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Dear Jan,

In a case of the blindingly obvious, I discovered just how much one can accomplish on a 3 day weekend if one doesn’t allow one’s job to intrude.  I told folks at work that I was taking vacation and would NOT check email.  If something urgent came up, they had to call me.  I informed my boss, she said, “good for you!”, and I came home resolved to not check in until a quick look at the calendar tonight told me to what location I needed to head in the morning.

Wow - it sure was effective.  By focusing on home, I’ve cut a swath through a number of long ignored tasks.   Friday I picked up our new drapes (good ol’ J.C. Penney, at least until kittens stop climbing the walls), picked up my new desk (yay! no more dining room table as office!), got substantial knitting done, picked tomatoes, processed the farm share, and then, after dinner, actually started cleaning out a walk-in closet which was no longer walk-in.  Oh, and spent a fair share of time letting kittens sleep on me.

Saturday - installed the hardware and the sheers for the new drapes, knit a bunch more, spun up the last of a batch of grey merino, and even fixed a wonderful dinner with Wilson.  And exchanged the desk for one without a scratch and got that one assembled.  The kitties helped clean up the salmon skin from dinner.

The different yarns I squeezed out of my Frabjous Fibers top are kind of fun.  Here you have a single spun on a drop spindle to your left, the middle yarn is plied from one ply drop spindled (hence worsted spun) and one ply semi-woolen (long draw but from a combed top on the wheel), and the right yarn is both plies semi-woolen on the wheel.  I hope you remember my 2ply of this fiber with the silk hankies, shown separately.  That one looks most different, but take my word for it, they all feel quite a bit different and I expect will knit up in their own ways.

There was a fair amount of kitten cuddling on Saturday, too.  Since it was the weekend, Wilson could help.

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Sunday brought State Fair Entry Day!  I am entering my gansey, my gloves, and my Wild Apple cap.  We’ll find out the results in about a week.  I’m also entering some handspun, just to get my feet wet in that arena.

I also finished hanging the curtains.  This was aided by kittens willing to sleep on each other instead of on me. The truly amazing thing is I did this after W & I went for an afternoon run.

And a little more knitting.  I am finally to the scyes on that tank top and it should go a lot faster now.  For a little fright, click to embiggen and look at all those ends on the back.  I didn’t figure out that I could put it all on a circular needle and slide it back and forth to whatever end the color I needed was on until I started on the front.  I am going to do the unthinkable and tie these ends together - not only will this be in the seam, but this is slick cotton yarn and I think that will be the most secure method.  (This will NOT be a state fair entry at any point in its career!)

Phew, now I know why  I am so tired now.  I doesn’t compare to what you usually put into a weekend, but for me it was pretty good. Time for some shut-eye and then back to work.  Maybe focusing on that for the week will yield the same great results, even if it isn’t all as much fun.

I hope your week is productive,

Love,

Ellen