Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Month: March 2003

Timber Frame – 2

Timber Frame Vest before stitchingWoo Hoo! Today was my last day of work for 5, count ’em, 5 whole weeks! My (former) manager was still not talking to me, but I’m coming to terms that it’s him, not me. He chose to take my decision to move on personally, as a betrayal of our friendship, which it wasn’t. As a co-worker keeps reminding me, it’s all about me. Me, me, me, me, me … and my sanity, my health, my marriage, my goals, in short, me.

Anyway, guess how I’m going to celebrate my first day of the sabbatical? Yeah, the title and the picture (click on the picture for a larger view) gave it away. I’m going to sew up the sleeves and collar of the Timber Frame and, gasp, cut it. I finally got the last inch or so finished this evening, with lots of help from EliSpot. She kept wanting to crawl into the center of the body tube, which made it impossible to turn the work.

The stitches aren’t very even because of the two handed knitting. It got more and more even as I got used to it. I’m hoping that the uneven-ness will disappear once I wash it. See Timber Frame entry for a picture of the inside.

I know that I don’t want drop sleeves for the vest, but a more standard curved armholes. But I can’t decide it I want a V Neck or a rounded neck. I generally like a V Neck, but the last few days of scooting reminded me that I need to have something that helps block the wind at the V of my jacket. I’m not very good at remembering to wear one of my scarves. So, I think I’ll be going with the round neck line.

I still have some yarn left over. I think I will make a matching pill hat with it. If there are still leftovers, perhaps a pair of voodoo for next fall/winter.

On the spinning side, I’m working my way through hand carding and spindling 8 ounces of Suffolk that I got from my guild. The Golding spindle is an absolute joy to spin with.

Leave of Absence

I haven’t had much chance to update the blog lately. Too many things going on and not much to tell. Big project at work and it was consuming my life. After 43 months of this pace made me re-evaluate my life … so I quit. Well, sort of. I’m taking a leave of absence from work to figure out what I want in a new job. I either return in a new position in the same company or I don’t. I’m giving myself the entire month of April to figure it out. This way, I miss the entire quarter close drama (I support the financial reporting systems — or should I say, “I used to support …”?)

But now that the decision has been made, I feel much calmer. And it’s really odd to be only working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I don’t know when was the last time that I actually worked 40 hours a week with time to have lunch!

So, enough of the depressing news. Bush is doing enough of that for us. I don’t need to add more.

On to more interesting things … I took and passed my Motorcycle Safety class! Now I can rider my scooter (150cc Vespa) legally. It really was a fun class. I was given the option of taking the class (and the riding exam) on my scooter, but I opted to take it on one of their “real” motorcycles — a Suzuki 250cc bike. Considered small by motorcycle standards, but pretty big by mine (only my toes can touch the ground). It was one of those really cold, rainy, and windy weekends in Seattle — just another normal wintry day. I think I caught a cold from that weekend that I’m still fighting off.

Not much happening on the fiber front. I’m having a difficult time concentrating because of all the stuff at work. I work on a few rows of this and that and then I lose interested. I did finish spinning and plying the LL Tahoe rovings (10 oz., 1152 yards, navajo plied).

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some of the projects finished during my time off. I did sign up to demo at the Shepherd’s Extravaganza on Sunday, April 13th. If you are heading there, drop by and say hello! I don’t know what shift I’ll be doing yet.

That’s all for now. Ta!

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