Change is on the Carder...

(sorry about the poor pun in the title)

Work is still hard. There’s a lot of change which is difficult for everyone involved. Because hubby and I both work for the same company it feels that much worse, because we’re both subject to these changes.


I’m finding it okay, though there’s a lot of new stuff for me to do. I like things to be interesting and I like to be busy, so I’m enjoying that aspect of things. But it’s unstable at the moment, we don’t know whether the projects I’m working on will continue, and though the decision on that is due soon, it’s not soon enough for my preference.

However, I have just purchased a new toy: a drum carder. I’ve never used one before, but hopefully it’s not too hard. I have quite a lot of reasonably short-staple fleece that needs preparing, and I am not a fan of hand carders. Like with my spinning wheel, I’ve got a good deal by buying second hand. I’m itching to play with it! of course, I still haven’t sorted out my craft room (a task which is required more frequently than I would like) so I’m probably going to have to be a bit creative with where I play with it to begin with. It should motivate me to sort out the craft room at the weekend though.

I’m quite excited about the prospect of carding the fleece I have, but also about the prospect of blending some of my fibres. I have a lot of alpaca, lots of fleece types, I have some Masham X which might benefit from being carded (or not, it’s a longish staple so it might be better combed…)

The proofs of the photos from hubby’s family photo session came through yesterday, and they’re pretty good. As with all these things I’m sure we all like different photos. (Which reminds me, I have to seek some advice about our wedding album) maybe I’ll share some of them later.

There’s really nothing much going on right now though, I haven’t even finished any knitting or crochet since I last posted. I’ll share some of the carding once I have some.

Oh, I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode of “The Great British Sewing Bee”. It was interesting last week, and I felt a little bit inspired. In fact, I have been inspired to make costumes for an up-coming party hubs and I are going to. Hubby was going to be wearing a costume we already owned, but sadly we seem to have thrown it out in the last move, so I’m going to have a go a re-making it! All I need is the fabric, a tidy craft room (there’s incentive 2) and a little bit of time! The party is in just under a month, and we’re away for our anniversary the week before the party, so it’ll need to be finished before the 27th when my sister is visiting. So that gives me two weekends, I think, to get it done! Eep! Still, I know what I need, I know approximately the plan of attack (as I’ve made it before) and I have new skills that I did not have previously. I also plan to make my costume, but other than the skirt part, I think I’ll have to buy rather than make (tights for example!) I’m not going to share my plan just yet; you’ll have to wait for the party photos!

Trek, Work, Stuff

Dear boyf bought me the "good" Original Crew Star Trek Movies for Christmas, and we've been watching them. (For those not in the know, that's 2: Wrath of Khan, 4: The Voyage Home, 6: Undiscovered Country)
I'd forgot how much I enjoyed them! Especially Voyage Home, there were some class moments in that movie! Anyway, he also got me the Generations box set on BluRay for my birthday, (how much does he love me?) which we'll be getting through too, AND the new Star Trek movie (the one with Karl Urban in as Bones, and Chris Pine / Zachary Quinto) so I'm pretty Trekked up this year!
So, that's been taking the edge off working this weekend. It's actually not the weekend working that's the trouble, it's when we get to Thursday and it feels like Saturday because I've already worked 5 days... Plus, they've re-jigged the parking and while I used to have a space from November-February, now I don't have one at all. I'm not going to go into car-parking politics, but suffice to say I either get on a bus (and double my journey, not to mention getting to the gym...) or we might have to think about paying for parking, which sucks so much. Bah.

Anyway, enough work woes.
I got some lush yarn at Xmas too, though I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do with it. I also got some lovely knit picks interchangeables (knitters go: oooh) - just the introductory set, but they are lush! I'm itching to cast something on to them, and to have a stab at magic loop with my new long addi needle. And I want to make Perdita, which is beaded! Heck, I wish I had time to do some knitting!

Anyway, with working the majority of my waking hours this weekend I'm pooped, so I'll be off to bed early. I'm hoping to get myself along to knitting group tomorrow, so I'd better make sure to have some knitting of some description in my bag! Annoying that after a week and a bit holiday, I feel like I need a holiday!

I bought myself one of these fashionable long chunky knit sweaters, which makes me look like a Romulan. (I'll get a photo if I can) The geek in me loves it. And the Trekkie. And the part of me that likes to be warm. So sod everyone else, I like it :)

Resolution 5 has me thinking

It’s hard for me to put into words exactly what I am thinking and feeling at the moment. Perhaps I should try to look at things more objectively than I sometimes do. It’s hard to quantify the feeling of dissatisfaction that I have with work. I enjoy it when I’m troubleshooting, when things go wrong and I have to weigh up the different options and then pick the best course of action for the circumstances.
My current manager (not the one mentioned yesterday) has suggested that one way of thinking about what it is that I enjoy about my job could be to imagine what I would do if I won the lottery.
Obviously I would spend a few days doing as little as possible, and take a holiday somewhere warm. But then what would I do? I am fairly sure that I would be very bored just hanging around at home.

I could write about how I’d set up a knitter’s holiday retreat, or something like that. How I’d have a dying studio and a small fibre farm. How there’d be a small rescue centre for unwanted animals. How we would keep chickens (and possibly livestock) and have vegetable beds and fruit trees. I would have a really energy efficient house, insulated with British fleece insulation and with a wood burning stove.

But you see, that isn’t the point of the question. The point of the question is to see what you enjoy doing enough to do it even if you weren’t paid for it. This is because if you change career, there’s a good chance that you’ll change salary, and probably for a lower salary.

So, in order to achieve the new job resolution, I need to clarify in my mind what it is that I want to do. Leaving a job because you don’t want to be there any more is one thing, but leaving a job because you’ve found another one that you really want to do is quite something else. I know that I want to do something interesting to me, something where I can be creative and where I can make an impact.

I’m finding Eliza’s blog interesting, she is very good at expressing herself. She posts pictures which really emphasise what she means. Sometimes she devolves into long and convoluted posts, and I know how she feels! (I simply don’t post those ones, often… today is different)

I want different. I need something new, a challenge. I want to get home from work and think “yeah, I achieved something today” instead of “thank goodness that’s over. Oh no! Only 15 hours and I have to go back!” (and that’s on a day when I leave on time!). I want to wake up in the morning and get up, not snooze for an hour because I can’t face going to work. I want to have something to do every day that isn’t a wishy-washy “think of how to improve the team” type thing. I want to *want* to cut my lunch-break short, not wonder if anyone will notice if I knit just one more round before I go back.

I have to push myself to do this. The path of least resistance is to simply stay put. Don’t find a new job; just keep plodding away in the current one. But I’ve been plodding – no, that’s not true. I worked my ass off for a while, when I had a goal, when I cared about what I was doing. But now I feel like I’m plodding, or even trudging. And it is simply taking me closer to being back in the same old structure as before with a manager that I know I can’t stand.

I’ve just deleted a big whinge about that manager. The only person I’ve really talked to about this is OH, and I don’t know that it’s appropriate for the blog. Using my usual benchmark, I wouldn’t go and stand in the middle of Tesco and shout out some of what I wrote, so it’s gone. Suffice to say that I obviously either haven’t made it clear enough to those in charge, they don’t believe me, or perhaps they don’t believe I’ll go. I suspect that I wouldn’t really be missed though. It could all be worked around.

So all I have to do is: decide what I want to do (is it the same as now, is it different), roughly where I’d like to be (which could be York, but probably isn’t any more, even though it is a lovely city), and then go and get it, the new job, new house (if the job isn’t in York), everything.
Scary? Maybe a little.

I'm Spinning Around...

(Guess the artist?)

So, I counted the number of lengths in my mini-skeins of the pink stuff and measured around my elbow (the niddy-noddy I used was my arm! I will use my new wooden one [niddy noddy, I don’t have a wooden elbow], but it needs sanding and sealing first).
I worked out that I have about 53 yards of it. I haven’t figured out the wpi yet, but it’s not even anyway. For Calorimetry I’d need 93 yards. So I’m 40 yards short. And that’s assuming that I get gauge. Which given that (without measuring) I think I have some bits that are about 4ply/sock weight, and some that are Aran/Worsted! I’ll let you know what it averages at!

So, I have three choices:
1. Spin another 40 yards of a contrasting/matching colour.
2. Make something different with this yarn (but what?)
3. Keep this yarn as some pretty but unused handspun and move on.
I’d like to make something with it, so I guess I’ll have to work out what the wpi are. Even if I only make a coaster in the end, it will become something. I don’t like the idea of yarn that isn’t meant to be knit!

I feel a little like I’m being unfaithful to my knitting when I spend time spinning! I do enjoy spinning though. It takes a little more concentration than knitting does at the moment, but then I haven’t had much practice with the spinning. I love the spindle I bought at the spinning class we had. I’m also still Andean plying most of the time. I’ll have to put a nostepinne on my Christmas wish-list (although I’ll also have to recommend a place it can be bought from!)
I haven’t spun all of the pink that I got ages ago. The original plan was to spin enough, thin enough, to make socks with. I don’t know whether that’s still my plan. I’ll have a look at what I already spun and decide from that I think. I have 100g in total, though I am not even half way through the first 50g bag.

I’m thinking of spinning this one: as it comes, and plying it without regard for colour repeats. So I should get a variegated heathery type yarn. I think that will be nice. With this, also, I haven’t the foggiest idea what I’ll make!

I don’t like to talk about work on my blog, which is why no details about the job thing. (I get whiny, or rant a lot, and there’s no need for it really!) Suffice to say that it’s a difficult time and some people are doing a lot of soul searching.
In the dream situation I would own an angora bunny farm, or possibly alpacas. Alas, that’s not to be, not right now anyway.

Update

So, it’s been a while, but you’ll see why!

First, there was the PTH. I’ve been keeping schtum about the costume and theme until now, and here is mine:

This was the rest of the team. With the exception of the DS9 costume, I made all of the tops and my dress. I’m pretty pleased with how they look!

Then there was the wedding on Saturday
Leon had the camera, so most of the pictures are of me!
What do you think of the new haircut? Goes with the dress, I think!

I don’t have much other news, or knitting news, so I’ll post again when I do.
If you’re listed as Friend or Family on Flickr you’ll be able to see the rest of the pics.

Busy?

It’s been a busy week so far and it’s not getting any less busy!
Mum and Dad were up on Sunday. We visited one of the local farm shops. (The one with the chickens)

Having spent most of Saturday on the costumes, I then spent about half of Monday on them too. We then went shopping on Monday afternoon for some magi knickers for me (wait ’til you see the dress for the PTH!) and we also managed to pick up part of my Dad’s birthday gift.

Tuesday was a pretty hectic work day, at the end of which I spent several hours in a car going to Telford. At least we were staying in a nice hotel this time. The food in the restaurant was a bit hit and miss, but fairly tasty and cheap. Breakfast was the usual buffet sort, but tasty too! The meeting was reasonably useful, which is always a bonus when you’ve travelled all that way. The journey back was pretty uneventful. There was some kind of medical incident on the train which delayed us by about 20 minutes. I hope that whoever it was is okay.

So, today is the PTH (Pub Treasure Hunt) and my team at work actually have two teams this year! I’m still not telling you the theme or showing you the costumes yet. They are fab though; I’m quite pleased with them!

Then tomorrow is lots of preparation for the wedding on Saturday. (Anyone would think it was my wedding, the amount of getting ready I’m doing!)
I hope I’m not too hung over because I need to get up and epilate, dye my hair*, go to the gym for my induction, go to get my nails done, go to get my hair cut*, and have a passport photo taken. * I am dying my own hair because I’m going to a new salon and I forgot about the whole 48 hours patch test. I’m off to the York College and a trainee will be cutting my hair. Could be interesting! I’m sure that I’ll be fine, I’m pretty easy going about my hair anyway.
I have bought a hair magazine which has pictures of Posh’s hair in it. Always useful to have a picture! Anyway, there are some other nice cuts in there which are really similar too. I’ve also bought some hair colour from the “Herbal Essences” range, called “Bronze Ice” from the “Fearless Colour” range. Indeed. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes! It’s been a while since I dyed my own hair! Yey!
Now all that remains is to get a strapless or “invisible strap” bra to wear under the dress. I tried one on in La Senza (well, actually I tried two, I always start with the smaller of the options since I seem to be between sizes) and it made my boobs look a really funny shape! So I’m hoping to find time tomorrow to visit the M&S lingerie department in town (after the gym, before I get my nails done) to see if they have anything more suitable. Ho hum. My own fault for making a dress where the bra straps are visible!

There will be pictures…

Random Ramblings

Fire?
Today we were evacuated (badly) from our building. I was in the lunch room and the fire alarm sounded for a couple of seconds and stopped. Then it went off again and then stopped. I packed up my knitting (I have on repeat left on the DS cozy) and my lunchbox and headed back to my desk. (it is about now in the retelling that I realise how stupid I was being.) The rest of my team were gone. I assumed that, as I had been told that it was not a real drill (!!) they would be back, and the rest of the people on my floor were still sitting there, working away. As the sweet vending machine on my floor isn’t working I picked up my bag and headed for the canteen for a chocolate fix. As I stepped out of the lift, I noticed that there was a big crowd hanging out at our evacuation point, and there was a lady in a yellow vest at the door. Hmm. So I wandered over and said “should I be evacuating?” which was confirmed. Then I said, “everyone else on my floor is still sitting there, working”. They sent someone else up to check. There was a cross person complaining about this as I left the building. While I was out there, I chastised myself (in my head, so the world doesn’t know I’m crazy) for not picking up my knitting, so I was stuck out there with nothing to do. We weren’t out there that long though, I’d probably only have managed a couple of rows, and cabling while standing up is hard!

Lace Knitting
I’ve also been chatting with some other knitters in the Muir-along group on Ravelry. I asked them whether they thought it was too tough for a beginner. They said no, but with caveats:

1. knit a swatch. this will be hard for me. I don’t like swatches. However, it will give me a good idea about how the yarn will look in this pattern, whether I have the patience and whether I know how to count.
2. use stitch markers to keep count of where you are
3. don’t use stitch markers because you have to keep moving them. Yes, I know these contradict. It seems to depend on whether the knitter in question is happier counting or whether they’re prepared to have to jiggle their markers about a bit.
4. LIFELINES yes, lifelines are lines of thread (or apparently dental floss works) which run along your knitting at regular intervals so that if (or when) you make a mistake (that you can’t either tink back to or fix as you go) then you can frog back to the lifeline and pick up the stitches including all of those pesky yarn-overs without any problems. Brilliant! And we have plenty of dental floss, though I wonder if it will make my knitting smell minty?

So, I feel able to order that lovely yarn that I’ve been oogling for days weeks, and some addi turbos! (insert cool sound effect here). Addi are talked about among the knitters online as a good needle, and certainly the Addi Circs that I was sent in the Secret Pal swap for the felted bag were lovely to work with. And since I;m paying for postage anyway, I’ll probably order some additional needles so I can have a go at two-socks-at-a-time. Woo!

Podcasts are fun
I’ve been listening to Brenda Dayne’s podcast, Cast On, for some time now. She lives in Wales and chats about mainly knitting. I like to listen to Cast On in the bath. Now, a long time ago in an old Cast On, Brenda mentioned some other knitters who were podcasting. Since I was listening to her back-episodes, and I was in the bath, I totally forgot to look them up. They were, and indeed are, Lime & Violet: two crazy Americans who so far talk about yarn, dogs, alien babies, stalking Brenda Dayne and yarn. Oh, and also yarn. And knitting. And more yarn. You get the idea. They’re quite funny to listen to, and remind me a little of some of the banal conversations I used to have with my best mate on the bus on the way home from school. Anyway, I’m on something like episode 6 which was back in 2006, and they podcast weekly, so I’ll be catching up for a while. But they’re funny and distracting enough for lunchtime without distracting me too much from my cables.

Signing off
Yeah, I’m done for this time. mental note (or, well, blog note): take some pictures of something to make the blog look more interesting.

Team Building

We went out with some of the team last night for some bowling, pool and DDR. I didn’t partake in the pool, I’m no good at it and then I get cross about losing. I did play some air hockey, which was good fun. I think OH let me win, but that’s not so bad! One of the girls who used to be on my team and I played DDR (Dance-Dance-Revolution, or Dancing Stage Euromix) which was great fun. We even managed to get some of the boys to have a go (I hope that The Black enjoyed it, as there is video evidence!)

I didn’t do too badly in the bowling, 69 in the first game and 103 in the second. I came an overall 8th (of 12) but OH came a respectable 3rd.

Still haven’t cast on the second sock. Tut. Still, we have a nice long weekend off work now. There are too many other distractions!

You might have read on Lint’s blog that there is now a tea-trolley service in our building. It’s costing me a damned fortune, because instead of having the tea from the machine (lovingly referred to as hot river water) I’ve been paying for my tea instead. On the plus side I get to collect stamps from the lady who brings round the trolley (who is lovely and friendly!) and when I have filled the card (is it 8 stamps?) I get a freebie. That happened today; I had a full card, so I got my morning wake-up brew free! That makes me happy.

I’ve been playing lots of sudoku on my DS. It’s meant to be good for me (great excuse) and keeps my brain fit. I enjoy sudoku too. I’m not the fastest sudoku-er there has ever been, (though I did score rocket speed for one yesterday). I’m 8% of the way through the sudoku puzzles available on the Brain Training game. I wonder if there are more on Brain Training 2?

It’s also pay review time at work. I expected, given my fairly recent promotion, that I wouldn’t get much of anything, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised! I rather expect to pay a massive wodge of my bonus tax, NI and student loan repayment (graduate tax, really).

Although I’ve queued BMP from Knitty, I am thinking about using the charts to make a bag instead/as well. My thoughts are for a satchel style bag with a space invaders screen on the front of the flap, and a high score table on the inside. Oh well, if it comes to fruition, I’ll post about it.

...and a little bit of that...

...And shake your bum?

The mattress is great. I had such a good night’s sleep last night. I was expecting to be cold (we took away my fleece under-blanket) but the topper was so warm. In fact, at one point I was perhaps even a little too warm! (that just never happens, anyone who knows me IRL will attest to the fact I’m almost never warm enough!) it doesn’t smell as sheep-y as I thought it might, though it was strong enough when the plastic bag was opened! So, all is forgiven from we love sleep since their before 9:30 arrived in plenty of time! The mattress topper is nice. OH claimed that he still didn’t sleep very well. He’s now blaming the slats under the main mattress (the new one is just a topper) so we have to go to Ikea apparently. That’s always risky because I buy stuff in Ikea. Sadly, the new Wilkinsons in York don’t do bed-slats. OH seems to think that the Ikea ones are the best ones anyway. But the nearest Ikea is in Leeds. And will probably be busy.

I thought about going to the other knit night (the one I went to last month) but since I wasn’t home from work until 6pm, and then we sorted out the mattress, so we cooked dinner at 6:35. I could probably have turned up late, but I decided not to bother.
I did a bit more on the sweater for OH last night, probably another inch. I’m finding quite a few knots in the yarn I’m using, Rowan Pure Wool Aran. There’s been one in every ball so far, and two in the current ball of brown. It’s really quite frustrating! So, I’m now in the market for a ball winder. The idea being that I can re-wind all of my balls before use and therefore get rid of the knots. Depends on how much I’ll have to pay for one though!

Next week I have to go to Telford with work. It’s a three-and-a-half hour train journey each way. This means that in order to be there at 9am for a meeting, I have to leave the day before and spend the night in a hotel. The only benefit of this so far is that I will have 7 hours worth of knitting time, on the train. It will not actually be that long because of the trains not being direct. Though we only change in Birmingham. So I get two hours or so uninterrupted. Which should get me a few inches of jumper or sock done. If I can finish one of the Earl Grey socks then I will have something like a recipe for the other, including how many rows to do. I’m a bit prescriptive like that, I like things to be the same number of rows. Unless they’re not meant to be, of course!

The hat pattern I’m making up is going well, but my row gauge is nothing like what I thought it would be. The pattern bit should still work, I hope! We will see. I’m looking forwards to trying the bobbles. OH told me that the Sudoku throw “doesn’t count” as a project that needs finishing because “it won’t be finished until 2020”. While I like the “doesn’t count” bit, I like to think that I might get the rest of it done before 2020. okay, so it’s taken me a year to knit nine squares. So in theory it will take me another eight years to finish (which would be 2016, thank you very much) but I’ve neglected it a lot, especially during the scarf making pre-Christmas. Maybe he’s factoring in my impulsive sock-yarn buying.

Flood?

This morning the path we normally use to walk to work was flooded. It wasn’t flooded enough to turn back, there was a six-foot stretch that was under about half-an-inch of water.
I was creeping through the water in my all-stars (which have maybe a bit more than a half-an-inch sole and canvass tops) and some idiot decided to cycle through the water quite fast. Not fast enough to splash me, but fast enough to cause some serious ripples. Idiot. But the canvass held up okay and my feet are not wet. I still shouted at him. Tsk. Anyway, we got to the other end of the puddle and I thanked the nicer cyclist who had waited until I had crossed (how thoughtful!)
I think we’ll not use the riverside path to go home this evening!

It’s also pattern day on my page-a-day calendar. Last week I got a shawl pattern, this week it’s a hat and scarf. It’s a pretty pattern but I’m feeling very Meh about scarves at the moment. (Even the nice angora yarn I was using for my scarf isn’t tempting me back to it. I might frog that one.)
I intend to spend some time this weekend working on Mum’s Matching Hat. It’s a hat inspired by the Irish Hiking Scarf, but not quite like either of the patterns I’ve found on Ravelry I’m using the colour from the scarf as a coloured stripe around the center of a band which is running around the bottom of the hat. This is bordered on both sides by some creamy-white yarn. This gives a pretty wide band, about 2-3 inches. Once that’s long enough to go around a head, I’ll join the ends to make a circle. Then I’ll pick up some stitches (the exact number I don’t know yet) and knit in the round to make the hat. I’m thinking about doing it in a rib which is similar to the cable rib, but without the cable. Either that or I’ll do it in 2x2 or 3x3 rib, which is good for decreasing. I might even do 3x2 rib. Who knows, eh?

The gym is going to continue pilates for one more term. Then they plan to put it on timetable but without out current instructor. The benefit of that is that it will be included in the price of the gym membership. The drawback is that it will not be with our current instructor who we get on with very well. We do have the option of attending classes privately with the same instructor, but you can imagine the difference in price to the subsidised rate we currently get!

Oh well.
Work still sucks, I’m afraid. We’re off out for drinks later on today, which will be welcome. I think it might be a tidiness problem.
As I like shoes, I am going to use shoes and a common shoe-based issue as an example. Please bare with me. (is that the right kind of bare/bear?)

We have a procedure which goes as follows: You unlock the front door, open the door, pick up any post, walk down the corridor and turn right into the living room (or dash up the stairs to the loo). Here’s some pseudocode:
Unlock(front_door);
Open(front_door);
If Exists(post) then Pick_Up(post);
Traverse(corridor);
If NeedLoo = True then DashUp(stairs) else Enter(lounge);
Now, the function Traverse(corridor) can fail if InTheWay(shoes) = true. Because you’d fall over them.
This problem is a bug which needs fixing, (so the shoes are dodgy data or something, causing the program (you) to fall over). So, while we should just say “I keep falling over these shoes, therefore I will move the shoes” we can’t do it because there’s also a project trying to lay a new rug down in the hall. Sadly, project NewRug don’t know anything about the shoe error and so they’re doing nothing to combat it. They take a copy of the hallway (shoes and all) and work on that to produce the same entry pattern as present, including cursing at the shoes. We move the shoes here in my bit of the team, but then when the project launches we find that the shoes have crept back – only now they are under a rug.
I think my example has gone crackers. What I’m saying is that we don’t make life easier for ourselves ever. Moving the shoes should be part of the rug laying anyway because otherwise the rug can’t be successful. You know?

Clearly, I need a strong drink. Or certifying. Or maybe both, but let me have the drink before the men in white coats come.

General Work Moan

I’ve ordered some more yarn from Get Knitted in their sale. It’s some more of the lovely SWTC Karaoke. Two skeins are for something for a friend. They don’t know about it yet. The other two skeins were going to be in the colour “black rose” but they ran out (they had 2 skeins last night, but I wasn’t the first person to try to snaffle them!) so I got the same colour as Crafty Drama Queen gifted me in the SP swap. Wild Cherry it’s called. It’s a fantastic colour too, reds and pinks – subtle but also pink. (See pic to left)

I’m blogging this now to take my mind off the fact that work sucks. It’s not that there’s too much or too little to do (there is plenty to do), it’s not that I don’t like my boss (because the current one isn’t bad), it’s not that some of my colleagues drive me bananas (in fact, I like my team) but it just sucks. The longer I sit at my desk trying to think of things to say in people’s feedback or appraisals, the longer I spend trying to figure out what the plan should be, the longer I take to read and reply to emails, the more I realise that I just don’t care.
What’s to care about really? I work in data in an insurance company. As a result of what I do not much happens. Okay, the company as a whole do some useful stuff. People pay the company lots of money so that when the worst happens they don’t have to worry about money. I don’t even feel especially good about that, though that’s another story.
I know that most jobs are as pointless. But some jobs do make a difference to people. Like cleaners. If the cleaners don’t turn up for a couple of days, we’d notice. The place would be dirty and smelly, we might not have any hand towels (though I’m not sure that the cleaners do that.) if the vending machine guy didn’t turn up we’d have no nasty vending machine coffee and tea. (As vile as it is, I’m much happier if I can have a cuppa.)
Anyway, my point is that I don’t necessarily want my job to be a happy-happy-joy-joy make-the-world-better type job, but I’d quite like to get some satisfaction out of it. Whether that be satisfaction that I’m providing a service, creating something or doing something I enjoy.

If I knew what it was that I didn’t like about this job then I’d have a starting point.

So, while I carry on merrily working put up with the dullness of this job I will take the odd chance to look at nice yarn, to read other people’s blogs, to doodle on notepads and generally procrastinate.
The funny thing is, the other day I was thinking that it wasn’t so bad. I wonder what’s happened today to make it seem worse? (my ex-boss is something to do with it, even I can see that, but still I can’t complain when he speaks the truth.)
Perhaps it’s my rebellious anti-authoritarian streak coming back to haunt me. Or maybe I have just been in the same place for too long. I have been here for four years and four months (and four days, tomorrow)
That’s a long time to be in one place. Even though I’ve been promoted, it’s the same old. I don’t know how many of you went to 6th forms attached to your secondary schools? It’s a bit like that if you’re promoted within your team. Everyone knows who you are already but they also have preconceived ideas about you. Changing people’s perceptions is like plaiting snot hard. And back then in 6th form when I felt like that my rebellious streak appeared. I made my hair a silly colour (black with a red hue, then red, then blonde) and wore clothes which were just outside of the uniform policy (skirts a bit too short, platforms when they were banned, tops with logos on them, jeans, you know the sort of thing) (oh – yes, we had “uniforms” in 6th form in that we had to dress like business people.)
Okay, I realise that doesn't sound too rebellious...
Anyway, I shall stop complaining. 6th form was less dull than work is. Though my hair is a funny colour again…

Perhaps it’s just winter blues?

Something new to think about.

Yesterday I went to a meeting at work about a new project that’s changing our department.
The idea is to be better, faster and more efficient. It’s a good plan. However, there was an interesting part of the presentation where they replaced everything my team do with a database. I can see their logic and reasoning. It makes perfect sense. It does leave me wondering what my job will be when it’s finished. On the face of it, my job might not be there any more.
Of course, this is a two year plan, and lots of things can change in two years. They may decide to do things in a different way, or simply change the role of the team I’m in. Until we get more information, and more definite information, there’s not much more to say. I am not sure how to keep the morale of my team up though. They all saw the presentation and drew their own conclusions.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s debauchery, the PTH is always interesting. As I have mentioned we’re going as the French. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going for a saucy French-lady look, or a more blokey version. I have tried on my costume and bought some nice black jeans for the event. I may wear my saucy red peep-toe shoes, but I might not. I haven’t decided yet! (If I do, I’ll need to paint my toenails!)
The costume is made by Smiffy’s of Gainsborough (my hometown) – if you search for “French man” you get it. I guess I could have gone for “French Maid” instead, but that’s a bit too saucy (and cold) for a November PTH. The shirt is pretty baggy on me, but I think I’m going to wear a vest underneath it and then tie up the shirt to the side. I will probably not wear the ‘tache.

Someone's calling you, but they can't get through.

Briefly, Knitting…
When I got home, though, there was a small parcel waiting for me. It was some lovely mink coloured sock yarn. I’ve ordered two balls of Cygnet Wool Rich 4ply to make the Earl Grey Socks by theYarn Harlot

Work
I now have a work mobile so they can contact me any time of the day or night. [sarcasm on] How fantastic is that? [sarcasm off] Well, they would be able to, if it worked. Rubbish thing. It’s a properly snazzy phone, but it’s not working, at all. Some updates are meant to have come through or something, but they haven’t. So now I can waste large parts of my day getting it set up. It’s a Sony Ericsson K530i

I will be turning it off as soon as I leave work though. There’s an answer-phone function, which I’ll set up if it EVER starts working properly. Pah.

On the other hand, the time where it’s not working properly is time where people can’t call me on it. I dread to think what the ring tone is, or the message tone. I might go hide in the loo and have a play. It’s annoying to have people doing that nearby and I don’t want to be one of those annoying people!

Stop whining

Yes, I should. However rubbish work is, it still pays the bills. And actually it’s pretty cushy. I have a shorter week than most and time to go online during the day. okay, it’s not perfect, but nothing is.
My SP commented on that post and it’s nice to know that other people are doing jobs not because they love them but because they like who they work with. Yeah, working for the money means living for the weekends a little, but it could be so much worse.

At least I have time to knit!

At the risk of sounding like there’s always something wrong for me, I do have a bad back at the moment. It was worse yesterday (my fault, pushed it too hard at the gym) than today. However, I’m reporting this because of a good thing which is that my gym instructor has given me a voucher to get a chiropractor to look at my back for near enough half price. Fantastic! So, I’m going to book myself in (I don’t know whether it’s something that should be during the day or after work, it’s a good walk away from work.) and see if they can make me feel better. Yey! I feel quite upbeat about it, despite the sore back!

The knitting is going pretty well. I’m around half way through my second secret-Christmas-gift. As this one is knit, rather than crochet, it’s not as fast as the first one was. It’s so relaxing though. Even when I accidentally didn’t do the cable and had to un-knit a whole row, it was okay! So, once this one is finished I am meant to be casting on for another matching one (his-n-hers?) though I might sneak one of the less urgent crochet ones in just for fun. Those of you on Ravelry will be able to see in my queue what I’m currently making (it’s the one in Jaeger) and what I have planned. I need to add another “stripes” to my queue, possibly two. I haven’t decided about the second one yet.

in other knitting news, I want to make some more socks. I’ve added the Jaywalkers to my queue, although I have promised Leon a pair once I finish the gypsy socks. I’m getting there, just not spending enough time on them I guess – I’m on the foot, I think I’m still gusset shaping.
I might have enough yarn left in the Opal that I have for the jaywalkers, but I suspect not, so I’m angling for some more. There’s some good value 100% wool sock yarn on ebay that has caught my eye, I’ll let you know if I get it. it’s probably not as good as the Opal stuff, but you never know. It’s cheap, which may mean nasty, but may not. Previous yarn I’ve bought from this seller made The evening star shrug which was lovely! So fingers crossed.
I’ll still have to buy a plain or garden colour for Leon (quite literally, plain browns are most like, I don’t really want to do black.) and I’m considering the Earl Grey pattern by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot) but I’m not sure if I can deal with even more needles when knitting in the round, five is plenty enough already. We will see.
I am keen to make some taller socks for myself to go under my boots that I wear for work. The boots are great, but I don’t like having them touch my legs – and the zip-tops can rub a bit too. I do have two pairs of knee-highs (not knit) but I’d love to have some nice tall hand-knit socks to wear with them. I’ll have to think about reinforcing the toes and heels if I'm using pure wool, and the joy that it handwashing (I don’t do that at the moment, even for my hand-knit socks. I haven’t washed the evening star yet… perhaps that would be an interesting experiment?)

Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer...

I need to decide what I want from my career. I’ve spent plenty of time trying to figure out what I want in life, which turned out to be a lot more rural than I thought. I did an exercise from the “What colour is your parachute” book, where you draw a picture of your ideal home-life, one of your ideal holiday and one of your ideal job. The holiday was a piece of cake, it was palm trees and sand, sunshine, a cocktail and a good book (possibly also to include something to knit). The home was a little more taxing, but generally not hard. House, garden, pond, a dog, a sheep/goat, chickens, that sort of thing. Rural, like a smallholding really. Work, however, I struggled to represent. It’s meant to be the ideal, so you should show something that in an ideal world you’d be doing. I guess my first thought was that in an ideal world I wouldn’t have to work. As much as I love knitting, I’m not sure that it’s career material. I probably wouldn’t love it anymore – after all, I used to love computing, now it’s just a means. I admit, too, that I can be pretty lazy. (don’t scoff) I don’t know whether I would get on with anything outdoorsy, I do tend to get cold. However, I am prepared to wear thick sweaters and lots of layers. I wanted for the longest time to be an archaeologist. I doubt that there’s much money in that either. Yes, I confess once more: I am quite materialistic. I’m a child of the 80s and it’s hard not to be! (That’s two confessions in one post!)
So, I still don’t know what I want from work these days (aside from to be well paid). I have to start saving up though, that gives more options in the longer term, doesn’t it?
People tell me that I’m quite ambitious. I don’t know about that. I know what I want and I go for it (or I did, but now that I got what I wanted I don’t know what I want next) so, I guess that all I have to do is figure out what I want.

Well, I do know that I am going to want to be doing something which is flexible. More so than now. I don’t like being constrained by “key periods” as to when I can take a day off or whatever. Some things should be sacred, but aren’t. I’d like to not work on my birthday, perhaps I was spoiled by never being at school on my birthday (it being Dec 31) but I don’t think that’s such a difficult thing. Yet, with that being “key” (so I'm told) the chances are that I’ll have to come in to the office and do nothing with the sparse smattering of other workers who don’t have the day off (it’s not usually many).
I guess I sort of knew that when I was first employed – though they never mentioned having to work the 31st Dec, only the 1st Jan. but I do know that it comes with the territory now, so I might as well get used to it. I still think that it sucks, but I’ll not work in a team that I'm not interested in working in just to get away from one day being irritating.

There’s something out there, and I’ll probably not find it straight away, but I will eventually find it if I look. If I look, that’s the key isn’t it?

I have to commend my sister who does look for new work if she fancies a change. I wish I was so proactive about my career, but it’s pretty scary too. I don’t think that Gayle’s fazed by it at all. It’s the thought of all the things that I’d have to do. You see, the problem with living in a small city is that there are less employers, so the chances are that you might have to go elsewhere if you want to get different work. I don’t know where.

I’d love to work abroad, somewhere warm. I wouldn’t have as much use for my handknit scarves then, but I could learn lace-knitting and have dinner outside sometimes. I just don’t know what I really want to do. Did I rush into work too soon – should I have travelled the world first? Nope, too sensible – where would the money have come from? But that said, every time I think I have some money together I end up having to spend it, which sucks.

So, anyone – any ideas about what I do to decide what I do?

TFI Friday!

Last night was a leaving do for one of the people at work who joined at the same time I did, about 3-and-three-quarter years ago (yes, way back in September 2003). That leaves only two of us who joined at that time, and I think 6 (including management) who were here before me still here. There were three permanents and about six contractors all started within a week of one another. The team I work in was very different then. It was a good evening, and a chance to socialise with people I don’t often get to socialise with. I wonder what else will change, and when it will happen. We will see, I guess.

We’re off to body pump again tonight! I’m looking forward to it with a mixture of trepidation (because it was hard) and excitement (because I enjoyed it). I’ve decided to try wearing just one of my sport vests, without a sports bra underneath. As there’s no jumping around, I shouldn’t need that level of support.

No real knitting news today, so I’ll tell you about my LYS (that’s Local Yarn Store for you non knitters). I wandered in at the weekend looking for the yarn for the secret item I’m knitting. It’s nice to be looking for yarn with a purpose. Anyway, I told the nice lady in there what I was after and she showed me several options. We ummed and ah’d about the various selection and then she emerged from a storeroom with some excellent yarn in just the right colour. Excellent! The balls are 100g and have a good long yardage (I can’t remember the exact amount) so I might even have a little leftover! (I know, I already have leftovers from my previous project, but I will find something I can knit with that.) Sheep image courtesy of knitting on the net
I am still hoping/waiting for an invite to Ravelry but they are still in beta testing and need to limit the number of users. I’m looking forwards to being able to see other people’s work, get help on my knitting, find out about other yarn…

The Usual

Pilates last night was pretty good. I’m hoping to carry on with it as I am enjoying it. I think that Leon would rather be doing something a bit more physical, so we might also have to sign up for some “body pump” classes or something. They’re aerobics with weights. I’m not so sure about them, but I might give it a go.

Other than that, I’ve been continuing to knit my sock. It’s going pretty well, so well in fact that I have ordered some more sock yarn! Woo!

Work is still as thrilling as ever, but it could be worse at the moment!

I’ll keep this short before I go off on a rant or anything. Looking forwards to a long weekend.

Bank Holiday and New PC update

So, for the bank holiday weekend my plan was to tidy the house. We did a pretty good job so far, but we’re going to need to spend some more time on it. We got most of it done though, as well as a bank holiday Monday trip to Ikea (mistake) to buy a desk. We also bought a narrow bookshelf (which is lush) and a big chest of drawers for my knitting and crafts stuff so that it’s not all over the place. Woo. I’ll post a pic once I’ve finished putting all the yarn and stuff in there.

I also finished the first of the socks that I’m knitting, and I’ve cast on for the second one – still working the cuff at the moment. It’s going to be interesting because they’ll have different stripes on them, because of the nature of the self-striping yarn. I'm really pleased with the first sock. There are a few minor imperfections, but I’m not the kind of knitter who has to unravel whole garments because of one stitch! I’ve got so many other patterns that I want to knit though! Well, we’ll see how sock two pans out. I have seen, in simply knitting, a fab tip about how to go back to before a mistake without the hassle of un-knitting or the risk of dropping millions of stitches. I haven’t had to use it yet though (touch wood).

The new PC rocks: it has a 20inch wide screen monitor which is soooooo cool! It also has a TV tuner, which is brilliant! I installed CivIV which I played for most of yesterday evening! Unfortunately the pos chair Leon got us (one of them posture thingys) is really uncomfortable! Well, I find it to be, Leon likes it. I may have to splash out and buy myself a different chair! Oh well.

Tomorrow is an interesting day for me, as I will be working a split shift (oh joy). I’m getting up at 6am to go to the gym, which at least means that I can make the most of my day. After the gym I might wander around the shops until the buses get a little quieter. Then I’m off home to relax a little. At noon I’m back in work for my first part of my shift. Two hours (approx) and I’ll be off again. I may see about getting my legs waxed in the interval. Then I’m back at work again at around 5pm for the evening shift. I expect to be in until about 10pm. I’ll probably ask Leon to come and pick me up, though I could charge a taxi to work – I’d need a receipt! Should be okay though.

As I mentioned above, I’m going to put my yarn all in a chest of drawers to keep it tidy. The new chest is the same sort of style as the massive wardrobes in the main bedroom, but the colour isn’t quite the same. It’s a hotch potch of furnishings in the second bedroom anyway though. We’d quite like to get a futon for in there, the reason being twofold:

1. a double futon is almost, but not quite, as wide as a double bed – will fit into the room and make it look big enough for a double bed, and will be nicer for guests to sleep on than our air mattress is at present.
2. a futon can be folded away into a sofa, which we could sit on if we did put a second telly in that room!

So, I paid for the new craft chest with the money that we got from selling the treadmill. Basically, when we sold the treadmill my Dad gave me an envelope with the money in. I put it on top of the telly for safekeeping, and promptly forgot all about it. when we were starting to tidy the lounge, before the Ikea trip, Leon discovered the envelope. Hurrah! So, I decided to use the money in the envelope to buy a “storage solution” for my yarn, needles and other knitting stuff (including copies of Simply Knitting magazine)

Lastly, I had another driving lesson last night. We went up and down the A64 and did a turn in the road. Not bad, but I need to observe more still. So we’re doing “advanced” observations to try to make me good. it was actually quite fun, but I also found that I was getting a little distracted by the observations and missing things in front of me. I am driving again next Tuesday with hopefully more of the same.

Have a great day people, the sun’s out and even I am in a good mood!

Mostly knitting

I heard back from the local SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) today. The nice lady who works there told me that they’d love to receive some hand knitted garments, and that they especially like to get hats, cardigans and blankets. Excellent! I have a pattern for a cardigan that I downloaded from Bliss’ (the charity) website and now I also have a pattern for a blanket square. Small squares for a small blanket would be nice, although I bet they take just as long as the big ones for my big throw. I will make a small cardigan though, and see how that looks. Everything looks sweet in small sizes! I found some nice patterns here.

We went to pilates again last night. I quite enjoyed it again, though I think Leon’s not so keen. It’s quite hard work, and I feel like I did a mega workout last night, not some stretching. (reminds me of the yellow pages ad “a bunch of ladies in leotards going ‘om’ – how hard can it be?”)I have a couple of pledges for the race for life that mean I have to get round in less time than before. I guess I’d better get into some proper training! We have found quite a nice route to run, over on Clifton Ings. We’re not sure on the distance, but it’s probably about right. I would join some of my friends’ running sessions, but perhaps not yet.

Tonight I’m looking forwards to a nice quiet night. CSI is on, so I can sit back, watch CSI and knit. I’m presently working mostly on my sock. I only managed a couple of rounds last night after pilates, but that’s okay. I’m also mid-way through one of the squares for the sudoku blanket. I think I may finish that before it gets cold again (proper cold I mean, not this miserable weather we’re having now)
Now that I have heard from the SCBU I may begin a premature baby garment too. The hat and booties were fun and so quick to do. I wonder whether the blue yarn I have will be suitable for these patterns. I may need to invest in a couple more stitch counters though, if I’m to have more than two projects on the go at once!

This site is quite interesting too.

Nothing more for now: it’s a slow news day.

Change of Plan...

I have decided that I'm going to quit my job and become a goat farmer.

Only kidding
(geddit)

No really though, I am currently reconsidering my career path. Any constructive thoughts are welcome, although ridicule will also be accepted.