Oh Martha! or "You're Fired!"

Episode 24

I Production Scheduling

1. Events

1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo or the Fuzzy Fair as Melissa has taken to calling it...October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
2. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri
1. Production
2. QC Inspection
3. What's in My Tea Pot
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5

II Production / QC

1. Holiday Knitting – Holiday knitting is under way and uneventful. I wish I could talk more about it but I know this person listens... :)
2. I heart lace by Inese Andzane knitted out of Cascade Heritage silk in color 5637 which is a peacock blue. I made it to the chart! I thought I would e able to finish this week but I ended up a stitch off on the 6^th pattern row and wound up in QC.

III QC Inspection

1. So down to the meat of the problem. What went wrong. Initially I think I got distracted early on into the row. When I got to the center stitch I saw I was one stitch off. At that point I checked the clock and saw it was late and put it down for the night. The next day I tinked back to where I thought I had made the error and went forward again. I was still one stitch off. So I put it down again to work on something else not wanting to do anything rash. The next day I counted my stitches wondering if I had dropped one somewhere a long the line. The count came out right. So it had to be a mistake I made in the pattern. Tink tink tink back again this time to the beginning of the row because I never found the mistake and during that tink I dropped a stitch un knitting a slip 1 knit 2 tog psso. <grumble> Luckily I had put in a life line before I started the lace rows. It's back on the needles now. I took the chance to switch to my pointier lace needles. I had originally cast this on my addi circs I wasn't happy with these needles so when I put the project back on the needles I switched to my pointier lace needles. Sacrificing smooth joins for pointier tips. You can't have everything... after all where would you put it.

IV What's in my Tea Pot

1. LIPTON Bavarian Wild Berry Tea Sweet and indulgent, Lipton Bavarian Wild Berry Tea tantalizes the senses with its vibrant flavor and robust aroma. This bright berry taste is great at any time of day.
2. Another one from walmart... this one is yummy as well. According to the box there are chunks of apple, Blueberry, Blackberry, and Black Currant. I taste the berry and I see the red “berry stain” on the bag. Pretty impressive for a tea bag. I like this one just a bit less than the Vanilla truffle one. Same advice applies. Double bag if you;re like me and love a mug you can do the backstroke across.

V Materials Sourcing

1. I finished the 1^st bobbin and ½ the bat of the knitty and color bat. The angelina in that bat gets everywhere I've been finding strands of sparkly purple stuff everywhere! On me, on my other knitting, on the dog... I was sitting in the production scheduling meeting at work and found a peice on my blouse and I hadn't even touched any thing knitting / fiber related that day.
2. The Mohair kid has been plied with the thread and the beads. It took me 2 days to sting all of the beads. I had wanted to use the floss threader trick but I bought the wrong stuff. When I went to the drug store I didn't see the clear bag with the floss threaders. But I saw a box of super floss. Reading the outside of the box I thought I had the right thing. Getting home and opening the box... boy was I wrong. I managed to find a needle that worked. I'm really happy with the skein. The thread and the beads sparkle in the light but don't jump out and and scream at me., At the moment it still needs a bath before I can turn it into Christmas ornaments.

VI After 5

1. Friday B went to his grandma's house and for some odd reason Nate's dad drove in from Detroit. Which gave me what I thought was going to be a night off. When I realized I had the evening to my self I started checking the knitting group site to see if there were any Friday night gatherings. No dice... Next I checked the LYS' in town to see if anyone had a knitting group I could drop in on. Every one of them closed at 5 except for the one in Medina which is 40 miles away and requires you to knit with yarn bought from the store. I get it. I realize you should spend some money if you plan on hanging out for 3 hrs. But it was a 40 minute drive and I wanted to work on my projects and not buy something to cast on to hang out with people I don't know. After much thought I figured I'd hit up Jo Anne fabrics to cruise the store maybe pick up some polar fleece for Joe's Halloween costume and just hang out with the crafty goodness. I ran into a display of the new Martha Stewart yarn. I am a huge fan of Martha. Martha is my hero, I want to be Martha when I grow up. But I was not impressed with the yarn. The super chunky Mambo is just bizarre. It's encased with some kind of mesh. As the mesh was white and did no t match the color of the yarn inside I was confused about whether or not I was meant to remove the mesh. I did see a funky necklace thing made of it on display and they left the casing on. I checked the Lion rand website and they show it on as well. Just not my cup of tea. I did like the bulky lofty wool blend Super bulky but at almost 12.00 a skein for 28 yds... I'll save my money. After my run in with the Martha Stewart yarn I was pretty much depressed and I left Joanne’s without buying anything! Which is totally no tin character for me. I should have known my night was shot at that point because when I got back Nate was playing video games in the living room. His dad had been held up in Detroit and wasn't going to make it until Saturday morning, So much for Mom's night off. As an aside how pathetic is it that on my big night off I went to a craft store and then home. When I have the children home with me I can think of a million places to go / be. The one night I get... and I'm home in front of the TV. I did get some knitting done though... Not a total loss.
2. Joe has been working 12's and weekends for the past few weeks. He'll on occasion call me and see what we're doing and let me know he's still alive and hasn't run off.. This weekend B was missing him more than usual and when Joe called at lunch ran over and asked “is that Daddy?” I told him it was and he pointed his little finger at me and said “You tell him if he doesn't come home He's Fired!.” It just so happened that Joe worked 1 shift that day and was home when got up from his nap. They then went to the grocery store to get something special for dinner since it was sweetest day. (we won't spend money on sweetest day but we'll make something nice for dinner together.) When be got home he said “Mommy I got something for you and it looks just like you.” Normally B is very sweet. Any perfect barbie-esque image he says looks like mommy. So I was expecting something pretty. What does he present me with? A glow in the dark pez dispenser with a witch head on it. I'm willing to bet his father had something to do with this.