Being a maker is, apparently, a cold-handed business. It also seems like it would need to be a self-employed business, hopefully for-profit, with a home office. Maybe someday Noah and I could rent an apartment big enough for all the rooms we'd like -- living room, bedroom, good kitchen and eating space, bathroom, office, maybe another office for me. He doesn't need much office room, but I would like his office to hold the elliptical machine ... and mine to hold more room for me. Mostly that would come down to my desk, a big table for cutting/stamping/sketching, a movable/foldable writer's/editor's desk, a good chair with ottoman ... a million shelves ...

I think the time is nearing. The time of me actually writing down a yarn budget. I don't need a drawing budget, or a fabric budget, or a budget for button-buying; I don't do a lot of those things. But yarn ... yarn.

The time of me unraveling sweaters and dyeing yarn is also near.

I am a hat-knitting fool. I finished a simple beanie out of Malabrigo worsted, oh so lovely. I finished the BAYBLES chemo cap, too. On size 3's, on a splitty yarn, with apparently another case of the loose gauge. Since when am I a looser knitter than the standard knitter?! I hate checking for gauge! But unless I want to keep making hats for toddlers that fit me, and chemo caps that come down to my CHIN (but do fold nicely, but still hide the prettiest cables) ... gauge time.

I am also a thinker who thinks about future possibilities a bit much. A bit over-thought. For example, maybe just thinking "Hey having my own office at home would be nice" can just stay there, rather than becoming "But when we raise kids I'm sure my office would be the one to go and isn't that just like the world? Trading children for making? What a stupid world! I don't want to trade anything!" blah blah blah. Let's get to that when it's in arms' reach. Not today.

I might want a different job. I might. Suggestions welcome. I have many criteria, however. And still, however, those criteria are dwindling.

Things I'm thinking of making today:
-- serious bread, of Peter Reinhart's lineage
-- Christmas cookies, specifically Swedish almond and spice/molasses
-- garlic/chickpea/spinach soup
-- schwabische spaetzle with cheese galore

-- my own wrapping paper
-- my own stamps
-- my own gift bags
-- my own gift boxes
-- my own book covers (like for binders) -- think cardboard with center cut-outs and designed paper wrapping them all, and maybe with inner liners, too

-- bulky alpaca double-knit scarves
-- some tighter and warmer fingerless mitts
-- a sweater. yeah. I want to make a sweater, I think, for me.

-- lightly cabled cuffs in kidsilk haze with beading wire for structure

um? Sounds like a full enough plate to me.