It's been a while again.  Work stays busy.  People can frustrate me, but others also make me feel welcome and wanted.  The grandkids are all getting bigger and we became 1st time great-grandparents last April.  The grandkids range from 24 years old down to just over 1 year old.

I am currently working on 3 short sleeved sweaters for me to wear to work to go with the other 5 that I have made over the last couple of years or so.  One is about 30 rounds from being bound off, the other 2 are a bit farther, but all are in the chest to waist area and have the sleeves already done.  The are being made from the Starburst Lace Yoke sweater pattern than I have used before.  They fit like I want, are comfortable to wear to work and as long as I pay attention, I don't do too much reworking on them.  This is one of the only times that I have made a pattern more than once as I get bored with them after making them.

Today I had to set up a new printer.  My 5 year old printer has decided it has a paper jam that I can't find, so I had things that needed printed and I just ordered one yesterday to arrive today.  I also have ordered another of the failed printer that should be here Thursday and then I will have a spare.  I still may see if I can take apart the 5 year old printer to see if I can possibly find that paper jam.

Once I get the 3 sweaters done that I am working on for me, I have a requested cardigan from the 24 year old grandson to cast on.  He wants dark green and buttons/cardigan.  We have settled on a pattern and I have the yarn.  At the time he told me about it, I couldn't get my preferred yarn and was afraid that it would be discontinued, but later found it wasn't.  Because of that, I did order some that I wasn't as thrilled with for him and easy care, so am thinking I will make something for my husband from that yarn since I can do the caring for it.

Well, this is just a short post to put something out there.  Maybe I can get back on track posting every now and then.  Not sure much of anyone is reading or wants to read, but that is ok.

 Changes are happening.  I work evenings from 4 pm to 12 am 5 nights a week as a help desk technician.  On my shift, we have had as many as 7 of us working, covering the 7 day schedule.  But we have been down by 1 since last Spring when one girl moved and wasn't replaced during the pandemic.  Within the past 2 weeks, another girl has been accepted as an installer, so will still be working Help Desk at times when not out on installs, but not always the same shift.  So now we were down 2 people.  A new person was hired about a month ago, but it takes about 6 months at least to really start feeling like you have a handle on things and are really making a contribution.  So we are still training him, which means we have 5 people working with some experience.

So now this past Friday, the main Manager put in his 2 week notice.  That means about May 28th will be his last day!  In some ways it won't mean a big difference in the work getting done because he tends to not really be an active part of our day to day work.  He gets some calls, but not as many as everyone else.  He does the scheduling, but can't remember who he has assigned to work when.  He goes to the manager meetings, but tends to not pass on the information he was given.  He loves it when we have something that he can take over & handle IT wise, but that doesn't teach us new information to use the next time.  He isn't good at multi-tasking, so it's hard at times to get an answer from him when needed.  And he tends to get up and just wander away for long periods of time.  There are times we are very busy and he is messing around on his phone or shopping online even.  So to say that other than a body to fill space, he won't be missed much is an understatement.  But we have a certain amount of people that we need to not feel overwhelmed by our jobs and the phone calls we are getting.

Historically, the owner of the company, to my experience over 8+ years has been that when someone put in their 2 week notice, they had an exit interview and were told they could leave right away.  No working out the 2 weeks.  But today was his first time back on the job since sending the email saying he is leaving.  He was allowed to stay.  I assume this is because the previous owner died of covid last October and the 3 men that were put into place in February before that as back up to run the company in case the 80+ year old owner couldn't have decided to not follow that tradition.

That brings us to who will take his place.  When the previous manager had left, we had an assistant manager that we all thought would be offered her job and I found out later that she had even discussed the idea of them offering me the assistant manager position at that time, but I hadn't bee in this department long enough, in my opinion, to have the experience I would need to be in that position.  And they didn't offer the Manager position to the assistant after all.  So now we are there again.  Will they offer it to him now?  He is a man in his early 40's and I have known of him for a # of years outside of my job.  I enjoy working with him although there are personal opinion differences, especially attitudes towards covid, masks, etc. that we differ on, but we work together well.  For the most part 3 of us and the new installer all work together well.  If they do offer it to him, my first choice of assistant manager would be the one who left to be an installer, but she doesn't want to come back.  So that leave 2 of us, we believe, unless they bring someone in from another shift and we can't see anyone else from the other shifts wanting to come to our shift this time.  The other girl and I both talked with the current assistant manager over the past weekend.  He says he thinks either of us is ready for this, I think we both have things we don't feel as ready for it about, but I also think we could both do it - especially since some things change all the time so we are always learning new things.  And I think, if he is given manager this time, that he is more open to teaching us things we are less knowledgeable about, which will help all of us.  He says that if they do offer him the manager position and if they ask him who he would suggest move into his place, he will tell him his thoughts on it. 

So I feel I need to be somewhat prepared to maybe get that offer.  To do so, I think I need a list of questions about it - like if I take it and then decide I would rather not, can I just go back to the job I am doing now without an issue?  Going salaried instead of hourly - would it be a pay raise or a pay cut?  I am sure there are others I will think up over the next few days.  I personally am not wanting to go back into management, but I do have experience, just not as a salaried manager.  At least this time, if it is a pay increase, I wouldn't be expected to work off the clock like I was at the convenience store when I had set things to be done and the other assistant manager thought I should cover for her when she wanted a smoke break regardless of whether it cut into me being able to get my work done on time or not.  And if the other girl is offered it, I don't have an issue working under her either!

I am the oldest that works in my department on my shift.  The next is the man that is basically the same as as my kids.  The current manager is a little younger than that and the other 3 (2 now) are in their 20's.

Anyway, even if not offered the position, there are going to be changes going on while we try to adjust to be only 1/2 staffed until we can get at least 2 people hired!

Moderna Vaccine

 Today I quit 2nd guessing myself and stopped by to get the first of 2 Moderna vaccines. It's been about 8 hours so far and so far all I have is maybe a crick in my neck and an ache in my left arm.  Will see how I feel tomorrow.  I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday night.  My 2nd vaccine will be on June 1 and depending on how I feel from this one, I may arrange a vacation day so that I don't go back to work until Thursday of that week instead of Wednesday.

It has been a long while since I last posted here!  I thought I would give it another go now that I remembered how to log in.

I have been off work the last 2 days.  I changed jobs just over 2 years ago and now work evenings 5 nights a week as technical support for POS installers.

I just found another pattern that I want to do for a sweater and am getting frustrated that the paypal purchase isn't going through and I can't figure out how to turn off the automatic log in to pay for it.  Not sure if it is a PayPal issue or if it is a Ravelry issue, but I can log into both, just can't get the purchase to go through.

Below are my 2 current projects that I have going.  On the left is Eyeblink shawl and on the right is Trapezoid Sweater. 

 

 

And here are my last 6 projects before that.  I made the hat for a male co-worker and the fingerless mitts for 2 of my female co-workers.

 

 

The poncho is for me - I had 1 almost identical in the late 1970's and had searched for the pattern for years since.  And I found it.  The first sweater is made from the same yarn and the 2nd is made in a different colorway, but the same yarn.  I may re-do the bollon of the poncho since I am not 100% happy with the way it came out.

 Well, I will try to post this again now that I re-sized the pictures.

I give up!

For months I have been telling myself that as soon as I get my blog reading up to date, then I will write a post.  But every week, it seems instead of getting closer to being up to date, I get farther behind.  So I will just post a little something now & try to do a bigger post within a day or 2 and bring you up to date on my crafting for the new baby that's due to arrive next month.

Today I had an email at work asking me to stop by my supervisor's supervisor's office when I had a moment.  I didn't know what to think!  Especially considering that it was sent only to me & not to my supervisor also.  I finished what I was working on & then tried to catch him - he was gone.  I kept checking in every so often & he still was gone.  Finally just as I finished typing an email to him telling him that I had tried a few times to stop in & hadn't found him, but that I would keep trying and was then going to head to lunch - he arrived back.  So I left for lunch 10 minutes later than normal & talked with him then.  He said he wanted to touch base with me, that he hadn't had much of a chance to chat with me, etc.  Then he told me that they are giving me a 50¢ an hour raise!  Not sure if it will start with the pay period that today is the 1st work day of it for me or not, but it means I am now only $4.50 below what I was getting almost 3 years ago when I was laid off from my last long term job.

I'm around

I looked and it's been over a month since I last posted.  I have tons to talk about or at least that I would like to talk about, but I also can't fully right now.  I am getting ready to start the new Bad Cat Designs KAL.  I have news of a future addition to the family, which will require some projects to be made.  I have been spending time with grandkids.  My oldest granddaughter who decided that she doesn't want to have a regular set time with me, does want me to help her with a knitted boot slipper kit I had bought for her birthday from Hobby Lobby.  My dh and maybe grandson are planning a trip to Seattle this summer.  I have been working on my Paabusall shawl and an within 6 pattern rows of being finished.  I may try to get that finished before I cast on for the other project.  I finished a baby afghan for a co-worker.  I'll try to get more details into a post soon, but for now, I will share the pictures from the baby afghan and the shawl.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

It's been a while!

Well, it's been just over a month since I last posted.  I sure didn't intend to take a break from blogging, but that is what I have done.  Christmas has come and gone, New Year's as well.  Tomorrow is the US Presidential inauguration and a lot of people will be off work - not because of the inauguration, but rather because it is the day we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.  I have to work and so does my dh.  Our son is off work, but he may be the only family member not working tomorrow.

I don't think I mention in my last post that I was casting on several projects for my son's gf, I, who had finished a pair of ankle socks for herself that she loves to wear to bed in particular.  She wanted to start a pair for her mother, my son, and a friend's son.  Then she also decided that she wanted to make a couple of scarves for herself.  She had an approximately 1500 mile drive each way coming up for Christmas where they were going to FL to visit my in-law's, so it gave her knitting time since she wasn't driving.  I haven't seen how far she has gotten in person since she got home, but I know she sent me some pictures along the way of at least 1 of the scarves in progress.  I am not sure if she might not have bitten off more than she could chew to start so many at once, but she wanted a variety to work on.  That way if she got to a heel on a pair of socks, she didn't have to stop until she was with me again or anything.  She doesn't yet want to learn to read patterns or to learn the heel process.  English is her 3rd or maybe 4th language, so she wants to take her time.  If I could find some patterns that were in both English & Portuguese we might be all right, but she says maybe 2 years, then she will be ready to learn to read a pattern.

I need to do some adjustments to 3 items I made for gifts - the sleeves are too long on my son's sweater & the neck is too tight for his head.  The 1 granddaughter's socks need to be bound off a little differently since I made them longer & she has trouble with getting them over her calves.  Another granddaughter, that I didn't get to measure, her socks are too tight around the foot, so I need to completely remake them.  I thought there was a chance since I didn't get to try them on her while I was making them.

We have had some snow, but not much.  We have had quite a few days with single digits in the mornings.  So I keep telling myself it's only about 2 more months & then we are looking at warmer weather.  I hate winter myself!

A week ago with mad the company Employee appreciation party at my new job.  Every employee can bring 1 guest & it wasn't until about 4:30 pm that day that I knew whether my guest would be my son or my dh.  Turned out my dh didn't work more than 8 hours after all that Saturday.  So we both got a nice dinner for it and each employee was given either a gift or cash.  The envelopes of cash were all gone before my name was called since I am 1 of the newest 4 employees, so I got a Nook Simple Touch.  I had tossed around the idea of Nook or Kindle for quite a while, but never did anything about it.  I still like the idea of a Kindle Fire since I could download shows and movies from Amazon to it to watch when I had a chance - car rides, etc.  But I do have my little laptop that I could use as well.  I have found several classics books that were free to download and got them put onto the Nook yesterday after receiving the 32gb memory disk that I had ordered for it.  The nook doesn't have much of a memory built into it, but you can add memory.  And with more than 1 memory card, you could add quite a bit actually.  I do like that I can view .pdf patterns on it, so that will be handy and was 1 of the reasons I had considered getting one anyway.  I haven't taken it yet anywhere with me, am waiting on my case to arrive for it - should be here on Tuesday & then the screen will be protected in my purse.  I have added the .pdf's of the 3-4 items I am currently working on or want to work on to it so that I have them.

My mil was hospitalized last weekend with the flu and pneumonia, but she was dismissed about mid-week.  I did get to talk to her for the 1st time in about 6 months while she was there - it made it easier that she was kept in 1 place!  But my bil was there with her, so gave her the phone.  Her dementia is really taking a toll on her, but I don't know how much of what I noticed is from the dementia and how much was from her being sick.  I sure miss her from before the illness that is robbing us of her came into play.  I have earned a sum total of 1 day of vacation time from work, so am thinking I may try to piggyback it to a holiday weekend and maybe even a day or 2 of no pay so that I can get up to see her later this year.  She did tell me that she was wearing the Amazing Siberian Slippers that I had made for her Christmas gift though and that she liked them.   I didn't actually hear my bil telling her that they were from me, so he might have done that just prior to my phone call.

I have found some new blogs recently to follow - 1 of them is A Joyful Chaos that started out with a former Amish woman telling about growing up Amish.  She has now co-written a book with another established author to tell her story.  I want to order the 2 that will be out when I get my next paycheck.  Growing up near an Amish community and interacting with the Amish as my mother bought goods from them has always made me be interested in them.  So I am always wanting to learn more.  Right now Mary Ann is having a give away on her blog of a book by 1 of her favorite authors.

Another blog I found recently is a woman in Australia who has discovered the joy of making socks, but she has already bypassed my 3-4 years of sock making in just 6 months or so - she is currently working on her 20th pair, unless she has already finished those!  I do not know how she does it!  Maybe I just have too many other interests!  That blog is MelsNattyKnits.

Tomorrow finishes up 3 months that I have been at my new job and I believe on Tuesday I should have a 90 day review, but my boss hasn't said anything about it.  I do think that things are finally all fitting together and I have a clue as to why certain things are done and since I do, I now have a clue as to when to do certain things, so it is all getting easier.  It's kind of hard to know what questions to ask when you do know exactly what it is that you need to be doing.  I hope some of my notes might make it easier for the next person, if I were to give up my job at any time in the future.  Not that I intend to, but I do remember 1 previous job that my notes probably helped the next person out.  I know I passed them on to a co-worker who was doing the same job during the time that I was also doing the job and I believe they helped her.

I talked with my oldest (younger) brother - 1 have 1 sister & 2 brothers, but all are younger than me by 4 1/2 to 8 years - on New Year's, I believe it was.  I found out that he had left Kansas in November to live in Oklahoma.  He is with the woman that I can't stand.  They say they are married, but I know they did file for a divorce at one point and I don't think they ever remarried.  They just believe that because they went back to living together before the divorce was final, that it voided it.  I think she is horrible for him, but I think he clings to her because he always wanted a mother to love him and she reminds him of our mother - but that isn't a good thing!  Our mother wasn't a good mother!  Anyway, it brought up what I always feel - I am the last in the family to know anything that is going on.  And they wonder why I disappeared for so long & kept to myself?

Our youngest daughter is traveling for work & is currently in India until March.  An experience of a lifetime for her!

At the last minute for Christmas, I was able to whip out a hat for our sil - it took me about 24 hours from start to finish & I believe he likes it!

Anyway, I think that brings me up to date for the most part!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!