Anxiety has broken through.

A large lay off was announced for my business a few weeks ago. I was able to ignore this huge pending change and keep on going for about two weeks. The noise level now can not be overlooked, and the stay/go announcement is this Friday. This is a really "Dilbert-esque" scene. It is going to be bad for those who stay, as they will have to cope with the same work load, but fewer resources. It will be not so good from me to be told to leave. I'm just 1.5 years from lifetime health insurance, or so I believe. The way companies are leaving their employees high and dry, maybe this is also an illusion. Anyway, daily conversations are laced with the pending announcements, and I'm finding it all very hard to deal with.

Now knitblog worthy material. Last spring I finished this vest that I donated as a recognition gift for our Girl Scout service unit. I didn't hook up with the winner before school let out, but she recently called, as she has some stuff for me. She works at a school nearby, and dropped by yesterday so we could trade. I may have commented on how huge this vest seemed, but that she was a large woman, and maybe it would be right. Well, it fit beautifully, and she was quite happy. Big smiles all around.

Tuja fussed at me on Tuesday. I figured that I needed to get the sleeve started before Wednesday's volleyball game, as the edges have a little hem that is fussy and visually intensive. The point of the easy project is to be able to knit and watch the game at the same time. While I was getting the sleeve set up, the body suggested that I ought to finished her up. So, I stayed up late, and did just that. I tried it on, and it's not a bad looking tank. A single crochet around the arms, and put it on.

Both 7th and 8th grade teams won, and won very fast. I think the girls have learned the game protocol so there is less time between serves. We're about 40 rows into sleeve #1 now.

Goodness, so many knitting rings, knit a longs and swaps, it makes my head spin. Want to do it all, must be choosy. I recently added Southern Knitters, and found one just for us big 'ol Texans, so applied for that.

Managed to do some knitting on Starz on the way up to camp. I was way too tired on the way back.

Camp was mostly great - the girls did all the meal planning, and I enabled the shopping. We talked about budgets and money in detail for the first time. They are now aware of how much money their troop has, and how much a camping trip costs. I'm thinking that will make them all the more excited about any freebies they may be offered. We did most of our cooking with charcoal and my buddy burners. We even broke out the hobo stove for sausage Sunday Morning. We got to go swimming and use the camp paddle boats. We even got up for a dawn hike. They did all their capers with only a little prodding, and most of their clean ups. They will be great campers in another year.

Now, the not so great part - for some reason, a car racing venue was opened right next door to the Girl Scout camp. Can you believe it? That's Texas for you - as little oversight over land use as possible. So now, this loveley and historic site is subject to very loud automobile noise on Saturday nights. The noise also scared all the deer away.

I'm going back to this site for a service unit event in about a month. I'm wondering if we should set up next to the track, and try to kum-by-yah them to death, or see if I can get discount tickets to the races. Would that be embracing change, and controlling that which is out of control, or subsidizing the evil noise makers? What do you think?

I had no idea I had really made a cat blanket. Thanks GingGong for setting me straight. For some reason I feel no urge to send this to the critter knitter collection.


One of the wonderful people who left a comment asked what's next? Well..... I've still got a Henry8 on the needles, a Tuja, and a two color sweater on the needles. I'll work on those for a while.

This weekend is dedicated to scouts. Don't anticipate a lot of knitting.

What a hurricane season we've had! Lets send a wish to those folks in the path of Ivan. One of my work friends has a mother in Mobile, too stubborn to leave. The whole team is worried. My daughter asked why the mom didn't go even though her daughter and son asked her to come to their homes. Mom's just don't think they need to do what thier kids tell them to do. I hope I'm not that way when I get there.

Turn up the air conditioning - Ingeborg has arrived.

I'm too old for Astroworld. Roller coasters always made me feel funky, but they were fun. This time, not even fun. Maybe it was because my honey was not here; just me and the daughter.

Ingeborg is still almost finished. I managed to get the second arm sewn on, but I didn't like the way I placed the lace on the bottom and neck edge. So I pulled it off and it's pinned back in, waiting to be sewn again. After that, button loops and buttons. I did manage to find buttons locally. I have not found a great button shop here. I looked into a store this time called "butotns and bows". You would think they had buttons, no? Well, it's a smocking shop of all things. Two racks of standard brand buttons, but I managed to find one that would do. Next time I'm in San Francisco, I'll spend a wad at Britex.

Starz is almost to the armholes. The back of Tuja is almost done.

No pictures until some milestone has been met. Almost there.

Back from Kerrville Folk Festival on Monday. Nice event, and a big Kum-by-yah for all.

Did I mention that Ingeborg is taking forever to finish? Yikes, I worked on the second button band all the way to San Antonio. I thought about why this was taking so very long. I realized that I usually throw some ribbing around the edges and call it done. Ingeborg not only has the lace bits, but every edge has a facing, including the armholes. Not that I'm complaining; it's beautiful on the inside. I do think the armhole is a bit bulky, but not too bad. This is the first Dale I've done, and I just didn't anticipate the amount of finishing.

Worked on Starz at the concert while waiting for the sun to set, and on the ride home. Took forever to get home with a combination of rain storms and traffic. I wanted to finish sewing Ingeborg arms, but the light was so poor sewing arms wasn't working for me. Over the weekend I was able to complete about a pattern repeat on Starz, so it's almost to the armhole.

Second middle school Volleyball game tonight. Apparently there will be some real competition tonight. I've got Tuja loaded, and ought to get the body pretty close to finished.

Happpy September.
Still wondering how the year goes by so fast these days.

1st volleyball game today. Daughter got her uniform yesterday, with a very peppy hair ribbon in school colors with her name printed on it. Tuja is ready.