What Was That?

Yesterday I had the strangest sensation . . . One I haven’t experienced in almost a year . . . bam… stress! (Ummm. . . Mommy, why is the toilet in the bedroom?)

Now that I’m (usually) in control of my schedule and my project timetable I haven’t had anywhere near the toxic levels of stress I was experiencing at work before I retired. But recent events have been conspiring against me. The first thing is that phase II of the great floor fix-up is underway (phase III – carpet on stairs – is scheduled for Saturday). The two-day tile job to do two bathrooms, the garage-side entryway and laundry room is now looking like it will take four, grr. I was a little leery on the first day when just one guy showed up (late to boot) and took most of the day to get the old tile off one area. So we have to use the guest bathroom and can’t use our washer or dryer for the time being. Second thing, I had a pretty tight schedule going this week between work and other plans; I worked an extra day this week, and was planning on having today before going to work to clean up and get the house back in order, but with the tile floor not being remotely close to finished … not gonna happen. The rest, like going grocery shopping, going to the bank, post office and generally anywhere else out of the house won’t be getting done either. The cats are agitated. DH is annoyed. I’m stressed. Am I going on and on? I’ll stop.

So, what’s going on with knitting? I temporarily suspended regular knitting yesterday to knit a square for an afghan being put together by our RAK group for a fellow raveler going through a really tough time. You can go here (afghan) for more info. Here’s my square:

(cascade pastaza, 7x9 adaptation of a washcloth pattern)

But the other knitting is going on. I guess that’s the one upside of my forced imprisonment needing to stay home while work is going on in the house.
The left front of the Diagonal Delight Vest is done, will probably pick-up the stitches for the right front tonight.
The Earl Grey socks are getting there. A group of us from meetup are going to see the Yarn Harlot and get our books signed in Oak Lawn tomorrow night. I figure I’ll have some sock knitting time then. (thus, will have more interesting stuff to post on Saturday).

The Branching Out scarf only needs six more repeats of the lace pattern (about 60 rows) and the garter stitch border until it’s done. I’ll be working on that this afternoon.
I’ve been doing more samples for the shop, but they are all at the shop, so no pictures. One pair of kid’s slippers out of Manos del Uruguay and a sock for the sock class I’ll be teaching out of Berroco Sox (Kingston). The colors almost match my vest!