Sunday, February 01, 2009

Super Sunday Stuff

The Super Bowl just ended. Did you like the outcome? As for me, I saw the last two pivotal plays. The rest of the game, I was either on my way home from the shop, getting something to eat, and napping. It's been a long workend.

No, that's not a typo. For me, weekends equal work. It's part of the trade-off of leaving the corporate world and doing less stressful, more enjoyable work. Instead of regular Monday-Friday hours, I have irregular hours which include working all day Saturday, often working Friday and Saturday nights, and usually using Sunday to catch up on still more work -- although that's usually done at home in my bathrobe. All of this is much better (to me) than being in a corporate cubicle (or as I refer to them, soul-sucking environments).

MMKGvest1On Saturday at the shop, we had a real treat. Maria, a member of the Multnomah Machine Knitter's Guild, came in and showed us one of her creations. This vest is absolutely gorgeous! The pictures don't do it justice but do give you an idea of the great design elements she incorporated. Cynthia was at the shop for our Block-of-the-Month class and agreed to model for us since Maria was camera-shy.

Can you see the saying? It says, "Knitters don't die, they just unravel." The center motif of a sheep and lamb with a big cone of yarn bears the moniker of the guild, MMKG. And look at the bottom band! Yep, those are little sweaters of various designs and cones of yarn, too.

MMKGvest2And the front button band is embellished with more cones of yarn. It's so inventive! I didn't get a picture of the inside, but Maria took great care to make a stockinette liner piece and sew it inside to cover all the floats. It's no wonder this vest was a blue-ribbon winner at the fair!

Saturday night, I dealt blackjack to a bunch of emergency response people. Those folks know how to party! Got home about 12:30 a.m. and hit the sack to try and rest up for Sunday.

Because Sunday wasn't about the Super Bowl. It was about the sale at the shop! It's our annual sale, which ran from 11 to 3 so folks could get home in time to catch the game. In the span of those four hours, a staff of five (plus two of the owner's grandkids who were tremendously helpful) assisted customers in taking home an enormous amount of yarn. I thought last year's sale was busy, but this year was about twice as busy! It was exhausting, but exhilarating a the same time. And even though we sent a ton of yarn to new homes, when we looked around after locking the doors, it seemed like nothing had left the store! Amazing.

Which brings us back to where this post started. I missed all the commercials during the game, but I figure I can watch them online -- after I read about which ones were the best. :) And I missed the halftime show, but I'm not that big of a Springsteen fan anyway. (Sorry Jersey fans.)

I hope your weekend was great. Tomorrow, I'll have some pictures of the finished Hanami shawl for you. It came out great!

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