Goals…

I’ve largely decided that surviving the next few weeks is my main goal.  The amount of work/opportunities/requests/requirements/ and commitments that are flying past me at breakneck speed are beyond comprehension, and all I can do is just sit back, laugh, and watch the sh*t fly.  There is no way to do all of it, and I am getting some satisfaction in being able to say, “sorry, I’m already booked.”  I have check lists and apps that keep track of everything for me, and I’m printing monographs and handouts while I’m hemming pants for a job I get once a year and it showed up at my door yesterday afternoon.  Six pairs.  Have to be finished today.  Sigh…

And a sewing publication just contacted me for an article for next spring.  Outline due Monday. Manuscript due in two weeks.  I leave Sunday.  Sigh…

My son writes, “quick send board games to Qatar”.  Sigh…

My garden…  I’m not even going there…

So, in the true spirit of sanity preservation, I’m doing what I can, apologizing for the rest, and trying to focus on the important stuff.  Like saying goodbye to my daughter.  She leaves tomorrow to go back to school.  Fortunately I’m too busy to get depressed about it.  Yet.  She needs all kinds of last minute help, and I am doing what I can.  And we are squeezing in last minute fun things, as the summer comes to a close.  Like yesterday, we had a private tour of  WoodsEdge Wools Farm in Stockton, NJ.  They raise yaks both for meat and for fiber.  And of course they have something like 90 alpaca and llamas on the farm as well.  I bought some gorgeous alpaca yarn, and stuffed my freezer with yak meat. The best of both worlds for my daughter, the animal science major, who works with beef cattle and has more yarn than me… (course most of it she stole from me…)

Last Thursday was the Peters Valley Annual Auction.  My scarf looked beautiful on the table.

The wife of one of my oldest friends from Peters Valley, woodworker Jim Whitman was seen wearing another one of my scarves at the event.

Friday morning I hopped a bus into Manhattan and then hopped on the Megabus to Baltimore to meet up with my daughter who was spending time with relatives, and working on a cousin’s dairy barn for some dairy cow experience.  The trip was horrid, I won’t bore you with the details, but five hours later, I finally arrived and we were on our way to visit with my mom.  We had a great family reunion on Saturday and Sunday morning we drove home, via Winterthur, the Dupont estate in Delaware, where there is a fantastic exhibit of costumes from the Downton Abbey PBS series, along with a wonderful display explaining the role of the English Country house in the 20’s and comparing it to the American equivalent, which of course was the Dupont estate, Winterthur.  We adored the exhibit and the tour of Winterthur.

I did have one small goal, and that was to finish a dress I was knitting by the end of the summer.  You may recall I won a gift certificate to Interlacement Yarns, as a result of a fiber exhibition in Colorado earlier in the year, and I bought a couple of skeins of their Rick Rack, a hand dyed rayon novelty, 1200 yards per skein. The color I used was Scottish Lichen.

I thought I’d knit this little top from C2Knits, and when I got to the hip (it is a top down sweater) I realized I had only used a third of the yarn, so I kept going.  I finished up the last bit of the dress on the long miserable bus ride to Baltimore, tied in the ends, washed and blocked the dress, and the color ran so badly while it was drying flat, it pooled at the sides creating what looks like a seam, and I can assure you there is no seam.  It was knitted in the round.  I wore it anyway.  The dress stretches badly when I wear it, which I expected, and it became pretty obvious I need to wear a slip.  So I’ve washed it again, this time in the machine, in a bag, with a couple of color catchers and though the color isn’t as bright, there is no line down the side.  The dress is beautiful.  I got so many compliments on it.  Yeah, and I found a long slip in the closet that will work, I’ll just pop in a hem.

So in spite of all the craziness, I managed to actually make a new dress, and that makes me happy.  I have a new knitting project all lined up to take with me when I leave for Harrisville Designs on Sunday.  Class starts Monday morning!

And the mail today brought the much anticipated (by me) fall issue of Threads Magazine, which of course has my article on Weaving your Own Trim for garments.  The photoshoot was beautiful, I loved what they did with my jacket.  There is my vest on page five of the six page article which looks beautiful as well.  They did an amazing job given the space and editing out anything that wasn’t critical.  So look for it on the news stands.  November 2014, issue 175.

And the summer ends with a bang and the fall season is upon us…

Stay tuned…