Sunday, April 05, 2009

Stimulating the Economy

Yes, I've been on a roll lately between Etsy and some other online stores. I'm trying to do my best to really get things moving during this economic downturn. I ordered 10 skeins of Cotlin from Knitpicks in the hope of turning it in to this. I think black will be a good way to make it more versatile and make the junk in the trunk look a little less obvious. Knitpicks was also having a wicked sale on all of their books. I've been coveting The Eclectic Sole book ever since Beth at work brought hers in. While I was at it I also got the Sock Innovations by Cookie A. A truly dangerous book! It even inspired me to frog 6" of a sock that I already had started to make this instead. Simply gorgeous. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make it using the magic loop. I picked up some uber PINK sock yarn from Susan's Kitchen. Not my usual color but I really thought it was fun and funky. I picked up some green lace weight from Dyeabolical yarns, a fav of mine. Other miscellaneous purchases include, some soaps and lotions from Pam at Herbal Scent Creations. I cannot say enough about her products, I've used them for years. My other Etsy purchases include, some custom knickers, earrings, stitch markers, notecards, a small project bag from Bea and a lace knitting bag from Julip bags. Phew!

Other than going a little nutty in the shopping department, nothing is really new here. Mr. Larj's status is pretty much the same, however, there was a bit of good and bad news. One of the guys that works at one of his contingent jobs ran over his foot with a pallet jack and shattered his ankle. He's going to be out of work for a while so Mr. Larj will be able to pick up some more hours. The bad part other than the shattered ankle is whether they will be able to stay in business with our current economy. A couple of bad quarters and they'll probably close up like so many other businesses.

My work is pretty much status quo, we found out in a round about way that there won't be any raises in 10' and they're possibly going to suspend out 403B plan. We're also losing 8 hours of our time off. It really doesn't affect me too badly, I still get more time off than most people I know and we had a pretty significant raise last year so I can live with it. I'm just relieved and happy to still be working and doing what I do.

The weather here is starting to warm up and the days are getting noticeably longer which has lifted my mood significantly. (This may explain the shopping spree...mania anyone?) I've been chomping at the bit for spring after the craptastic winter that we all went through in Michigan.

As for actual knitting? I finished the so called scarf and put a crochet border on it. I like the way it turned out. I'm still......yes still..........working on the Man Mitts for one of my fav metal cellists. I'm almost done and might be able to kick them out today or tomorrow. Then it's a matter of weaving in everything and mailing them off. I also did gauge swatches for this, I really think it's cute!! I'm also itching to start some lace. I have a few shawl projects in my Ravelry queue the question is...which one? I also have lots of baby stuff that I need to crank out, seems everyone at work is preggers. Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating my blog and getting some knitting done.

Everyone have a great week!

3 comments:

2paw said...

So many clicky links, I have to confess I hovered over most of them!! Autumn has finally arrived here as has your Spring. The wool is all lovely, but especially the green!! I am glad things are still going reasonably well. Good luck with finishing the mittens!! The Shalom is very popular here, lots of people have knited one.

Batty said...

Great job! Happy yarn... somebody has to keep the yarn industry going, right?

ashwa78 said...

looking forward to having a few minutes to peruse and "stimulate" the yarn economy as well!