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Marginal
Weather: Cold, cloudy. In the 20's F but it's supposed to warm up to 40's F No snow yet. Current projects:
Too many projects to count. Hats, scarves, baby stuff. Currently making small items just for the heck of it. Socks. Someone help me. I can't stop knitting socks. I need an intervention. I started another pair. The gray sweater for Dennis. Had to rip out the sweater. I was way off on the stitch count and it was big enough to use as a cover for our barbeque. Projects on hold. I'm bored with these!: A lace scarf out of hand painted Merino. This is a test project for the business. I might start to sell this yarn. Haven't finished it. Not crazy about the colors. Maybe I'll make it into socks instead. Charcoal gray alpaca sweater. I have misplaced the instructions. Should be interesting to finish it without them. Also crocheting a never ending blanket. No quilts in progress
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I've been to two Christmas parties in the past two weeks for work.
The first was our department party and grab bag at a local Italian restaurant,
followed by an evening around the bonfire at Darlene's house. She lives
just down the street from both the office and the restaurant. I like
short drives. The party this week was the Division party at an extremely
fancy, exclusive banquet facility that sits high on a cliff over looking the
CT river (St. Clemens in Portland if you must know) Both parties were
free with the exception of drinks. I think back to when #1Boss would
have his party and expect us to bring food as a pot luck dinner. How do
you spell cheap?
I still like the new job and I am ingraining myself with my coworkers in the unit. Okay, I'm really being an annoying pain in a cheerleader way, but that is me! I chat, I tease, I help. Most people view me as easygoing. I'm trying to rally the unit into a team. A few people are not entirely team players. I've been very, very busy and the days just fly by. We've had some system problems that have caused me more work in the account management area, but I can handle it. Our orders for the business have picked up a little, but not as much as last year. I don't know if it's the sign of the economy or if it's just that we don't have enough variety of products. It's expensive to stock inventory and try to anticipate what will sell. Our yarns seem to be the slowest sellers. The needles and spinning fiber fly out the door. I like the Louet yarns but I think folks tend to go to actual yarn shops for yarn. I simply have to show you what I purchased off of Eb@y last week: What we know about it: On Eb@y, it was listed as a Shaker wheel from Maine. They thought it was from the 1800's. My friend Jessie found it listed in Spinning Wheels and Accessories by Michael B. Taylor and David A. Pennington . This book is like a spinning wheel encyclopedia. Here is what it says about it: "NM is listed as Nathan Merrill of Alfred, ME. Shaker 1743-1819, Deacon at SDL 1796-1809, Alfred 1806-1809." So basically, it is over 200 years old. It was only missing the drive band and the distaff. I don't use a distaff and twine works as a drive band. It spins wonderfully. It was a pick-up only purchase and at first I almost didn't look at it. But it turned out that it was here in CT in Litchfield county, about an hour drive. Go ahead, guess how much it cost, I'll wait.................. Give up? A beautiful, 200 year old WORKING Shaker spinning wheel, only $125.00!!! Estimated value is actually $400-$600. It has all of it's original parts, except for the distaff. No scratches or nicks on the wood. Even the leather pieces that connect the footman are original. It was listed as "Buy it Now" And I did! I've been wanting an antique wheel for sometime. I want it for the times when we give demonstrations. My Lendrum works wonderfully, but it doesn't have the visual appeal of the antique wheel. I'm not usually the type of person that names inanimate objects, but I felt this beautiful piece needed a name. I have named her Sister Prudence. It seems like a good Shaker name.
Recently completed projects-most recent first:
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