Ups and downs

So much has been going on. First, the week before last I actually worked almost full-time at the doggie daycare. (They were short a person for the week.) On a good day, I'm coherent after a very strong cup of coffee and a few hours to ease into the day. Showing up at 8:30am to attend to 15+ rambunctious dogs is a little tough for me. I have grown to really enjoy working with the dogs but a full day (well, until 3:30pm or 4pm) is a bit much. Lots of physical labor (picking up after the dogs, keeping them from getting too out of hand, and no fighting) is....well, frankly, hard. At the end of the week, it was also demoralizing to see my paycheck. Seriously, I made more money at my afterschool job in high school.

Last week I was motivated to up the ante with the job hunting. Applied to many jobs, haven't heard from any of them. On Wed. there was a city-wide job fair. Good, right? Well, after making the rounds, even the staffing agencies said that they didn't really know what they could do for me. Forget my five years work experience, the fact that I was in line for a manager position, and have a master's degree--nope, they cared about how many words per minute I could type. Apparently, the employment market around here consists of opportunities for engineers and customer service (lots of call centers). Let's just say I came home and wanted to wallow in self-pity, preferrably with a very strong drink.

So the last two weeks, I have felt rundown and depressed--I haven't even wanted to knit. Like I wasn't already on edge, my inlaws were coming for the weekend. I actually really like my inlaws but it inspires a frenzied need to get my house in some semblence of order before they arrived. My poor husband, I don't think he really knew what to do with the fact that I kept breaking down in tears and then ordering him around to help me pick up the house. (Um, yes, I was also pre-menstrual and I really do have terrible mood swings some months. Of course, he is not allowed to point that out.)

Well, today, some of the angst is gone and I'm trying to focus on the good. I get to play with my own doggies, I am home when my hubby comes home, and I have time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Now that I'm not feeling so down, I can spend time on knitting.

Without further ado, here is the box-lace shawl pattern from Folk Shawls as a throw in Caron's One Pound of Love yarn in Peach


You can just see the box-lace coming together. It is getting to the point where the pattern is becoming more intuitive.

I also maybe bought some yarn...WEBS was having a sale, what could I do? Technically, I wanted the soft pink color and a blue color so I could make shrugs for my nieces. However, I apparently made a mistake and ordered the green color. I was switching between the color card on Yarndex and the WEBS order site.


I maybe also took advantage of the sale at Busy Hands Yarn, and bought some Estelle 100% silk yarn. Isn't it yummy? I'm hoping to turn this into a Simple Knitted Bodice by Stefanie Japel. I even joined the knitalong to motivate me to finish it in a timely fashion.


The crimson color doesn't come across well on the computer. Its actually more pink than I thought it would be based on the website photos. However, I think it will still work for me. Because, of course, this is going to be for me, me, me. heh, heh,heh.... I just need to start finishing some stuff. (Famous last words.)