creative.mother.thinking

But I’m hoping to turn it around today which is why I’m only checking in very briefly.

I had gone to bed at 1.30 and had topped up my sleep deficit very nicely. Yawn.

I did the morning routine but never got around to writing a list for the day, had an argument with my husband over breakfast (and managed to set up the next part of the fingerless mitten at the same time – without a mistake this time) and then the day felt ruined.

I walked to the nearby supermarket, had lunch (apparently it was also my fault that the chicken got a little burnt because I sat in the kitchen while it happened and didn’t do anything. Never mind my husband was the one cooking and had wandered off somewhere else:

It still tasted okay but the mood was less than ideal.

I had only three students and high hopes to get stuff done but, well.

My husband was the one vacuuming the annex because one of his students didn’t show which made me think I should vacuum our apartment as well but then I couldn’t find the vacuum cleaner and when I finally saw it in his studio it was plugged in and clearly in use, only he was outside preparing a garden bed for planting garlic.

Maybe today.

I tried folding a load of laundry but it wasn’t quite dry yet.

I sat around after my last student, ate snacks and chocolate bars and licorice and read „Paladin’s Grace“ (highly recommended) and played Genshin.

Until it was rather late and I still had to start writing this post, do the dishes and make a list for today.

Somehow I don’t think I’ll manage to run errands and clean today plus have my longest teaching day of the week including the new student and do bodyweight training. The new singing student requested two songs I had never heard before but they are not difficult and when I listened to them they were the kind you can sing along with even if you have never heard them before. I’d say I have become more skilled but I suspect current pop music often has super easy melodies in a small range.

I’ll also have to start doing Christmas songs. I am somewhat reluctant because playing the same five songs over and over for six weeks can become a little boring and repetitive.

So. Better today. And I seem to be too tired and exhausted to be concise.

And it’s Friday the 13th. Huh.

But hey, the yarn for the new blanket is on its way, it should arrive tomorrow from the Netherlands.

Oh, and speaking of yarn I did finish putting all the yarn I pulled out the day before into the big yarn drawer where I will hopefully find it again when needed.

Next step is to clean the doors to the new yarn cupboard and mount them which should be easy if dirty work.

Oops.

So my husband needs a new bedspread for the futon thing in his studio. And since we happen to have baskets full of crochet blankets he thought he’d just use those. But none of them are big enough. So for now he has two on there, side by side, but that doesn’t really look good.

And I’ve been wanting to make another blanket but didn’t quite know which. Also, see piles of blankets that nobody uses.

So I decided to take the pattern of the one he likes best and – make a bigger one. Which is entirely sensible and logical. Also, Lucy from Attic24 is doing another CAL in January and I really like the new pattern, so I’m thinking about making that one as well.

But. Each time you buy one of those yarn packs for the blankets your left with a ton of leftover yarn. But not enough for another blanket.

The bigger blanket, on the other hand, could probably be made with one yarn pack and leftovers that I already have.

Cool.

So I went off to the Wool Warehouse website to order the yarn but – they no longer ship to Germany. Boo.

I did find another online shop that ships to Germany from the Netherlands but they don’t have the yarn packs, just individual balls. Which has the advantage that I can just order the colors I need but which also meant I had to spend half an hour finding each color in the shop.

But that was in the afternoon.

In the morning I knitted and did all the usual morning things. I did decide to move yoga to the evening which did not work out in the end.

I went walking/running though, and it wasn’t even raining. Much.

I came back home, took a shower and ate lunch:

Instead of taking a break I went straight on to sort my leftover yarn and make a list of what I need for the two blankets.

Then there was teaching. More yarn wrangling. I now have a nice and somewhat tidy yarn cupboard and I put the yarn for the next blanket in my crochet basket but I also have piles and piles of stuff on the living room table because I had to empty that basket.

But, behold the blanket yarn cupboard:

I read a little but did not have time for Genhin. I played the piano, dusted and cleaned the mirrors.

I did not open the manuscript. Again.

In the evening I ate dinner, then opened Genshin and – had connection problems. And just as I was starting to play for the first time that day the boy showed up with some paperwork he needed and all kinds of things, and needless to say I did not go to bed on time.

I was just about to write „thank God it’s Friday“ but, um, it’s not.

Since I had gone to bed so late because I really wanted to get all the things done I ended up only doing about two thirds of my list on Tuesday.

I folded two loads of laundry, knitted, did the breakfast dishes, started a new load and went to my mother-in-law’s bank and the health food store.

Lunch was pretty good:

Then I only had a little time before my first student, so I did not do the dishes, and after my first student I hung the load up that I had started earlier.

My teaching day ended pretty early because I had two students cancel and one reschedule and by then I was so tired that I almost fell asleep standing up.

I still played the piano for half an hour, played some Genshin and ate dinner while waiting for the boy to come home so we could do bodyweight training. Which we did.

The I read a bit, played some more, tried finishing a quest (always a bad idea in the evening), still had the dishes to do and started this post.

Things that didn’t get done involved opening the manuscript, cleaning the mirrors (I did change the towels, at least) and spinning, oh, and some lesson prep.

Might have been too long a list, who knows.

And no, I did not go to bed on time. Again. Grr.

And that despite going to bed at midnight and waking up just 6 1/2 hours later unable to fall back asleep.

I did that thing where I look stuff up while writing morning pages, I don’t recommend doing that.

Nonetheless, I started out writing about other people and the patterns I see where my expectations get lower and lower.

And then I started thinking about my own patterns, the ones where I do stuff that is clearly embarrassing.

Huh.

And, you know, the things where I keep saying I want to change things and then I don’t do the things I need to do to actually change something.

That gave some big, fat Monday energy. And the I promptly offered to skip yoga and meditation so we wouldn’t be as late with breakfast. Husband didn’t accept that offer, phew.

We talked after breakfast, as usual, and I found that I finally had managed to make all the stitches line up properly in the fingerless mitten:

Yes, I was reading „War and Peace“ while knitting the last few stitches of ribbing.

I did the dishes, brushed my teeth and went walking/running:

I hit a rather energetic part of the BTS-playlist I use while running, so that made my pace a little faster than usual.

Meanwhile my husband was stressing out again, he had started trimming the hedge thinking that he only needed to do half of the front but that assumption turned out to be wrong. So he got into a huge time crunch.

Because I was really set on doing my training I did ask the boy to help, which he did. Good thing he had been too late for uni in the morning because that meant he was home and awake in time to take care of all the cutting and dirt before it was time for teaching.

Lunch was pretty simple but the tomatoes were homegrown:

Then I read a little, started the next mitten, cut my nails, fought the boss that had frustrated me five times already and won, did the lunch dishes and called a potential new student on the phone. Good thing I start teaching late on Mondays. I had already taken a shower before lunch.

I taught a handful of students, played the piano, ate dinner, talked with husband and worked on the manuscript for half an hour. Well, I say worked on the manuscript when in fact I’m still reading through the old book 2 but it is fascinating, there are so many great ideas in there. Most of them are just lose ends, but still.

I then started writing this post, made a list for today, fought some more video game bosses, brushed my teeth, re-watched the first episode of ‚Mobius‘ while plying purple yarn and went to bed.

I went to bed at 1 am but at least I finally got my bullet journal set up for November. And then I lay in bed, feeling super cold, unable to sleep. Which never happens. I mean, not the feeling cold-thing, I feel cold all the time, but the part where I can’t fall asleep.

After a little more than an hour I gave up, found a fleece jacket and fingerless mittens in addition to the extra warm pajamas, wool socks, down comforter and wooly blanket and read for a bit until I felt a little warmer.

I woke up at 7 and coudn’t fall back asleep.

Interestingly, my energy was much better than the days before. But that does tend to happen, once in a while not getting enough sleep makes you actually feel a little better but that never lasts.

I did my complete morning routine, ate breakfast with my husband and tried to finally fix the fingerless mitten. But no matter how hard I tried and tinked back, I couldn’t get the number of stitches I needed.

So I ripped most of the mitten back, all the way to the ribbing at the wrist and started again from there.

And I think I know what I did wrong the last time!

So, after the ribbing you do a provisional cast-on, pick up some stitches and then you decrease ribbing stitches. I did remember that I as supposed to decrease not half the stitches but 2 more. Or less. And that was the problem. I had put my marker that showed me how far to decrease in the wrong place which meant two steps further I had too few stitches. No wonder that ripping back the thumb did not make things better.

But now I should be on track. Unless I did something stupid in the evening while watching TV with the rest of the family.

I did the dishes and went walking/running:

Then a shower and then there was pizza:

Those are anchovies, they needed to get eaten.

After lunch I did the dishes right away, then some Genshin, and then I tidied the living room that was covered in sewing paraphernalia and pieces of paper pattern for the costume project.

Oh, and somewhere in there I also folded two loads of laundry.

The episode of ‚Mobius‘ was good but it had been so long since I had watched the episode before that I have a strong urge to rewatch all the episodes we have watched so far.

I might just do that.

After TV I played more Genshin and had to tear myself away at one point so that I wouldn’t go to bed super late again.

I started writing this post, the boy made me a cup of chamomile tea and I took that with me to bed to read a little so that I wouldn’t be super cold again.

And now for the last day of fall break.