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Monday, September 15, 2014

Moving Day!

The truck showed up at 8:00am, sharp, Appleton time.

Today has been a good day for knitting and staying out of the way!  I'm working on my basic 2x2 rib socks (pattern my own) in Opal yarns Vase with Sunflowers.

All the while, we are listening to excellent classic rock provided by the movers.  Never mind that we started the day with rain, the current temperature is 58 degrees with the sun now shining and my house looks pretty much like this: 
We are slowly making progress toward North Carolina and warmer weather.
Stay tuned for further updates.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

T Minus Five Days and Counting!

I love the people here, in Wisconsin!  When I explain to them that the packers (meaning the people who will place all of our household belongings into boxes for our move) are coming on Monday, many get a funny look on their faces and ask me why the Packers (meaning the Green Bay football team) are coming to my house.

No other place we have lived has a professional football team that is so loved and promoted as Wisconsin.  Green Bay Packer fans remind me more of those who follow college football, elsewhere.  When we first moved here, I was told by my coworkers in Green Bay that I would go to the Pro Shop at Lambeau Field and purchase Team scrubs to wear the last work day before the Packers had a game.  There was no choice given in the matter because I was working at Aurora Health Care System in DePere, asmall town which is part of the Greater Green Bay Area.  One of the physicians in that practice is also one of the team's physicians.  It did not take long for me to develop a case of what is commonly known as "Packer Fever."  My husband has always been a Green Bay Packer fan, so it was natural I should become infected.  I will take my love of Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers and my new Aaron Rogers jersey with me, to live in Greensboro.

Moving is our topic, currently.  We have had appraisals, a termite inspection and a surveyor from the moving company by the house.  We have signed multiple forms in preparation for this sale.  I have mailed many boxes of precious (meaning expensive or difficult to replace) yarns and fibers to my mother's home, in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Each trip to the Postal Express, I kept telling the proprietors, Chris and Don, that I really do not need an intervention for hoarding!  I don't think they believed me.

And this brings me to my dilemma:  I am trying to determine how many projects I need to stash into our car for the ride and how many to allow the movers to transport.  I have no idea how long it will take us to sell our house; ergo, how long I will not have access to my WIPs (Works in Progress).  The good news:  I will have easy access to my yarn and fiber that has been mailed to my mother's house.  Then there is the exploration of yarn shops in Greensboro.....ok, so I can see that I really don't need to worry so much about that.

Part of this move entailed my resignation from my job as triage RN for an internal medicine and endocrinology practice.  I worked in both areas.  I am considering this my retirement as I find myself in the most fortunate position of being able to pursue a career change.  My new title will be fiber artist.  I like that because it is not limiting, but allows me to explore many options within this broad range.

My first exploration is into knit pattern design.  My good friend, knitter extraordinaire and fellow medical professional, Vonnie, saw this picture and and asked for a copy of the pattern:


This is my Surfer Dude Lace Cowl.  It started with the Fun Onion group on Ravelry.  If you are a spinner or just want to be encouraged and challenged to try new and wacky things, this is the group for you!  This started as a combination SAL/KAL (Spin Along then Knit Along).  For the spinning, the ring leader put 5 braids weighing 2 ounces each in different fibers and colors into a mailer and sent it to the second person on the list.  That person took out 2 favorite braids and replaced those with 2 new ones and sent the package along.  We had a package surfing the mail around the USA and another package surfing the mail in Europe.  We were then tasked to spin the fiber to knit a cowl of our own design.  I followed the instructions and posted this on Facebook.  That is where Vonnie saw it and made her request.

Now handspun yarn is nice because it will cover a multitude of knitting sins and errors.  The idea of writing this down did seem a bit overwhelming at first; but then, the more I thought about it, I thought, why not?  So I knit a second cowl; using this one to correct my mistakes and fix a few things I did not like in the first:

This yarn was spun from batts dyed by Wild Onion for the Tour de Fleece 2014.  She used a picture of French Pastries in Blue as inspiration.  I translated the scribble on the paper in the picture into a pattern for this new and improved version.  It is currently with test knitters Vonnie and Ryan.  I plan to publish this pattern once all the technical difficulties are worked out.

In the meantime, I continue to spin, too.  My new Matchless wheel will travel to North Carolina in the car with us.  This is a mixed BFL/Silk from Pigeon Roof Studios in the Rusted Song colorway:

 I will post more news on our move to North Carolina, as it becomes available.  In the meantime, I continue to knit and spin in order to keep the fantasy alive!






Sunday, August 31, 2014

Big Changes Coming!

It has been a while since I last posted.  Many spinning and knitting projects have been started and completed.  I now own a 24" Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom, too! 

And now for the really big news:  As of 5pm on 8/28/14, I became an unemployed, retired nurse.  First, let me back up a bit.  As many of you know, we live in Appleton, Wisconsin, far from my birthplace of Marietta, Georgia.  We came here 8.5 years ago for my husband's career.  He is a project engineer with Gulfstream Areospace.  When we moved in, we had a child in college, a child in high school and a child in middle school.  A lot really did change in these years!  We now have a married daughter who is working on her master's degree in art, a son who is out of school and working at Basler in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and a daughter who is a junior at Kettering University.  Our nest empty.  And now, it is time for us to fly the coop, ourselves.

My husband has taken a new position as project engineer with Honda Jet in Greensboro, North Carolina.  We are working on the details; however, our fluid timing of departure from the Appleton area is 9/15/14. 

Leaving Appleton is not easy!  We have made many great friends here.  We want them all to come and spend some time with us, in North Carolina.  I predict January and February to be prime time for visiting down south!  For those of you who are not familiar with Wisconsin winters, the wind blows the sub-zero temps right through your clothing and your skin and into the marrow of your bones. 

If you know of anyone moving to Appleton, looking for a large home in a nice neighborhood, within walking distance to the local high school, please, let me know. We have so much to do to prepare for the movers to come- things to throw away, organize, give away, clean and a few repairs to make.  And then there is the selling of our house.....at least we were able to sell our sailboat, quickly.  Thank you, Craig's List.

Once we get to Greensboro, we will start the process of searching for a new home.  Then the unpack/set up of our household.  Once all of that is complete, I will begin work on my new career plans.  There will be more coming on that, at a later date.

I hope to find the time to blog again, as we go through this process.  We have done this several times, before, and I know sort of what to expect.  On the other hand, there are always those little surprises that pop up, unexpectedly.  Some are fun and others, not so much.  Overall, though, it will be a great experience, moving back to the region where we have so many friends and family who will once again be in close proximity. 

Stay tuned for more!