Sunday, February 27, 2011

Tree of Life

Not bad for a weekend's work. Rearranged all the stitches to set up the heels. They're turning out nicely, although I'll make some changes for the next pair of these. I didn't like working the tree portion across the break between the needles. It felt sloppy, and the stitch definition definitely suffered a bit. I plan to do the rearranging of the stitches much earlier so that I can see the tree coming to life as I go.

I might overstitch a little owl shape into one of the branches. Maybe :)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Missing

Last week, during all the snow and ice, some asshole hit Jane Grey, crumpled up her left front door and didn't leave a note. It took a couple of days for me to get a cop over (since it wasn't life-threatening) to write up a report. She will need $1,500 in repairs, and I will need to pay just the deductible... but still, she will be in the shop for a week.

The only amusing thing about Jane's accident is when Officer Davis and I were saying our farewells, Melody tried to make a dash out the front door. I pulled the storm door closed and it locked behind me. Fortunately, Officer Davis knows how to kick in a door (she was so funny, saying excitedly, "I never get to do this!"), and I was soon back indoors where it is warmer than 20 degrees.

On Sunday, we went to Sweitzer's for Heather's un-Superbowl party. It also happened to be Kristy's birthday, and I had planned to make cupcakes to take. Alas, thinking about baking wasn't enough to conjure up the eggs that would be necessary for anything!

And so, I went to Icedgems in Reisterstown and bought a dozen little beauties to take with me. The frosting is slightly sweeter than even I prefer, but they are very tasty!

It wasn't until Monday night that I realized my purple shopping bag was gone. Before the road trip, I tossed in some Alpaca Silk, my entrelac sock project, and my new copy of Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders, a couple of extra 40" cable circulars. I honestly don't remember taking it into the shop. We'd stopped at Brown's on the way and I had put my cookies and apple cider into my shopping bag, and it was cold enough to leave them in the car while we knit.

Nevertheless, although the cookies and cider are in the house, the purple bag and its contents are not. I went through every closet, cabinet, looked under beds and tables. That bag is gone.

This morning, I need my crochet hook which is mixed in with all my DPNs. Some of them I inherited from my mom, most of them are ones that I procured in the past couple of years, including all of my favorite Darn Pretty needles. The entire container is missing, and I remember now that I had wanted to take it with me in case I finished all of my knitting projects, or some such nonsense.

The original loss was under $100, so it was upsetting, but mostly I'm annoyed that I couldn't find the stupid bag. With all these missing DPNs into the mix, I'm probably $200+ in disappeared stuff. :\

I'm usually so methodical about where I set things down because I know I can be scattery. Yet again, no little red container of DPNs in any of its usual spots.

Hopefully, I did actually take it into Sweitzer's and left it there. I'm waiting to hear back from Heather to see if she's found it. If not, then I add this to my litany of woe from the past week.