It’s been a long week. Work’s been busy, which is unusual for this time of year. Usually our busy periods fall before and during the big tradeshows — April/May and September. January and February are usually pretty slow and are when we can catch up on all those old projects that got pushed to the back-burner during busier times. With the economy the way it is, though, everyone’s freaking out a little, and there’s been a lot of push to come up with new promotions, campaigns, and other revenue-generating things. All of which, of course, require active participation from marketing. My team has been very much in demand these last few weeks. It’s exhausting, but it’s also nice to know we’re needed and appreciated, especially during this economic climate where so many people are being deemed expendable and finding themselves unemployed.

Current FOs

I’ve done so well at the monogamous knitting thing this week that I haven’t touched anything except my Continental Ribbed Sock (Ravelry link). As a result, I finished the pair tonight. And I even finished making the second sock blocker in time to display both here! Yay me!

Continental Ribbed Socks — made top-down with Prism Saki, colorway Alpine, on size 1 needles — completed 2/7/2009

My eyes keep wandering to my stash of sock yarn, and I’m itching to cast on for a new pair. But I’ve got another pair of socks already on the needles that I have to finish before I can cast on for anything new. Or at least that’s what I’m trying to convince myself of. I won’t post pictures here, as those socks are a gift for a friend, but if you’re on Ravelry, here’s the project link. Luckily, said friend isn’t on Ravelry, so I can easily share the link without fear of her seeing her socks before they’re ready to be presented. :)

Classes and Other Fibery Events

As I previously mentioned, my sock class at Great Yarns scheduled for March filled up almost immediately. We had several people ask if there were any other sessions in the works, so I obliged and decided to give up a few Friday evenings to teach another class. Exciting that so many people want to learn to knit socks! They’re my personal addiction! So the newly added class (which will be added to the website soon, I believe) is scheduled for Fridays 2/27, 3/6, and 3/13, 7-9pm. Yay!

I stopped by the store this afternoon to add the sign-up sheet in the class book. While I was there, I chatted a bit with Sheila (the store manager) and showed her my Continental Ribbed Socks. The last time Sheila and I worked together, we spent the time when there weren’t customers in the shop trying to figure out the best way to purl continental. Since then, I’ve figured out a method that not only works well for me, but that I absolutely love. I may actually like purling better than knitting now! So of course I had to show Sheila, who’s still very interested in learning the method herself. Do I see another new class topic in the near future? «grin»

(Un)fortunately, I also happened to see some new sock yarn they had just gotten in at the store when I stopped in. I swear, I only went in to add that sign-up sheet to the class book. But of course, I ended up walking out with new sock yarn. Yarn shops are dangerous! Really, though, I just couldn’t resist. I’m like a child when it comes to sock yarn (gimme!gimme!) and a bird when it comes to shiny stuff (ooh!shiny!), so you see, I had to buy the new Berroco Sox Metallic when I saw it. It was inevitable.

Berroco Sox Metallic, in colorway 1375 Guava

I’m also excited about the upcoming Franklin Habit events at Yarns Etc. and Great Yarns. If we can close up shop at Great Yarns early enough on Saturday (2/21), I may try to get down to the lecture at Yarns Etc. in Chapel Hill that evening. (The shop closes at 5:00, the event at Yarns Etc. starts at 5:30, and under good traffic conditions, it takes about 20-30 minutes to get from one store to the other…) But even if I can’t get there that evening, I’m still going to be helping out at the event Sunday morning at Great Yarns in Raleigh. That event is a photography class, How to Photograph Your Fiber. It means having to get up rather early for a Sunday (the class starts at 9am), but I guess that’s allowable under certain (rare) circumstances. :)

Book Overload

I got a bit carried away the other day adding books to my Amazon Wish-List. It all started when I saw that Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting is being re-released this summer (August 20, 2009 to be precise). As those of you in the knitting world may know, this has been a much-sought-after out-of-print book, often selling for hundreds of dollars in auctions and at used book stores. I’m not sure how Dover managed to get the rights to reprint it (Herself has said many a time that she had no interest in republishing any of her books, more of which can be read over at The Girl from Auntie’s blog), but whatever the reason, I’m glad of it, and I’ll be picking up a copy for myself when it’s released. But then, of course, Amazon had to recommend all sorts of other books that they thought might pique my interest (and blast them—they were right!), so I had to add all sorts of other books to my to-buy list, including Cookie A’s new sock book (due out April 1, 2009) and Wendy Johnson’s new toe-up sock book (due out April 14, 2009). Oh Amazon, you do kill me sometimes.

Web Design!

In other news, I’ve been itching to do some web design lately. It’s a good thing, really, as I’ve got several projects lined up that need some serious attention. My own website, Erdufylla.net, needs a face-lift, and the blog itself could use a new (or at least updated) look, especially given that the layout was designed on a much older version of WordPress, and not all the old functions work all that well with the newest version. There’s also the possibility of creating a new marketing site at work, which of course will fall to me to design and code. I’m looking forward to tackling it, if I can be pulled away from several other projects that have landed on my plate as of late. It’s been a while since I’ve done any serious web design, so it’ll be nice to get back into the saddle again.

Anyway… that’s about it for now. So I think I’ll go back and knit some more before it’s time to head off to bed. Tata, and happy knitting!