Can I get a HOLY CRAP?!?!?

Well I finished my sock yarn inventory to the best of my ability... I am missing a bin of yarn *somewhere* in the house containing at least 6-10 pairs worth of sock yarn. Well the tally {so far} is 20 602 metres, which works out to roughly 12.8 MILES of sock yarn. Can I get a HOLY CRAP?!?! I still need to figure out exactly where I am in my marathon, as well as how much of that yarn I want to use up... I'm figuring that about 3 pairs of completed socks a month is a reasonable goal.

Sock progress so far this week is dismal... I had to frog Derek's Columbine sock as I got to the heel... it turns out that his legs aren't as wide as I first thought. I have done the frogging and reballed the yarn, but I've been too busy with other things today to recast them on. I finished my "not-on-two-circs" socks today, and cast on the watermelon yarn that Lyz gave me for Christmas. I am using the ankle socks pattern from the site for them. I've gotten a bit more done on Rebecca's sock, and finished the cuff on my second Old Shale sock. I'm now at "mindless" parts of it, so I will be able to use that sock as my back-and-forth sock for a while.

I've done quite a bit of surfing for patterns and such for my next projects. I dug out the ribbon yarn to finally make my Trio Bag, and I just need to locate needles for it. I also found patterns to make myself a top out of some of my sock yarn. In other news, I just got a call from Rams, and my sweater kit that I ordered is in!!! YAY!!!

What am I gonna do with all this spare time?

Well my worst fears were realized, I was called back to my home store a night early. It was very uspetting to me on two fronts... the first being that I didn't get to officially say goodbye to everyone like I had planned... the second being how rude my manager was about the whole situation. But what can you do, right?

Now that I'm back at my home store, I *do* get to sleep later, and I have more time at home. Even though full hours *are* available right now, I *desperately* want my three days off this week. Maybe I will feel differently next week, but I am currently looking very forward to at least a few weeks of three day weekends. Wednesday night is inventory at my store, and I WON'T BE THERE!!! I'll be at my casual knitting meeting, and having a blast as I haven't been to that one since I took my week of vacation at the beginning of September.

I haven't gotten any further in my yarn inventory, but I will be remedying that this week. I've gotten the gusset decreases done on my socks, and I'm into the third "lace" repeat of Derek's Columbine sock. I don't seem to be getting as much knitting done now that I have more time, but since I've been catching up on my sleep, I'm not going to complain too loudly.

I went through my camera, and I haven't removed pics off of it since HALLOWEEN!!! I'm gonna take some pics of the wild novelty yarn I picked up on my way out of Portage and then get the whole lot on to my computer. I haven't been so big on novelty yarn in a long while, but this is for some doll blankets for Alex and Lissa's cabbage patch dolls. When you see this garish pile of yarn, you will understand why I *had* to have it for them!

Yarn, yarn everywhere; and not a sock to wear!

Sorry... that was a *very* bad play on words -- water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! I've been knitting socks like crazy, but still haven't completed a pair in months! I started my sock yarn inventory for the Sock Marathon, and I have over 7 km in just my Ram's Super Soxx Surprise yarn! HOLY CRAP!!! That's a heck of a lot of yarn, and I haven't even scraped the surface yet! It wouldn't surprise me to find out that I have in the range of 10 miles or so of it, but I think better in kilometres. I figger I get 2.5 pairs of socks out of a kilometre, so I would guesstimate that by the end of March {using my typical sock knitting habits} I would have about 6-8 pairs done. That makes between 2.4 and 3.2 km and if I really concentrate on nothing but socks, I'm guessing I could nearly double that.

I have two more nights in Portage, and then I'm back at my store Saturday night. Cross your fingers for me that I can get out of working Wednesday night, as that is inventory. I'm supposed to have it off due to the 28 hour work weeks, but I was told last night by a marginally reliable source that the schedules have been all changed. I will need to find my backbone and stand up to them to keep my original one, as I *really* need the extra rest.

I'm in the process of turning the heel on my Portage/Pippi sock #2, and I'm hoping to have the pair finished by the time I finish my weekend if not sooner. I had to start Derek's Columbine socks a little sooner than planned as I finished the ball of Regia that I had been using, and can't find the extra ball that I had purchased to finish the toe of his first one! I'm into the second repeat of the "lace", and I think that this project will be a quick finisher.

Where the hell has she been?

Yes... yes... yes... I *know* that I've been seriously MIA from blogdom, as well as online activity in general. Here's the RDCV {Reader's Digest Condensed Version} of the last 4 months:
1. I got a Nintendo DS and a copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World. WARNING!!! This game is addictive to the point of being nearly a terminal illness! I've gotten several of my friends, as well as my entire family addicted to playing it as well! My main involvement online in October and November was on one of the online communities devoted to AC:WW.
2. I've been commuting over 3 hours a day for the last two months as I do a store set-up in Portage la Prairie. It's been a great experience as I've been involved in the store since 4 days after possession, and will be there to the end of this week. Soft opening was last Thursday, and official grand opening is this Thursday. I'll probably post some pictures of it once it's all said and done.

That basically covers what I had been doing. My knitting has suffered greatly, and it wasn't until New Year's that I got back into knitting with a passion again. I will bring you up-to-date with my WIPs and FOs as I continue to update here. There are two main developments in my current activities. One is that I've joined Lime & Violet's 2007 Sock Marathon. I haven't done my inventory yet, but I've gone through in the range of 500 yards of sock yarn since the beginning of the year. The other development is that I am working on creating my own podcast. Stay tuned to this space for future announcements about it.

I have only this week left of insane hours {60+/week}, and then I'll be dropping down to 28/week for a few months, as is typical in retail.