A Little Yarn On The Side

This was an exhausting week at work.  Good, but exhausting.  I was back in the main store 2 days for piano training, and the other two days in my store, I sold two pianos--bringing me to three total.  Guess that was good training.  The fun this is, selling pianos is like working at an animal shelter.  I really  like the people who bought them, and I'm so excited about the pianos finding good homes--it's just the most fun thing ever. I didn't get a picture of the first two pianos, but this found a home on Wednesday.  Thank heavens.  This beauty only arrived in my store on Monday and I was already trying to justify two pianos in our house.  However, it is going to have three little girls to love it and I get to have it in the store for three more days before it goes to its forever home.  Win-win. Yesterday was the second full day of training on pianos, and when we took a lunch break, I was just feeling so overwhelmed that I dropped in...

....and broke my first cello string.  It's much trickier than it looked when someone else did it.  But I got the second one on without issue and even got it tuned.  And I've sold two used pianos now, which is a lot like working at an animal shelter.  Not all used pianos are capable of even being tuned, so they're hard to come by and need to go to a good home where they will be loved and taken care of--and I have to say, both pianos went to great people.  I'm really exhausted by the time I get home, but I am enjoying the new job.  And this morning I even had enough time to start sewing the new blocks together.  If I do them all in order and keep them chain pieced while ironing, I think I'll be able to put them together how I laid them out.  This is the theory, though I've noticed sewing theories tend to blow up on me a lot.  I wonder if this is what it's like to be a chemist? I was really dragging this week, so I rested all day Sunday, bu...

It's getting harder to remember what I have worn for MMM and what I haven't, but I think I haven't worn my new tunic:   which you would actually be seeing if my arms were longer.  BUT I TOOK A SELFIE!  And it wasn't just a shot up my nostrils!  On Friday I decided to cut my hair short for spring, and this is what the lady who cut it came up with.  It took a few days, but I like it.  And I'm rather proud of myself for trying a new hairstyle.  I'm not very good about that.  I'll do shorter and longer, but it's generally about the same.   And this makes exactly TWICE where a stylist's ideas for my hair actually worked.  Not bad for 45 years............

 I'm a bit sore today, so I've been resting on the heating pad and working on the Begonia Swirl:  which is REALLY close to being done.  I'm on the last row of the pattern, though there's still a really long purl row to be done, then the elastic bind-off, but I'm still really, really close to being done.  Then I'll have used one entire ball of yarn for this month.  Whew!  What will I do with all the freed up space????

My day off was mostly spent with the cats alternating custody of me:  Calisto is still new at Sewing Interference, but Theo is nothing short of a pro.  As soon as I looked like I might grab something else, he was ON IT.  I think they miss me.  I did manage to get the new blocks sorted pinned, and ready to be sewn:  I'd hoped to finish the chiffon jacket, but there's a part that isn't working, so I think I'll be hand-sewing that part into place.  Maybe I can get that done tonight or tomorrow. Eventually (because this was Theo's favorite part), I got this ready for quilting.  I think just a little stitch in the ditch is in order here--I don't want stippling to distract from how much I love this print. I even finished the day with my table mostly cleared off, so I almost started cutting out the next project, and I have this BIG container of fabrics prepped and ready to go right outside the sewing room door, but I reall...

Theo has discovered my secret morning crafting time, darn it.

While I'm struggling a lot more with not buying fabric than yarn, today marks 9 months since my last yarn purchase.  Not that I'm knitting enough to shrink my stash or anything, but in the past, being busy actually encouraged my yarn buying.  I'm not sure how that works out, but perhaps buying yarn (which does take MUCH less time than knitting) made me feel like I was knitting when I really didn't have time to do any knitting. Maybe on Friday I'll line up some traffic light knitting--I once made almost an entire baby sweater while waiting at stop lights.  Sure, it was over the course of an entire year, but it certainly beats sitting there.  I don't have to wait in traffic very often, so I think it would be more of a sock or hat sort of thing, but all knitting is good knitting.  Except maybe mohair........