Hyper and Unfocused

Must be left over from Halloween! Or maybe this little lady cast a spell on us all...

This will be a bit of a random post in keeping with the "unfocused" theme.

I wasn't feeling well for the past couple of days; turns out there is actually something going around where you're tired, have a runny nose and a headache that makes it feel like your head is going to fall off.

Even if no wine was involved.

So yesterday, after a serious afternoon nap, I actually had some energy to make a decent dinner and I was so pleased with myself that I made sure that I had evidential proof of said dinner.

It's Chicken and Pears with Almonds and Gorgonzola, loosely based on a recipe from the Alive magazine available at you local health food store. When I showed my husband the picture of the original he said mine was better. Brownie points for him.

I invented this side dish of lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower tossed with leaks and garlic that had been sauteed in the pan used to prepare the chicken dish.

The evening went kind of hairy after that. Later on I was helping my son try to find his ski boots, which we never did, but that led us into some uncharted territory that is 'the crawl space'. I don't often get down there, because whoever built this house saw fit to build a crawl space where you can't stand up straight and it hurts all of our backs to go in there! So stuff gets shoved in there and moved around and forgotten about and added to etc. etc.
This is particularly not helpful for those of us who are prone to the 'hoarding' factor; especially with yarn.
I found yarn in the crawl space. I sort of knew it was there. I sort of remembered that I had it. I just don't ever remember feeling that overwhelmed by it before.
I have my studio stash...which is plentiful.
I have a few (cough-several) rubbermaid containers waiting to go---either to the crawl space or away; again, plentiful.
And once again I've encountered the Crawl Space Yarn. CSY.
**New t.v. show idea: CSI-CSY! Starring....me? The following show contains material that may be offensive to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
Anyway, I guess not being able to find the boots and seeing all that yarn that I still actually remember what it was that I wanted to do with it all left me feeling a bit unsettled. Put that together with an afternoon nap, late evening dessert and a snoring husband and you've got a night full of second guessing and self negative talk.
I was setting myself up for quite a tailspin and feeling pretty badly about myself and my short-comings and choices I've made, projects I will never complete...dreams that will never come true. NOT A GOOD NIGHT!!!
So, I got up, made another cup of Bedtime Tea and, "Thank God for Knitting", is all I have to say. I quietly worked on Seascsape and found my rhythm once again. I was able to quiet the voices that tell me "I'll never finish all this!" And shortly after midnight I was able to get to sleep.
This morning I awoke embracing the Hope for Creativity that I count on to get me through the hustle and bustle of the life we are a part of. (This morning's mantra is, "Thank God for Sunshine".) If Hope for Creativity looks like too much yarn to some people, well so be it. I'll get to it someday. (It's funny, that same Alive magazine where I found the chicken recipe also had an article on procrastination, and it was written by somebody that somehow got inside my head and shared with everybody how my thoughts and days go by! Scarey.)
A few hours later I find myself sitting at Tim Hortons checking emails and there is one waiting for me with one of my favourite subject lines:
Knitting Question.
"...What do you ladies do with your left thumb when you are knitting? In particular when you are doing the purl stitch. Does it sit nicely in the palm of your left hand, does it leap back and forth to the needle, does it do something in between? Inquiring minds want to know."

Well, was my face red!! Here I was in a coffee shop, reading an email about knitting and me without my knitting!! I tried knitting in mid air without yarn and needles, but it really wasn't very helpful. I didn't care that maybe I looked like one of those crazy ladies; I just wasn't getting the proper results to give my inquiring minded friend the answer she deserved and needed!

So, here's a picture to put it all into perspective. Mostly my thumb stays pretty much in this position. It might move back and forth a little bit, but usually it sits here to do the job at hand.

I picked up an addition to my knitting library the other day.

I'll tell you more about it another day...maybe I'll bring it to knitting on Thursday...but I have to get going now. There's a dog that wants fed and a girl who doesn't have her dance stuff to get ready for her 3 hour dance class after her Volleyball tryout.

That's Seascape peeking at the corner there. I think I'm going to do a couple of extra repeats on that because I don't see how it's going to block to the given dimensions on the pattern and I think that that's a reasonable conclusion since the yarn is quite a bit different than the one called for.

I've really enjoyed writing and sharing this with you today. Thanks for taking the time to read.