Secret Of The Stole - Clue 1 Finished!

I was able to finish the last group of rows of Clue 1 last night.
Still had to redo a couple of rows but I finally finished it.

Here it is:



Color is not quite right. The yarn is lilac Zephyr.

I also started Clue 2 but only was able to do a couple of rows.

Slow Going

I got stuck at a specific row on clue 1 for The Secret Stole. I would think I had it correct with the correct number of stitches and put it aside to work on when I was more awake. When I came back to it I would discover that I was still off! I redid at least 6 rows and 4 of those twice but I have it corrected now. So hopefully I will be able to start on clue 2 soon. Will it be in time for a pic to be posted by Friday to be in the drawing for the prize? Time will tell.

I have been so busy at work that when I get home I am too tired to work on any of these projects without messing them up as you can see from the above. As soon as I get home I start dinner and feed the cat. If I am lucky the cat has not christened any of the carpets or my bed while getting rid of any hairballs. I never get a chance to eat my dinner as soon as I give Mom hers. Usually as I finally sort of relax to eat, Mom appears to let me know that she couldn't finish everything and she is done. Often she is carrying her plate instead of leaving it on the table for me to take when I am ready. Just another little stress creating thing.

On a more upbeat note, the weather was a little like Fall but had warmed up the other day when I went out to get lunch. Then I had another encounter with the concert venue Cat! She/He was sitting outside in a patch of shade. When I saw her and talked to her she got up to get a scratch. She seemed to hint that she wanted to get back inside so I buzzed, opened the door and let the desk staff know that I was just letting the cat back in. Of course as I said that, the cat was being reluctant to move her butt inside and needed me to give her a little push. Once in she stayed at the door and turned facing me. She was either changing her mind and wanted out again or wanted more attention. Neither which worked for me so I shut the door as I was saying "goodbye and be good". What a character.

Lace Knit-A-Longs

So, I never finished clue 1 for Chrysopolis when clue 2 for Chysopolis and clue 1 for the Secret Stole was posted last Friday. At this point I am on row 63 for Clue 1 for Secret Stole and have not worked on Chrysopolis since last week.

Tomorrow both will post new clues! Clue 3 for Chrysopolis and Clue 2 for Secret Stole. Of course, Secret Stole does have some prizes for being on track so I guess I will need to try to keep more on track with that Knit-A-Long.

No time to work on them and I am way too tired when I get home after work. I already am off by one stitch on Secret Stole. I need to figure that out. When I tried I didn't "solve" the problem. I was afraid I was going to make it worse so I stopped.
Hopefully tonight I can get it fixed.

Oh and did I mention I am in the middle (waiting approval) of joining a Halloween themed lace project Knit-a-Long?

I didn't? Wonder why....

Chrysopolis Clue 1

Well Clue 1 for this lace knitalong was posted on Friday. I was home because they scheduled Mom's health aide for a yearly physical at 9am when she would normally be here. No idea of when she would arrive afterwards so I took the day off. She actually got here about 11am.

I didn't get a chance to really work on it until late Friday. I had a hard time casting on loosely enough only to screw up the pattern a few rows along and had to start over.

During the time I was able to work on it over the weekend I finally got a method down that works most of the time. I discarded the written instructions for the pattern in favor of the chart. I would just get too lost in the instructions on where I was in the sequence in a row.

My method now is to have highlighted the column that represents every 10th stitch for the entire chart. Then I have removable highlight tape that I use for the row I am on. Then to keep track of where I am in the row I have the chart on a magnetic board with a magnet strip placed so the left edge is at the beginning of the set of 10 stitches I am working on. I try to check my 10 stitches and only if okay move everything to the next group. I am also placing stitch markers every 10 stitches when I can to make it easier to check where I am and how many stitches there are in case I dropped any. Which I have done. The other thing I am trying to do is to run a lifeline every once in awhile and mark where I placed it in the pattern. That way if I drop stitches or otherwise messed up I can rip back to the lifeline where it is easy to place the entire row of stitches onto the needles again.

As you may know, a lifeline is when you put spare yarn or crochet thread onto a tapestry needle and pass it through the stitches on your needle before continuing onto the next row. The yarn or thread hangs for a few inches on either side of the knitting. Easy to remove when no longer needed but there to safeguard a correct row of your pattern in case you have to rip out above it.

Anyway, I am not far in the pattern *sniff* but I am plugging away when I can.

Of course the next lace knitalong starts tomorrow! Secret of the Stole.
I belong to MeetUp and our knitting group has a Meet Up event at the IBM building atrium on Saturday at 1pm to knit together the first clue of Secret of the Stole.
I am trying to get there. One pm should be okay. I get Mom set up for the day and hop on the subway, which hopefully is going into the city on the normal route. I can get close to the location by subway or take one of the buses instead that goes fairly close to it.

Wish me luck!

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!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Well, I took a vacation day for today and Tuesday to pad out the Labor Day weekend.
I am a bit burned out and I actually can't ignore work since I have to finish something before a deadline next week and my monthly reporting needs to be checked tomorrow morning. *sigh* But hopefully that won't take long to finish during the weekend.

On a Ravelry note here is my current waiting list standing:
4632 people are ahead of you in line.
14420 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far
So it is progressing along.

Since I have joined two lace knit-a-longs I hope I haven't gotten myself in way too deep.
I have never really worked with lace weight yarn or done a real lace project so it should be an interesting learning experience.
I already mentioned the Secret of the Stole but I also joined secret-of-chrysopolis
That is hosted on the German Yahoo so it will be challenging translating the posts but the organizer will be sending out info in both languages. Whew!

I ordered lace weight yarn for both projects and got this beautiful JaeggerSpun Zephyr in lilac which arrived yesterday from Sarah's Yarns. They have some wonderful yarns at good prices. I ordered two 2 ounce balls late at night on 8/28 and it arrived yesterday 8/30. It is enough for the Secret of the Stole project but not for the other one. They carry cones of it for very reasonable prices which I might order in the future. My Knitpicks Shadow yarn order is almost on it's way. I ordered 2 or 3 different colors in the Shadow yarn and enough of each so I can choose which to use for the Chrysopolis project.

I will post yarn pics soon and perhaps a pic of a swatch!

Woo Hoo! Ravelry Update

Just checked and here is my waiting position:

You signed up on July 10, 2007
You are #15526 on the list.
4919 people are ahead of you in line.
13877 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far

I have less than 5000 people in front of me so I should make it within a week or so after they are on the new servers which they were hoping would be by August 29th since they will be paying for the data center by then.

There is a cool little video on Ravelry features that they have linked to via the Ravelry blog: http://blog.ravelry.com/

On a aggravating note about the fingerless gloves I am knitting for that co-worker, I was re-knitting the other hand since I was unhapppy with the difference in the cast on edge. I had forgotten that I used the cable cast on previously and the other hand was using the long tail cast on. The cable cast on was much neater and merged into the pattern nicely. So I cable cast on and knit it again. I got almost finished when I realized I had somehow dropped or combined two stitches way down towards the beginning. GRRRRR!!!!

Nothing for it than to frog down to where I screwed up. *sigh*
These gloves WILL GET DONE and WILL LOOK NICE!!!!

Ravelry Wait Update

Just checked my position on the waiting list:

5382 people are ahead of you in line.
13050 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far

So, if I can get down to under 5000 ahead of me by the time they are ready on the new servers I may get my invite that first week! Hmmmm... time will tell!

New Lace Knitalong

I saw in Lime and Violet's Daily Chum that there was a new Yahoo group started for a lace stole knitalong starting up for the beginning of October, SecretoftheStole

Since I missed the deadline for the signup for the last Mystery Stole/Shawl MS3 I jumped on this one. It will be interesting since I have never done any real lace projects. It will be educational and should be fun even if I have trouble keeping up.

The button created for the group is really nice and I have added it to the sidebar.
Pass the word around and join up!

A Commuting Nightmare

So there I was rushing to the subway turnstile fumbling in the pocket of my bag for my Unlimited Monthly Metrocard, the one I bought less than a week ago, only to find it NOT there!

I moved over to the side of the turnstile area and started systematically going through my bag. No luck. The regular Metrocard I had in my wallet for emergencies had "expired" in January. I thought I could transfer the balance at a Metrocard machine but was unable to find the right path in the selections. So I gave up and bought a card to get me by until I could check the MTA website for what to do now.

The good news is that since I paid for the Unlimited Metrocard with a credit card I have automatic "replacement insurance" and I should be able to get a credit of a set amount per day left in the 30 day period which started when I first used that card. All I have to do is call a service number and have the credit card that I charged the Metrocard to. Also the regular card is supposed to be able to be transferred to a new one either at a "token booth" or at a Metrocard vending machine.

All I have to do is call to get the credit. Then to deal with the expired card, I just have to get the attendant at my station to transfer my balance to the card I bought tonight. I also need to purchase a new Monthly unlimited Metrocard.

The worse thing besides the aggravation is that I will miss the hard Metrocard holder that I lost along with that card.

It is always something!

Ravelry Update

Well, I just checked and I have made more progress. Woo Hoo!
5903 people are ahead of you in line.
11639 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

According to the Ravelry Blog their servers should have shipped today and since they will start getting billed by their data center in 10 days they are working to get everything running ASAP once the servers arrive. They expect a couple of days of testing after everything is installed before they switch over and then they hope to crank up the invites with a goal of 5000 in the first week.

So with any luck by the time they get their servers up at the new data center I will be at 5000 or under people ahead of me in line. Which means I should be getting an invite in a few weeks!!!!

What a Nice Saturday!

After some horrible storms last night, the weather is cooler than normal for this time of year. There is a nice breeze, it is sunny and no air conditioning needed.

Ravelry standing update:

You are #15526 on the list.
6172 people are ahead of you in line.
10912 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

Of course, with the earthquake in Peru and all the devastation I am wondering if a former colleague and his family are okay. I believe he retired to his home country and that was Peru. Waiting to hear from a current colleague who keeps in touch with him.

One of our other colleagues is going through some bad health problems. She is around my Mother's age and just got discharged from the hospital. I am trying out some hat patterns in her favorite style, beret, and want to try out a pattern for fingerless gloves for her. I am going to pilot with Carrons Simply Soft and got the cotton yarn from KnitPicks that I ordered for the final version.
My problem is gauge. Finding the right needle size with the yarn to get the correct gauge for each project. *sigh*

It doesn't help that I am exhausted. I have been getting a "second wind" and staying up too late. So I have not gotten enough sleep on a regular basis for the last couple of weeks.

On a happier note, I did finally manage to catch the last Harry Potter movie Order of the Phoenix before the newer movie releases push it off the schedules. I was able to run over to a theater near my office after I went to the dentist last week and catch the 4pm showing. I enjoyed it and I am glad I got a chance to see it on a theater screen instead of just my TV when it comes out on DVD.

I am definitely going to try to enjoy the day before the weather turns again.

Ravelry Waiting List Update

7127 people are ahead of you in line.
8480 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far


woo hoo! It went up 1% more invited. And I am a little... closer....

What a Storm!

I woke to a huge crack of thunder above my building this morning. It was pouring rain and alot of lightning and thunder. I expected that Mom's health aide would have a major problem getting here and who knows what my commute would be like!

Well sure enough, my Mom's health aide called and didn't think she would be able to make it since none of the subway lines near her were running due to flooding in the tracks. She had been trying to contact her office to let them know and the line was just ringing busy. What a mess! They were stating which lines were having problems and it definitely started to be more like which lines were running at all.

With the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis recently still on everyone's mind I knew that Mom would be worrying about everything. If I went into the office it would stress her out completely. So I opted for the working from home option and let everyone know. I managed to get quite a bit done from home today despite the cat screaming for attention and the extremely steamy weather once the rain stopped.

I will find out all the horror stories when I get into the office. Of course I still haven't reached my doctor to find out how he felt my blood test results were and if we need to adjust my medication.

The news stated tonight that there was a Tornado that affected Brooklyn this morning. Trees down, and some of the houses lost their roofs! Wow! I believe they said it was an F2 tornado!

Let's hope it stays calmer for awhile.

What A Commute Home !

So it was Friday night and I was the last one left in the office. I managed to finish all of the requests that I had outstanding. *whew*

Watered my plants, cleaned up my desk (just a little) and left for home.
Well almost made it out when I realized I had left my pocketbook in my desk drawer. Once again! I should have known since I was alot lighter. So I went back for it and was on my way again.

The subway station was stiflingly hot but I managed to catch the train that was just about to leave. When I transferred to the line that stops at my home station it was just as hot. So I took the train going in the opposite direction and sat in the air conditioning for the two stops before it turns around. Unfortunately it was obvious that it was going to be an express and I needed a local for my stop. Usually just as you get near the train on the opposite track the doors close in your face. This time I made it!

So there I was with a seat, in working air conditioning, catching up on some podcasts and knitting. When we got to the first major stop in Queens as usual a whole pile of people got on and some managed to grab the remaining seats.

All of a sudden, a man who had just gotten on and was sitting in a seat nearest a set of doors got violently ill - explosively christening what had been a fairly clean subway car floor. As you can imagine, people were trying to avoid the mess when he got sick again. At this point people were rushing away from him since he didn't seem to be stopping. I can only assume he was extremely drunk since he didn't seem to be at all concerned with what he was doing and the effect it had on everyone else.

I wasn't that close to him but I got a bit squashed in the rush. Luckily I didn't get christened by any of the mess and I wasn't close to stepping in it either. I just moved closer to the end of the seating I was on when I could. It was only 3 stops before I would get off. I warned some people getting on who were instinctly going towards the unoccupied seats and a couple with small child and baby carraige just about to get on when I was getting off.

So of course just when you think you have successfully escaped, the drunk gets off at the same stop! I held back and waited until he and the others had gotten closer to the lower level before I went down the stairs. Just in case. When I reached the street I saw him staggering towards the opposite sidewalk and it looked like he might be aiming for another bar when he reached the sidewalk. But he turned and didn't go in. Thankfully that was the last I saw of him.

When I got home Mom told me that the cat had either left a pool of diarrhea or puke in the hall just outside our bathroom within the last hour. Asking her what it was was useless since she couldn't tell or remember and then she couldn't remember what she did with the paper towels she used to clean it up. Well they weren't in ANY of the waste baskets in the apartment which left only one place. Yep, instead of dumping it in the nearest wastebasket (either in her room or the bathroom) she admitted that she might very well have flushed the paper towels down the toilet.

The one place that I constantly repeat this mantra to her "Only TOILET paper goes into the TOILET". If the toilet or line gets stopped up I get to pay to get it fixed and any other damage caused. Nothing we use other than toilet paper will break up enough to not be a problem.

In the past I have always told her just to put a paper towel over the mess and I would clean it up when I got home. That way she would be able to avoid stepping in it and I would be able to track what problems the cat was having. So instead she is bending over to clean it up and getting dizzy and tops it all off by flushing things she shouldn't. *sigh*

Just what I needed. What a night.