Finding my Feng Sui

I've never been a very good sleeper and I've been tired for thirty some years. At the brink of exhaustion, "Not Steve" suggested that I research making a Feng Sui bedroom. I've heard of Feng Sui and sort of understood what it is was but ignorant as to the what's, hows and whys so I shot him one of my glares. But as soon as I had a free minute, I googled "Feng Sui Bedrooms."

After 0.32 seconds, my search results were in front of me and I clicked on the first one, Feng Sui Bedroom Tips-How to Feng Shui Your Bedroom. I scanned down the seven rules listed and said to myself, "Okay, I can do this. It's worth a try."

As I read the finer print, things got more difficult. "Avoid sloped ceilings, have nothing hanging over bed, avoid "pointing arrows", remove all clutter......" Yikes, I have all those things. My Feng Sui is sunk!"

In a mini panic attack, I turned off the ceiling fan/overhead lighting fixture that hangs on my sloped ceiling and over my bed (thinking that I could trick my Feng Sui by making it less obvious) and turned on a table lamp. The energy immediately felt better. I cleared off my dresser and night stand and moved the piles of clothing into the other bedroom. Ahhhhh-even better energy. I closed all doors and opened the window to get fresh oxygen. Wow, this Feng Sui stuff is easy-good energy is really flowing now.

As I scanned my bedroom with my new Feng Sui eyes (as if I were now an expert), I was pleased with my results until I saw my "western bagua" with the floor stacked with magazines and the bookcases crammed and overflowing with knitting books, thirteen years worth of unfinished projects, miscellaneous skeins of yarn, unmatched knitting needles...and you get the picture-and it isn't pretty! All of the good energy was instantly zapped by my "western bagua"!

Light bulb moment-the biggest problem with my life is Clutter!
It is not the ceiling fan over my bed or the sloped ceiling-I have clutter everywhere-and not just in my Western Bagua! All of this clutter is disrupting my good energy!

I said to myself, "Junko, Free yourself from physical, mental and emotional clutter!"

As a go from shelf to shelf, drawer to drawer, room by room, I am clearing out the clutter and as a result I'm finding the mates to the unmatched knitting needles, the lost stitch markers, the forgotten projects that were started with good intentions, books and patterns that I thought I had lost. I'm also finding that by replacing the lost items and by starting new projects because I lost "the flow" (aka Feng Sui) of the previous project, I am creating even more physical, mental and emotional clutter. Clutter has a snowball effect.

I may be missing the hows, whys and whats of Feng Sui, but this Feng Sui thing has really motivated me. Now, if I could only learn the correct pronunciation maybe I'll sleep better.

Neti Pot

I'm sick! I came down with "the crud" on Sunday night after flying with my sick friend and fellow flight attendant Nancy. The Crud is that horrible hot and cold, achy, stuffy nose, puffy eyes, weak as a kitten, don't know if its a cold, flu or sinus infection, maybe I was hit by a truck feeling. You don't know if you're hungry, tired, cranky or all of the above, but you do know that you can't get comfortable and you can't function.

Desperate times call for desperate measures! Most people will go to the doctor or medicate with OTC drugs, I bring out the Neti Pot! If your not familiar with the Neti Pot, brace yourself-it's not for everyone. Sheryl knows its not for her-she gave me hers after giving it a few tries-so now I have a spare.

The Neti Pot is a complete sinus cleansing system. The ads read, "It naturally cleanses, refreshes, and protects the nasal passages, one of our body's first lines of defense against illness. Recommended today by doctors and pharmacists worldwide, the Neti Pot^TM has been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine to alleviate sinus and allergy problems. The Himalayan Institute introduced the Neti Pot^TM over 35 years ago."

The translation of all of that is "You stick the spout of a little blue plastic teapot up one nostril and "Neti tea" and nastiness dribbles out the other nostril and into your sink." For those of you who want to see how it really works, you can YouTube it. But, I think you can imagine just how NOT pretty it is.

The good news is that I really like the Neti Pot. It does clear up the nasal passage and leaves you feeling unplugged and fresher. Sarah Haney's friend, Brittany, introduced me to the Neti Pot. I want to be like Brittany so I tried it. After the first rinse, I was hooked! I actually had a mild addiction to the Neti Pot for a week or two. Since I know my addictive tendencies towards the Neti, I don't Neti regularly as they recommend, I only Neti when I'm sick.

I took advantage of a real day off yesterday-no shop, no Comair, no phone calls and no knitting (too sick to even knit)! I stayed in pajamas most of the day, Neti-ed, showered and put on clean pajamas. Today, I was semi-functioning thanks to the Neti Pot and Steve and Belinda for bringing me "A Feed a Cold Buffet" from Frisches. I went to the shop and quarantined myself in the office. Janet took one look at me and said, "WHoa!" I didn't think I looked THAT bad. After a few hours, I came back home to my pajamas and Neti Pot. I know I'm on the mends because I started knitting yet another new project- a faux ribbed baby sweater from the "Sweetess Book" in our new yarn called Crofter DK. The self patterning yarn looks and feels great and I don't want to put it down-but I did for the sake of the blog and the Neti Pot!

P.S. The Neti Pot is available is Walgren's and Wal-Mart in the Cold/Flu/Allergy Section.

Living the Dream-The Conclusion

We wake up early yet again and the crew meets in the hotel lobby. Captain Steve says, "Hey, I checked the company website this morning to check on our flights. Did you see that flight attendants have to re-enter their bids for next month?" Our jaws drop. "What?!!!!"

Nothing we can do before our flight, so off we go to the airport. We have two flights to work and a deadhead flight. A deadhead is where we just ride as passengers to get repositioned. We get through the day without a hitch. Amen.

Once we get to the hotel, I check the company website- and there it is flight attendants have until Thursday at noon to re-enter bids. Good. I can do it when I get home and I don't have to scramble to get on-line (no free internet in LGA). Oh and what's this? There is a change to my assignment for tomorrow. All three of my original flights have cancelled due to weather and all we have to do is deadhead back to Cincinnati. My luck is changing!

We get to sleep in (9:00 AM report instead of getting up at the crack of early). Beverly and I report to the lobby and find out that our pilots had to work a flight to RDU (Raleigh Durham). We head out to find that the flight is delayed by one hour. We don't have to work it, so we don't mind the delay. After an hour, the plane shows up and we board early to get away from the crowds. It's the Vomit Comet!

The crew of the Vomit Comet informs us that there is a maintenance issue and that there will be a further delay. The mechanic is shaking his head. Never a good sign.

Four and one-half hours later, the Vomit Comet is ready! We reboard and two hours later, we arrive in Cincinnati! Boom Done!

Thank Goodness for knitting!

Living The Dream-Day 2

Day 2

It's Valentine's Day and I have just one flight to work today. Go from JFK to ORD. Sounds easy, but the flight leaves at 7:00 AM, which means we report for duty at 6:00 AM, which means wake up at 5:00AM.

We get to the the airport in Kennedy and the "Vomit Comet" awaits us for another day of flying.

I must find the mental energy to put my March bid together and get it entered today. In addition to another warm Doubletree chocolate chip cookie, our hotel in ORD has free wifi in the rooms so this should work out well. Stay focused!

So much for focus, my Captain (his name is Steve, of course) wants to take the crew out for a Valentine's Day Lunch of Chicago Style Pizza. You may remember my Blog episode "Food Wars" where Janice's Chicago-style pizza beat my LGA Killer Canoli. Well, Captain Steve was treating at Giordani's, the exact site of my Canoli defeat. The March bidding can wait!

The Deep Dish Pizza looked more like Cheesecake than pizza! Beverly and I did NOT order the Heart Shaped Deep Dish Pizza pictured above. We split a thin crust spinach and vegetable loaded pizza (which in the rest of America, would be considered deep dish).

Needless to say, a 5:00 AM wake up, carb overdose with chocolate chip cookie chaser spells NAPTIME! The March bidding must wait!

After a long winter's nap, it's time to get serious! After two and one-half hours of hunting, searching, adding, subtracting, conferring with Nancy and dinking my MacBook trying to figure out how to get free wifi, I'm ready to start entering my bid! Entering the darn bid takes another hour, most spend watching the little hourglass spinning around-asking my to wait patiently.

Mission Accomplished-The March Bid is entered! In another week, I'll know if I did it right when the results are published. Wish me luck!

Living the Dream

I thought I'd give you a little taste of my Flight Attendant Life.

Day One-February 13, 2010.
I start out cranky.
It was to be an easy day-2 flights.
Fly from CVG (Cincinnati) to ORD (Chicago O'Hare) then from ORD to JFK (New York and you may have heard me refer to JFK differently-but I'll keep in family friendly).

Our airplane was late coming in so we knew we would be a little late going out. What we didn't know was that a passenger had gotten very sick and had proceeded to vomit all over Seats 19C, 19D, 20C and 20D. The seats and the carpeting would now need to be replaced and the Aft flight attendant jumpseat was now unusable. We named the plane the "Vomit Comet".

Have you ever wonder why your flight is delayed when the weather seems fine? The answers are too numerous and for the most part, you really don't want to know.

It would seem like a great time to get some knitting done while we waited-but NO. I just picked up my Bid Packet. The Bid Packet is the Flight Attendants' only chance to plan for the upcoming month and ask for days off, specific trips and so on. The packet comes out on a Wednesday (it's now Saturday) and the bids must be submitted by Monday at Noon. I don't have the mental energy or the time to go through the whole packet which lists in detail all 1300 possible trips.

I usually cross off the days I want off, then I cross off the trips that start too early or end too late. I also cross off trips that involve Canada (too much hassle with customs and paperwork), and the list goes on and on. I touch base with my friend Nancy, we try to fly together as much as possible but sometimes are schedules are too hard to coordinate. I want March 6th off for the Free Form Purse Class and I want the 19th-22nd off for a possible road trip. With those dates crossed off, I do some quick math and realize that it will not be possible to build my March schedule with those days off. Back to the drawing board-I may need to put Canada back into play :-(

After an hour and a half delay, we were ready to board. The passengers are all concerned about making their connecting flights. We try to address their concerns but we have concerns of our own. We only have a little over an hour to provide a full service to a full plane with a full first class cabin-we'll have to move fast. Luckily, I'm flying with Miss Beverly and she's easy to work with and delightful.

We make it to Chicago and quickly try to get the plane ready for the next flight to make up some time. Luckily, the plane is only half full. During our rushing around, I somehow broke my "Wings", my flight attendant name badge thing that sits over my left chest area. The protective backing of one of the prongs has partially broken off and the sharp point is exposed. I can neither get the pin off or cover the sharp exposed point. Needless to say, I spend the next two hours trying not to play with my chest. Good thing we're only half full and its dark!

We get to JFK and were now only an hour late. It is bitter cold and we wait over 30 minutes for the hotel van to pick us up. I'm now crankier, colder and suffering from multiple stab wounds. Once we get on the van, it proceeds to make three more stops to pick up more cold and cranky guests. I get my room key, my DoubleTree Chocolate chip cookie (the best part of the day) and head straight for bed.

Knitting for Those in Need

Wow! Almost two weeks since the last blog. Very Sorry :-(

Well, several of you have been coming into the shop and crabbing about the lack of postings, so here's the scoop. I've been flying too much with nothing fun to report. I've been busy at the shop with ordering, paying bills and closing out paperwork for 2009. And, I've been knitting aimlessly and not finishing a thing!

When Lisa Hatton and Rita Arthur told me that they were tired of looking at those darn needles from the last post, I knew I was well overdo. It's time to put fun and blogging back into my life!

When I ask Rita for some inspiration, she told me that she has been doing a lot of charity knitting for her church. She said is involved with Prayer Needles. They knit blankets and hats for the Children's Home, where are currently 64 children ages seven and above. They also knit prayer shawls for the sick.

Five minutes later, TJ Dixon called with questions about the free form knitting class. Next thing you know we're talking about ways to use up stash and miscellaneous scrap yarn. She said she had been knitting lots of newborn baby caps with her leftover yarn for the Rose Garden Ministries in Covington. She has been cranking them out and shares the following pattern with you.

"You can knit this cute little baby hat in under two hours. All you need are worsted weight yarn scraps, #7 dpns, and a 16” #7 circular needle. Instructions are for newborn (0-6 months). Using a #7 circular needle, cast on 56 (64) stitches. Join for working in the round and knit until the hat measures 5 ½” (6”) from the beginning. On the next row, K2tog across. Switch to dpns and k2tog across the next 2 rows. Cut yarn and thread it through the remaining stitches. Weave in ends and voila! Add a pom-pom, make I-cord loops on top, etc."

As most of you know, we work closely with Tammy Simpson and Scarf It Up for Those in Need and other causes like Celebritrees. This month we have been asking for your support for Scarf It Up by donating $1 with every purchase or buying a chance to win a beautiful watercolor painting that is displayed at the shop. The support has been great. The Watercolor tickets are sold out!

When your thinking about your next project or in my case, you just need to start something new- we have lots of charities that would appreciate your generosity, kindness and talent.

I'm off on yet another four-day trip. I'll try to blog while I'm away!

Get the Point?

Knitting needles are like shoes--they can make or break your desired look. Some outfits require heels, some knitting projects will require a sharper point. If the shoe fits, wear it! If the needle gets you gauge, use it! I can go on and on with the analogies because I love shoes and needles, but I think you get the point. Bottom line-you can never have too many shoes and needles!

Knitting sounds like such a simple concept--You use two pointed sticks to pull loops of string through one another. But, there are so many different kinds of yarns and needles on the market. From plain plastic needles to metal, glass, bamboo, woods and many other materials-the choices are plentiful. Then, there are straight needles and circular needles (not to mention double-pointed needles). And further more, there are the varying lengths. All of this can be pretty confusing to a beginner. So, how do you know what needle is right for you and your project? Answer: Ask a Knitwit!

Knitting needles are generally divided into three types: straight (with one pointed end), circular (with two needles connected by a cable), and double-pointed. Each has its purpose.
Needles come in thicknesses from 0.75mm to 25mm. Most commonly you'll find needles also marked with U.S. sizes that correspond to the metric numbers, but to make matters even more confusing, various manufacturers use different metric equivalents for U.S. sizes.

Different knitters like different needles for different reasons. We stock only what we think are the best needles on the market. They may not always be the cheapest option.

Many knitters love bamboo or wooden needles because of their warmth, the natural feel in the hands, and the comforting but quiet clicking sound they make. They’re also good for knitting slick yarns because the needles have a bit of friction, which can help keep the stitches from sliding off the needles. Our Clover Bamboos and Velvets are a great choice for beginners.

Metal needles are smooth, can be found in both sharp and blunt tips, and are wonderful for yarns that otherwise tend to stick, but can be used with all yarns. We really really really like the Addi Turbos and Addi Lace Needles and find that they really improve the speed and the appearance of your knitting. The Addis are slightly more expensive but if you're planning to have a lot of knitting in your future they are worth the investment.

Plastic needles are like eating with plastic utensils. They get the job done-but...you deserve better!

To start your needle collection, I suggest buying circular needles with 24-40" cables. You can knit anything on circular needles. As the need arises, buy the DPs for hats, socks and sleeves, the shorter cables for the same reasons. If you're doing a lot of knitting, buy Addis. I prefer the Addi Lace for the sharper points but I do a lot of yarn overs, k2togs and I use a lot of textured and splitty yarns.

A common misconception is that you'll only need one pair of needles in each size. The truth is, you can never have too many duplicate sets of needles. Not only do needles have a habit of disappearing, but they also like to stay in unfinished projects. If you like to work on more than one project at a time, or if you like the freedom of being able to sort through your stash and begin a project at 3am, you'll need lots of available needles.

Because they spend so much time in your hands, needles can quickly become as cherished as your favorite pet or piece of jewelry. Many knitters, once set on a favorite needle type, will defend it with the same vigor usually reserved for religious or political debates.

Some will touch nothing but birch or rosewood, others cry, "Give me bamboo or give me death!" And many Addi fans would rather switch to decaf than use any other type of needle.
You may find that you prefer several types of needles depending on your project.

Now, if only we could find an attractive and organized way of displaying our knitting needle and shoe collections.