Getting Back to Joy

First, I want to thank all of you who left such lovely comments on my post on Friday. It's always encouraging to know that there are others who feel as you do and are likewise committed to making things better. I'm sure there may be some of you reading who don't agree with me politically, and I hope you won't stop reading because of my views. I hate how divided this country has become, and I would like us to get back to a place where we can disagree but still find common ground. Jane has said this much better than I have; I'd encourage you to go read her post if you haven't already.

It was a restful weekend here. We had no plans whatsoever, so it was a good opportunity to recharge and recenter. Saturday was moderately busy for me as I had bathrooms to clean and laundry to do (these days, that means laundry to fold -- Molly and the Mister take care of carrying it up and down the stairs). But yesterday was a gloomy, rainy day, so it was a good day to read, watch football, and start a puzzle with Molly -- we're once again doing a puzzle exchange for the holidays and need to put ours together before we split it into daily pieces and send it off.

The highlight of Saturday was the arrival of my Fibernymph Dye Works Holiday Countdown set. I wasn't going to order one this year (because we've established that I don't need more yarn or fiber), but then Lisa announced that this one would be her last ever and I gave in. I ordered a spinning set, so I have 24 bags of fiber bundles to spin. The theme this year is the Mystery of Color; each day's bag has information about color theory, and some of them have information about particular colors. Though some people will be knitting or spinning this set as an Advent calendar, I wasn't going to wait. It's been a while since I spun anything, mainly because I wasn't sure if I could spin with my boot, so I got out my Hansen miniSpinner, which I haven't used in probably a year or more. I did have some singles on the bobbin that was on it, so I started by winding those off and plying them back on themselves. Now I have a fluffy little 44-yard skein of purple yarn:

U.S. quarter for scale

My spinning set-up isn't very elegant, but it works. Because I'm using the folding snack table that I used to use for my miniSpinner for my work computer now, I've got it sitting on the folding chair that I've been using to elevate my foot and to sit in for my workouts.

In black and white so I don't spoil anyone's surprise!

There was also a fair amount of knitting done on my sweater over the weekend, though there was also some ripping back when I discovered that I had decreased two more stitches than I needed to on my first sleeve. I'm not sure how that happened, but it's been fixed and I'm now a dozen rounds into the sleeve colorwork. As you can see, I've decided to make the arms match the body.

It looks like I will have plenty of the main color yarn to complete the sleeves -- that was my main worry in going up a size -- and I'll have likely most of the contrast yarn left to do something else with. I'm thinking some sort of shawl or scarf because this fiber blend is so lovely against the skin.

Last week was very busy and stressful aside from the election, but I finished a big project on Friday and I'm hoping that translates to a quieter week this week. The Booker Prize winner will be announced tomorrow, and I have one last title from the longlist that I'd like to finish before then, if possible (I've got about 200 pages left to read). I hope it is a gentle Monday for us all.