It always comes in threes

I have been a bit quiet on this old blog lately. In part it's because the two posts that have been dominating my traffic lately have absolutely nothing to do with knitting, which is a little bit disheartening when one writes a knitting blog, and also because, as the Yarn Harlot says, knitting blankets is pretty darn boring to write about (and read about, I imagine!)

But I did have an eventful weekend. Coming home at 2am on Saturday night, the key snapped off in the lock!  (By the way, that time is much too late for an old person like me to get home! I fell asleep the following night with my glasses and every light in the house on sitting up while holding a book. Sam thought I'd had a heart attack or something because it looked so bizarre)

How does that even happen? Red wine-induced super strength? 

In an attempt to get in through a secondary door a window pane got broken (goddam super strength! Note to self: stop drinking red wine) so for the last three days in what is possibly one of the most bogan actions I have ever taken I have personally brought down the value of the properties in my street by covering a window with a towel.

Sorry, neighbours! It was the red wine's fault. 

(Also, note to self - must clean window sills this weekend. Sorry about that too, neighbours.)

Anyway, after paying too many dollars to various tradies to fix these things, I got into my car to go to the library to pick up the latest Sue Grafton which was on the reserve shelf waiting for me (so excited to read it! Dreading the moment she gets to the letter Z)...and my car was dead! A fuse had blown and broken the immobiliser and so it had to get towed to the local Ford dealer and reset and whatever other magic they need to do to get it started again. I nearly cried when I realised that I was going to have to pay for that also (my iPad fund is now woefully depleted. I was getting so close to having a new beautiful toy :( ) so I did what had to be done to make me feel better...

..made from scratch and then ate a stack of pancakes served with natural yoghurt (for the calcium) and blueberry maple syrup (for the sugar and the antioxidents that conveniently cancel out the harmful effects of the sugar). They were fluffy, delicious and put everything back in context again. Things are just things! Money and iPads are nice but not having it/one is not the end of the world. As long as there are pancakes and pussycats in the world, everything will be okay.

In knitting news: this is what the blanket looks like now.

I have abandoned the written pattern and gone rogue with my own continuation of the centre design. I'm about to attach the second ball and I have my fingers and toes crossed I calculated all of my decreases and increases correctly. If this comes off, it will look fabulous. If it doesn't, there's always more pancakes...

Relief and reward

Lately, I've been working really hard. This can most obviously be seen because  my blog posts are shorter and appear more infrequently and contain many more photographs and exclamation marks. I strongly believe that hard effort requires reward and relief - so, if you've put in a 60-hour work week but still have another five documents to finish before you're done but you're totally knackered, it's better to take a night off, watch a Robert Redford movie and have glass of wine than keep pushing yourself to a 65-hour work week - the next day you'll wake up more refreshed and relaxed and not only will you be more productive, your work will actually be of a better quality.

Because I practice what I preach, above is my relief and reward for all of my recent hard work. When I received payment for my most recent job, I ordered myself a book I have been coveting for a long time. Last year I finished a Triinu scarf that apparently I never blogged about (??) which was totally gorgeous but, for whatever reason I never wore. Rather than let it go to waste, when my book arrived yesterday I frogged it, balled it up and, as soon as I finish this never-ending job I am currently on, I am casting on for the socks on the cover. With that to look forward to, I can get this document done.

I'm clearly more a carrot than a stick kind of girl :)