December 2005 Archives

The New Year is coming and people are posting their reflections of the year in the past and their goals year to come. Well. To Recap this year, which treated me fairly well, hmmm. I finished off my Capstone Project Course and learned a lot about people and their interactions, not just project management. Applied myself more which is one of my long term goals... Began the year somewhere in March by becoming a less than grand friend who was always "busy" and forgot about others then was able to turn that around later in the year (hopefully my friends will agree).

To come, my New Year's resolution is almost always to execute more. Or in Freecia's terms of abstraction - don't be a lame-o. It's not the resolution that so much matters to me, it is just that you have to strive to be better. It is an active process which you've got to make yourself do, and by making yourself do things, well, that's already beginning the execution stuff.

Oh Rain. Right. Wow has it been raining. I'm a solid sleeper and it has been waking me up at night.

The last week has been a fun one.
- Went to the Embarcadero Palo Alto nature preserve with friends and actually enjoyed myself outside. OK she went birding with her big spotting scope and I had knitting. But hey, it was enjoyable time well spent. You and me Robin, we can do this nature thing if I can bring the woolies.
- Saw the family once for Christmas where I proceeded to explain proper care for woolens. Saw my aunt and uncle for my Aunt's Birthday. She's had a joyful life well spent and that makes me happy (but she is by no means old, either. Just saying, it is easy to love those who are happy in life)
- Full Thread Ahead had a fashion show and I wanted to blog it and label it "Grope Me" because people love feeling the South West Trading Company stuff while the model struts down the aisle. Except, well, it'd have been in poor taste and maybe humor to most (except all Knit Bloggers, who probably accost strangers in the Supermarket and Gas Station while looking at their possibly homemade sweaters)
- Met with friends last night where we did our Christmas Exchange and chuck wrapping paper at each other event. We had major LOOT. MAJOR LOOT. And then we went out for a late night pizookie which is a cookie in a pizza pan with ice cream on top. I like the White Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts one.
- Tonight we go for M's Birthday party and I've been pumping her full of "you're gonna love this birthday gift because it is so unexpected" remarks. Not hints. More sledgehammer of awesomeness. So I hope she likes it.

Those who have had the misfortune to live with me know that I'm a terrible weenie when I get sick. Oh yes, not only do I sit about and mope creating little pyramids of used kleenex, I complain like crazy.

And so, I tell you, I do not enjoy sinus headaches. With only one nostril working-- but still, what's with this headache? Sick? Oh no I better not be.

Other things that have been happening is some late nite knitting occasionally accompanied by a few hours of MTV Cribs. This is one of my not-so-guilty-but-I-should-be-asleep pleasures. It's not a show I tivo or catch religiously, but if I see that it will be on, I'll watch tv until it comes on. Yes, just so I can mock some star(let)'s need to prove themselves with Cristal and weird looking tires. Not to say I don't covet some of the nifty things they have like sunken bathtubs, industrial stoves, and stainless steel sub-zero's... But as much as it is to see these occasionally interesting homes (hello, you make $300k+ a year, what do you do with that? buy 3 plasma tv's, a tricked up car, and a pool table. Yo. You might as well just trash a manhattan hotel room and pick a fight at Spago's to say you've made it) it is fun to see who feels like they must maintain an "image". Who actually shows their family, a stocked fridge, and is polite when asking MTV to leave. Or on the other hand, which people felt the need to rent actors to populate their pads... Which leads me really to wonder, do most of these people just not have offices? No books? No computers? What do they do, send their assistants home with the iBook to load up their equally hip iPods?

Another holiday project got closer to completion today. Not that that's so extremely exciting just to say, 'cause there's no photos... But hey, it always gives me a nice little "whew!" to cross off one more item from the holiday knit list.

I skip cribs and go bed now.

Tonight was the first knit night I've made it to in a while- you know, with finals and working on Mondays in the shop. Today, however, was special! Amy, one of the knit ladies and an instructor, formally announced her engagement and coincidentally, we had our holiday Potluck. Hollis ordered pizza, brought out some Bubbly, and the rest of us brought appetizers and desserts. Me? Last minute trip to the local epicurian supermarket produced some Baklava. Hey, it was baklava or the mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and I'm not SuperEggplant's Mariko so the Baklava won. Yummmm.

Not knit? What? Nooo, not me. I have a few secret projects under wraps:) Here's something I picked up because I couldn't resist: A skein of Artyarns in a green variant (I've been really into the greens) and it said "hat! hat! hat! me me hat!" Or maybe that was the yardage. So here's a picture of what it looked like before I knit another two inches, noticed a mistake an inch back, and ripped in search of giving myself grey hairs and bags underneath my eyes. Oh pattern. Right-
Nautilus by Marnie Maclean

I worked on a bit more since then and 1 skein might be enough. Of course, this hat calls for #6, but the yarn calls for #7's and I happened to have the 7's on hand (you'd think working in a yarn shop, I'd have plentiful access to all needle sizes but they sell really well!) so I used what I had. My eyelets are kinda gigantor....

In any case, a bunch of knitters reassured me and admired the hat without even being asked to (hah. you know you do) Orrrr... Maybe it was the yarn. It is suitably lovely to knit with and gorgeous- only $9 a skein, too! For a handpaint?!! What a great deal. Throw in superwash and I love me some Artyarns.

Lastly, did you know that the Lantern Moon Sheep Tape Measures has an adorable lone black sheep in every bag? I keep on resisting "baaaa!" in voices luring me towards it. They have a new tape measure in the shape of a bee, too.

The hat is calling!

Oh yes Dear Reader,

I filed for Graduation today since I'm due to be done with Grad School in the end of March 2006. Any education without its own trials, tribulations, and most hated courses wouldn't be much of an education. In any case, there is much I have learned but possibly one of the most useful thoughts to ponder was a quote from Ray Kehoe, professor of Software Engineering:

Your job is to make your boss' job easier.

Perhaps you think your job is to get your work done, but looking at it stated in the manner above, doesn't it make you think about the needs of those other than you? Instead of thinking of it as "the boss told me to do this" you can ask yourself "what does the boss need done?". It may seem funny but this comes into play even at Full Thread Ahead. There's quite a lot of action going on behind the scenes- reordering, restocking, meeting new demands, and all the while multitasking while serving our clientèle. The other day Hollis said "That's what I want to see- show some initiative. I don't want to have to do everything" and I think that's true for most employers. Hollis used to work in high tech and was on the upper levels of the food chain so I know she has more experience with office politics than I do. Still. No one except for Ray ever told me so clearly or honestly what I should aim for and I thought I'd pass it on. The #1 lesson most college graduates should know but are never told. "Make your boss' job easier."

Commencement will be in June of 2006. The big difference between commencement at SCU and UCD? SCU is an upscale affair with booze.

Awwww. He just got up from a nap so his hair is sticking up.

He and his momma left sweet comments, too.

Ah the weather. Even in California it makes a good conversation piece. It has rained on and off these last few days but today there was thunder.

Just how unappealing was it outside?

See for yourself:

No really. It may not look it but you know how hard it is to get a photo of rain with a point and shoot camera. Here's a video taken with the little movie function of my digicam.

-- see the video link above.

And for actual knitterly content today, I give you a houndstooth stitch ponchette for my mom. It will keep her warm in the house because, possibly also because we live in California with 40-60 degrees (F) being the cold point, there is a conspicuous lack of heater usage. Which also kinda explains why I'm wearing my down coat indoors. The pattern is based on the Houndstooth Poncho in Weekend Knitting

Currently I have four balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool and am knitting this up on my Denise #15 but with the way this stitch uses up yarn, i'm guessing I'll need double that amount of yarn and a good blocking. Maybe I should just pin it out and leave it outside for 10 minutes... Then bring it inside to dry.

Here's the close-up:

I think this stitch would also make a very nice men's scarf and you might be able to get away with using DK weight and #9+ needles.