I came away from the event with a renewed passion and inspiration for my business. Now I need to work on my confidence. Being in a new place is very challenging. I’m not good at meeting new people so I’m going to have to see about some networking events. Fortunately, I am in good company in my new unit and everyone is very supportive. I’m optimistic! I think that is what I came away with overall: optimism. It’s nice to have optimism again.

Did anyone out there attend Career Conference? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

A few of us in my Mary Kay group here decided to do a self help project by reading this book and implementing its suggestions. I figure it can’t hurt because I’m a huge rut right now. It’s more like a ditch. So, I’m participating on my own time. To stay accounatable I am going to post my progress here. I’m starting today. The book is called Get Out of the Rut and On with Your Life by Deb Erickson. My director down here respects this author and anything that provides motivation and inspiration to get moving is worth lookng at to me. This book looks interesting and a little more involved because it not only tells what to do, but it gives the opportunity to apply it. It has activites at the end of each section; homework, if you will. So this could definitely work for me.

Yesterday afternoon I had my weekly knitting lesson. It was about increasing and decreasing like last week, but today we started a pattern. I say “we,” however, I was the only one there this week! So, I started a new pattern. It’s a scarf. The pattern is called Norwegian fir lace. It’s pretty and delicate. I supposed I could have chosen a daintier yarn, but I loved the color of this yarn. The biggest downfall is I seem to have picked out a bad skein. It was the last one left in this color, go figure; and I just had to have it.

Tangled mess!

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening knitting and detangling the skein. Today I was at it again until I couldn’t get the knots out anymore. I got some help this afternoon. Teamwork always gets the job done! It was a mess and it turned out it was not even all together! We had to tie the ends together once we got it untangled. The whole skein is full of knots and when the largest tangle was undone, it came apart! Now it is all together and the remaining yarn is in a neat ball. I’m going to need another skein and I don’t know if there’s another in this color. I want to donate the finished scarf to charity. It’s frustrating that the skein was so bad.
All in all, I am optimistic about the progress and I think it’s going to be pretty once it’s done.

Meanwhile, my old experiment is growing. It started off as practice for knitting the garter stitch. Then, I figured out the purl stitch. I made some mistakes and ripped it apart and started all over. It helped keep me in practice with casting one anyway. So, the last time I started it over, I knitted a couple rows. Then I think I purled four rows and then knitted 4 and then purled 4. Then I decided I wanted it to have vertical ribbing so I did something like k5; p5.
I have almost finished the first skein of yarn. I bought another skein to knit in when I run out so it will be as long as I need it to be. Hopefully, I will remember correctly what I did on that first end so the other end matches. I suppose if it doesn’t match it will be OK. Someone around here will wear it. And yes, that’s my toe in the bottom corner there. I had to stand on the couch in order to get the whole thing to fit in the shot!

This is my next *big* knitting project. When I first went to the yarn shop down here to check the place out and inquire about classes for me, we saw these legwarmers made in the shop. This week I asked about getting the pattern since I’ve figured out knitting and purling and it turned out to be a free pattern with yarn purchase. Yay! So I bought 2 skeins of this beautiful red yarn. I think the colors in this are so pretty! There were other colors available in this particular brand and if I am successful making these red ones, I may just make another pair in another color.
I will most likely modify this pattern to make them longer. I like legwarmers that go well beyond the knee. Most legwarmers I’ve purchased are thigh highs. Ultimately, I want to make lots of knits for dancing. I found a ton of patterns online that are free, too. If only I knew how to do this stuff when I was a teenager. I would have handmade all my danceknits!

This afternoon’s knitting class covered increasing and decreasing. These are not easy tasks. I made a lot of mistakes practicing, but that’s why it’s called practice. The exercise we did today created some eyelets. It was familiar because way back when I started a purse that has eyelets. I didn’t get very far with that purse, but I definitely made a few rounds and finished at least one set of the eyelets. I don’t even think the eyelets are visible in this picture. This pattern is difficult because the yarn is so dark. I have trouble seeing the stitches sometimes when I’m using a darker color of yarn. One of these days I am going to finish this purse pattern. It’s in Vogue Knitting on the Go: Bags and Backpacks. I’ll probably get back to this purse after I figure out my abandoned socks. There’s always something I can work on!

Increasing/decreasing

My project from this afternoon looks interesting. It’s nothing, but it just looks interesting. When I say it’s nothing; I mean it’s nothing. It does not come from a pattern at all. It’s just knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing and it has some cute looking eyelets which are very similar to the eyelets not visible in this purse picture. The shape of the practice progress is looking like a face. I feel like it could become a small stuffed animal of some sort. We’ll see. Next week’s lesson continues the increasing and decreasing and incorporates it into a pattern. I’m going to like having a pattern to follow. Just randomly knitting stitches is OK, but I like to have some direction. The artistic freedom of just experimenting with things isn’t so bad either, however. The whole experience is really relaxing for me and surprisingly fulfilling. Who knew!

So, in the past year or so I have been rediscovering who I am. Because I am free from the oppressive situation I was in I am able to do things that would create major conflict in the past. I started by dancing again. It felt great to be back in a dance studio! A very good friend told me about the studio and when I got there it turned out the instructor was someone from a school I’d studied at in the past. Small world! What I really love is it’s for adults. No stuffy dress code! I was always such a noncomformist ballerina. Now I can wear what I’m most comfortable in. That means NO PINK TIGHTS! I prefer black tights. It’s the little things.

After settling back into ballet, I slowly came around with my business, but I wasn’t feelin’ it. I just wasn’t as excited about it as I once was. So, I stuck with my regular customers, but didn’t take on any new business. It just wasn’t what I wanted to do at that point. In the meantime, I did something bold. I’m not exactly bold. It’s one of the things I need to work on in my business. So, anyway, I digress. I did something bold. In my crushed, fragile little state I contacted someone from my past; someone I can only describe as my first love.  I met him in 1995 when I was young and impressionable and I guess he had a huge impact on me. First loves often do. We have now been back together exactly one year. I am happy! I was not happy for a very long time.

The biggest change occured about 4 months ago. I left my day job — my full-time with benefits day job. I did this to move out of state to be with my love. This is the best decision I ever made next to the bold step I took last February. Since moving down here much of my previous stress has been lifted. I think this is due mostly to the company I keep now. Having someone supportive and positive in my life has definitely improved my quality of life. I get much fewer migraines. For the most part, I sleep better at night. Lately, I have insomnia, but we are making more changes as we plan to move again. The anticipation and uncertainty tends to keep me up; but I’ll take this over the alternative any day.

As I’ve calmed down and relaxed and started to meet people I have become much more alive and confident. I’ve also found that lost passion I had for my business. I want to do it again! So, I found a director and started attending meetings. I’ve started selling locally! Now, I just need to start booking appointments again. I have help in that. Most importantly, I’m excited about my business again! This is a very good feeling.

You may see me write more about knitting. Years ago I took some knitting classes. Then I was met with discouragement and I got away from it. The yarn shop where I took those classes closed its doors and that didn’t help either. Since I am in a position now that I do not have to work full time (or at all for that matter) I have more time for myself that I was desperately missing before. I have time to read and work on knitting projects and to do my business; all without stress. It’s nice. I’ve also taken up fishing. I have to say, knitting and fishing are very relaxing and therapeutic.

So, there’s what’s been going on in a nutshell. This blog is going to start to include other things besides my business. It will still be a part of it; but it’s going to get broad. Just a forewarning. It’s great to be blogging again, too!

So I totally ripped apart what I was doing and startd over because I figured out the purl stitch on my own with a little help from Sally Melville’s book The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch. I was doing fine til I realized I’d added a stitch somehow. Not knowing how to fix it I took it all apart. I started over and then realized I hadn’t been placing the needles properly. I had the right needle on top of the left instead of under it. So I knitted 4 rows and purled 4 rows a few times and decided to make it look more interesting by purling 5 stitches and then knitting 5 stitches repeatedly. I messed up again by adding stitches. This time I was actually able to undo them and fix it myself without starting over! This time I forgot to move the working yarn to the front and back when switching from knit to purl and vice versa. It’s very satisfying to encounter a problem, identify it, and then figure out how to fix it on one’s own.

My knitting practice project is coming along. I’m ready to start purling. I’m going to a sit and stitch group in a little bit to see what that’s like, too. At the next class on Tuesday we will purl. I’m going to go through my books and things and see if I can figure it out sooner. Right now, I’m just repeating the garter stitch. I’m so ready to move forward! I want to start doing patterns again. I want to finish my unfinished things and start some thing new. There are two patterns I saw at the store that I would love to try. One is very cute flared legwarmers and the other is a cute knit skirt. I’m so ready to go! LOL  I want to make the legwarmers and wear them to ballet class!

Forget flowers and candy. I got something much better and more useful. I got *pink* fishing gear! That’s right. My boyfriend and I fish frequently and when he asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day I said I wanted a pink tackle bag from Gander Mountain and a pink Ugly Stik fishing rod. I’ll admit, I mostly just think the name “Ugly Stik” is hilarious and that is why I wanted one; but they happen to be a good fishing rod for a reasonable price!
So, we headed north to a location not to be disclosed to me until someone called and he told him where we were going giving away the surprise. We went to Gander Mountain and then to a humongous Bass Pro Shop up in Richmond. That Bass Pro Shop was unreal! Granted, the one in Hampton has a larger freshwater fish tank; the one in Richmond is just a huge store. It is complete with an awesome restaurant and a fudge shoppe to boot.
We had a great time and I got my pink fishing gear. As an added bonus we picked up a pink tackle backpack from Bass Pro. Now I am ready to fish! My Ugly Stik does need a reel at this point, but we have plenty of other fishing rods that I can use.