Overdid it yesterday; 63/43 bp this morning made it hard to move. Richard rescued me with a glass of water. Slow all day.

I got a package in the mail in the afternoon, a long out of print book I’d bought via Amazon. The seller charged me something like a buck plus the standard 3.99 shipping.

Only, they’d written “first class” on the envelope that with that heavy book in it clearly weighed way more than they could ship that way; at the post office, rather than sending it via media mail and slow, then, they’d opted for Priority and tracking–for $13.20! I’d paid all of $5.

They didn’t have to work so hard to make me happy but they did. I loved that the return address was within shouting distance of Richard’s late grandparents’ house they’d built in the 1930’s in Washington, DC. Back home.

And also in that package was the woman’s business card, decorated in shades of green.

I’ve been needing something to push me back into feeling productive again, just one specific project to grab me to get me going.  It took some stash diving to find just those shades. You know someone wouldn’t put a colorway on their card to represent themselves to the world by unless they liked it.

I had a fingering weight strand of pure  merino sock yarn from Fleece Artist and a matching strand of the same from Creatively Dyed, and together they would make the perfect quick but pretty hat.

I confess it took a brief moment of letting go of what I thought I was going to use that Fleece Artist for–and yet. It totally makes it. I’ve had it nearly a year, and every time I’ve tried to sit down to start what it was supposed to be, it refused to continue. It’s New Year’s Eve, and starting with a fresh idea to put some good directly into the world starting right now–it feels like that’s what it was waiting for.

Of course I don’t have to do it. And neither did she. That’s why it’s so fun.

(Oh, and the book? My much-laughed-over copy of The Mother’s Almanac got destroyed by a leaking roof during our remodel when my youngest was in first grade. I wanted to have a copy around; it’s a great book for anyone who loves children, and I now have both that again and, as of today, Almanac II.)

The yarn is wound, the brim is done. Things are speeding up.