(actual) fun with coworkers

Coworkers, I think, are the part of a job that simultaneously has the greatest effect on your work experience while being the part that you have the least control over. Coworkers can make a crappy job fun and a fabulous job miserable, yet you can't interview potential coworkers, or negotiate for better coworkers. They're a little like family that way: you're stuck with what you get, so you just have to figure out how to deal with their eccentricities. Every once in a while, a coworker comes along that you actually like, who makes you laugh and makes your day go by faster, a coworker that, if you are really lucky and very good and eat all your vegetables and pray real hard, knits.
Enter Sara. In addition to being one of the sweetest people to ever draw breath and a maker of nummy nummy baked goods, she was kind enough to allow me to teach her to knit. I taught her two years ago, took her to a few yarn stores, gave her some yarn from a sweater that defied me once too often. She took to it right away, made a scarf or two, a couple of hats for Christmas, but showed no sign of falling down the rabbit hole. (Unlike some of us, ahem.)
Then a month or so ago, she blithely announced that she was knitting a pair of socks for her mom. She also wanted to find a pattern for a cabled hat. Not one to miss an opportunity, I let her use my Ravelry account to surf for patterns. Three days later, she had her own Rav-name.
She has fallen and fallen hard. I couldn't be prouder if I'd raised her my ownself.

She's Knittingscared on Ravelry. Look her up and say hi. She's having the most horrible case of hives right now, and I know she'd love the encouragement.

Christmas knitting

My brother-in-law's first slipper is done. Well, except there's this second sole thing I have to knit and attach, and then I have to felt the whole shebang, but I'm focusing on progress. Whee, progress. I think it makes a remarkably attractive hat, but the Best Roommate Ever disagrees.

Tres sexy, non?

Party aftermath

Party has been thrown and was a wild success! Everyone declared my house "adorable" while I regaled them with stories of getting the toilet installed the day before we moved in. Cookies were eaten, champagne was drunk (thanks, Fairy Yarn Mother!), the knitters behaved themselves and refrained from overtly scaring the non-knitters. A few pics of my apartment (HOUSE! Not apartment. House!), all sparklied up:

Many wonderful prezzies found their way into my home.

The cutest teapot ever, with tea from Sara, Coworker of Awesomeness


a nummy nummy candle from the lovely lady at Reporebo Yarns. I also received an illustrated copy of the Devil's Dictionary from blogless Alice, and from my Dad, what every little girl dreams of:

my own drill and bit set!

M-F-er!

I just got a bill from Dekalb Medical center for almost $900 for a procedure that was done in JANUARY. The letter says something like "it has been 30 days since we billed your insurance provider . . . " Well, NO FREAKING KIDDING, JERKS! If you'll excuse me, I have to go invent new curse words, since my current stock is woefully inadequate. Any suggestions?

does a thing like this happen to a nice girl like me?

Usually, I am a card-carrying, flag-waving, loud-and-proud member of the Selfish Knitters Club. No, really, check it out. And yet, somehow I have ended up planning a handknit gift for almost every person on my Christmas list. The Best Roommate Ever is getting handknit socks, as is my mom; my sister is getting a hat, and my not-yet-but-might-as-well-be-and-one-day-will-be brother-in-law is getting slippers. (Ok, actually, I know how it happened. I put down a downpayment on a house and realized I was out of money. That's no excuse for my actions, though. What the hell was I thinking?)
Fortunately, I'm coming along pretty well. Mom's socks (begun in July) and my sister's hat (made with Cashmerino Superultracrazybulky) are finished. BRE's socks are done up to the cuffs, so I'm hoping a few knit nights will knock those out. My brother-in-law's slippers, though . . . Does this look even remotely like a slipper?

I'm scared.

Party on!

OK, new plan! Party is on Saturday the 13th, from 1-ish to 4-ish. Email me for directions!

if it's not one thing, it's another . . .

So, housewarming party plans have been derailed already. I have an appointment at 3 that I can't move or skip. So . . . I seek opinions from those of you more socially ept than I. (Or from those just as socially inept as I am. I like opinions. If you've got one, throw it in.) Should I move the party to the next Saturday (the 13th)? Or is that edging into Christmas-crazy-busy-ness territory? Or, should I move the party to later in the day, say, starting at 5-ish? Or is that edging too close into dinner territory? I was going for a little afternoon gathering with snacks for noshing, because I really truly don't cook, and while the CDC is quite nearby, I don't want people to show up with the expectation that I'm capable of feeding them a non-fatal dinner. Halp!