Entries tagged with “sewing” from LJL Spins and Knits

Inertia. When I look this up in Dictionary.app, I see:

1 a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged : the bureaucratic inertia of government.

That is what I've been feeling for the past month or so. Of course, the fact that it was holiday season didn't help either. Oh, of course, there were some holiday stuff that had to be done (family get-togethers), plus the enthronement of our new Metropolitan Jonah, who is indeed someone we greatly need after the financial scandal that has affected OCA for the past few year. I will be blogging about His Beatitude as events warrant throughout the year.

Rather, it's that my work life has been at a standstill for far, far too long. So, I need to make a major push to change that. I need to be more, a lot more aggressive about it. I've got to be a pain in the butt, prodding folks into giving me useful job leads that will lead to actual job offers (and not depending too much on recruiters). I've got a LinkedIn account, so I need to really mine it.

  My knitting life is not quite at a sandstill. I had to make another Mr. Greenjeans cardigan, this time with Patons Wool which doesn't pill as much. I even have enough leftover yarn to make a cap, one which I did make but which doesn't cover my ear completely. So I'm making another one, going up one more size in needle. And I'm finally getting back to my other knitting projects, and of course, I need to get back to my spinning wheels. Need to take pictures which of course is a challenge with the kind of lighting that we get during the winter.

And, I've been giving my sewing machine a workout. I made Finn a car seat organizer. Those of you who have babies well know that there are times when you've got to change the diaper in the car, which can be tricky depending on how big your car is, whether there are lots of stuff, or the diaper bag is waaayyy over there. With this organizer, you can just strap it on to the back of the car, all filled with a couple of diapers, rash cream, wipes, a bottle, terry cloth, and maybe a favorite small stuffed toy. And you can fold it up and take it with you. Neat, eh?

I have an organizer for Kai as well. Speaking of which, I really need to get it finished off this week. Time to kick Inertia to the curb!

So. Yes, I'm still alive. Just being quiet at the moment. But I'm looking forward to Friday, because this will be the start of my freedom from The Nursery. The season's winding down, they're starting to cut hours, and I gave my week's notice. It felt liberating to be able to do that. Especially after what happened to me in my last full-time job, when I got unceremoniously dumped because of mucked-up contract politics that rippled down to us Dilbert twins. (You sound just a tiny bit bitter. - Ed. Yes, I am. But I'm over it - really.)

I've unofficially joined the Summer of Socks knitalog. I knew about it, but took my time signing up because I didn't want to feel pressured and when I looked again, the deadline had passed for adding yourself to the list. Oh, well. It's the spirit that counts. Right now I'm working on cabled socks to replace a favorite pair that has a nice, big hole on the heel of one of the socks and is too big to be darned up. I'm using the Crestari sock yarn that I got at MDSW. It's really nice yarn, and at a firm gauge, the fabric feels like it will hold up well under the abuse of daily wear. pics coming son . . .

In other matters, I've been trying to put my craft room to orders, so I can get back in there and sew again. My next sewing project is going to be a handbag to use as my daily purse. I picked up some really nice tapestry fabric at JoAnn's during one of their huge discount sales. This tapestry fabric has really lovely rose bouquets and is on the dark side, which should hide dirt more easily than my current handbag (which I'd originally intended for my knitting). This is the pattern that I'll be using - it's such a versatile pattern. I love it so much that I've copied it onto reusable tracing papers so I can save the originals.

In other matters, thanks to the generosity of Justice from IRC #coldfusion channel, I've got a ColdFusion sandbox to muck around in at KnitGal! I'm already thinking of some knitting-related applications, perhaps even a little dyeing and spinning, in the form of online calculators. I've already got some of the formulas documented; it's just a matter of writing the code and getting these to output usable results. This is also partly an effort to get my butt off the chair and actually do something productive . . .

Oh, I should explain that "KnitGal" is my IRC moniker, hence, my other domain's name . . .