Solitude

I've got a couple of days off this week, while Colby students are away on spring break.  I'm splitting my time between home by myself and quiet catch-up time in the office.  I get a fair enough amount of time off during the year, but these two days are a real vacation as I'm spending them by myself - at least until evening when Don gets home from school.  It is heaven.

I crave time alone and am fortunate to have a partner who honors it when I most need it.  I can tell him that I need him to spend some time out of the house on a Saturday or Sunday if I really need him to.  He gets lonely during his school vacations and I take time during those weeks to keep him company.  I, however, do not get lonely easily.  Don't get me wrong, I do know that I'm fortunate to have Don come home in the evening, but these two days are real vacation day for me.  I don't have to go anywhere or talk to anyone, unless I choose to.

I complete projects and get things done that I just can't do when people are around.  I don't have to explain what I'm doing.  I can bop from project to project without notice.  I can even turn off the radio/stereo/TV and have... silence... if I want.  Mostly, I just soak it up.  The silence, that is.

ON MY NEEDLES
I seamed up the shoulders and sewed the sleeves on my Fargo sweater today.  I'm now about half-way through knitting on the shawl collar.  I'll have a finished sweater by tomorrow night (maybe even tonight if I go knit now!).  (Apologies for the color -- will try to take a finished shot tomorrow in better light.)

I've been working slowly on a beaded lace shawl for my mother - she wanted one with "bling."  The Sivia Harding pattern I purchased is beautiful, but I was just not enjoying it AT ALL.  So, today I broke off the yarn, put the whole thing on a holder and will start over with another shawl pattern that I'll enjoy more.  The center of the abandoned shawl was a complex cabled affair and I just hated working on it.  So nice to let go of that project!

The first clue in the Romi Mystery Shawl KAL (knit a-long) arrived in my mailbox on Friday.  I finished the first clue today.  I'm using purple and green Malabrigo fingering weight yarn.  Who knows what it will turn out like, but I generally love Romi's designs. 

Two other projects are underway.  I'm finishing the second sleeve of a project I resurrected recently.  It had been stashed away for years and I just don't know why I stopped working on it.  It is a cardigan from a knitting booklet that was my mother's.  I made this cardigan about 30 years ago and it wore out, so this was a replacement (sort-of - the original was cream colored and this is garnet colored).  When I finish the sleeve it will just be seaming up and then button and buttonhole bands to finish up.

And, I had a fit of startitis last weekend.  I'm making a simple pullover called Calabash - easy knitting that doesn't take a lot of attention until I get to the yoke.  Should be a quickie.