Rally time

Pictures from our rally at the state capital:



Me




Paulette


Our union brothers and sisters vigiling inside the capital building



Our counter rally against the Americans for Prosperity conservative group

Much knitting was accomplished on the bus ride there and back. I am almost done with the leg of the first sock.

Oh, and to the a-hole who left a stupid comment on my blog--I was on personal leave time, so stick it up your hinder. I have to provide library services to whomever comes into the library and help them find the answers to whatever thing they want to find. It's my job and I enjoy doing it for the most part. It's stupid people who think that I don't deserve a raise or health care because I am a public employee who piss me off. I pay taxes as well, so don't think this stuff doesn't affect me or my fellow employees who provide valuable services to the people of Wisconsin. I also could make much more money in the public sector, but I feel useful where I am. We have bargained for the fringe benefits we have and we have voluntarily in a lot of cases taken a smaller raise in exchange for our benefits. Would YOU like to take care of mentally ill people, criminals, plow roads when everyone else is asleep, pick up garbage, provide library services and put up with homeless people in the library and people who use the library as a defacto day care center, supervise private contractors who are always trying to rip off the state, put up with people's dumb comments about how we are less than human because we work for the state, well I could go on and on. Whomever you are (chickens*&% didn't leave your name), I will provide library services to you and your family, no matter how much I disagree with you or detest you because it's what I am paid to do and what I believe in. So stick that where the sun don't shine. I can provide you with a gently used knitting needle to help stick it up there further.

Curtains, screen doors

We've been really busy at our house.

I made new curtains:



My brother in law and I put up a new screen door this weekend:



My brother in law also put in a wall outlet in the porch, but you all know what an outlet looks like. I am loving the wonder of electricity in the porch. Yippee. Thank you so much Dan. You're the best!

No wonder I'm tired. Now all that remains to do before the big 50th birthday party Paulette and I are having is to varnish the new chest of drawers for the bathroom with spar urethane and remove the ugly wallpaper from the kitchen and paint it. Hey, we've got a week and a half. No pressure there.

Knitting time is getting harder to find. I will have plenty of time tomorrow--it's Knit Night and also I am riding on a bus to Madison for a union rally on the state budget. Lots of knitting time there.

Squish!

Here is a picture of my squished car:



It's lovely, isn't it? I know it doesn't look that bad, but I am tired of driving the duct tape mobile around. It gets fixed on Monday.

What a difference a few days makes in the weather department. I can't believe that on Sunday I had the air conditioner on at home--it was 86 outside. The temperature right now is 47 degrees and I am wearing my winter coat outdoors. Makes me think that I better get my butt in gear for Christmas knitting. It is almost the middle of October--weird!

I am doomed

The title says it all. I finished one of the Embossed Leaves socks. Technically, it's beautiful, at least the knitting part. The problem is, I don't like it in this yarn. You can't see the lace pattern. It also is too big for me. I should have used size one dpns. Bummer. I have another pattern that I think is perfect for this yarn. It's a slipped stitch ribbing sock.

Oh well, it's sock ripping time I guess. Sigh. I'll try it again in a less variegated color.

The mystery solved

Margaret, Paulette and I were the only knitting participants last night. That's okay. Margaret was not actually knitting--she was finishing up a very large embroidery project. Her embroidery is absolutely beautiful--I cannot top her, probably never in my life.

My insurance company has coughed up the money for my car to get fixed. It goes in for fixing October 15-18. It will be all pretty again. I can't wait.

Not much else exciting going on here. My sock is making good progress. It would make better progress if I didn't have so many blankin' meetings after work in the evening. It does cut into one's knitting time.

It's Wednesday---you know what that means!

Yes, it's the day of Knit Night once more. I love Knit Night. I turned the heel on the first Embossed Leaves sock at lunch and picked up stitches for the arch and sides of the foot. Woo hoo! I mean, who wouldn't love the combo of mocha and knitting and talking to your friends. It's like a small slice of heaven on Earth.

I did make a modification to the sock pattern above. After you turn the heel, the instructions say to CUT THE YARN and reattach it at the top right corner of the heel flap. I thought, what!? Why would you intentionally make a weak spot in one of the hardest wearing parts of a sock? I did not do this. I followed my instincts and continued on in the way that I have done all the rest of my socks--by knitting across the heel stitches, picking up on the side, knitting across the instep pattern, picking up on the other side, etc. It looks just fine!

A big shout out to Jennifer K. in Fort Collins, CO. Miss seeing you--too bad you don't live closer to come to Knit Night.

The knitting mystery continues--will our two new additions to our group come again this evening? We'll know soon.

I got the estimate for the damage to my car. It is pretty expensive as I thought it would be, totalling up to $2558.89. The college kid who hit me still has not returned calls to his insurance company adjustor, whom I talked to the other day on the phone. She asked me what happened since no one else is talking to her. I emailed her a scanned copy of the police report that she said she was waiting for. As I said before, I just want my car fixed. At this point, I don't care what happens to him. He needs to learn to look in his blind spot before whipping his car to the left from the right hand lane. Dumb kids.

This will in no way interfere with my upcoming enjoyment of knitting in just a little over 2 hours.

Sockland continues

We are still on our little trip to Sockland. Here's the progress on the Embossed Leaves socks:



I'd say they're coming along nicely. I like knitting with the Lucy Neatby yarn. It's not splitty at all, not like some other sock yarns I have used.

The duct tape is still holding up on my car. Still no check from the insurance company. I just want my car fixed! I still need to get outside to take a picture of the damage.

If you all get a chance and you live in Wisconsin, call your legislator and tell them to get a move on with the state budget--oh and tell them to leave the compensation reserve funds alone (where my raise and my fellow state employee raises come from). Mama needs to buy sock yarn. They're talking about that we may experience temporary layoffs if the legislators don't start playing nice. Excuse me, they should be laid off first, since they are the ones causing the problem. Withhold their pay until they finish.