The Geekend That Was, 3/18 (Madness and Idiocy Edition)

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No wait...it was just the worst of times. That was last week at work. I could write a book on it, but let's just say that, convinced someone else was not doing their job, I made everyone's life miserable when, really, my stuff was creating problems. I also spent almost the whole week on this, while everything else slipped further and further behind. I am now so far behind, and my knowledge gap is so wide, it just looks undoable. Plus, for some reason the pollen is making me crazy this year. Not miserable, CRAZY. Like Sunday morning I wasn't sure if I wanted to sob or kill someone.

Anyway! You came here to see pretty pictures! I love tulips and I was so miserable the hubby brought these home when I made him go get dinner for, like, the eleventy-fifth time.

 

You also want to hear about how the hermitting went, yes? For International Hermit and Stitch Weekend?
Um...stitch? I feel like some of that happened, but not much. Let's talk about how March Madness is going, instead!!

We left off with Wednesday, when I teased a partridge. Sorry...teased about a partridge. I did not actually mock some poor bird.

 

Isn't he GREAT?? I love his crazy colors. This is a JABC design and was a kit that Drema at Needlecraft Corner did.

Thursday I pulled this needlepoint Santa from the Sparkly Compote of Decree.

 

I got his face done, and some more on the hat band. Not too shabby.

We interrupt this weekend report with breaking news...the pollen count today is 8461. EIGHT THOUSAND, four hundred and sixty-one!!!

Well, that's just WRONG. Especially when the scale only goes up to, what...150 or something? I've talked about this before. Yup, this is a record, but this is NOT one of the categories where you want to be a record-setter.

Friday, there was a lot of drama with the hubby's plane flight back from Arkansas (business). The plane's oversold--they're asking for volunteers to get off the plane but he won't get home until tomorrow--if they kick him off, he gets $1300!!! Eventually, he "volunteered". He really got kicked off, but by volunteering, they bumped someone off a later flight and he got home only 2 hours late and $600 in vouchers richer. Not bad for 2 hours work. ;) So I didn't get much stitching done on Peacock Cypher.

 

I got some of those letters done, but I'M NOT TELLING HOW MANY. (Hint: it was not "all".)

Saturday I drew a knitting project, but I wasn't feeling it, so I drew again. AND THERE IT WAS...the Golden Ticket of the SCOD...the WILDCARD SLIP. That meant I could work on whatever I wanted. I could even start something!!! I think I'd said before that I wanted to start the shawl that I got the pattern and yarn for in Asheville when I drew my first wildcard. Well, there was one small problem with that, which I noticed when I wound the yarn (this would be the second part of the "idiocy" I mentioned):

 

I GOT TWO DIFFERENT COLORS. OF YARN. Not two different dye lots, people, TWO DIFFERENT COLORS. But didn't they look like the same color in skein form (scroll to the bottom)? Just, you know, a little different, but we all know how wacky Malabrigo colors/dye lots are, right? I'M NOT ON THE CRAZY KNITTER TRAIN ALONE, AM I?? I seem to recall the shop lady saying something about this (something helpful that a normal, sane person would have heeded, like, "these are two different colors"), but I just thought one dye lot looked a little darker. I can't make this shawl work like this...I thought about knitting the edge in the darker color, but I think I will run out of yarn that way. My hope is I'll be able to find another skein of the right-hand one at Stitches that's not too crazy different of a dye lot. IT CAN'T BE WORSE THAN AN ENTIRE DIFFERENT COLOR! (I hope those aren't famous "last words.")

So instead, I decided to complement my "wearin' o' the green" with some "stitchin' o' the green" and picked up my neglected temari:

 

Sadly, most of the time was spent cutting out those !@#$% little circles. Actually, it wasn't that bad, and they will save 5-6 measurements each. But it did mean I only got 1/2 of one path done...the pink pins are for the second half of the path, but the written instructions aren't doing it for me. So, I'll watch the video that our fabulous teacher provided, and based on other vids, I'm sure that will clear it right up for me.

I'll leave you with a teaser shot of Spring Blooms at the Botanical Gardens, where we went Saturday afternoon:

 

This might explain why I was wacked out on pollen Sunday morning....

This morning I drew ANOTHER WILDCARD!! That's what I get for complaining that none had shown up thus far. =) What should I stitch on tonight?? Suggestions??

JiffNotes
See how I bookended the post with tulips? This is some quality blogging right here, people. Quality.