Round Peg In a Square Hole-crafts

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Feast or Famine

Many years ago, when I first got the spinning bug, I went to an SCA art retreat weekend. Had a fabulous time, in part due to the quality of the teachers, in part due to the Baroness's excellent cooking and need to feed people. ("I bought and prepped for 40 people, I don't CARE if only 17 of you showed up! YOU WILL EAT!" And really, with fresh bread at every meal, and fresh scones every morning, this carb-addict took very little persuading.) I hemmed and hawed, but finally, a few weeks later, I ordered my spinning wheel, knowing that most of the next year at work was going to be pretty laid-back, so I would have time to build it (it was a kit) and learn to use it. (The work I do is quite sporadic: some weeks are hell, involving (literally) 18 hour days, weird hours, and complex analyses; other weeks, let's just say I explore the furthest reaches of the 'net.)

In one of those situations that are not uncommon with businesses both big and small, the proprietress and I had a little bit of miscommunication, a little bit of resentment, and a series of letters that escalated in nastiness, resulting in a delay of more than a year in my receiving my kit. This, of course, coincided with a dramatic upswing in the density of work, ensuring that I didn't have time for another year to build the darn thing, much less learn to use it.

When work finally slowed down again, I had lost the forward momentum on the whole thing. Add to that the bad feelings left over from dealing with the businesswoman, and I just didn't want to touch the wheel, so it languished in it's box. For over 4 years. (I did, eventually, make it. But I have yet to work on it regularly. I'm used to my drop spindle. My daughter, however, loves to use the spinning wheel as the wheel of a pirate ship.....)

Unfortunately, I'm afraid something of the same thing has happened again. Had I received my Ravelry invite earlier this summer, I would have had plenty of time to input my projects, fill my queue, even get off my duff and get my stash sorted and photographed. But, nooooooo, it had to arrive just when I took on a project of stunning dullness, whose tediousness will require many days work to explore, then more days to make sure the boredom didn't lull me into error. AND I have more high-priority work that needs to be done, as well. Meanwhile, I've only been able to get some of my projects into Ravelry (I haven't even started on the socks) and despair that I will ever get my queue filled out in a timely manner.

Sigh. Feast or famine. Ain't that always the way.