Catching Up

And I am. Catching up. Caught up. Tuesday in New Ulm I was sad to see Nadel Kunst is closed. If you remember my last trip to New Ulm, I met the shop owner Nutty Cindy and really liked her and the shop. I imagine it's hard to sustain a yarn shop in a town of 13,000 but Nutty Cindy seemed to be flourishing in June. I somehow imagine her at home in front of the fire knitting her inventory now. (Now that would be a stash!)

I did make a stop at Mary Lue's (sorry Chris I couldn't find Tangled Skeins) where I ran into a group of three ladies, all over 75 years old, who were out on a shopping excursion. It seems one of them is working on her first felted project and she's trying to get her pals hooked on felting too. I chatted with them over the bins of Brown Sheep and they were the coolest. I bought some Brown Sheep to make this, some clearance, clearance Katrina, and scored a couple of skeins of Kureyon in shades I don't already have.

Yesterday I really caught up. I took a day of vacation as I had the world's longest dentist appointment scheduled and thought I could make some progress on my deadline projects. I'm happy to say that I finished Grandma Purl's squares, blocked my Lizard Ridge squares that I'm donating to Stephania's Afghans for Afghans project, finished the spa wash cloth for my SP angel-ing, and got Chris' prize together for Look Back and Cringe! I picked up buttons for both the $9 cardigan and the baby sweater and finished a sleeve on the baby sweater. By the time the boys got home yesterday afternoon, the kitchen and living room looked like some crazy yarn studio. The winder and swift were attached to the kitchen counter and there was stuff blocking on just about every flat surface imaginable. Today I can go to the post office and get everything out in the mail. A huge relief.

I have until Saturday afternoon to finish the baby cardigan as Saturday I get to go meet the baby (finally!) on my way to St. Cloud. The finishing should not be a problem as I only have one sleeve to go. I am hoping I can finish it tonight.

I will have achieved project freedom. I still have sleeves to finish for my jean jacket vest, but I won't have any obligation knitting to do on tight deadlines. I'm going to say "no" to further deadline knitting until after the holidays. I do have some holiday knitting to do but nothing elaborate. Whew! I feel like the weight of world is off my shoulders.