A Break from Regularly Scheduled Programing

So that plan not to buy any new yarn...that didn't go so well. Even though I love my current laptop cover, (which I knit for myself not ever six months ago) I found a kit for one on knitpicks that I absolutely had to have. Plus a new kit of costumes for Sheldon the Turtle came out, and I'm planning on making one for my niece, Sophie, for Christmas, and possibly my cousin's daughter Emily, seeing as I will have enough yarn for two Sheldons now. Anyway, so I already have the Sheldon Occupations Costumes, but decided that Sophie also needed the animal costumes for her turtle. And, of course, because I was already buying yarn, I added some sock yarn to the purchase as well.

In addition to buying more yarn, I decided that every year during both Advent and Lent, I would not knit anything for myself. I can work only on gifts for others or charity knitting during those times. (But, to be completely fair, I only have one thing for myself on needles right now, so I'm not always the self-centered knitter that I may sometimes seem to be.

Moving day is Saturday, and I should have spent the morning getting ready to move, (the process can be described as slow at best) however, I instead had to be in Eau Claire at nine this morning to do a 20 minute assessment on two of the students in my placement for Sped 431. I was out of there by 10 am, and don't have class until 1. That's three hours that could be better served by doing something else besides wasting time in the computer lab, blogging, playing on facebook, and updating my google calender. Hopefully, once this move is over, I'll get back to blogging more, as even if nobody is reading it, I find the process quite cathardic.

Busy Busy Busy

I haven't been updating as much as I would like to, but it's been busy around here. Between school, work, random home stuff, and getting ready to move, there has been little time for outside activities.

I started another placement for school, my Sped404 class. This placement is a few weeks on and a few weeks off, so I'm set for a break from the placement after this week. I've been in an elementary school resource room. There have been good days and bad days and I've met some interesting characters there. Everything else aside, I'm looking forward to being able to sleep in some next week.

Placement aside, school's been keeping me pretty busy. I feel like a lot of my free time is devoted to school work. I've found some free time to get into The Monsters of Templeton. It is a pretty good book, I just wish I had more time to read it.


I've been getting very little knitting done. I've still got my banded peasant blouse on the needles, it is quickly becoming the project that won't end. I'm also working on an afghan for Danielle's Christmas present (okay, it was going to be birthday, but there is no way I'll ever get it done in time). It is a circle afghan done in shades of blue, cream, and brown. I'm also working on some striped mittens for the daughters of one of my co-workers. I made the same co-workers some fun Halloween fingerless gloves that turned out pretty cute. I've got a long list of projects that I would like to start, but now I'm waiting for the move to be done before I get started on any of those. However, many of those projects might get put on hold, first for Christmas knitting, and then for a beautiful laptop cover kit that I saw on the knitpicks website. It is multicolored in shades of red and I'd love to make it. The kit will be available to order tomorrow, but I most likely should wait until we move to order it.

Yippie!

After what can only be described as a long, icky week, things are going better. Last Tuesday, I was on my way home from class when I was attacked by a renegade tire that had escaped from a semi going the other direction on the interstate. It complete smashed the front end of my Alero, but I was unhurt (thankfully).

It took the auto body shop all of one morning to decide that the car was unfixable. They kindly lent me a charming '94 Buick for the time being and we set about dealing with the insurance company. After several trips back and forth to Eau Claire, with my ipod adapter working poorly in the old piece of crap, Jeff & I made it knew without a doubt we needed to get a new car asap.

Yesterday, we got it all worked out, and I was able to drive my new (well, new to me) Nissan Altima off the lot and bring it home. It was not been tested by the trip to Eau Claire, it will be later today, but after several trips to Tomah and back, I do know my ipod plays clearly through the stereo.

So, with all the chaos, at least we've gotten that settled.

Closed

Well, that's it, Three Bear's is closed. Something involving some bank, I'm not really sure what exactly happened. Jeff got called into a meeting today where he received the news. Thankfully, he's able to start his new job tomorrow instead of next Monday (which I guess actually works out better for the new boss). It does mean, however, it may be awhile before Jeff sees any sort of compensation for his work last week, but we're still a lot better off than some of the others, so we shouldn't complain.

As for me, school is going okay, it is going to be a busy and stressful semester. I took my praxis content knowledge test on Saturday, which reminded me why I hate standardized tests. I finished with about an hour to kill with nothing to do.

School's been getting in the way of other stuff. Things I should be doing, like packing; and things I would rather be doing, like knitting. At this rate, I will never finish the banded peasant blouse. I'm also working on a wrap, Danielle's afghan, (which I'd like to have done before her birthday, but more likely will be for Christmas), and, of course, socks. I recently realized that I'm beginning to acquire more sock yarn than I can ever use in my life, so I'm not buying any more sock yarn until I deplete my overflowing stash. Plus, with moving to a new, much smaller, location, I need to work on whittling down my yarn supply to make it easier to move.

Updates

Several big changes are on the horizon for the Cram household. Here's the story behind it:

Earlier this summer, Jeff and the remainder of the Three Bear's employees were given a 90 day closure notice. The resort was being put up for sale and if there wasn't a buyer, the place would close at the end of September (the Monday after Cranfest).

Naturally, this put us in a panic, as not only Jeff's job, but our home are directly tied into the fate of the resort. Jeff began a search for a new job, we began to discuss options including moving. However, we had to remain in a holding pattern until we got more news.

After applications and interviews, Jeff ended up with two job offers, and opted to take one establishing and building an IT department for Meca Sportswear, a company in Tomah. He's excited about the new opportunity, but a little worried about leaving the company where he has worked since college. His last day at Three Bears will be September 19 and he will start the new job the following Monday.

We also had to find a place to live, a place that would allow the small herd of animals we've acquired in the past several years. After weeks of searching, and lots of dissapointments, we found a place to live. It is a tiny two bedroom house on McLean Ave. (by St. Paul's School for those interested parties). It has a great fenced in yard for Pippin. It will be a change from our current house, we're used to the spacious three bedroom house, to this much, much smaller one, but it is adorable. We move on November 1, which gives me time to balance school and packing.

I have three semesters left in school, meaning a year from now I should be student teaching (given that everything goes according to plan). My schedule is pretty full this semester, but I'm still making time to teach religious education on Wednesday nights (those poor kids) and put in hours at both jobs on the weekends. And, of course, I still find some time to indulge my nerdy habits of knitting, Dr Who, reading, and telling people about my ever so charming pets.

Can't Sleep

It is 2 am, and I'm sitting in my living room watching reruns of Gilmore Girls, which is not normally the way I would like to spend a Thursday night, or an early Friday morning, for that matter. However, once again, I have discovered that I cannot fall asleep. I haven't been sleeping well lately, not sure if it has been caused by the stress over the resort, Jeff's job, and the house, or something else.

If it is housing stress, I would think I would sleep better tonight. This evening we looked at an adorable, but tiny house on McLean Ave in Tomah. It is only two bedrooms and the rooms are tiny, but it is so cute. And has hardwood floors throughout, and the owner allows pets, and it has a fenced in yard. I should be thrilled, but there is still so much uncertainty about everything that I cannot fully relax.

Moving from our spacious three bedroom house to a tiny two bedroom is going to be an adjustment in itself. I have no idea where I am going to be able to store my yarn stash, amongst other things. I'm currently working on whittling down our possessions, but it is slow going.

And now I am out of Gilmore Girls, after watching "An Affair to Remember" and "The Festival of Living Pictures," so I've moved on the Ghost Hunters reruns.

On the knitting front, I've been slowly (very slowly) chipping away at the banded peasant blouse, I've finished both sleeves and am now working on the body. I've also cast on my first lace project and my first knit project with beads, the Cheshire Cat Stole. I originally wanted to have it done in time to wear it to Pete's wedding, but considering that is on Saturday, that's not going to happen. I'm also working on a pair of socks using the two at a time, toe-up pattern.

I'm now going to continue with Ghost Hunters and work on the banded peasant blouse until I can fall asleep.

Sock Hiatus

Despite my newfound love and obsession for sock knitting, (I've completed 5 pairs since February, which seems pretty good to me) I am now taking a bit of a sabbatical from socks. This sabbatical is not voluntary, though, but rather forced.

I've also fallen in love with both the knit picks harmony circular needles and the magic loop method of knitting socks. It makes me dread the idea of going back to using dpns. This dread is largely the cause of the hiatus from creating socks.

First of all, while finishing my wonderful, beautiful Bellatrix socks, I snapped one of my size 0's. Okay, not a big deal, I don't use that one very often so I'll just order a replacement with my next order (which seeing as how beautiful some of the shades of the new Imagination sock yarn, wouldn't be long anyway).

Then, last Friday, my darling niece visiting from Seattle decided to throw a football at me while I was working on my Jaywalker socks from Knitty. This broke my size 1 circulars, which I use a lot, so I went ahead and put in an order that night to replace my 0's and 1's, and, of course, some sock yarn.

So, yesterday I started work on my first toe-up socks on my size 2's. I finished increasing for the toe and set the knitting down to do something else. Minerva, the ever charming devil cat, stole my knitting and in the course of playing with the knitting, Minerva managed to chew two large snags in the cable which catch and rip the yarn, making knitting with them impossible.

So, I went ahead and placed another knit picks order to replace the 2's (and get more sock yarn...yes, I know I have a problem). But as I'm still waiting patiently to hear that my orders have shipped, I'll be taking a break from socks for awhile.