Thoughts on training

A. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

B. I got a heckuva lot of knitting done.

C. I never, ever want to hear the following three things again:

"Take it to the next level"
"Get on the same page"
"Empower"

Raindrops keep falling in my bathroom

Seattle-area readers: can any of you recommend a good roofing or skylight repair company? When the rain was heavy on Saturday night, our bathroom skylight started leaking. It's way up high (recessed into the tippy point of our roof) so I'm not really sure if it's the skylight or the roof. I have neither a ladder nor the courage to get up on our roof and check it out for myself, so we'll be hiring a professional. Suggestions?

Look! More sewing!
Last week I finished a blouse. This is out of quilting cotton (Windham Feedsack III) I got at the new quilting store in Ballard, The Quilting Loft. It's made from Simplicity 3990 , with both the body and the sleeves shortened. (Tunic length on a fitted blouse = weird, as I discovered with the pale pink blouse from the last blog post.) Now that I've learned that ribbon is easy to sew on, I want to put ribbon on everything. Here, puppies....

(Yes, I know I look really, really weird in the second photo. Don't look at the nose - look at that spiffy ribbon trim! Also, the sleeves in the first photo look wrinkly because they were stuff in a cardigan earlier that day. They're actually very well set-in.)

I've also made two skirts in the last week. Sorry, no pictures. I've got two more blouses cut out of Simplicity 3893 (same pattern as the bathroom mirror shot w/cat in the last post). And there may have been some additional fabric purchases. Possibly.

Additionally
There's been both knitting (the pink and orange sweater for SWTC) and spinning (some superwash I got from Crown Mountain Farms at the Seattle Knitting Expo). And dogs. Lots of dogs. (The second photo is there to demonstrate that they do sometimes chill out.)


In grumpier news
Later this week, I have to go in to work to attend a five hour training session on what would normally be a day when I get to stay home. The training is called something like "Souper Serve Us Training" (I'd really rather that my blog not show up on my employer's radar). My attitude toward this "systemwide initiative" (jargon in honor of kmkat, who was collecting jargon for tax day)? Foul. Bitter. Hateful. I'm taking my knitting because I'm afraid I'll make strangly, stabby gestures if I don't keep my hands occupied.

From the sweatshop

Sewing

I've been in a wee bit of a frenzy. I finished two dresses:

(The gray, button-print one is MUCH cuter on me than it looks on the hanger. It requires an ample bosom.)

And two blouses:

Callie was excessively helpful while I was taking the bathroom mirror shots.

Rudy was excessively helpful during the sewing process.

I've started another blouse, but Trent demanded desk space tonight to work on our taxes, so I'm taking a night off.

Knitting

The eye-searing pink shawl has lost Most Favored Nation status, and I'm working on another eye-searing project, a sweater I'm designing for SWTC. I'd like to pretend that this shot is artfully blurry because I wanted to protect my sacred design until it's official, but really I'm just a terrible photographer.

Briscoe the foster dog

He's turning out to be a real sweetie. He thinks he's a lap dog, which is a little awkward since he's about 45 pounds and kind of gangly. That's also part of the reason I haven't been getting much knitting done. It's hard to knit when a big, clumsy dog keeps climbing on you. On the upside, we do have wonderful photo ops like this:

Trent had just cut into a freshly baked loaf of bread, and had undivided attention.

Comprehensive summary

Linda K (blog here, but currently inactive) asked in the comments to my last post, "I take it you're not sleeping these days having taken on all this?" Why, yes Linda, that pretty much sums it up. Actually, my approach seems to be to continually add new responsibilities. Busy people get things done, right? (Except blog updates - sorry, peeps.)

Knitting
I'm slowly oozing along on the hexagon. It still looks exactly like it looked in the last picture. I think I now have 36 rows to go. It's been back-burnered because I received the yarn for a design project I'm doing for Southwest Trading Company. It's also bright pink, plus orange. My poor eyeballs.

Sewing
I am super-productive here. One dress is entirely done.


Simplicity 4050, view D, out of stash polyester plus new ribbon. Sewing on ribbon wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. I learned that you can scotch tape it to the fabric, sew over the tape, and then remove it. Cool. I wore this to a wedding on Saturday, and someone actually called it fashionable.

Dress #2 ended up being a radically overhauled Vogue pattern, also out of stash material (rayon, this time). It's done but for hems, which were pinned up yesterday. Dress #3 is out of more rayon, purchased for the project, and Simplicity 3877 (the other pattern in the post below). It needs the zipper installed and a bottom hem. It's the best looking of the current sewing binge - and it's also pink and orange (my eyes! my eyes!).

Next up, I think, is a blouse.

Dogs
You may have noticed in the pictures above that there's a new dog. We're fostering Briscoe, which means that we're keeping him for the rescue organization (Rescue Every Dog) until someone adopts him permanently. He's listed as Jack on Petfinder. I'm a little unclear on exactly how or why this happened. The reasons seemed good at the time. He's sweet and fun, and endearingly clumsy. We're now going to the dog park 2 times a day on most days.

Work
Trent and I have a maxim based on observation of academic life. Those who can, get more to do. Those who can't, don't, and get paid just the same. I'm currently chairing 4 committees. I hate committees. I hate committee meetings. Consequently, I run very efficient meetings. Everyone is awed by my efficiency, so they give me more to do. When I got one of the committees handed to me, my superviser said it was because I'm the only one she trusts. Yet, strangely, those untrustworthy colleagues seem to get raises and promotions too. (Yes, I'm bitching and whining.)