Class? What Class? I Had a Class Today?

You could have fooled my alarm clock. More on that in a minute.

Pickings from the Yarn Fairy are getting slimmer and slimmer. That's what happens when you stop buying yarn. I know I have to; I know it's for a good reason; I know that I have more yarn than I'll ever knit in a lifetime. But damn it, I love getting packages in the mail. Thank god for my sock and yarn clubs. I did, however, get a few things in the mail today, only one of which I can take a picture of. Yes... I bought yet another thing for my pal, but I couldn't help myself. I like it so much that I'm ordering one for me, too.

Today's offerings are all from dkKnits!, a new seller for me on Etsy. Her yarns are sublime - soft and squishy, with beautiful, inspired colorways that flow in and around each other. The yardage is terrific, and I think they'll hold up well as a pair of socks. She also included a pair of knitting needles with my initial on them, stitch markers, and a mini-skein of silk. They're all gorgeous. See if you agree.



The colorways are "Napa Valley Vineyard" and "Random Rainbow". Check out her shop - you'll find a lot of beautiful colorways at a good price. The needles, even though I don't use straights, will come in handy. I sometimes use them for a variety of reasons, and it's always nice to have a few pairs of different sizes laying around. I didn't show the test skein because that's a surprise. I'll be posting the finished sock (my own pattern! - looking at The Painted Tiger) when it's ready.

Last night, I intended to get to bed early and wake up in plenty of time to get to class. It didn't start until two, so I figured I had lots of time. Midnight came and went; I worked on my socks, dozed, had some coffee, dozed; came over to the computer and did some stuff; and before I knew it, it was six. So Hubster and I packed it up and went to bed. I fell asleep immediately.

This morning, I woke up with the sun steaming in through the cracks in the blinds. I cracked my eye open as far as it would go and looked at the clock, expecting it to read 10 a.m. or so. Nope. It read 1:15 p.m. OH NO! I overslept. Right through the alarm that is loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood. Hubster was no help; he overslept, too. I didn't have time to get up, get awake, get ready... and get to class. Shit. I totally blew it.

So I got up, yelled at him to get up, and came storming into the front room. Hubster kept suggesting that I get ready and go anyway. "You'll just be a little late", he said. No. I would be a LOT late, and I hate going anywhere if I'm not on time. So here I sit, still fuming, partly because I didn't get to take the class (which, given my track record this year, would have probably been another disaster), and partly because I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to Nancie. I might check to see if she's teaching tomorrow and go to say good-bye and thank you to her, and also to apologize for missing the class today. The only saving grace with all that is that she knew I was sick yesterday, so I doubt it came as no surprise that I wasn't there today. The bright spot is that this keeps me out of the market, which would surely cost me a couple of bills (I wanted the Nancy's Notions skein winder and the yardage counter with the tensioning rods). Why doesn't anything go right with these stupid classes? And today's class wasn't full, so there would have been more time for personal attention. Oh well - I have the books, and that's how I usually teach myself things. I also saw things demonstrated. I'm just not a class person. What this has all taught me, though, is how to better handle those students who are having a hard time with something I'm trying to teach them. It's also interjected a healthy dose of humility into my way of thinking about my knitting. So maybe this entire experience turned out to have some good lessons for me after all.

So that leaves me lots of time today to work on my socks, work up the pattern for the test socks, and get my flutes unloaded. It also allows me to work on the inventory of the yarn for sale and maybe even start getting them photographed. I'm not looking at today as a total loss; I'm trying to look at today as a gift. I'm trying. I'M TRYING, DAMN IT!

On the interesting side of life, I picked up my Monkey socks last night, looked at them, looked at the counter bracelet I use, and then remembered that I was using two of the bracelets. They were in different positions - one had more beads shoved over to the side than the other. But which was which? My memory is so bad that I couldn't remember. So I had to sit there trying to count through lace rows. I finally came up with what I thought was a good count and ran with that. So far, so good. I remember I was using the other bracelet because at the point I was at a day or so ago, I had to keep track of two different things going on. Now I just have to keep track of the lace pattern. It's coming along nicely, and I'm picking up speed as I go. I still can't remember the entire lace sequence, but I can remember individual rows once I start them. I think she'll really like them. That reminds me - I need to get in touch with her to see how she is. I try to drop her a note about once a week just to say hi, and I've sent her a couple of small gifts, but until the socks are done, I really need to keep doing that so she knows I haven't abandoned her.

So today I'm being a slob. I'm in my jammies. I'm knitting. I'm sitting in the Monster with my legs crossed until my knees lock up and I have to move. I'm not even taking a shower. My body needs to rest after two days of activity. That's one thing I've learned - I can only go for a few days, and then I have to rest. It doesn't bode well for vacation, but the first few days are unscheduled other than a formal practice for the concert. We're also going to eat dinner on the beach while the sun sets. There's nothing in the world I'd love to do more.

Other than buy a new ball winder and counter.