Getting Better

My first day at the Spinnery was good. I came home smelling of lanolin, wondering how a cooperative can possibly make timely decisions, and eager to go back tomorrow. I spent most of the day twisting and labeling skeins, with brief interruptions to ball three skeins for a customer and pose for an impromptu photo shoot ("You look about the right size. Here, put on this sweater and come outside."). The people are great, the work appeals to me, and I get to inhale wool fumes all day. This job is a good fit for me. I hope it lasts.

Well, that sucked.

I broke up with Erik last month. He didn't take it well, and things were getting a little dicey as I was scrambling to find a new place to live, going to job interviews, and dealing with daily harassment about the living situation, financial issues, and random other crap.

On Sunday the 4th, I came back from a weekend with my family, and the harassment began anew the moment I walked in the door. After 20 minutes of begging him to leave me alone with no positive result, I called 911. The Troopers who responded suggested that I pack a bag and go somewhere else for the night, and as soon as they left, that's exactly what I did. The next day, I went back with the intention of talking about the financial issues and even handing him a check, but he stopped me before I even got in the house and told me I had to leave because he'd filed a restraining order. He said it was because I "escalated" the situation by calling 911 the day before.

I dealt as best I could for a day or two, relying on family and friends for clothing and a place to stay. I made arrangements with the State Police to go get some of my things (more clothes, some food, the crock pot, one of the spinning wheels, etc.) and prepared for the hearing, scheduled for this morning.

Turns out that courts overbook dockets the way airlines overbook flights, counting on a certain number of people not showing up. They didn't count on so many showing up this morning, so they had to prioritize the cases they heard and continue (postpone) the rest... including mine. The new date is May 5th. As soon as that was decided, I made arrangements to pick up a few more things (computer, cookware, etc.) this afternoon, and I am now set up with the bare essentials (plus some knitting) in my cozy new place.

Erik is making noise like he wants to drop the restraining order, which would make everybody's life a whole lot easier, but I'm not counting on him following through. I'd love for him to prove me wrong, though. He seems to think I was "kind" today when I came to get my computer, and while I'm not sure what he's smoking, I'm not going to argue. I just want to collect the rest of my things (which will require a large U-Haul and several helpers), get on with my life, and see where things stand in, I dunno, six months or something. There is no way I'd date him again, since we seem to bring out the absolute worst in each other, but I'd consider being on speaking terms if he can show me the respect I deserve.

For now, though, I just want to get on with my life. I've been hired by Green Mountain Spinnery to work in production, and I start tomorrow at 9:30! The wage isn't much more than minimum, but the fiber discount is 50%, so I may have trouble not spending my paycheck on yarn.

My fortune cookie tells me, "soon you will be sitting on top of the world." The one before this told me, "you look pretty," and I'm beginning to think that Chinese food should be mandatory when I'm depressed. Those little slips of paper wrapped in sweet cookie are wonderfully uplifting.

Back to knitblogging any day now, I swear.

Oh, I'm planning on being at CT S&W on the 24th. Who wants to meet me there or ride along from anywhere along 91?

Low Point

We were out of power for about two days, took a few years off the life of the fridge by running it off the truck's inverter, and were surprisingly productive. Now the snow is melting, mud season is starting, and I should be feeling better. Sadly, I'm not.

Depression has been weighing me down a lot lately, nudging me to sleep more, knit less, and spend way too much time reading threads on Ravelry. The causes and triggers are numerous; things like my birthday, my one-year anniversary on unemployment, and ongoing relationship issues all fuel this feeling of hopelessness that's so difficult to conquer. I keep trying to do things to break out of the cage, but they never quite work the way I hope they will.

For example, I started looking at colleges, because I regret not having the discipline to get my degree years ago, and I found a place that I fell in love with as soon as I set foot on campus. It's beautiful, it's small, it's relatively inexpensive (for a private school), but I still can't afford it, because student loans don't pay my car insurance or storage unit fees, and I'm not confident that I can do full-time school plus a part-time job and survive with my sanity intact. I did full-time job and part-time school for a few months back in '07, but that was trade school, which meant no homework or studying.

So, once again, I've fallen in love with an idea that probably isn't feasable. But how could I not fall in love with a place like this?





In an effort to give myself some confidence, I've started an ambitious project: Marianne Kinzel's Rose of England Design.



I know it doesn't look like much yet (that's part A... for those unfamiliar with the design, the large version ends with part M and is supposed to be 72" in diameter), but I only started yesterday. Maybe I'll have it done for Rhinebeck!

In the meantime, I'm going to write a cover letter for a job that intimidates me, re-write a college entrance essay, and do some sewing. Happy thoughts appreciated.

Buried

We're buried under more than two feet of snow and have been without power since 7 this morning. The nice lady at the power company told us that we might get power back tomorrow, but since most of southern Vermont is out, it may be into the weekend before we're hooked up again.

Wish us luck.

New Year, New FOs!

Hi there, 2010. I'm still unemployed, still broke, still trying to figure out what to do with my life, still living in Vermont (which is the first good thing on this list), and still knitting. I've been mightily stressed lately, and rather than make things for myself that will be forever associated with that stress, I've made a gift for my friend Allison's impending little one (ETA: about six weeks from now).



I've also made a wee feather-and-fan hat to go with it, but I haven't taken a picture yet. The yarn is one skein of Fiesta La Luz (100% silk) that I got on clearance at Webs a few years ago, the buttons are vintage mother of pearl from my late grandmother's stash, and the pattern is Victoria Jane. The hat pattern is Lacy Baby Hat.

I also finished a long-awaited project, for which I must now write the long-awaited pattern: version 2 of my Greenery Hat!



The most common complaints I heard about the first Greenery Hat were that it was too tight and too tall. Version 2 addresses both of those problems. See?



Writing the pattern is taking some time, since I lost my notes somewhere between Connecticut and Vermont, so I'm having to reverse-engineer my own pattern. I'm not even going to hazard a guess at when it'll be finished... like the late, great Douglas Adams, I'm all too familiar with that whooshing sound deadlines make as they zoom past. That said, I know some of you have been waiting for this pattern since 2007, so I'm going to put it as high on my priority list as I can without sacrificing food and rent.

Time for me to head off to the diner for SnB. Happy knitting in the new year!

Done Like Turkey

I'm happy to say that, after years of suffering from a terrible case of startitis, I have finally begun a trend of actually finishing my knitting projects. As a result, I have lots of pics. As always, click to embiggen.

Remember the LemonEgg shawl that I started something like two and a half years ago? Well, it's finally finished!





It's warm and cozy and... yellow. What else can I say?

I also made two Christmas stockings, both decorated with needle felting. One was for Erik:



...and one was for Sassafrass, my greyhound:



Sassy is usually seen with her tongue hanging out these days, so, at Erik's suggestion, I added a tongue to her stocking.



The Open Knotwork Lace scarf I started in April of last year is finished!



The pooling is wonky, but it's KnitPicks, so I'm not surprised.

I made a Malabrigo hat...



...with a hole for my ponytail!



And I crocheted a snowflake that I then starched and used as a tree topper.



I'm trying to pull out something from the UFO box every time I finish a project and work at least a few rows on whatever it is, so maybe you'll see some other long-neglected projects pop up here as FOs.

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas, Solstice, Festivus, or other holiday of your choice, and have a fantastic new year!

Better Late Than Never

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted. I'm sorry! I know y'all are sick of reading about how busy my life is, so I'll just make with a post, okay?



FO! These are CanCans from Twisted Loops, and they're one of the fastest projects I've ever done. I had some issues with the twisted stitches... one direction wouldn't twist properly, and I couldn't figure out whether it was me or the pattern. After two failed attempts I gave up and worked them as cables, and everything came out fine.

I'd love to tell you about my other FO, one that I've been working on since April of last year, but my shared connection is being commandeered for a game download, so I can't upload the pictures to Flickr. I'll try to remember to get them up later tonight and post about it tomorrow.

Dinner time! Remind me to gush about my new slow cooker in the next few weeks.

The Rhinebeck Report

I have loved Rhinebeck every year I've gone... until this one. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the fact that I went by myself and didn't see any of my friends, maybe it was that I only went on Sunday this time, maybe it was the feeling that none of the vendors had The Perfect Item that called out to me from across the fairgrounds, but whatever it was, Rhinebeck was just no fun for me this year.

The weather was crap. It was overcast when I left Vermont, drizzled through most of Massachusetts, flurried a little on the Western side of the Berkshires, and was a light, steady, dreary sprinkle the rest of the day. The only highlight was on my return trip when I crossed Hogback Mountain and found that at the highest elevations it had snowed just enough to stick to the trees but not the ground... a beautiful frosting on autumn foliage. The temperature was in the high 30s, the breeze at the fairgrounds was just strong enough to be annoying, and the amount and type of clothing that had been more than sufficient in years past proved less than adequate today.

Every year I have found at least one person to hang out with, whether it was my partner or an SnB buddy, and even though I experience the festival in a different way when I'm not alone, it's usually been a good thing that I had someone to interact with. This year, when the RV plans fell through and my partner caught a nasty cold, I decided to go by myself. I figured I'd run into a friend or two at the festival, which turned out to be a silly assumption. I saw two faces I recognized, both tangential friends I wasn't comfortable glomming onto for the day, and that was it. I was looking out for a bunch of folks, but didn't find them, and was very sad that I, who usually consider myself something of a loner in a positive way, was... lonely.

I don't know if the vendors didn't bring as much of the good stuff this year, or that my Sunday-only trip meant all the good stuff was already gone, but nothing really jumped out at me this year. This doesn't mean I didn't buy a few things, of course. It is, after all, Rhinebeck, and even with my crappy financial situation I managed to budget a little bit for a fibery splurge that will get me through to next summer.



On the left are two Merino braids from Stony Mountain Fibers, one peach, one violet (my mother loves this blend of colors, saying it reminds her of asters, and that's now what I think of every time I see it). On the right are an evergreen Corriedale hank and an autumn-colored Merino-Tencel mini-hank from Mountain View Farm, whose Corriedale has jumped off the rack at me before. (And speaking of that two-year-old Corriedale, it's still in Jenny's studio waiting to be spun. Hmm.)

I spent only three hours at the festival. I walked the barns twice, got an artichoke without having to spend more than five minutes in line, burned my tongue on some exceptionally tasty hot chocolate, watched the Punkin Chuckers warm up, and couldn't quite find the motivation to stick around any longer, so I was off the grounds and on my way back to Vermont a little after 1pm, which has to be a record.

So has this soured me against Rhinebeck? No, of course not. One mediocre experience is not enough to make me stop attending one of the best fiber events in the Northeast. I will be back next year with the same excitement and anticipation that I've had in years past, and I trust the festival to maintain its reputation.

But it had better be sunny next year. Just sayin'.

Third Time's The Charm?

I didn't even come close to getting enough sleep to make the drive to Rhinebeck today, so it looks like I'll be going on Sunday after all. See y'all there!

Plans Adjusted

So... that RV trip to Rhinebeck that I was so excited about? Not happening. Between last-minute schedule conflicts and illnesses, it was down to just two of us, which wasn't cost-effective. So instead of the fantastic multi-day extravaganza I was planning, I am only going to be going to the festival on Saturday (sorry, SFF!!!) and then resting on Sunday. I've been doing a lot of multi-hour car trips lately, and between the cost of gas and the stress on my back and legs, I need to cut back.

For those of you going to the festival on Saturday, keep an eye out for my neon pink vest and come say hi.

Pics of recent knitting to come soon!