For most of this little vacation, I’ve been sitting in the nest-chair (a papasan that is so comfortable, it’s like a nest), and knitting like mad on some socks to both a) prepare for the sock madness project in March and b) to rack up some mileage for the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon.

In addition, I’ve been on a kind of Ply-A-Thon. I’ve got all these singles yarns sitting here that I’ve spun with the intention of plying them someday, but haven’t quite gotten to. And since some of them are about a zillion years old, it’s just been TIME to do something with them. I’ve gone through quite a few skeins (around ten or so), and plan to pop them over on etsy when I can.

Today, though, some roving I picked up a while back from Pigeon Roof Studios was CALLING ME. Not like, “Hey…wanna spin?”. More like, “YOU! YOU THERE WITH THE FINGERS! SPIN ME NOOOOOOW!”

And who am I to resist that, eh?

A few hours later, and presto:

I love good days.

(There are some pictures of the other ply-a-thon skeins over at flickr, too, if you’re interested.)

Technically, I’m on vacation from teh Internets, but I had to pop in and show you this:

This is our backyard today.

SNOW DAY!

2. 18. 07 : All The New Pretties
Originally uploaded by elizametz.

Here’s just a glimpse of about a third of the skeins for the next etsy update that I’ve been working on. I’ve got about half left to dye (tomorrow) and a bunch left to skein up, and then….voila. :)

I love how they look all lined up, like a flowerbed of yarny possibilities. (I’ll get better pictures in better light if we actually have SUN tomorrow. Woot for sun!)

I’ve been under the gun with a few of the more pressing projects lately. And, of course, that’s when my body decides that what I *really* need right now, then, is the flu. Just to make things more interesting.

So all I’ve got for you today is a link, but it’s a good one. Check out her fabulous art journals and gluebooks, all done in Moleskines:

http://jumbyskirt.org/

Simply amazing. Makes me want to take a snow day and just make things. (Which I could probably justify, since we had five inches of snow last night, if my office wasn’t about thirty feet from my bedroom. Darnit.)

pretties-in-a-row
Originally uploaded by elizametz.

I’ve been a relatively busy girl this past week.

These are the pretties I just finished skeining.

I keep trying to essentially stay in motion so I don’t sit still long enough to think. Which isn’t hard, really. Keeping the etsy store stocked up is a joy and a blessing when I really don’t want to just sit and think, which is my other option.

I’ve got seven POUNDS of sock yarn coming to me in the mail, along with another two pounds of laceweight alpaca.

Sometimes, finding a diversion isn’t nearly as hard as finding rest.

I’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking the past few days. A lot more than I should probably ever be allowed to do without a lot of vodka being ingested, in fact.

I’ve been thinking about Beginnings — that time when things and ideas are born from nothing. You have a random encounter with a stranger and two years later, you’re married to him. Your friend introduces you to someone she knows, and even though you don’t talk to the friend anymore, the introduce-ee is your maid of honor. You randomly see a sweater somewhere and think, “Wow, I bet I could make one of those if I learned to knit..,” and four years afterward, your house is a tangle of wool and things in process that you wouldn’t have even dreamed of making yourself when you started.

There’s always a *moment*. A little spark that happens when something big’s just shot down the pipe and into your life. I always get that little intuitive flash that tells me I should sit up and pay attention, because, baybeeee, here it comes.

And I’ve been wondering how far-reaching some of my own inconsequential moments have been to other people. Something I say in passing that makes someone go read a book they wouldn’t have otherwise found. Or a passing introduction of two acquaintances. Or sending off a book I’ve just written to someone who does something amazing with it.

You just never know.

In more crafty news, go check out Craftacular:

It’s a user-written wiki in progress that’s all about getting crafty. Lots of tutorials and information and links — stop by and write something. Help build this resource for all of us to use.

(I’m not affiliated, I’m just a contributor. But I really, really love this concept of free information-sharing. Who knows who’s life you might touch?)