10/26/09

October Surprises

Well, after the little run-around yesterday morning, I've come away today with a painful knowledge of how I beat myself up sliding around in the mud. Half of my back muscles are strained from jolting them after my footing slipped, my legs are still exhausted from climbing, and my hands, arms, and the back of my neck are scratched all over the place from those damn sticker bushes.
In addition to that, last night at work was not a wonderful time at all. A birthday party of 30 people filtered in slowly, claiming they'd spoken to a manager three days previous. After checking the schedule and some small communications with the people on that day, we'd deduced that they hadn't been in contact with us about this at all. Whatever, I said, I'll take care of them if Cat can just cover a few extra tables to help me out.
Those 30 people took over and trashed half of our dining room for about two and a half hours. Now, I'm used to cleaning up after big parties, and it was no big deal until I found the confetti on the ground. And the streamers, and the cake that had been ground into the carpet. And the table flooded by a spilled drink. And the empty party poppers that had, before use, contained no small amount of said confetti and streamers. As they left (thank god I asked Erik to add gratuity to the bill) they said, "Wow! We really left a mess for you, didn't we?"
Yes, yes you did. Jerks.
So I started cleaning. It took me a little over two hours to tame that half of the dining room back into some semblance of cleanliness, with some help from my manager. The other server, Cat, left without assisting me in any way.

Patrick picked me up, and we went home. I goofed around on my computer as I relaxed for a bit, and then we went to bed around 12. I slept like a log, and didn't wake up until almost 10. It was very nice, until I rolled over and cringed as my back protested. But I said all that already.
I've spend most of my day off today knitting, working on a project with Bob, and doing laundry. Relaxing. The knitting has been very peaceful, especially with two snoring dogs keeping my legs warm. Even if I can't feel my feet any more.

So! This brings me slowly to today's title. I'm having a blog contest! My first one ever. Here's how to enter: leave a comment and tell me the story (abridged, if you can, please) about your greatest knitting improvisation, and what (if anything) you learned from it. It could be a pattern change, an equipment substitution, or you can tell me about how you knit with three fingers and your mouth that year you broke your wrist.
I'll pick the best and I have goodies for the winner. Doesn't it sound like fun? Spread the word among your friends, anyone can enter.

Hope to hear from you!

Well I was layin' out wire on number 9
Now when she come down to earth
And she was talkin' real loud
All about she was gonna save the universe
I went and snuck a lil' peek in her blue eyes
And words just aren't enough
She had me off and runnin'

Yoko Kanno ~ Diggin'

7 comments:

Donna Lee said...

I put a mention up on my blog. I wish I had a good story for you but I'm an ordinary knitter. No improv here.

roxie said...

Donna Lee sent me over here. My greatest innovation was when I unvented a knitted moebius band. It takes three circular needles and a two-sided stitch like seed stitch or basketweave or something like that. It makes a nice scarf.

Saren Johnson said...

I took a sexy little knit pattern that called for 4.25 SPI and converted it to 13 SPI. It looks good, but not great. :(

Like Roxie, I came over because of Donna Lee.

amy said...

Donna Lee sent me. Um. When haven't I improvised? I'll have to say my first knitting project was my greatest, because it was my first. It was a Christmas stocking, and the instructions said to knit flat to the heel, then do the heel, then do the foot in the round. My sister said that was stupid, and told me to do the whole thing in the round. So really it was HER improvisation, but she was right (she usually is; she's my older sister, after all) but I executed it. And really, my first ever knitted thing was knit on DPNs in the round. Go me.

Em said...

Well, I haven't improvised much for knitting, but I definitely improvised for blocking. I didn't happen to have any nifty t-pins or blocking boards, so I pinned a seven or eight foot scarf out on a runner and some towels with un-bent safety pins. It took about two hours, and damn near gave me blisters. I have since devised a much better blocking setup, in the interest of saving my hands.

roxie said...

Yep, necessity is a mother!

Bells said...

ARRGHH I meant to come back and leave my comment! Am I too late???