What's Going On

Ha, still a song title and appropriate because I've been flaking on reports, especially since I haven't blogged since the new job started.

The new job is good. I was concerned that I would not like it, but so far, I'm liking it a lot. I had thought that I really didn't enjoy law, but it turns out that what I really didn't enjoy was advocacy. In my past life in private practice, instead of advising clients as to what their rights were and what they were likely to get under the statute and the law given the facts and having them actually listen to you, you were often required to instead try to make the law and statues fit what the client wanted regardless of what reality was and the likelihood of them getting it. So you turned yourself into a pretzel and stitched up random bits of this and that, trying make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, to get the client what they wanted. And it made me nuts. I hated going to court arguing something dumb just because the client wanted more than they were entitled to under the law. And while some clients were normal and rational and accepted what the state of the law was, a great many more were not. It was so refreshing this week to read through the statute and the facts and be able to say "okay, this is what it is." And not hear someone say to you, "But that's not what the client wants, so beat your head against the wall for the next two months to try to find a way around it," even though you know perfectly well you won't be able to, because you've already read everything and if you'd have been able to find a decent, rational way around it, you would have freaking done it already.

I was also amazed at how much came back and how quickly. I had not really done any legal writing in almost two years, and I was worried about that. But I seem to be fine. Also, I was going into an area of law that I didn't really practice in much. But it's amazing how much exposure I had to different areas over the years. After reading some of the different statutes, I'd think "oh yeah, I had to look this up in so and so's case, I remember this."

I'm not enjoying the dressing up again, but you can't have everything I suppose. I still need to get some basic shirts and some shoes, but I think I can manage to muddle through until after Christmas. I just cannot face shopping at this time of year. I am a certified Grinch, and if I have to face crowds of crazed Christmas consumers, there may be legal ramifications, which I just don't need at this point.

Shawn and I have decided not to do the Christmas gift thing for each other again this year. For the last few years we haven't because we were saving to move, and then we were saving for the wedding, and then we were saving because I left private practice, and last year it was because we were going on a cruise. This year it's because I've changed jobs and I won't have a full paycheck until January. Instead of gifts, we write each other a Christmas letter. You know, I appreciate the Christmas letter so much more than anything else he could get me. Everything else is just stuff. I don't need any more stuff. If I wanted the stuff, I'd have bought the stuff myself. (Those of you who are knitters are having a fit, because you're saying "hello?? yarn??" but the fact is, I buy plenty of my own yarn. Note my ravelry stash documentation.) The Christmas letter is something that's meaningful and I look forward to it more than gifts. Except it makes me cry every year, since Shawn is the sweetest thing alive. I'm working on him for it to be a poem this year, but we all know I will fail dismally on that. (My friend Mary actually wrote a haiku about Shawn not writing me a poem, which was hilarious, if she gives me permission to post it, I will.)

In fiber news, last weekend Claire was in town. I love Claire. I was trying to remember how long I've known Claire now, but I can't. It's got to have been at least six or seven years now. Claire used to knit with us, but has moved to Maine now. I love that when I'm with Claire, I laugh the whole time. Claire famous for loving seed stitch, but I think she's delusional on that point. It was so good to see her. I miss her a lot, and I'm going to have to make sure I'm better at keeping in touch.

Heather M. also came to guild on Sunday and it was so good to see her too! I hadn't seen her since the second munchkin was born. She's another one that I really have do a better job with keeping in touch, especially since lives right in my neighborhood. Apparently, this failing of mine was something the universe wanted to bring to my attention last week, and then I thought of at least three other people that I need to call or write. Sigh...

I wore my swirl shawl to knitting, and sat by Mary who is also knitting it now, in the same color. She's apparently feeling sensitive that people might think she's copying me, but a lot of people are knitting this thing right now, (see the Yarn Harlot's blog), and she bought the yarn from another knitter in our group who had bought the kit a long time ago, and it was coincidentally the same as mine. So she's not copying me, okay?

I also finished my socks this past weekend at guild. I'm not sure why these took forever, except that I've been spinning a lot lately too.

I started some 2-Needle Fingerless Gloves from a Knitpicks pattern I bought years ago, with Hacho from Mirasol Yarns that I had in my stash. I started working on it at Paula's on Tuesday. I love the yarn, (blues and purples, how could I not??), but something was just not working with it. I had almost three inches when I decided it was two small. Which is weird because when I did the gauge swatch originally, it appeared that it would be an inch larger than it was supposed to be. This would have been fine with me because I have a wide wrist comparatively. But by Friday evening it was clear that it was not working and I ripped it out at guild in Derry on Friday.

I normally don't go to guild in Derry on Friday nights because usually by the end of the week, I'm exhausted on Friday nights, but I agreed to do a helmet liner for Kerry M's husband's friend's unit, and she was going to bring the yarn. Turns out she was sick and was unable to come but it was really good to see some people I had not seen in a while.

While I was there, Caroline decided to draw for the raffle the group had done for charity. There were several items you could put in for, and I had put in for the yarn by Heather S's Sereknity hand dyed yarn, but that was before they picked the color. It turns out it was yellow. I love Heather's yarn and I've used it in projects, but I can't cope with yellow. And it wasn't just a bit of yellow, but all yellow. So of course I won. But I was able to trade it for the Lia Sophia necklace that Caroline won (which is blue, yay blue!). This lead to a minor contractual dispute between Mary R and Caroline over the terms of their agreement on their yarn diet currently in effect.

Mary R's position was that the parties had agreed that each party would knit a specific number of socks and sweaters prior to the purchase of any further yarn. It was her belief that the trade violated the said agreement and that Caroline would have to knit an additional pair of socks to comply with the agreement. (Mary R did not at first agree to be photographed for the purposes of the blog, and disguised her face initially. You will note she is still knitting with the scarf over her face.) As Caroline's representative, I argued that the acquisition had been for charitable purposes and as such, she was entitled to a charitable deduction equivalent to the skein of yarn for the purposes of the yarn diet, and furthermore the universal precept that sock yarn does not count as stash enhancement applied. Mary R argued that under the terms of their agreement they had waived that precept and that any acquisition counted. Caroline settled for having to only complete one of the two pairs of socks on her needles.

Since I had ripped out the two needle fingerless gloves, when I got home I didn't have anything on the needles. And I still wanted to knit. So I grabbed the rainbow batt yarn I had spun up from Grafton Fibers (now DyakCraft) and decided to knit a limb warmer. What's a limb warmer you ask? It's a leg warmer with a slit in it so that it says a bit around your foot to warm it up a little, but since you can't sleep with socks on, it leaves your toes and heels uncovered; however, then you realize that you could probably use it as a arm warmer too, because the slit holds it on your hand too, but doesn't get in the way of your fingers and palms as you're using them that much. (This would have been awesome for that camping weekend.) I love the way the yarn ends up transitioning.

It's very silly, but I like it. So I had to dig out my McMorran yarn balance so I could figure out how many yards the skeins were so that I could write up the pattern. Even if you're not a spinner, I think having a McMorran balance is a great thing. It helps you determine how many yards per pound your yarn is, and then you can weigh the remainder of the skein to determine how much you have. This is a great thing if you're using up partial skeins. There is a tutorial and an explanation here. Since I have one more to knit, I can test knit the pattern a bit. But it's so silly and so Denise specific, that I may post it on Ravelry as a freebie.

Since I appear to have caught Shawn's cold, although I think I've been fighting it for a week, I'm going to lay low today and not spread it to the Sunday knitters.

Stay tuned for other updates as they come in.