Lovely day!

First, in knitting realted wharrgarbl, I did officially complete the two-ball challenge by using the entirety of the two blue balls of Berroco Comfort... plus A YARD of the third. oh god that's infuriating. So if anybody is looking for an almost-completely-whole ball of royal blue, holler. And my top came out super gorgeous and got lots of compliments and I felt ravishing in it. Here, have a look.



You'd hit it.

It went really fast, even the seed stitch part. I definitely want another one - maybe in orange with a pink band. It's just so hard to find a good orange. I'm thinking blaze orange, because that's how I do things, but I always have a hard time finding something that isn't pumpkin or rust. Speaking of which, I have some pumpkiny rust stashed away. One of which has been wound since mid-May under the delusion that I was going to start the project it's intended for "right away." And now I've kind of lost desire. Oops.

So I had a perfect day yesterday. It was my "last" meeting with my knitting group. I say "last" because it so isn't. I don't see any reason we should stop seeing each other until October just because the library will be closed on weekends, so I've been pushing to keep up our monthly lunches and start meeting elsewhere. We've decided on a coffee shop in town, right up the street from the library. I think we'll feel welcome there. I'm also really hoping that this will attract some new people. I love the people I knit with now, but it would be great to attract some new faces. Particularly some within 20 years of my age. But anyways, we went out to a nice restaurant in town, one that happens to be right down the hill from me. I walked, blisters and all. I had a lovely lunch and creme brulee for dessert. We sat out back on the patio and had a great view of the water and the boats. It was even warm out, and for once, not raining. It was absolutely perfect. Everyone was in good spirits and had a great time. I elft a $7 tip on an $18 check, I was so pleased.

Knitting itself commenced after, and we made plans to start meeting at the new place, and another person invited me to a Sea Dogs game with her on Friday. Although I try not to carry bags for things like that, because I'm always the assface that has to get patted down, I think I may bring my knitting. Some people like to do what's called a stitch and pitch, where they, this should be hard to guess, bring knitting to a baseball game. We're just going to be in general admission seats, so I'm going to post on Sox Knitters and Mainely Fiber Arts on Ravelry seeing if anyone is interested in an informal stitch and pitch. There will even be fireworks after the game, since it's right before the fourth. Awesome!

After knitting, I was home for just a few minutes, and then a friend picked me up to go out to an IMAX theater and see Transformers. Of course, by the time we got there, the IMAX version was sold out, and we had to see the regular one, but I'm okay with that. It saved us $5 each. I might like to go back there and see Up! in 3D, too. If I can ever remember to invite the friend that I think might want to see it.

The movie was pretty good, better than I expected. But the new characters were just entirely comic relief and really didn't add anything. And I love the fact that the thing I found most unbelievable in a movie about giant robots disguised as cars fuckin' shit up was that after 2 years of dating, the main characters hadn't said "I love you."

After that, we decided to get something to eat. I was thinking of a place, but couldn't remember the name. He came up with a name, which I thought was right. We got horribly lost getting there, and once we arrived... totally not the place I was thinking of. Oh well. I had a really awesome pizza, with onions and chicken and barbecue sauce.

So yesterday was great, and I got some work done on my Clapotis. I'll try to do more today. It doesn't look like a good day for walking, of course, because it's Maine and it just rains constantly, especially after an almost 3 day reprieve, but I might try some yoga. I've been interested in that lately. What the hell, I might as well hurt in entirely new places.

Here's a disgusting picture of a blister.

You can't say you weren't warned.

Yeah, so, I did that to myself, in conjunction with a few other crappy but not as horrific blisters. Apparently my "stand all day" shoes are not good walking shoes. Apparently you don't wear leather shoes with no socks when it's warm. Oops. I was going to celebrate two days of sun in a row (when's the last time that happenned? May?) with another walk, but it looks like there's a reasonable chance my left foot may explode. Bones and all. Not that it's readily apparent that I don't move around enough or anything. Maybe I'll run up and down the stairs a few times, just to further punish my muscles into shape.

I just finished my St. James! Or, as I like to think of it, James St. James. Of course, do you think I can find a decently fabulous picture of him now? Not even from Party Monster. The only one I could find of Seth Green from that movie, he was covered in warts or something. And really, that doesn't help with either my assertations of having a fabulous top or my lust for Seth Green. Also, seed stitch can go right to hell. And then I'll run back after it, full of apologies, because I love it so. Even if it's a total bitch to do and takes forever to get done (like your mom).

So, my project options for today: wind some Malabrigo and start my sweater coat, work on my float stitch socks, work on my Clapotis, re-organize the living room yarn basket, do absolutely nothing and play Facebook games all day. I can probably guess which way this is going to go.

It's the end of the week! Time to start waiting for the job to not call.

Well, would you look at that.

There's multiple attractive men following me. My ego, it is well-fed.

Oh, look. It's raining.

I live in Maine, so there's two things that are going to put me in a sanitarium if they continue much longer: rain every single day and that godforsaken kid from Bonny Eagle that didn't get his diploma. Between the combination of the two, I'm this close to being found in my closet, rocking back and forth and mumbling to myself.

2 ball challenge has been a technical success. I used the entirety of one ball to make the start of my St. James, and then I finished another scrap ball for a washcloth I was working on. A washcloth which I made out of wool. Because I'm brilliant. (what happenned to the Guinness "Brilliant!" ads?) I really thought it was just really nice cotton. I was so excited to have found a cotton I actually liked. Fuck me.

But it doesn't matter. One of my friends overspent herself on the last trip and doesn't want to go anymore. So, that sucks. I guess I can still take it as a personal challenge to see how much yarn I can use by July 3rd, though.

Speaking of personal challenges, I might join the WIPs Wrestlemania. I'm not really someone to start something and then just leave it alone for a year (except those entrelac socks, which can fuck off) but I have a couple of things I might be able to enter. I could also take it as a challenge to grind out some work on my scrapghan. I won't even get half of it done, but it would be nice to assemble some bits. I kinda said I was going to join the LSG team, but now I'm thinking I might join with C2S2. I just... like it better there lately. Maybe someday I'll actually swap something.

I had a job interview yesterday. $14 an hour/40 hours a week. Because I'm a hustla. I should know "by the end of this week or beginning of next week." So, July. I know this game. And crap, I was going to write a thank you note. Ass. I hate that. Ok, enough blogging, guess I have to actually do something that involves effort.

Please make it stop raining.

The fact that there's an attractive dude following me makes me want to post about things other than ridiculous knitting shit. If only my life was a little more interesting.

Oh, there's an adult Summer reading club at the library (which sounds way hotter than it is) - I think I'll walk up there and join it tomorrow, if it isn't raining. Of course, it's always raining. Always. Seriously, I'm about to lose my shit. It's been raining for two weeks, and it's going to rain all this week too. I found slugs inside the house today. That is so not cool.

On the plus side, the Yankees are losing. Excellent.

2 ball challenge

So Vivian wants to go out yarns hopping (ha! Typo but I love it!) again. At three different stores. Which involves crossing state lines. Even though none of us have started in on our yarn from the last trip and even though we're all feeling the hit on our credit cards. But, she has the day off, so why the hell not. So, in order to kindasortanotreally justify going shopping, I'm going to try to make myself use up 2 balls entirely by the trip, July 2. I know, that's pretty sad.

I'm starting by making a St. James - it's a cute Summer top based on 1950s style. I'm using Berrocco Comfort, which kinda sucks, but I hate cotton yarns and I wasn't going to repeat the mistake of making a cap sleeve sweater in wool. And it reminds me of James St. James, who was played in Party Monster by Seth Green, so the whole thing is just awesome. I'm taking a break from my Clapotis because the KAL still doesn't have an end date, and I want to actually make this Summer top in time for the Summer. Since the clap is on ONES, it may take a little while. (sob) This also means I have 6 WIPs and one hibernator, if you can actually count the scrapghan as a WIP. How unlike me. Maybe I'll actually do the 5 more rows or so that my washcloth has and get that done. And shower with it. Hooray!

Good thing I have yarn.

2.5 weeks until I'm out of a job. As an ed tech, my contract only runs until the end of the school year, and as I'm only really a long-term sub, who knows what's going to happen when I reapply for the job. Lots of talk of "longevity," which, of course, you can't have if no one will retain you. Oh, yeah, thanks for coming in and saving us and doing so much extra work and bonding so well with so many kids, but we'd rather take our chances with someone else. Not that anything even fazes me with job hunting anymore.

So, chances are, this Summer will be spent much like the last one, with me knitting like it's my job (har har) because really, job interviews fill up only just so much of the day. There's only so much I can tweak a resume and only so many times a day I can scour http://jobsinme.com/.

Hopefully one of my friends will be interested in going out more this Summer than she was last. She really became a hermit, and I think finally saw the error of her ways. And I just realized that I totally missed her birthday. Oops. But that happens when you go from January to May without seeing someone, and before that, September to January. I'm expecting to see more of my knitting friends this Summer, though. The library where we meet closes on weekends during the Summer, which leaves us without a regular meeting. I'm taking the lead in convincing everyone to continue our regular monthly lunch, as well as planning on organizing some yarn store trips, Sea Dogs games, or trips to the yarn store's knitting group. I'm also going to look into seeing if one of the two independent coffee shops in town would take us. That'll be a big step for me, as far as assertiveness goes, but the worst they can do is say no. I can try to convince them that if we're there, we're going to be tempted by coffees and pastries (chai and pastries for me). As it is, our library is across from Dunkin' Donuts, and sometimes I end up doing a chai-and-bagels run.

Tomorrow I'm supervising a student on the fifth grade class trip to Boston. I'm nervous as hell about it. Sometimes, this kid and I get on famously, and sometimes he's pouty and angry and won't listen. I'm just hoping he'll be wowed enough by the experience to be in a good mood. And I know I'm going to be chasing him the Bunker Hill monument. Dear knees, please try to survive this. But I'm also realizing that this means I'm going to be spending up to 6 hours on a school bus (why do trips always take so much longer when you're on a bus full of screaming fifth graders?) - that's some serious time to kill. I can't see anything wrong with bringing a small knitting project. Honestly, it's not like I'm going to lose the kid on the bus, so as long as I'm keeping an eye on his behavior, I think it's fine if I work on a sock. I'll probably bring some Knitpicks sock yarn. I did that before with a different color of the same yarn for when I needed a project for my trip to Boston in February. I know I'm going to get 7 stitches to the inch, so that saves me the problem of finding just the right gauge and needle. The yarn is variegated, and the only two colors in it are dark green and dark purple. That wouldn't lend itself to a complicated pattern very well, which is fine considering I'll be on a school bus with it. I'll pick something simple out of my stitch dictionary later tonight. Is it bad that I've put more thought into this than what I'll bring for food?

Enjoying the WCYY stream and listening to the top 1000 songs. AWWW YEAH, Warning by Green Day just came on. That's always been my favorite of their songs. Nice. I'm off to enjoy the song and maybe finish a sleeve. Oh, wait, that means FINISHING A SWEATER. Most excellent.