Day 309 - Exhausted

FO to celebrate.  The beret is done. 

It was a long day, and I can't hold my eyes open.  So short post and I'm signing off.

Hope your day went well too.

Day 308 - Student

Lindsey wants HK slippers and wants to make her own.  Yesterday we looked at patterns, selected one and downloaded it to her laptop.

She didn't have needles so we ran to the LYS this afternoon to pick up a couple of pairs.  In a stroke of luck they didn't have two alike, so two different circulars in different lengths and colors, which should actually make it easier to learn the technique. 

She remembered how to cast on. But needed a refresher on purling and the different appearance of the two on the needles.  Soon she was knitting away and reading her knitting enough to quickly recognize mistakes.  I showed her where to find tutorials on YouTube and had her make a video of my hands while I demonstrated the techniques she would need next. 

This is her first attempt at socks and she's doing a good job.  I laughed when I told her that socks were generally not the second project type for most knitters.  She asked what mine had been, and I said an Aran sweater, but quickly pointed out that wasn't normal either.  Her mother piped up that I had always been an overachiever. 

To be honest I didn't know any better.  I wanted the sweater. Grandma didn't want to make it for me, so I did it myself.  I think she's probably in the same position.  I won't knit them for her and she really wants them.  That's a great motivation in my book.  She will learn the techniques, because she has a goal. 

While I more than made my 11 teaching, I also got the beret back on the needles and should complete it at lunch tomorrow. 

Day 307 - Planning

Traded work for plants today.  Some will replace the daylilies that the gas company destroyed.  The evergreen will add a bit of winter interest at my front steps when everything has gone dormant.  I need to move a hosta and some bulbs to plant it.  Hopefully tomorrow morning when I get back from work.

The gas company showed up after 10 am thinking they were going to work in the house today.  I politely explained that I had a birthday lunch to attend and would be leaving.  When would I be back?  Turns out that 3 pm didn't work for them.  I'm not real sympathetic, birthdays come once a year.  Lack of communication and coordination on their part does not make this my problem.

My sister and I both had a fiber filled day.  She hit her favorite needlework shop in the morning before meeting Mom and myself for lunch.  After lunch the two of us hit the LYS, Joanns and B&N on the hunt for magazines and books.  She also drooled over some of the sample garments and yarns.

We made plans to start a family knit night for herself, her daughters, our cousin and myself.  I've taught all of them at some point and they want to learn more.  This should be fun.

I did get the shaping finished on my beret and got it off the needles, although I'm now in the process of taking off the band and picking up the live edge to knit down and re-do the band to make it smaller.  I've more than made my 11.

Day 306 - Tired Again

Crazy day, it was supposed to be a short one, technically I was supposed to leave by noon.  Instead I missed lunch, wrote quotes all afternoon, asked my supervisor to quote one of the lists that I had, answered phone calls/pages and still wasn't done at 5:30.  My supervisor actually texted me at home to see if I had pulled an order for pick up tomorrow.  I responded that his boss had made pointed comments about how I was not to work until close, so I got my critical ones quoted and clocked out.  I did make a point of printing the correct pick list, to make it easier, and had left it at the service desk for the manager who had sent me home to resolve. 

Got a phone call really quickly after that response.  Consensus, yes I had done the right thing.  Pointed out that I was planning on finishing quotes during the all store meeting on Sunday am.  I've got three quotes, a bid and a spreadsheet to do on Monday, in addition to anything else that may walk in.  It's going to be a very busy day.

Came home to find another note in tucked into the door I don't use.  This one is again from the gas co. subcontractor, the same one that screwed up the garden on Monday.  The note said to call to confirm our appointment on 11-5 (tomorrow) as they are intending to install the inside lines and hook up the meter. 

Maybe I'm missing something but usually if you schedule an appointment, there's some actual scheduling/communication/interaction going on.  Not a note left in an inconspicuous location dictating a meeting.  I have plans with family to celebrate a birthday, they are SOL. (OK maybe I'm tired and cranky and fed up with pushy contractors today, but still I have a life and have plans that can't change.) 

But my boss and I did get stopped by the outside sales guy, who passed on that his big customer, who I had done the kitchen measurements and designs for yesterday, had been really impressed.  Impressed enough to send an email, which he had passed up to the store manager. 

Trying to unwind tonight, I did work on the beret, but only for about 30 minutes.  So while it is closer to being finished, I'm not there yet.  I have tried it on and don't like the band.  While it measures about three inches of negative ease, I think it feels too loose.  But I'm not ripping it back this time.  Instead I'll snip a stitch and pick out a row and pick up the live edge and knit down on even smaller needles to tighten it up.

Day 305 - Busy Busy

One of the many hens and chicks in my yard

As I was heading out to my desk this morning, my boss and our outside sales guy were debating about how to get something measured for a customer so the sales guy could sell truckloads of merchandise.  Seems that the in house design staff were out for the day, and that they either didn't do or understand how to do onsite as built measurements.  The consensus was that there was no way that we could get anything done for them this week. 

At this point I spoke up.  Yes, I know how to measure for cabinets.  Yes I know how to lay out a functional kitchen.  I'll do it for you, but I want the sales.   While I don't get commission, I do get graded on sales per hour and I'm not stupid, truckloads of cabinets are big sales.  But I can't run over there until I take care of the customers I already have waiting on me this morning.  After weeks of relatively flat business, for some reason I ended up, busier than a one armed paper hanger this morning, following up on a final details for one customer and getting that order pulled, taking phone calls from several others, trying to pull together a quote and materials for a list that had been phoned in earlier, as well as dealing with carry out sales.  It was almost four hours before I could leave.  In the meantime management had decided that the place I needed to visit was a bit too dicey for an associate to go alone, so someone else needed to go too. 

Ninety minutes later we were back, complete with scribble dimension sketches and notes for five different layouts.  I had a customer waiting for me with a list that he wanted priced, and another who had wanted a site visit asking me to move it to Friday, but in the meantime could I pull together another quote and send it over so it could be delivered tomorrow.  In between pages and phone calls, we got three of them into the design software and drawings emailed out before I got called away and had then had to leave for the day.  Tomorrow is supposed to be short, but with three large orders going out the door in the morning, eight units to walk with a customer, two more kitchens to design and the materials list for a gutted out house to quote, I don't know that I'll be leaving very quickly.

On my needles, the beret is finally to the point where I've started the shaping for the top.  I'm thinking another evening and there will be another FO in the collection.  Time to get really serious on the Christmas stockings.

Day 304 - More Than 11

While the younger women of the family met in my living room tonight to dissect/critique the recent Sauerkraut luncheon that we had prepared at church a couple of weeks ago, I sat and worked on my beret.  Basically we looked at the master list, made revisions as needed and documented what worked and what didn't and why/how to change it.   Through it all I knit.  The beret is still in the mindless knitting stage, so I didn't need to watch, and could listen and respond as needed without losing my place.

Tried to find a copy of the potato chip scarf pattern for my niece.  She thinks they are cool.

How did your day go?

Day 303 - Warm

The heat is on, the house is cozy.  Darned toasty after waking up to 54 degrees this morning.  Actually it's warm enough that it's making me sleepy.

Came home tonight to discover that they had installed the service line sometime today.  No they didn't trench any of the yard, it was all bored.  However they didn't bother to dig up the plants in the garden and they are all gone. And the area that was once full of perennials is full of rocks/gravel.  So I think we will be having a discussion tomorrow.

Sent my secret project on it's way this afternoon.  Spent this evening trying to work on the beret and falling asleep.  I should really take that as a hint, but I need to get ready for girls night here at the house tomorrow.