My last day of work was ... umm .. hideous. I can't really go into the details, but I was treated badly, and it completely affirmed my opinion that I've made the right decision about taking this new position. I'm REALLY trying to let the old situation go, take a deep breath, and move forward into my new position with excitement. But of course I'm totally bitter and will obsess about my old job for weeks. Gah.

Luckily, I have fabulous friends and a fabulous twin sister who will let me bitch and moan, and will even set up torture-the-mean-man scenes with their toy boyfriends to make me feel better (see Anne Marie's blog for that. Hee.) And then, I feel happy and free, as demonstrated by this picture of me on Tuesday evening, dancing in Anne Marie's muumuu.

Ah. Freedom.

I put that fabulous garment on because it was SO. HOT. on Tuesday and my pants were sticking to my legs. Perhaps that is too much information...

Anyways, I've used these three days off to relax, spend time with Cathy, and work on a freelance project I've been doing. I'm proud to say that my second professional web design job went live this week to rave reviews and a very happy client. It's SO gratifying -- now I feel like maybe I actually can do web design for other people! Whee!

So, this entry is not so much about the knitting. I have been knitting, LOTS, on my second Clapotis - I just started my first repeat of Section 3 (the straight rows) and I just dropped my first stitch tonight - it sure looks purty. I tried to take a picture of the dropped stitch but I've had a few glasses of wine and it was a tad blurry. Har.

Nope, this entry is about how I'm making positive changes in my life and movin' on up. It might be boring blog fodder, but it feels damn good to write about it. I'm 27 years old, and sometimes I feel like I'm wandering aimlessly in life, and right now I feel focused and happy and ready to take on new things. Go me. And, because the world is smiling upon us right now, Jacob got a promotion at work and is going to be a big time sales rep, and I'm SO proud of him. We're like, grown-ups. Except not as boring.

Clearly, I am interrupting this knitting blog for a big ole pep talk, but sometimes ya gotta do that. And, if the new jobs don't work out, I can be a muumuu dancer and Jacob can get on the poker circuit and gamble for a living.

He knows when to hold 'em. And when to fold 'em.
And he totally kicks ass every time we play.

p.s. I had to google muumuu to see how to spell it.

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

Tomorrow is my last working day at my current job. I'm taking a couple of days off to relax, get some of my own side business stuff done, and prepare myself to be the new kid at school. Er, new kid at THE JOB. you know what I mean. I'm excited ... well, excited AND scared. (Name that tune, Broadway babies!) But all in a good way.

The knitting is all over the place right now. I finished my second hemp shawl and I soaked the crap out of it in the bathtub. (Question for anyone who dyes yarn: what is good to use on plant fibers? I keep reading that Kool-Aid works really well on animal fibers but not plant, and I'm thinking of playing around with dyeing this hemp yarn. Any suggestions?) The hemp can be a little itchy, so I was hoping that a good long soak would soften it up a little before I blocked the crap out of it. I'm considering adding some sort of edging situation to this one, perhaps (gasp!) crochet? Who knows. Here's what it looks like, post initial blocking, pre-edging.

Bella says, GET THIS CRAP OF MY BACK NOW.
(Or maybe, I love Mommy's knitting. I'm not sure.)
Here's another look. On me this time.

Still itchy. But it's a work in progress.

I've been working on Kiri also, but I have a confession to make: I started something else too. I figured the best way for me NOT to sell my Brooks Farm yarn was to knit something with it...so I started another Clapotis.

I've just started my fourth increase repeat.
And I've finally got it memorized!

This yarn is a dream to knit with. Soft, and pretty, and the colors are...so. amazing. Of course there's mohair in this yarn, so there's a tiny bit of shedding, but that's okay with me. I keep stopping and rubbing my face with the knitted piece. And now I will show you a close up picture (and this one is truer to the real color):

Yum.

And now I will rub my face with the knitted piece.

I told you. You would too, I promise.

I can't stop knitting this Clapotis - I actually knitted in the car, in the dark, all the way home from dinner last night. Which is kind of silly. But I was in a groove and I wanted to keep going. (Note to self: ALWAYS bring head lamp in purse.)

P.S. Dinner last night was fondue at the Melting Pot, which is completely extravagant and gluttonous and DAMN GOOD. Here's what me and Jacob looked like after the cheese course:

Jacob is gazing in the distance, dreaming of the next pot o' melted goodness.

You can imagine how happy we were after the chocolate course.

Posted by Carrieoke at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

Of course she failed to mention it on her blog, but today is the ever classy Anne Marie's birthday. If you've never met Anne Marie, you are totally missing out - she is one of the most generous and kind women I know. You can take this girl anywhere and she will immediately be having a good time, and by the end of the evening she'll probably have a few new friends (or maybe a phone number.)

We. Are. Hot.

Besides being one of those friends that you can always bring with you, she's always a lot of fun. I've done karaoke with Anne Marie, been to drag shows, driven 10 hours to a yarn festival, and driven to New Orleans all through the night for American Idol auditions, and lived in her attic, for starters. And none of those events would've been quite as fun without her smiling face and great attitude. It takes A LOT to faze Anne Marie ... she knows how to be graceful in every situation.

Beautiful girl!
Photo by Chris (xtopher.net)

Anne Marie can wire her own house, fix her plumbing, and split up a pit bull fight. She also has her Ph.D. in genetics and can totally wow you with her knowledge of things that I can't pronounce. And she always stands up for what she believes in - this girl will CALL YOU OUT with absolutely no fear. She loves animals with a passion and is absolutely the best doggy mommy I know. She was my landlord first, and then my friend, and now one of my best friends. I hope our kids play together someday in the future, after we invent something fabulous, make our millions, and retire to the West Coast. Hee. Happy Birthday, Anne Marie! Thanks for being such a joy in my life!

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

I am in a foul, foul mood today. There are many reasons for said mood. One reason might be that the air conditioning in my car has started making a horrible noise, a noise that tells me that my car is dying, and the noise only stops when I turn off the AC. Which means no AC for me today. And it's 94 today. And I sweat. A lot.

Another reason might be that I woke up too late to take a shower and then I forgot my makeup so I look like this today (click for Exhibit A.) No makeup + extra sweaty + extra crusty healing tattoo = scary Carrie.

Aside from that, I made some miscalculations with my checking account (read: I didn't write things down) and now I have five overdraft fees. Yes, that's right. I SUCK.
I was going to sell some of my yarn to make up the difference, but I decided that
1. I don't have enough sellable yarn to cover the overdraft fees.
2. SELL YARN AM I CRAZY.
Here's the picture I was GOING to post to entice buyers.

Yummy, yummy Brooks Farm. Not for sale. Yet.

Anywho. There you have it. I'm totally whining and complaining, I know, but it seems like it's all happening on one day.

I actually posted all of that yesterday, and I'm feeling a bit better today. I called the Big Bank and sounded truly pathetic and they actually overturned one of my overdraft fees. Hooray! And I had a yummy dinner with Jacob that we actually cooked together (those who know me will know that I DO NOT COOK.) Bottom line, I am a lucky schmoo with a great life but I can't manage my money worth a shit and I am going to work really hard to improve that.

So.

Yarn pics. HighEnergyJenny gave me delicious yarn for my birthday, yarn that covers both of my current obsessions: socks and shawls. Yahoo. Here is the shawly yumminess:

Jaggerspun. So soft and pretty.

One day, Little Kiri will be a grown-up shawl. One day!

The sock yarn is Lorna's Laces, in a most lovely colorway:

Lovely greens and blues.

And of course, the bag to hold it all in, courtesy of Anne Marie :

A water bottle totally fits in one of those pockets too.
I *heart* this bag.

To top of all the wonderful knitty gifts from my friends, the choir at the church where I play the piano (and accompany the choir) gave me a gift certificate to LYS Main Street Yarns!! Total surprise, and I was so touched. Yay.

I've been alternating between several projects: Jacob's Second Sock, another hemp yarn shawl (for me!), the drop stitch scarf in Colinette Giotto, and of course, Kiri. Last night I knitted Kiri while watching Closer (so. depressing.), but this past weekend I brought the hemp shawl (it's garter stitch) along to a party with some old friends and knitted on it every now and then.

Almost done.

Speaking of said party, listen to the question I got from an old friend this weekend: "Hey Carrie, can I ask you a question? And I mean this in the most complimentary way possible..... (DANGER! DANGER!) ..... has your ass gotten bigger?"

um. yes. but do you have to point it out?!?!?!?!?!!? Dear Lord.

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes for me and Cat. We had a great time on Wednesday - there was lots of fun people, Thai food, and of course, karaoke. Jacob totally surprised me on Wednesday morning before he left for work with this fine present:

Dance, dance, dance.

It's the Beat Pad for the Nintendo Gamecube, and it totally rocks. He also got me the game that goes with it, MCGroovz Dance Craze. We played a little yesterday before we went out and it is SO FUN. And the music is actually good on this game! I'm talking Earth Wind and Fire and the Commodores, baby. Yay!

My twin sis hooked me up with a totally awesome running outfit that is actually made of a breathable fabric (instead of my old cotton tanks and gross shorts that I wear - hooray!) She got me some running socks too. See:

I'm gonna look like a real runner!

She also got me a bumper sticker that I've really been wanting...I'm not going to post that because I try not to get political on the knitting blog.... ;)

Cathy loved her knitty gifts - she actually wore her shrug out at karaoke for a while until it got too hot in the bar. Here she is, super cute in her shrug:

My sister. She's classy, that one.

(For those who are interested, the Trinity Stitch shawl pattern can be found here. I'm so glad everyone liked it, and that Cathy liked it - I blocked it A LOT, so it became a very delicate, open shawl. The shrug pattern (One Skein Wonder) is for sale at Glampyre.com. Stef's patterns are always totally well written, so you should check out some of her others too!)

I also got some yummy, yummy yarn from HEJ and a knitting bag from AM that will seriously hold like 15,000 projects and still be compact. I am a lucky, lucky schmoo this birthday.

There is one more thing that Jacob got me...something I've been wanting for a while, and thinking about for a while...

***SIT DOWN MOM***

I got a tattoo!

My friend Mary Jessica (who also drew the cartoon Carrieoke on my blog) designed a beautiful tattoo for me and a great tattoo artist in town rendered it and did the work. Wanna see? Guess what - it's a knitattoo!

Click for the closeup.

I wanted to incorporate a ball of yarn, and I told MJ that knitting is totally what destresses me, keeps me calm, and gives me peace. So she worked with those ideas and came up with the two sparrows holding the piece of yarn. I'm definitely not an expert on tattoo history, but I do know that sparrows were really common in traditional sailor tattoos so we went with that kind of look for the tattoo.

I am SO HAPPY with the way it turned out. I had lots of random folks coming up to me at karaoke and commenting on how neat it was. YAYAYAYAY. I was really, really, REALLY nervous about the pain, but it really wasn't that bad. It did hurt, but it wasn't unbearable. Thanks to HEJ, Jacob and Anne Marie for giving moral support! Now I want to go buy a bunch of halter tops so I can show it off.

WHEE! What a birthday! I have lots of great pics from karaoke night and dinner but I am too freakin' exhausted to get an album together right now. I'll probably post some more later this week. I have a few other projects to show you too, and I'll show you more of my knitty pressies from the girls.

I'll leave you with a totally ridiculous picture of me and my sis Cathy singing "I've Had the Time of My Life" at karaoke. Giggle.

Me and my favorite twin.
I love you Cat! Thanks for coming up!

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (74)

Okay, well, it IS my birthday. And my sister's birthday too! We're going to be twins about and hang out tonight in the ATH. I am v. excited about the evening's festivities. But, I know that YOU want to see some knitting, and boy, do I have some to show you. (NOTE: Clicking on the pictures is reserved for people who are NOT my twin sister ONLY. So make sure you're not my twin sister if you click. )

So, here's project number one.

Click to see!

But wait! There's more!

Click for Project 2! You know you wanna.

Click for the big picture.
Click herefor a closeup (not you Cat!)

This one was from a free pattern I found online and some yarn I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. It's actually made of hemp, and it blocks beautifully. I'm really excited about how this one turned out - this project was a bit of a question mark for a little while.

So there you have! The secrets are out. I've been a busy little knitter, but ya gotta show some knitting love on the birthday, especially when it's my birthday too! (The reason there are three is because I could NOT decide which one to knit. I can get easily distracted by pretty colorways and patterns...)

Tonight? I will be eating and karaoking with the coolest people I know - including Jacob, HEJ, and Anne Marie. And of course my twin sis and her husband. I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday than at a hole-in-the-wall karaoke bar with the people you love! Can you? Well, maybe if there was some knitting involved...or some other kind of needlework? Hmm...more on that next time.

Have a great day! Mwah!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (72)

Hi there! This is an extremely photo-heavy post with only a few knitting references. You have been warned.

Jacob's family reunion in Mississippi was this weekend. That's Booneville, Mississippi. Jumpertown. Here's the shirt:

I told you there would be a tractor and a sewing machine.

Geno is Jacob's grandmother's (mom's side) maiden name - the folks at the reunion were all descendants of Charlie and Doris Geno, who were Jacob's great-grandparents. There was a cheat sheet for people like me who were kinda clueless:

I used this. A lot.

The reunion was at the fellowship hall of a tiny church in Jumpertown. Jacob's cousin (?) Chuck said this to me at Huddle House the morning of the reunion: "If you're with the Genos and you're being quiet, you're either in the wrong place or you're eating." Chuck was SO NOT KIDDING.

Click to see the fried goodness and family fun...

The reunion began with four hours of snacking and visiting, from 1 - 5. We got there at 1:00 sharp to visit our little hearts out. First stop was the nametag table. I scanned for mine and then Jacob's great-aunt Mary Ann points mine out: it says, 'Carrie Ought to Be Bishop'. Giggle. Mary Ann said that she called Jacob's grandfather and his dad to get my last name, and they both said, "Well, it oughta be Bishop!" hee hee.

And the visiting ensued. I think I'll just show you some pictures.

Doris and Charlie's kids.
L to R: Mary Ann, Linda, Billie (Jacob's grandma), Shug, and Charline.
(The other sibling and only brother, Satch, passed away.)

Jacob's parents with Cousin Trent.

Cousins Amanda and Sean racing in the graveyard.
The majority of the graves are Jacob's relatives.




Jacob's Uncle Mark, who sometimes reads this blog.
(Hi, Mark!)




Visiting can include knitting too.

We really did just hang out for four hours and visit. It was fun to meet people and hear about Jumpertown. Jumpertown is a SMALL TOWN, ya'll. I mean, really small. And did I mention that it's a dry county? As in, you can't buy beer, and apparently you can get in trouble if you purchase it elsewhere, bring it into the county, and drink it. Even if you're 21. More on that later.

Anyways, everyone was really, really nice. Jacob's not so good with the introducing (and in his defense, he was the official event photographer, so he was pretty busy) so lots of people just came up to me and said, "So, who are you?" And by the way, if you thought your family was loud, you haven't met the Genos. The noise level was insane in that little fellowship hall.

The main event was, of course, the catered dinner. I believe the catering place was called Bob's, and they actually brought a big truck with a kitchen in it and cooked all the food outside. We had FRIED. Fried shrimp, fried catfish, fried chicken, fried chicken livers. And some coleslaw. Aw, yeah.

Fried.

The noise level decreased considerably after everyone starting eating, and it was almost dead quiet when people were finishing up. SO. MUCH. FOOD. The dessert table was incredible - I wish I'd gotten a picture - I had homemade strawberry cake and banana pudding. Yes, I had both.

I couldn't really do anything after eating except grunt. And go back to our hotel to sleeeeep. But there was no time for sleep - there was more visiting to do! However, this visiting was more like the after-party to the reunion. The young folks after party, if ya know what I mean. One of Jacob's cousins drove to another county for a beer run and we all congregated at a relative's house to "play cards". (I'm being purposely vague to protect those who actually LIVE in Jumpertown...). I think the pictures would show the situation better:

There was poker. And tall boys.

Jacob and Alison will kick your ass in poker.




I accused Will of hoarding his chips.
He said, "You call this hoarding? I call it winning."

There may have been some booty dancing. MAYBE.
There was definitely a Velvet Elvis. Click to see.

So, there was some extra visiting that evening. It was fun to watch all these cousins who hadn't seen each other in years get to know each other again - one of my favorite exchanges was Cousin Ashley's reaction to Alison being a vegetarian. (Note: this conversation occured in Huddle House around 2:15.) She said: "Now lemme get this straight. You don't eat ANY MEAT? Not even chicken? Why in THE HELL would you do that?" Totally awesome.

So, Genos=good times. Fer sure. And if it ever gets too loud, I know just where to go:

So. relaxing.

Coming this week: Knitting pictures! Secret projects revealed! And after Wednesday, birthday pictures. Whee!

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

Jacob and I visited my dad in Mount Olive, North Carolina this past weekend for the Fourth of July. It was a seven-hour drive turned into nine or ten hours by lots and lots of rain, bad traffic, and a stop at Wal-Mart for new windshield wipers. (But oh, the knitting time was marvelous -- gotta love that about knitting. I actually secretly WANT things to take longer sometimes -- lines at the bank or the DMV, waiting at the doctor's office -- because I can knit more rows. knitknitknitknit.)

We finally made it. It was so good to see my dad! And I had big plans to take fun pictures of me and Dad, and fireworks, and doggies, and other Mt. Olive-y things, but I LEFT MY DIGITAL CAMERA AT HOME.

GASP.

I didn't realize how attached I am to my camera until I didn't have it with me. I was SO. SAD. (I'm not sure if it's because I'm thinking in the back of my head, "How can I blog this without pictures??" or if I just like taking pictures a lot. Either way, SO. SAD.) So, Nice Schmoo Jacob went to the store and got me a disposable camera so I could document the trip. And people, he got the good one - the 800 speed film, the smart flash. Note to self: Disposable cameras are not as good as digital cameras. Here's proof:

I call this one 'Barn at Night'.

That was my attempt to take a picture of the barn at night. Um, not so much. Here's Jacob shooting off fireworks:

Do you see him? Yeah, me neither.

When I got these pictures back, I laughed. SO. HARD. (I'd had a couple of beers, but not THAT many.) Of course the photographer Jacob cringed when he saw them. There were a few keepers in the bunch. Here's a picture of my dad watching Jacob shoot fireworks:

Do you see him? He's behind the door!

That's right, my dad watched the fireworks from just inside his door. He pulled a chair up. It was the cutest thing ever.

And here's Jacob pretending to knit:

I'll teach him one of these days.

And here's your ever classy friend Carrieoke, playing with sparklers while her beer belly hangs out. Can I get a hell yeah?

Woo-wee! Them sparklers sure are perty!

And here are two of the doggies that roam the yard in between my dad's house and my aunt's house. I never found out their names, but they like to rest on the lawn chairs by the aboveground pool.

Schmoo 1 and Schmoo 2.

It is so relaxing in Mount Olive. We watch TV, listen to my dad's favorite music station on his Dish (Classical Ambience) and eat. I also get to see relatives that I hardly ever see. And I can knit with carefree abandon, because there's nothing else I could be doing when I'm in Mount Olive.

So, I can't really show you the knitting because I've been working on all secret projects. The Jacob knitting picture reveals a little bit. I'll just say that I've started three different projects in addition to the original Super Secret Project (which is now completed.)

One new project was destined for failure from the beginning because I didn't do a gauge swatch and it was WAY too small. Jacob was driving and I was in the passenger seat and he noticed that the object I was knitting looked small enough to fit a tiny child, and he said, I SWEAR, "um, Carrie, did you knit a gauge swatch for that?" Okay, you know it's bad when your non-knitting boyfriend is totally calling you on not getting gauge. When I confessed, and held the little thing up to myself, he said: "You're going to have to frog that." No, really, he said that. It was priceless.

So, the trip was fun times, and now I'm back at work, starting to wind down from my current job and move to my new position. I don't actually start until August 1, so I'm doing a lot of transition stuff right now, writing a manual for my replacement, and smiling at the stressful stuff because it won't be my problem in a couple of weeks. hee hee.

We continue the family fun this weekend by attending Jacob's family reunion in Mississippi. This may be a rumor, but I've heard that there were T-shirts made for this event, with a sewing machine and a tractor on it. I can't wait!

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

I have so many mosquito bites on my legs right now. And of course I can't stop itching them, so my legs look like I'm 12 years old and I played outside all day. Ouch. If you live in a non-mosquito-ridden place, you are a lucky schmoo.

But I guess if my mosquito bites are the only thing I have to complain about, I'm doing pretty well. And I AM doing pretty well. I guess I didn't realize how much my old job stressed me out until I got a new one and NOW I feel like a new woman! Woo-hoo! I'm ready to start something new and learn new things and meet new people, etc etc etc. It kinda feels like the first day of school!

To celebrate, HEJ and I may have gone to karaoke this week and we may have wowed the bar with our vocal abilities. I will neither confirm or deny that I announced to the crowd "I'm really drunk" before singing 'Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson. Nope, that vicious rumor will NOT be confirmed. I will confirm that a good time was had by all. And that a repeat performance of said activities is surely in the near future, because my birthday is coming up. Oh, yes.

But you're probably here for the knitting, so I'll get to that now. Here's the Flower Basket Shawl in all her blocked glory:

She's a pretty little thing.
Here's the wingspan shot.

And here's another view.

She's so versatile.
See? The shawl can also be headwear.

Not to repeat myself, but I LOVE this shawl and this pattern. I think Cotton Fine is an excellent yarn for this project, especially if you want to make a lightweight shawl for warmer weather. (P.S. to Athens / Atlanta knitters: Main Street Yarns is putting their Cotton Fine on sale for July 4th, if you're looking for lace yarn!) I think I'll probably knit this one again.

I blocked another project while I was blocking the Flower Basket this weekend - the Half Clappy. Wanna see?

Clappy is complete.
Here's the Clappy's wingspan.

The recycled silk yarn can be blocked, but the texture of the yarn definitely changes once you block it. I personally like the texture better after blocking - it's softer and drapier. However, the color isn't quite as vibrant as it was before. It's still gorgeous yarn though. I want to make another Clappy, full size, very soon. Our local yarn store has the Lion and Lamb that the pattern actually calls for, and although it's not really in my budget, that yarn is AMAZING.

Now I just have to figure out how to wear shawls to work and I'll be set. I'm working on some sort of brooch situation so I can drape it around my shoulders casually. We shall see.

I've been working on the Super Secret Project pretty much non stop, so I'm making good progress. I'm going to North Carolina to see my dad over the July 4th weekend, which means lots of good car knitting time. I should probably start picking out other projects to bring....

Ooh! I almost forgot. Anne Marie returned from her travels and brought me back the cutest little knitting project bag with some knitting goodies inside. Check out this adorable tape measure:

It's a schmeasuring tape.

I can't stand the cuteness! Now I must try to sleep.

Posted by Carrieoke at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)