Insert Clever Title Here

Well, the first week of the new semester is history. I'm not terribly thrilled with how it went. Mind you, I should be ecstatic. Compared to last semester, when I wound up near tears by 5pm the first day due to lack of teachers, lack of classroom space and a surplus of students, this semester has been a piece of cake. And yet...teachers' noses are out of joint, rightly and also through no fault of my own, over having to make last-minute adjustments in teaching level (an ever-present threat at the beginning of every semester), and I'm annoyed at myself for not communicating the changes better (the poor communication part being entirely my fault, unfortunately...*sigh*). I'm also not looking forward to an upcoming labor-negotiation-type thing my colleagues and I will have to do with upper management. It's just added stress I don't need right about now. I wonder how many Pepperidge Farm cookies one person can eat before causing irreversible brain damage. I may just have to try and find out.

Anyhoo...how's life in your little corner of the world going?

Me, when I'm stressed, I eat. There's a shock, I know. But I've been trying to keep my hands busy enough that they can't get too much junk food to my mouth, and here's one of the results:

I give you Bubbly...or, rather, Bub, as this is just about exactly half a Bubbly curtain. And as I just sat up with DH until 2am as he played his video game, it's significantly longer now than in the photo; one more of the repeat sections should see it finished and ready to block and hang. Woo-hoo! Go, me!

On the other hand, here's what my weaving looks like these days:

See the nicely prepared warp, all ready for my first fleecewoven rug?

See the 7 pounds of Cotswold curls, all ready to be woven into a gorgeous tapestry of fall colors?

See the chunks of hay and chaff and other assorted crap I should really have paid more attention to before I started weaving?

Let's just say 2 hours, 3 inches of wasted warp and $17.20 in return shipping later, the Cotswold curls are winging their way back to from whence they came and I'm breaking my yarn diet in the morning to replace them with nice, clean roving. And since I'll be using my January "free day," I may well just go nuts and order yarn for both my Wooly Thoughts afghans (not, mind you, that they'll go on the needles any time soon...I just like the feeling of being able to pluck a ready-made "kit" out of the stash any time I want to, and putting pattern together with all the yarn gives me the kit effect without the often exorbitant kit price). Oh, and sock yarn. Gotta get sock yarn. Because it doesn't count, you know. (My thanks to whoever came up with that rule. I've knit exactly one sock in my entire life but I have a veritable bushel of sock yarn because it doesn't count as part of the stash...and, you know, sock yarn makes lovely shawls, among other things. Just sayin'.)

At this rate, I may need to change my Stashalong plan from "number of months, with 1 free day per month" to "number of finished items," as in "don't buy any more freakin' yarn until you actually finish up a few projects and make room for new stuff in the ol' stasheroo." Although as a woman with a large house, a tolerant husband and an independent cash flow, I've been wondering lately just why exactly I feel the need to be on a yarn diet at all.

Oh, yeah. Freezer full of yarn. That's why.