Catch Up Day

One of the ways I deal with stress and turn off the thought squirrels is to just go and 'do'.

For many years I have used weaving as a working meditation. It's one way to turn off the what-if's and stay in the now instead of trying to forecast the future. Not that I'm a control freak or anything. (ha!) So for the last two weeks, instead of doing what needed to be done, I would go to the loom and just weave in order to remain in the present and grounded in the now.

Alas, that meant that deadlines began to loom and threaten to topple! After I posted my health update the other day, I found myself able to work through the reality - largely due to the loving support of you, dear reader. DH is stressed to the max and my mother is in full blown panic mode so I don't want to vent to them. Being able to vent here is going to keep me sane.

What all that comes to is that I needed a catch-up day. After weaving a little bit too much on Friday I was feeling tired, physically, and decided that I needed to deal with some admin stuff and the final preparations for Fibres West.

Procrastination had turned one task into a mountain, quickly revealed to be the molehill it truly was once I finally sat down and dealt with it. And then I went to the spinning wheel to tackle the samples needed for the upcoming show. Again, conditional success. I decided that the unsupported mylar I was planning to use to ply the core spinning with was too weak so next time I'll try one of the gimps. Unfortunately the mylar gimps are a bit scratchy, but I think used as the ply thread on the core spun yarn they will work as the wool will puff up. Another sample will be required, obviously!

In between spinning, I packed up the rest of the stuff for the show and wound more skeins. I have a lovely lace weight (2/18) merino/silk (80/20) that I'd planned on dyeing for the show. Well that didn't happen, but I can bring it undyed and dye what's left later. A friend assures me that lace knitters like natural, too. :)

When Doug got off work we loaded the van. There will be a couple more boxes and our luggage to put in, but otherwise the van is ready. Although we don't usually load the van so early the weather forecast is for rain on Monday and Tuesday so it took a huge weight off my mind to get that done now while the weather was good.

And to put everything into perspective, the news out of Japan is truly overwhelming. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the people affected by the calamity there.

Currently reading Pale Demon by Kim Harrison