Yay!!!

It's time to celebrate on several levels.

#1- I turned the heel of a sock without a pattern (just a few basic rules). Yay!

#2- All the stuff that I ordered lately (including a Knitpicks order and two 1 pound cones of Zephyr laceweight) should be arriving this week. Yay!

#3- Our census is so low at work that I asked my boss if I could take Thursday off and she said yes!!! Yay!!

#4- Because of #3, I'll be able to be at SoP for the full time of sit and knit tomorrow.

#5- Also because of #3, I'll be able to get some sleep and actually be social on my way to the fiber festival in Missouri on Friday. Yay!

#6- I'm going to see X-Men 3 tonight! (This is big. I haven't been to see a movie at the theater since December.) Yay!!!....for me getting out of the house.

#7- Because of #3 (again), I get to sleep more!! Yay!

#8- I get to start my Rockin' Sock Club socks! Yay!!

#9- Phoebe is actually being quiet so I can blog. Yay!!

#10- My second batch of yarn is double-plied, skeined, and ready to be shown off on Thursday. Yay! (Sorry, Minnie!)

And that's it. I'm going to nap for a few hours before the movie.

a dilemma

I've got a little dilemma (a good one) on my hands, but at the moment it's more than my tired brain can handle. So on that I'm going to tell you all and let the advice/thoughts/general blabber come flying in.

I'm thinking about taking a different job.

Here's the deal. Ever since nursing school, I've wanted to work in pediatrics. This last weekend, one of my coworkers came up to me and told me that the peds unit at one of the other hospitals in the system is looking for experienced nurses to hire. They've got two job openings on nights right now.

The good:
-My co-worker's friend that told her about the job originally offered it to her, but said that anyone she could recommend would probably get the job. This friend just needs to know a name so she can put in a good word with her boss.
- I'd get to stay on nights and keep the current pay that I have (takes care of those pesky house payments).
-It's a closed unit that's divided into 3 or 4 sections. So I'd never have to float out of peds. I may have to work between the PICU, NICU, and the regular peds floor, but it's all peds.
-It's still in Omaha. Only about another 10 minutes further away than my current hospital I work at (and only about a 5 minute drive from SoP!).

The bad:
-I don't know if they'd let me keep my current schedule of every third weekend with my Wednesdays off for church stuff.
-My current boss is going to freak if I decide to leave. (Not a big issue, but she has stopped others on my floor from transferring to a different floor. I'm hoping that by going to another hospital she won't have as much sway.)
-Not sure if it's a full-time job. The nurse that told me about it said it is, but looking at the decription online, one is for 32 hours/week and the other is for 24 hours/week. I currently work 36.
-I'm finally getting settled from the major upheaval of moving into a new house. Not sure that I want another huge stressor in my life this soon.

Maybe I'm just overreacting because I'm tired. And I can't really discuss this with any of the other nurses at work because I don't want it getting back to my boss that I'm looking for another job. When this has happened with other people I've seen her make their remaining time there hell. So I need just some general job-switching advice.

I'm off to spin/knit/destress.

gardening galore!

This is going to be a pretty picture-intensive post, so stay with me. Apologies to everyone on dial-up.

I spent Mother's Day weekend with my parents coming down here to visit. Since they were coming anyway I thought 'Woohoo!! Cheap labor!!' Thus my landscaping plans were born. The people who owned this house before me did absolutely zero landscaping and things were looking painfully bare....especially in the front yard. In order to save myself from having to mow an unmowable section of yard, we put in a little retaining wall and some perennials.

There was a lot of digging to get the sod out and some of crappy clay out as well. Here it is....1200+ pounds of retaining wall brick, 15+ bags of garden soil, and 4 bags of cypress mulch later.


Here's a view from above. There's six hostas (different varieties) and two coral bells in there.


And a pic of the pretty little coral bell blooms. I'm really hoping these come back next year.


So that was all day Saturday. Then on Sunday, we dug up about 2 feet of sod on the other side of the front walk and planted six more hostas that Mom had split from her plants.


A very nice neighbor came over to let us use his sod cutter which made the work so much easier. Then at each front corner of the house we planted a bush.

A hydrengea on the left (which will bloom either blue or pink depending on the pH of the soil...I've only gotten blue so far and I'm holding out for it to stay that way).


And a burning bush on the right. I can't wait for fall with this one.


Finally....some knitting content. I finished my Jaywalkers at a concert on Thursday night. I think the next time I do this pattern, I'll either go up a needle size or add more stitches to the pattern. I did the larger size and I've still got to struggle to get them on. But once they're on, they fit like a glove. I wore them to work on Friday and they didn't fall down once.


I've started a new pair of socks using Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Black Purl. The pattern is the dreaded Conwy from Knitting on the Road that I was forced to rip back in mid-winter when it wouldn't go over my heel. I've gone up a needle size and I'm liking how it's working. I need to finish these up so I can start my newest thing......

....the Rockin' Sock Club socks. I signed up for the club as a late entry a couple weeks ago. The box came today and I don't have pictures yet, but I'll be sure to bring everything on Thursday to SoP. It's an awesome colorway and a very different pattern. Off to get supper, then knit all night.

ETA: I completely forgot to post pictures of the yarn that I spun, plied, and finally got untangled and skeined up. Here it is. It's 100% merino from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Cornucopia.

one full week

It all started last Saturday at SoP when Ann and Kay of the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog/book came to the store. They were fun to listen to, especially with all the frequent interruptions from Kay's many family members. I even made it onto their blog. Not a specific mention, mind you, but if you go down to their entry for while they were in Omaha, then go way to the bottom to the picture of the lady showing off her scribble lace. Now look to the left of the lady's head. You can see me standing in line, waiting to get my book signed and looking kind of ticked off about something. I don't know why I have such a mean look on my face. Do I normally look like that?

So here's Ann and Kay in the middle of their talk.


Then on Monday I had a final package from my SP waiting in the mailbox. I'm going to take a moment to celebrate reason #832 why I enjoy living in my own house - My packages are either left in the locked mailbox, or at my front door and I don't have to wait for the stupid office to be open or for me to be awake at a time when the townhome office is open for me to pick them up.

My SP was the fabulous DawnF and she did a very thorough job of spoiling me over the last few months and feeding my sock yarn addiction. So here's the last package.


There's three skeins of Lite Lopi in a brick/barn red color to use for felting, more sock yarn, a sock pattern that she wrote herself, hand lotion and stitch holders in a new notions case, some chocolate velvet coffee (one of my favorites from Millstone that I haven't had in forever), and this....

...my very own fuzzy sheep keychain Pez dispenser. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I never had a Pez dispenser growing up. I don't even think I tasted Pez candy until I was in middle school. Sad, I know.

So that's all the fun for now. I'll see everyone at SoP Thursday before I head to work.

happy joy and much tiredness

Two days of less than 5 hours sleep each does not a happy me make. However, my happy joy came in the form of seeing one of my patients move her foot that has been paralyzed a good 6 weeks. I truly do believe in miracles and I'm just so happy to have witnessed one.

Another happy thing is that I'm spinning much more consistently on my wheel and was able to fill a second bobbin with the cornucopia fiber. I'm going to be impatiently waiting for Thursday so Minnie can teach me to ply.

And speaking of Thursday! It was a small turnout at SoP and much quieter than normal. Lorna put the idea into Erin's head to go get icecream so we took Erin's car over to Coldstone Creamery (yes...I know we're lazy....don't really care). How have I never been to this place before now!?!?! Why didn't someone drag me there? World's best icecream made to order right in front of you. Amazing! I can forsee many trips there in the future.

I'll be at SoP today to see Ann and Kay, the Mason Dixon Knitters. So I'd better get to bed and get some more sleep even though I slept for about 12 1/2 hours earlier today. Hope to see you all there!

ETA: I almost forgot!! Miriam told me Thursday that she's got a hook-up to someone with alpaca fiber for all of us spinners. She's going to check into pricing for us.

I'd like to introduce....

Grace, my new spinning wheel!


She's a Lendrum double treadle and I'm loving spinning! I decided to call her Grace after a good friend's daughter who I know would be fascinated with the whole process and want to spend hours playing with it. But their family is in the process of moving from Jamaica to South Korea for some mission work.

Here's what I've accomplished so far.

I actually did two bobbins of the teal Wensleydale wool, but one of those made it's way home with Erin last Thursday as part of her very belated birthday present.

The purple/plum that's on the bobbin...

was done while I was at SoP on Thursday. It's completely overspun and not even at all, but guys...I'm making yarn!!!

After the purple was done, I broke into some of my Blue Moon Fiber Arts merino in the Cornucopia color and started to spin that much more evenly.

Did some more spinning on that tonight and the bobbin is now full. I've still probably got half the fiber left in that color. If Minnie's going to be at SoP Thursday, then I'll bring Grace so she can teach me to Navajo ply this stuff.

And I didn't go see Debbie Stoller, but I did finish my Hurry Up Spring armwarmers. They're a little tight around the thumbs, but I can fix that if I do another pair. They're really comfortable and keep my hands nice and warm. Now if only I could wear them at work.


In knitting news....

I'm finally past the heel gusset of the second jaywalker. Just need to get my butt motivated to finish them.

The baby blanket is progressing nicely. I've got about 2 feet done and want to try to get another foot by next week. My coworker looks like she's about to pop at any time and I want to get this to her before then, but no rush if it's a little late.

I guess that's it for the time being. If the sun ever starts shining again, I'll try to get pictures of all the pretty pretty fiber I've got.