Dropping the Gears

“Me Weeks” are approaching at the speed of light, an event I have learned to look upon with trepidation.

All the imagined carving out of a new schedule, focusing on beloved-but-neglected projects, learning new skills, reading book after book for long stretches, marathoning a season of television that I love but my viewing partner - not so much... well something usually happens to destroy all of that.

I am trying very hard not to set my sights too high, but as soon as I set myself realistic expectations, one more thing creeps onto my list and then another and another...

I need to fix that ASAP. This “Me Week” more than most has all the potential of being a fail, due to the likelihood that my time will be spent either in doctor’s offices and waiting rooms, or on the highway going or coming from the same. And I know I have significant yard clean-up time ahead of me give that most of the leaves have yet to fall.



I have a lot more office work than I expected because new assignments with tight deadlines roll in the door before I’ve had a chance to finish the ones I already had.

Because of all that, I’m going to test out a new approach to the weeks that will hopefully give me the flexibility to tackle each day as it comes, without the inevitable disappointment of missed opportunities. More on that later.



In preparation for the coming weeks, this week I have completed six major assignments, conducted interviews for two more, canned jars jars of green tomato salsa, eight jars of green tomato mincemeat, repaired rotted wood on the solarium, assisted in roof repair (mainly by conveying tools on and off the roof and holding the ladder) and tried my darnedest to get past the really difficult thinking stage of Fjalar. No small feat.

(The green tomato projects were last minute, but became critical and time sensitive once the flat landed on my doorstep - as noted by the four tomatoes ripening in this photo.)

Fjalar is from Elsbeth Lavold’s Viking Patterns for Knitting. She is a visionary designer, and her sensibilities align with mine. Nearly every project in the book is marked for future knitting. The downside is that English is not her first language, and her patterns are challenging. That’s when clearly written instructions are crucial, and that’s something this particular pattern is not blessed with.

It went well until the beginning of the collar on the front. Then I spent (no kidding) the entire two hours of my knitting group trying to make broad sense of the instructions. And another hour at home working out the fine details of those instructions. Now that I’m a dozen or so rows through the really head-bending stuff, I’m having to keep three row counters with me at all times to keep track of 1) rows in the cable chart, 2) rows between increases on the seam end, and 3) rows between decreases where the stockinette panel meets the cabled neckline. Yes, all three in tandem. The good news is that I’m almost done with the seam increases. The bad news is that once the whole right side is done, I’ll need to repeat all of this for the left side.



Frankly I’m finding the whole thing about irritating. Hardly “Me Week” knitting. But I forge ahead because the sleeves will be a breeze and I can nearly smell the barn when it comes to finishing this project.

Tonight is Halloween. Our porch lights will be off and we’ll be inside hiding.