Friday Funny - A Star Is Born?

As I've mentioned here before, Hamlet and I go for our morning walk very early in the morning - anywhere from 4:45 to 5:00 a.m.  In the wintertime, when it's still dark, we are generally the only ones out.  Sometimes we'll run into a random drunk, and if we walk near any of the markets in the neighborhood, we'll see people making deliveries. But otherwise, it's the two of us and several buses that pass by.

This morning, as we were walking, we came across some security guards who were in place to guard a lot of the equipment for the filming of the M. Night Shyamalan series "Servant," and I think they were just glad to see anyone else.  But one of them - to his credit - made a huge fuss over Hamlet, which of course made him incredibly pleased with himself.  I told The Tim that as we were walking home, Hamlet was prancing along, clearly thinking that he had done such a good job, that he was destined to be "ready for the pictures, Mr. DeMille."

(We decided the movie would be called "Koodles on a Plane," with Hamlet's tag line being, "Somebody get these m'f'in Koodles off this m'f''in plane.")

Anyway, I posted this on Facebook, where one of the people I'm friends with is the woman who owned Hamlet's father, and raised Hamlet as a puppy for the Seeing Eye.  She commented, "He's always been full of himself," and that just made me laugh out loud!

Then I was reminded of the video below, which someone sent me yesterday, and it's ridiculously hilarious, so I thought you might enjoy it too.

In conclusion, dogs are just plain silly, right?

Here's hoping your Friday is filled with opportunities for fame, and no yucky foods ... :-)

Holding Pattern

Hello on a Wednesday - Unraveled Wednesday, to be exact!  In what seems like an amazing development, the sun is actually out today in Philadelphia - no rain in sight, which is just so nice for a change.  It's windy and cool, but it's all good when you have had days and days and days of rain.

I have no actual knitting to show to you today for two reasons - 1) I showed my finished socks in yesterday's post, and 2) I knit a swatch for a sweater, but I failed to take a photo of it.  I realize that knitting a swatch leads to a better result in a sweater, but I'm currently dismayed because I have to knit another swatch on smaller needles to see if I can get gauge.  The already-knit swatch is 1.5 stitches more per inch than it should be, and I am tempted to just go with that, but I want to see if another one on smaller needles works better.  I just hope that regardless what I decide to do, that I'll have enough yarn.  Not that I think having the yarn from the swatches will be absolutely necessary, but I like to feel like I have plenty of yarn as opposed to just enough or worse yet - not enough!  We'll see what happens, I guess.  :-)

I can show you a photo of the yarn I am using from the Quince & Co. website:

This is their Finch (fingering weight) yarn in the colorway Smoke - a dark gray/green that looks different according to the lighting, and most likely what you are wearing with it.  I have had this in my stash for a little more than a year, and am glad to be using it now.

I just started reading this book yesterday at lunchtime:

I'm only about 10 pages in (someone kept interrupting me), but so far it seems like it will be really interesting.  I hadn't really heard of the book, but someone I follow on Instagram posted that they were reading it, and I was intrigued (sorry I don't remember who it was!).

Don't forget to stop by (link at the beginning of the post) to see what others are reading and knitting, and feel free to share either there or in the comments here.

A Very Fast FO

I must admit to surprising myself with how quickly I finished this project!

Project:  Goth Kitty Socks
Yarn:  Knitpicks Felici Sock Yarn, colorway Goth Kitty
Needles:  US size 1
Modifications:  None
Notes and comments:  These took me exactly two weeks' worth of knitting time to complete, which is really fast for me.  Sadly, I don't get large, uninterrupted swaths of time to knit, so it generally takes me a while to finish even a simple project like these. 

Anyway, this is just a generic sock pattern, with a broken rib heel flap, which was part of another pattern I knit last year sometime.  It was something a bit different, and also seems to hold up well with wear.  Since this yarn comes in 50g balls, I was able to knit them both at the same time - i.e., the cuff on one, the cuff on the second, and on throughout the sock.  Between that and the fact that the yarn is self-striping, I think I was able to zip along and get them knit ("Let me just do one more colored stripe").  I suppose it also helped that I didn't have any other major projects going at the time, but nonetheless here they are, ready for my 2020 Box o' Socks.  And in case you are wondering (and since someone at our craft group at work asked), no I don't mind that they do not match perfectly. 

One thing I did that was different with these socks is that I tried knitting the "plain" parts on a 9-inch circular needle.  I had watched a video from Very Pink Knits where she tried them, and compared different brands.  I decided it was worth a try, and ordered some ChiaGoo from evil Amazon.  Since I had not used them before, I didn't want to fool with the ribbed cuffs, or do the math and maneuvers for the heel and toe, so those were on my regular double-pointed needles.  At the end of it all, I decided that the 9-inch needles were nice, particularly from the standpoint of taking your knitting with you out of the house.  No more worrying if you drop a dpn, and/or how retrievable it may be.  They took a bit to get used to, and admittedly because they were metal and I usually use wood needles, I dropped some stitches while I was zipping along, but it was easy to notice and then fix the next time around.  They weren't terribly hard for me to adapt to using, as I think I must hold my dpns in a similar way so I didn't have to retrain my hands or anything like that.

This was my first time using Felici Yarn, and I thought it was really nice, particularly given the price point.  It felt nice while knitting with it, and was not likely to tangle into itself.  I don't have any idea how well if will/will not wear, but at this point, I think I'd be inclined to try it at least once more, as the colors were great as well as the price.

Next up, some repairs on a pair of socks I knit for The Tim, swatching for a sweater, and getting ready for my March Sock KAL with my friend Andrea.  We are planning to knit the Clark Socks by Jaclyn Salem (Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast).  I've wanted to try that pattern for a long time, so it should be fun!

In Which I Finally Lose All Patience

I try, really I do.  I try to accept that not everyone is as annoying and picky as I am.  I try because I know I am far from perfect and there is likely a litany of things that others could talk about that I do that drives them crazy.

But still, sometimes I just lose it and want people to pay attention just one more second before they proceed.

Case in point: I have a friend who, whenever she makes a mistake in an e-mail, comment, etc. will write "Opps!"  She means "Oops!" and it makes me crazy.  Once I asked her if anyone other than me commented on it, and she said everyone does, but she can't take the time to make sure she types the correct thing, and besides we all know she does it.  Ugh.

I might add that this individual is only too happy to point out mistakes that others make, and not in a kind way.  "Opps," indeed.

Then there is the co-worker whose messages look like she took grammar and composition lessons from the Tweets of Donald Trump.  You know, she spells things incorrectly, or uses poor/no punctuation, or randomly capitalizes words for no reason.  Last week she sent an all-staff e-mail that said, "Helo everyone there are some jounals we get in the library that are extras or duplicates..... so you ARE welcoume to have THem."  It's hard enough to get our colleagues to take us seriously as fellow professionals, this cannot possibly help our cause.

She is also regularly complaining that "foreigners" don't even try to understand English. 

Look - if you are someone with little/no education, or if English is your second language, or if you are making an effort at all, I'm completely on board with you doing as well as you can.  I admire those who may not really understand the language, or who realize they are dyslexic, etc., and who struggle to get it right, and make it work however they can.  I admire those who are always trying to do a better job. 

But I am just really weary of lazy and careless people, or those who claim they are just being casual, so there is no reason to check spelling, punctuation, etc.  Do I speak to the pets or The Tim at home the same way I do to my colleagues at work?  Not necessarily, but I am at home, and not trying to communicate with the wider world in a logical and professional way.  Heck, I even make an effort here to make things make sense and write in a way that if one of my old teachers happened upon the blog, they would be pleased with my writing, even if not by my topics!

I'm sure part of this is a result of my upbringing.  My parents always expected us to speak well and write well, believing that "just because we are poor, we don't need to sound poor."  And I love words and language, so admittedly I can be obsessive.  But I am also a firm believer in presenting yourself to the world in the best way possible.  I don't want everyone to like me, but I do hope they can appreciate that I make an effort with my writing.

And so, on this President's/Presidents' Day (a holiday that no expert can agree should be written one way or another), when we have someone who is the leader of our country who can barely put a sentence together as well as a first grader, I have to admit that my patience is gone. 

*****

If you have a day off today, I hope you enjoy it.  I am hoping to knit, read, and even take some time to plan dinner, rather than making it to 4 pm or so and then saying to myself, "Oh yeah, I should think about dinner."  Whatever your day holds, I hope it's a good one to start this week.

Well That's Two Hours I'll Never Get Back

We just had a meeting at work.  A TWO-HOUR meeting.  Now, keep in mind, our department has a meeting with our supervisor every two weeks that generally lasts 45 minutes to an hour.  That's more than long enough.  But today the others got on a tangent that just kept going ... and going ... and going.  Unfortunately, our supervisor is not good at running meetings and/or saying things like, "Well, that's off-topic so why don't we meet separately?" or any other solution that would have prevented it.

I had thought about one thing to post for Three on Thursday, but now my brain is somewhat fried, and now you get three GIFs that indicate my feelings over that past two hours. 

After 1 hour 

After 1 hour and 5 minutes

Why I should be able to go home now.

(OK, I actually relate to this one every single work day ...)

Surely it can only improve, right?  RIGHT???