Busy little stressed out bee.

  So I have been pretty good at keeping track of all my stitching for most of the month, but this last month was kind of crazy.  Got to deal with stuff at work that I shouldn't have had to.  Way more stress than is needed and I have deiced to seriously look elsewhere.  This all lead to days where instead of coming home and working on something, as I should have, I kind of just vegged in front of the TV.
  I have also finally started working on something for an anime convention that is coming up.  I have had this thing planned out since two years ago.  This means that I have sewed a seam that is over 386 inches twice now.  I need to sew it one more time to get it to lay the way I want it to.  Kind of crazy now that I have done the math.
  Once the con is over things should be able to settle down a little bit more.  I can't make any promises, but that is usually what happens.

  Though I did not hit 50,000 stitches this month, I think I did a pretty good job of it.  Thinking it over now, March may have been a better month to try this, but doing a challenge isn't all about making it super easy on yourself.
  I am pretty tired of this patriotic stocking-cap I started though.  You would think I would be happy since I like knitting, but something about it has just gotten old about this project.  Like the scarf, I will push through until I start something new though.


Tuesday's count: 870
Wednesday's count: 270 (this is when most of the machine sewing happened)
Thursday's count: 1,012
Friday's count: 0
Today's count: 1,980
Monthly count: 42,282
Finished objects: 2

I wasn't hoping for that kind of encouragement.

  It is one thing if a boss encourages people, but it is another if they are encouraging people to run away as fast as they can.  I got in trouble today for not doing my boss's job correctly today.  Yup, you read that correctly.  I wasn't doing anything wrong in what I should be doing, but I was doing something that I am not technically allowed to (and have not been trained for) incorrectly.  It wasn't even something that was a big deal, the guy on store support was confused why we were even calling about it.
  This is one of the many final nails in the coffin that is encouraging me to find a better day-job.  I'm hoping that with some of the other jobs I am looking at I will have a few more moments to get some crafting done.  Even if I just have a shorter commute I will have more time to make things.

  Now that all the lame stuff from today is out of the way, here is some fun stuff from yesterday:

  This is the crochet woven scarf.  I tried to take a picture of the stitch in more detail, but I think I need an assistant to help hold it out.  It is kind of fun and spattered looking right now.

  Here is the hat I was talking about the other day.  I'm still thinking over if it is long enough or not.  You can see I still left the needles in, it is funnier that way.  I keep leaning more and more towards taking out all the decreases and adding at least one more pattern repeat.
  I also put fancy make-up stuff on my eye lids.  I have been doing that more and more.  It gets to be more and more fun the better you get at it.

  I have been going crazy with my "new" KnitPicks ball winder.  I love it, and not just because it is purple.  Though I have noticed that if I keep going too fast once it starts to get big I have the problem you see above. 

  I also had lots of plans for these little lovelies.  I have not used any of them for this yet.  I have another idea.  I was going to make a small and bigger dress so that a little girl could have a doll with a matching dress.  I have not sewn anything in a while.
  My new idea is to use a few of them with some of my leftover scraps and make some cute knitted and crocheted items for these.  Then I would just donate the doll all by herself.  They are also not hugely expensive so I'm not too worried about running out of them.


Yesterday's count: 4,164
Today's count: 0
Monthly count: 38,150
Finished objects: 2

Go me today!

  At work today I felt like I was being super awesome.  I was trying to sign-up people for classes but when the system went to give the bar code to scan at the register it was running into an error.  The recording said they had known about it since 11:30am.  I was trying to do all of this about an hour later than they made the recording.  The recording said that they were going to give a status update at 1pm if the problem was not fixed.  I told the people to wonder around and we would try again around 1pm.  We tried again and I gave a call around 1:05pm.  The recording had not changed and the problem was not fixed.  The guy on support told us that we could have the people buy a gift card and we could use that to pay for the class so they didn't have to hang out for some undetermined amount of time.
  Around 3:30pm I tried to print the barcodes again and it worked.  So I pulled out their gift cards and ran it through the register.  I then gave everyone a call and put all of their receipts in a safe place.  I feel like I was being super awesome today!

  One thing I was not awesome at today was taking pictures.  It was over cast when I was at home though.  It got sunny out a little, but I was at work so I couldn't drop everything and take pictures.  It was dark by the time I left.  Hopefully I will get some done tomorrow.



Today's count: 1,030
Monthly count: 33,986
Finished objects: 2

I got stood-up, again!

  So last week I mentioned that one person who signed up for a crochet class did not show up.  Yesterday was the second day and the day that the second person was supposed to show up.  She did not.  I was looking forward to teaching that class too.  It was a super easy one, but I thought it was still going to be fun.
  Though speaking of fun, I finished a super fast project.  Well, I sort of finished it, realized I had a weird amount of yarn left, took it all out and then remade it with more stitches.  I just need to weave in some ends and add some over-sized buttons.

  Today was not as productive as I thought it was going to be.  I took Mr. Jag to the kitty-doctor and as far as she could tell he was doing fine.  There was some stuff they wanted to send off to get tests done on, but nothing out of the normal for a one year check-up.  He has lost about 5 pounds since last year's check-up.  The vet suggested that I bring him in some time to do another glucose curve.  Since he has been losing weight I have not had to give him as much insulin.  When he came to my house he was 20 lbs and got 2.5 units per day.  We are down to one unit per day and with the recent loss we might be able to go down again.
  Bill and I did go and see Mordecai today.  I really liked the movie.  It was a very cute and funny movie.  I suggest it.

  I was going to start another Multidirectional Diagonal scarf(Ravelry link) but then I thought about how much I would need to keep track of and how much adding would be needed during some parts of the scarf.  I know that once I get one triangle done I could figure out how many stitches there were and just add them together, but I like being able to just take one number and multiply it.  This way I won't have to worry about stopping at some random point in a triangle.
  I started a patriotic stocking cap.  I have had the yarn sitting in my dinning room for a while.  It has been looking at me really sadly lately.  The navy blue looks almost black though.

  Hopefully sometime this weekend there will be some sun and I will be able to take pictures of some finished things.  They are starting to pile up over here!


Yesterday's count: 872
Today's count: 2880
Monthly count: 32,956
Finished objects: 2

Like back in the day!

 So many things being interesting in their own ways today.  One of the things is that I've been volun-told to do is to lead a small group of people to make sure that my section of the store is clean and stocked.  I'm not sure where my section is yet, but I know I didn't volunteer for this.

  It is never a good sign when people throw you a party when you go to another job because they are happy you are getting out.  It isn't as bad for everyone, but some of us are very disenchanted.

  I went back to talk to the people about my phone issues.  I went to the battery place and they showed me that it wasn't the battery, it was really my phone being special.  The guy there was super nice and recharged my battery for me.

  At the cell store they tried to do a few things to bring it back to life.  They even pulled all the tricks to get it to restart that involved pushing a bunch of buttons at once.  The guy somehow got it to get to one of the special menus, but not the useful one.

  I was given some options, but they didn't impress me.  Since we have been with the same cell company for a while, both of our numbers are eligible for their new special deal.  The deal is that we would only have to pay $6 per month for the new phone for two years.  Then I would trade in my phone and get the newest model.  I asked her what would happen if I didn't want to trade in my phone after two years.  She looked at me like I was a crazy person.  After more asking I was told that we would be charged an extra $200.  It also took some direct asking to see if I could just pay off the $6 per month in one go.  Their whole draw is that you don't have to pay any money at the moment when you get the phone in your hand and that you only pay a little at a time.  Since it is my phone I would rather be able to pay for it and not have Bill pay for it.  Though if he really wanted to get me a phone I wouldn't say 'no,' I just don't want to trick him into it.

  It took about five minutes of asking how much it would be to just buy a phone.  Turns out if I don't use their magically loyalty deal I would have to pay full retail price.  That means over $650 for a phone.  No thanks.  Bill asked if there were any less expensive phones.  I said that unless I went back to the flip phone style, there was not.  They didn't even have older models for me to choose from.  It has been decided that we will phone hunt at some point this weekend.

  Also, if all else fails, Bill has an old phone with a cracked screen that he says I can use.  I am going to get a quote from the battery place on how much replacing the screen would be.  I like having all the information on all of my options.

  Crafting stuff has not been going much better.  On Sunday evening I started three projects.  All three needed bigger needles than I was using, but I only had the needles I needed for one of them.  I got most of it done and worried that I was going to run out of yarn.  I started decreasing before I was totally sure that the hat was long enough.

  I finished it and found out I had enough for at least two more pattern repeats.  Though I was tempted to pull all the decreases out last night, I was also kind of fed-up with trying to take out double decreases.  I asked Bill his opinion and he told me to try it on.  Then he laughed because I had knitting needles on my head.  Of course I had to wiggle my head and make them clink together.

  I also didn't do that math on the hat correctly from the beginning, so I think I will just finish the hat off and call it good enough.  I haven't totally finished it because I want to get more opinions, but it is dark out so I cannot take any good pictures right now.

  While that sits in time out I have started a project that makes me feel like a kid again, but not for the best reasons.  I am using US size 50s.  It makes me feel like I don't really know how knitting works and it is just super awkward.  I am going to push through if it works out.  If it does not, then it will go in the pile of yarn that I don't own the right sized needles for.

Day before's count: 1,680
Yesterday's count: 1,428
Today's count: 150
Monthly count: 29,204

Finished objects: 2

No steel pulling for me.

 I woke-up this morning and feel a lot more like myself again.  I think it is funny that the day I come out of my funk is on a day that is really cold and overcast.

  My local gun club is working on making a new range.  My dad is one of the big players in making all this happen.  Bill told me last night that they were planning on doing some "steel pulling" this morning and that we should go help out.  I grumpily agreed since it meant that I would have to get up early (for me) and I got home so late.  Well, when the time to get up rolled around my furry alarm tried to get me up, but my person alarm didn't.  Mr. Jag was extra lovey on my head for some reason, but settled back down when Bill got up.
  Later I asked about this and it turns out they didn't do it.  I was worried that I ruined Bill's plans for the day.  Looks like my plans were a go though.  Crochet and Netflix.  One of the reasons I have been focusing on this one project is that I am getting a bit bored of it.  Since I know how I am, I know if I put it down now, it might never get finished.  It will get to hang out with my Accidental Slytherin scarf in the kitchen.
  I also have a few chunky knit projects queued up to keep the fire under my heels.  I have been wanting to do some chunky things, but lacked the yarn up until recently.  A bunch of chunky yarn was put into the damaged area at work.  The only thing wrong with them was that they were naked.  The lack of band had caused some to come pretty unwound and I had a feeling people wouldn't want to buy them if they looked like they had been tampered with.  I got my manager to sell them to me at a damaged price.
  I know, I totally am lacking in yarn and need more.  Though in my defense, I do not have a lot of chunky yarn.  Now I temporarily will.  Though I don't think I have the right sized needles.  I will have to go digging for those.

 Bill and I went out to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner.  I love all the bubbly art all around the place.  There is also a You Are Here sign made with train tracks with some trains on them.
  I really liked the food, but Bill was not as impressed.  He thought they rolled the crust out too thinly under the main body of the pizza.  I thought it was just right.

  I also got the scarf finished, but I am going to wait for daylight before I get a picture.  I tried to start a few projects.  They both needed bigger needles than I tried to use.  One I have the larger needles for, the other I'm not as sure.  I usually don't like knitting with bigger yarn so I didn't really look for larger needles.  This seems to be coming back to haunt me.


Today's count: 3,332
Monthly count: 25,946
Finished objects: 2

Sad days are hopefully over.

  I'm not sure why, but for most of the past week I have been feeling down.  I would usually like to think that I can pull myself out of these little funks, but nothing that normally works has.  I did pretty make-up, I crafted on fun things, I hung out with friends for a bit, but nothing sunk in for more than a short bit.
  Earlier today I volunteered to stay late at work.  No idea why when all I wanted to do was go home and crochet while watching sitcoms on Netflix.  Okay, I do know why.  Saturday's are always crazy busy and crazy understaffed.  Since I stayed later than my 4-9pm shift I got a meal break.  I got one of the quinoa broth bowls from Panera.  I think I was missing food that was both good tasting and good for me.  Once I finished that I felt a lot more positive.

  These might look like regular Mylar balloons, but they are not.  My boss wanted balloons for the class open house that happened on the first weekend of the month.  I got to be the "lucky" person and do all the leg work.  I found balloons, got pricing, and then later bought them, and got them inflated on that day.  She wanted us to pop them at the end of the event and throw them away.  I got paid for them, but I felt my time was worth more than just popping perfectly good balloons.  I took them home with me.
  The latex ones lasted about 28 hours before they started falling.  These have been up for 2 weeks now!  I am impressed.  The sign at the balloon place said they would last between 2-3 days.
  Every time I walk by them I give their ribbons I kind of high-five.  I think they are trying to keep my spirits lifted.  Totally sappy, I know.

  I know, I know.  Still no picture of this scarf I have gotten so far on.  Though one thing I really like about it is that since the stitch count doesn't change I can add up the numbers a lot easier.  Instead of having to stop and keep a list I simply have to take the number of stitches and multiply it by the number of rows.  This is making things go a bit faster.
  I've also noticed I tend to be posting every other day.  I didn't plan on this, but it seems to be working.


Yesterday's count: 810
Today's count: 1,620
Monthly count: 22,614
Finished objects: 1