Saturday, September 22, 2007

"Oh - you do more than knit?"

Ok - I gotta tell you how many times I heard that over the last few weeks. I have started to wonder - is that a good thing or not...

Here's the story...


We had Employee Appreciation Week at work two weeks ago and I am on the planning/implementation team. We came up with a 'Star' theme and the team let me run with the creative stuff....go figure... Anyhoo - We had an AMAZING week!...Actually it was more like two weeks - the week prior, we created a 'Den of Appreciation', where the supervisors and managers could go and make their 'press kit'. The press kit contained all the peripheral materials they would need for the week..e.g. the note cards to write a letter of appreciation for their team members (Monday), the tickets they had to cut out for their team to turn in for the sundae (served by their mgr on Tues), the curling ribbon with note tag to tie on their mug (Weds) and the 'ticket' to staple their movie pass on (Thurs). On all of these there were goofy quotes etc that um...I... created - like - 'You serve our customers in every possible way, so we'd like to serve you this sweet and tasty sundae' .....or this one - The stars in the sky, they twinkle and blink, a big THANK YOU to you...and this for your drink! (for the mug)...

Anyway - it was a huge hit! So in the Den of Appreciation, there were Appreciation Stations (yeah the rhyming got a bit out of hand at some point, I just can't remember when we crossed the line....) which had posters with instructions how to do each of the 5 tasks. The fifth one was the one that really got people going and the laughter starting. My team and I cut out approx 100 squares of brown kraft paper (24" sq). Each manager and supervisor needed to trace their handprints and footprints and add their signature to it - sorta like Grauman's Chinese Theater. I did a quick sample for people to get the idea and I drew in the stitching on my shoes as a joke.... well.... it took off. People started decorating theirs - putting manicures on the hands, decorating the shoes, one person drew a twister board and did the hands/feed in funny positions. Two of my colleagues went crazy and threw down the gauntlet, adding in all the things that are important in their lives. So of course, I had to rise to the challenge.

Yup - that Saturday, I brought my square home and spent a little time and created the following:













Yeah - it was fun - it has my yarn, of course...(wouldn't this be a cool tat?...without the hand of course...)












And it would not be complete without my puppy Tigger....



















And it still looked empty - so I added this for my blog....














And last, but not least...this... for my love of music, movies and all things Disney.


















We took all of the squares and taped them up in the lobbies where the employees could see if their hands fit...it was a GREAT week...and I am hearing no end of "..you do more than knit, huh?"

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

FO at last!!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but for some reason, the heat of summer put my knitting in a stall - I started a few projects, but could not get anything finished - maybe I was suffering from 'kdd' (Knitting Deficit Disorder)...

Well - the slump is over!!!!

I finished a holiday gift (and there aren't going to be that many knitted ones this year - )

Anyhoo - here are the details....

Pattern: Coronet from Knitty
Size: Medium
Yarn: Zara, by Feza, Color 121 70% acrylic, 30%wool
Needles: US 8/5 mm (used my first pair of Bryspun dpns - loved them!)
Gauge: according to pattern
Time to knit: don't ask - it was supposed to be done for last December...ugh
Alterations to pattern: I did not do the # of repeats the pattern called for on the cable - I cabled until I had 22" approx. Gauge on cables just didn't work out on this one. This was my first item that truly needed sizing - and YEA! it worked! I picked up the # of stitches the pattern called for.
Thoughts: all in all, this was a great pattern. The cabling was easy and fun. I will be making more of these....

And keep your eyes out for the next post - it will have another fo - fiber is involved... sorta...hmmmmm can you guess what it is??

and now for the pictures!!