Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Baby Steps

I just witnessed a truly gorgeous sunset. I love fall.

Creative endeavors are moving at a snail’s pace around here so I haven’t had much to talk about. I’ve got a few things coming along though. Be patient with me.

I have been working on my quilt. All the little squares are done. They need to be trimmed, pressed and pieced together into bigger squares.

(gratuitous dog picture)

Monday, October 15, 2007

For the Record

I am incredibly jealous of anyone and everyone who will be at Rhinebeck. Bill and I are planning a fall wedding next year so I have been thinking Rhinebeck wasn’t in my stars for a couple years yet. Then we started considering NYC and the Hudson River valley for our honeymoon. My wheels are turning…

Monday, October 8, 2007

Does this count as stash enhancement?

I know I've been a little lean on craft content lately but I am making up for it today. Freshly dyed yarn! Previously I've done all my dyeing at the KIA. (I liked making my mess in someone else's house.) Doing it at home, I have more control over the colors and the dye set better than it has in the past. There was hardly any excess to rinse out, not even the saturated halloween black. I think because I wasn't sharing the steamer, the yarn cooked more thoroughly. I'm very happy with the way everything turned out. There was one lonely exception (not photographed). What was supposed to be melon and bubble gum with a few splashes of pale blue turned out a knotted mess of muddy pumpkin. Yuck. They can't all be winners.

Friday, October 5, 2007

A Comedy of Errors

You may recall I bought a new purse when I was in New York. They only had a display in the color I wanted so mine would ship from the warehouse. Last weekend, a big box arrived, which I excitedly opened. I extract the bag and think to myself, “This is bigger than I remember. And where’s the cute lock hardware on the front?” They sent the wrong bag.

I call the store and the saleswoman explains that two numbers were transposed in my order. She tells me that they will set up a UPS pickup for the wrong bag and send the right one.

So Wednesday morning, I set out the wrong purse for the arranged pickup. Wednesday evening I come home from work to find the old package gone and a new package in its place. But there are also two UPS notices. One notice saying they tried to deliver a package that requires my signature. A second notice informing me that they made a pickup attempt. What?! Uh, if UPS didn’t pick up the bag, where is it?

I call UPS and the automated system tells me they have no information regarding either of the notice numbers. I speak to a human. She tells me she has no information and that I need to speak with someone at the local delivery hub, which is closed. She assures me that someone will be in touch by 10 am the next morning.

Someone is not in touch by 10 am. To make matters worse, the right bag is damaged. I am okay with the damage that I will inevitably inflict through normal wear and tear but I am not okay with one that is already wonky right out of the gate. I call the store again to explain that the right bag is here, but is unacceptable. The saleswoman offers to set up another pickup (great…) and is having a new bag sent from an actual store (versus warehouse) so it can be inspected first.

After several hours and many irritating phone conversations with UPS, I finally get the whole picture. It goes like this.

Morning – Driver 1 comes to the house, leaves the new purse (no signature) and picks up the old purse. Why she took the package, no one knows. That’s Driver 2’s job because he has the appropriate shipping labels and pickup request.

Afternoon – Driver 2 comes to the house to pick up the old purse. It is not there. He leaves a notice to that effect.

Later that afternoon – Driver 1 returns to the house to redeliver the old purse that she picked up from my house that same morning but will not leave it without a signature. Mind you, the package didn’t require a signature the first time around. Why she needed a signature to put the box back where she found it, I’m not really sure.

All’s well that ends well. My new handbag arrived today, beautifully packaged and in pristine condition. That’s better.


Thursday, October 4, 2007

Seriously?!

I don't know why I was so surprised by this story. (Click the link to listen, the text doesn't do the story justice.) I know that violence against women is scary common so it stands to reason that female military overseas don't get a free pass but seriously? Isn't the experience of war trauma enough for one person? I am so incredibly horrified by the capacity some people have to hurt.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Project Roundup

Happy October! I hope your weather is as nice as ours today. This is sort of a weak project roundup. Where does all the time go? Oh yes, ravelry, gym, work, soccer, trying not to live in filth…

Finite…

Socks That Rock Charades – Pair one is finished. I hope Christine wears then in good health. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month folks. Wear some pink. Find a way to give.


Ongoing…

Wispy Jacket – Currently in limbo. I fixed the offending decreases and liked the new decreases so well that I wanted to rip and reknit the whole darned thing. I thought some time for reflection would be best. The summer tweed is a little hard on the hands and I have more exciting things on the needles at the moment so I just haven’t picked this back up.

Baby Surprise Jacket – Speaking of more exciting things… I can barely put this down. It’s super easy but the construction is so unusual that the project holds my interest. And Sarah’s very soft yarn certainly doesn’t hurt.

New…

Lavender Stripe Socks – I haven’t done much with these since NYC. Finishing the Charades was my first priority but in the name of packing light while not wanting to risk running out of project, I grabbed these for my travels.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The time suck that is Ravelry.

I received my Ravelry invite this weekend. (Eeeee!!!!) And I am in love. It is the obsessively organized knitter's dream come true. Even if you aren't obsessively organized, it's an awesome resource. I've barely scratched the surface but I have seen enough to know that all the wonderful things people are saying are true. Get on the waiting list now.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Tempting Fate

Bill tells me I am obsessively practical. While I do not always appreciate this assessment, he’s totally right. (Last weekend is a very poor indication of my usual behavior.) So I have these jeans. The top fly button loosened to the point that I could remove it entirely. Since I could wiggle it back on securely enough, the jeans stayed in my drawer. Granted, they were taken out of the normal rotation but not discarded entirely. I will admit to wearing them on occasion. (They are still cute and you can’t see the falling off button!)

So this morning, it was raining hard when my alarm went off. I am a sucker for morning rain. It makes me want to curl up in bed with some tea and knitting. When I rule the world, people will not have to leave the house when it is raining. People will also not have to leave the house when it is snowing and will not have to work when it is nice outside, so my economy might be in for collapse but I digress. I was running late this morning and those jeans were the only pair in my drawer.

This afternoon I visited the ladies room and when I pulled my pants back up, the button was gone. It was there when I came in and unbuttoned my pants. It did not fall off in my hand. I did not hear it hit the tile floor. It was just gone. I looked on the floor as carefully as one can without actually getting down on the icky work bathroom floor and the button was nowhere to be seen. I stood there in disbelief, hoping to avoid pants related catastrophe for just a few short hours.

An entirely foreseeable and preventable pants related catastrophe, that is. Since I am fortunate enough to own multiple pairs of pants, there are really only two reasonable actions when one encounters an “oh, I can wiggle this critical pants-holding-up button out of its home” situation. 1. Throw the pants away. 2. Repair the pants in a more permanent fashion than simply wiggling the button back on.

Later that afternoon, I had a creepy crawly feeling down my right leg. I shook my leg and out fell the button. I went to the bathroom and wiggled it back on. When I got home, I promptly threw the pants in the trash.


Stupid button. Stupid inability to throw cute jeans away.