Tuesday check in

I've been too busy to take pictures or think up anything interesting to write about. School and dance are in full swing - with pesky work thrown in to make it interesting.

Holding steady with a B in anthropology. The first week's quiz, I felt well prepared....and wasn't. The second week I tried preparing differently....and had pretty much the same result:  B. By the time I figure out what she's really after...the term will be over. I'm okay with a B...I'm just a bit of an overachiever and if it's not an A, I'm not satisfied. Considering how busy I am and how much reading is involved in this class - I can be very satisfied with a B, thank you.

Math continues to hold well and as of yet, my head has not exploded as I expected. Let's keep it that way, shall we?

Baktus is finally over 50%. My plans were to immediately cast on for a second, striped one....but I've been so annoyed with the knots and snaggles in this skein of Noro I'm having second thoughts since I'd planned on using another colorway in Noro Kureyon sock I have in stash....We'll see. Perhaps I'll do some other sock yarn from stash.

Danced a solo at the Guild showcase over the weekend, and was happy with the results. If the video comes out decent, I'll link to it.

Health: Noticing I'm not exhausted constantly...not hungry constantly either. Lost a bit of weight. Sleep well and not needing a nap just to make it to 9 p.m. Good things must be happening, eh?

Let's hope so.

Saturday Gratitudes

Three Saturday Gratitudes:

1. Not working the weekend. I worked last weekend and it's made this week really looooong
2. Survived Rush Week.
3. Getting by

This week included not one but two broken car incidents resulting in a $500 mechanic bill and having to shuffle three people to work, college, and high school with one car - of course all with completely different schedules. Woo hoo, the fun never ends! Did I mention...I don't happen to *have* $500 to pay the bill? So I'm extremely grateful to the mechanic who works with us and will let us pay him when financial aid comes through at the end of the month. We live in a city with pretty limited mass transit options - the nearest stop is just short of 2 miles from the house, so it's not a simple matter of a couple blocks to the bus stop or I'd be taking that option myself and letting Jodie have the car. Waiting on the part - hopefully car #2 will be back in service by midweek.

Stash Documentation
I've accumulated some stash in the last six years...some of it I love and some of it is just crap. I bought yarn like it was going out of style for awhile...and I bought everything from good yarn to crappy acrylic yarn with abandon.

Lighting is poor, but that's what happens when you do this stuff at o'dark thirty in the morning...poor light.

In the garage, we find the stash housed in plastic bins - this is it, minus the sock yarn.



This is the sock yarn, tho upon thinking about it...it's not all of the sock yarn. There are at least two unwound hanks in a different bin...and two UFOs with sock yarn in the project bin.



There's the commercial sock yarn...

Lots of Lorna's Laces - the first "real" sock yarn that was available locally for awhile - well, at least that I could afford...

The handpainted, minus those hanks and UFOs...

It's nothing compared to many knitter's collections...but it's mine, eh? The real problem? I love sock yarn...I love socks....I don't have the patience/attention span to KNIT socks. While unpacking the above yarns...I found around 10 little starts on things not finished. Until recently, I felt guilty about those false starts. I felt like I was lazy or unmotivated...and embarrassed by them. Then I began to deal with my son's diagnosis of ADHD and realized....I probably have some degree of the same disorder. It's allowed me to cut myself a little slack and not feel so guilty. Less guilt is good.

Baktus, probably about 40% done.

 It's not perfect....and I find that annoying. I'm working on accepting it with it's imperfections and just being grateful I have gotten this far considering Winter Term has started with lots of math and anthropology reading/homework and I'm teaching dance 4 nights a week. I'm also reminded of how much I really dislike Noro yarns..The color is fabulous....the knots and incredibly uneven part make me crazy. Which brings me to a decision:

I'm only going to buy yarn that I love. Period. In looking through the stash I see a lot of yarn I don't love. I see yarn that was cheap, I see yarn that I bought because I couldn't buy what I really wanted. So, rather than putting myself on a stash diet, I'm simply going to make a rule:  I'm going to knit out of stash to reduce it...and only yarn I really love will come to live with me in the future.

How do YOU decide what comes to live in your stash? Do you view the yarns you aren't so in love with with regret?

Rush Week

Rush week means...no pictures...knitting only in brief moments snatched while waiting to pick up kids or for an appointment...baking, are you kidding me?

This week is the first week back at my "real life"...the life of overscheduled chaos. Dance classes Monday and Thursday, private students Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and troupe practice Monday and Friday. Squeezed in between dance stuff and reading 60 pages a week for anthropology, I'm picking away at my math class assignments...trying to choreo a performance for myself set for January 16 (insert palm to forhead with "what was I thinking when i said I'd dance at this?" here), and the usual work, family obligations and trying to increase my health.

Next week, I'll post. A real post...with pictures and a witty caption and ....yeah. But this week? Dude, it's rush week....