It's so hard to believe that not only has it been two weeks since I last posted but that it is the last day of November. Doesn't it feel like last Christmas just happened?

Since I last posted, I was able to complete the body of the Setesdal cardigan:Unfortunately I am starting to have to use the flash to take photos, as I don't get home until after dark most of the time! Boo hoo! Here is a closer view of the pattern on the shoulders, with more natural coloring:It's surprising how fast this is going, because I hardly knit at all this past week. We had a last burst of activity to finish unpacking and organizing, and our apartment finally feels livable . The job is definitely starting to feel a bit more comfortable as well, although I'm pretty sure that I won't ever be as close to the people in this office as in my last one. I think that's just the nature of living in a very small town and working with only a few other people. The pangs of homesickness for our old town are starting to subside as well, but I know I will always miss it a little bit, just like I miss all the places I've lived.

I hope everyone (in the US, at least) had a happy and warm Thanksgiving! I had a very nice weekend at my parents', and we enjoyed dinner with G's parents which was fun (and delicious). The drive home was also wonderful, since it felt like we had just barely left Connecticut by the time we made it back. I was like, "We're home already?"

On Saturday, my mom took me to a new yarn shop called Connecticut Yarn and Wool Company that opened up in the area, and it was amazing. They only carry one brand, Farmhouse Yarns, but they carry the entire line. It was fabulous walking from room to room of the most beautiful shades and textures. And, my very sweet and wonderful mom (hi mom!) offered to buy me some yarn, and it was sooo hard to choose what to take home. I ended up getting some of the Fannie's Fingering Weight sock yarn in "Black Cherry":And some of the Lumpy Bumpy yarn which was also labeled "Black Cherry", but I think that this was mislabeled. Anyway, it is going to become a hat for my mom:I just can't stop looking at it!

I put up our bird feeder outside one of our windows so that Quincy would be able to watch the birds. But I realized that the local wildlife may not really need much food assistance:What do you think?
Have a great weekend, everyone! :)

Phew, I'm finally back and mostly settled in (if by the word "mostly," one means "still needs to unpack and organize 18 million things"). It was probably as smooth a move as I've ever had. No incidents with the U-Haul or anything, except for the line of cranky drivers behind us due to the limited ability of the truck to get up hills, heh. The only other incident was the wretched stomach-ache I had by Sunday night after three days of eating junky Chinese take-out and the like. A trip to the grocery store and a couple of home-cooked meals have gotten the ol' intestinal system right back on track. I must say though, the biggest culture shock of the move so far was the grocery store run. Our old grocery store was about 12 aisles total (and each aisle was about half the length of the ones here), so we were not prepared for it taking over an hour to shop. We had to go through the whole store about three times to make sure we got everything on the list, besides the obligatory gawking at the many unique tropical fruits and other mysterious and previously unknown products now available to us.

The first week of work went OK too, though I did feel a little sad all week, kinda homesick. It's so weird to try to connect with a whole new group of co-workers, when you are coming from a very comfortable environment with only three co-workers. Unfortunately the new job doesn't seem terribly exciting but then again, I wasn't expecting it to be. It's not horrible, just kind of blah.

I have been working on a little something since the week before we moved:
This is the "Setesdal" cardigan (pattern #4) from the Dale of Norway book #8101 "Favorite Baby Designs." Here is kind of a crummy photo of the design:I'm attempting to make this as a Xmas gift for my best friend's son who is around 8 months old now. It probably doesn't need to be done right at Christmas since I don't usually see my friend until after the holidays, but it is actually going pretty quickly, regardless. I only have a few more rows left to finish the main section with the flecks:Hopefully it blocks out well 'cause it looks a little lumpy right now, but it seems that's the nature of fair-isle knitting.

There's so many other cute patterns in this book too...is it wrong of me to want to make some of the funky zebra socks in my size?Hope you have a nice weekend, I gotta do more unpacking!

Man, this has been a long, hard week...and it's not even over yet! So much to talk about. Get ready for a long, drawn-out post!

The week has been tough because we are nearing T-minus zero on the move. Departure scheduled for Saturday, yikes! Of course that also meant having to get things wrapped up at work, making visits to people to say good-bye, packing the apt, and on and on. More on that later.

In the midst of all the chaos, I did manage to finish the Lacertilia socks, and now I think they actually look kinda cute:I guess the colors have grown on me.
I did foul up the heels a bit. They don't look like any heels I've seen before. The problem was that I kept turning one stitch too early. It wasn't until I started making the heel on the second sock correctly that I realized the first sock was wrong! But, was I going to rip out a whole, finished sock to fix it? Of course not! I just did the second heel the "wrong" way. I mean, it still fit my foot OK, so why bother.Pattern: Lacertilia Socks by Dipsy
Yarn: Trekking XXL in Color #11, knit on 2 mm needles
I loved the pattern--simple and easy to memorize, but creates a pleasing pattern. I started with 68 stitches rather than 60 because it seemed like I was getting smaller gauge or something. Also, I loved the yarn! I can totally see why people are fans of Trekking. It's quite soft but seems like it should wear well, and it doesn't seem nearly as splitty as some sock yarns. Just a good quality product all around.

So, back to my crazy week. The thing is that I hate, hate, hate having to say goodbye to people! Even when I know I'll see them again, it makes me really sad and I tend to get weepy. Which sucks because it's so embarrassing (not to mention unflattering to one's complexion, ha ha), especially in front of work colleagues. Yesterday I had to say goodbye to one of my two favorite coworkers and I totally burst out crying, ugh. Luckily no one else was around and I had warned him beforehand that I might cry (I was actually laughing and crying at the same time, and had big sunglasses on so at least I was a bit in hiding), but still felt bad. He laughed though, and promised we would get together soon...the funny part is I will actually live closer to him than I do now.

Then, today was my last day at work and I woke up at around 5 AM feeling really excited! I couldn't get back to sleep. I'm sad to leave but it's still a good feeling to know you don't have to go back anymore! I took a picture of my last morning on the lake (so sad to be moving to a cube farm):I basically goofed around at work all day, got my office cleaned up, etc. The plan was to go out for dinner tonight with my three coworkers that live here in town, along with their spouses. Yesterday I was worried that there would be more waterworks but I knew this morning when I woke up I would be fine--I just felt so at peace and happy. We had a great time at dinner, they gave me a couple funny gifts, and we parted in the parking lot with happy hugs. I did feel a slight catch in my throat when I hugged my other favorite coworker goodbye, but all was fine. Hooray. I also learned today that if you feel like you are going to cry, you should press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Apparently that will stop it...funny I never knew that because G said he had heard that before.

Besides all the emotions, there is also the plain physical tiredness of having to pack, clean, move, blech! We got rid of soooo much stuff over the last couple weeks, just bags and bags of stuff going to Goodwill, the dump, etc. But, it feels really good to finally let go of all the junk we've been dragging from apartment to apartment but never used. Then G went to get our moving truck today and wow, it is way too big for the amount of stuff we have left! The only choices for trucks were either really small or really large, and I didn't want to get stuck not having enough room. Hopefully we make it down without mishap, because it is a real doozy to get around corners.

I wanted to show you one more picture that has a bit of a funny story behind it, this pretty kalanchoe plant was sent to me at work last week:(Notice a trend of little cat faces lurking in the backgrounds of my photos? ;)
They were sent by a local real estate agent who I have had many dealings with through my job. I was particularly tickled to get them because back four years ago when I started this job, we totally butted heads the first time I ever talked to her. I complained to my coworkers about how horrible she was and how I hoped I didn't have to talk to her much. Well the funny thing is, as time passed we started to get along really well, to the point that we usually had a chit-chat once a week or so! Isn't it funny how your opinion of someone can change so completely? She was bummed to hear that I was leaving and sent me these as a going-away gift.

Well, time to get some rest, as we are going to have to spend tomorrow loading up our mega-truck. I'm ready to follow the advice that my friend gave me when I visited her this week:
"Be happy, and go kick some butt."

And there's only one other thing left to say besides that:
"So long, stinktown!"