My Monday did not go as planned, though it went just fine (other than still no shopping cart). I did start by making teff muffins (teff is a grain grown widely in Ethiopia and I was commemorating my trip 2 years ago). They were *good!*

Then I opened the shop for Rae and stayed a number of hours there. She recently gave me a mini-sock-blocker keychain to put my store key on, and so when I was at the shop I knit a mini sock for the blocker.

Of course, I had to use my own First-Time Toe-Up toe and then I wanted to make an afterthought heel, and I wanted stripes on the foot and fairisle checkerboard patterns on the leg. I had to do it my way which meant at one point I had a LOT of needles in the piece at once.

Never mind you never knit with more than two points at a time, it sort of amused me how funny/difficult it could look to someone who was not in the middle of the project. Rae came in when it looked the most ridiculous and she made me take a photo of it. Trust me, the blockers come with a pattern that does not require this mess I had, I just wanted to do it my way. I’m 3 years old going on 48, I guess.

(The knitting did not take very long, not an hour, I’d say… but the working in of ends in a sock that was small enough to fit snugly on my index finger took almost as long as the knitting. I did a little duplicate stitch on it when I got home as well, because I wanted to change the balance of colors on the top of the sock, and I like to do any kind of embroidery so I enjoyed that.)

There were errands to run at the end of the day and I did not give myself enough time to do them, so I’ll have to do at least one tomorrow. However, I get to sleep in and then I plan on making some sort of pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. I have a little time alone so I’ll hope to get back to the shopping cart during that quiet time.

In the afternoon, my helper will come and we’ll wind yarn and label it for the show this Saturday. She’s not staying too long, because when Brian gets out of work we are going out on a date. There’s a Chinese restaurant where I can eat a few things, so we will go there.

After dinner we think we might go over to Dagwood’s pub and have fun with the open mic there (hosted by friend Jen Sygit). It will be a fun birthday date.

Today I wore clothes and jewelry I bought in Africa. I wanted to remember the richness of that trip I took 2 years ago today. It made me feel good to wear an outward sign of the trip. I’m a lot glad I went, I probably won’t go again but I can dream…

Photos: 1) Minisock on blocker/keyring in the middle of my most messy knitting moment, with many needles in the sock at once, 2) Finished minisock keyring, 3) Open mic at Dagwood’s last August, 4) Shirt I got in Nairobi, Kenya. This one I was prepared to do without and it’s the one I’ve worn the most. The vendor literally chased me down the sidewalk after we left the shop, and my hostess negotiated a price that was so low I could not say no. I’m glad they chased me!