Bright Spots

Ah, Friday. It's been another long, stressful week, mostly due to work stuff. I'll spare you the details, mainly because they're not that interesting and it's a lot like flogging a dead horse, but I am hopeful things will improve soon. I have a meeting scheduled next Thursday with my supervisor and someone higher up in my office plus the two people who have been in charge of the job classification issue for all of my office to discuss the changing of my (incorrect) non-exempt job classification to one that better represents what I actually do and that is a salaried position. Knowing how slowly things move with my employer, I'm sure it'll be a while before it's all resolved, but I am hopeful we're at least in the last chapter of this saga.

Instead of whining today, I thought I'd share some bright spots from the past week, specifically the past few days.

On Wednesday, Mo and I got to dog-sit unexpectedly. My brother had confused his schedule a bit and had to be in all-day negotiations that he thought were on Thursday, so he asked if we could take Leo for the day. That meant we got to take him for a walk in the neighborhood midday, and while he was sniffing something, we spotted a hummingbird flying in and out of a bunch of flowers across the street. I could have tried to take a photo, but it wouldn't have done it justice, so I opted to just enjoy the moment.

The past two evenings, I've cast on some new projects. First, because I like having something I can knit on without looking, I started another top-down hat. I did have to pay attention during the crown increases, but because I'm making this one of my double-layer hats, I have a lot of plain stockinette in the round to go.

This yarn is the Malabrigo sock yarn that was in the box with the swift and ball winder I got in the swap at the retreat last month, and I thought it was just brown and green until I started knitting and discovered all these colorful pops! I'm not sure if this'll be added to the charity pile or become a gift, but it doesn't really matter at this point.

I also started a Newborn Vertebrae (Ravelry link) for my niece using some special Fibernymph Dye Works MCN that I've been saving for a special occasion.

The yarn is from 2022 and was the special skein dyed for those who participated in Lisa's yearlong makealong that year. The colorway is called Community because the colors were selected from a mashup of all the ravatars of participants in the makealong. I think an MCN is perfect for a newborn, and it's exciting to be knitting something tiny for this baby -- I didn't do anything this small for her brother because he was born in May (though who could have predicted we'd have a freak cold spell and I'd be wearing a wool sweater when I met him the first time?). I've knit this pattern many times as a baby gift, and as I've done in the past, I'll be knitting a little hat to go with it.

Yesterday work was quiet enough that I could spend some time reading and spinning, and that time was enough to finish the singles on my final bobbin for the contrast skein for the body of my sweater project, so today I am ready to ply:

I don't know if I'll be able to ply today, but if not, I'll do it this weekend.

Finally, though there are some issues for me due to all the job drama, I got a notification that union ballots were officially sent out yesterday! Faculty have already unionized at my university, but this is an effort to unionize the staff that's been in progress for a couple of years. Ballots aren't due to be returned and counted until mid- to late September, but I'm hoping that before too long I'll be able to say I'm a proud member of United Steelworkers!

That's all I've got for today. Hope you have a good end to your week and a relaxing weekend ahead. See you back here on Monday!