I decided yesterday that I was taking a sickie. Allergies, the after-effects of the party on Saturday night and a busy weekend had me feeling too tired and headachey to concentrate on work. What did I do instead?
* Ordered a flicker, and some new reeds for my Knitters Loom.
* Looked though some knitting magazines and my stash.
* Doodled some crazy garment designs using weaving, crochet and knitting in mad combinations. (I doubt I’d ever make them, but it was fun playing around with ideas.)
* Stressed about that mis-addressed sock yarn order, and how the shop hasn’t emailed me since last Wednesday.
* Wrote lists.
I’m a bit of a list addict. Sometimes I’ll write a list of things to do, then rewrite it each time I finish something on the list. When I write lists of knitting projects, I’ll usually write at least two.
You see, no one knitting list ever covers everything I want to know. A list of the things I need to have can be completely different to the one of projects I want to do. Or the projects waiting in the stash.
Yesterday I started with a list of projects waiting in the stash, and included a list of things I need. Then I copied that into a new document and sorted them into a “Priority List”. I listed the projects I’d most like to tackle and finish next, then divided them up over the next five months.
Then I decided this might be better titled “The Wishful Thinking” list.
But there was another purpose to doing it this way. To combat hand pain, I decided I needed to have a weaving project listed under each month. Some knitting projects, I realised, might be better done in crochet or weaving. If I can vary the sorts of hand movements I make, I might have less problems.
Then I decided that spending hours making lists was a sure sign that not knitting was making me a tad obsessive. Last night, after weaving the first coffee-coloured stripe of the Mocha blanket, I actually knit a little on the chocolate socks, finishing the heel flap. My hands were a little stiff, but not sore. I think the rest has done me some good… physically. Not sure about the brain, though. Looking at the doodles I did yesterday, I may just have been edging on madness.