Guilt Edged

So here I am in Beautiful Alberta (flatter than I'd thought - but so was Denver - I keep expecting that high altitude will be being IN the mountains!)

Tonight I have a class at Make One, then tomorrow we leave for Banff for the weekend of knitting and teaching and communing with the scenery. I'm so excited - and so wishing that there were some way I could have brought Gerry. Maybe later - maybe I'll come again with him...

I left this morning - but later than I would have liked - after walking Max to the bus stop and getting a few packages ready to go. But there are things at home I wish I could have accomplished before I left. Things like:

• Make hair appt for Hannah
  She's decided she'd like her hair short for fencing
• Get shelves put up in downstairs bathroom
  Old china hutch needs notches cut out of it,
  then it needs to be mounted on wall
• Put hinges on door of vanity, add shelf
  Just fiddly work, needs to be done...
• Get old dryer up on Craig's list for sale
• Put away outdoor furniture
  Hang from the ceiling in the garage.
• Carry boxes of books from garage down to basement storage
  Thus freeing up more space in garage -
  I may hire a high school or college kid to help with all this carrying...
  
• Reconfigure basement storage
  Now that laundry is on ground floor,
  we can use that room for book storage - yay!
  
• Put away summer clothes, get out winter clothes

Those are the non-teaching / non-designing things that are on my mind. There are more, but that's what seems to be hovering around my head.

So here I am, 1,000 miles away and in another high altitude city, and I find myself fretting about things that I can't do anything about right now. Altitude and fretting. Fretting is pretty useless, but writing all this stuff down does make it seem surmountable.

Knitting A Bit More
I've been getting some nice knitting done - I have a cardigan I'm working on using Tilli Tomas silk Plie, and I'm really excited about the shaping. It also has a cool double knit edging up the front and along the neckline that will be fun to do (but hard to explain - why do I do this to myself...)

It's a simple knit - the shaping is created by a box pleat that sits under the armhole on each side. I had a student in Virginia try it on, and I'm very happy with the fit - quite flattering. I have to finish the sleeves, though, and then get the pattern written up.

I'm going slower these days than I used to - I know I sound a little idiotic, but it really is true that having so much to do makes less time for designing. In my worst moments I wonder if I'll ever be back to a place where I have a certain amount of 'waste time' - just to doodle around. On the plane today I doodled with some very pretty yarn, fiddling around with a hat pattern I've had in my head. I miss that. I did, though, have time to get the heel onto one of Max's socks. Yay!

Yarn will be arriving any day for a few pieces I'm doing for Lorna's Laces. I love that yarn so much - I think LL & Artyarns still rank as my all time favorite yarns.

I wish I could be at TNNA this January to see the pieces in action at the LL booth! I don't think I'll be going, though, as it's just not prudent for my budget if I'm not teaching out there. It will be good, though, to have more time at home.

When I get home next week I'll have a nice chunk of time to try to bring a few projects to a manageable state.

Spring Plans?
I'm thinking of putting together an East Coast trip, centered around the NY/NJ/CT area in the early Spring. Anyone interested?

I'm also closing in on finishing the tank top I've been working on since it was HOT. It's going to be a plus size - the sample will be - so for a nice change of pace I'll see if I can get a zaftig model to show off the pattern. I think I may just set that aside until Spring, at any rate.