Starting my "Summer"

I got a bit of a start on my "summer hours" by waking up earlier than usual. Maybe I will have a productive summer. I made a quick trip to my parents' house this weekend to help my mom with something, but in spite of not having a regular weekend, I'm eager to get going on Monday. Go figure. Today, though, will be mostly taking care of some errands. The big one is a yarn quest. I finished my second blanket last night and don't have the yarn I need for the next project. It requires a particular color, which is turning out to be somewhat challenging to find. It would have been even more challenging if I were using the weight and needle size specified in the pattern, but it used sock-weight yarn, and it's very hard to find that without any wool in it. I get very itchy when I touch wool, so I wouldn't be able to wear it and my hands would be a mess from knitting with it. Also, I wanted to make it a bit larger than the pattern specifies. Some experimentation has shown that I get the results I want from a heavier yarn (that's easier to find) and slightly larger needles without having to actually change the pattern. Now I need to find the right color in something that doesn't make me itch.

Otherwise, I need to get back on track with the office organization project and I need to start the serious planning for the next book. I have some vague ideas and I know what's going on in general with the characters. I just need to narrow it down to specific events.

Meanwhile, the summer session of ballet starts tomorrow night, and that means it's been five years since I started. It's been one of the better things I've done for myself because it's helped me stay in shape, it's improved my posture and balance, and it's given me a whole new set of friends. Plus, it played into a book that I hope will someday see the light of day. I sometimes worry about being commitment-phobic because I really hate committing to things until I'm absolutely certain and I'm prone to quitting things when I lose interest, but I think it's more a case that I take commitments very seriously, and once I commit to something, I'm all-in for the duration. That makes me very cautious about what I commit to and leads to some wavering until I'm sure. It also leads to me quickly dropping out of things that don't seem right.

That means it's also been five years since I started making my own strawberry jam (I remember this because I bought supplies on the same round of errands when I registered for the class). This will be jam week (probably on Wednesday) as I'm almost done with the last jar and the strawberries were on sale. I think my homemade jam is less expensive than store-bought, but mostly I like the taste better, I like knowing exactly what's in it, and I like the sense of satisfaction from having made it myself.

So, that's the week ahead, dancing, knitting, jam making, some baking (I came home from my parents' house loaded up with zucchini, so it's zucchini bread time), and trying to make a vague story idea take shape.