|
10/24/2003 11:52:53 AM
|
|
What are you working on this week?
|
Hi Betsy! Well, this week I have been mostly throwing up due to the medication mentioned on a previous thread, but I`m also working away on a crocheted top for my Mum which she wants in time for my brother`s wedding back home in three weeks. It`s a pretty pattern (FCEK Spring 2003, no.26) but it`s boring the pants off me for some reason. Also, the yarn is an interesting construction - beige ply, slubbed ivory ply, and a silver metallic thread (52% rayon, 20% linen, 10% acrylic, 8% nylon, 7% cotton and 3% polyester - isn`t that mad?! I love the texture of rayon, and feel like I can work with it guilt-free now after learning that while it IS man-made, it`s man-made from a natural fibre! LOL). I don`t know what exactly my Mum`s outfit is for this wedding, first she wanted an ivory/cream top, then she said she`d bought beige shoes and handbag, so could I make the top beige. And of course, we all know that beige is one of the most subjective shades on the planet. (It reminds me of that episode of Mad About You, where Jamie buys a blouse that goes from beige to taupe to camel to tan, depending on who was asked). So, this was the only yarn I have that I thought would safely incorporate both desired shades, plus she wanted it a bit fancy and shimmery, and the metallic and rayon are perfect for that. However, the slubs are driving me absolutely insane - I`m sure you all know what it`s like in crochet trying to pull a big slub through a wee tiny loop. The fecking yarn keeps breaking, and my language gets fruitier and much more colourful than beige, taupe, camel or tan!
This morning I received the Berroco pattern book I`d ordered, and just for a knitting quick fix in the midst of all this crochet I started a wee sleeveless top with a collar that is either buttoned up to be a turtleneck, or left unbuttoned and turned down for a funky asymmetrical look. I`m not even entirely sure who it`s for - I just wanted to knit it! It`ll probably go to my newly qualified doctor friend back home who doesn`t like baring her upper arms, but finds that this kind of top works best under the white coat. The book is Berroco #207 Basics Summerwear, by the way, and the top is no. 13 "Bev" . The yarn I have for it is a beauiful butter-coloured thick and thin roving silk blend, with a muted gold metallic binder. It doesn`t feel like anything special as it`s going through your fingers, but once you feel the knitted fabric it is so soft and light and almost chenille-like. Because it`s a roving, little bits of the yarn are pulling off, but I don`t care at this point - I`ll just tell her to be careful with it and have it dry-cleaned.
Eileen.
|
|
10/26/2003 12:08:59 PM
|
|
No Joy in Mudville, except if you were knitting...
|
I was knitting away too - that Berroco top that I was talking about earlier. It`s nearly finished now - I`ve never done a top in 2 days before!!
According to a recent posting in Knitter`s Review there is a nice place called Granny`s Yarn Shop on Main Street in Islip - which is one of the stops on the Montauk line and looks pretty equidistant between us (I think...) - what about that?? Whoever has the guts to go up to Granny, throw their arms around her, tell her you haven`t seen her in ages, and ask how Grandad is, gets tea bought for them! And Thursday`s such a good day to pick too - my husband gets his paycheck on Wednesday!!! LOLOL
Fran - I remember you saying you wanted nice top patterns for your daughter - there are plenty in the Berroco book I just got. Go to berroco.com and look in Book #207 - tell me any patterns you like and I`ll send you copies.
OH!! EVERYONE! Go to my pictures and see some of my catties, esp. my fave Theivus drinking through a straw!
http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/eileen_beggs
Eileen.
PS Theresa, is the overzealous Mr Ronald Greenberg your DH playing a prank?!? Heehee
|
|
10/27/2003 7:45:15 AM
|
|
Thursday is a great day in the knitting zone!
|
Do you have to stay in a specific hotel for the conference? If not, have you tried hotwire.com or hotels.com? Through hotwire my hubby and I were able to get a three-star hotel for $54 a night for friends who visited in April, with hotels.com we got a *nice* motel room for $25 a night while at a wedding in June, and again with hotwire we`ve booked a three and a half-star up in Syracuse next week for $58 a night (I was especially pleased with this one - if you go to the hotel`s own site, their cheapest room is $165 a night). Just want you to have as much yarn money as possible! LOL
Eileen. PS I *told* you all I`ve become the queen of online bargain hunting!!
|
|
10/27/2003 8:09:20 AM
|
|
Who taught you how to knit?
|
Me mudder! (Or for those of you not Irish, My Mother). She taught me to knit when I was about 5 or 6 - my first project for myself was a pair of shocking pink leg-warmers (remember those!! Well, it WAS the early 80s!) - I don`t think I ever wore them. I remember finding them really, really boring to do as well. I DO remember that I had a capitalist streak back then (that`s long gone, but I suppose that Thatcher devileen must have infected us all more then we realised) and could be found knitting sweaters for everyone`s Barbie and Sindy dolls (a UK/Irish model of Barbie variety who wasn`t tanned, didn`t have massive breasts, wasn`t smiling orthodontically and came in Brunette as well as blonde) at 20p (pence) a pop - about 30 cents. I also remember that these patterns were of my own designing and had things like low v-backs, waist shaping, dolman sleeves, and knitted-on sleeves - wow, I must have had the bug bad! After that it was mostly baby articles I did - my mother was a child-minder, so there was a whole succession of babies through the years. I would do lace and aran cardigans, sweater, hats and bootees. I would do a lot of miniature items for the premature baby ward at the hospital too, always very conscious of the fact that I was born 2 months premature and wasn`t expected to live. I remember a colourwork baby sweater I did being entered in my primary (elementary to you) school fair - white with pink hearts in a line across the front and back - and winning. Everyone was exclaiming over someone so young doing this, but I was annoyed by the way carrying the yarn across the back made the fabric thicker. I didn`t know then about using different bobbins of yarn, etc. I don`t think I`ve really done colourwork since until it came time to do my husband`s blankie this month! It`s funny, because doing it brought back all these childhood memories, and I`m still not sure if colourwork is completely to my liking - seems to me there are always wee pulls and kinks, and it`s just never as smooth as real knitting! Oh, and I didn`t learn to crochet until about 3 years ago on holiday with my housemate in a caravan in Donegal - I`m not as comfortable with it as I am with knitting, I just don`t "see" the progressions as easily, but I think it`s actually easier in a lot of ways. Thank you, folks, for this trip down memory lane - it might save me money in Therapy years from now that I can spend on yarn.
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 8:15:33 AM
|
|
What are you working on this week?
|
LOLOLOL!! Your husband`s a hoot! What`s even hootier is that my husband has tried the same thing, but didn`t know my password! Maybe while we`re yarn shopping and drinking tea, our husbands should get together and act like 5-year-olds, heeheehee. And I actully didn`t read this until after I`d seen all the Ronald Greenbergs and asked you in a different thread if he was yours (I remembered you telling me the sutrname!).
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:08:06 AM
|
|
No Joy in Mudville, except if you were knitting...
|
God, I hope your cold gets better, don`t want you feeling miserable on Thursday - especially if "Granny" is a 24 year old ravishing business shark - she`ll make you buy all the yarn you sneeze over at extortionate prices! (That happened to me in Athens, I dropped and chipped some cheap statue I was looking at, and she made me buy it at above the original price, GRRR!)
What is your husband`s position?? I know there are State shortages in a number of positions that they`re tryi8ng to fill - it looks like my husband`s is going to go that way too (which is fine by us at the moment in a selfish sense, as it means more potential transfers will come up). My husband`s a Social Worker I, and the State has now put an indefinite hold on any new Social Worker I`s coming into the State system, as well as a hold on any new Social Worker II`s being brough in from outside, or being promoted from within. He works for OMRDD (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) and is based in the Hicksville Day Treatment Center in the mornings, and then the different clients` residences in Melville in the afternoons. He really loves being a Social Worker, all he`s ever wanted to do is help people (he`s a big green party member, social justice and peace activist from way back, starting by leading a lot of the anti-war demos in the late 60s when he was at Columbia). However, although he informs me that State, City, County and Town jobs are the most secure places to be these days, because of all the health budget cuts so money can be pumped into weapons, even there the pinch is being felt. Would you believe that the Program Manager for one of the Melville residences retired recently, and so they just decided to dump the responsibility of this full-time job on my husband, as well as his own full-time job! (Luckily, I`ve been able to take on the Program Manager job for him and do the paperwork from here - my background`s in Social Work too, you see). And when the clinicians are this understaffed, then you just know that the direct care staff situation is terrible - the direct care workers are being mandated to work double or triple shifts and to come in on their days off, and in the end the level of care for the clients is impacted. Basically this frustration really gets to Christopher, and what he wants is a transfer out of OMRDD and into OMH (Office of Mental Health) because he really thinks he mighty make a positive difference in improving some people`s lives through therapy and counselling instead of just pushing endless paper and pumping them full of seditives or mood enhancers. Anyway, that`s WHY he`s looking for a transfer.
The WHERE part is exactly as you stated - cost. The rent in this tiny studio apartment here is more then I was paying for a three bedroom house back home. We`ve looked into properties upstate - Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Albany, Syracuse - we can get mortgages in all these places for 4-bed 2-bath houses for less than what we`re paying here. Plus there would be the peace of mind of having a garden that we own that the cats can play in and dig up. I`m not too sure in what thread you asked the question, but the problem is that we are SO attached to EVERY single one of our 13 brood - they`re mostly related, you see. We got Feck, Woody and Nuns to begin with, and that was fine - then Nuns had a litter of 7, all of which we kept. We started getting them fixed one by one (it`s really expensive) then Nuns had another litter - we kept 2. Then one of Nuns` daughters from the first litter had a litter, and we kept 1 - that`s our 13! All are related in some way apart from Feck and Woody! It`s terrible, I know - please don`t phone the ASPCA on us!!! Plus, we need to be near a place where I can finish my Social Work Master`s.
Don`t know what you should do about Tim - you don`t want to jeopardise any similar goodwill attempts from DH in the future, but I was looking forward to meeting him too! I`ll leave it up to your impeccable judgement - would he get bored looking at yarn, or is he enough of a chip off the old block to enjoy it?
Oh, and thank you for asking about me not posting in the "Bleugh" thread - I`m feeling a good bit better. I finished that run of medication on Saturday, and am due to start Clomid whenever my period starts (sometime in the next 10 days, I think) - the side effects of that are supposed to be similar, except with the added delight of massive mood swings - lucky we`re meeting on Thursday! LOL
This message is too long - I`m feeling chatty after being so out of it for a week!
Eileen.
(I`ll look into tea-shops/cafes in Islip - it looks like just the kind of picturesque place that would have them. Was only there once, to go to a car dealership, but it looked nice).
Now, time? I`ll just look at the train timetable...on weekdays there are trains that get into Islip at 11.45am, 1.46pm, 2.41pm and 3.51pm. As far as getting back, my trains are at 3.51, 4.39, 5.21, 5.55 and 6.55 - so I`ll let you compare these times to yours (assuming you`re taking the train??).
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:13:28 AM
|
|
Good Vibrations!
|
.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:23:28 AM
|
|
Good Vibrations!
|
Send them my way!
Now after over 2 years of living in this horrible tiny place waiting for transfer opportunities to come up, my husband has FINALLY got an interview in Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse, NY for a Social Work postion! I would give my right arms to live there - lots of lovely winter snow (and associated woollen garments), near to Syracuse University so I can finish my Social Work Master`s, big city, progressive politics, great job for DH that he really wants to do, affording a house for cats, yarn and possibly a family.
Jesus, Mary, Jehovah, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Vishnu, Wiccan deities, Knitting Gods, Elementals, Sun Moon & Stars - I don`t care where you go for divine help - please just remember us on Tuesday 4th November and put a good word in. This could be it, Knitters - we could get a house and then I`d literally have ROOMS that I could fill up with yarn!
Fingers, toes and eyes crossed,
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:26:09 AM
|
|
Weblog
|
.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:36:28 AM
|
|
Weblog
|
Hi Knitting Pals!
I began a weblog (blog) last week, and I deliberated hard with myself about giving out the address here - but I will, with a proviso.
I think I`m quite good about keeping my politics to myself here, but as you might have guessed my husband and I are very left-leaning - anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-IMF, anti-World Bank, anti-UK and US foreign policy and pro- peace and justice for all. Because my weblog is mine, and isn`t a public forum like this, it will have my own opinions sometimes, as well as green party, peace party, etc. links.
I`d really love your comments and suggestions, but I don`t want to annoy or offend anyone - and I don`t want anyone to stop being my Knitting chum - it IS a knitting weblog! So don`t go to the page if you think it`ll make you fall out with me - think responsibly, LOL!
http://www.knittage.blogspot.com/
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 9:48:27 AM
|
|
Anyone?
|
Thanks, chappies for the support and advice - Debbie, that forum was really useful.
My doctor is pretty good really - but I`m not great about asking questions re things like side-effects. I haven`t had any kids, put off my first pap smear until a few weeks ago, and have only just started getting some gynecological input. I think I`m just a bit dazed still by the whirlwind of tests, exams, sonograms and drugs. Didn`t expect things to kick-off quite so quickly, I think - I feel like a Formula 1/Indycar car in the pits, with all theses techicians buzzing around sorting everything out at lightning speed!! LOL
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 11:35:13 AM
|
|
Good Vibrations!
|
Thanks Debbie - I don`t want to put any pressure on DH by keeping on about it to him as he`s nervous enough about the interview, but I just want it so, so badly! We`ve been in this tiny (20ft x 15ft) rented studio, in quite an isloated area, since I came to the US in Sept. 2001, and with not being able to work until my Green Card comes through, I could just about write a book on cabin fever.
Often the State advertises postions that they don`t actually have the funding to fill at that point, or that have already been given to an inside applicant - we`ve had a lot of experience of this recently. We had one interview where they called us the day before and made us drive 500 miles up to the Canadian border for an interview the next morning, only for them to not bother calling and send us a letter months later saying an internal candidate had got the job. So here`s hoping and praying!
Eileen.
|
|
10/27/2003 2:17:45 PM
|
|
discounted imported wools on Elann
|
I assume you`re looking for "wools" as in wool yarns and not "wools" as in any fibre of yarn? (Just to clarify, as I made that mistake when I first moved to the US from Ireland of calling ALL yarn "wool" as we do back home).
I`d start with the Schoeller Stahl merino light and skyline light - both very nice and soft, washable and affordable. The skyline has a more felted "fuzzy" look and feel than the merino. Also Schoeller Granda is washable I think, but I can`t vouch for the softness. Norwegain Sport Wool is washable, but it`s in a sport weight - not sure if you`re looking for something thicker or not.
Hope this helps!
Eileen.
|
|
10/28/2003 7:24:13 AM
|
|
Onlinie Evita Sweater
|
.
|
|
10/28/2003 7:30:03 AM
|
|
Onlinie Evita Sweater
|
All I can say is,no wonder it "only uses 6 - 7 balls"... now, if it had a couple of slipped stitches in there so that ALL our bits and pieces were showing, then we`d really have an irresistible pattern! LOL
It looks like nice yarn though. Anyone used it? And is it just me, or is the model a dead ringer for Catherine Zeta Jones (with an odd haircut)?
Eileen.
PS When I first tried to come on to Elann this morning, I kept getting an error message "This page has not been found" - I started hyperventilating and pointing to my Favourites - "There - there it is right there, look, I can find it!" Hope everyone is as sad as me, LOL.
|
|
10/28/2003 7:34:27 AM
|
|
Weblog
|
Even better, Betsy, I can just keep posting the direct address to my gallery like I have been doing, every so often, so you don`t need to go to the site at all (not that there`s really anything there that inflammatory, just wanted to let everyone know beforehand so you could all make Informed Choices - as Theresa will tell you, they`re very big on that in the Social Work field! LOL
Actually, there are some new pics - works in progress and the catties, if you want to have a gander:
http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/eileen_beggs
Eileen.
|
|
10/28/2003 7:53:09 AM
|
|
Took the plunge
|
I`m terrified of Noro and Colinette yarns (I would have to auction off a vital organ to buy them, so if you see a lung going cheap on Ebay you`ll know it`s me - lightly used, and in very good condition, in case anyone`s interested...) - and awed by someone with the courage in her knitting convictions to go and buy it! Those pictures should have pride of place in the Elann gallery!!
Eileen.
PS I promise that when my employment authorization comes through and I can work, I`ll get some Noro or Colinette with my very first pay cheque!! LOL
|
|
10/28/2003 8:13:37 AM
|
|
Yarn shopping in London
|
I would second all that Bets has said - go to the British Museum and pretend to be Virginia Woolf, then go to the Elgin Marbles and look like you`re trying to carry something off. When Security comes, tell them you`re Greek and you`re just trying to take them back. My best friend back home, Stephen, and I did this to much hilarity (on our part). We also went to see the Book of Kells in Dublin (ancient artifact illuminated by Irish monks over 1500 years ago) and complained audibly about it being a "filthy old thing - you think they`d have put something new out for us to look at". Then there was the time (when Star Wars Episode I was coming out) that we queued up outside Waterstone`s (our equivalent of Barnes & Noble) before they opened and clamoured for Star Wars tickets once they came to open up. Or the time that we put on cat masks and took cans of cat food up to the checkout in the grocery store, exclaiming that we were starving and couldn`t wait to get started. Ah, good times.....
You`ve made me all nostalgic now! The Victoria & Albert is brilliant too, you shoud definitely go there. I don`t know if Harrod`s has yarn, but if it has it`ll be really expensive just because it`s in Harrod`s - same for Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. Can you get yarn in Debenham`s, Bets??? I never saw it in the one in Belfast, but maybe because I never looked - I`ll have to tell my Mum to go there.
I`d say do a search on yarn stores before you go and make a list - yarn tends to be cheaper there than here in general, but I haven`t seen the wealth of brands there that you have here. Also maybe try some of the markets - Portobello Road, Camden - maybe you`ll find a fabulous bargain!
Eileen.
|
|
10/28/2003 8:21:14 AM
|
|
Good Vibrations!
|
Oh my Word!! It`s happening already - I always *knew* that if knitters concentrated their powers, great things copuld happen!
My DH was just called at work by Mohawk Valley Psych Center (in Utica, about 60 miles east of the place he has the interview at on Tuesday) who want to interview him too! We`re taking this one with a pinch of salt though - they want him to come up on Monday, and it`s for a Social Worker II postion (he`s a I, so it means that after the interviews any II`s would automatically get it over him). We`ve been down this road before of being called at the last minute to make up numbers, so he`s getting the Director of Personnel to call him back later to see if a) They can assure him that this is a real opportunity, and b) They can reschedule it to give us a bit more notice.
Still, after 2 years applying and waiting for the phone calls that never came, to have two interviews pending is a great feeling!! Keep up the chanting, chappies!!!
Eileen.
PS Theresa, if we move, can we take you with us???
|
|
10/28/2003 10:21:20 AM
|
|
One magazine subscription you couldn`t live without?
|
I`ve been meaning to subscribe to Knitters, and I think I`ll do it now before it goes out of my head again. I get Vogue and Interweve at the moment, but when I look at the things I`ve knit from magazine patterns in the last year, you know what wins out? FCEK! I think it`s because they have wearable garments - some of Interweave and Vogue designs can be a bit out there (the stole with an intarsia geisha knitted in, in the autumn Interweave springs to mind).
Eileen.
|
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25... Last
|
