A Tidal Wave of Yarn, Knitting and Life

You know, it used to be once the holidays were over life would slow down a bit. Here in the northeast, the weather in January is usually not pretty, resulting in a general hunkering down. That, coupled with everyone being partied out from the holidays, out of money, etc., this time of year used to be a "recharge the batteries" time. Well, not anymore, not here, not in this house, not in my life. The frenetic pace has just continued, with no signs of stopping. From a business stand point, I really can't complain - it's all good - busy is good - busy is what we work so hard for. But in all honesty, I'm feeling a bit schizophrenic - doing a little bit of a lot of things and not much of anything substantial. Work, knitting, life - it's all whirring by in a blur.

I started the year with such a "plan" for knitting. It made perfect sense. I'd work to finish my WIPs while allowing myself to start a new project, using new yarn. Here it is, January 29th and I have lost complete control of my knitting. Between the WIPs, the new projects I've started and the ones I've either got the yarn for, wound the yarn for or have seriously thought about, I can't even count the number of things "in the works". I am jumping from projects, to yarns, to ideas like a lunatic. I have scarves to finish (as noted in earlier posts), I have a hat cast-on and that's it. I have a couple of projects in the works for possible inclusion in a book, I am re-knitting my felted bag for the knitalong, we've got two new Valley Yarns yarns that are coming in this week - advance samples in all colors for us to not only take to Stitches West, but also to do some designing (making my head spin). That doesn't even include the new yarn that has come in over the past three days alone - it is mind boggling - more like, mind numbing. MIND NUMBING.

How much new yarn you ask? How much could there really be? Well, let me tell you - today alone we received in 66 (yes sixty-six) boxes from UPS and another 1/2 dozen or so from DHL. I saw Fedex stop first thing this morning - no clue what they brought. . . . And that's ONLY TODAY!!! We've got new spring, new colors, new additions, new closeouts. Even Steve's head is spinning and that rarely happens! I can't even take pictures of the stuff it's flying in so fast. Tomorrow, I will make an effort to do so.

On the family front, J1 lost his first tooth last week. FINALLY! He was the last 2nd grader to lose a tooth - and trust me, he reminded us of this regularly. His baby teeth were very slow to come in and it appears slow to depart. We've explained that this is good - he could care less when the other kids are all walking around with big, toothless grins.

J2 celebrated his 6th birthday on Saturday. The party was Sunday - 13 kindergarteners (well, 10, plus a couple of others) bowling. He only wanted "the boys", so that is what we had. Great fun was had by all. No injuries, no fighting. It was all good. I am still trying to process that he's 6. He's SIX. . . how did that happen? The growing up thing has never really boggled me with Jackson - maybe because he's the older one. But with Jonathan, I am truly boggled. He was just born! Where did 6 years go? I swear, it was just January, 2001 a couple of weeks back. . . . .

And then there's this radio thing. Steve and I were so nervous in the beginning. We figured nobody would listen, which would be a good thing, since we figured we'd stink anyways. But people are listening and we may not be great, but we don't stink. Scariest of all, we're having FUN. Now I'm afraid people WILL think we stink and we'll get cancelled! The interview schedule is filling up like crazy and I've barelly scratched the surface of the folks I talked to at TNNA about coming on. I've got people - actually, people's people (a.k.a. publicists) contacting me to get their people on our show. They want their people to be on our show!! It's awesome, it's exciting and it's freaky all at the same time! This week we're interviewing Lily Chin. We thought she might postpone because of the unexpected death in her family. But we talked late last week and she wants to go forward with the interview. She just needs to keep busy and if this is our way of helping her, then we are truly honored to do so. Next week, we've got Jonelle Raffino the owner of South West Trading. In the coming weeks we've got Ann Hood, author of the new book Knitting Circle, we've got our friends from Classic Elite scheduled to talk about Spring yarns, we've got Trisha Malcolm from Soho Publishing and former editor of Vogue Knitting. . . . that's just the tip of the iceberg. Oh yeah, lest we not forget Steve, LIVE from Stitches West. I'll be on the phone interviewing him as he goes out early for set-up and I don't leave until the day the show starts. If you haven't tuned in, we air locally on Saturday mornings at 9:00am on 1240AM or 1400AM WHMP and we can be downloaded from iTunes. Here's the link to our website, which can link you to the download. You just need to have iTunes on your 'puter.

http://yarn.com/s/podcast.html

So, if I sound a bit whiney, I do apologize. I am not whining in the least. I just wish I could gain a little control, just for a couple of days. . . . If I could just get off the merry-go-round of life for a mere few hours, a day or two tops, it would help immensely.

I promise to provide and update on all of the new stuff in the next day or two. Plus, I owe you a book review of Barbara Delinsky's new book, which I finished late last week.

Kathy