I have no idea where the tent pegs went

Today is the day, I told myself, as I woke up to begin a wildly busy week. I realized last night as I lay there, planning, mentally organizing, writing internal post-it notes – that I have crammed a lot into this last week. Training is officially over, thank goodness, this weekend I rode 180km (111 miles, for my American friends) and tomorrow the bike goes into the shop for a tune-up, and I begin a taper.  It’s a period of rest before a big event. I’ll ride a little bit over the next week, maybe 40 or 50km, once or twice, but overall I’ll rest. Sort of, because I think I’ve done a lot of “I’ll have to do that before the Rally” and now here I am, about to walk away from it all for seven days, and the “before the Rally” list is a little ridiculous. There’s the Rally stuff (nobody could find the tent pegs so I got more and I’ll need more sunscreen and what happened to my cycling socks?) and the work stuff (I swear that in the name of merino I am trying to answer you all) and the Steering Committee stuff (I will be at that meeting tomorrow I promise) and the personal stuff (why the hell I did plan a dentist appointment for this week) and the stuff with family (of course I have time to see you before I go, no problem.) Joe’s got to go out of town on Wednesday, so there’s my best helper and organizer gone, and I’d be way more hysterical, except for it was exactly like this last year and I lived to tell the tale, and I am doing a fair bit of knitting and spinning to take the edge off. It makes me so much less crazy.

I started this braid, it’s from The Artful Ewe, and the bill (stuffed in the bag) just says Polworth, but it’s clear to me that it’s Polworth and silk. I can see it.

polworthbraid 2016-07-18

I’ve got almost half of it spun, and I love how it looks. I did a simple division on the roving. The first half of the roving on one bobbing, I’ll spin the second half onto another, and we’ll just see what sort of 2-ply I end up with. It’s an adventure.

polworthbraidbobbin 2016-07-18

While I’m on the go, to appointments and meetings and the subway and anytime I’m not riding a bike, I’m working on a pair of socks that are (surprise) Rally Themed.  The Cozy Knitter (have I told you about her yet? I’m a tiny bit obsessed) has a Friends 4 Life colourway, and I’m knitting it. (You know, I’d knit it even if it wasn’t the colours of the PWA logo, but it does feel really right as I rush through this week.) I am helpless in the face of a self-striping yarn.

PWAsocks 2016-07-18

In the midst of this busy week, I’m also rockin’ the backyard office as hard as I can. No reason it all can’t be nice, and speaking of nice, let’s tidy up a few Karmic Balancing gifts, shall we?

Brad went into his stash and rattled around for a bit (actually, he seems very tidy and organized, I bet he knew where all this was) and came up with five gifts,  all lovely, because Brad is pretty awesome. First, 2 skeins of Scrumptious Aran silk/merino in Midnight for Jaimee A.

scrumptionsaranbrad 2016-07-18

then 5 skeins of Thirteen Mile Yarns (organic wool) in Light Grey and Blueberry for Marilyn V.
12mileyarnbrad 2016-07-18

2 skeins of Madelinetosh 100% super wash Merino in “Tart” for Tracy C.

bradmadtosh 2016-07-18

Then Jaeger Matchmaker, 4 skeins Dark purple and 3 skeins light purple for Rose T.

bradjager 2016-07-18

And last of his gifts but certainly not least Cascade 220 Superwash Aran in red, 14 skeins for the very lucky Olivia W.

redcascadebrad 2016-07-18

Beth has one 2oz skein of mystery handspun, maybe light fingering weight, about 250 yards, consisting of cashmere and tussah silk. She says the only thing she’s sure about is that the colourway is called “Scarab.”  The only things I’m sure about is that cashmere and tussah are delicious, and this skein is going to live with Kathleen R.

bethscarab 2016-07-18

From the good folks at Akerworks, three beautiful gifts for the spinners. First one modular drop spindle (the winner’s chosen combination of shaft + whorl) for Erin F.

akermanspindle 2016-07-18

One Flat pack spinning wheel bobbin for Claudia M,

akerworksbobbin 2016-07-18

Finally, one Flat pack Lazy Kate for Omni M.  Lucky ducks, all.

akerworkskate 2016-07-18

Yarn Crush is a Canadian yarn subscription box—they send their subscribers a skein of hand-dyed yarn, knit and crochet patterns to use it, and bonus gifts. There’s a couple of pictures here of what they do – but Caroline DK, Liz P and Stephanie D are going to get a chance to really see, they’ll each pick one box from what Yarn Crush has in stock.

yarncrush 2016-07-18 yarncrush2 2016-07-18

I’ve sent everyone an email.

Finally, out of everyone who emailed (Kate and Elizabeth should be flattered, the response was huge) the spot at Fall Squam goes to Robin T (Robin, you’re so lucky, you’ll have a wonderful time.) And the miraculous gift of Kate’s time goes to Eric L (who is totally the guy who does this podcast.) He’s very nice.

Thanks guys, you’re fantastic. There’s more, tons more, but I’m out of time for today if I’m going to do anything else on my list, and man, do I need to do something on my list.