Employment At Last

Okay, so "at last" might be a bit dramatic. Have I really seemed to be missing the daily grind since January?

But anyway, yesterday I got the call offering me the library job I interviewed for a few weeks ago. I accepted, and after salary negotiations and an official offer this afternoon, I will start sometime the week of the 14th of May. Starting date complicated by a trip to Maine scheduled for May 4-5 and another to Tucson over Mother's Day weekend the 10th through the 14th on my end and a number of meetings on my new supervisor's end.

Still trying to get my head around what it means that I will once again be working outside the house during the week. Of course, for Pupper it means a return to spending more time in his kennel and getting spoiled by his dog walker (who seems quite happy in a way to be getting her job back). For us it means cleaning the house, doing the laundry and going grocery shopping on weekends and evenings at least until M is out of school at the end of June.

And of course, there will be far less time for knitting, weaving and writing. Not to mention gardening, straightening out the stash and organizing our ridiculously messy pattern collection. Alas, the life of a working stiff one again has entrapped me. Cue the violins.

In other news, here is the promised Cork sweater photo:
Pattern: Top-down raglan with rolled collar and garter stitch cuffs. I created a basic pattern with Sweater Wizard based on the gauge, but mostly I just started a sweater and made it to fit (ah, the beauty of top down construction).
Yarn: Rowan Cork #047, Pleasure, 9 balls or so (it was less than a bag, I know that)
Needles: Addi Turbo 40" and 32" #11 (the 40" for magic looping the sleeves); Inox Nickel Plated 32" and 24" #10 (for collar and cuffs).

I love this sweater; I've actually loved this sweater since the first time I slipped the yoke over my head to see if it was time to divide the body and sleeves. It is warm and soft -- soft enough that I could probably wear it with a short-sleeved t-shirt underneath, making it exactly the sweatshirt substitute I was hoping for. Cork is a great yarn, and it is definitely a shame that they discontinued it. Having this sweater finally finished (I started and abandoned it over a year ago) is making me regret in some small way letting the bag of brown that I had stashed go.

Why did I abandon it if I loved it so? I don't know how other people do it, because it was killing me to try to knit the sleeves on #11 DPs without ladders. So I frogged the sleeves and started over using two short circs, but the dangling bits were annoying me. So I abandoned the sweater until I could figure out a solution.

For a while it was looking like the solution was going to be to knit the sleeves flat and seam them (which is what I did with Fantine); then I got tired of always worrying about losing the extra DP from my sock bag, and I got tired of poking myself with the DPs while knitting socks so I finally learned magic loop. Not only have I not knit socks any other way since, but this also presented the solution to the sleeve issue with the Cork sweater.

Monday afternoon, M got home early so we headed down to the big city for some shopping. We hit WEBS, and M is now the proud owner of a Molly of her very own. Hers is blue. I also picked up some hot pink Rowan 4-Ply Soft to make us some socks and a couple of balls of Tofutsies. Everyone I've read or talked to has a very strong opinion one way or the other about this yarn, so I'm curious to try it. We couldn't decide between colors 727 and 726, so we bought both. I'll have to find a really good pattern for it.

I am nearly done with the back of the Crocus Tank, but no pic since it looks pretty much the same as the back of the other one (scroll down the page about halfway), only it's periwinkle this time. [If I had better Photo Shop skills, I'm sure I could just doctor the photo, but I've got other things I'd rather do.]

I'm still loving the tank and the pattern, and this one will probably make the trip to Tucson with us. I wonder if I'll have time to make us a Smooch before then, too. I hear it's already very warm down there in desert (at least during the day).

And here's a final parting pic of the felted penguin, all dressed up for his next great adventure, the school's fundraising auction and arts night Saturday.His hat and scarf are made from more of my nearly endless store of DK weight superwash using the directions that are in the Fiber Trends pattern.

New Things Happening

The job interview went really well last week, and it seems like a job I would really love and be good at. The search committee (which includes the person who would be my direct supervisor) was great, and they seemed to have a good time and not balk completely at my answers. And they asked some of the best and most reasonable questions I've been asked in a job interview in a while.

A little about the job itself. A few years ago the college bought an old Strategic Air Command bunker. That's right, one of those places the military could hide people and sensitive stuff during crises. It's been re-purposed to hold lesser-used library materials. Two people work there full time processing materials and responding to requests to use the materials. TWO PEOPLE. Anyone who knows me knows that short of ONE person, two people is just about my ideal working environment. I've realized I don't mind working FOR other people half as much as I mind working WITH other people.

And the whole place has this great feel to it. Think of what you think a library should be -- quiet, dusty, kind of intimidating -- that's what this place is like. She did email asking for references, so I guess they didn't totally dismiss me. We'll see what happens from here. I think I would love the job, and I definitely know I would love being back in a library, but at the same time, I like the freedom and ease which my not working has given our home life.

I am also now the President of the local Friends of the Library. I kinda got strong armed into accepting the position, but now that I've got it, I intend to do it right. Starting with making sure that Board meetings last no longer than an hour and are actually productive. Then we'll move on to planning programs properly and moving beyond "what we've always done".

Running my first meeting as President definitely gave me some appreciation for what M is up against trying to save a church which is stuck in "we've never done it that way before".

Tonight is my volunteer training for the animal shelter, but I've already got volunteer assignments. This afternoon, I pick up something from a local hotel -- I'm to go to the desk and ask for Jen and bring whatever she gives me to the shelter. I'm taking it on faith that whatever it is is legal.

Keeping busy is sooo important.

Oh, A Job Interview

Forgot to mention that I have a job interview this afternoon. It's for an actual library job, something akin to what I went to school to do and originally intended to do with my life. Of course, I'm seriously overqualified for this job, but it's a place to start getting my library career on a different path.

The problem I am facing right now is that I spent all of my professional life doing something very specialized in a specific type of library. And I don't want to do that thing anymore. Unfortunately, if I look for a job in that same type of library, they see me only as a specialist (of a type I don't want to be anymore), and if I look at any other type of library, the see only that I've spent my entire professional career in a different type of library.

The answer: essentially pretend I don't have the graduate degree for now and start back at the bottom, with the type of jobs I had while I was earning the degree. It'll give me "appropriate" experience to then pursue a new career path. Make sense? Mind you, I'm not lying on my resume, just downplaying my more specialized experience in favor of my more generalized education and experience.

We'll see how it goes. It sounds like an interesting job, much closer to what I thought I would be doing with my professional career than what I wound up doing anyway. AND it's a job primarily working with the books and the databases used to control them. No pesky patrons to deal with.

In other news, I started volunteer training at the local animal shelter last night, and I signed Pupper up to be a volunteer in their pet visitation program. Requirements for dogs in the program include that they must enjoy attention. That's our Pupper alright! If you will give him attention he will eat it up. And if you have other things to do, he'll just be here waiting for when you have time for him.