Bear Parts

So here are my bear parts from The Teddy Bear that Saved Me.

I promised myself that I'd finish my socks before I sewed him together and stuffed him.  Not sure yet who to give it to. . I do have a few people in mind, he's so cute though I might just keep him.

May's socks are almost done so last night I started swatching for June's socks.  With Rainbow variegated yarn (Knit Picks Hand painted Stroll in Cartoons) I'm going to do these:

Simple Summer Socks

I've been multitasking as I swatch.  I've been reading and knitting, that's a first for me.  I've watched T.V. and knitted at the same time but never read and knit at the same time.  The book was written by a fellow knitter and blogger, Gregory Patrick, who wrote the book Mad Man Knitting or The Waiter and the Fly.  Though I haven't finished the book yet (or the sock), he's had a pretty interesting life.  There is a part in it where he talks about a cardigan he made and what happened to it, made me tear up.  I just found a lot of myself in his words whether he's talking about knitting or life so. . . all knitters should read it.  Then buy his patterns.  Then make his patterns and send him pictures of your completed product. . . . cause he loves that.

The Teddy Bear that Saved Me and A Boy's Bunny

Hiatus

So I started and finished the first sock for May by May 5^th.  So I took a Hiatus from sock knitting.  I probably shouldn’t have, I probably should have worked on a previous months UFO (like February’s socks) but I didn’t because I’m cool like that.  Instead, I started on Pogona by Stephen West.   I'd been lusting over this pattern for a while, then I went to Twist in Wichita Ks and picked up this amazing yarn that screamed 'stockinette' at me. I needed to make something that would show off it's amazingness.   And by amazingness I mean, drape and sheen.  The yarn, Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paints, in a beautiful shade of green(s) is a soft Merino/silk blend.  When I finished the first section of it I took this picture.

Now I’m on the third section and it feels amazing.  This yarn has just the right amount of silk to make this project . . . yummie.  I can’t wait to wear this shawl in the fall.

Busy Lady

In my last post I mentioned that I had been a bit busy lately.  The grocery store I work for decided we needed a brand new store, not just a remodel.  So, over a year go, Kroger bought the land that was literally, across from our parking lot, and started to build.  Over this past winter I got to witness the building of my new store, help train new employees, and meet all the big important people from our main offices.  Six weeks ago, Kroger officially retired store #46 and moved all the employees to the new store, store #94.  I am the Customer Service Assistant Manager, but the new store opening left me feeling kinda small and unimportant and way overstressed for being a little Kroger “pawn”.  Now that we’ve been open a while (and all the corporate people have gone home), I feel like this is my store now.  That I can make changes happen, I can make decisions about how and when we do things.  Feels good to have that since of “assistant manager” again, to be a Rook instead of the pawn.

 I’ve also been involved in politics more than I have ever been.  I got involved in a feminist group at the college and then Marched in a protest demonstration called “take back the night”.  It was pretty awesome and empowering.  The point, for me, was to show that I was not going to allow anyone to “put me in my place” anymore.  That I will dress the way I want to dress and say what I want to say and not care if that makes a man feel threatened, so much so that he decides to treat me differently then he would anyone else.  I refuse to feel weak or scared when walking to my car at night.  I refuse to be put down because I have breasts.  And I now, refuse to let my government make decisions about my sexual health.  But that’s a whole other can of worms.  So all I’ll say about that is, Samuel Dale Brownback, if you are reading this; I didn’t vote for you before, I won’t be voting for you this go around, and I WILL do my best to make sure others are not voting for you either.  Grow a vagina, then you can have an opinion.  Oh and p.s. my taxes are not paying you so that you can sign bills without reading them.

Knitters! Want to help promote Women’s reproductive rights?  Knit this uterus and mail it to your state reps, governors, and maybe your insurance company (mine doesn’t cover birth control, I have to pay for it out of pocket).

http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/

It's been over a month and I've been a busy busy girl.  But first, a picture of the finished March socks.

 

 ): And here's a picture of the UNFINISHED April socks :(

As far as April socks go, I did get one sock completed before the end of the month.  I don't have a picture of that sock to show you, but hopefully by the next post (in a month or two) I'll have completed both April and May's socks.