Sunday, August 30, 2015

Whirlwind

How in all of the earth could it possibly have been over a freaking month since I blogged?  I'm missing large blocks of time!  Quick, someone call someone!  I must have been taken ill and don't realize it.  Or I've been caught up in some sort of space-time continuum - abducted by aliens, perhaps.  Where is David Duchovny when you need him????

Or maybe I've just had a few things going on.  Like...

C.H.A.N.G.E.

And I don't mean loose change.  Like, real life change.  I know, becoming a grandma was a major life change but yes, folks, there's more.  Let me see if I can fill you in without boring you.

While my mom was here back in July, I mentioned in my last post that I'd taken a couple of Fridays off so I'd have long weekends with her.  Well, on one of those Fridays, I managed to drop off a resume at a financial planning/accounting firm on a fluke.  My daughter had noticed their sign which advertised they were looking for an administrative assistant, and she drew it to my attention.  I figured, why not?  What do I have to lose?  I also mentioned before that we were short-staffed again at the doctor's office and I'd be working OT every week (which did not make this lady happy at all), so again, I said, why not?  And here's what's funny...

I got the freaking job.  

No, seriously, I did a group interview, then a one-on-one interview a week later, and two weeks after that, voila!  I started a new job.  If I hadn't actually gotten a paycheck from the new job this past Friday, I may have remained convinced that I was dreaming.  Yay!

So, no more overtime; no more 30 minute drive (one way) to work; no more 30 minutes to scarf down a lousy hospital cafeteria lunch.  I get to wear normal clothes.  My new job is only 7 minutes from my house.  I work with wonderful people.  I'm back to my administrative and accounting roots.  So far, so good.  Ask me again during tax season...the honeymoon phase may be quite over by then.

In the midst of all of this, I've actually managed to continue knitting.  First, I was on a dishcloth kick.  I think I was missing Paul's grandma.  I completed three of them:


After these, I ran out of cotton and decided I NEEDED to get some more, so I ran to my local Hobby Lobby and picked up this:


I shall make more.  Indeed.

I also decided I needed to make Nora a winter jacket to keep her warm this winter.  I found a really cute pattern, Snug by Hinke.  I did a prototype to begin because I wasn't sure I could pull this off well.  The pattern has some interesting construction elements.  It is knit entirely in garter stitch, vertically instead of horizontally.  I found after working the prototype, I was not "getting" how the hood construction was supposed to come together, so I ignored the thing for over a week, then did what makes perfect sense:  I went ahead and started the one for Nora.  Um...yeah.  The good news is, when I got to the hood construction for Nora's jacket, it became clear all of a sudden and behold, a jacket was born.  I'm shipping off Nora's tomorrow, which I'll show you in another post, but here is a picture of the prototype:


It's not completely finished, but I'll keep it around for the next little boy baby who needs to be kept warm.  Incidentally, I found that this different construction ended up being about the easiest thing I've encountered.  I think the provisional cast on freaked me a little when starting it but no more.  I've become quite good at a provisional crochet cast on.  

I have much more to share, especially on the knitting front since I've actually gotten quite a bit done over the last couple of weeks, and since I've gotten through the first two weeks of the new job, I hope to have time to tend to this blog.  

Until next time,
Lisa