The Morning Count

Because it's December and I, as I have said, fail annually at remembering that this part of the year shows up regularly, getting ready in the morning has a new component: the yarn projects for the day.*

I'm never at my best first thing in the morning. I can go from dead asleep to brightly chipper on the phone in under a minute but if you want sustained thought, that takes whole lot more time and usually either coffee or tea. Adding in project evaluation takes extra brain cells and I'm impressed that so far I've not managed to walk out of the house without, say, my phone. We'll see what kind of shape I'm in by the end of next week.

The reason for these extra neurons firing is an attempt to review the day ahead and determine what knitting time is available and what kind of knitting time that is. The Yarn Harlot is much better than I am--she can approximate how long something will take to knit and also better knows what kind of knitting she'll be able to do at a given event. She spreadsheets. I know I shouldn't take a lace chart to a dark bar but beyond that hope springs eternal.

Based on what knitting time I can think of, I usually need at least two projects. And so something gets stuffed into a bag (the ones from Gretel and Sibling-the-Elder are on overtime, they are my two biggest bags) and off I go. The utterly mindless is reserved for when I need to be listening to something/someone; the needs thought/review gets shuffled to the commute, a few minutes sanity midday; or waiting for people.

Progress is going slowly. I cannot stand and drink wine and knit all at the same time, I can manage any two but throw in the third and I'm thwarted. And then I've had wine... so traveling home I'm sleepy and that doesn't make the best knitting time either. Ah well, a few more midnight candles burning...



*Yes, I know I should be doing all of this the night before when I'm getting ready for bed. Ideal Me would do that, but Ideal Me wouldn't have left me in this bind, would she?