Plenty of Sunshine Today

I finished my "Ain't No Sunshine" socks. Thank goodness. While these are absolutely gorgeous, I don't think I'll wear them much. They represent an absolute hell of a month. I am glad they are done.

I emailed the company I am freelancing for and told them I would continue on the project but needed either more reasonable hours or better pay. The pay still isn't great, but it's better. The hours, remain crazy.

I am starting a sock now for Ravelry's SKA Knit-Along for Design Your Own. I had a really cool idea that is based in Cookie A's Kai-Mei socks; the gusset decreases don't have to be on both sides. So I'm going to try putting them right on top of the socks.

This means I have to do the entire cuff before I have any idea if my idea will work. But I'm really excited about it. I'm breaking out my favorite of the Wild Funnies yarn from my German shopping expedition. Will post more soon.

Detroit in 4 days!

Time to breathe

I finished my assignment last night at midnight. I thought I'd get the whole day off today, or at least until they can assign me something else. Sadly I woke up to an email asking me to "fix" some of my work- in a manor that I pretty much thought was a change in the parameter of the original assignment, or at least the way it was explained.

Oh well, not morning off. For 3.5 hours I worked my butt off to get this done by noon- I finished 3 minutes before then. (That's when they needed it by.)

So I've had some breathing room this afternoon. I vacuumed and did laundry- things that have been very neglected as I've been crazy for 2 weeks.

I did a bit of knitting. And I made a drawstring bag. I hope to make a few more of these, as a way to keep projects together. I can put them all in a basket upstairs, and Kevin won't know he is over run with yarn. This one is the perfect size for a ball of yarn and a sock in progress, but it doesn't fit the pattern. I need to make it a little bigger.

With it, my "Ain't No Sunshine" sock. I'm now at the point I was when I ripped the other one out. It's taken me 2 weeks to get there- the other sock took 3 days... I hope for more knitting time tonight, but we are going for sushi too! The sock blocker is one of the ones Kevin made for me.

No progress

Today was a day where nothing got done. I'm still ridiculously exhausted from not sleeping all week. Last night we went to the Robert Earl Keen festival at the Iowa City Arts festival. That was worth staying up late for (although, we were home by 11:00!!) It was a fantastic concert, though I must say REK needs to learn to enunciate a bit, some things were tough to understand, and Kevin and I knew many of the lyrics. He sang all my favorites (except Merry Christmas from the Family- but that's to be expected) and kept it fairly family friendly for someone who sings mostly about beer drinking. And I managed to experience something I never thought possible in Iowa- listening to someone make fun of Lubbock. I had a really great time, but it made me very homesick.

So back to today- I left open my work screen and got done today 1/3 of what I had to do on last Wednesday and Thursday, but that should get me a bit of a jumpstart on the week. I have 140 items due Thursday, for comparision last week I had 120 items in those two days (plus about 1 hour on Tuesday that I was able to work when I got the assignment). This week should involve much less lost sleep, if only I can sit down and be productive. Fortunately, this week is also a subject I'm less familiar with (so it's taking longer) but if I had this subject area first- I don't think I would have made it through last week in time. Additionally, I have an assignment with yet another company that I HAVE to get done by Wednesday- and that is writing, not just aligning. Writing requires much more creativity, and I'm having a bit of writers block as I've had so much exposure to items I think of a good idea, and realize someone else had it first. I just finished a month of lesson writing, so sometimes I'm the person who had it first- but you can't write the same thing for two companies.

I called about the job applications at ACT (for the Specialist positions) and they have them now (they didn't get them the first time). My former AVP called over to the hiring managers for me, so I'm hoping I at least get an interview. This is a high enough job, that even though it is hourly and would be a step down on the ladder it should be challenging enough to be interesting.

In knitting news- I'm about 2 rows further into my "Ain't No Sunshine" socks. Brown just seems a strange color to pick for these, but I think it looks pretty nice.

We are still dog sitting and I don't know how much this teeny 9 lb dog should be eating. He is used to at will feeding, and Elsa thinks that's a marvelous way to take his food, so we can't leave it down. He'll eat if I hand feed him, but if Elsa is outside (he is scared of outside unless we go with him) and we set it down, he'll eat ONE piece, and then stop. That surely isn't enough.

I need to go back to the "comically small portion diet" my weight is back on the rise. I refuse to be overweight again!

Lazy Monday

In knitting news: I cast(ed?) on for Sunshine, another Cookie A book pattern. Cookie A is without a doubt my favorite sock designer. Not only are all her socks gorgeous, they fit me :) We must have similar feet. For now, St. Moritz is sitting in time out where I decide if going back down to the tighter gauge was a good decision or not.

I met my friend Courtenay today for ice skating and shopping. We skated for about 30 minutes when my tendonitis in my right foot really started to bother me. It was likely because we were mostly doing laps, something I rarely do, and something that mimics walking more than other skating does. Walking does me in too. Anyhow, I hope the tendonitis isn't going to be a reaccuring thing, because I've been enjoying being pain free.

I goofed around and tried to do some figures- just circle eights on all 4 edges. HAHAHA. First off, after coming home I found out that the new tests require you only do 1 circle, and not retrace- so on my forward edges I'd likely be fine, on the backward edges I couldn't get enough speed and needed to toe tap down to push myself through the rest of the circle. When I tried to retrace though, I'd be spot on for just a little bit, then like 4 inches away from my tracing, then back on. I managed to always come back to the same center though :) But for anyone who hasn't done them FIGURES ARE HARD!

Before going skating I had a training meeting. This is the 2nd I've had (and the second company I've done freelance work for since I got laid off) if this is going to be a thing, I've got to find a speakerphone! Ouch my neck hurts, and it can't possibly be good for my shoulders to have to use them to hold the phone in place. I tried to you my hands, but it's hard to do that for that long.

Tomorrow is the EIFSC board meeting. I'm really debating if I should be a board member this year. Membership is due at the end of June- if I don't have a job, I'm not sure it makes sense to pay $75 for a club membership, especially since if I'm not taking lessons I definetly won't test- and that's really the only thing I need the membership for. But of course, if I'm not a member, I can't be on the board...

beep, beep. beep.

Today I have spent 3 hours sitting next to a timer going off every minute. I probably have another 2 hours to go.

This is so I can make a graph about how long it takes for water to cool from boiling to room temperature. After 2.5 hours of getting up each minute, I realized I could just set the pot on a potholder on the table next to the computer. It is a lot less annoying now, and I'm going to knit.