Swatch, Swatch, Swatch

I forgot to post that I had finished the swatches for both lace knit-a-longs that will be starting soon.

For the Secret of the Stole in Jagger Zephyr:


Which starts on October 5th.

And for Secret of Chrysopolis in Knit Picks Shadow:


Which starts on Friday September 28th.

I also finally decided that the Fetching fingerless gloves were okay.
Meaning I decided I didn't have to redo either one. These are in Carron's Simply Soft Acrylic yarn:


The person modelling the gloves is a friend from my office. :-)

Now if I can just get those charity items done, be ready for the lace KALs AND get my backlogged projects at work done!

Ravelry Rules!

I got my invite on Friday. It was actually sent about 30 minutes after I last checked in the morning. I found out before I left my office. I queried my waiting list standing and got the message that the invite had been sent and another would be sent just in case the first got lost.

Sure enough it was in the Inbox for that email account when I checked that night. Now the hard part, getting the info together to add to Ravelry for my stuff.

I updated some of my sections yesterday and continued today. I have to check some details and make some corrections if necessary later. Have only touched part of my yarn stash and my needle collection. The needle/hook inventory area is due to be updated with more features/types at some point.

So my id on Ravelry is Dragonarc, in case you already have an id and are curious.

Almost There...

Imagine my surprise when I checked my place on the Ravelry waiting list to find:

You are #15526 on the list.
174 people are ahead of you in line.
18725 people are behind you in line.
44% of the list has been invited so far

So, if they process any of them during the rest of the day today I may get my invite tonight or tomorrow! Woo Hoo!!!!
I can't wait until I can click on someone's link and not get stuck at the Ravelry signin page!!!!

On a not so great note, I am still way behind at work!!!! But we just got new desk phones which is good and bad. Now I can check what numbers or other employees have called when I am away from my desk who may NOT have left voice mail. As one of my coworkers said, "Pressure is on, should I call back people (like the boss) who called while I was away without leaving a message or shouldn't I?" We can also forward calls from our desk phone to our work cell phones. Hmmmmmm.... Feature or Disadvantage? Let's see if anyone says we have to. I might if I am going to a meeting or be away for an extended period of the day. But most of the time things can wait. If not they can contact someone who would call my cell directly anyway.

Now I have to pay a few critical bills before leaving for the office. *sigh*

Anticipation

I just checked my Ravelry waiting list standing:

You are #15526 on the list.
799 people are ahead of you in line.
18452 people are behind you in line.
43% of the list has been invited so far

So perhaps by this weekend I will be able to access Ravelry!
I can't wait to be able to see what everyone has added!
Woo Hoo!

On other fronts, I managed to go through the list of smaller tasks at work only to find that some of the stuff I was reviewing had actually gone backwards and reintroduced previous problems! Well I bounced that stuff back fast. I know they are complaining because it took me so long to get to it to review. I really don't understand why they don't take the time and care to put it into fit shape for me to approve it when I do get to it!

I killed myself trying to get alot of my work contacts into the new cell phone last night but I managed to get at least the basic info for most of them in. I even found all of the accessories for the old phone so I am ready when I have to turn it all in!

The temps are supposed to be higher during the day today with the highest due for Saturday. Isn't that when Fall is supposed to begin officially?
Hopefully this will be one of the last set of hotter days.
I really want FALL!

Ravelry and Fall

Well Ravelry is really going through the waiting list! According to their news post they are trying to do 500-600 a day! Here is my latest standing:

You are #15526 on the list.
1522 people are ahead of you in line.
18171 people are behind you in line.
41% of the list has been invited so far

Am I ready? Do I have alot of photos and items to add to some of the varied parts? NOPE!

On another note, it has been Fall type weather here in NYC. Cool in the morning and in the evening/night and more summer like in the afternoons. But it is supposed to get warmer towards the weekend.

I have so much work to do at the office that I am stressed just trying to figure out how to prioritize it. It didn't help that I had to set up a new cell phone and a laptop as well. I have to find all the accessories for the old phone to turn it all in as well.

I still haven't managed to transfer everything between the old and new but at least the worse of it is over. I am getting used to navigation on the phone and I can get onto our wireless network with the laptop. I still have no idea exactly what the magic combination of actions was that made it finally see that the network was available and switch from the more unprotected SSID to the more protected one. *sigh* I swear there are Gremlins at work!

Things are a little more settled with caregiving and my Mom. Still not sure if this aide will mesh enough with us but we will see. Unfortunately the issues are the same as I have at the office. Consistency, common sense, communication, and general awareness. *sigh*

The aide just arrived for the day and I am not sure at all if she will do for long term. She asked Mom what she wanted for breakfast and went to look for the frozen waffles (which she has given to her before). She just opened a fresh box because she didn't see the zip bags of waffles that she had taken waffles from before and are on the inner door. Also asking me if we put anything on the waffles (Mom likes everything plain). Last week she opened a fresh box of oatmeal from the extra boxes on top of the fridge when there are 5 flavors opened in the cabinet. She has seen me take oatmeal packets from the cabinet and I have gone over where everything is several times.
So I guess I have to move extra supplies to places she would not look in.
I just don't know.

It doesn't help that the service company also schedules the aide for a physical first thing in the morning on a weekday. Which for the location she has to go to is 9am. She was told to go to the physical and then to the client. The assumption is that the client or someone can let them in no matter when they arrive. Not true here. Mom doesn't always hear the lobby buzzer and can't remember what to do to buzz someone in. When she did she would let in anyone since she couldn't hear them correctly and would assume it was UPS or someone.

I have no idea how long the physical will take and when she will arrive here. I have a meeting that day and I assume I will late to it.

So like I said it is a bit more stable at home and yet not really stable.
One day at a time, that is all I can do.

Perhaps the lace knit-a-longs will cheer me up. I have to get a tiny crochet hook for the beading for one of them. I am going to see if one place is open and carries them on the way to work today.

Photos of swatches, etc. to come!

Been a Hectic Time

It has been a hectic time for me since I last posted.

We got a new health aide for my Mom. Everyone has their little issues and we shall see how it works out. I am now less hesitant about speaking to the supervisor about someone that just doesn't work well with us. I am trying to keep track of things and giving the new aide feedback to see if we can work better together. The new school year starting hasn't helped since her family has several children that are having problems with school transportation. And yesterday no one else in the family could be reached to pick up a sick child at school so the aide had to leave about noon. I was home sick so I was able to take over but not the best way for me to attempt to get better. Hopefully all the beginning of school issues settle down quickly.

Work has been hectic and stressful. Short notice on things needed for high profile projects and alot of work on reviewing items being migrated into Production to prevent problems. As usual of course, no advance warning so often things are considered ready by the programming staff that do not meet the needs for the Production staff so that they can make sure it all runs properly and deliverables are on time.

I finished those fingerless gloves, the Fetching Pattern from Knitty.com. I will post pics soon. Whew!

I started the gauge swatches for the two lace knit alongs. Been frustrating since I will find the wrong number of stitches and screw up correcting the error. So I have had to rip them out to the beginning several times. But I am getting better at it.

On the good news front -
I have progressed quite a bit on the Ravelry waiting list:

You signed up on July 10, 2007
You are #15526 on the list.
3597 people are ahead of you in line.
16602 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

And today's weather has greatly improved. No rain and the humidity and heat have reduced.

Let's hope it is a sign of a better day!