The weekly panic

So many things I'm reacting to this morning.  Like,

I worked very hard yesterday and got one of the Taveners socks entirely over the heel (speaking of which, I do now have heel instructions printed out and in the bag and golly, they couldn't be easier so I should be able to memorize them eventually) and the other onto the gusset for same.  And then tried one on, and it turns out that socks without any ribbing or pattern sag horribly at the ankle. I feel a bit as though I've wasted my very favourite sock colourway, but am trying to focus on the fact that nobody sees my ankles anyway when I'm wearing my boots.

I'm just really sad over the friend I'm visiting in the hospital (and when I say friend, I mean friend who is also family, the two not always going together as you know.)  I'm hoping that when my special-order yarn comes in and I reknit the Mystery Shawl while polishing up the clues, it will support me the way the original one did when things first started to turn very bad.

I just bought two more knitting project bags from Melissa especially for socks (see above) when I should be trying not to splurge (see above also, emphasis on 'special-order-yarn', inference being 'lots of it').  I just always feel a little better around my tinyhappy bags - I don't know what good spirit she sews into them, but there is definitely something and it appears to last for years.

The Tour de Fleece starts in July and I'm not ready - I still have no idea what I'm doing wrong with my wheel.  Oh, and I thought 'July' was 'later in July.'  In fact it's 'this Saturday.'  I'm hoping I will nail the problem today, or rather problems - I think it's a combination of wrong tension, wrong treadling speed, and very poor drafting skills.  I will be spending a lot of time staring at screens running spinning videos, for sure, while hoping I get some sit-down time with Karen on my annual trip to Ottawa later in the month.  Karen figured her wheel out in, like, a day.

I knit a bit of my Deco cardi last night.  If I continue at this pace, approximately 3 rows per day, will it be ready for October do you think?  Nah, I don't think so either.  But I also deliberately marked some of my current projects as 'hibernating' in Ravelry so I can focus on urgent ones like Deco and sock-finishing, so that's given me a bit of a mental lift.

Never ceases to amaze me, the power of the mental lift - often you have to actively remember to do it when things get tough, but just freeing yourself from a few (usually self-imposed) obligations is like dumping sandbags from an air balloon. 

And that is an analogy I will be forgetting promptly, because I am really, really scared of heights, and you can't knit non-superwash wool with sweaty palms.  Trust me.