it is too early for this

I got up early this morning, 4:50am – and I hear that’s normal for some folks, but I’m just terrible at it. Terrible.  Later this summer when Jen and I start training for the Bike Rally in earnest I’ll get better. It wasn’t so bad when the sun was coming up and off we’d go, full of purpose, riding 40 or 50km before work several days a week.  This though? Getting up, the world still dark, no purpose beyond a trek to the airport? This is not my best thing. I’m fragile that early.  I drink coffee slowly, go over my class checklist one more time…

teawithbuttonsdet 2014-03-27

I got into the taxi when it came, and the cab driver made a few tries at conversation, and I tried but couldn’t summon up much.  I was polite, but couldn’t quite get the groove of it, and after a few minutes he said “Ah, it’s still nighttime. Let’s go quietly.”  I sat in the back and knit on my sock, staring out at frozen Toronto, and thought about the cat, who was looking at me with a curious rage when I left. I think she noticed that Joe and I both had suitcases out. He’s leaving for the Junos and I’m for the DFW Fiber Fest (which is sort of like the Junos, if you approach it the right way, which I do, although travelling together would be cool if it happened) and when I left I am pretty sure the cat was trying to figure out who’s side of the bed to pee on as revenge.

teaontable 2014-03-27

As much as leaving again unsettles me, so soon after the book tour, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. I love teaching and speaking, but really, I’m serious about the marketplace this time.  I was going through my stash the other day and realized that a lot of my yarn is wrong. How you can have that much and have pretty much all of it be breathtakingly, spectacularly wrong is beyond me, but I’d noticed over the last year or so that a theme was developing, one where I think about knitting something, go to the stash and then mysteriously find myself in a yarn shop with a big bag and a vaguely dirty feeling.

tinyteawhole 2014-03-27

I think I’ve regressed, fallen back into a nasty little single skein habit, thinking that it saves me money to buy a little of what I like, when in reality it doesn’t save me a dime. There’s no savings if you buy the single skein one day, then the sweater’s worth another day. I see that now.

teabuttonscuff 2014-03-27I’m going to fix some of that this weekend.  They’re calling my flight.  See some of you in Dallas.

(PS: Yarn: Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks Weld/Indigo. Pattern: Tiny Tea Leaves. Buttons: Aren’t they perfect? Vintage buttons from my grandmothers button bin.  Perfect tiny tulips on a spring sweater for wee Myrie.)