The tide has turned...

and things are looking up.

The complex and unpleasant aspect of my job has changed. There is still plenty of complexity left, but things are a whole lot less unpleasant. I didn't realize how depressed this situation was making me until it was gone, and my mood has gone straight through the roof. I feel like a new person. I think my hair will turn brown again.

Over the weekend I nearly finished my most recent Hornblower book. I was so busy that I didn't have a block of time to devote to anything, but at the same time I've been trying to stretch the book since the next one was just shipped a day or two ago and won't be here until perhaps later this week. A little bit of bedtime reading will just about carry me through until it gets here, and then it will be a struggle to not stay up all night with my nose in it.

Similarly, I'm still swatching for Pellew's Pelisse, and it's singin' me the blues. The recommended #4 needles knit my light worsted/DK yarn at 26 stitches per four inches. I'm supposed to have 22 stitches. So I went much larger and tried using #6 needles, which produced 20 stitches per four inches. Next I tried #5 needles and got 24 stitches per four inches. Hmmm. Now to try different needle compositions to see what happens.

On Saturday our spinning guild handed out the next step in our afgan project. We've cleaned, prepared, dyed, and spun a fleece, and then split it up and everybody created some 8-inch squares. Now we're crocheting spacing strips onto them, sewing them together, and one member is going to do the edging. It takes a twinkle to do each spacer and I should be finished quickly (provided the yarn holds out) but I feel especially compelled to stay abreast of this project. The guild has had the fleece for four years, and we've been spinning the dyed stuff for the past two years and only now, at my insistence, have we really put our feet on the gas pedal to get it done. I even provided additional fleece to be dyed and spun in order to get it finished. So I'd better hold up my end of the bargain and do the spacers.

With the job situation changing profoundly for the better, I don't have the obsessive need to knit as I've had recently. Hornblower is still my office muse, and I do need that cardigan and there are miles of stockinette to conquer so chart the course and let's get under weigh.