Well, the vitamins seem to be working

Or, at least I seem to have more energy this week.

I also seem to not be able to stop myself from starting new socks to knit. I liked the red yarn that I used for the toes of the other, and it was sitting out, just asking to be used. So I started some cabled socks. Except the yarn is thin and the feet are big, and 64 stitches is no way going to be enough, so I added do repeats and now we're at 96 stitches. And these socks are EATING YARN. I'm at 70 g and I haven't even started the heel.

So it's now they are in temporary limbo while I figure out what to do (I'm not sure even heels & toes in another yarn will be enough). Meanwhile I cast on another pair of socks, because I've got to have some knitting for the bus, right?

Really I'm doing project-avoidance, so everything looks so much more interesting than the thing I really ought to be working on: a pair of gloves or mittens or something that I'm trying to make up from a couple different patterns, sort of winging it. I'm fairly sure they're going to be too small and I've gone too far past where the thumb would be anyway. I've noticed that when I reach a point in a project where it appears the finished object might suck, but I'm not entirely sure, I start avoiding it. Instead of fixing it or just ripping it out, or completing it to evaluate possible suckage, I just stop. I need to learn a new behavior, because while it's great for other productivity (socks!) it means the important thing doesn't get done and I have a pile of UFOs.

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Today was cold (for here, stop sniggering), windy, and very brightly sunny. We decided to go wander around Golden Gate Park.

Beethoven is watching you!

Yes, there are palm trees.
The big tower in the background is Sutro Tower, a radio/tv antenna tower visible from much of the city.

We went to the Japanese garden. Doesn't look very windy here, does it?  LIES!
This pond was down in a protected little hollow.
I don't think traditional Japanese gardens use palm trees much, but you work with what you got.

I thought this fountain of a snake and a... cat-thing with fangs was cool.

OK, I'm going to go take some ibuprofen for the headache the sunshine and wind gave me, then maybe  work on the books. I'm a huge Saturday night partier, you can see. WOOWOOO!

Januaries are hard

I don't know why. I've always thought it was SAD (and when I lived in the PNW it probably was, because: hello, increased carbohydrate intake and withdrawal from social activities? That would be me) but winter here in San Francisco has been mostly one bright sunny day after another. Not entirely, (thanks a lot, Christmas storm) but fairly frequent. I probably need to take more vitamin D.

I got reminded this morning of a blog post I saw years and years ago, which essentially said: you people with your perfect blogs and your perfect lives and your mess-free children (or cute messes): I do not believe you and you can go jump in a lake.  This morning I was wandering around famous sewing/crafting blogs and well, this. I should have remembered that this happened last time I did this, and which is why I made it a kind of personal policy not to read Perfection blogs regularly. While I occasionally find inspiration, mostly they inspire feelings of inadequacy. You want to know what my front room looks like this morning?

Which is not bad, except for the dirty cereal bowl and the pile of crap on the front table. I just finished a pair of socks. Go me. What you cannot see in this picture is me sitting on the futon in an ancient sweatshirt and old yoga pants with holes in them. Let's turn left and right, shall we?

The pile of yarn that I am slowly listing on Ravelry in my Massive Destasherino, slow because my camera really, REALLY hates purple, and it's not so hot about dark blue either. I wish I could just throw it all up there (pun intended), unedited, but I don't want to mislead anyone on colors.

It would have been smart to do this BEFORE I moved, but I thought I had some kind of bending space-n-time superpower and could work full time, paint and clean and pack and do all the other house crap that needed to be done, AND have time to take pictures, color correct them, list the yarn, and pack it up and send it off.

Ha ha. NO.

And this is the lovely view to my right, the boxes of books we will put into the bookshelves (or get rid of.) This is a far cry from those houses full of white, spare rooms with perfectly blowing blue curtains. Logically I know they are editing heavily and arranging and making perfect stage sets. But emotionally that doesn't seem to quite register with me.

We're working towards order, but we also both work full time, and often extra hours, and frankly, I prefer to de-stress by sewing or knitting or reading in the evenings instead of trying to figure out where to put the damn bookcases. It will come. Just that January doesn't seem to leave me a lot of energy to do even the important things.

I'm not fishing for sympathy, just giving you a rundown on why it might take me two weeks to never to answer email. It's not you, it's me.

Meanwhile the cat has parked herself on my lap and dozed off and I am apparently going nowhere for awhile. That's ok. There are worse fates.