Winterfest knitting

 The Winterfest sweater is coming along.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly.

I can't keep up with the stripes on a nightly basis.  Sitting outside at Winterfest, my hands get so cold and stiff I can't knit with any speed at all.  I'd gotten caught up last week and started fresh this past Friday night but...  I now have a gallon ziplock bag crammed full of yarns waiting to be knit into sweater stripes.  

Two things are amazing me about this project.  One, is how many nine and ten year olds there are visiting our booth.  I'd bet eight out of every ten kids are either nine or ten.  I find that mathmatically weird.

The other thing that amazes me is that I can remember what order I'm supposed to knit each of the little balls of yarn crammed into that ziplock bag, although half the time I have to ask the kids how old they are multiple times.  I can't remember where I parked my car, where I set my phone down, my kids' names (only occasionally,) or what I ate for breakfast but I can remember what order the colors go and even which little ball of the same color goes first, second or third.  It must be a knitter thing.

I'm pleasantly surprised how okay the colorful sweater is looking so far.  I fully expected it to be THE most hideous mess of color but it's not.  It's sort of like those scrap sock yarn blankets where all the wild colors that clash horribly somehow just magically work when put all together.

And in the event I ever participate in another Winterfest or attempt a similar sweater, I think I'll knit the year into the hem for posterity.  Of course, my fingers will need to thaw out enough to knit to the hem...

On a different note, we had a few visitors at our booth Sunday night.

Mr. Peppermint and Miss Candy Cane stopped by.  And admittedly, Mr. Peppermint is not really his name.  I have, of course, forgotten his official name but I do remember that his lady friend is Candy Cane.

This couple is John Dough and Ginny Gingerbread.  And no, Gingerbread is not Ginny's official last name.  I've forgotten it too, but personally, I think Ginny Gingerbread sounds okay so I'm going with it.  

And last but not least,

I have no idea what these folks' names are but they walk past our booth frequently and always give us a smile and a wave.  I call them The Christmas Couple.  The Mister reminds me of Mr. French from Family Affair.  And yes, I'm definitely showing my age with that comment!

And now, now I'm off to knit a few Christmas gifts for family members and then knit a few thousand sweater stripes.

Fear Factor

This week has been all about facing my fears.  I haven't gotten much knitting done, actually, I'm at a negative mark on the knitting, but I have chased away several of those pesky fear demons.  (Okay, maybe I've watched a few too many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

Today I faced my fear of glaucoma and going blind.  For the past few months, I've had round after round of eye exams that have contradicted each other.  Some the tests said I was just old, about half said I had a pretty bad case of glaucoma and the rest said I simply needed more sleep & better hand/eye coordination.  I went in today for one final test, the big boy scan.  The kind of scan where I'm dammed glad that we have medical insurance.  The kind of scan where I needed a GPS to find my way around the medical facility.  It was scary and I'm glad its over with, but the results were good.  I don't have glaucoma.  I'm just old and I need to eat better and get some exercise.

Last night I faced fear on Netflix.  Have you seen the movie Hush?  Stephen King recommended it in a Tweet so I figured it would be good & scary, but damn!  My heart rate is still elevated and it's the reason I've accomplished negative knitting this week.  I had to frog a giant amount of my progress thanks to that movie.

Earlier in the week I faced my fear of old car ownership.  It was time for its annual inspection and since I knew I had a big, giant eye doctor bill to pay coming up, I figured at least eight different car parts would fail inspection.  But, to my amazement, she passed!  She passed with flying colors & not a single repair necessary.  Not even a burnt out lightbulb!

And even earlier in the week, last weekend to be exact, I faced my big fear.

Eiffel Tower, Kings Dominion

Heights.  I had to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower for work.  You step off the elevator and you are 264 feet up in the air.  That doesn't sound like much, but it's significantly higher than the trip up the Statue of Liberty.  It's high enough to make your ears pop.  And it's definitely high enough to make me somewhat nauseous.  There's nothing quite as fearful as trying not to freak out or barf in front of your department head while you interact with park guests.

View from the top

I have to admit though, as long as I remembered to breathe without hyperventilating, the view was spectacular.

Giving Thanks, Day 1

Happy November, the month of giving thanks.  Along with everyone else in the free world, or at least the majority of American bloggers, I'll be posting something I'm thankful for each day during November.

Since today is the last day of my working season, I'll start the project off by being thankful for my wonderful supervisors and co-workers.  While I do love 'playing with the money' at work, the people are what make the job so much fun.  Without the fun people, the job would be a massive Hell hole.

Each year I've knit something small for our main supervisor & this year was no exception.

Amber's Fingerless Gloves

Sorry, Amber.  I didn't crochet shark slippers.  Instead, you're getting fingerless gloves to keep your hands warm while you read & cuddle with your cat.  And, if you hate them, you can use them as rat sleeping bags.  I'm pretty sure I remember you saying you have pet rats as well as a cat.  That must be an interesting combination.  Anyway....  I hope you enjoy the gloves.  I've certainly enjoyed having you as a supervisor.  You've not only been a great boss, but you handled all those 4:00 a.m. crisises like a pro.  Congrats on a successful first season wearing the Supervisor shirt.

And then there's Jarrett.  Jarrett is one of those crazy co-workers who has, on more than one occasion, almost made me pee in my pants from laughing so hard.  I don't normally make anything for the co-workers, but I saw this hippo dish cloth and well....

Hippo Dish Cloth

It's a silly gift and my version doesn't even look much like a hippo but when I saw the pattern, I couldn't resist.  There's a funny story behind the hippo thing, but I'm not going into details here.  For one thing, just thinking about it makes me laugh too hard to type plus, it's a little rude.  But, for the rest of my life, when ever I see a hippo, I will think of Jarrett.

So, thank you Amber & Jarrett and everyone else who has made this season such a fun success.  I will miss you all and hope to see each of you again in the spring.

On the needles

Today on the needles,

Marigold Socks OTN 09/25/15

More socks.  I loved my North Pole socks so much, I immediately cast on for another pair.  The yarn is Dizzie Lizzes Knitting the Blues in the Marigold colorway.  And let me tell you, Marigold is THE perfect name for this colorway.  The photo doesn't do this yarn justice.  In reality, it's a beautiful mix of yellow and dead leaf brown with just a touch of peach thrown in.  Exactly like a fresh marigold bloom.

I bought the yarn at last year's Montpelier Fiber Festival.  The  colorway is not exactly what I'd expected.  The sample sock that was displayed with the yarn showed wide stripes of color rather than single rows of color.  But no matter the stripe width, I'm happy with the knitted fabric so far.  The yarn itself is spun with Blue Faced Leicester superwash wool.  It feels a little stringy in my hand, but the knitted fabric is delightfully soft.  I have the feeling I'm going to love wearing these socks this fall.

I probably shouldn't have said that.  Putting that into words is probably a strong indication that SSS (second sock syndrome) will set in and I'll never knit the second sock.

UCI Road World Championship at Kings Dominon

On a personal life note, it's been a fun week at work.  Well, okay, I had a fun day at work and tonight promises to be fun as well.  The UCI Road World Championship bike race is in Richmond this week and Wednesday's race was hosted by Kings Dominion.  The race meant I got a few unexpected, but welcome, hours in (more pay = more yarn purchases) and I got to hang out with the cyclists at the starting gate for a while.  The weather was perfect for racing and for the folks who simply came to enjoy a free visit to the park.

Haunt at Kings Domion

As for tonight, Haunt starts.  Working Haunt is always fun.  Scary, but fun.  Haunt is Kings Dominion's Halloween thing with haunted houses, scary mazes and creepy monsters roaming the park.  And this year, I'm pretty dang excited.  You know how I feel about clowns, right?  Well, every year, they place a zombie clown statue between me and the bathroom & it freaks me out.  Well, this year, they have the clown facing away from the path I take.  Mr. Zombie Clown's back is to me so hopefully I'll be able to make the trip to the restroom without needing heart medication.  I'm sending a huge Thank You! out to the maintenance guys/Haunt design team for that slight change.  You've probably tacked on a few extra years to my life - or at least not removed them.