What In The World...

...have I been doing?

Working

I know, I'm sorry. You weren't sitting down when you read that? I should have warned you. I'll try to do better next time.

I finally picked up a temp assignment from my new favorite temp agency: Express Personnel. There's an office less than a mile from my apartment and they found me an assignment about 15 minutes away. I'm working for the United Way doing administrative tasks. It's a part-time temp job, for about 28 hours a week, but it's something.

I started working there on Wednesday, October 11, and taught two of the ladies in the office to knit at lunch on Friday, October 13. I was pretty impressed with that turnaround.

I've also picked up some hours at the yarn store. I worked during the day on Tuesday, October 12, and also worked Saturday, October 14, after sock club. I had four participants this time including one brand new sock knitter who actually taught herself how to start the sock by reading a book. She said it took her a couple of tries, but she had those double pointed needles going like a pro by the time she came to sock club. I showed her how to turn the heel and decrease for the gusset, and she was off and running again. Very impressive.

Saturday afternoon I worked with a lady named Dani, helping a few customers and rearranging some of the yarns to make the store more bee-you-tiful. We picked on each other back and forth throughout the afternoon, as we are wont to do, and after laughing our way through most of the afternoon, I told her, "It's a good thing you like me, or I could be in trouble."

She just shook her head and smiled. "You're like the monkey in my brain," she said. She couldn't have paid me a higher compliment.

Knitting

I know! Can you believe it?

I'm thinking about writing a letter to the DPN manufacturers of the world, asking them to stop making US size 2 dpns. The more of them they make, the more socks I can cast on withouth finishing old pairs. Seriously. I give you:

The yarn is called Pace from Universal Yarn, Inc. I love this barely-tweedy orange. The pattern is made up from the railroad rib stitch I found in both a sock pattern at the store and also in Sensational Knitted Socks. I keep hoarding that book from the library because it hasn't yet found it's way into my knitting library. I'm selfishly knitting these socks for myself. We'll see when the second one gets cast on.

I also made these mittens using a double strand of Artyarns luxury ultramerino sock yarn (same brand as the blue/brown colorway I got at the Wool Gathering). The mittens are about five inches long tip to tail, and I'm not sure if they're big enough to fit my niece. If they are, they're hers. If not, I may have to find another mini-diva to bestow them on.

I started another sock with a purple-y Trekking colorway, and I'm trying an entrelac pattern with it. The first one isn't really far enough along to get a good picture, but for the idea, see Eunny's blog. I'm excited because I think the Trekking will make an AMAZING entrelac, and I'm even more excited because my buddy Nicole taught me how to knit BACKWARDS so I don't have to flip the sock around every seven stitches. How sweet is that? Wanna know how? Leave a comment and maybe I'll do a step-by-step one of these days.

There's been (and not been) other knitting as well. Steady progress on the Pomatomos socks (with the exception of the five rows I currently need to rip back because I got cocky and stopped looking at the chart), absolutely no progress on the new entrelac bag, and I haven't started my nephew's birthday sweater yet because I still don't know how big to make it. This makes me sad, but as I told my mom earlier tonight, I may just go ahead and start it in a size 2T, so he'll be able to wear it for a really long time, or at least until December.

"Reading"

Ever since I bought a new vehicle back in May, I've been listening to books on tape and CD when I drive. Occasionally I'll switch to the radio or a music CD, but mostly it's been stories. I can't actually call it "reading" because it's actually "listening". However, the latest book is one I highly recommend. It's been out for a few years, but I finally decided I'd try it, and I can't get enough of it.

It takes up 16 CDs. 16. That's a lot of CDs. Most of the other books I've picked up with that many CDs have bored me to tears and I haven't been able to listen to the whole thing. Tonight I finished disk 15 and I'm desperately sad that there's only one more CD to go. I've already convinced myself I need to buy the actual book so that I can digest it more as I truly read it. It's an amazing story.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is heartwrenching. If it's science fiction, it's the most emotional science fiction ever written. If it's a love story, it's the saddest love story ever written. If it's a tragedy, it's the happiest tragedy ever written. Once you accept that Henry is a time traveler, it couldn't make more sense.

It probably doesn't hurt that I have a little crush on the man who reads Henry's chapters. However, if you long for an emotionally charged story, this book is for you. If you've read it or are inspired to read it, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you think. I almost want to put off listening to the final CD to prolong the enjoyment.