Good Saturday, bad week

Here it is, Saturday already. I thought it would never come and it’s finally here. I haven’t thought much about posting or even knitting for that matter, because it’s been a really long tough week for me. It seems like some days are longer and harder than others and this week was pretty much a week full of those days. Work was difficult; there’s a lot to do and not enough staff to do it. I’m sure that’s pretty much the same everywhere, though. “Do more with less” seems to be the mantra in our place, though I hear they are going to put on some new staff soon.

Anyway, I went to our local SNB on Tuesday night and it was so nice to just sit down and knit and talk to people and not think about work or bills or my Mother and her issues (believe me, you don’t want to know). I don’t even think sometimes when I’m knitting. It’s just “check the pattern, k1, p2, k2, p6 …….” and so on and on and on and I don’t have time to think about anything else. That’s what I really like about knitting; it takes me somewhere else. It takes me to a place where the only things that matter are what stitch comes next and what color yarn shall I pick out of my stash to knit with and what will I want to do for my next project? I’m sure those of you who are knitters will know exactly what I mean. Some days I really need my knitting time and I make myself take time to do some and some days, no matter how much I need it, I have a really hard time squeezing it in. So this week was one of those weeks. Pretty much the only time I got any knitting done was on Tuesday night at SNB and I didn’t get too much done then either. I find it difficult to concentrate on a pattern that is more complicated than knit and purl when I’m trying to hold up my end of a conversation, so I try not to bring anything tougher than that to SNB. This week, I packed badly and ended up bringing DH’s felted clogs. I’m on the short row part and I kept losing track and having to frog the row, so I finally put it down and just chatted. We had two new members this week and one of them came because I invited her. DH and I usually go to the local bookstore on Friday nights; we check out magazines and books for our respective hobbies and I knit for a while as well. Well, I’ve been posting to my SNB list in the morning when I know I’m going to be at the bookstore that night and on this particular night, someone showed up that I hadn’t met before. Turns out she has a hard time at the meeting because it’s at a coffee shop and she’s sensitive to smells, being pregnant, so she hasn’t been in a while. We sat down at a nice big table and knit and chatted and got to know each other a bit and found out we actually live near each other. Small world, you know? Turns out there was another woman in the place who was interested in our knitting and kind of joined in on our conversation as she was seated at a table near us. I don’t mind anyone kibitzing; after all, DH often says I’ll talk to anyone as long as they listen… So, this woman got to chatting with us and ended up giving me her email address because I expressed an interest in her wool. Yes, she has sheep! Only four, but she has sheep and she shears them and spins their wool and knits. You never know who you’ll meet at the bookstore, do you? When I got home that night, I sent her an email and told her about the SNB group on Tuesday nights and asked her if she was interested. She turned up at the meeting on Tuesday night, having joined our Yahoo group that day. She also brought some of her wool to show us and some roving and other things for us to check out. It was fascinating. Turns out she also teaches spinning at a local historical site during the spring and summer months. Also, small world that it is, turns out DH knew her 35 years ago and they had a lot of friends in common, so they spent a while talking, too. That’s right; DH comes to SNB with me. And he likes it. He also tells me things like, “If you want that yarn, buy it.” and “Did you know there’s a yarn shop on the way? Do you want to stop?” Really. He is an amazing man and I am so lucky to have him.

Yesterday, Friday, was a very long day for me. DH had taken the day off and I had to go in to work early. I went in to work at 7 am and didn’t leave until 5 pm. I had to be at a meeting that took about three hours in the morning. It had been scheduled to run from 9 to 5 that day, but we made good progress and were able to finish up early. When I went back to my desk, a friend of mine in the office came over and absolutely made my week. She gave me an autographed copy of “The Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs. Ms. Jacobs was at another local bookstore last Sunday, doing a reading and book signing. I wanted to go, but no one wanted to go with me, so I ended up staying home. My friend got two copies of the book; one for each of us and both autographed by the author! Of course, this means I didn’t knit last night because I just couldn’t put the book down; it’s so good. I’m already more than half way through it and can’t wait to pick it up again. Julia Roberts, who knits BTW, has purchased the film rights and will be making a movie out of it. What you need to know is, if you can get your hands on this book, pick it up. I guarantee you’ll love it.

This morning I didn’t feel like doing much after such a tough week, but DH suggested we hit a few garage and/or estate sales. It sounded like a good idea until I found out the temperature was 8 degrees, it was snowing and the roads looked slippery as hell. We went anyway. We weren’t in a hurry, so I drove slowly and carefully, probably pissing off other drivers, but I eventually made it home in one piece and didn’t even slide a little when I stopped on our road. After stopping at two estate sales, a moving sale, and a garage sale, we decided to hit the local diner for some breakfast. This was at 11:55 am, so we just made the breakfast specials, too. After a leisurely breakfast, I asked if he minded if we stopped at a yarn shop since I wanted to get some dpns (yes, I’m going to “get” socks, if it kills me). I had planned to go to the new LYS that just opened in December, but DH surprised me with a different suggestion; why not go to a LYS that we just found the other night? I had heard about it a few weeks ago and completely forgot it was there. When we did find it earlier this week, it was closed so I couldn’t go in and check it out. Today, it was open. That was a good thing and a bad thing. I say that it was a good thing because it was open and a bad thing because it was a really nice little shop and they had lots of goodies for me to look at and buy at good prices. Bad things happen to me in yarn shops, especially yarn shops like this … I take out my credit card and use it. I do try to buy things I will actually use, but sometimes I go a little overboard. Today I bought not one, but two sets of dpns: bamboo, in two different sizes. I also bought two skeins of sock yarn, a “clicker” type row counter, some point protectors, and felting needles. I finally felted the “Cherry Bombed” sweater, after taking it apart into its separate pieces, and I plan to make a bag of some kind out of it. I have some roving in pretty colors that I got when I visited my sister in Kentucky and thought I might try needle-felting some patterns into the felted bag for additional interest. I’ve taken some pix of the felted fabric and will take some in-progress pix while I am figuring out and sewing up my bag. Once it’s all done, I figure I’ll post it here all in one set of pix from beginning to end.

Anyway, I think I’ll go off and look at my groups and check my email and go to bed early. The pipe that empties my washer into my dry well is frozen and I have to go to the laundromat in the morning to catch up on laundry. Fortunately, we had enough clean clothes to get through the week, so if I go tomorrow, we should make it another week. Maybe by next week, that pipe will either thaw or we’ll figure out a way to thaw it so I can do my laundry in my own washer. At least I don’t have to dry it there, too. I can still do that home. Till next time,
“Wear natural fibers; hug your cat.”