Belated Yarn Along - ramblings, reds, new normals

I'm still in the stage of lace-pattern hatred with my Artio shawl - I just can't "see" the repeats and the short rows are messing with my head. So I've put it to one side for the time being, since the rest of life has plenty of new rhythms and adjustments and finding simple things frustrating to be getting on with. It's very strange going back to it being just me and the girls, almost all of almost every day.

My hands felt so empty over the last couple of days without any real project to get on with (oh, you know, apart from spinning - and the kitchen - and trying to keep on top of laundry and facilitate for the girls...), I ended up casting on socks: Toots by Rhian Drinkwater in heirloom tomato-coloured yarn I dyed myself.

(This is the skein that taught me, no matter how reliable your supplier has been in the past, always ALWAYS check for skein bands. The usual three were not in place, and the skein disintegrated into evil yarnie spaghetti as soon as I tried to pull it out of the pan, so I had to hand wind the entire 100g to rescue it!)

I'm not reading much of anything either. A bit here, a bit there. Sitting at the Feet of the Rabbi Jesus, and The Celtic Wheel of the Year. The Mysterious Benedict Society with Jenna (taking chapters in turns now). Fantastic Mr Fox with Morgan.

Today has been perhaps our first day of feeling really comfortable with the new normal. So far this week Martin has managed to take the electric meter key to work one day and my bank card the next. Wednesday was a long long day, after not a lot of sleep and with so much kitchen sorting to do. So a full eight hours of sleep last night and a quiet morning in waiting for the Health Visitor (Talia's one year check, unsurprisingly fine and mostly just a chance for the Health Visitor to coo over how much they've all grown and reminisce about Morgan as a newborn)! Today so far has been just lovely.





Joining in with Ginny and friends for another Yarn Along sharing. :)