Breathing is good.
Now that the Olympics are over with, I seem to be functioning more or less normally again. This is a good thing, on the whole.

I really hit a breaking point earlier in the week. Between a whole bunch of other stuff, plus financial explosion on the house project, I freaked out completely. It wasn't pretty. It's been a few days now - I thought I was all better Wednesday, but managed to forget that I was teaching a knitting class that night, so clearly I wasn't yet firing on all cylinders. I'm pretty spent, still. Getting it together bit by small bit.

I did finally deliver the stripey project - there was a crazy-making issue with the collar finishing, which was crochet and hence something for which I must slavishly follow instructions (I am somewhat crochet-impaired). As it happens, there's a small but crucial error in the pattern; the collar isn't supposed to be ruffled. Now I have another commission to knit, and it's simpler and in big yarn - Classic Elite Bazic. I've written the pattern and sent it over, there are some tweaks they've requested, and soon it's mindless, near-instant gratification knitting. We like size 9 needles, we really do. I was so crazed early in the week that I didn't spot I'd forgotten to include any instructions for increasing the sleeves at all. Hm...8" armpits....hm...not so good.

Apparently a project of mine is appearing in Knit Simple, I heard this week. I originally sent the pattern without sizing and am not sure yet if that's what I'll be madly calculating for the rest of the weekend; hope not, but no biggie if it is. This one is a 3/4 sleeve tie front bolero for Caron, in some yarn so poofy and textured that it's nearly impossible to find stitches, but it's surprisingly lightweight and very, very soft.

KIP tomorrow at Borders, dropping in anytime between 2 and 5, people - I'll be there, hope to see people.

I think it's time for me to go down to Wild & Woolly and spend my Christmas gift certificate. Oldest child is away, so I'm not shuttling any of her (MANY) activities, and this spring, we don't have a lot of weekend things scheduled generally. Other than knitting, of course. So the day feels like it's relatively clear.

The skirt for spring sew-a-long, alas, I missed the signup cutoff for, so I'll just be sewing unofficially. In my copious spare time. There's the Spring Forward sweater KAL, the March almanac project to investigate, the February Almanac project to mess around with some more, and the Hardangervidda to finish and the leaf cardigan to keep plugging away on, and a new commission to work. Also some design submittal deadlines coming up.

I think Lucia's the only one who's guessed an actual *number* for the table, so unless somebody else chimes in, she'll be the new owner of some Opal. Don't some Opal socks sound like an appealing project right about now? I know they do to me. Mindless knitting for the mindless.

Another question for you: is there anyplace in the UK that you'd recommend for a vacation? We're trying to plan for the summer and I'm stumped, mainly out of ignorance. We'll be spending some time in Devon with the inlaws, but the rest of the time is wide open. Maybe another trip to the Colinette warehouse in Wales? Maybe up to Yorkshire and the Rowan headquarters for a workshop or just hiking and shopping?