Today is my first day as an unemployed person. Last night I kept dreaming that I was late for work; the irony.
I have very mixed feelings about my new status, which I’ve been thinking about and trying to make sense of. I feel a bit at a loss. Who am I now? I’ve been a person with a title for the last 26 years. I’ve had something to type under my signature in emails, bona fides to throw out there to get people to take my calls, an answer to the oft-asked question, “What do you do?”
I know I’m not a lesser person now that I’m unemployed, and I do have freelance jobs lined up, but it still feels so weird! And I already miss my job at Knitting Daily. I loved it so much, and I was really sad to leave. I decided to move on, but only because Interweave pulled everyone into the office in Fort Collins, and I didn’t want to move. I live in Spokane, WA, and I can’t uproot my family. And even though it was my choice, it feels a bit like I was let go, at the very least not fought for or supported. But those are my feelings—no one ever said anything like that to me, and I really love all of the people I worked with. They are quality folks, and I’ll miss them. Everyone says they want to keep in touch, but it really doesn’t happen, which is sad. Although, I’m hoping with Facebook and freelance jobs, I do keep in touch with people!
This November has been HARD, and it’s only the 16th. With my job ending, the election, and the hateful stuff going on in the country, it’s a challenge. Two particularly horrid things happened around here (that I know about, there may be more), in Spokane and Pullman, WA, home of Washington State University, my alma mater. In Spokane, someone spray painted the N-word in huge letters on the side of our Martin Luther King Family Outreach Center, and kids and families saw it. People gathered there quickly to paint over it, which was wonderful, but what a terrible thing to have happen in our community.
In Pullman, someone spray painted (should we ban spray paint??) FAGGOT all over someone’s car. What the??? That’s not so easy, or cheap, to fix, not to mention the emotional damage done. What have we unleashed with this election cycle? There’s so much hate going around, and it seems it’s only getting worse.
I did have a really bright spot this week, though. My friend Sue works at Serial Knitters, a wonderful yarn shop in Kirkland, WA. She sent me a gorgeous skein of Hedgehog Fibers Sock Yarn, in the color Vengeance. Isn’t it pretty?
Sue and I were at a knitting retreat last month, and she showed me some other colors of this yarn, and I just love it. I hadn’t had the chance to see any Hedgehog Fibers before then, and I was so glad to actually touch it! Really beautiful yarn.
I love deep, rich colors, and Vengeance is all of that! I’m not a big fan of sock knitting, though, so I think it’ll be a shawl or maybe a small-gauge beanie. It’s supposed to be cold an snowy here this winter, so I’ll need a good hat.
What do you think I should knit with this? Give me some pattern ideas!
Well, enough for today. I’ll be back soon. Take good care, everyone; these are tough times.
Hugs to you all!
The Craftermath 