Tag Archive for ‘work’ at adam knits!

Tag Archive for 'work'

Letting Out My Inner Bum 29Feb08

Let’s just pretend that two weeks hasn’t gone by ok? Moving right along ;)

Anyway, I’ve been up to my usual tricks, including work, homework avoidance and lots of orchestra practice. I had a big concert this past weekend, featuring some of the most difficult music I’ve ever played in an ensemble. Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances may sound nice, but man is that thing a beast! The tempo is pretty much the equivalent of a Mack truck barreling down the highway at 120 MPH. In the end though, I got most of the notes, so I was fairly pleased with myself.

As far as knitting goes, I have no proof I’m actually knitting anything, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. My primary project right now is top secret, but the big reveal should be soon. I also have a lovely sock going, but at this blogging speed, you’ll probably see a finished sock by the time I get around to the pictures.

I had a small Yarn Nerd shop update last week, including a lovely new merino/bamboo/nylon yarn I’ve termed 900 MHz Bambylon. (Try to type that 10 times fast!) The small batch I put up went fairly quickly, but I will have more on the way soon, so don’t despair, there’s plenty of bamboo yarn action to be had.

Also, I will be receiving a shipment of some new yarns soon, including a Superwash Merino DK Weight and a Merino Sport Weight. Both yarns are absolutely lovely, and the DK Weight is a great replacement for my older 1500 MHz Merino base, which I had to discontinue. So look for a future shop update with those yarns, I think you’ll really like them!

I’ve been fighting off a bit of a bug this week, and so I whipped up some soup to soothe my tempestuous stomach. Nothing like a delicious chicken and rice soup made with wild rice and rotisserie chicken to cure what ails you.

Thankfully, I’m mostly on the mend, save for a pesky sore throat that just won’t go away. I wouldn’t mind if the deep sexy voice stayed around for a bit longer though. Anyway, it’s a good thing I’m feeling better, since I’m off on another snow excursion this weekend.

I think a weekend spent ripping up the mountain with my Dad, Uncle and little Brother will definitely do me good. Maybe not my throat, but definitely my inner ski bum. You gotta shirk that responsibility and play everyone once in a while right?

So whatever you’re doing this weekend, make sure to take a least a few moments and let our your inner bum. Lay around, knit a bit, watch TV or just sleep in a little longer. Because all work and no play turns Jack into a raving lunatic.

Tags: family, knitting, music, school, skiing, snow, weekend!, work, works-in-progress.

Olfactory Offense 23Jan08

41 Comments - you know you want to

The Low Talker. Man Hands. Vegetable Lasagna. Denim Vest. If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you know what I’m talking about. Nicknaming a person based on a strange attribute or idiosyncrasy can often be quite humorous. I’ll even admit that I have a few nicknames for select people. I don’t really attach monikers to people I know, but there are a few people at school/work/etc. that I encounter often enough to warrant more than just, “the guy 3 doors down from my office.”

Anyway, I often wonder what monikers people might have for me, and I think I might have stumbled upon one: Mr. Skunk Coffee. See, I leave a French Press at work, and everyday I bring in fresh beans to make my morning coffee. Well my office is pretty much the Folgers pouch brewed in a percolator type, so strong earthy coffee is definitely not par for the course. (If you’re a Folgers fan, I have nothing against you, I just like my coffee with an obscene amount of grit. ;) Mmmmm.)

Lately it seems that someone will walk into the lab, start sniffing, and declare, “do you smell a skunk?”, or “who sprayed pesticides in here?”. Inevitably they’ll end up in my cubicle to point a finger at my delicious coffee. I’m not really sure where skunks or pesticides come into the equation, it’s just strong coffee, but I do wonder if it’s strong enough to become a moniker. Any thoughts? Do you think pressed coffee smells like skunks?

I might just take some air freshener in with me, since I think I’d rather be the guy whose cubicle smells like flowers, instead of the guy whose cubicle smells like skunks.

In the land of things that don’t smell, I finished a lovely hat this weekend, and I’m quite smitten with it.

I used a skein of a luscious llama and soysilk blend that I picked up at the Taos Wool Festival, in a nice tweedy brown. I wasn’t ever able to decide what to do with it, until I flipped through The Knitting (Man)ual and saw the Cabled Hat and Scarf pattern. The combination of a big fat cable with seed and moss stitch was too much to resist. I only had 130 yards of the llama, so I used some leftover Plymouth Suri Merino for the brim and the top of the crown.

Just in time for the cold snap we’ve been having here, brrr! It was below 20 almost everyday last week! This is the desert, not the arctic, sheesh. ;) You can view the project on Ravelry if you’re a member, for more details. I also managed to finish the Herringbone Mittens, but I haven’t taken them off of my hands to get pictures yet! They’re so warm and cozy, and were the perfect start to my stranded mitten obsession.

I’ll leave you with a small taste of the next planned project. That is if I ever take the yarn out of it’s resting place in the swift! It just looks so nice there, don’t you think?

Tags: coffee, finished objects, hats, knitting, work.

Catching Up 18Dec07

22 Comments - you know you want to

Why Helllloooooo! Long time no read eh? How about a recap of the last 2 weeks? Let’s see, I

Studied until I wanted to die, and then studied some more.
Banged my head on the wall while trying to get my final project simulation working.
Totally flunked my only final exam (no way is it better than a 50%).
Managed to get a very decent grade in my class (despite the final), because the project report I busted my butt over was “quite good”.
Dyed 120 skeins of yarn for The Loopy Ewe, because sleep is overrated.
Caught up on some backed up Yarn Nerd custom orders. (Thanks to my lovely customers for being patient with me!)
Knit 1.25 hats. That’s it. My poor hands were suffering from wool withdrawals for a while there.
Played in 2 orchestra concerts.
Oh, and you know, went to work too, because the bill collectors don’t view finals week as a valid reason for late payments.

PHEW! All caught up now? Cause I’m still not, especially with the freight train of Christmas bearing down on me. I think I’ve managed to whittle my knitted gifts list down to something that’s still a bit long, but I think manageable. We’ll see if I finish it all when next week rolls around. But finals are done, and I survived, so I don’t mind a few intense knitting nights, especially when you have some tasty treats to keep you company.

Nothing like curling up on the couch with a movie, some Trader Joe’s Hot Cocoa w/ giant Peppermint Marshmallows (thanks TJ’s! Now where’s my advertisement check?), and some Manos Wool/Silk blend. Yum on all 3 accounts. I’m afraid I can’t tell you anymore about the knitting, but let me say it is splendid.

And speaking of snow, it has become quite chilly here in New Mexico, after a confusing November comprised of quite a few 65 degree highs. And with the cold came the first true test of my dedication to bike commuting, which I passed with flying colors. Thanks to my wonderful parents, who bought me some great wind/water proof stuff for my birthday, I am well equipped for riding on dark rainy nights (I have lights and a shiny vest, don’t worry peeps!). Also, it turns out that I like riding in the cold a whole lot! There’s something to be said of bundling up and braving the cold to get home, it makes you appreciate the effort that much more.

Thanks to everyone for the Birthday wishes too, I really appreciated all of your comments on both the sweater and my Birthday! I’ve worn the sweater quite a few times, and am already planning out the next one. I have the entire period from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day off (thanks work!), so I think I’ll be putting in some progress on Sweater 2.0.

Oh as many commenters correctly guessed, the message embedded in the Seamless Hybrid is in fact, “HelloWorld”. The first commenter to guess correctly was Kelp!, so congrats to her, and thanks for guessing everyone! And if you’re scratching your head a bit, you might want to check out this link. Basically, almost every computer programming class and book has you program the computer to display “Hello World” as a first project, so I thought it was fitting that my first sweater do the same. I like to think of it as nerdy with a sublime touch.

Finally, I also owe 3 people some yarn as promised a few posts ago, so the winners are Kim U, Jennifer and Karen S. Congrats you three! I’ll be dispatching an e-mail to you soon.

That’s about it for me, so until next time, rock out with your nerd out. (Ok, that one is going into the permanent language repertoire.)

PS: Look Mom, a new blog post! Now you don’t have to withhold my Christmas gifts!

Tags: a nerd's life, biking, christmas, dyeing, gifts, nerdy, school, snow, work.

Yarn Overdose 07Sep07

25 Comments - you know you want to

You know, one of these days I’m going to actually blog more than once a week…but that’s not the case today. I think Maryse hit my mood about blogging right on the head, so I’m going to copy her and oust the transitional sentences. Lists rule.

The order for The Loopy Ewe is done. Phew! I took Labor Day weekend to finish it up, and shipped it out last Monday. Sheri has already received it, and says that it should be up sometime soon, so keep an eye on her store. And in case you wanted to know, this is what 100 skeins of Yarn Nerd yarn looks like.

Holy Sheep Batman, it barely fits on my little table! It was a lot of work, but wasn’t nearly as hard as I anticipated. It’s easy to get into a rhythm and dye up around 15 skeins in an evening and 40 or so on a Saturday. So after a weekend here and a few spare evenings there, it was all dyed. Reskeining is a different beast though. This is about how I felt after reskeining all 100 skeins.

But it was still a blast, and I’m excited to do another order in the future! Oh, and 1500 MHz Sport Merino is now on order, so look for that soon. Since I know a lot of you want it (including me!).
The bike is fantastic. Not only are my hot legs getting even hotter (gotta love the efficiency of clipless pedals), I’m also quite speedy these days. I guess that’s what happens when you shave 10-15 pounds off your commuting machine. Also, my adventure with the ABQ bus system continues, as I’m finding more and more ways to incorporate biking and the bus into my errands and daily routine. If I were in an RPG, my character would have the following stats: Gas Usage = -20, Knitting Time = +50, Pounds Lost = -15 and Smile Factor = +10. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, perhaps you should unsubscribe and save yourself before it’s too late.)
I’m all caught up on the sweater front, and am cruising away on the body. I do need to start a sock though, since this project will soon become to large to squeeze into my bike saddlebags and wield on the bus. I do need a bit of room for a change of clothes and a sack lunch… ;)

Oh, and Mom? I’ll work on your shawl tonight, ok? Promise!
If I seem to be lacking my usual nerdy exuberance today, it’s probably only because I’m all alone in cubicle land, and I haven’t had human contact in around 4 hours. And after 4 hours of computer programming, you kinda start to feel like a computer yourself.
Finally, here’s another little project that I’ve been hiding up my sleeves for a few weeks now. If you are in Scout’s Swag Club, and haven’t received your latest yarn fix, you may want to stop reading, since this will spoil it. Inserting requisite paragraph breaks…

Not yet.

Nope, still no dice.

Are we there yet?

Maybe.

Oops, false alarm.

Keep going…

Almost there.

You’ll get a cookie if you keep going!

Ok, not really, but a fake gold star at least.

Scrolling all the live long day!

. . . .

Oh, now what’s this?

Why it’s lovely yarn! 40 skeins of it in fact, for Scout’s Swag Club for August. Scout asked me if I would like to be a guest dyer for the club a few months back, and I graciously accepted. The colorway is called Chuck T’s, and I think it’s quite smashing. Thanks again Scout, I appreciate the shout out!
Alright that’s it. Move along, nothing left to see. And have a lovely weekend. :)

Tags: biking, dallas, dyeing, nerdy, shop, sweaters, work, works-in-progress, yarn nerd.

So Far, So Good! 12Jun07

24 Comments - you know you want to

Well I successfully survived my first day of bike commuting, and I must say, it was an absolute blast! I rode the route on Saturday, to get a feel for the roads, and then yesterday was my first real ride. I packed up everything on Sunday night, got up early on Monday and rode in to work. It only took me about 35 minutes, compared to 15 minutes when I drive. That also doesn’t take into account that most parking at my job is a 10 minute walk from the buildings, so it really takes 25 minutes to actually get into the office. On a bike, I can ride directly up to my building, so that’s a big perk.

The weather was super nice yesterday too, it was nice and cool in the morning, and there was some afternoon rain, so it was overcast and cool when I went home. It sprinkled a bit on the ride back, but it was the perfect amount to cool me off without getting soaked. All in all, I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to making it a daily practice. Especially since I went both Saturday and yesterday, and am hardly sore at all. I thought it might take a few weeks before I would be able to ride continuous days, but I could have totally gone today if I didn’t have to do some errands across town right after work.

Wait, I take that back, I am a bit tender in one place…my butt! (Haha, I said butt! Sorry Mom!) It’s getting a bit better, but after Saturday’s ride, I could barely sit down! I almost went and bought one of those little pillows for people who break their tailbone! I am assured that this is normal, and it will pass, but I’m not so sure it’s completely normal for such a cushy body part to complain so vehemently. I guess a bike seat just has the magical power of being able to transfer shock waves all the way into your skeletal system, despite all the natural padding.

At any rate, the first day went well, and I’m going to make it my goal to ride to work for the rest of the week. I think biking may be the only way to save the yarn budget from rising gas costs, so I’m super determined! :)

I also managed to finish my Zeebee this weekend! I love this hat, and I find myself wishing it would get colder, just so I could wear it! (Haha, just kidding! Don’t listen to me Weather!)

Pattern: Zeebee by Schmeebot
Yarn: Yarn Pirate’s Handspun (thanks again Georgia!) BFL, in the Buccaneer colorway. About 104 yards (3.2 oz)
Needles / Gauge: US #10 → 4 spi and 8 rpi
Knitting Time: One week (June 2 - June 9)
Notes: My head is 22.5 inches around and 18 inches from ear to ear. I wanted to make my hat as close to 19 inches around and 9 inches long as I could, while not running out of yarn.

Planned Dimensions:
→ 19 inches * 8 rpi = 152 rows / 8 sections = 18 rows / section
→ 9 inches * 4 spi = 36 stitches.

My plan was to make sure that each 1/8 of the hat weighed 0.4 oz, which would let me use all 3.2 oz of the handspun. When I knit one section using the dimensions above, it weighed 0.5 oz, so I knew I had to make it smaller. I tried again using 32 stitches and 16 rows of short rows, which was exactly 0.4 oz.

Final Dimensions
→ 32 stitches and 16 rows of short rows for each 1/8 of the hat. You work 16 rows of SR decreases, followed by 16 rows of SR increases, and repeat 4 times, then seam up.

I only had about 5 yards of yarn left, so my careful planning paid off (when does it not? ;))

I really love the Zeebee pattern, and the hand-spun only made it better. I highly recommend this knit, so check it out! I even loved it enough to brave the scorching desert heat at 1 pm, just for blog pictures. Daisy even came outside with me, and watched from her little spot of shade as I fiddled with the camera. I think it’s funny that I’m standing in the sun with a wool beanie, and she’s laying in the shade. Maybe dogs are smarter than people after all. ;)