Instead, my week went downhill quickly. Each day seemed to play out like an episode from a bad tv series. Nothing *horrible* happened, but everything seemed so random that by Friday I was afraid to leave my apartment to run errands because I was sure I would get flattened by a falling meteor or blue ice or something. To add to the worries about pay cuts at The Brain's job (the alternative being job cuts, and since he was one of the last people on board he would likely be one of the first people cut), here is a random sampling of what happened last week: I woke up on Wednesday with an out-of-nowhere illness that necessitated hours at the doctor's office and antibiotics, the illness caused me to miss the casual grad school "reunion" which I had organized up in LA, I applied for a line of credit at the bank a week ago just in case (see above note about pay/job cuts) which should have taken "a couple of hours" to be processed, but instead has now taken over a week and has included extra trips to the bank to deliver pay stubs, tax returns, utility bills, driver's licenses, etc., one missed work opportunity and a separate work setback, and...a broken couch. I should have known better than to sit on it! (Thankfully The Brain was able to fix the last one...all the others: well, sometimes life just sucks.)
But no one died, no one was hospitalized (that was the week before, heh), and no one has lost their job (yet). The good news is that I actually finished my Hex Coat (post later) and I got a fun box in the mail from my sister! Yay for yarny gifts!
My sister is a multi-lingual world traveler and nursing student extraordinaire. She was recently completing a series of courses in China and she got me some yarn while she was over there. She doesn't know anything about knitting so she really didn't know what to look for, but when she got back and told me that she had picked up "two things of yarn", I was expecting two hanks of undyed handspun or something. What I got instead was two cute little plastic yarn bags with 10 balls each of yarn in them. 
I have no idea about the fiber content. The yellow bag says that it contains "high-grade elaboation knitting wool". I tried looking up the word "elaboation" and I still have no idea where they were going with that. The package says it's an 80%/20% blend of something, but judging by the feel of the yarn I'm going to go ahead and say it's 80% acrylic and 20% other plastic.
The package containing green yarn actually has sheep and a goat on the front, so I'm guessing it might actually contain some sort of natural fiber. It certainly feels a bit less squeaky. There is no English on this package (not like it helped much on the other one), and I tried typing "gaojijingpin hunfangrongxian" into a text translator but didn't get any help on that either. It is apparently a 75%/25% blend of something-or-other. I think the packaging is pretty cute no matter what it contains. :)
And finally, in knitting news, I cast on for my Tempest last night. You may recall that I overdyed some yarn to use specifically for this sweater. Well...I'm not sure I like how they go together, now that it's all said and done. The stripes just don't contrast enough for my taste and I'm really not sure I'll be satisfied with the final project if I just keep going with it. So...I think I'm going to rip it out and keep one or the other of the skeins to use in a different version later on, if I can find another yarn to use. I realize now that when I was dyeing, I should have done some kind of dip-dye and only let the tan part of the yarn hang in the dye, while keeping the vibrant purple out. That would have given me a bit more contrast. But...too late now, and there's no guarantee that I would have liked it any better.Thanks for sticking through such a boring, informative post! I'm really hoping something entertaining will happen to me soon so I can spice up the blog a bit! :-P
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12 comments:
I'm sorry your week sucked (though I do love that you typed that mess into an online translator!) This made me smile today: I texted Happy Bday to a friend named Kendra. She said, "Thanks, at this age I just kind of ignore them. The highlight of my day was my grandma calling to sing Happy Birthday to me. Even if she did call me Marilyn!" (I asked, there isn't ANYONE in her family named Marilyn. I love that it still meant so much to her!
Here's to a better next week.
Haha, I didn't catch the "elaboation" when I checked out the yarn when it was here. That's hilarious. Here's hoping next week goes better!
Oh, wow, what a lousy week! My sympathies.
That yarn is so cute! I actually thought it was some sort of packaged food, when I first saw the pictures.
that's too bad you had such a bad week, bu I'm glad some new yarn showed up to help make it better! Yarn from other countries is always so interesting.
- Julie
What interesting yarn.
I hope this week is kinder to you.
xo
Sweet Chinese Yarn! hehe.
Sorry for the sucky week - things like that tend to all happen at once don't they? I like your "big picture" reasoning though - even when things go wrong, nobody is dying, we still have food and shelter and the people we love, etc. It can be really easy to get caught up in the horrific details of a rough period. Things always work out eventually :)
I had a not-so-fantastic week myself, chickadee. Here's hoping this week will be better times ten.
I agree that the Tempest needs more contrast. Can you over-dye part of it again?
The guesswork on the Chinese yarn cracks me up...it's almost worse that you can pick out only the numbers - it makes your mind run wild with possibilities rather than leaving it completely in the dark. 80%...seaweed? 80%...candy? (I thought it was food too, so if it were me, I'd have tried to eat it).
You're due for a happier week. Maybe it was the bad juju of major celebrity drama and political scandals? Frogging Tempest would probably make you feel better...a fresh start.
Ugh, when it rains it pours. I'm so sorry to hear you had a crappy week! At least you had some new yarn to cheer you up, even if it is of the elaboation sort. (Elaboation. That cracks me up). I think the Tempest combo looks cool!
I hope things are looking up - on the bright side, it's July:) And almost Friday? And a holiday weekend? Gosh, life is just like that sometimes - ugh. Take care! Can't wait to see the finished hex coat!
What great yarns. I looked at the picture and googled "elaboation" before reading the post. It's one of those words you just have to look up right away.
I understand Chinese.
Basically, the first bag is acrylic yarn blended with wool. The second bag is wool blended with 25% nylon. "gaojijingpin hunfangrongxian" is Chinese Pinyin, which means "high class blended wool yarn". "Elaboation"... I think it's a typo.
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