Wow.. it’s been a while April 17, 2009

Freia finally got her freedom and for two months was the happiest, sweetest, happy-go-lucky pup. No more sneering at other dogs, just play play play. Made me realize how much the injury has affected her this last year.

Sad to say though, about 3 weeks ago she injured the other knee. Though till then she never showed any signs even under sedation, the additional stresses can and often do take out the good knee. The ratio of dogs is some 50% go on to require surgery on the other leg, so I’m bummed out, but not entirely shocked.

She is bummed out too. We still go to the park and I let her run about, but if she does more than an hour and a half of intense play then she’s out for the count and very limpy the remainder of the day, though right as rain the following morning. Though I’ve not had confirmation from the dr. yet, I recognize the signs. The soreness and limping after exercise, and toe-touching the rest of the time. And of course, out at the park, running about, you’d never know there was anything wrong with her.

Such a drag.

I have a call into the doctor today and I guess I will take her in next week for confirmation and schedule the surgery for the following week. It’s a bit tricky as I go to Ohio for TNNA in June, this would put her 6 weeks post op when I have to go, but her doggie day care can do the job of walking her at that point. She will be mobile and the hardest part will be keeping her calm more than anything. The timing of the surgery is tricky as I have a series of shows from June on, so I really have no 8 week stretch when I will be here.  At least if I do it now, even if it seems early, then it’s done and she will be able to enjoy the summer. I have to keep in mind, though this injury is not (yet) as severe as the first one, it won’t get any better, short of keeping her on a leash, which only disguises the injury, it is no cure. And I certainly don’t want to keep a 3 year old, high energy dog on a leash for months on end again. I promised myself that if the 2nd knee went, I wouldn’t wait.

The rest of my life has been quite a ride too. I’m referring to it all as a series of unfortunate events. Nothing major, but an endless river of annoyances.

• Garbage disposal broke, replaced, new one broke.
• Computer crashed beyond repair and wasn’t backed up for 3 months, but that wasn’t the worst of it, I also lost over a year of data for my company’s accounting. Fortunately taxes had been done, and I have everything printed out, but I will be spending the next few months re-entering it all.. this time I’m backing it up.. lesson learned.
• Car needs a service.. again
• When doing the data entry for the new laptop I accidentally deleted a day’s worth of work.. luckily this time I had it backed up, but still.. sheesh.
• Oh, and the new laptop? (paid for with my tax refund – in one door, out the next) The new laptop that I received just a week ago needs to have the keyboard replaced. Luckily I have on-site service and though they tried to tell me that it was easy and I could do it myself, I figure the way things are going right now.. bad idea.
• Spent $20 on new bulbs for my under cabinet lights in my kitchen, still didn’t work. Bought a new set of under cabinet lights. Did, at best, a mediocre job of installing them, the wiring is sort of funky. Had a friend come over to help me pull the fridge out so I could remove the last of the wiring of the “broken” lights only to find that the plug had simply become dislodged and my old, nicely installed lights actually worked just fine.. Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend.. replacing the new ones with the old ones… sigh..
• Wrote a list of 10 goals for Knitwhits, been already shot down on 2 of them.. ouch. (but I’m not giving up on that.. I’m stubborn that way and will pursue these ideas further) I’d give you more specifics on them but they aren’t really things I can talk about in a public forum. Still stings  though!

So.. see what I mean? nothing life-shattering, but just sort of tedious and endless.. at least I haven’t stubbed my toe lately – that’s always an eye opener.

Dana The Intern – Week 6 – Whatever happened to Baseball? July 28, 2008

Can I Come Too?

Week 6 at the Knitwhits studio was spent organizing and packing for the Northwest Needle Market in Seattle.  It was difficult deciding what to take, and what not to take.  We only had so much room, and we wanted to make the most of it.  Tina put me in charge of merchandising the room, therefore I had to plan what samples to bring, what props I would need to set the kits up with and what tools I needed in order to display visuals properly.  I was completely stressed out by the time Friday rolled around; I could barely function and pack my personal belongings.  I realized when going through security that my carryon bag contained all of my toiletries.  What an idiot I was thinking I could carry on more than 3 ounces worth of liquid on the plane with me.  Next thing I know I was running through the airport trying to check in my carryon bag, make through security again, in order to catch my flight in 20 minutes.  Needless to say I made it, and I was never so happy to be on that airplane.

Eggs Get Cornered

This year the tradeshow was slower than we would have liked it to be. 

(ETA – yes, a lot of the bigger and the regular accounts from that area went to TNNA or are waiting till the season really kicks in to place their orders – we didn’t see the stores from Alaska, Canada and US states further a field such as Utah and Montana that have attended this show in previous years.)
The number of retail shops visiting was just slightly down from the previous year. Customers were definitely there for the cash & carry aspect of the show, so saving themselves some money and were less interested in placing any orders.  I have to wonder if the current price of gas had anything to do with it!  However, we did get some complements on our displays, which leads me to believe I did something right.  One interesting fact regarding this show was that it was all new customers that made the purchases. That speaks volumes for Tina, because interest in her designs continues to generate new accounts.  

Tina and I took some time to do a little exploring while in Seattle, so we journeyed to the Grand Re-opening of the Westfield Mall in Tukwila.  I was amazed to see the number of people shopping, and the line to check out in some of these stores was unreal.  It makes it hard to believe that the recession we are experiencing with our economy is having any negative effect on the consumers in this area.  My favorite discovery was a store called Gilly Hicks.  This is a collection of intimates and loungewear for girls and boys.  It is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, and I assume they are trying to target males and females in their teens and early 20’s.  As of right now they are 1 of 8 stores to make it into the malls, so they are trying to test the market right now.
(ETA – My favorite was “Buckle” (how cool are these T-shirts?? – I need to get out more.. – and I’m also now in love with Ed Hardy Shirts – but yowza.. pricey…. )

Light the Night Walk

I am extremely excited about our latest promotion we are doing with the Purl Packs.  I am a team captain for the Light the Night Walk in Cleveland in honor of my Mother.  It is a fundraiser that The Leukemia Lymphoma Society puts on for cancer research.  Tina is donating $5 for every Purl Pack that is purchased by retail stores now until the day of the walk on September 27th.  This is a great opportunity to raise money for a great organization, and to reflect on the importance of finding a cure cancer.  I am a huge advocate for promoting this, after seeing what my Mother has gone through being diagnosed with Lymphoma.  If there is one thing I would love to see, it is people not having to suffer from invasive cancer treatments.

My favorite excursion this week in San Francisco was a trip to AT&T Park to watch a Giants game.  Aaron and I spent Thursday at the stadium, and then took a long walk to North Beach.  Of course I was exhausted after the long trudge through the city, when reached a local park we took a much needed nap in the sun.  I have to say was not impressed with the Giant’s stadium.  I felt as if I was at a carnival with all of the commercialized interruptions throughout the game.  It seemed as though the fans were more entertained by the trivia games played between innings, and all of the Giants paraphernalia they could buy.  Whatever happened to going to a baseball game and cheering for your home team, or actually watching the game?!?

PacBell Park

Trials and Dinners – Dana The Intern – Week 4 July 15, 2008

I cannot believe my internship excursion is half done, and that I will be leaving the Bay area in a few weeks! Week 4 was a week of sharing dinners with friends, being told I look like “Jessica Simpson” by annoying people in a bar, and having Dell tech support employees tell me I need a new operating system for a notebook that is 3 months old!

Believe it or not last week was the first time I spent Monday through Friday at the Knitwhits studio. Between all the traveling I was able to do the past few weeks I never spent a full week here. I was concerned by the end of the week I would run out of work to do, or that Tina and I would be sick of each other, but neither of those happened. This week I spent a lot of time perfecting the Kit Guide Book I was working on from last week. I began organizing the products into categories, downloading the pictures for each kit, and then inputting the items that belong in each kit. I also continued to work on the Pattern of the Week emails. They seem to be generating business and bumping up her web traffic, which is excellent. The theory is that the more people start browsing her website the more likely they will buy products off of it!

Stats

My goal before I leave Knitwhits is to boost her web traffic by 10% from last year! Hopefully this will be reflected in an increase in sales too. (Tina here.. hmm .. seeing an increase and lots of jumping around from last month.. something’s going on that’s for sure! 🙂 )

We started talking more about reorganizing the studio and went to several stores to get ideas on how to make the studio more effective. We are trying techniques to reduce time on making kits, and being able to see what yarn needs to be reordered instantly. Overall if we can find a solution this will save time and money in the end. And now Tina is introducing me to power tools. Never did I imagine I would be working with those during a Fiber Arts internship! She came up with this great idea to make peg shelves to hang her yarn for easy accessibility. Being the creative person she is, she decided we are going to build them ourselves. (Err.. we are? Nah, you’re the intern.. that’s what you’re here for!) If it were me I would just go to IKEA, and buy something that would do the trick, however Tina told me “In order to get exactly what you want, you create exactly what you want!” We went to Home Depot bought some 2×3 wood, screws, and a saw – we will soon be on our way.

The end of my week became a disaster when my computer crashed. Unfortunately Tina had to see my impatient side, a side of me I hoped she would not have to experience. My computer decided it was not going to connect to internet explorer, because of a family safety feature malfunction. At first I was calm about the situation, however by the end of the day when Dell told me I needed a new operating system I was outraged. Turns out they were too incompetent to research the problem, and decided not to call me back after we got disconnected. Tina took a lot of time trying to help me find a solution; but ultimately my amazing Father was able to figure out the problem (long distance from home!) and walked me through how to fix it. By that night my hair was sticking straight up from me pulling on it all day, but the computer was fixed and I was happy.  

3 gals at Rudy's

Later on that week I met a friend of hers, Mia, and the three of us went to dinner at Rudy’s Cant Fail Café. Mia used to work for Tina at the Knitwhits studio, so we swapped stories all evening about living in the Bay area and working for Tina. The food was excellent of course; I have yet to eat a bad meal here. It is a great place to go if you are looking for a casual place to eat, and food on the menu that will please anyone’s appetite.

I spent my free time this week learning how to research information on Ravelry. I joined the PiPN group, and I am hoping to talk with other students about what they have learned so far on their internship. I want to share my experiences as well, and get some ideas of other things we can do before I leave. I think Ravelry is an awesome site to share your interests with others, and promote your products for your business as well.

Mark, Allegra, Aaron and I at Tamarindo

Saturday night was another great night of dining and great company. Aaron and I went to dinner with some friends of his, Mark and Allegra, who are two people I always look forward to seeing when I come to the Bay area. We went to a place called The Trappist before dinner for some drinks, and then we had dinner at Tamarindo. This restaurant serves excellent Mexican food along with great margaritas! Poor Mark happened to eat a habanero pepper by accident, and was in some pain throughout dinner, but he did manage to recover from it. I always tell Aaron it is hard to come across great people, and I am fortunate that I have met Mark and Allegra.

I find it fascinating being able to meet all of the people that I have. The Bay area is a great place to talk to people who have a variety of interests and hobbies. One thing I know is not to judge a book by its cover, you can always find something good in everyone. I hope I can pass that trait on to others.

Welcome to E’ville! – Dana the Intern – Week 1 June 24, 2008

My first week at the Knitwhits studio has been an exciting experience.  When I first arrived at the apartment complex that I would be living in I discovered that I was close to the “hood”.  What a great way to start out a two month adventure 2500 miles away from home.  I was concerned as to how I was going to know what was a good area to be in and what was not. Tina was a tremendous help by showing me around the city of Emeryville and explaining the in’s and out’s of the Bay area.  She took me to a fantastic fabric store called Stone Mountain and we went to the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.  Both of those places are a must see if anyone visits the Bay area.  After the tour my nerves were much calmer and I knew I would be okay for the duration of my stay.
The most fascinating thing I learned so far is all the hard work that goes into making these kits.  Tina does this all by herself, making sure each skein of yarn is spun to perfection and the right amounts are given in order to complete her kits.  She is cautious and wants to make sure every customer is 100% satisfied with their finished product!  She spends hours of her time perfecting her patterns.  Several people will test them before she considers having them purchased by her customers.  I am fascinated by how she comes up with her designs and how she converts them into patterns.  She told me I could come up with a design of my own and then we can translate it into a pattern!  Do not worry though it will not be one that we will try to market!

Tina came up with some projects for me to complete while I am here.  One project that I have completed was the email list update.  We also put together a Summer newsletter where I was able to introduce myself and tell where I came from.  I had a great time learning how to put that newsletter together.  In fact I was so excited I emailed it to my family for them to see.  Soon to come is a “Pattern of the Week” newsletter sent out weekly, and I get to choose some of my favorite patterns to include in the email.  This will highlight the pattern and tell a little story behind it. 

The biggest project I am looking forward to is reorganizing the studio.  With my label maker and organization skills in hand I am going to transform her studio.  Take a look at some of the before pictures and stay tuned for the after.

ETA – Tina here: In my defence, I’ve put up some yarn pictures of nicely wound balls of yarn! My studio has it’s own familiar chaos, which is I think a family trait.. My father has the same “organized chaos” method in his own office and he too gets a bunch of grief from all of us as well.. think of it as an endearing quality..

Stupid, stupid, stupid June 1, 2008

I think Freia has a torn ACL. Why did I take her out today???????

She’s been limping a bit for about a month now, I think she initially hurt herself jumping out of the car one day. I’ve been giving her Rimadyl, resting her for a few days, and progressively increased her rest as she’s continued to not improve.

Basically really limited her for the last 3 days and she seemed better, so I took her out to Pt. Pinole.. She was running and having a great time with Rufus, no limping, happy as a clam. But as has happened before, once she stops moving, the pain begins. And today is probably the worst I’ve seen it.

And I’m going away to TNNA on Thursday so I can’t really do anything about it till I get back the following Tuesday. I’m just kicking myself right now, and I feel so very bad for her. And she was really fine this morning.

Damn it.

Of course to top it off, if it is a torn ACL and requires surgery, it’s 8 weeks of severe restrictions in movement – guess I”ll be sleeping with her in the studio since she won’t be allowed up the stairs, and won’t do well without me around, and the surgery runs from $2-4K. Great.

The best place to hide a bone May 7, 2008

Freia has always believed that the best place to hide a bone..

..is somewhere in the middle of the living room floor

where no one can possibly ever find it…

Doing my part for the economy April 19, 2008

This came in the mail the other day. Gave me a really good chuckle, I mean really, what’s the point? It probably cost them four times as much to cut and mail me the check. I’ll do my best to not spend it all at once.. Actually, I think this one is going on the wall, it’s a keeper..

Some good news.. My fears of Freia’s bump are assuaged. It’s not cancer. But it in all likelyhood is my/her other nemesis – the foxtail. It sure is early in the season for her to pick one up, but they are out in full force at Cesar Chavez Park where we go about 4 times a week.

The vet put her on Amoxycillin (again..) which we get for her from Costco. I checked the pills at the pharmacy to make sure they were correct, but when I got home I realised it was the wrong dosage. Called the Pharmacy and asked if it would be OK for me to just double up the dose until I could get back in to exchange the rest. It was rush hour and I wasn’t about to sit in it for an hour for what is otherwise a 5 minute drive. Instead, the pharmacist went way above and beyond the call of duty and actually drove to my house with the correct prescription, and a full refund!!! I was really floored. It was very nice of her to do that, sure it was her error in the beginning, but that was really outstanding. And she left she said: “Take care of your dog!”. I guess she must be a pet owner too.

I’ve also figured out that Amoxy makes Freia really grumpy, she’s become really bossy at the dog park, and snapped at Pancho, her little Shitzu friend cos she thought he was after her (imaginary) treats. So.. as usual, until we’re through with the meds she gets no dog park time. And that way I get to have an angelic dog on long leash walks, instead of the stress of constant monitoring her rotten behaviour in the wilds of the offleash dog park. Bossy little so-and-so she is.

As for the other bump, undoing ALL that knitting.. I went to my knitting group held at a friend’s house for a 2nd and 3rd opinion and they agreed – it was too wide, so I ripped it all out.. Took 2 hours or so, then cast on again and got two rows done before it was time to head home. I think if you have to undo something all the way, it’s the last few rows that are the worst, as that when it really sinks in that all that work you did is truly gone. It’s a drag, but it is rare that I rip out quite that much knitting.. C’est la vie.

Two nights later I hooked up with another knitting group hosted by Knit-One-One at Rudy’s in E’ville twice a month. I got there an hour late, delayed by work, only to realise that I didn’t have one of the two sets of needles I needed for this project, so I could only do another 4 rows.. blech.. annoying. So I had a veggie burger instead.

I love eating out at restaurants. Lately though there has been a string of takeover robberies at restaurants in the East Bay, which has put me a bit off. A friend’s son was at one restaurant when it was held up last weekend, and then a local restaurant here in l’il ole E’ville was held up a couple of nights ago. Bummer. So far, no one’s gotten hurt, but it’s only a matter of time I think.. Stupid people.

Week 2 of CERT training January 31, 2008

Last week I started C.E.R.T. training – aka Community Emergency Response Team Program.  It’s an 8 week course put on by my local Fire Dept to get people trained in emergency basics.

Since they say it better on their website than I can, here’s a quick quote:

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

Living in an earthquake zone it seems like a useful thing to know. I’ve always tried to be independent, but being independent is one thing, I figured it’s much more important to be useful (as my grandmother always said) – it’s all well and good to not be a burden, but since I can, and I’m able, I’d rather put myself to some use should something come up. To look at it another way, in our town we have 7-9 firefighters on duty at any one time. In an earthquake if even 10% of our population of 10,000 are injured, trapped or need help after an earthquake, it will be a long time before those 7 firefighters make it around to those 1000 people. Currently my city has about 100 people trained in the CERT program. That adds a lot of extra hands in case of a real emergency.

Last week was the initial intro and overview – this week we got to put out fires! It was actually pretty easy – somehow I thought it would be more dramatic, but a fire extinguisher really does a good job, quickly and very effectively (for small fires, of course). We have a great fire dept with a lot of nice guys who make the course interesting. It is run in a fairly laid back way, keeping it interesting. We get to hear back stories on various fires and calamities that have happened.. some stuff that is fairly astonishingly stupid that people have done, but then other things that give you pause..

They said that the most common fire is electrical – think about it in your house – how many extension cords do you have going? Are they running under a carpet? If so, not good.. the rubbing of the carpet can wear down the cord in as little as six months.. get a longer cord if you must and run it around the room against the walls, not where they are likely to get worn and cause a hazard. Also, don’t pile on one multiple outlet to another.. check the rating (usually on the back side of the outlet) and keep it under the recommended maximum – just because there are six (or three or whatever number) of outlets, does not mean it’s safe to use them all, look at the power required for each item you’re using and don’t overload your plugs!

Do you have a fire extinguisher in your home? No? Get one. They work!

Do you know where you gas/electrical shut-offs are? Do you know how to shut them off? Find out if you don’t know. If your gas has been shut off after an emergency, do remember not to turn it back on again – leave that to the pros.

Next week we start in on two weeks of medical training, going over Triage and basic first aid (treating for shock, broken limbs, minor burns, bleeding, etc, etc). We will also be covering light Search and Rescue (something I’ve always wanted to do with Freia – though in reality the training time for it is enormous and most dogs don’t pass..), Disaster Psychology, Financial Planning and the CERT Organization system (or something like that), and Terrorism.

I must be some kind of disaster geek or something, cos I love this stuff..

Catching up January 26, 2008

So somehow it’s another month or more since I last wrote.. So much for my previous good intentions. My initial delay was that I’ve been unable to upload photos to my laptop directly and I lost my motivation. Then a whole host of other things happened to further derail my blogging mojo…:

The demise of Sam. My cat of 15 years (I inherited him and his sister Sable when they were 3) became ill in early december and by the end of the month it was clear that it was the beginning of the end. I took him to the vet on NY eve and they didn’t have much good to say. He’d lost a lot of weight (down to 8 lbs from 10 lbs back in Feb and down from his original kitty weight of 18 lbs). He was having heart trouble, was weak in his back legs which also made him somewhat incontinent. The hardest part was that he was falling apart so quickly, which made me feel like it was an infection of some kind and that he would be “fixable”. Every day was a roller coaster, he would be better one day, worse the next, it was a lot of one step forward, two steps back. It got harder and harder to watch and became clear that I was soon to be left with no alternative but to put him down. My vet was endlessly patient with my phone calls and new ideas of what Sam could be suffering from. At the same time, I was trying to prep for TNNA in early January and hope that Sam would either hold on a few weeks for me to do the show and be back home to care for him some more, or, hard as it was to face, for him to get to the point where I would have no choice but to put him down before I went away for those few days. Three days before I was due to leave he seemed to be holding steady and I decided that I couldn’t let that I was going away be the deciding factor in putting him down or not. Of course what I wanted was for him to tell me when it was time, but he couldn’t, anymore than I could make that decision when he was still aware, purring and loving.

My neighbors next door were wonderful. They had  just gone through the same sad experience with their 21 year old cat. While I was away, they tenderly cared for Sam, keeping him warm, fed and clean, giving him love and pets. I knew he was in good hands. Then, the day I got home I could immediately see that in only the few days that I was away, he had continued to go downhill and I really had only one possible thing to do. He had almost no strength, eating was exhausting for him, and walking was almost out of the question, though he heroically tried to show me that he was really OK.

That last month I cried so many tears, just when I thought I could cry no more, they would come again. I begged Sam to help me decide what to do, or get well, or tell me what was the right thing, but what can a cat do? I held him, cared for him, cleaned him, talked to him and loved him endlessly, but ultimately life does come to an end and death is unavoidable.

Putting him down was so very very hard, but watching him fade away and start to suffer in the end was far more painful, as that was day in, day out, every minute, watching him, with him watching me work. Putting him down became the kindest thing to do, and the only thing no matter how painful it would seem to be.

My vet was truly wonderful, kind, sympathetic, respectful and understanding, and so very gentle with him (and me). This was the first time that I’ve had to put down a pet, and though it can never be a happy thing, she made it as easy as something like this could possibly be.

 TNNA. The big show of the year. A lot of other wholesalers say that the Columbus (June) show is the big one, but looking at my numbers, this one in January has traditionally been the big one. I had high hopes for this show, things have been humming along at Knitwhits, been busy filling orders, and I’d come up with some new designs that I was really excited about. A few days before heading for LA I had Mia (my ex-assistant) stop by to say goodbye to Sam, and unfortunately she still had the tail end of a cold. I think my immune system was already compromised from my emotional rollercoaster with the cat, so when she stopped by I picked up her cold. By the time the show started my bug was full blown, leaving me with a cough that was completely incapacitating.. All things considered, the show ended up being unusually slow the first day, which made it easier for me in my sick state, but was also disappointing. The only good thing was that it was clear to me that it was not exclusive to Knitwhits, I had some of the biggest companies as my booth neighbors and we were all slow. It did eventually begin to pick up, with the last day feeling the busiest.

I saw the usual cast of characters (designer Melissa Leapman, Vogue editor Adina Klein, Gina and Austin Wilde from Alchemy, Clara Parkes of Knitter’s Review, Suzanne from Hill Country Weavers to name but a very few), and some new ones knitting community rock stars (Jess and Casey from Ravelry). I wish I hadn’t been so sick, but the show was as always, exhausting but fun, with networking, gossipping, schmoozing, chatting and laughing. I had wonderful help once more from Erin (owner of Bobbin’s Nest Studio in Santa Clara). Erin – you’re the best!

Here we are (Erin and I) trying out the Sample It at TNNA.. it was a success.. almost completely sold out of my new easter egg kits (coming soon..), everyone went for the large kits which surprised me – I thought they’d snap up more of the smaller ones, but you never know.. Also, you can see us here in the new snappy Knitwhits T-shirts soon to also be available on the Knitwhits site.. You can almost see my new “do” –  My friend Heather has been calling me “Britney” but Erin calls me “punk rock Barbie”.. think I prefer the latter.. when people did actually recognize me at the show, they all loved the hair.. others would sort of give me a confused look before going “hey!!! great hair!” I’d show you a better picture if I had one, but I don’t..

 Xmas and New Years. Christmas with relatives. That’s all I’m going to say on that one. You fill in the blanks. The best part of Christmas was spending the following day with my mother, just hanging out and working on some crafty knitting stuff together.

On the other hand, New Year’s was really great. A friend and I went to a local restaurant/bar for a drink and a snack and ended up hanging out there the entire night. We met two local guys who ended up being really interesting. One of them is building a car that goes on the water and he’s working to break the land/water speed record with this crazy contraption. He may well do it.

 Other odd things. On the way to LA I drove off the road.. full on Dukes of Hazzard, crazy.. I was aiming for the exit, but missed.. woops.. fortunately I have a 4wd Volvo.. it was not a good moment, and sure gave me one heck of an adrenaline rush.. but i did a mental inventory once I was back on a road, suspension .. check, brakes… check, acceleration .. check, tires.. check..  I pulled into the gas station gave the car a visual once over and got back on the road.. swearing to never again drink Theraflu while driving.. and this wasn’t even the night-time kind, but apparently enough chemicals to clearly mess with my clarity of thought.. let this be a warning to anyone reading this.. cold meds and driving really don’t mix, even the non-narcotic ones..

To add to it all.. I managed to leave my passport and green card at the hotel in LA.. I had driven back from LA and went straight to Sam, leaving my suitcases to be unpacked the next day. Later as I went to bed I realised that I didn’t recall packing the passport or Green Card.. (I’d accidentally brought them with me to LA in my bag). I got out of bed and unpacked the bags, didn’t find them of course.. called the hotel (1am now) and the desk clerk checked the room but also couldn’t find them.. Anyway.. this went on for another two days.. I must have spoken to every desk clerk and person on the housekeeping staff at the hotel. It eventually ended well, the housekeeping manager had found the items and locked them safely away till she came back from her days off.. Replacing those would have been a major pain, so that was a really good phone message when she called…

So that’s been the most dramatic/traumatic events of the past few weeks.. My world has been off kilter for what feels like forever and  just now I am beginning to feel balanced again.

Unwound and unwired November 16, 2007

Life is good.

I’ve come out of the dark ages and am now set up to work off my laptop wirelessly, in the comfort of my living room instead of the dungeon my studio. Which means I won’t be shivering in the cold, or shuffling through mounds of paperwork on my desk just to  be able to relax. Which means all those brilliant, highly intelligent thoughts that come to mind as I’m knitting or puttering about and think “hey, I should blog about that” I may actually get to writing down. Not only that, but my new upgraded service is FAST, like scary fast, wow, I love it.. I don’t have to wait for my computer to dwell on whether or not it will open a web page this minute, hour or day. I click the link and it opens, instantly! Woo hoo!

So a lot has happened since I last wrote – thankfully as that sure is a depressing post, sorry about that, but I guess that’s life, or death..

Right after my last post, I went on a cruise to Alaska! It was great. I was teaching knitting to a fabulous group of students and I think we all had a really wonderful time. It was also the best thing I could have done as I was a wreck trying to absorb the loss of my friend. Had I continued to stay at home, it would have taken me a lot longer to move forward again.

I taught 3 classes on the boat, Alterknitives, Fair Isle and Crochet Flowers. I think Alterknitives was the most fun, or at least I think that was the one I enjoyed the most. It was the first class on the first morning, so nicely served as a bit of an icebreaker (no pun intended) and everyone got to see a bit where the skill levels lay.

The boat itself was nice, big, decent food, cheesy entertainment, just as you’d expect, I think, any travelling holiday camp to be. I swore I was going to use the gym everyday, I didn’t, I swore I was going to use all the spa services, didn’t do that either.. but, I did walk multiple laps around the ship everyday, I think maxing out at 4 miles per day in the end. It was a lovely thing to do, and kept me from packing on the pounds since I didn’t have the dog to chase around. Speaking of which.. you know you can bring dogs on board?? As long as it’s a service animal  – how about that?? They put out a little potty place for pups on the promenade deck..and take it away so it’s not there all day, or during a sea storm. The staff on the boat told me that on a previous cruise they had 7 guide dogs!  Princess offered us teaching jobs, which I declined, thank you, as I wouldn’t do it without the hound.. what a thing to have a Chesapeake Bay Retreiver as a ship mascot! If that was the case, then you could count me in for a season..

After the cruise I came back to a world of chaos and work, which I’ve yet really to clamber out of. I did the TKGA show, first time I’ve done a retail show and it was a LOT of work, but very valuable. It was super nice to meet some wonderful people who enjoy my designs. That was worth all the labor and exhaustion of the show itself. Plus I had some wonderful friends help me out, many of whom I’d not seen in far too long a time.

After that, my darling mother that I adore took me to see “Appomatox” by Philip Glass at the San Francisco Opera. I had a little snooze in the first half, I think as one does at the opera – certainly judging by those seated around me – protocol dictates that it’s ok as long as you don’t snore. I have to say, it did remind me somewhat of “Les Miserables” but sort of a high end version…  I don’t know if it’s the distraction of the supertitles or what. The music itself was fabulous, of course, in fact better than I expected. I was somewhat fearful of the repetitiveness of his music in that setting but it was a perfect fit, and allowed you to listen to the singers. To anyone out there, after Appomatox now I want to read a good book about the Civil War – any suggestions? It has to be something interesting, not too dry please. I’m reading a book that’s not bad about Marie Antoinette right now, which is pretty much the same time frame, but definately a world apart, and yet, some of the same characters though too… So, if you know a good book on the Civil War, I’m all ears.

Oh, and the other time sucker.. I got raveled.. ravelry, revelry… wow.. I could spend a lot of time futzing around there.. so interesting. And also, it’s forcing me to get my act to gether on this blog and ACTUALLY WRITE SOMETHING for a change…

Now I’m in full design mode.. I’m having a blast working on a collection of kids sweaters, for Tots aged from 2 – 8 years. I’m still trying to determine if there will be kits or not, for the moment it’s just patterns. Actually one pattern, with two more closely to follow – see knitwhits on ravelry for more details. Pictures will come here shortly too.

So, on that note, I’m going to go and knit. I have a sweater to re-knit…  but that’s another post.