The Opposite

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Being a self employed person has a downside, namely that my boss is a huge bitch… and being a writer has a few downsides of its own. (Let’s not get into that today.) That said, there’s a few perks that make up for all of it. 

I might not get a paid vacation, but I am a very good little writer,  meet my word count for the day, and do all that I should before 4pm, then there’s absolutely nobody to stop me from knocking off early and taking a sock, a book and a beer to the backyard, where I can plunk myself under my umbrella and wait for a little breeze to take the edge of a scorcher of a day.  (41 degrees.  Toronto is not fooling around.)

August self imposed sock club sock of the month is Cotty (by Irishgirlieknits) and I’m knitting it from Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Skinnamarink.

It’s pretty nice out here, but don’t tell my boss.  I don’t want to spoil the moment by having to buy that wingnut a beer.

97 thoughts on “The Opposite”

  1. I won’t tell if you won’t. I’m taking the afternoon off too, it must be that kind of day. Love the socks!

  3. What’s that book you’re reading? Hatbox Knitters? Catbox Letters? Trying to figure it out….

  5. Watcha reading?
    Ah yes, a cool breeze, or at least some shade, a good book, a lovely cool beverage, and your knitting. It doesn’t get better than that. That is truly a blessing.

  6. I love the pattern. I started a sock at lunch today with the same type of edge and in the pattern it’s called “Mausezahnchenkante” or little mouse teeth edge. Isn’t that cute? I wish my boss would let me knit at work!

  7. I’m with you. My trip to the dentist ended early, so I’m grabbing a few minutes to knit on my July sock before I go get the children from camp. Yes, still working on July, alas.

  10. I am leaving work shortly and really wished all day that I could be at home reading….or knitting…or both. 🙂 You’ve inspired me to have a little mango rum when I get home to help me ignore the heat (almost 100 in Florida). Enjoy!

  11. How do you manage to read and knit at the same time? I’ve resorted to audiobooks otherwise I’d never finish anything.

  12. Please tell Toronto to cut it out already with the heat. It’s killing me to go inland during August as it is, I certainly don’t need that kind of weather!!
    I used to telecommute and set my own hours, and I loved it. I think most people will be far more productive if allowed to work when they feel, well, most productive.

  13. My bitch of a boss decided to leave early today and then realized she forgot to take care of something at the office and made me come back…I hate when I forget things! And I wasn’t even going to do anything fun…I need to get a few things out of my attic (where it will probably be 120 degrees) so that I can put all the crap we cleared out of our storage unit up there. I think it will be a sweaty night…and not in a good way.

  15. It is the same temperature here in Kitchener (only about an hour from Toronto). As I walked – still in my bathing suit and wet from the public pool – across the street full of hot, grumpy people trying to get home from work, all stuck in traffic, staring whistfully at the pool, I thought to myself: NEENER!

  17. I’m self employed too and my boss hasn’t let me have a holiday for two years. And I don’t get paid overtime either. But we are allowed to knit at our desks and online yarn shop browsing is positively encouraged!
    Tell us about the downsides of being a writer. I’d love to hear about it.

  19. I’ve got the same kind of boss. Don’t tell him I was reading the blog on company time.

  20. Love that u r knitting. My arm is in a cast for next 3 weeks…. no knitting. Looking forward to reading your blog and enjoying ravelry. Happy knitting!

  21. I’m self employed too, and love the flexibility-however, my boss can be a real pain in the arse-always worried about paying bills and keeping some semblance of order with 3 boys/men at home (14, 18 and 20). I’m heading on a vacation of my own soon to the midwest (which we have already discussed is neither middle nor west-although it is west of the Mississippi river which I think was the delineation marker at the time the phrase came into being) and am packing the knitting first.

  25. Wouldn’t it be fun, though, if there WERE a book titled “Catbox Letters”? Or “Hatbox Knitters”? or “Gnatbox Quitters”? I could go on … but I’ll just admire that yarn and the sock and the way your camera captured the sweat on the cold brewski bottle.

  26. May I just point out that you have the best job in the world, from where I’m sitting, and I am totally envious of you?
    Also, I feel it important to tell you that I love the yarn you have for this month’s sock and I am utterly wanting to grope it. 🙂

  29. Mill Street Organic is my favourite beer this summer, too! My husband calls it girl beer, and I don’t even care. It’s too good!

  30. Nothing like lawnmower beer on a hot day. Good for you. Still trying to figure out how to get away with beer at evening conference calls …

  31. I told my inner boss to take a chill pill & am currently doing all the things around the house that I don’t get paid for. I have an actual, real-life vacation beginning on Saturday and I need some clothes to wear in public — sadly, my normal work attire probably won’t fly.

  32. Count me in as another long-time self-employed work-at-home person whose boss is a serious taskmaster. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 😉
    How is it that I live on a Mill St., love beer, and have never heard of that brew you’re enjoying?! Sumpin’ fishy about that. Must remedy with a taste test!

  33. I have the same kind of boss, but unlike you, I was not a good, productive writer this morning. So, why am I checking blogs this afternoon? Oh. Right. Tomorrow I hope to be inspired by your example today!

  35. Wait…you’re saying you have a concrete goal of what to accomplish each day, and when you meet that goal, you’re finished for the day? Huh. I may need to rethink my strategy of working until I can’t stay awake any longer…

  36. The Hatbox Letters by Beth Powning of near Sussex NB
    Best book I ever read and re read and re read!!!!
    Nice colourway on the needles

  37. I’ve adopted your self-imposed sock club idea, although I began just in June. 🙂 It has helped me do that second sock! Thanks for the idea. 🙂 I love the yarn you are using for your sock this month! Very pretty colours. Hope it cools down soon outside. Today is humid as well as hot. It’s like breathing soup! Yuck.

  38. Speaking of beer….what kind of beer is that? The label isn’t quite showing, but it looks like it might be Mill Street Brewery… Their lemon beer is quite good.
    Oh, and the socks are fab.

  39. HOLY MACKEREL, that’s HOT.
    It seems unjust that you should have long winters AND 105F days in the summer.
    I will no longer complain about the days on end of temps >90F/32C in Maryland.
    minm
    PS love the socks

  41. My boss has been making me work from 9pm-1am lately because I can’t seem to write a dictionary with The Hurricane and The Tornado swirling around me. She says I’m a wuss.

  42. The Really Important Question: How do you keep the book open while you’re knitting? I’ve been struggling with this for years.

  43. That sounds like the perfect afternoon. Do you find yourself only reading books that lay flat while knitting? I’m forever trying to figure out how to keep tightly bound books open while knitting.

  44. My husband and I are self-employed, too. There are pros and cons but playing hookey in the back yard with my knitting and my ipod is one of my favorite things to do!

  45. Love the yarn and sock! Love the beer! Wish I could love the book as well but I couldn’t make out the title or author. Tell please?

  46. My husband’s parents know Beth Powning (and her husband) well… I almost fell off the couch when I saw her book! Nice to see a shout out to NB authors.
    I too am curious how you read and knit at the same time – I read tons of ebooks that way but the dead tree versions never seem to work!

  47. This is why the blog loves you so much. You have a great sense of humor with smatterings of great knitting (and beer). And a practical approach to work. Love musical blue socks with great pattern!
    (You can use clothespins to keep your book open.)

  48. I LOVE that yarn colorway; it’s really pretty. And Cotty shows it off well.
    I’m currently having a glass of wine with my boss; she’s pretty bossy, too (that would be me).
    Knit on!

  49. Sounds like a great afternoon after work! (Well – except for the heat. (It was 103 here today – in Missouri – central US) I admire you for even wanting to be outside!
    Beautiful socks!

  50. 41–that’s a fever! (37 is 98.6) we’ve had a few fevery days here in NYC-and near fever nights (86/30) sitting down, and cooling down (as much as possible) is the only thing to do!

  51. 41 degrees celcius? Wow! that’s 105.8 degrees farenheit (yes, I cheated and used a celcius to farenheit calculator on the internet). We had weather like that here in Virginia the weekend of July 24..it was a nightmare.
    Love the socks and love your blog.

  52. I don’t Twitter, but I just had to comment. One of my favourite (and mostly forbidden) foods is a toasted onion bun with peanut butter. Yum! I bet an onion bagel would be pretty good too. When I was very young, my father used to make peanut butter sandwiches on rye bread, and put a thin slice of spanish onion on them. PB & O is definetly an acquired taste!
    Love the socks, great colour combo.

  54. I second Sarah’s motion: will you say more about reading and knitting? “How to do it” has been on my mind recently (finally started reading more).
    Somehow my nook seems more readable with knitting than a real book with pages to juggle, but it still seems about half a task too many. I suppose your Irish-related low to the waist knitting technique helps? (Would you say more about that sometime?) Or maybe developing the reading/knitting rhythm is a path each person must hack out of the bush ones-self.

  55. Wow! I guess my idea of heading north to get away from the heat wouldn’t work. At least you guys will cool down later this week, here in Texas we are in it for the long haul. We’ll probably have 100F/40C temps for the rest of the month and into Sept.

  57. Yay!!! So excited to see you knitting your Cotty socks 🙂 Hope you enjoy them!! Thank you for the shout out (surprisingly, my blog hasn’t exploded from the gazillion hits I’ve gotten today!).
    I really really need to embrace to self-imposed sock club. I have a feeling I’d be further ahead on Christmas knitting if I did so.
    Thanks Steph!!

  59. Dear Stephanie
    I am French and love your blog and books!
    Many thanks for them
    Merci !(je me souviens que vous parlez français..)
    Nadine

  60. Ooooh
    Simultaneous reading and knitting – that’s my goal. Sadly it has been for a long time and I’m not getting any nearer.
    Carol
    Stratford upon Avon

  61. Been reading up on your archives and drooling over the yarn that you have.
    This yarn you have is gorgeous. (I’m jealous, even though I don’t like knit socks!)
    Ah, to be experienced enough to knit and read and enjoy a beer at the same time! (I swear, I’ve frogged this armwarmer fifty times to get it right.)
    It’s great to take the afternoon off, isn’t it? 😀

  62. Forty -one degrees! In Toronto? Yikes! Here we are sweltering at thirty-one to thirty-four degrees in one of the prime vacation spots in Europe and thinking we are miserable! The Algarve, the furthest south zone of Portugal, is, oddly enough, generally the coolest part of the country during the summer (and warmest in the winter). Probably because we have a hundred miles of ocean as one of our borders. You are welcome to visit if your boss ever gives you a break! We even have breezes a lot of the time. And we have beer.
    As for that yarn… I’m with Nyx – absolutely ready to grope and then some!

  63. 41 degrees… sigh. I’m sitting here wrapped in a blanket with a hot wheat bag on my lap. Skinnamarink is a good name for that beautiful yarn; makes me think of that old song. Only, now I’m singing it to yarn 😀

  64. 41 degrees… sigh. I’m sitting here wrapped in a blanket with a hot wheat bag on my lap. Skinnamarink is a good name for that beautiful yarn; makes me think of that old song. Only, now I’m singing it to yarn 😀

  65. 41 degrees… sigh. I’m sitting here wrapped in a blanket with a hot wheat bag on my lap. Skinnamarink is a good name for that beautiful yarn; makes me think of that old song. Only, now I’m singing it to yarn 😀

  66. too funny. In honor of your taking a break and not telling your boss, I sat on my back porch last night and had a wonderful glass of wine. It has been hot in Cleveland too. In fact, we were in Orlando for two weeks and during the entire two weeks, there were only two days where it was cooler in Cleveland than it was in Orlando. Go figure.

  67. Skinnamarink – Does this word only resonate with Canadians?
    It’s a fabulous name for shades of grey.

  68. How’s the book? I read a few pages of it over a year ago and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since – I can’t remember why I put it down. Should I pick it back up again?

  69. I’m impressed you can knit, read, and drink beer all at the same time. Do you have a couple of extra hands hidden somewhere?

  70. I’m envious that you can read and knit at the same time. I have to use audio books if I want to do that!!

  72. Love those colors. I really must try this reading and knitting thing. I can do the tv and knitting. Plus, EZ says it’s E-Z!! 😀

  73. Sounds like a perfect early break for a hardworking gal. You make me laugh about that boss of yours.

  74. You haven’t fallen off the self-imposed sock club wagon this year once, have you? Is that 8 pair you’ve knitted since January? You are truly the knitting goddess. 🙂

  75. My boss is an even worse bitch. She forces me to procrastinate for 2 hours every morning, so I never finish up early and get to read a book. I really hate her.

  76. Oh my gosh! 41C is like surface of the sun hot. Isn’t that something like 105 give or take – either way too hot. Take the beer cooler to the back yard with you and stick your feet in the ice water to cool down. It’s been a pretty hot summer here in Chicago as well – on average 91F daily for two months. Ugh!!

  77. Please don’t tell me the title of the book you are reading. I don’t want to know (I’m not even going to look it up, even though the author’s name is right there). I’m enjoying the thought of a book called the Catbox Letters way too much.

  80. Just saw your twitter post – usually I listen to the Yarn Harlot on audiobook for fun but that might not be such a thrill for you. I did love “The Lottery” a few months ago – great story, fantastic reader for audio.

  81. Responding to your Twitter comment, why not try a Christopher Moore book. I’m listening to the most recent “vampire” book of his, Bite Me. They’re sassy, clever and AWESOME! The first in the series is BloodSucking Fiends then You Suck.

  82. I have been self employed but not currently – from my current job the grass is definitely greener on the self-employment side (I do tend to only remember what I liked about being self employed and there is a down side for sure). My employer doesn’t want me knitting or spinning at my desk! Can you imagine!

  83. I read your blog while I am at work. You never fail to brighten my day. Tell your boss you deserve a raise. Haha.

  84. As a writer myself, of the technical variety, I can imagine nothing more wonderful than to get paid to write whatever I want, as opposed to documenting some arcane option in some piece of software of whose workings I know nothing and care less.
    …But I know it’s not really like that. Bottoms up! Maybe you could drink her under the table?

  85. i love it when i’ve gone a few days without reading your blog and i can sit down and “catch up.” i make my sister read it and she isn’t even a knitter. (but she might as well…i mean, what else do my mother and i talk about?)okay, here is my question: i know you’re doing a self-imposed sock of the month. my sister-in-law wants 7 pair of socks by Christmas for staff gifts at her office. can this be done? i knit at a pretty good pace–i’m on my second adult sweater since july first, and i know my way around socks, but i’m intimidated. i do also have a life, a part time job, and two teenagers. do you have any tips? hints? things you wish you’d done differently? wisecracks? anything helpful would be appreciated.

  87. Even though Hatbox Letters is the more likely book title, I was pretty sure it was Catbox Litters. The sort of book that makes going back to work later in the evening seem appealing.

  88. I work for a small business with a fabulous boss. When it is slow I can knit to my heart’s content as long as I answer the phone. It is the best job I have ever had. I love the yarn and the pattern.

  89. I won’t tell if you won’t, unfortunately I cannot take the afternoon off, I wish I could. Love the socks!!!

  90. re: kathy at August 4, 2010 1:51 PM – Your sister – who doesn’t knit – wants you to knit 7 pairs of socks for her to give away? Here’s a tip/trick for you: go to Ravelry.com, find Selfish Knitters, and read the manifesto (VBG) Then make HER read it (she reads knitting blogs, right?) Then ask her again when (WHEN!!!) she wants to learn to knit. (Just kidding, sort of!)
    Back to original thread – Stephanie – love the bluesy/grey; Hatbox Letters is in the TBR pile – good grief, what isn’t? and newly retired/self-motivated (What?) I may have to make some rules for myself, too.
    Thanks for your blog, books, patterns – and Team Knit!

  91. I’ll give you my address so you can send that pair of socks to me! LOL! I love the yarn! They will be beautiful! I think you earned some knitting time, out in the backyard!

  93. Ebook readers are the best thing since sliced bread. Read and knit at the same time, no problem!
    I’ve knit Cotty, it’s a fabulous pattern. Dead easy but looks hard. Plus, who doesn’t love a picot cuff?

  94. I too want to know more about reading & knitting. I was so happy to be able to dl audio books on my ipod so I could knit & ‘read’ but you actually do both. Impressive!

  96. Oh, my GOD!!!! Stephanie, you won’t believe this but here I am on a walking holiday in England and one of the women starts talking about knitting and this “Yarn Harlot” person that she just loves, and I think, “Yarn??”, “Harlot????” – that sounds totally like Stephanie! Et voila! Wow, what a thrilling ride you’ve been on. Good for you! That is so great. And you’re on Amazon and Wikipedia – who knew back whenever that one was in the presence of future greatness? I’m really excited for you. Say hi to the girls for me. Cheers – Peter

  97. Wow! That is normal temperature for Texas in August, but I would think being 14 degrees of latitude further north would buy you some kind of break in temperature in Toronto! That just doesn’t seem fair. Glad you were able to grab a beer to make up for the brutal heat, and brutal boss 😉

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