A Conspiracy Theory and Sheep Detectives

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. --Stendhal

It was one of those strange weeks that felt way longer than it should have given that we had a holiday last Monday. What's even more strange is that I took an extra day off this week, which gave me three days at work, and yet three days have never felt longer. I've decided that there's a secret time-stretcher out there that the government employs to get more work out of you to make up for the day off you got. It's a theory I have yet to prove, and one should not get too stuck into conspiracy theories, but let's just say that I have invested enough time thinking about it that it might be worth taking notes on it... in secret. I mean, I'm not savvy enough to mess with governments... not at the moment...

Anyways... I spent my extra day at home on my own, watching episodes of Father Brown and Murdoch Mysteries while doing a bit of knitting and resting. Earlier in the day, before it got too hot, I went out for a wander around town. I stopped to get a coffee and a cinnamon bun and sat in the sunshine to enjoy it, which was a great treat, as I rarely get a cinnamon bun nor the chance to sit in the sunshine these days.

I stopped in at the local yarn store. It's a place that I spend surprisingly little time in, mostly because it's closed by the time I finish work. I felt fortunate to be able to get a chance to stop in. I really didn't need anything urgently, but I wanted to see if they had any polyester fibre fill to top up the stuffing in the cushion I finished a couple of weeks ago. The ladies working that day both stopped what they were doing to see if they could find some for me.

"It says on the computer that we should have three bags," one of them said, but they looked and looked, and weren't able to find them at all. 

"Perhaps they used them up for the quilting class," the other said. 

"That's ok," I said. "I can try another time. Thanks for looking."

"Ok, but we'll let you know if we find them. We should have three bags... three bags full!" And we all laughed.

Speaking of, I found this in the used book shop:

It combines two of my favourite things in the world: detective stories and sheep. It's about a flock whose shepherd has been found murdered. They take it upon themselves to find the murderer, led by the smartest sheep, Miss Maple... but not before they get into the garden and eat up all the veggies. They couldn't help themselves. They had no shepherd, after all. 

I believe I can relate to them on more than one instance.

Meanwhile, my Over-and-Over-Again Top continues to earn its name. I'm making pretty good headway with it, but I made the mistake of thinking that the second side would be easier going than the first. I am continually having to rip back and do things over. One time it was because I forgot to work the waist decreases. Another time was because I thought I'd changed colours too quickly: I ripped out the new colour, then knitted one row of the previous colour before realizing that I actually was right the first time... so I ripped that row out again. Sigh.

I'm making both sides to the same dimensions but mirroring the colours so that they will look seamless once I sew them together. The perfectionist in me is annoyed because I discovered that the waist-shaping in the first side is uneven, but the realist in me knows that this is not the first time this has happened.

And heck no, I will not rip out the first side to fix it. There is only so much agony one person can take. Now that I think of it, maybe this top is part of my time-stretcher conspiracy theory. Hmmm:

I'm still undecided as to what the neckline will look like. I keep trying to imagine it as I knit, stopping every so often to squint at the air while I try to figure it out. I also can't decide which side will be the front, as I would like to choose the side that has the fewest errors, but at the rate I'm making them, that could be anyone's guess at this stage. I'm thinking that I'll block the two sides first, and then seam up the side and try it on. I'm hoping it'll become more apparent then. That is, if it fits... which is always a worry when I make garments in separate pieces. If it doesn't fit, well...

Let's not worry about that, shall we?

In the meantime, my summer subscription for vegetable boxes from a local farm started a couple of weeks ago. I stop at the farm on the way home on Fridays to pick it up. I always huff about having to pick it up, but once I'm actually on the road to the farm, I always settle back and enjoy the rolling hills and the trees and the sunshine. There are worse burdens than that, surely... especially when the end of the road you get all this stuff:

I'm going to go make some awesome stuff with this now, and then maybe go find out what happens with Miss Maple and her flock. Not everyone can handle this kind of exciting life, but then, not everyone is me. Have a great week!