Just One More Day

We're in the midst of a deep freeze here in Maine, where the temperature ranges from +10 to -10, punctuated every few days by The Storm of the Century.  It's the kind of weather where cars (even Swedish ones) don't like to start in the morning, where you have to scrape ice off the inside of your windshield, where nosing into traffic is an act of faith because the snow banks are taller than a Volvo, where you realize that there is still a whole lotta winter left before it is done.

I think I'd be OK with winter if I didn't have to drive anywhere, if I could just sit at home by the fire, knitting, reading a good book, eating chocolate and bruschetta.  You could join me if you like.  We could make a pot of tea (or, better yet, open a bottle of wine).

I went into this past weekend with the same panicked feeling I feel every Friday--the sense that I have too much to do and not enough time in which to do it.  I started first thing Saturday morning with the most dreaded, but necessary task.  E and Z share a dresser, into which far too many clothes (hand-me-downs from M and a couple of his friends) are stuffed.  I usually go through the drawers every spring and fall, removing too-small items and replacing them with new seasonally-appropriate garments from the hand-me down bins.  But the drawers were overfilled with things that fit neither boy's (incomprehensible) sense of style, so I went through every item, saying, "do you like this?  this?" and filled a laundry basket to beyond overflowing with unacceptable and too-small items.  Now their drawers close (that is, until I get around to folding and putting away the mountain of clean laundry).  I'm sorry to say that's the only thing approaching housework that I got done, other than a couple of loads of laundry (which stayed out sublimating on the line until C brought them in Monday); I didn't even get my house bewitching done...

Because, the rest of Saturday I spent on the Super Duper Deluxe Southern Maine Yarn Shopping Spree with my knitting buddies (I had been calling it a Yarn-A-Thon, but that gave someone the sense that we were doing it for charity, which we quite definitely were not, unless you count one of my buying knitting needles for a friend of hers who was laid up with a sprained ankle.

As all Super Duper Deluxe Yarn Shopping Sprees should, this one involved drinking wine and eating fried pickles,

As well as purchasing some yard (of course) from two out of the three shops we visited and a little bit of fabric, as well as some other odds and ends, not to mention browsing for a new sofa.

I did also make some progress on my sweater, which it turns out does fit, albeit snugly (I made need to invest in a bust minimizer bra and spanx).  I just hope I don't look too much like the Great Pumpkin in it.

And I got started on something very tiny with some of that new yarn.  It took over an hour to wind that tiny skein (all 400 yards of it) into a ball.  I used to think one day I'd want to make one of those patterned Swedish style sweaters with the sport weight yarn and size 2 needles.  Ha!  Knitting something so tiny makes my fingers feel like bratwurst.  

And, I started working on a spring project (inspired by Heather).  Yes, I am that person who was embracing winter last week.  Part of embracing winter is anticipating spring, don't you know?  As part of the process, I ran across a whole bunch of buttons I bought a couple of years ago when a local purse and women's clothing manufacturer went out of business.  When I added them to my existing button stash, the whole collection exceeded its former home of an old giant Altoids tin and I had to graduate it all to a jar, which is a look I've been envying on others' blogs for a while (now I just need to replace some of those ugly tan and gray shirt buttons with something more fun and colorful!)

While rearranging things for this photo shoot, I ran across this package of bobbins I bought right before Christmas, which do not fit my machine, but which I opened without checking the size in may manual first.  These are class 15 and there are 10 in the package.  I'd love to pass them on to someone who could use them, so if you're interested leave a comment with your email address and they're yours!

I know it sounds like I ignored my kids all weekend, but they had a great day ice fishing with their dad on Saturday, and E and Z are way into a heavy Lego building phase, and don't really care for adult interference (I'm pretty sure they would second my preference for a go-nowhere winter), and I did spend some time helping M with the planning stages of his school project, which I'm confident will contribute greatly into any not-enough-hours-in-the-weekend panic that arises this coming weekend.

I went into Monday morning wishing for Just One More Day--mostly to tackle the housework that I neglected all weekend, but also for some of that knitting and reading by the fire action.  Instead it will just translate into a new round of panic this Friday.