JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…use a ruler to measure how much snow they get in a snowstorm.

We use the dog.

ETA:  I received my STR club package in the mail today - apparently the original package was lost in the mail somewhere (and anyone who has read my blog for at least a year  knows my relationship with my mail lady so you then know who I am most suspicious of…).  Since it was lost, they sent me a new one as soon as they received their new shipment of notebooks.  While I am very appreciative of their efforts and know it wasn’t their fault AT ALL I still feel a bit meh about the whole thing.  All the anticipation that was unfulfilled until now and the three glimpses I had of the yarn on blogs where the owners had posted pictures helped me feel a little ‘out of the loop’ shall we say (the PMSing and the tax season stuff and the fact that it’s March which apparently DOES suck didn’t help, either).  I’m hoping the next package brings back the magic…

I’ve been a little distracted over this past week - for a couple of reasons.  First, in case you all have forgotten, it is tax season.  My life sucketh this time of year.  I’m sorry that my blog life is suffering however, sacrifices must be made.  I miss you all - and as soon as my head is back above water I’ll be writing and commenting regularly again ;o)

I’ve also had another little distraction - okay so it didn’t actually show up ’til yesterday afternoon but I’ve been distracted waiting for it to make an appearance.  When the UPS guy appeared from the back of his truck holding the box I flew out of the house and started clapping like a five year old who just got her first look at the tree on Christmas morning - now he thinks I’m nuts and I’m hoping he’ll stop hitting on me ;o)  (lil creepy to have your UPS guy tell you that he’d be happy to fill in if your BF isn’t around anymore, ya know?  No, he’s not the quintessential ‘cute’ UPS guy, either.)  Once I got the box in the house - and located the camera so I could record this auspicous event for you all - I ripped it open and spent like two seconds looking at the directions (RTFM?  Me? I think not.) before I started pulling stuff out and unfolding and assembling and admiring…and looking at the directions again…

After an hour I had this - meet Amelia (or Margaret, I haven’t decided yet):

She’s beautiful, isn’t she?  She’s also mine.  Only mine.  Never used by anyone but ME - which is important since I’ve only owned used wheels prior to this.  My Lendrum (Brigid) and I never really connected since she had ‘issues’ from the start that I did not notice prior to purchase - since I had ‘wheel fever’ - my dad and RR worked hard to help me fix her and get over my ‘issues’ with her but the bloom was off the rose (so to speak) and I never really loved her as she deserved.

Amelia/Margaret and I are having a few little issues (WHY do all my wheels chatter?) but RR is helping and I’m learning - and oiling - and she’s quieting down slowly but surely.  There are moments that all she does is whisper and that warms my heart and gives me hope that eventually that’s all she’ll do.

I’m already halfway through a 4 oz hank-o-BFL in the ‘Petunia’ colorway from Spunky Eclectic and I’m producing singles faster than I have on either of my other wheels (my fourth wheel doesn’t count, it’s being held hostage in the Northeast Kingdom - does Dave ever return emails?) and I’m pretty certain I’ll have some finished yarn by the end of the weekend.

Roger is also sharing my joy in the new wheel ownership - last night when I dragged him away from his ‘puter to help me figure out the chattering issues he remarked, “Do you buy these things just so we can have something to do together?”

 Yes, dear. ;o)

…several things:

• I hate Ajax coding with the fire of a thousand suns.
• Sometimes you just have to rip.
• Tax Season…it’s not for the weak-hearted.  Wait.  I already knew that.
• Our semi-local W*lm*rt should not be visited after dark. 
• No matter how much you wish it so, sometimes your STR club package just isn’t going to show up in this millenium (or at least it feels that way after you’ve heard that people in New freaking Zealand are getting their packages and you haven’t gotten yours yet).
• Same goes for the shipment of a new toy.

Okay so I’ve been attempting to install this really cool comment expanding plugin thingy since Friday.  I have done everything the directions call for and then some.  I have tried every configuration possible.  It does not work.

What. The. Hell.

I think I might have to just accept the fact that you all are going to have to suffer with the frustration of a reloading page when you submit comments, I just can’t get this to work.  Stupid thing.  Oh who am I kidding, I’ll keep working on the damned thing ’til I either get it to work or throw the ‘puter into the street.

Now on to the fun portion of my weekend.  Friday night I was working on my leaf lace socks when I decided to try them on…did I mention that I was halfway through the foot - and these are top-down socks?  Yeah.  Well…didn’t fit.  It took me five solid minutes to get them on and RR’s help to get them off - which took even longer because he just wouldn’t stop laughing at me.  Nice.  It then took me all of 3o seconds to decide that I just couldn’t go on - especially since you just couldn’t see the pattern because of the yarn, it was way too busy (I think I was influenced by Karen’s recent decision to rip her socks).   So five minutes after that I had a nice pile of spaghetti - which can’t be knit into anything.  After a nice long soak in some hot water with lavender Eucalan it calmed back down and got pretty again.  Back into the stash it goes since I have no idea what it wants to be right now - I have to find a pattern that won’t be overpowered by the color changes.

After all the ripping excitement, Roger and set out on our hot date of the week - going grocery shopping at the Super W*lm*art in East Greenbush (which is actually pretty close-ish and very easy to get to from our house for those who know where we live…).   After stopping for dinner, we ended up arriving at the WM around 8pm - and everything was fine ’til around 9ish when it got…scary.   Keep-your-hand-on-your-pocketbook-at-all-times scary.  The best part?  While checking out I said to the cashier, “How are you?”  to which she replied, “FINE.”  oooookay then.  Moving on…

Now as for my STR club package…I’ve been keeping mum but…I’m starting to get not happy about it.  There are people who are done with their socks.  DONE.  There are people on the complete utter opposite side of the world who have their socks.  Do I have my socks?  That would be a no.  I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a sign that I should have not been in the club this time around - which was the plan until RR forced me to sign up.  That’s it.  I blame him.

Regarding my new er….acquisition - it was supposed to be shipped on Saturday.  Since there is still a big chunk of change in my Paypal account I’m going to continue under the assumption that it did not get sent so I won’t even have that to keep me occupied while waiting for my STR…ohwait, maybe if I worked on the big *ss pile of expense reports that I (finally) received last week from my client so his taxes can get done on time I might not think about the sock yarn or the new toy. 

Yeah. right.