Today I’m wicked tired. Just… all in. It’s sort of a nice change from the aimless drifty feeling of the last while, that’s for sure. Last week we managed a ski-holiday of a sort, despite Joe’s broken arm, and I am here to tell you that I miss hotels and restaurants. We had a good time and it was very nice to be somewhere else, but when the covid-times finally end I am going to go somewhere that is unequivocally not self-serve. A person, a person that I am going to tip very well, let me tell you, is going to bring me a meal and clean up afterwards and I am going to be crazy about it because now that I’ve done a ski trip where you get up and cook and then get a kid to ski-school (outdoor and distanced for the win!) then come home for lunch and cook and then ski and then make dinner and clean that up is completely amazing and so much fun and I am awash with gratitude that we got the hell out of this house – but it’s a lot of work for someone who’s partner in crime is one-armed. (Tip of the hat to Meg and Alex who busted themselves helping out with everything.)

Still, Elliot did learn to ski (he’s an animal out there. Zooms past you with this little voice going “whoo hoo!”) and Alex and Meg learned too, and Joe had as good a time as he could, poor broken chum.

We drove home just before the big blizzard that’s buried Toronto over the last two days, and today I spent hours trying to shovel out our everything. In the end it was impossible to do by myself and when I realized that I was on the brink of tears with how huge the task was, I remembered that I’m in a family and called for help. Carlos turned up almost immediately and he and I shovelled while Luis and Frank did their best to knock down our snow mountains.

I don’t know if you live in a place where it snows a lot, but if you don’t, let me tell you this: Shovelling is some serious work, and I am feeling it in my back and shoulders, and just as soon as I’m finished this post and a bit of work, I’m going to have a bit of a rest and spin.

Like so many of us, my sweet little Ashford has been languishing these many pandemic months, but last week I had an idea and I’m going to need it up and running to make it work. I am still wildly in love with thrummed mittens (still going to do a thrum-along on the Patreon) and I was ploughing through a ginormous one when I had an idea.

How much fun would it be to find myself enough fibre that I could spin yarn for mittens, and then thrum with the same fibre. Don’t answer that, I know you’re aquiver with the excitement, as am I. I’m almost embarrassed by how exciting an idea this is. Exciting enough that I hauled the wheel out, dusted it off (I mean that literally) and did a full workup on it. Cleaned, polished, oiled, a new driveband and new tension, and it’s spinning like a dream- I am wild with passion for this concept, let’s just cross our fingers that it’s captivating long enough to finish the project.

So – off I go. It’s almost dark here, and I’m going to light some candles, make a nice dinner, and then have a date with a friend I’ve missed.

PS: This Sunday, despite having discovered that teaching live online is not my jam, I’m going to do a Fiberside Chat. It’s an hour long Zoom thing, and while teaching by seems funny to me, a chat seems lovely, doesn’t it? You can click on this link to register, and scroll through the yarn shops listed on the right to see if there’s a shop local to you that you would like to support- if you’ve got a preference. It’s a collaborative thing and there are 30 shops taking part (including one Canadian one, River City Yarns). See? Right up my alley.