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.

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.

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…

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