February is lurking, time for a reality check

I had pause for thought this morning. 2012 was to be the year of the Big Spin. Here it is, almost February and I have not spun an inch this year. I am trying to empty my workroom to make room to run a business and house stock but I STILL have 8 fleeces stacked up in there.

Whatever am I going to do?

First things first – let us blame the lack of spinning thus far on the bad back and assume that had I been hale and hearty, work would have progressed.

Next, let us take it as a given that I meant what I said, am committed to the idea and the work, and will be getting on with it soon.

Finally, will somebody please remind me to stop agreeing to commissions, test knits, and sample knitting for a while. Romi has a test call out, for two shawl designs and I have been rummaging for yarn. Frankly, that’s stupidity. How am I ever supposed to clear the decks when I keep taking more on. I am not the Superwoman that my psyche believes me to be.

I repeat:

I am not the Superwoman that my psyche believes me to be.

I should chant this on a daily basis.

There is much work to be done in writing courses and organising events, not to mention getting stock listed online and that big clearout in my work room. Being realistic, the spinning project is unlikely to take off in  the way that I had planned, at least not for a couple of months yet. It is important that I do not lose sight of the fact that this year was set aside to improve my spinning and clear those fleeces. Knitting must take a back seat soon. I made the decision over Christmas that I would not be knitting any entries specifically for this year’s Show, as it is just too much hard work – and that time would be more profitably spent in spinning up a fleece or three. At least I should have some skeins to enter, though I’m not sure I’ll bother – the attack on me and my spinning last year was most distasteful and rather took the fun out of the whole exercise. I’ll probably leave the winning to those who seem to think it matters.

Last year’s spinning in the conservatory and outside on fine days was very agreeable. I think I should aim to make my space ready in good time for the spring and carry on as I was doing late last year – only this year I should begin as soon as possible and spend all my free daylight time at the wheel. Knitting can wait for the evenings. Spring is coming. I should get ready for it soon.

Damn. Another thing to do now – spring clean the conservatory.

Today I am on light duties – I’ve been overworking my bad back. Lunch is in the slow cooker. I’m pottering in my workroom, bagging paper crafting stuff up for eventual redistribution (I’m hiding it all under my bed for now.) Later on I’ll attempt to make my Senneh sock go right. It went very wrong last night and then went backwards for a long time.  I’ll feel good once “Finish Senneh Socks” is ticked off my list. They should not be taking this long to do.

I took a long hard look at my Ravelry hibernated projects yesterday and nominated some for frogging before ordering items for completion. I am beginning to feel as though I am getting on top of to grips with the UFOs. The trick now is to not cast on anything new – apart from course samples, that is. There are a few of those to be done, and soon.

The Hit List:

• (Knitting) Finish Senneh Socks
• (Knitting) Complete commissions (waiting customer’s yarn colour choice)
• Clear glass desk and surrounding shelves in craft room
• Rearrange craft room as Sanday Spinners’ HQ
• Write up sock course notes
• (Knitting) Start sock samples
• (Knitting) Finish handspun socks
• Begin tidying conservatory ready for deep cleaning
• Card fleece
• (Knitting) Finish handspun scarf
• (Knitting) De-hibernate the Pi Blanket
• Spin, spin, SPIN!

That is quite enough to be going on with. There’s several weeks’ worth in there so if I go AWOL from the blog, you’ll have a fair idea just what I am up to!