My Entourage

With the weekend all to myself, I am surprised at how quickly I have gone completely feral.  I have studiously ignored ALL forms of housework.  I have eaten nothing that required the use of dishes.  I only left the house to buy ribbon for a sweater, and the latest issue of Interweave Knits.  I had grand visions of lots of self-indulgent me-time activities, like bubble baths and recreational reading, and shaving my legs and drinking wine.  Turns out all I wanted to do was work, snack, and sleep.  Having made no attempt to maintain even minimum sanitation standards in my house, I find it much easier to fight the guilt if I just don't look up from my work.

I'm not completely alone, though.  The Pets are keeping a diligent watch over me (as long as diligence includes napping)  Here's my cast of supporting characters:

Paisley peeks around a corner to see if I have noticed yet that the CHILDREN ARE NOT HERE, and what am I, DUMB or something?  She is highly agitated due to the irregularity of their absence, and as a result her nap schedule is in a complete state of disruption.

Not suffering from this problem are Hex and Jinx:

They barely opened their eyes for their photo opportunity, and are only dimly aware that they have me all to themselves.    I realize that posting pictures of my cats on my blog is a totally Uber-Dweeb thing to do, but I hope to be forgiven this once, because they are only kittens and they are so CUUUUUUTE...  Yeah, I know:  I seriously need to knit less/leave the house more.  Have mercy on my pitiful soul though;  I lack a certain perspective, due to extended periods of sweater construction.  We who are about to write a book salute you.

I completed the sibling sleeves, and presented them to my assistant for inspection:

She is not as enthusiastic a supporter of my work as I had hoped.  Maybe if I wrapped the sleeves around a pork chop or something...

As much as I crave and relish time by myself, I realize that I may not be the type of person who should be left to my own devices too often.  Lucky for me, Phillip and the smallies will be home this evening to regale me with tales of everything I missed at the lake.  And I will tell them that however much I just want to be left alone sometimes, they are the only thing I have worth being awake for.  Except, of course, for the Entourage.
 

Re-Entry

So there I was, having the time of my life with my two sisters, who only improved the situation by also having the times of their lives, when the weekend came to a screeching halt and Monday reared its ugly head.  Strange how sometimes a little time away can feel like a month off on vacation, and other times many days off in a row do nothing to give one a break. 

Re-entry is of course, what happens to objects which have been in orbit and then must come back into contact with the atmosphere.  It is also what happens to people who go on weekend motorcycle adventures with their sisters and then have to go back to the office on Monday.  The process is invasive, inflammatory, and generally a sucky transition from one plane of existence and frame of reference to an entirely different one.  Common symptoms include jet lag, hangover, disorientation, disillusionment, financial strain and criminal record.  In this case, my only complaints are disorientation and disillusionment, but it's enough to really stink up my attitude. 

The other problem might be self-fulfilling prophesy:  I took a day off from knitting and now I don't feel like working on it anymore.  I was so afraid to give myself a break, and now I know why.  I was afraid I wouldn't feel like starting again.  So in the interest of self-motivation, I will list all the great reasons I can think of to get back to work:

1.        Knitting is an excellent excuse not to do laundry.
2.        The weather is not miserably hot today, so sitting under the project will not hurt a bit.
3.        My lovely DH will be preparing our evening meal (as he has done all summer) so that I can work.
4.        Knitting does not require any more physical strain than say, beer-drinking, and is far more productive.
5.        Failure to meet my publishers deadline will result in extreme embarrassment and lack of cash.
6.        I am making a sweater, not mapping the human genome.  It's not that challenging, for pity's sake.

Okay, I think that was helpful.  Except for the part where I reminded myself about beer-drinking...

Shiny Side Up

After a long week of tribulations whose details I will spare, I made it to Friday.  At last it's time for my long-awaited bike ride with my sisters.  Here I am on Growly, my trusty steed of six years.  She and I have been through a lot together, and look forward to many more miles.  Of course, when I really ride, I wear protective gear; this is just a snapshot my friend took for fun.

I have been asked what if anything motorcycles have to do with knitting, and the answer bears more introspection.  The similarities are many:  Both are the kind of thing people tell me they always mean to try one day ("I wish I had the patience to do that!"), both require gobs of practice and huge amounts of concentration.  Both require a degree of courage, which I should add is NOT the absence of trepidation, only the fortitude to press on in the face of it.  Both activities seem to give others a handy tool for pidgeonholing me:  Oh, she's a biker/Oh, she's a knitter.  And both are about as expensive and time-consuming as I choose to let them become.

Tomorrow will be my second day off from knitting since April.  Not that I can bear to leave the knitting at home - I get too squirrelly for that kind of abstinence - I need to know I can always work if I want to.  But I will admit that the rest for my wrists and elbows will be really nice.  I am maybe halfway up the body of the Leopard sweater, so I feel pretty good about its progress.

If somebody asked to see a picture of the real and unvarnished me, I would have to say this is it.  Till next time (I will) keep it shiny side up.