Not so good on the 'keeping promises to myself' end of things.

I am supposed to be working today, but it's a hot, muggy, nasty day and I woke up this morning and felt completely wrung out and uncivilized and so said, screw it. I shouldn't do that, but I know from bitter experience (ie, last week) that I can get my quota done in two, long, dull days, and my financial situation might improve (marginally) after tomorrow, so I decided to just go with the feeling. At least I chose my work queue today so tomorrow I just start research and writing.

Gods, my life is sucking right now. I can make it, oh, I really can, it's just...disheartening. I'm so busy trying to keep my head above water that I hardly have time to look around and make sure I'm actually heading towards a shore.

Oh, well. I have got some good news. Remember this scarf?


It's done! Yay! I'm having it 'professionally' blocked (that is; I'm not doing it and making a dog's breakfast of it), but should have the pattern and finished item up in a week. Very happy about that. At least I've accomplished a second of my goals for the year: I've made my living as a writer (hah!) and I've finished a pattern intended for sharing. If I had the energy, I'd say there's no stopping me now. :-)

I had just enough yarn to finish it-indeed, I was scraping the barrel on yarn when I bound off. I almost tried for another half repeat, but when I got done and had bound off I checked my tail against the width of my scarf. Supposedly, a row takes three times the length of the row in yarn to knit, but that's if you're doing garter stitch. This sucker has some bobbles, which increases that, and I only had three times the width of the scarf left. If I had tried to do that extra half repeat, I would have run out of yarn right at the bind off. So what to do with three yards of yarn?

Next summer, there are going to be some local birds warming their tailfeathers on really expensive yarns. I got the idea from somewhere on Ravelry--save up your scraps, cut them into manageable lengths and then in spring lay them about on bushes or the ground for the birds to line their nests. I hope someone likes hot pink.

I also discovered a treasure this weekend, in my drawer. When I was in high school, a friend of my mother's went to Germany. When she came back, she gave me a gift of a rosary--a beautiful, pale rosary with silver cross and center, and (she said) glass beads. I put it away to keep it safe, as really, glass beads? They felt very thin and fragile and I didn't want to break it.

This past week, I was reviewing my belongings--looking to give things away or put back into use rotation--and I pulled out my rosary bag and found the old German rosary. Realizing it had changed color over the years, I decided to go ahead and polish up the cross and center using baking soda and hoped it would bring the glass back to its old, cream color. So I plopped it into a bowl of baking soda and water and, hey, presto:


It's not glass, the beads are metal! Either silver or possibly tin, one or the other. In either case, it polished up with the baking soda and now it's shiny. I wonder if it was once coated in glass...but I doubt it.

Either way, nice! I guess sometimes you can find treasure in the least likely of places.

I been gone oh, so long.

Where did I go, you may ask? Nowhere. My unemployment, among millions of others', ran out, so I've been writing and writing, like it's my job. Oh, wait....

The above pictured is my rightful reward for a week's hard work--pizza and a beer. Porter, actually, and tasty as all heck. Beautiful. God(dess) bless the brewers, and God(dess) bless the beer! It was last week's Friday night dinner, actually. I've got another bottle in the fridge, in case of emergency.

I spent most of last week kitty sittin' so precious little knitting actually got done. I've made progress on my scarf (now called "Walled Garden" on Ravelry), but what progress was made was made at knitting coven meetings. Still and all, progress was made. That's a lovely sentence to type.

This month has been hard on me; I've not been sleeping well at all. I'm not sure why, but I got home Monday afternoon and that night was the first night I slept reasonably well in nearly a month. You'd not think it--it was hot as the outer levels of Hell, my cats were so glad to see me they kept stepping on my bladder with their sharp, sharp little toes--but I did. All week I've been waking up before my alarm and feel rested. It's been so good, I'm starting to scare myself!

I do not understand why I've been sleeping better, nor do I care. I'm just pleased I've gotten what feels like actual, real-live sleep the past two nights. I won't say I'm fresh, but I am somewhat restored. Maybe this weekend I'll actually knit!