access to things.

I never realized how much work goes into running a store behind the scenes (not including all of the work it takes to get the product from the stock room to the floor). You have to verify the custom framing orders, check in the receiving paperwork (closing and sending for credit if not fully received) and then there is the hassle of dealing with payroll. Not to mention the fact that since I am now dealing directly with the managers I feel the stress of a surprise visit from the district manager ~~a lot more~~ just a tad more than before. I never realized how many things he checks in order to grade our store. Of course his visit this week was ~~horrible~~ bad because for the past 2 weeks we have received the dreaded “D,” so even though we got a “C” there is still a lot to be done because we have to pull it up to at least a “B” in order to receive less visits from him.

Well. I am sure that you want to hear about the knitting in my life. Unfortunately, Sunset Seraphim has hit a ~~major stumbling block~~ bump in the road since my attention has shifted to the baby afghan that I am making my sister. On that front things are also a little bumpy. I did decide to frog the crochet blanket as I just could not work on it very much at a time. Instead I found a pattern in the same book my mom is using that I liked and bought some different yarn (yeah - I hear ya’ll - your saying it was just an excuse to add to the stash, but I have to tell you that the other yarn is destined to be donated to Warm Up America at work) and casted on. I got all the way to row 7 and realized that my stitch count had been off since the 1st row (enough that it was noticeable) which meant revisiting the frog pond. The blanket has been recast on and I will be working on it this weekend - more on that in a minute. I have also been knitting facecloths. So far I have completed 1 and have 2 more on the needles with 1 of those almost done. I have also purchased enough Sugar’n Cream to make 14 more at this time, but one of the craft stores has it on sale for $.99 instead of the $1.49 I normally pay so I might be stocking up on some more colors. I have to think about that because if I want to do that I would have to go there tomorrow as I will not be home this weekend.

Where am I going this weekend you might be asking. Well, my dad is in Georgia on business (since the beginning of the month) and will be gone for close to 2 more months. My mom really wants to see him so we are leaving Friday when I get off work (great thing about my new job is a set shift of 7am to noon) and driving to Atlanta. He will meet us there as he is in another part of the state. Mom and I looked at the things we can do in Atlanta and decided that we wanted to go to the Atlanta Zoo since they have Giant Pandas on exhibit and we have never seen them in person (they also have a baby panda). I am taking the camera so should have lots of pictures when I get back to show ya’ll.

As to photos I am sure you have noticed the lack of them in this post - call me a ditz but I forgot to buy batteries and they finally died so that is one more chore for tomorrow. Well, I have things to do so will be getting offline right now, but I promise to be back by Monday (I would say tomorrow, but since I have so much to do most likely not).

Jan

Another order placed

By Melissa 0 Comments

Categories: knitting and yarn

I decided to place another order from Knit Picks on the 13th. I received my last order on the 12th and got to try out my Knit Picks Options needle that I had ordered as a trial of the system and fell in love. I love the pointy ends, the smoothness, and those cables. Wow, they have so little memory. I also loved that with the 60 inch cable I will be able to get a better idea of what my Sunset Seraphim looks like when it gets that big. That cable is too big to use to knit with in my opinion so I also got the 32 inch cable to use for knitting with as I have really started to detest the needle that the Sunset Seraphim is on.

As previously mentioned my mom had decided she wanted to get some of the Options for her baby afghans she plans on making as gifts. Well, since I did not get a birthday gift for her - being that somehow I managed to forget her birthday until the last minute I decided to order these for her. She doesn’t not know that I am buying them for her, she just thinks that when they arrive she will have to pay me for them. Imagine her surprise when she learns they are a gift - even though they will be a belated gift.

You know that since I was ordering from Knit Picks that I would not be able to help myself, right? So, in addition to the needles for my mother I also ordered some things for myself. I ordered 2 more needle tips and the yarn for Pie as well. Then I ordered 2 color cards from them. One for their Alpaca Cloud and the other one for their Shadow & Gossamer colors. I have a couple of shawl patterns that I would like to decide on colors for, but since the colors for their yarns tend to be off on my monitor I am not sure of a which ones to chose for which shawl.

Then, tonight I think I have gotten the idea for my mom’s Christmas gift. We were talking about yarn colors since I played with a few other colors of Kool-aid yesterday and she mentioned that she liked the color of the natural yarn I am using as a base. Since I ordered 2 skeins of the Bare Merino Laceweight from Knit Picks (not knowing how much I would want to play and the play skeins I have been dying are only a couple of yards each) I have almost 1700 yards left which is more than enough form Miriam’s Hidcote Garden Shawl. For some reason when I saw this shawl I just knew I had to have the pattern, but I was not sure if it was really the right shawl for me. I believe I was meant to order that pattern so that I could knit it for my mom. Unfortunately this decision comes to late to add the size needle tip I need to this order, so I guess I will just have to struggle along with the cheap size 4 I have until I can place another order which will be a while (the pattern calls for a 3, but I tend to knit tight so I went up a size) due to school.

The interesting job news is that I most likely will be changing from a Front End Supervisor to the new Office Specialist due to the previous girl quitting very abruptly. This would be a really nice position since it is a set shift of 7am to 1 pm and since it is in the office it would mean no more dealing with the immaturity of a couple of the cashiers (yes I still have to interact with them, but I don’t have to supervise them). I have this week as a trial period to see if I like the position and if I will work out in the position (which involves counting all the money that comes into and goes out of the store, as well as some basic filing and report printing). I will let ya’ll know how that works out at the end of the week.

Well, I have a few things I need to do before I go to bed so will let ya’ll go.

Jan

I present Kool-aid yarn

By Melissa 0 Comments

Categories: dying yarn, knitting and yarn

I have read several things about the process of dying yarn using kool-aid and since I am a clutz I figured this would be a good way for me to try my hand at dying. So when I placed an order with Knit Picks I decided to order a skein of their Bare Merino Laceweight Yarn to play around with, figuring that with 880 yards and only $5.99 I wasn’t out too much if I didn’t like it. I want to make my sister this sweater for her baby, but I haven’t found a yarn I like the colors of, that is machine washable (Knit Picks has the right weight yarn in Bare as a superwash) and that I can afford so I thought I would try this.

It was pretty easy to do and I tried 4 colors getting 1 that I will use for this project and then 1 other that I think would look great in a shawl or stole for myself. In the picture above you can tell where I had the yarn tied together as I tied too tight, that is something I will have to figure out. The colors (flavors) used were Black Cherry, Cherry, Strawberry and Watermelon Cherry (a flavor I had never seen before). I love the Black Cherry for myself especially since I know that I could have gotten an even darker color as I did not fully exhaust the dye for any of the colors. The Watermelon Cherry is the perfect color for the baby sweater. I wanted a softer pink and it turned out a soft, coraly-pink which is perfect for the baby. The close up of the Watermelon Cherry is below.

The only other problem I had was trying to figure out how to dry the yarn easily. May I present Melissa’s Improvised Drying Rack (see picture below). I used tubes from work (they were in the boxes of poinsettas to prevent them from landing on the flowers if someone did not stack the boxes correctly), some sticky dots (scrapbooking supply), and some soda 12 packs. (Please ignore the mess in the background - we were celebrating my mom’s birthday).

Now I just have to place another Knit Picks order since I did not order the Bare yarn I needed since I was not sure about the process. I also want to place an order with them so that I can get the Options needle set. In the order I just received I had ordered the size needle I am using for the Sunset Seraphim and a cable so that I could try them out without investing too much. I love them so much that I want the whole set and my mom likes them as well. She has found a book of baby blanket patterns she loves, but they use size 13 & 15 circular needles and the ones she bought she hates. Since she saw the Options and found out they come in the bigger sizes she has decided that she wants a set of the 32″ cables and the 13 & 15 needles, as she has decided that the blankets in this book will become her staple baby gift.

Well, I did very well last week on my goal to post at least 3 times a week, but this week I failed due to becoming very sick. Everyone at work has had the crud and I had been fighting it since Christmas. This week I finally was unable to fight it off any longer and become so sick that all I did was go to work and sleep. I know I should not have gone to work, but when you are part-time there are no sick days and I really needed the money so that I can pay to get some teeth pulled. I have all 4 wisdom teeth trying to come in and 2 of them are giving me major trouble so hopefully I can get enough between the next 2 paychecks to get them done. I was hoping to put it off until I got my taxes back as due to my earning I should get all of my federal taxes back - I will most likely not get anything back from both Virginia & Alabama, but I guess my body had other plans. Well it is late so I need to log off. Hopefully this coming week will be better for me updating and I might have some good job news.

Jan

Well, sorry about that

By Melissa 0 Comments

Categories: knitting

I tried uploading all of the photos that I wanted to leave ya’ll with last time and for some reason wordpress would not let me add them all. So here goes another try, but first I will go ahead and give ya’ll an update.

So far today I have managed to get about a forth of the way done with strip 2 of 12 for my sister’s baby blanket. I was right that it would kill my wrists. I have decided that I will work on it only until my wrists start to feel like they are hurting and then work on something else. I am hoping that as long as I do this that I will not end up with any major problems. This decision has already allowed me to finish my friend’s scarf so that can be crossed off of the list of things I wanted to accomplish. I have also managed to reduce my yarn stash slightly by deciding that instead of keeping the leftover novelty yarns from these scarves I will add them to the fibers that my mom and I use in scrapbooking.

Well, I have another one of those overnight shifts tonight so I will let ya’ll go. Here are the other two photos I was unable to show ya’ll last night. The first is the yarn that I have decided to donate to the Warm Up America project at work and the second is the knitting bag that my mom got me for Christmas.