Stress Reaction

I love this idea. Spicing up the Saturday slump and the summer slowdown. Bringing something beautiful into the world one sunset (daybreak, rainy afternoon, whatever) at a time! Great idea Sandy!

Saturday Sky Día Dos

I lost a reader. Just for a day, but still, I found it distressing.

We all put ourselves out there, both with our words and our works, and we hope that people of like mind will find us interesting and skilled enough to come back and visit again. Many of us watch our bloglines numbers and experience that little (or maybe not so little) thrill as our readership increases. What I wasn't prepared for was the sense of unworthiness when I saw that I had lost a reader.

What had I done? Was I not a skilled enough knitter? Too slow with new posts? Boring projects? Was it a matter of (no, no, never this) uninteresting prose? Had I put too much of myself out there, or not enough (a balance I struggle with repeatedly)?!

Or, as is much more likely since I do it myself, was it that someone looked at their bloglines feeds, realized that reading 100 blogs a day is not exactly considered productive by their employer, and deleted a few who's projects or interests didn't exactly jive with their own?

But oh, the doubt!

So, the heat is on. The pressure is building. There will be knitting content shortly, and I need to post a picture of the Saturday Sky (maybe a sunset shot, since right now it's just a cloudless blue sky) (done). In the mean time, I will share with you something that my (sotto voce) nonknitting, nonblogging friend Terrisa sent me.

Hey, she may not be a knitter, but she so gets what stirs our little woolen hearts!

Don't even say it! I'm late. I'm lost. I'm completely overwhelmed! I am working on a post for (hopefully) tomorrow that will bring you all up to date on the current state of affairs at la casa de la reacción de la tensión. There is even knitting involved!

In the mean time, this really is a Saturday Sky. You just didn't get to enjoy it for twenty-four hours. Kinda looks like fleece, I thought.

Ya'll enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Saturday Sky Part Four

I know knit bloggers who post come rain, or sleet, or dark of night. Knit bloggers I much admire who not only blog but prodigiously knit through corneal erosions, transcontinental/transatlantic moves, medical school, design school and North American book tours.

So if you want to call me a wiener because I can't knit, spin, blog and quit a job all at the same time, I will humbly accept the sobriquet.

Because quit my job I have, and next to marriage and having children, I think it's probably been one of the biggest decisions I have made in my life. I've been with this same company for twelve years (longer than I've ever been married, come to think of it). I kind of feel like I am leaving family, as well as the position. The only person I won't miss is the Unhappy Woman. She is, in fact, the reason I even started putting out feelers in the first place; one of which hooked a wonderful offer which I couldn't refuse. This of course has made the Unhappy Woman even more unhappy because I am going on to something so much better. And in an odd sort of way, I have her to thank.

Don't you love Karma?

While there hasn't been much knitting going on, what with the quitting and preparing for the new job (not to mention the hell of a sinus infection in which minions of Satan have invaded my right maxillary sinus cavity and are attempting to bore their way out with red hot pokers, and the two huge bruises on each side of my arse from the honkin' antibiotic shots I received the past two days), don't think there hasn't been some fiber therapy to help me through the transition.

The "OMG I just resigned from my job of twelve years, but bigger salary equals more yarn!" fiber therapy! The third and seventh skeins received in trade from Amanda, and as of yet she has nothing to show for it, but she will soon, and I promise to tuck in some extra goodies to make it worth the wait!

The “When I get my life back I am going to make up for some lost spinning time.” fiber therapy! The first two bunches of roving also received from Amanda in trade and the above caveat still applies (and Amanda just rocks my crazy world because she is such a wonderful and patient friend)!

The “What little bit of knitting time I do have I am going to spend knitting with fiber and a pattern I really like.” fiber therapy! (From the “I don't always knit exactly what I want, but that's about the change.” school of knitting)!

And finally, the “I owe some people sock bags, and I have cut them out and will commence with the sewing forthwith.” fiber therapy!

Back in the Saturday Sky groove!

On the new job front--I've spent the last week getting acquainted with the computer system and unpacking supplies. Monday the real work begins! I'm both excited and nervous! At least the hair looks fabulous!

My rear on the couch may know it's Saturday, but it took most of the day for my brain to figure it out. This meant I had to break out the tripod to get my Saturday Sky photo for the week.

And I have to say, I was thrilled by all the flattering comments about my hair (we'll just ignore the snarky commenter with the God complex), but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that it only looks like that for about six hours every six weeks. Seriously, I figured it out. Six hours every six weeks means that 99.4% of the time it looks like this:

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit to fudging just a bit on this week's Saturday Sky. For example, it's taken with a cell phone (which I hate but was all I had available to me at the time), so the image is smaller and not as clear as I would like. But I thought the sky in this particular shot was just amazing. Another example of the fudge factor is that this was actually taken Friday afternoon. The appearance of the actual Saturday Sky can be seen here.

Mustn't forget the fun KSKS package the arrived this week. Ashley fashioned a beautiful bag in the loveliest colors and stuffed it full of wonderful goodies. There (were) two boxes of Hot Tamales (items listed in order of immediate use potential) a second small project bag (love the fishes, Ashley), two skeins of merino/silk KnitPicks Gloss in the Woodland Sage colorway and a skein of Socketta (cotton/wool) sock yarn all color coordinated and obviously thoughtfully chosen.

Today was the culmination of Frontier Days in Tecumseh, Oklahoma.

And we were in a parade!

There were, of course, horses. Lots of big horses. Lots and lots of big horses.

And a little horse.

There were fancy cars.

There were princesses.

And politicians.

All in the setting of small town charm.

Under a Saturday Sky.

Life is good!

The weekend was fabulously relaxing. I didn't really even go near the computer, so I thought I would combine the Friday Eye Candy and Saturday Sky posts in one weekend roundup.

This weekend heralded the grand opening of my new home away from home! Super Target!! (This would be the Eye Candy part)!

Makes me so happy. While they don't sell yarn, they do sell just about everything else. And higher end stuff too! Fancy dark chocolate, and a whole row of serve yourself Jelly Belly jellybeans.! (Apparently I am stuck in snack mode)!

Saturday evening the hubby and I packed some chairs and headed down to the park for a little Shakespeare in the Park, performed by the local community theater. The weather was fabulous. Warm light breezes, no bugs. (This would be the Saturday Sky part).

I knit on the TT socks until it was too dark to see, then, inspired by Romeo and Juliet, went home and put Shakespeare In Love in the DVD player and knit some more. Alas, no photos. I am just about ready to turn the heels, and since I am knitting them both at once on two circular needles, they should be finished up well before the deadline.

I've also just about finished spinning the alpaca and should be ready to ply the two bobbins either tonight or tomorrow. I'll be sorry to see the end of this, since it is the only alpaca in my fiber stash. Good excuse to shop, I'm thinking. Any of you spinners have a must try fiber or fiber seller, please leave me a comment.

Finally, I put in some reading time. I'm about half way through The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir. It's funny how attitudes change as we go through life. Never, when I was back in high school, would I have thought that I would enjoy reading history, and choose to read it for pleasure. But this book fascinates me. It is very well written and really brings to vivid imagination the Tudor court. I have The Children of Henry VIII and The Life of Elizabeth I to read as well. By then I should have my fill of the Tudor dynasty.

Another weekend has flown by. How does that happen? The week seems to drag on forever, then you blink and the weekend is gone? Personally I'm all for starting a petition for a 4 day work week. The motto could be: A Rested Worker is a Productive Worker.

It was another fabulous weekend. Saturday was our local Race for the Cure run in Oklahoma City. No pictures, loser that I am, but it was a beautiful day for it. It was sunny with mild winds and temps of 70 for the entire day (although it's a bit cooler early in the morning when the race actually occurs). My plan was to get a shot of the pink balloon arch that spans the starting gate of the race, but you will have to settle for the more traditional sky shot.

The weekend also included manna in the mail! My One Yard Fabric Swap pal treated me so right! Lynne* put together the most wondrous box of vintage fabric, candy and body care products I have ever seen. And she sewed me an apron! Just how cute is that?

Along with the apron and the beautiful chocolaty brown coordinated fabric and adorable sewing journal with pink pages (whee!) Lynne included some of the greatest smelling soap and hand lotion I have ever received (I am a lotion connoisseur Lynne, so believe me, I know)! From Blue Q, it's Chamomile and Fresh Thyme soap and Hand and Body Cream. The little pink and white purse was stuffed full of Memory Lane invoking candies such as Mamba, Pixy Stix, Slap Stix, “The Original" Smarties Candy Necklace, A Whistle Pop!!, and candy lipstick! So. Much. Fun.

And such cute boxes too!

Sunday it rained the entire day! The perfect day for cuddling up on the couch, watching movies and knitting. And that is precisely what I did. All day. The Toasty Toes socks are coming right along.

Nothing rocks harder than knitting two socks at once. Any sock knitter worth their salt just has to love it!!

*And yes that would be the same Lynne would knocked my socks off with the scrumptious sock yarn and hand knit socks to wear while knitting it during the Yarn Aboard swap back in September. It is indeed a small knit blogger world.

I know. I know it's Sunday! All I can say is that I am frequently chronologically challenged.

But I also have knitting content. So you are rewarded for your patience with me.

I am knitting with…wait for it…my own handspun alpaca!! (See, I actually hear that in bold italics in my head; that is how very excited I am to be knitting with my own handspun alpaca)!!

Specs:
Yarn: My own handspun alpaca!!*
Fiber Source: Rocky Mt High from Spunky Eclectic
Pattern: Branching Out from Knitty.com
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5

It's also time to cast on for a new pair of socks, and I have several picked out. I'm so ignoring the fact that I also have several pair already on the sticks, so please work with me here.

Or…

Any thoughts?

*Reminds me of when Brenda Dayne from Cast-on mentions Addi Turbo and the little turbo noise she plays.

You'd think that with these colors, I would be an OSU fan.

But I'm not!

We're going to the Big 12 Championship! Woo Hoo!!

My Wee Tiny Sock may be a day (or two) late, but it makes me so happy.