Growing Pains

I am suffering from some growing pains. No, I’m not getting taller (although that would be nice). I’m going through a personal growth spurt and it’s uncomfortable. Last week I left my job. This week, I’m getting paid based on the hours I work, the clients I work for, the work available. I’ll admit, I’m scared. I’m afraid I won’t be fully employed. I’m afraid I won’t be good at this new gig. I’m afraid I’m going to fail. Of course, here I am at the end of the first week and so far none of this has come to pass. My hours are fewer and fully expect them to pick up starting next week when I pick up 2 more projects. I’m having to get used to not working 8-10 hours a day. It feels weird. Nice, but weird. I still sit down at my desk by 7 every day but finish when I finish. I’ve been spending my ‘non-working’ time onboarding and getting acquainted with my new duties, re-learning Smartsheet and Lucid Charts, figuring out billable hours and all the other fun stuff that goes along with working independently. Independently. Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?

I’m making great progress on my Weekender. My daughter visited for a couple of days last week and I took the opportunity to have her do a try-on (sans sleeves) and it fits! I ended up telling her it was for her although I wanted to keep it a surprise; it fit too perfectly for her not to know. She lives in a city where winter is cold so this Malabrigo Rios is perfect!

I also started a pair of Heerlen Socks by Mieka John. I say started but, in reality, I made almost one full sock and ripped it out. Started again, got to mid-foot and ripped it out again. I have been knitting socks for a dozen years and these just didn’t fit. Two of my best knitting buddies have been knitting these socks with lovely results so I know it’s not the pattern (although it is written in a very confusing way) so it must be my yarn, which is a lovely merino/bamboo/nylon. I re-started (third time’s a charm, right?) with some leftover 80/20 and a smaller needle size (hello, US0) and wow, huge difference! I’m almost to the heel and these will fit wonderfully. I guess the bamboo didn’t give me the structure this sock needed so I’ll save it for another project.

I’m taking Speck to his first trial this weekend. We’re going to try some FastCAT (Coursing Ability Test). It’s a 100-yard dash for dogs. He’s a hunter/chaser and I have no doubt he’ll love this game.