And he shall be my squishy

I’ve got WIP photos for you today! Joy!

And I know what you’re thinking. “Kristen has finally cracked. She’s now crafting a gray blob resembling a jellyfish and trying to pass it off as something of actual value.” Well, I make no claims about my sanity, but I assure you, this is an actual project. It’s the Hemlock Ring Blanket!

Having glanced at this photo, I’m sure you’ve quickly identified the same downside to this project that I have—knitting something round from the center means that it’s trapped in your circs looking like a blob until you can bind off and stretch it out. Which makes it hard to evaluate your work. This is clearly more of a “blind faith” project.

But, it has been going very quickly so far, despite the neuroses that compel me to recite the pattern aloud as I’m knitting and obsessively count the stitches after each section (another reason I don’t knit in public, perhaps?). I expect it will start moving more slowly as I add more and more stitches. I’ve completed the intial center section and am ready to start on Jared’s feather and fan chart.

The eco wool, which comes in 478 yd skeins and is wound into a ball roughly the size of my head, is surprisingly not scratchy. I thought something so earthy might be a bit tougher (when I ordered it, I had vision of burlap dancing in my head), but it’s pretty soft.

I also have a smidge of Pomatomus done.

I’m really not good with charts—it would make all the sense in the world to buy a chart holder so I wouldn’t lose my place every time I glance down at my knitting, but have I done so? Of course not—so this will probably be a drawn out project. The first row I knit from the chart is a little wonky, too, because I always have problems with YOs in purl. Isn’t that yarn beautiful, though?

And now, a gripe about my job. Because, well, I just have to get this out. I will preface this gripe by saying that when I was hired in August for this P1 position (that “P” designates a professional position, ie, not administrative; admin positions are designated, inexplicably, by a “G”) with the title “Specialist,” I had no idea that most of my time would be spent on mindless administrative tasks such as making photocopies, booking flights, and doing other people’s paperwork; had I known the fate that would befall me, I certainly wouldn’t have taken the job—this is, frankly, not what I hoped to be doing with a Masters Degree in Latin American Studies (I do not think that having a Masters automatically entitles me to be running the show; I do think that with 6 years of higher education, 2 years of full time work, and at least 6 internships under my belt, it should be assumed that I have the capacity for more substantive tasks than operating the fax machine). I understand the title Specialist is vague, but no one specializes in photocopies and paperwork. No one.

So, I spent a solid day late last month booking flights for my boss and another coworker (Oops, forgot to mention, everyone on my 6-person team is going to Argentina at the end of the month except for me and the pregnant girl, who would be going if she weren’t with child; they all went to Colombia in November too. Bastards.), harassing the travel agent about finding better flights, better connections, better layovers; combing every inch of the internet for a better price; and then harrassing the travel agent again because they want better seats (who doesn’t?). And coworker comes up to me today to ask—again!—if I can call and see about better seats. 1) I am not a travel agent. 2) I already did that and they said no dice. 3) I am not a miracle worker, nor do I have magical powers (and if I did, this sure as hell isn’t what I would be using them for). 4) THIS SHOULD NOT BE MY JOB!!! If you want to waste your time on the phone arguing about your seating assignment be my guest, but I am not going to call again and harrass someone about seats that aren’t even for me, after already putting her through the ringer once. I am not your personal assistant. Grrrr.

In that vein, while I love regaling you all with tales of my knitting prowess or lack thereof, I’ve been pondering starting a second blog (I’m so greedy) to share my thoughts on life—because I don’t want to get too off track here, where I intend to keep the focus on knitting. I have a lot of opinions, as you might have guessed. I edited and wrote op/eds for my college newspaper for 2 years, and I’ve really been missing the opportunity to spout off about all those things, both significant and inane, that work their way into my consciousness on a daily basis. So I’ll mull this idea over for a few more days; keep an eye out, you’ll be the first to know if/when I decide to expand my empire (I gave up playing Civilization IV for Lent; in retrospect, that maybe have been a more important outlet for my expansionist tendencies than I thought).