Last Day

Today was my last day at the office. Tuesday night we had a really nice dinner at an Italian place (complete with gluten-free pasta for me!) and all the people I am going to miss most. It was great getting to hang out with the wives and kids as well; all those peripheral people that are part of the package... At 4:45, I finally snuck out of the office. I didn't want to make a big deal out of the fact that I was leaving *for the last time* and I didn't want to see some (well, one) person at all. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried as I drove away.

I spent my entire Memorial Day weekend writing a final paper for my international management class. The thing still isn't done (due tonight) and it is sucking the life out of me. I really haven't written like this for a long time and [wah wah] it's hard! It's definitely very weird having my classes and my job wrap up like this, all at once. It seems surreal that I will be heading off to the Land of Wool on Sunday morning. In preparation, I have been spinning and plying. Stormy Skies, Stormy Seas as a two-ply:



After looking at the bobbins for so long, it's surprising how dominant the blue is in the skein.

I've also knit a whole heck of a lot of sock. Witness!



Unfortunately, I might have to finish these before leaving for Mecca of Wool. A pity that! And, just because sometimes, when you do really scary stuff in life and the weather just absolutely refuses to co-operate (just sayin') here's a pretty ranuncula.

A Time of Change

My last two days at work are Tuesday and Wednesday. My predominant thought right now? "What the flying fudge [sic]* was I thinking?!?!?!"

Suddenly, after so many months of convincing myself that this was the right decision (and it is, I know it is) I am suddenly consumed with self-doubt. Will I have to go back to work in a couple of months? Will I be able to find another job before I finish my degree? Will Jon and I have to resort to panhandling at a downtown freeway exit?**

It's not just the sudden (perceived) insecurity, it's also that I am leaving daily conversations with some of the coolest people I know. Of course, there are still the things that I left the job over (and it really doesn't look like they will ever be resolved), but I will miss the goofy group of geeks that I've come to love over the past three years. Will I be able to stay in touch? I'm enough of an adult to realize that the friendships won't stay the same, they will change with the new situation, but I'll miss the way they are now.

So what does a panic-stricken fiber fiend do on a friday night when she's feeling up poop [sic] creek without a paddle? She dies a fudgeton [sic] of wool, that's what.

Behold! A pound of brown blue-faced Leicester roving dyed in teal, cranberry and rust! The plan was to have this turn out mostly teal, but the cranberry and rust won the day. I also did a batch of icicle (just to see if I like it); that's it in the middle there. I hate the feel, but it takes color wonderfully. Then I did 4 oz of a Bearfoot-like blend that I can't wait to make into socks!!



*Won't anyone think of the children??

**This is not even a remote possibility, but that's where my mind goes...

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Last but not at all least, I bring you: When bird dogs and inbreeding collide!



Use your words, Oslo!

Preparations

I have been trying to decide what to take with me to Scotland. It seems so silly to bring knitting projects, being that I am travelling to the Land of Wool, but I have to have something to do on the plane *before* I start going bankrupt in the Highlands, right? Right? Yeah, I thought so too.

Because lace just doesn't seem so appealing right now, I opted for hardier fare. I am attempting to jump on the sock bandwagon. My first step was to pick up Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks and a set of extremely small double pointed needles. I settled on the Fancy Gentleman's Sock (for me) in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Gold Hill. Definitely stash yarn, but so far, a phenomenal knit:



I have 5 more sets of yarn waiting to be pairs of socks in the stash and I am bringing ALL OF THEM to Scotland with me. Just in case, you know... Also, in spite of the fact that I am travelling to the Land of Wool, I have been buying wool for projects like a fiend. My LYS was having a sale on bulky Lopi for $3.99 a shein and I bought 6 skeins ina wonderful smoke blue with a mind to make something like Cassie's beautiful poncho. *Then* Paradise Fibers was having a sale on Lamb's Pride Worsted for $3.99 a skein, so I thought I might buy the wool to make Samus. Le sigh...

And, just because she is funny, a pic of Heidi being in love with my spinning wheel. This is the LEAST lewd of the photos I took of her molesting the front leg of my Ashford Traditional.



And last but not least, the baby birdies fledged!



Sometime around noon on Sunday I heard them being fed (trust me, it was really not that hard to miss it) and then I looked in the nest at 6 or so and they had gone!

The Kill of the Yarn Predator

Please note: The following story is true. All photos were taken surrounding the bed in the master bedroom, where the prey was offered up to the animals at the apex of the pyramid in the dead of night. This could happen to you!

This is the culprit:



She looks nice, doesn't she? Just a little furry kitty to pet and love. Until she gets The Look!



Every night, she leaves offerings of wool around (and sometimes in) our bed. She is a talented huntress preying on the rovings and yarn and knitting in her kingdom.



Looks innocent enough until you are faced with the true scope of her abilities...







When she ran out of little bits of stray roving (she used to bring us long trails of it until I learned to hide it), she unleashed the big guns.





She turned to finished objects and swatches:





And finally, when she ran out of all else, she turned to handspun...



Here is the beast herself, passing last night's kill. Will she ever be satisfied???



Only time will tell...

Worst Blogger Ever, Please Raise Your Hand

(raises hand)

I am a serious flake about this writing thing, I know. Since announcing my eminent departure, things have been good, but strange, at work. I feel like I shouldn't be talking about it, mostly because most people do not have the luxury of quitting their job and not having to immediately find another. The situation is different with me, it's not like Jon and I are cast from gold boullion we just scrimped and saved, but it still feels a little weird. It's still the right decision, of course, I just need to figure out how to make *myself* okay with it.

In knitting news, Rogue, she is finished. She almost killed me, smashed me up against the rocks, made me question my faith, but I persevered and I have come through a stronger knitter. I learned so many new techniques with this project, it was incredible. My seaming skills have vastly improved, I finally know the proper way to pick up stitches and knitting a hood no longer scares the bejesus out of me.

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It is now the 17th of May. I can't believe I haven't posed this post yet. I am a blogging FAILURE. I've been so busy reading everyone's account of MD$W that I haven't even though of this site.

So, we'll just end it with a picture and then I can move on from this tar-pit of a post.

Three-legged Rat Terrier v. Border Collie!!



Also, baby birds (and their copious poop) outside our front door at 10 days post-hatch:

I wasn't even kidding

When I wrote last about coming unstuck, I really meant it. I quit my job today.

I have been working on making this happen foor quite awhile, saving up money and wavering back and forth as to whether I could even do it. And now that I have gone ahead and ripped the proverbial bandaid off, it feels like such an enormous relief. There are still petty politics to figure out, but I set my last day at May 31st.

While it was an incredibly INCREDIBLY (shall I emphasize this some more? *INCREDIBLY*) difficult decision, it had to be done and now it is. I will be a full-time student for the next year working on a paper for my degree that I plan to co-author with our director of international business programs and then publish. I'm also going for an ethics fellowship.

Most of all, though, I will have lots more time to play with wool. :) You couldn't see that coming at *all*, could you now? At least, I would be playing with wool if I could get it to fucking behave already. Witness Exhibit A of my own stupidity:



These are two Stormy Sky Stormy Sea singles attempting to be plied by yours truly. The problem? I spun one in one direction (let's call it S for fun) and the other in another direction (let's call that Z for continuity's sake). Why won't they ply? Why? WHY?? Well, because when you ply two singles together, you *ply* in the opposite direction that the single was spun. You do not *spin* the singles in different directions (which direction would you then ply? See the conundrum?).

A distance shot of the same disaster:



But aren't they such pretty bobbins?



That's the only reason I didn't take a match to the damn things.