Oh goodness. Today’s an overwhelm day, apparently. I spent a long weekend in Wisconsin with knitting friends, and it was a wonderful weekend and I got lots of beautiful yarn. But last night I logged it all in the spreadsheet and added it to the stash shelves, and wow I have a lot of yarn. I need to knit more of it! But I need to wind more to knit more! And I also want to write a blog post! And I want to finish reading the book for my book group, plus read the books I got for my birthday. Add that to my actual job stuff and suddenly I feel like I don’t have time for all the things I want/need to do. So! My solution to that: Make a list and just begin, one thing at a time. Bird by bird, as the wise Anne Lamott once said. Hence, blog post.

There were eight of us who convened in Wisconsin, partly for the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival but also partly just to be together. There were two I’d never met in person who I love even more now, and the others I was delighted to see again. We had one big AirBnB so we spent a lot of time hanging out knitting, but we split into smaller groups for different excursions. It was just GOOD to be together. They even put together a little birthday party for me one night, with cupcakes and the most thoughtful gifts. I’m a lucky lucky girl.

I got to pet sheep and go to a bookstore and a yarn store (The Sow’s Ear is SO GOOD!!) and the yarn I came home with is amazing. It’s a good thing we don’t do this very often! Some things were gifts though — I got a specially-dyed skein of yarn plus a gorgeous project bag from Chestnut Hills Farm & Fiber that I adore.

So yeah, good weekend. But after five days of togetherness, I was ready to recharge with a little solitude. I’ve got two projects in mind to cast on, so hopefully tonight I’ll be able to tackle the “wind yarn” item from my list.