Hanging by a Thread

Look before you leap.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
All work and no play makes Jack Marjorie a dull boy girl.

I’ve been annoyed at myself for some weeks now because I’ve been in a work bind of my own making. Back in June, I thought I was running out of work for the summer because my two ongoing projects had delays. When I tell my family that I’m running out of work, they roll their eyes and make unkind remarks about my sanity. The fact is I’ve been very lucky as a freelancer, and I’ve only been out of work for a few weeks in the nearly 24 years I’ve been doing it. But I panic when I see holes in my schedule. So I asked some of my favorite work contacts for work, thinking that I’d get one or two short assignments to tide me over until the bigger projects got back on track. I ended up getting offers for many short assignments, and I didn’t have the good sense to turn any of them down. So now I sit here, with two more tough weeks ahead, spouting adages at myself and feeling glum because almost every other aspect of my life feels as if it is out of control.

My blog postings evaporated and my blog visits became spotty, but I was slapping myself on the back that I had finished the first section of Bee Fields and was now successfully on to Section 2: Bee Hive. This pattern is much harder for me than the pattern in Section 1, because it has YOs on both sides. But I was careful, and I reached row 20 of 54 thinking I had knit everything perfectly—or so it seemed until about 9:30 last night when I saw a glaring error on row 12. So here I am, back on row 12:

I’ve managed a bit of work for the garden, but not nearly as much as I ought to have done. I won’t have time for a week or so to prepare the planting rows for my fall crops of lettuce, broccoli, and Swiss chard, so I started flats. All my broccoli seeds appear to have sprouted:

The garden itself is filled with promise. I have the tiniest hints of cucumbers. I can almost taste the zucchini, even though it is clear that it will be some weeks before there is any sort of harvest.

I have green tomatoes on each of my 12 plants:

If I had only planted these in June instead of July, I'd be awash in tomatoes by now.

And even though I can’t wake up and smell the roses just yet, my mums, which are not supposed to bloom around here until September, are in flower:

Comments

[Luni]

Your garden looks so pretty, and all springy. It's in a time-warp. We're having cold snaps here already, and are "winterizing" the grass in preparation for the snows.
(ps..is that the new camera? The garden pictures are very nice.)

[robin]

Great pictures of the vegetables! They look delicious!

I'm wondering how difficult that Bee Fields pattern must be that it's giving YOU trouble. It almost makes me want to try it.

[tiennie]

We own our businesses too and I definitely know the panic of not having enough work. It's hectic but I'd much rather be busy - somehow it's not as stressful then.

[WoolEnough]

How fortunate you are to have space for a garden. It looks delightful. Don't worry about Bee Fields. This project is clearly intended to take you to a new and higher level of knitting expertise. When it is finally completed you will be a lace guru.