The Rare Perfect Mail Day

Right, so this post is about Monday's mail, and I certainly intended to write about it on Tuesday, but work-mood intruded, and this has been Quite A Week work-wise*, so work being so crazy really cut into my "taking pictures in daylight" time: let's have a cheer for the solstice and the turn toward more light every day, phew. 

*I think the "winner" of the Deluded Deadline game had to be the person who sent in an 80-slide deck on the night of the 20th and didn't even mention she wanted it published this year. You crazy person!

So anyway! Let's ignore the work week, as it is now OVER and I am using my last few vacation days for the days after Christmas, so I am happily looking at five whole entire days in a row off (plus by the time I go back, all the deluded people who think they can publish just one more thing this year will hopefully have run into the brick wall of reality already, stopping them in their deluded tracks). I have jotted down notes about things I would like to get done during this period, but some of them are simple and others are, you know, enjoyable: watching Christmas specials, knitting, and reading, so not too arduous. No big projects. It's not the year for that for me.

Meanwhile, back on Monday! First of all, I took half a vacation day for a friendly get-together and ornament exchange, so I worked a few hours before and a few hours after. Can I just say, that's so much less annoying than working a full day? Amazing. The ornament exchange was great fun; it's a good group of people.

The mail came before I left for my knitting group meet-up Monday evening, and it was perfect. No pointless catalogs, not even a "This is not a bill" mailing, just Christmas cards and yarn. I do enjoy getting cards, and I had gotten only a few, so it made me happy to get some more. I've put them up, along with a few ornaments, on these shelves that already have some photos and other oddments on them.

We're not really decorating for Christmas (if you've been reading the last half of this year, you can imagine why), but this make me smile. Oh, and the Charlie Brown wreath I got on Monday night: it's scrawny and sad, but it smells good, which is what I hoped for when I got it. (The clerk at the big-box store looked at it and said, "We're not charging you for that, are we?" and then rang up the bag of potting soil I was also getting and just charged me for that.)

Then the yarn! Two orders came in. First, from A Chick That Knitz, this lovely yak-blend sock yarn, in my favorite color, blue, and my favorite-color-to-go-with-blue, green.

It's so soft...

Then, in my other favorite color, rainbow, this glory from That's My Color Yarn Shop:

Isn't it gorgeous? It's a cotton-bamboo blend, DK/light worsted weight, 10 mini skeins. No idea what it wants to be yet, but it's so, so pretty.

Speaking of what yarn wants to be, I'm still having a marvelous time with the Radiata shawl in the rainbow yarn from the Blue Brick (last update here). I brought it to a doctor's appointment yesterday, even though it's a bit big for that, and I was glad I did, as there was a LOT of waiting involved. I got several rows done, and as the rows approach 400 stitches, that means something. This pattern suits me so well: I can see where I am, and it builds upon itself in a very satisfying way. I'm counting the stitches after every pattern row, to catch if I missed a yarnover or anything, but it is working for me and I am loving it.

It's currently in the middle of a row and not on a long enough needle to spread out well, so this is blobby but does show that I'm well into the yellow yarn.

Oh, wait, I did take a picture of it last week, all stretched out! It's a few rows back, but gives you a better idea of how the thing will look after it's done and blocked.

Come on, green and blue! Earlier, I was kicking myself for starting with the red end, when I had just finished months of work on the red sweater, but no regrets now. The colors are like a glorious sunset, and then I'll finish the piece on my favorite color. Nothing wrong with that.

I wish you all the best whether this is a holiday weekend for you or not. I know blog-reading won't fit into everyone's schedule this weekend, but I'll probably post again, so come back when you can. Happy Season of the Light Returning.