Sunday, August 13, 2006

It's OK to Say No

Every August, I get the same problem - I'm exhausted from trying to do too much. And my allergies kick in, in a major way. I often spend much of August being grouchy, burdened with guilt over unweeded gardens and unpainted houses and un-searched-for rare plants and un-lost poundage and un-found world peace, not to mention inner peace.

I have to learn to foresee the consequences of my decisions and to say no when those consequences are undesired. [Editor's Note: You'd think the Linnet would have learned this much earlier in life, but remember that our Linnet has always been a tad ... slow in these matters, shall we say.]

So I'm trying very hard to resist Afghans for Afghans' call for 900 kids' sweaters and vests, due the end of September. My purple Einstein Coat, above, will be perfect for this; I don't need to organize relays of knitters to turn out backs and fronts and sleeves, with a big seaming party at the end - right? Right?

So why was there an enormous pile of bulky and worsted-weight yarns on my bed last evening? All leftovers or random single-ball purchases, perfect for knitting a multi-colored sweater or vest for 10- to 12-year-olds. I stuffed them all into bags last night so I could sleep - help me resist casting on yet another garment.

Although my friend Jess said she'd help. And I'm further along with the purple coat than the picture shows; I'm about 3/4 done the first sleeve.


In Other News...
I'm trying to distract myself here, so humor me.

Here's some purple wool I spun up and plied, shortly after finishing up the pencil roving. I'm reasonably pleased with how this turned out. There's only about 37 yards of this, though. I don't remember what kind of roving this was, or even where I got it - I have to learn to label the roving when I buy it. [one more damn thing to remember...]
Let's see, what else?

My copy of the fall Interweave Knits has yet to arrive. Annoying.

I did just get a mailing from WEBS, listing their fall classess - they have Spinning I and Spinning II (plus some other spinning classes) - yay! But the classes are on Monday nights, when I often have a conflict - boo!

I just heard about the Knitters' Retreat in November, in New York State. Now that is tempting - have any of my loyal readers ever been? Is it worth all the money? Let's see: that would be the Vermont sheep and wool fair and the Boston Knit Out in September, Rhinebeck in October, and this retreat in November - sounds about right to me.

Enough chatting - Earle just brought me coffee; I'm going to go sit in the sun somewhere and knit.


4 comments :

Anonymous said...

I love the purple yarn you made. I've never heard of the Kntter's Retreat, but it sounds like one more thing I'll have to miss.

Abigale said...

That is one gorgeous yarn!

I know what you mean about feeling bad on my side the living room is not painted, the outside courtyard is a mess, the stash is out of control, and needs to be tamed back into some semblance of order. Not enough knitting has been taking place, and inner peace? Well, that's something that I'm getting better about - but it's not easy. The trick (and it's tricky) is to just recognise that there's only so much that you can do, and so much that you want to do. Any progress is good, and not letting yourself get bogged down so that it interferes with getting anything done can be difficult. I've found that where you decide to place your focus is so much a part of how I'm feeling. If I focus on the negative, there isn't room for the positive. Focusing on the positive means that the negative is not noticed as much.

I sure wish I could be sitting in the sunshine, drinking coffee and knitting
Abi

bitterknitter said...

Pretty yarn!

Rachel said...

Hey - don't forget about Water's Farm Days, the last weekend of Sept, in Sutton, MA! I'm going to be spinning as a demonstrator there! Vendors will surely include some yarn/fiber dealers...

Rachel