Each morning I begin my day the same way…before I can just sit with my thoughts I take Sherman out. He is a fine and quiet companion in the early morning… and he does not mind my silence while I listen to The Writer’s Almanac podcast and this morning’s edition was just spectacular. It’s Billy Collins’ 80th birthday today and  if you want to listen to Garrison read a lovely Billy Collins poem you can do that here!

Listening to poetry really is a very good thing to start my day.

Another good thing I listened to this week was this episode of On Being. I think I knew some of these things, but boy did it help to hear someone talk about the stresses we’ve been living with… and how do we re-emerge when this is all over.

The On Being discussion on stress really helped in light of a conversation I had about gauge on Saturday with Sarah and Jane. You might have read about Kym’s gauge struggles so I felt a little déjà vu when I sat down to swatch for the Daytripper Cardigan… a MaryJane Mucklestone design… which, by the way, is the same gauge as 3 other MaryJane Mucklestone sweaters I had previously knit. I got gauge on each of them with absolutely no issues. This time? oh boy. I have a stack of swatches to show how I struggled with it!  First I thought just do some knitty maths and go with my original swatch… good in theory, but the maths and the sizing did not work out for me. End result, while I have not measured my last swatch this morning, pre-washing it was on gauge. That swatch? Knit with a US 11 needle… on the bright side, my sweater will knit up even faster now! So even in struggles as you work your way out good things can be found!

Another good thing was this photo my daughter shared… and I just laughed right out loud!

Vivi, the chicken wrangler!

Finally, buds are appearing on my forsythia and lilac bush in my yard. It makes me smile to see them! Happy Monday everyone! See you all back here on Wednesday!

 

 

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