I woke with a sense of purpose. It felt like a day for good things to happen. It's rare enough that I have strength and optimism in the morning, and this was most welcome. By mid-day, I felt like I'd had my first deep breath in years. Things that I'd been actively hiding from suddenly seemed possible. I tackled the biggest stress point first, and renewed my real estate license. It had a couple of days left before it expired, but I'd dragged my feet while I made sure I could document my continuing education classes if asked. (I was missing three or four certificates, and only found one, but I took well more than the minimum number of credit hours. I'm good.) It was expensive, but it got me unstuck enough to call and reschedule the neurology appointment I'd had to cancel in order to consult with the Anschutz specialist. I have more phone anxiety than the next 10 introverts combined, so this is a task that takes me days to work myself up to doing. By the time I see them next week, hopefully they'll have my reports, and we'll go from there.
I've known a lot of women friends who are obsessed with yarn crafts. Most of them are knitters, a skill I could never master. To a one, they are all the type to share self-deprecating yarn-addiction memes, or have a kitchen full of coffee mugs with yarn jokes on them. Or both. Over the winter holidays, my foster daughter bought a pretty multi-colored ball of yarn and a crochet hook, telling me she was ready to learn, so I taught her a basic stitch and pattern that she took to like she was born to it. I texted her today that I'm getting emails tempting me to go to "yarn week" at Michael's. She has a spine of steel compared to me. She stayed home. I went, and bought another six different colors and a sock loom. (I've tried to crochet socks and failed miserably, so loom knitting is my only hope from here.) I have to face it, I've joined the yarn cult that my girl friends have belonged to for years. I suppose this means I and all my family will be warm from now on. Warm and colorful.
I have struggled with the sock loom so far tonight. I cast it on way too tightly at first, and then I struggled to do it right-handed, as instructed. I pulled it apart both times, and tried a third time with it looped backwards, so I could work it with my left hand. It was still difficult, but better. I made a few mistakes on the next two rounds. I eventually put it aside, and picked my crochet back up. I'm not giving up, I'm just taking it in small bites.
I usually pull yarn from the center of skeins, rather than rolling them into balls. Sometimes a big tangle of yarn comes out all at once when you start this way. I straightened out the clump I had created before I started playing with the loom. It took all of three minutes before the first cat showed up. I chased him away a couple of times, and then I started paying more attention to my hands than the yarn. I looked up, and there Alfred was, in the middle of it. I made him leave, and no more than a minute later, the second cat (Harvey) lay in the middle of it. I didn't even bother to chase anymore by the time Rabbit appeared on my right, and Athena on my left. Athena chased herself away, however, leaving behind the smell of burnt hair around the clearance candle I bought while at Michael's. Tell me again why I do crafts with the door open?
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