Weekending Early

Today is my "spring break" at work; the students are off for spring break all this week, so staff get this one day off. Years ago, it was referred to as Great Americans Day, at least according to my former boss. A quick Google search didn't turn up anything useful, so maybe he was pulling our legs. Regardless, I'm happy to have the day off from work, even if I had to get up at the usual time to get Molly to school. (That just means I'm appreciating more of the day, right?)

Speaking of Molly, she has some brand-new socks to wear, which is a good thing because it snowed again yesterday. It didn't stick anywhere but on grassy surfaces, but it was cold and blew in my eyes the whole way into the office yesterday morning. Yuck.

These were knit with Fibernymph Dye Works Mountain Tweed BFL in the colorway Signature Series: Neutrals. I used 62 g of yarn or about 271 yards. They haven't been blocked, obviously, and may not be -- she may want to wear them right away. She asked for slightly shorter legs (4.5 inches), so they knit up a lot faster than I was anticipating. And I'm happy to be done with the neutrals!

At the other end of the color spectrum is the yarn I plied earlier this week, which is a welcome pop of bright color. This was Polwarth from FatCatKnits in the colorway Flamingo, but it made me think early '90s and Miami Beach (or maybe Miami Vice?).

I think I mentioned that I split the fiber up to be a fractal, which essentially means that both plies follow the same color progression but at different rates. For this particular skein, I found when I pulled the braid apart that I could fold it in half and the two sides matched up, so I broke it in half at the fold, then split one piece into two lengthwise and split the other into four lengthwise. There's a lot of barberpoling but also a fair number of spots where the colors of the two plies line up. Some people might think this yarn was overplied, but I love this round, bouncy look. After washing and drying, the yarn looks to be about sport weight on average, and I estimate its length to be about 276 yards. I have no clue what to do with it and probably will just stick it back in the stash for now, but it was great fun to spin.

The weekend ahead is my birthday weekend. The number is unexciting and I'm not expecting any big gifts, but I am looking forward to eating several meals that I do not have to cook myself. Tonight the Mister's side of the family is coming over for pizza, and tomorrow the three of us will go out after Molly and I see Kimberly Akimbo. My actual birthday is Sunday, so we're going to go for a fancy brunch at one of the places we go to for dinner a lot but for which I've never gone for brunch. I'm a bit annoyed that I will get one less hour of sleep that night, but maybe I'll make up for it by sleeping in. I've reached that stage in life where the only reason I really look forward to a birthday is because it's a chance to be with my loved ones for a happy occasion. This year I'm especially happy to be in better shape physically after two pretty traumatic injuries last year, and given the current political situation, I'm also feeling very thankful to be gainfully employed and not struggling to make ends me. I know I'm very lucky, and I'm hopeful that there will be many more trips around the sun ahead of me. In honor of my birthday, I hope you'll all treat yourself to a little something special this weekend!