In the last week or so I’ve spent time away from the computer. Not self-imposed time away, but Family Emergency away. Without going into too much detail, my maternal grandfather was put in the Hospital due to Pneumonia. Unfortunately the Pneumonia was due to his weakened immune system from his Leukemia. There was a severe dive in his health, and we all feared the worst. He’s slowly getting better, but is not yet at a point where my family and I can take that sigh of relief. Because of this, however, I’ve been away from the computer.

It’s only been the last few days where I was able to make it into work, and now I’m trying to slowly catch up with you all. While I do that, have a crappy iPhone photo of a scarf I started…

This scarf is made up of samples from the February Phat Fiber sampler box. A couple of the samples are actually ones that I spun from small batts. I have a couple more fiber samples that I need to finish spinning before I can call this scarf done. I’m letting all the ends hang for the meantime. Not sure if they’re visually appealing enough to leave them dangling or if I should take the time to weave them in.

Crochet, Life Stuff

Some days the work life and the, well, outside-work life crashes together. There isn’t as much of a separation nowadays since I work from home, so when I do find myself at a point where two obvious separate parts of my life intersect, I’m taken aback. Not in a bad way, mind, just…aback.

A (somewhat of a) coworker (our positions cross paths, and we discuss work things, but lately we’ve been chattering outside of typical work comm’s) instant messaged me, and we chatter for a bit. At some point during the chat, she mentioned that she had tried to learn how to crochet. Well, I don’t know about you, but everytime someone says that, I kind of squee and mentally bounce around. She admitted to being able to crochet a long line (I’m assuming a long row of chain stitches or maybe single crochet), but not being able to understand instructions.

She had picked up Debbie Stohler’s “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker”, but was still having issues with the language and what she was reading. (As an aside, I admit to not having purchased “The Happy Hooker”, but mostly because each time I browse the book I am not won over.) This woman is far from dim, so I could tell right away that she was one of us–if by “us” you insert “one who learns by seeing in action what she could not grasp on paper.” You know–us.

I gave her the location of my how-to videos online, promised that if we both make it to San Francisco at our employer’s headquarters, then I’d help her even further. I also told her to check out “Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting”, as a lot of the photos and instruction are clear. “But this one,” she said, referring to the former book, “says ‘bitch’!” To which I could only chuckle. She’s a firecracker!

This conversation with her got me to thinking about (1) how mainstream skills like crocheting and knitting have become–they’re not as subversive as they may have once been; and (2) I just really like to help people. I mean, that’s the reason I started the crochet tutorials; that’s one of the reasons I’ve kept up with the podcast; and, work related, it’s one of the reasons I love my job so much.

I enjoy making the videos for both the users I help at TypePad and the visitors to this site and over at the YouTube channel. I enjoy being friendly and giving and making people feel good for contacting me in the first place.

Those of you who e-mail me, asking me to explain a stitch? I love that.

Those of you who open a support ticket at TypePad, or use the contact form, I love troubleshooting the issue you’re having, then giving you the means to fix it yourself, or being asked to fix it for you.

It’s just who I am. I am a people-pleasing, user- and visitor- friendly, cranky-soothing person. It has to be in my genes, or maybe I’m a product of my environment, but whatever it is… it’s not hurting me. So, I’ll just keep on swimming along, helping my fellow people, whether it’s with their stitches or their blogs.

Crochet, Life Stuff, Talk

Look, my people:

Okay, I know what you must be thinking: why is she dyeing yarn when she could be crocheting?

To which I reply: I have been crocheting! In fact, I have been working on the following:

• body of a purse in fingering weight yarn that will be felted
• swatch for Spring submission to crochet magazine
• full garment that swatch is based off of for sister-in-law to model and keep

That’s busy, right? On top of work, I feel pretty good about my progress. If I could only stop sleeping, I’d have more time!

My birthday is coming up on the 14th of this month, which is both exciting and scary. It’s exciting for two reasons: (1) my mother has promised to make carrot-raisin salad, which is died-and-gone-to-heaven delicious; and (2) it’s a day solely about me (even though i will probably do what everyone else wants to do)! The scary part is that I’m turning 28. I’m almost out of my 20’s and into my 30’s. Some people say I’m just a kid, and I know I act it sometimes because I’m, umm, very young at heart ( *wink* ). I just think it’s the whole getting older thing, and I don’t want too many more years to pass by without anything really exciting happening. I want to live, rather than exist, you know? And a lot of these years have been spent just existing.

Maybe that’s why I finally decided to start submitting designs, or planning children with the girlfriend (we’re starting insemination this year–August or September). But there needs to be more. I want to travel. I want to ride more rollercoasters…

I want more time. I have so much that I don’t get to do in a day, how the hell am I supposed to do it all in a year?

As freaked as I am about time slipping, I have to say that I feel pretty good about 28. I have a feeling it’s going to bring some awesome things. Excitement, pleasure, fun…it should be worth the initial scare.

Dyeing, Life Stuff, Talk, Yarn

I’m so busy with this new job–well, no more than anyone with a full-time job, but I haven’t had one of those in two years, so it feels like a serious restraint on my time! But the job is good. I love working for Six Apart, and working from home is awesome, as are my coworkers.

My coworkers, especially, are something I can feel thankful for. They were very supportive when C. and I were dealing with a sick Remix the first couple weeks of my new job. They were even more supportive when C. and I had to make that decision that no one wants to make about/for their animals.

We said a final goodbye to Remix on the 22nd of May, which both feels like a lifetime ago and just this morning. *sigh* What are we to do but move forward? It’s hard when we think we see him in one of his usual napping spots. The mind playing tricks, surely, and we haven’t really forgotten that he’s gone, but sometimes our hearts clutch and our breath leaves us, then we’re reminded all over again that he didn’t come home with us, and we won’t be seeing him again.

Remix
(late 2007, on C’s brothers bed)

I’ve crocheted a bit, but nothing specific. I won some yarn from a Giveaway, some lovely handspun in colors that remind me of rainbow sherbert. It’s kind of scratchy–ok, totally scratchy–so I’m going to felt it and, hopefully, turn it into a little bag. I love the colors a lot, so it should be a good little summer handbag.

The podcast has been on my mind a lot, as have the video tutorials. My schedule with work, up until starting tomorrow, hasn’t been formally set, but once I get into the groove of the new schedule (3pm-12pm EST/EDT), I should be able to start figuring out when it’ll be best to record and shoot. I hope soon. I’m feeling kind of lost without talking to you. Pathetic of me, right? I might need to scale back to once a month until I get my footing again.

Hope you’re all well, enjoying the weather wherever you are, and are having a great time crocheting something fun.

Life Stuff, Talk

I’ve been super busy with work, but the lack of time to do much else is a combination of not really having a defined schedule, but also because one of my cats, Remix, is a very sick boy. (I’m going to add a TON of backstory in the form of a copy and paste from the girlfriend’s journal–you can find it in the “Read more” section at the end.)

Anyway, this time now seems to be just a huge adjustment phase, along with scary bits and a lot of debt (I think we’re closing in on $700, with $90 in our checking account–eek!). I’m trying to keep up with things, keep myself sane and relaxed, but that’s always difficult. I don’t really have the time for recording a podcast, but I’ll try to get something in the next week or two. Crochet-wise, I’m just picking stuff up here and there. I had to stop working on the Stash Eater blanket because I ran out of Red Heart SS (Light Blue/#0381) before I could finish the last round. I’m going to look at it later to see if I can come up with anything creative. I’m not going to buy any to finish it off, because that negates the whole getting rish of old stash, you know?

In the meantime, Marly sent me supplies to test her design that was accepted into Interweave Crochet Fall ‘08. I’m really excited! The only thing that makes me grumpy is that I can’t find a steel hook smaller than a size 10 anywhere near me. Money being as tight as it is, with the Vet bills, and not getting my first check yet, well, I can’t rationalize driving a half hour away (gas is $3.71 here, unless it increased since last night) just to find a hook that may or may not be stocked. So, since I can’t find one, and am not going to drive aimlessly looking for one, I decided to crochet her pattern without the element that requires the Teeniest Hook in the World EVER. ;)

Now, to get off-topic from crochet, I thought I’d share that bit about Remix. It’s a lot of “bit”, which is why it’s cut behind the “Read More” link. You’ll appreciate that in a minute if you decide to read. This copy&paste of what Caryn (the girlfriend) wrote in her journal is from the beginning of our Remix-being-sick troubles to almost current, so…

Read more…

Life Stuff, Talk, WsIP