Yarn shops and sick babies

I've been working some extra hours at Bella this week, covering for a girl who's taken a little time off. It's really fun to work the early afternoon shift. It's quiet enough that I can get some restocking/reshelving done, but busy enough that I'm not bored. We get a nice little busy streak in the afternoon from about 12:30-2:00 and then Naomi comes in and I get to catch her up on the events of the day, and head out the door. I've restocked (and reorganized) the Berroco Ultra Alpaca, Comfort DK, Lamb's Pride bulky, and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby in the last week. It looks so much nicer and Naomi is pretty pleased with how it looks on the shelves. I love that I can just go in and say "I really don't like how this looks on the shelves, or where this sample is" and I can just move things around. I'm going to be helping a bit with the magazines too, and I'm currently working on a sample for the shop in Queensland Rustic Wool. I like this yarn and I think I might knit a sweater for myself from this when I finish.

In the mean time, I've ordered the Knit Picks Palette that I need for my Bella's New Moon Vest, plus a copy of the newly reprinted Alice Starmore's Fair Isle book, and a copy of EZ's Knitter's Almanac and Knitting In The Round. I think that these books might be just the thing to help me get over my hump and allow me to be able to design patterns of my own. I know what I want to do, I just need the resources to do it. I managed to work up a water bottle cover for my new Dunkin Donuts bottle (that they sold me, telling me it was fine for hot liquids but it's not...it's a metal water bottle for Pete's sake) so I could hold it without burning my hands and keep my drink hot. Well, I was shocked to find that a water bottle cozy is actually functional! It kept my drink nice and hot for about three hours. Three. Hours. I knit it with half a skein of Noro Kureon on 4mm needles, and wrote out a pattern for anyone who might want to keep cold drinks cold (it does that too...Mountain Dew stayed cold for seven hours) or hot drinks hot, and do it with style. The Kureon sells for under 20.00 (if I remember correctly) and I think I have enough left over to make a second one for my Nalgen water bottle. That's not bad at all. This week I have a huge amount of school work but once that's finished I'll see about getting a pattern written out. I might take it to the shop and you can get it there when you pick up the Kureon...I'll let you know.

Speaking of school work, I thought I'd get to do quite a bit of that today and I even skipped knitting group to be sure I could, but Alex got sick during my class and I had to go up and tend to him. I don't know if he ate something that didn't agree with him, but we had to clean him up and put him back to bed. Then about an hour later he was crying again and I went up to get him. His tummy hurt and I had to bring him downstairs with me on the couch to keep an eye on him. He did better, and started to nod off a bit but kept trying to wake himself up so eventually I got him to agree to go back to bed. That, and fielding related phone calls ate up all my study time so tomorrow I really have to hit the school work. I have a five-page paper due on early philosophers who influenced early scientist, who then in turn influenced modern psychology. I also have a 900 page paper on why a fictional couple should choose the more expensive daycare for their infant, which offers a more nurturing and developmentally stimulating environment, rather than the less expensive one which does not. That one seems like a no brainer, but the five-pager is going to take some doing. And then there's the two discussion questions for each class and the four responses to classmates for each class, and the reading, and the seminars, and now I'm taking the advice of my good buddy Rachel, and only reading the relevant material. I just don't have that kind of time with Alex, and Dante, and a husband, and work, and church, and 13 students to attempt to mentor... I think you get the picture here. Sometime this week, sleep's going to be an issue too (as in, lack of sleep will put it's foot in my rear and I'll crash). Oh, the glamorous life of a college student.