It is the long Easter weekend this week, which means only one thing. Not chocolate, or bunnies, or biblical stories. It means cramming a quart into a pint pot at work. The short week leading up to Good Friday means that email is blazing with colleagues desperate to move work from their desk to yours as fast as possible before the end of the week. All of a sudden 101 ‘urgent’ emails ping through, with a note saying that they really do need this done before the end of the week. Plus I am planning on taking a week or so away from work to spend with family, so that means a need to shift a little bit extra too. So Thursday saw me preparing to stay at work until everything I needed to do was done. 9.30pm, I left my office to trudge back to the car park, to drive home and collapse.
It wasn’t all bad news though. Because I knew I would be late, I decided I would let myself have a proper lunch hour and one of my hooky friends dropped in and we chatted yarn-related nonsense for an hour. It is her skilful hands in the picture, crocheting a favourite Magpie and Goblin sock pattern. Her yarn, nails and jumper coordinated so beautifully that I had to take a picture. I also need to make a pair of these socks, as I mastered the ‘magic toe’ technique on a different Magpie and Goblin pattern and now want to have a go at these babies. I have so much sock wool in my stash (bought for shawl making) that I could do with diversifying a wee bit.
The week ended on a high for me. I nailed Shawl Pattern number 4 ready for Shawl Club, caked my own bodyweight in yarn ready for my holiday, and then I won the most beautiful set of Unbelievawool mini skeins and some coordinating grey yarn in an online lucky dip. I really wanted that particular win, so I was dancing around the room when I got the notification through. I felt that I was being rewarded for my late night of work.
I already know what I am going to use some of them to make, and I want to cake them, but at the moment they are my yarn pets and are so pretty I just want to stare at them. But I will try to take them with me as I have an idea for a pattern that will use some of them.
I have a little bit of work to do before I can really relax – I couldn’t quite get it all done – but its the sort of stuff I can nail in an evening after the small person has gone to bed. But one thing that this experiment is teaching me is to make more time for my head at work and to take a proper break in the middle of the day. Its hard to stick to some days, but it rewards me with a clearer head when I manage it. I get more done because I have that moment of reflection in the middle of the frenzy.
Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic, crochet-filled holiday weekend. For me it signals the countdown to the start of my new business on the 7th April. So everything starts to get pretty interesting now! I can’t wait to start to share it with you.
The Knackered Psycho 