I wrestled with whether to make a post in regards to the results of the election. I do feel a sense of hope, and renewed faith in my fellow countrymen (and women). I feel like we just climbed to the top of Mt. Everest, and for a moment we get to bask in the glory of inspirational beauty and victory. It was a hard climb up; not one that just anyone can make. I watched Obama's speech last night, and made a mental note of my particular milestones so that in 50 years when I get asked where were you when I'll have an answer. There is that voice in the back of my head though.

Anyone who's ever done any hiking knows that the journey down the mountain can be a lot more physically exhausting and painful than the trip up. You think fighting gravity is bad going up? Try slowing it down. In my heart I hope, am inspired, and am ready for change. In my head I wonder how this will happen, and how he'll keep enough of his promises to keep the hope alive. That voice tells me he's just a politician. Roughly two thirds of the way through the speech last night I looked at DH and said, "The man can give a speech. We'll see what else he can do, but he can definitely give a speech."

Lines...

So, I've already voted. I waited in line from 6:06 to 6:47 am. This is how much knitting I accomplished.



I was number 42. The last 4 elections I've voted in (2 being congressional and 2 being presidential) I've never been in the actual voting place for more than 5 minutes. It's weird being in a swing state.

Someone is wrong on the internet.

Only today it feels like everyone is wrong on the internet (close to everyone anyway).

Except me, of course.

In the interest of full disclosure; this last sentence especially is full of sarcasm.

Sources:
http://xkcd.com/386/

More work stuff

Since the last "What I do all day" post went well I thought I'd share another one. Though I have to admit I didn't have much to do with either of these other than printing some of the graphics for the car. They're definitely some of the more interesting things we've put out at the shop lately.


This is a brand new white Scion. It took my boss and two other guys 3 days to complete this wrap. There were some interesting moments, but overall it went really well. Since being complete they've asked us to take the view through vinyl on the windows off as the woman who normally drives it says she has trouble seeing through it. The back window now sports a smaller Member One logo done in vinyl.

The other somewhat interesting one; the pictures aren't as good (I didn't take them) but you get the point.


The reason this is so interesting (to me anyway) is the graphic on the end there. That's all vinyl. Probably about 1000 various pieces. For anyone that doesn't know this type of vinyl has an adhesive side and comes on a big roll. There's vinyl you can print on (like what was used on the Member One car) and vinyl that you send through a plotter and it gets cut to whatever shape was put in the computer. So this little graphic had to be weeded (meaning pull the excess vinyl off the backing paper, but leave the image that was cut) then a weak masking tape is put over the whole thing to keep it in place while you pull the backing paper off and apply it to...whatever. I helped weed some of it. It was a nightmare. The little tiny pieces didn't want to stick to the paper, and it was hard to weed the excess without ripping the image. Then, you'll notice there is some gold detail in the graphic. That's a whole separate thing. If you could touch it you'd feel each individual piece. The installer did a great job making sure all the pieces fit together perfectly.

Anyway, maybe not terribly exciting to most, but I like it. :)

The prodigal blogger returns

Bliss is done. Heavyweight STR, 2 skeins, and lots of entrelac. It'll be a long time before I want to do entrelac again, but I'm glad I did this. It just got to be really boring, and hard to work on towards the end (ok, the middle and the end). My other two wips right now are Salto, and the February Lady sweater. I know just about everyone in the internet knitting world is making this sweater, and I can see why. It's fun, easy, and extremely cute. I'm making mine out of Malabrigo the pearl colorway. I'm already dreaming of some shell buttons to go with it.

It does have a little more pink than the picture shows, and is coming along nicely. The sock has been trying my patience since Sea Socks. I keep doing the cables backwards. I think it may be some of dyslexia coming out; I just can't seem to follow the directions. As a matter of fact if you look closely and see that I'm in the middle of knitting the cable back up to where the rest of the stitches are because, I knit them backwards. I will have a beautiful pair of socks...eventually. This picture really doesn't do the color justice. It's much brighter in person. This is Neighborhood Fiber Co. that Pam gave me before we left on the cruise.


I bought a new wheel. I sold my Kromski to a girl in my knit group before I left on the cruise for some extra spending money since I never spun (and really didn't get along with it). Then I visited Emma (also on the cruise) in Seattle, and she tempted me with her Lendrum. It was love at first site...maybe that should say spin? I wasn't going to cave then I noticed Nikki from my knit group had one, and it was all over from there. It's a lot of fun, and so much easier than the Minstrel. That wheel just wasn't for me. I've been spinning up such a storm that I've joined the Tour de Fleece (also prompted by Emma) and have already spun my beginning yarn today. I don't foresee spinning every day to be a problem except that we're going home the weekend of the 11th. I just have to decide if I want to drag the wheel home, or just take the spindle. It'll probably be the wheel. So my first few skeins of handspun are looking pretty good.


They're posted in order. The red is some mill ends merino that came with the wheel. The middle is some superwash bfl (I think?) that I bought at PKF from Artsygal. The last is some Targhee that was a lot of fun to spin, and is definitely more consistent than the rest. The last two are navajo plied which was so much easier than I thought. Right now I'm spinning some superwash merino that I'm hoping to turn into a 3 ply sock yarn. We'll see how that comes out.

I think that's about all the knitting related content I have! I know I haven't actually talked about the cruise at all, but honestly I'm still at a loss as how to describe it. It rocked. The people, the places, the classes; it was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do it. I don't think I'll be making it this year for a few reasons. I will (along with DH this time) be trying to make more trips up to the Pacific NW as well as Alaska. They're just amazing places.

So what knit blog entry is complete without the cute kitties picture? This is so unusual I had to grab a photo. They're just not this cuddly or sweet to each other normally.

Anybody interested in what I do during the day?

This is what I did today. No, I didn't go to the hospital to visit a sick friend, or hang out. I installed that logo onto the tile wall behind the Information desk. I wish I had taken a picture or two of the before and during, but I think I would have annoyed my boss if I stopped halfway to snap a pic. I'm not even 100% sure she was thrilled about me taking this one.

It's kind of neat though; I notice signs & displays so much more now. I also notice how they are installed so badly. Subway is the worst offender. They always have lots of bubbles in their window films. Nothing that a little soapy water and a squeegee (or perhaps a credit/gift card) couldn't prevent. The last year I've been strictly in the printing/production department, so that's what I knew. Now that I've been promoted to designer/project manager (basically Carilion's bitch) I'm learning how much actually goes into signs. It's quite fascinating how much math is involved; especially when dealing with the formula that has to do with the angle at which a road side is still visible, and what size letters are appropriate for the median speed on that road. While I do a lot of boring same old same old signs, and deal with the politics of a hospital administration I also get to do stuff like this.

This is the entrance of one of four pediatric wings in the hospital. Each peds wing has it's own theme, and it's entire signage system is based on that theme. We didn't pick the theme, but we get to design the signs. Then I got to help install it. After sitting behind a computer all day working in a somewhat non-reality it's nice to go out into the field and see what you're doing on the computer actually works out IRL. It's basically a giant sticker that gets applied to the door and then the windows, push & kick plate get cut out. The really cool thing is the printer that printed it.

I do miss being part of production and running the printers on occasion. I think getting to go out on installs helps fill that void though. If I never saw/touched something completely finished I don't think I'd be a very happy designer.

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Dyslexic I am.

It wasn't until a day or two after my last post (and a few re-reads) that I realized I posted 'Stash your Flash' instead of the other way around. Oh well, you guys understood; that's all that matters.

So, I've been promising pictures of my entrelac baby blanket, right? Here it is. BMFA STR Heavyweight in Hoofle Foofle. Pay no attention to every picture currently on the internet of this yarn. It is not yellow. It's more of a dreamsicle orange. Luckily the mother I'm knitting this for likes orange as well as yellow. I like the pattern; it's pretty straight forward. Entrelac is a lot easier than it seems. If you can increase, decrease (specifically ssk and p2tog) and pick up stitches then you can do entrelac. So far I'm just supremely annoyed by how much I have to turn the work. I did teach myself to knit and purl backwards to help, but trying to do the mistake rib (not to mention an ssk) bacckwards has proved difficult, so I'm saving that for one side.

I also started a pair of socks from the yarn I talked about last week. It is rather springy, and fun. I also am trying 2 socks on 1 circ a la 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. So far, so good. I like the patterns in the book, and the method seems fairly straight forward. It's a method using a cuff down construction, so I think I'll likely be more successful since I understand how that works a lot better than tow ups. The pattern is a slip stitch, and I think it's going to be really cute in the yarn; I had a good 2-3 inches finished when I realized the socks were going to be too small for my feet. I ripped them out and started again; these are definitely for me cause I love this colorway.

This week's SPS comes to you from my friend Pam. Last August when she was showing me around her stash (and yes, I mean around) she pulled out a bin full of STR. I started pawing it as I had never seen so much of it in one place. I pulled out this particular color; oohing and aahing over. She told me to take it as she had never really been that into it anyway. 8D I had known this woman for less than 3 hours, and here she was *giving* me a skein of STR. Pam seriously rocks, and I'm way excited to be going on the SeaSocks cruise with her (and Emma, and Sobe). We're going to have a blast.

So, this is Pink Granite, and I'm pretty sure it's mediumweight. No clue when or what pattern, but it sure is pretty just sitting there in the mean time!