Crocheting along

My sewing room has not been calling me lately.  I have been continuing to work on the blanket for my niece.  And I've decided to give her a blog name.  I am going to call her Autumn because one of her names translates to Autumn.  For whatever reason, the boarder on this blanket has driven me a little batty.  It's single crochet around the square, and when you get back to the first corner, you turn and do single crochet around again.  Sounds simple, no?  Sometimes I forget to stop at that corner (I've now marked it).  The corner itself looked horrible 4 rows in as well as too tight along one side so it wasn't lying flat, so I ripped all the way back and started that again (I've now caught up to where I was).  The pattern calls for 9 rows like that.  Mom suggested maybe I only do 5 or 7 as it's clearly not playing to my strengths, but I think the pattern of the single crochet needs rows to actually look intentional.  So I will plug on to the full 9 rows.  Now that my corner doesn't look warped and I've marked it, it's going along okay.

Did I mention that there is a double tie to this crochet pattern?  After showing Mom the blanket and pattern, she thought it looked familiar.  It seems her mother bought a knitting/crochet book (copyright 1941) sometime between 1942-1944 based on her married name being on the book (April 1942) and Mom thought she bought it prior to her birth in March, 1945.  That book has the same pattern.  The only difference is the 1941 version suggests adding embroidery along the single crochet rows (9 rows gives space for that) and the Lina family version does not.  The fonts and formatting are a little different, but the directions are identical.  Very cool, no?

After Summerfolk, Mr. Lina and I went to see Autumn at my parents house.  Summerfolk is really tiring, lots of early mornings, late nights and sunshine all day.  Taking Monday off work is a necessity.  Mr. Lina was fading when we got to my parents in the early evening.  Autumn wasn't all that awake herself (feeding is pretty hard work)....

She is a very snuggly baby.  And sadly, a baby who went home on Wednesday.  I have mixed feelings about that.  The part that empathizes for my brother having to be back at home while his wife and daughter are here want them to rush back to him.  They need to learn to be parents together and he is missing out on this time with Autumn.  Part of me is sad that she will be gone so I can't ease her into my life at a rate I'm comfortable with.  It's all or nothing.

Do you ever feel there are signs out there?  Sometimes things you don't want to hear?   God or the universe or whatever just pushing you along in one direction or another?

Both Mr. Lina and I have quite a few things shifting at work.  Mr. Lina survived the cuts, but it has changed who he reports to in a not so positive way and work will not be a fun place to be with so many friends gone.  Two of my coworkers quit last week and on a team our size, it's a big gap to fill while people are hired and trained.  I'm told my role is not changing in the short term because my time is allocated to clients, but my manager said he wanted me to be used differently.  Less time on site, more time in the office.  Outside of the director responsible for all of us, I'm now the team member with the most knowledge in the product I specialize in and spatial analysis.  My manager wants people to have access to my knowledge, and it's not fair to my clients to spend their time on work that isn't for them.  Makes sense.  I mentioned I wouldn't want to work at my employers office 5 days a week just because the commute is too expensive, but there is flexibility that we could negotiate something.  This is contract negotiation year for the client they would like to move me off of, but they won't risk it until the negotiations are done this fall.  That also provides a little time to see who they hire and what adjustments would play to their strengths.

I was talking to Mr. Lina about this last night.  He is seeing it as a bit of a sign.  We've always wanted to move west to be closer to his employer, not mine.  We have a lot of friends in that community, I liked living there for my post-grad years, I don't define myself by my career so I'd be happy raising kids and finding money when we need it.  Properties have larger lots and lower values, we could buy something larger for the same value as our current home.  But now he wants to avoid the new politics at work by working from home more, maybe choosing to work out of an office that is closer to home but thanks to the horrible traffic around the airport, a harder drive.  If we moved a little further east that office would be a better option for him.  We need to move prior to adopting, we're going to have to pick a direction at some point soon.

It was strange hearing him talk about how maybe the plan to go west just isn't going to happen.  Maybe because other opportunities haven't materialized, like actually having kids, or a job for me near his work.  But then again, because I've always felt that I could be on mat leave within any given year, I haven't looked, instead I have valued the stability and flexibility of my current employer.  That's not the universe talking, that's me not keeping an eye out. 

Wouldn't life be boring if it came with a map of where we're suppose to be when?