Illusive Job Hunting and Making Bread by Hand

I’ve been pretty depressed lately…

My hiatus from blogging was the result of a much needed period of thinking about the future, given my recent decision to leave graduate school and begin the “real world” career hunt. I think at this point a review on the journey thus far would make sense! I apologize for my absence; I even attracted the attention of Christina from FeelGoodKnitting since my spinning on Tuesdays dropped off due to my pondering. In truth, these past few months on the job market and coming face-to-face with the reality of the “power” of a bachelor’s degree (*cough*) has been awful. I just haven’t had it in me to write or keep up with much of anything.

Having a BA hasn’t made a difference in my job search. Not one shred of a difference. Everyone I manage to get an interview with, which was about 7-8 jobs out of over 80 applications, wanted experience. As I have said before, the job market is slanted heavily towards employers. In this rotten economy, there are far fewer jobs than applicants, so employers can sit back and wait for the perfect person with a load of experience to show up. I have never been that person. Even after applying for an utterly perfect position for my education, a sex/sexual health educator for Planned Parenthood, it still amounted to nothing but a great interview that went nowhere. Every single time, I fall short of some super-experienced powerhouse who lands the position. I also have several State jobs that I have applied and taken tests for and am subsequently qualified, that have sat in limbo for months.

At this point, I have begun reconsidering graduate school. I feel pretty defeated. I have applied for the GLP in the Department of Education, which is the Graduate Licensure Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have always loved teaching; I pursued elementary education as my BA originally, but changed my mind after being told I had prerequisites on top of prerequisites to actually get my BA. I will keep you all posted, but honestly, I still feel disillusioned and unhappy with the idea of attending a graduate program. Especially after facing the reality of my BA’s worth over the past few months. Being depressed has really cut into my knitting and spinning. I just haven’t wanted to do anything I enjoy.

There have been other things going on though! I have been working through the convoluted and expensive process to get a substitute teaching license, so I hope to be doing something and earning income fairly soon. Also, I just got back from six days in New York City with my husband Al. We went museum hopping and got to enjoy a huge amount of cuisines…if there is anything that is great about New York City, it’s the abundance of very good food (and the fantastic tap water, I kid you not. Try Nevada’s tap, with its heavy magnesium

A mix of 1/3 wheat flour and 2/3 white flour loaf with the worse scoring (the cuts on the top of the loaf) I have EVER done

and calcium content, and you’ll see what I mean). The trip was thoroughly exhausting though; Al and I literally spent 10-12 hours a day running around the city on foot –and not the leisurely type strolling, either. We stayed with friends in their apartment, which was a fine and large apartment, especially for New York, but I’m sure my readers will agree that it’s difficult to fully relax in someone else’s home. So, sleep and rest were not adequate, resulting in exhaustion and major soreness from street-hiking all day. I’ve been in recovery mode since Tuesday.

On a happier note, I have resumed a hobby I have been neglecting since Al and I moved into the new place: bread making! I LOVE to make artisan and standard breads by hand, and being without work or school to keep me occupied, I really needed something else besides knitting and spinning…especially since I was avoiding both activities.

Making bread is completely wonderful and very inexpensive. I can’t think of a single thing that is unpleasant about making bread. And,

A slice of cinnamon-sugar swirl loaf. I glazed the top with a vanilla icing which makes the whole thing taste like a cinnabon!

despite what many think, making bread by hand is not difficult, but it can take a lifetime to perfect. Bread is actually made up of four major ingredients: flour, yeast, water and salt. If you mix these few things in proportion to the amount of flour (a calculation called baker’s measurements or baker’s math) you will get a standard white bread dough. Most bread has several other ingredients such as sugar, a fat such as butter, and even nuts, fruit and/or seeds. You can also use other types of flour, such as whole wheat flour, to change things up or accommodate a particular diet. Here is a site I really enjoy: thefreshloaf.com. I have the link set up to take you right to the “Lessons” page on the site, so you can see for yourself how simple bread making by hand really is. Give it a try! I’d love to see some pictures of any other bread artisans…!

I am trying to get myself back on knitting and spinning again, so hopefully I should have some more project pictures soon! I’m shooting to resume spinning my wool skein this coming Tuesday along with feelgoodknitting.

Spinning for Tuesday

Yup, ounces of wool left neglected on the bookshelf.

According to Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, as well as wonderful feelgoodknitting, Tuesdays are for spinning. And here we are…on Tuesday. So are we spinning? Let’s see it!!

I laughed out loud when feelgoodknitting decided recently to make Tuesdays a priority for spinning yarn, because I could relate so much. I actually love to spin for the same reasons I love weaving; I love the simple process of it. I love watching the fiber in the very act of creation, slipping purposefully through your fingers, the layers of color spiraling together and becoming completely unique. Love it. But oddly enough, I tend to avoid doing it!

At least one year ago, I expressed an interest in spinning and my husband enrolled me in a fantastic wool of the month club with Etsy shop Pancakeandlulu. For six months, every month, I received about 3-6 ounces of a pre-dyed roving wool that I could practice spinning. Almost every one of those packages of wool is sitting on my bookshelf in a large zip bag, unspun.

Yes, much like feelgoodknitting, I admit that I worry too much about ruining a perfectly good lot of wool by spinning it too uneven or

My latest skein; the colors include analogous and complementary colors

thick (which has happened more than once). I get especially paralyzed when I get some pre-dyed wool that I really, really enjoy. So, I am trying to make spinning a priority on Tuesdays as well, and thought I’d share what I’m working on now. As you can see, I use a drop spindle. I have a savings that I am building slowly to get a Schacht Ladybug. It’s quite an investment, especially when you add in the optional goodies and things, but the reviews are pretty great.

Because I like working with finer yarns -fingering weight is my favorite, yay for sock yarn!- I work to spin pretty thin. When I am finished with this skein, I aim to ply it with another to help balance out any weirdness that I may have worked into each skein. Hopefully, it won’t end up too thick. In that case, it will probably end up being a supplemental weft yarn in my next weaving.

I hope this was a fun post and that us spinners who notoriously neglect our yarn-making will get a bit of inspiration…or at least a little comfort knowing that there are at least others who hesitate. Happy spinning readers, check in next Tuesday!

My pretty drop spindle that my husband bought me! Ignore the lint-covered, lazy house pants that are a direct result of still looking for a job and being indoors too much…

New Pattern: Scaled Armsocks

My newest pattern, based on Cookie A.’s Pomatomus socks!

Hi readers! Today I wanted to let you know that I completed a new knitting pattern for those who would like some new, long (past elbow length) fingerless gloves. Scaled Armsocks is now available! Click here or look over on the left under “My Patterns” to download the PDF!

Scaled Armsocks is a modification of Cookie A.’s Pomatomus sock pattern, found on knitty.com for your arms/hands. There are several variations like this one on ravelry.com, this version is just longer and fits my measurements (I have muscular arms because I strength train with my husband). I was also troubled by the other Pomatomus glove patterns on ravelry.com because I didn’t feel they where comprehensive enough for all knitters. I tried to make my PDF a little more explanatory.

Please critique and test knit my pattern! I have only made one other knitting pattern (Artifact Toes) so I am still new at writing patterns for others. Feel free to leave me feedback or point out any problems!

Happy knitting readers, I hope I will have time to create more patterns during my first year in grad school (wish me luck!).

***Whoops! A quick update to the pattern; I forgot to include a key to the chart! Fixed! Please re-download if necessary, the pattern is updated***

Elitism and the Death of Knitting and Spinning

Elitism, which may be the feeling I get when I walk into a nice yarn store and I sense walls of defense rising from the fellow yarnies and knitters in the store, may indeed be the death of the art and skill of knitting and spinning. In the postmodern, postindustrial world of contemporary society, knitting and spinning is not a skill necessary for anyone to learn; it is done for personal satisfaction, joy, and for the sheer challenge. Due to this fact, small numbers of beginner fiber artisans emerge to become dedicated to the practice of fibercrafting. This has an effect of cultivating a certain elitism with our work and skill; a person who is exceptional at their craft may also be loath to teach or transmit this knowledge –except within the small community itself- since mainstream involvement in anything tends to destroy elitism of small, distinct groups.

Some of you are likely thinking, “Hey! I am a teacher and instructor of [insert fiber art here], and I love to share my passion with others.” I would agree! I also ask though, that you look at who your students are. Are they people who already have an interest in fiberarts? Did they seek you out, or did you seek them? Are you only teaching at fiber conferences where the dedicated and passionate congregate, or bringing the joy of fiber crafting to those who otherwise have no reason to value the art? The problem with elitism cultivated in small groups is demonstrated well in youth consumption culture, in which sub groups practice particular types of consumption (things they choose to buy or not buy) to resist mainstream, mass consumption habits.

The elitism associated with this type of consumption –the desire to practice something rather obscure to feel distinct or different- loses its appeal if it should go mainstream. Ironically though, if resistance to mainstream consumption was the main goal for the type of consumption, mainstream attention would ultimately need to be the main goal! This is why many sociologists figure that consumption as resistance, like shopping at Hot Topic to get cool, innovative products or for groceries at Whole Foods, will not become a social movement to enact lasting social change. Another problem with elitism is that it is sneaky and insidious. Social research demonstrates that people gravitate towards media and activities that reinforce what values and assumptions they already have. So often, when we choose groups and activities, we end up around people who generally agree with us or do things similar to what we do. This means it can be difficult and counter-intuitive to reach outside of our boundaries to look for others to share our passions with.

My husband Al made a very good point when we were at an LYS (acronym for local yarn store) in San Diego on our last vacation. After a cursory glance and ‘hello’ from the employee/yarnie behind the counter (who was staring at Ravely.com with a co-worker), he asked me, “Isn’t anyone interested in sales at all? There is hardly any customer service in this place.” This made me realize that if he is correct, there must be an implicit premise present in the LYS experience: that people must already know what they want or what they like, since customer service –as you might expect in other specialty stores- is absent or lacking in most cases. So then, going to an LYS is an exercise in consumption within a specific culture, and that culture makes general assumptions about your knitting/spinning skill and interest level. This assumption also likely tailors a shopper’s LYS experience, as would assumptions about a level of skill or interest in electronic devices would tailor a shopper’s experience in a computer store. And, to be fair, I’ve experienced this same feeling in other specialty retail stores, such as music/instrument stores.

What this kind of experience amounts to is an unintentional rejection of “newbies” to fiberarts in intimidating LYS, which can squash the budding interest of a beginner, especially one without community support. This is especially true with men and fiberarts. My husband typically purchases yarn for me when he travels on business from LYS, and he tells me how he feels the eyes of suspicion to him in the stores until he engages someone in conversation and they hear how competent he is in fiber. Only then does he begin to feel welcome in the LYS.

A wonderful picture of a group of inmates who were given the joy of knitting. Read about it here: http://www.good.is/post/prisoners-transform-through-knitting-behind-bars/

I came away from my time at the LYS in San Diego wondering, “what could be the goal of learning and becoming very proficient at any skill, such as knitting, spinning or weaving, unless this skill continues to be transmitted to others who do not yet appreciate it or have any competency of the skill(s)?” If anyone who is proficient in and loves a skill that has become obsolete does not try to reach out to others who do not care about their skill and art, they may doom their beloved activity to die with the small group who practices and appreciates it. Teaching others who are already “believers” is great, a wonderful way to cultivate knowledge and inspire others, create a community of support, as well as bolter our own passion. However, I am inclined to think that more efforts need to be on the ground level of beginners; to reach out actively and make fiberarts matter to people who have no reason to think otherwise. This is certainly a difficult and nerve-wracking idea.

It is risky to reach out to others who have not already demonstrated some kind of interest in a skill we can teach. They could reject our efforts, make us feel like we are wasting our time or worse yet, make us doubt the importance of our work and art. Despite this, it is in the spread of genuine enthusiasm and passion for fiber and fiber crafting that our art will continue to remain in a culture that may reject it as obsolete. With this in mind, I encourage my fellow fiber crafters to try something new to spread the love and joy of our art. Take your knitting (with some extra needles and yarn tucked away) to the domestic violence shelter for women when you volunteer to council and support women. Bring your craft and make it visible when you are on break at work, when you spend time with your relatives, visit elderly folks and keep them company, and when it’s your turn to supervise the kids. Be ready to charm them with the history of knitting and the cultural aspects of spinning wool on a drop spindle, not to mention the creative delight of being able to make something just your size, just your color and just your taste. Don’t ignore the boys and men, fiber crafting isn’t gendered but can be enjoyed by everyone and everywhere. Opening your doors to complete fiber strangers can and will be a frightening experience, but when you fill the life of another with the passion of fiber crafting, who otherwise would likely not be exposed to it, you will know a fulfillment unlike taking a much safer dare.

Good News amidst Scrubbing and Packing!

The apartment is in full-swing cleaning and packing mode now! All day today, I have been scraping and scrubbing away at old problems and build up. The approval for the house was finalized just after I posted the last update on the 18^th, and Al and I got started pretty hard at pre-packing.

Bare walls.....white bare walls.....I'm feeling a little.....cuckoo....

So it’s official! On the 30^th, right after Turkey Day weekend, we move into our first house! Best of all, some of my friends are planning a housewarming already! It’s great to have good friends.

Granted, we are still renting, but Al and I have been working on a budget in between the rest of our work to look into buying a home next year. We figure, this will be a good way to get acclimated to caring for a home. You know how it is, you get an “intuition” about the needs of your place of residence, and houses have different needs from apartments. Hopefully, we will be stepping up a year from now.

 

 

 

 

 

Just check out these before and after pics of the kitchen sink! Major improvement……all that calcium build up finally broke up.

 

More good news, I finally heard back about our abstract submission for the PSA! It was approved; apparently the hold-up was caused by a gentle reforming of the session we applied for to better suit the contributors. So, it looks like I will be heading to San Diego in March! Happily, most of the sociology department is also going to be in the PSA conference, so we will be going as a group. This is going to be quite a test of the whole “professional socialization” concept. Not everyone in our department is……agreeable. Let the life lessons and research begin! I am very eager to get started on the research with the grad student I am working with. After reading her ethnography on gender in U.S. anime fan groups, I couldn’t be more sure that we will do very good work together.

Last great piece of news, I finally got all of the recommendations and paperwork completed for my graduate application for the sociology department, and it’s done and submitted! I probably won’t hear about approval or disapproval until the beginning of January, but I am hopeful that this coming fall I will be an official graduate student! I think I will probably know sometimes near my birthday (Jan 11^th), so this will be an interesting potential birthday surprise. I can’t wait to update everyone about this later!

*Whew* So, I’m exhausted from work and I desperately need a shower. Ah, and it seems the boys are doing about the same…

Looks like I'm not the only one worn out today...

Relocate at your own Peril

I can see now that the frenetic pace that sweeps movers into the proverbial whirlwind prior to settling down in their new place is one that will not and cannot be stopped until everything is over. This morning, I awoke to Al calling me from work to tell me that the house we are trying to claim received two more potential renters, and we have some paperwork still needed to turn in. He told me that the person in the office wasn’t listening to him while he was trying to explain what was needed to be done by them. So, he asked me to head down in person.

This sounds simple, right? Sure, I just needed to tell the office staff to complete a verification paper and fax it to the realtor.

So I head down to the office and quickly realize this is a “bad day” for the office folks. There are several clients standing around the office, the phone is ringing while an office worker is already hurriedly and impatiently on the other line with other clients and I can hear drawers and desks slamming somewhere in the deeper reaches of the office.

Perfect. This is the perfect time to need timely service to complete our application for the house.

The person in the office apparently “handling” everything was one that myself and Al had dealt with several times before, with no issues. Today however, she seemed particularly stressed. She looked over at me when I entered and called me over by using my apartment number, not my name (maybe she didn’t know it). Having been in retail before for many years prior to my time in university, I understood how overwhelming it can be at work sometimes. I eased up and smiled at her, trying to convey in my body language that I was not in a hurry nor was I going to be unreasonable. I explained that my husband told me that a document should have been faxed over that needed to be filled out by the apartment staff and faxed back to the realtor. She replied quickly that she already explained to my husband that the document we needed was going to cost $35.00 to pay the bookkeeper to fill it out and fax it. She fiddled with her computer that seemed to be at odds with her, and said she thought a printout of our renter’s profile would suffice and not cost us. I told her I would see if the document would be accepted.

After taking the profile she printed for me and exiting the office, I ruminated on how ridiculous the demand for $35.00 was to have someone fill out a document and fax it to a realtor. I got more and more upset as I headed back to the apartment, and called Al to give him an update. He told me that he already explained to the office person that the profile would not be accepted and that the document that was sent to the office by the realtor was the only paper they would receive. She was just not listening when they spoke on the phone.

Really annoyed at this point, I turned back around to repeat to her what Al had already said over the phone, and told her that if they needed some form of money to get them to do their job, we didn’t have time to waste. I handed her my card to swipe for payment. She got back in front of her testy computer and -as I watched- proceeded to be rejected from the login screen to activate the credit card payment device enough times to lock not only herself, but the entire office from using the card machine. Maybe when I said that the office seemed to be having a bad day, it was a bit of an understatement.

At this point, I wrote her a check, got my copy and headed back to the apartment. Hopefully, our paperwork will all get in order in a hurry so we don’t miss out on our home. Now, Al and I are tense and waiting to hear that everything went through.

Did I mention also that finally, after 5 years of residence in the apartment, the light bulb burned out in the bathroom yesterday, and is attached to a vaulted ceiling that no one can reach? There are signs that it is time to move……

Besides all that fun, the sock pattern is nearly finished! Hang in there just a bit longer, I am knitting the second sock using the instructions I wrote to make sure it is accurate and readable.

Wow, I’m feeling pretty anxious, I think I will stop here but I will update tomorrow. Here is a super cute picture for everyone to enjoy after all of my ranting.

Tigerkitty and Honeybear in a sweet and slightly tense moment of togetherness

Updates for the Future

I apologize to my readers, but it has been hectic in the Huerta apartment! And, before you wonder, it hasn’t been all just because of Skyrim (just a little). I am happy to announce that we found a house for rent to move into this past weekend! It is a simple single story home, but with plenty of room and privacy for us to really stretch out in. With several rooms and bathrooms, we both hope that the kitties will have more room to negotiate their space between each other, and peeing with no longer make sense to Bear.

The best thing about our new home, besides that it is a home and not an apartment, is that it is barely more than we are paying now, for a one bedroom upstairs apartment that is not close to any place we typically need to be. The move in date is the 30^th of this month, so wish us luck! We are going to have movers…never done that before so I hope it actually makes things easier. I have heard a few horror stories about movers who take breaks ever hour…and some in-between for smoking. Let’s hope Al and I don’t have to become managers with disciplinary powers.

So, in addition to the new home, I am very happy to also announce my very first pattern will be up on the site shortly! It is a sock pattern; one of the socks I am making for the family for Christmas. It is nearly done now, but I got a shock at just how time-consuming writing a knitting pattern could be. It’s a lovely, somewhat of a gender-less pattern that I hope everyone will enjoy. It will be available for free as a .pdf right here on A Knitty Society and on my Ravelry page. Here is an image of the panel that spans the top of the instep:

To whet your appetite for sockie-goodness.....

The pattern unfortunately will only have written direction, forgive me my chart-readers, but I plan to update it later once I have chart designer software.

So then, as far as other things go…neither me nor the grad student I am working with have heard yet about our abstract submission. The deadline for acceptance notification is tomorrow, so I’m getting anxious. This would be a good, strong project if we can get it off the ground. Speaking of school, I am about to submit my application for the sociology grad program here at UNLV; just waiting for one last letter of recommendation to be completed. I have confidence that I can make it in, but of course I will update with that later.

One last little bit of fun; I am outlining a book I have been mulling over for some time. It is in the same tradition and vein as two of my favorite authors: Michael Crichton and Umberto Eco. I will update on this more later, I’m not quite sure just what I am going to do with it yet, as far as letting it go on the net. We’ll see.

Video games, Christmas socks and Research, oh my!

Today, Al is safely back home from his business trip in Baltimore, and I one again have the car keys. Today I am really feeling the holiday season pinch; I am only finishing up the first pair of Christmas socks, and this weekend as well as the next few weeks will need to be devoted to packing and cleaning the apartment. Somehow, I need to get everything done! On top of that, last month a graduate student and I submitted an abstract of a research project we plan to do for next year’s PSA (Pacific Sociological Association) conference in San Diego in March. We will know by the 15^th if our abstract was accepted, and if it is, we will need to begin our research. This will also take time…

Something Al and I are very excited about is the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim tomorrow and Assassin’s Creed Revelations next Tuesday. One of the ways Al and I spend time together is by playing video games together, and discussing the various themes found within. Assassin’s Creed for example, has been an excellent historical fiction successfully intertwining major individuals from the Italian Renaissance, such as Niccolo Machiavelli, the Borgia family and Leonardo Da Vinci with a fun and adventurous conspiracy theory, reminding us both of the writing of Umberto Eco. Skyrim is almost a guilty pleasure for me; I love the open-world, sandbox design of a huge, lush fantasy world fill of characters, secrets and adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Skyrim looks to be a huge leap forward in sophistication, this time even embracing families and relationships in the gameplay. Some other favorites of ours are Fallout 3 and Borderlands (I love playing the sniper; I’m a crack-shot and am even vain about it).

Aside from that, the kitties seem to be enjoying the new scratchy post. So far, it has been satisfying to them both, but I fear that our muscle-boy Honeybear is dominating it. Tigerkitty, our smaller, dainty, slim kitty (we call him a “model kitty” because he eats like he’s always getting ready for a photo shoot, i.e. very little) is reluctant to use it when Bear is around.

Tigerkitty with his plastic, feathery kill

I am entering a contest with one of my favorite yarn stores that I have mentioned something like 100 times already, Knit Picks. I put everything I dream about getting on my Knit Picks wish list and sent it to Al, to get a subtle hint for Christmas. Take a look, maybe there is something you will want too! Hopefully soon, I will be putting patterns up to share with readers, such as the socks I am currently finishing up. I may have been knitting for years now, but I am still new to writing patterns, so I could use feedback when I start!

A Car With no Keys isn’t a Car At All

A funny thing happened to my husband yesterday on the way to Baltimore for a business trip. He discovered that he still had our car keys, although he took a plane. I’m sure you can imagine how this derailed some of my plans while he was away, from Monday to Wednesday night. A girlfriend of mine has been holding on to a coupon book my husband and I paid for but have been unable to meet up with her to get. We are totally missing out on some half priced lunches and good deals on oil changes right now.

My husband Al is an account and training manager for a small company, and he travels at most every other week for three to four days at a time. We share my car, but he typically has it for work since I am a full time student and not currently employed. Due to this, he carries the car keys on him. I figured something like this would probably happen eventually, but I neglected to do anything about it. Looks like we need to get a spare set.

I also had to ask my sister to pick him up from the airport Wednesday night.

Yesterday, I received a new, woven sisal scratching post for the boys (kitties). Al ordered the post from a site called purrfectpost.com. He hopes this will curb their affinity for clawing and thus ripping out the carpet, by getting them to tear up sisal instead of their carpet-covered cat trees. We would really like to switch them over since we are moving this month, probably into a townhome, and we would like to stave off damages.

The post is very heavy (good for kitties to lean on!) and tall at 31.5 inches. It’s also fairly handsome; we got ours in a dark wooden trim. I will have to report how they like to use the post; I hope it will prove to be a good purchase.

The kitties inspecting the new scratchy post

Christmas Knitting

Christmas knitting is well underway, this year’s gift of choice being socks. I love knitting socks! I love the wonderful universe of colors in small hanks that hold just enough for a nice pair of socks, such as the ones offered by Knit Picks. This year I bought a virtual cornucopia of colors for my in-laws, sister, and other family.

Of course, this is about the time I should tell you that I have just one problem…….I have chronic second sock syndrome.

Yes, I love the process of finding the perfect stitch to complement a beautiful variegated yarn or the often tricky patches of colors in a hand painted delight, but by the time the first sock is finished, the thrill is gone. This is especially true with my current sock, done with Knit Picks Tonal Sock Yarn, “Springtime” colorway:

Looks so simple and yet.....it's so time consuming!!

My husband says this sock looks like something that was unearthed in an archaeological dig in Egypt- a wonderful complement. However the cabling, while very simple, is a huge pain that makes the whole process quite time consuming. Because the yarn is small fingering weight, I have a very hard time cabling without a cable needle with my DPNs. Plus, I use bamboo DPNs (Clover brand) which get tiny, almost negligible splits in the needle tips over time, which become much more noticeable when working with a light weight yarn. The tiny splits in the DPNs catch the yarn as I attempt to cable without a cable needle, eventually causing the yarn to split and become really frustra less manageable. On the other hand, maybe it’s time I replaced a few well-worn DPNS……

I have several more family members to make socks for, and this is especially challenging since I am in the process of applying for graduate school and in the middle of a semester. Naturally, this is funny since I choose to knit socks because they are smaller projects. I hope I can get them all done by Christmas and still maintain my sanity between school and graduate applications.

Lastly, I thought I’d share a little image of our devil kitty Honeybear, post peeing on our brand new sofa. As you can see, I should have known he may be like this….

Honeybear, caught in a candid moment of plotting his next disaster

So what’s on everyone’s Ho-Ho-Ho list this year? I’d love a yarn swift and a ball winder so I can shave some time off of making yarn balls by hand when I get a new hank. Also, I think I’d like the knitting program Knit Visualizer by Knit Foundry, so I can create some custom patterns and post them to share with everyone. Anyone have this program or fussed around with it?