Tales of a Career Gal's Life

How do career-minded women do all the things they do?

I find that to be both a boring, tiresome question and an intriguing, perpetual question. I'm a white-collar, gainfully employed, passionate-about-my-career mom, wife, daughter, knitter. How in the world do the knitters out there find time to manage it all?

Believe it or not, I am still knitting, albeit at a much slower pace. With the new addition of a Blackberry, laptop, mega-powerful cell phone, and work-travel schedule, I knit far less on the train than I used to. I guess I should also add the ever-important I-like-my-new-job factor, and I-have-new-job-energy-syndrome factor. And, my-new-job-rates-at-the-top-of-the-scale-for-stress factor. Most of my coworkers work 10-14 hour days. And weekends. And they're not doctors.

So, I plan to keep my blog. I like to track my exercise on it - the public aspect of noting my workouts inspires me to keep doing them. I also like to read other knitting blogs. And I like to post about my knitting tales (and other tales). But I'll probably slow the posting pace (out of necessity - I don't have much of a choice), and I'll probably have far fewer pictures.

Such is life.

Here's a quick update:

Lotus Blossom Tank: after waffling back and forth about ripping it because I feel like I can't knit adult clothes for myself, I decided to finish the tank and give it to my sister. The knitting actually turned out quite well (even gauge, stitches, etc. Even the neckline is pretty!). It's just too big for my 34" AAA bust (aka flat chest, or the wide-open plains, as I joke with DH). I think my lovely 2-year old DD is now competing with me for a bigger cup size. I jest.

Back to the point - the lotus blossom tank is ALMOST FINISHED. I've even woven in the tails. BUT, I have one darned last job: pick up 96 st around each armhole, knit two rows, BO, finish. I have enough yarn for about 1 armhole, and I'm not sure the LYS has another skein from this dye lot (I bought the yarn last spring). So, I'm thinking maybe I'll pick up 96 st and BO immediately, but I don't know how that will look. I'll have to play with it.

DD's pinafore: 95% done. Ends woven in. I just have to make tabs, sew them on, and I'm done. Since it's a winter outfit, I have some time. Happy to report - she loves it, too.

MawMaw's Scarf: my MawMaw (who taught me to knit) has a lacy scarf I whipped together for her last year. Confession: I used yarn from my stash cleaning which I was sick of having around but couldn't bring myself to throw away. I really didn't like the way it knit up, but I plowed through using big needles and the thinnish yarn to make a light scarf for MM. She liked it, but the wide loops catch on everything and it's now an utter rag, but MM uses it in the evening to keep the chill off. She likes the lightweight yarn and not-shawl-wide size of the scarf to use as a simple drape.

So, I'm making her another one with Debbie Bliss cashmere in lavendar (DD's pick) using a Norweigan Fir lace stitch on size 3.75 needles. This is my train stitch, as I need quiet to keep count of the rows and stitches (even though it's a simple lace pattern). In any case, the yarn is lovely, the stitch varied enough to keep me interested but not too complicated to confuse me, and the pace somewhat slow but good. Since it's a train knit, it's really slow going. I usually only get 1-2 days of knitting in; the rest is work.

OK, off to work.