Sep 2

Sep 2 OUT OF SORTS

Today was one of those days. A day when you feel a bit out of sorts. When you'd rather crawl back into bed and hit the rewind button.

A lack of sleep was the main contributor. Yesterday afternoon's dawdling in the pool with the sun hitting my head and painting my skin a shade darker, preceded by the early morning's attempt at "running" 2.5 kilometers on a treadmill at the gym were further reinforcements. Calling it running is a stretch. Jogging is a more accurate term.

In the spirit of trying something new, I decided a 5K run was somewhere on the horizon. One such event I discovered last week on Facebook - the Fit Foodie 5K Race benefiting the City of Hope - which takes place next weekend. It was one of those sponsored posts that happened to appear and one that transported me to an interesting blog - Mary Makes Dinner. I perused Mary's site for a while, getting lost in her story, until I typed into the Google search box "training for a 5k". Two weeks away and nowhere near being able to fathom how I would train in three weeks - or at all. Every time I'd thought of attempting such a feat, I'd come up with some excuse - the most plausible one being that I am not a runner.

The kids were happy to be home after a long day at school. Sage was chastised for having worn sandals during P.E. today. He said his teacher would make him "walk" if he wore his sandals again. Cinnamon did not understand what that meant. I explained to her it meant one was in trouble and had to walk around the track. In his "a bit difficult to understand" way, he explained how he mastered the hula hoop today.

Cinnamon is being tested for reading placement this week, so she spent half an hour reading a few pages from "The Cat and the Hat". Afterwards, she was delighted to play with Bunny - the stuffed bunny I brought her from Ireland last autumn. Sage was intensely studying the Lego building plans for Unikitty's palace and was proud of his accomplishment - as was I.

The lighting was a issue I was battling today as well. Getting used to shooting in a new place and finding the best natural light to use in my bedroom/studio was another contributor to being out of sorts. Trying to photograph this cocoon was challenging.

Hand knit newborn baby cocoon in undyed merino wool

At my old place, I shot in the mid-morning - as the large window in the spare bedroom that was my studio faced southeast. This new place has a large west facing window, but a small southeast window. Thus the challenge which I'm battling. I was able to get good light in the late afternoon as I shot the new yarns.

These yarns, and the one in the main photo, turned out better with the late afternoon light.

The yarn in the main photo will be knit into a Sagey II hat, whilst the gold yarn will be transformed into a cocoon - as the undyed one above. I'm sure my European customers will be happy to hear that their yarns arrived just as I'm happy that I get to take out my knitting needles and create something new.

Thankfully, not every day repeats as in Groundhog Day. There is hope that tomorrow will be a better day.