sort of a basket case, sort of not.

Currently, I am trying to:

1. Improve my crappy posture, which should help my neck and shoulder problems.

2. Cut back on caffeine, also to help with my neck and shoulder (my massage therapist told me about a study she read linking caffeine to stress-related pain).

3. Lose 5 lbs so I can wear the fitted top I'm knitting without feeling like my stomach is the first thing someone sees.

4. Exercise more (see #3).

5. Not drink any beer or wine (see #3). When I complained to my husband that my unwanted weight wasn't because of retaining water, he suggested that I might be retaining beer.

6. Eat better.

7. Enjoy the summer.

8. Protect my vegetable garden from marauding deer and cats.

9. Dye 475 more skeins of yarn in the next six weeks.

Oh, and work 20 hours/week while racing towards a million deliverables all due on June 30 (thank you, federal grants), and chasing a rather busy 4.5 year old the rest of the time.

I would add "sleep more" to the list, but that seems pretty unrealistic.

I ought to be more stressed, and I'm a little sad that I'm missing out on fun summer things like camping trips, but I'm doing my best to get out of the house with the boy on our days together and do as much as possible. He is a great hiker (see #4 and #7) and is game for anything. He's insatiably curious--I feel like I've got to stuff as many diverse experiences into him now, while he's open and inquisitive about everything. I am more than a little scared of the school years and what they may do to him. I don't know why, I turned out fine, though I would've benefited from a more challenging high school for sure, but for some reason I am just afraid that school will bore the curiosity and thirst for learning right out of him.

Sock Summit, what else?

I have been living and breathing Sock Summit for the last few weeks. I didn't think I'd be able to take any three-hour classes since I'd have to mind my store. So I wasn't really paying much attention to that, until I had a Revelation of the Blindingly Obvious the day before registration opened, and realized that I wasn't going to be chained to my booth until late Thursday afternoon, so I *could* take at least one class. Then I got excited, joined the F5 feeding frenzy, and got into a sock design class for the morning, plus a 1-hour ergonomics class, which my poor neck and shoulder are ever so grateful for.

There's the dyeing, too, of course. I've gotten into my groove and am busily dyeing away. I'm at the beginning of a four-day dyeing marathon--more about that in a future post.

And last but not least, there's my inner shopper, who has been faithful to a vow of stash chastity for six months now but is showing signs of cracking. The vendor booth numbers got released today, and my inner shopper seized control, printed out the marketplace map, and is matching up must-see vendors with their booths, happily highlighting away.

getting organized

Sock Summit is exactly two months away, and I'm still dyeing in a rather desultory fashion. My goal for the last three weeks had been to dye 60 skeins a week and, um, I have 57. Total. From three weeks of dyeing. Eeep.

To get myself focused, tonight I've been filling in my inventory spreadsheet with the number of skeins I want to dye per colorway, per base yarn. I already feel more motivated. It's funny how either I need total freedom to dye whatever I feel like, or a very specific game plan. I can't do the in-between, which was to make a list of colorways that I wanted to bring.

My family is going away for a four-day weekend without me, and I'm taking a week off from my day job next month, so I'm expecting/hoping to get caught up then.

Oh, and did I mention how excited I am just to be at Sock Summit? I got into two classes, I'm setting up a group trip to Pok Pok (which I'm looking forward to as much as the classes), and I am going to get to meet a bunch of people that I only have met online, so far. No matter how the booth does, I am going to have so much fun!