A return to normalcy

It's a nice quiet Sunday morning after a hectic week. Anyone who says accountants are wusses has never had to deal with a fiscal year end. Most year ends at the office have been pretty mellow but this one was fraught with computer glitches and people running about like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get all the information put together for closing the books. All in my group were involved with the process in one way or another and I put in overtime. I'm just glad it's over and we can start moving on to the next brouhaha: preparing for when I go on medical leave.

The Rogue hood is grafted! If I had a choice between grafting and cutting a steek, I'd be reaching for the scissors. I don't know what it is about grafting that my brain can't wrap itself around. I can see how the stitches weave their way in and out but when I try to do it, the graft ends up looking like the dog's breakfast. So when a fellow knit lister suggested this site, I was so so grateful! It has you do a chimney of waste yarn after you reach the last row of the place you want to graft. Instead of doing a chimney in the round on the edges, I did extended edges with waste yarn, following the pattern on the first row, then stockinetting the remainder. Having a good contrast yarn is very helpful in this process because all you do then is follow the yarn as it winds through your pattern stitches and snug it up. I didn't take out the waste yarn until I inspected the work. Sigh of relief when it came out beautifully. Now off to making the second sleeve. Joy joy joy!!!

On the political side, it's gratifying to see Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Not so much that she is a Democrat but that she's female. Other countries have had women as the leaders; the US is lagging behind. If the Speaker had been a female Republican I would have celebrated that. In the end it's how good a job she does in running the House and getting legislation through. It requires people skills, organization skills, and a mind that can switch from one subject to another at a moment's notice. Kind of like a mom, don't you think?