We’re in packing and prepping mode, but it all feels like we’re running in place. We can’t pack the basic rooms of the house yet because we live in them and we’re not moving for another two and a half weeks. We’ve packed the closets and most of the garage. And we’ve sort of run out of room in which to put boxes while still having living space. This is problematic.

We were going to pack the knickknacks and artwork last night, except we had no packing material, and we’ve packed all the towels and sheets and such. HRH is bringing home paper tonight.

I’m going to take this afternoon and start packing my office, to the extent that I can do that and not mess up my workflow or workspace. If HRH can dismantle my bookcases tonight we’ll have an extra wall against which to start stacking boxes that won’t be in anyone’s way. My closet is problematic in that I kind of have a desk in front of it, so I don’t have room to easily hand stuff down. I may have to move my desks and computer cables in order to pack the closet, which feels like two huge jobs instead of one big job, but if it has to be done then it has to be done.

Really, most of this work is going to have to be done the week between taking possession and the actual move, because we’ll be able to shift boxes over to the house and free up space for other boxes. But in the meantime it’s a frustrating situation to be in. It will all be worth it, I know, but treading water doesn’t feel productive. In the meantime I can sort through the kitchen cupboards for things we don’t use often, like roasting pans and baking tins and the good china, but where we’re going to put it so it’s all safe I do not know.

Spinning is, frankly, maintaining my equilibrium. Look at my pretty yarn.

Both are from the same wool top, four ounces of Projekt B (which is my eternally awesome LYS Ariadne Knits‘ house line) hand-dyed BFL. The top photo is of a two-ply heavy fingering weight yarn (around 17 WPI), of which I’ve got 233 yards, and the bottom photo is of about ten yards of chain-plied leftover. This top was a dream to spin. BFL is silky and drapey to begin with, but it was a genuine pleasure to spin this after working with wool/mohair for a while. I did it worsted with a short forward draw on a 10:1 ratio (which often translates into a short backward draw for me). The yarn is so even and soft. I’m pretty impressed with the colour-matching in the plies, too. I split the top in half and spun each separately after lots of predrafting, and the repeats are surprisingly even, with only a bit of colour mismatch as the repeats shift in one or another of the plies.

The colourway is called “Little Miss Tiggywinkle” and while I am not usually a fan of pink, this is lots of fun and reminds me of a bowl of mints or peony flowers. There are lots of baby arrivals on the horizon, and stocking up on baby-appropriate colourways is not a bad idea.