A couple weeks ago, I missed a therapy appointment.
It was the second time in three months, after a year of perfect attendance, and I was displeased. I beat myself up about it for a while, and then continued packing for the trip I was taking the following day, which was the whole reason I forgot about the appointment in the first place.
This month, I had a fabulous opportunity to spend the weekend with two of my closest friends, finally introduce them to each other in the flesh, and meet a whole gaggle of incredible new friends. The Wool Gathering weekend has certainly earned its place in my 2026 highlight reel. You'll get fiber festival haul photos, but first I just want to pay my respect to how good it is to share space with a group of truly supportive humans who make me want to better myself without guilt being the driving factor.
I don't think I realized how much connection I was missing until I had it again, and now I know it's something I need to work on. There's a big part of me that hasn't prioritized making new friends on anything but a surface level because we're not staying here forever. I go to my craft group, hang out, and go home. I get uncomfortable when folks overshare, and I don't want to hang out with anyone outside of the group. It seems inconvenient. I have stuff to do. I'm not for everyone, and not everyone's for me, so I figured I just haven't found the person (or people) to override my default settings.
I still believe that, but I also think I'm not letting myself make real friends because I don't want to be sad when I leave here.
At any rate, since I came back home and recovered from traveling, I feel like my brain has been reconfigured. I'm fixing my hair, taking my fiber supplement, wearing decent clothes, knocking tasks off of my to-do list, finishing projects, deleting phone games, and getting rid of stuff. Inspiration slapped me in the face with a new project, and I did most of it within the first day. (It just needs some finishing work and another inch of ribbing, and it'll be done by the end of the week.)
The executive is functioning, and I'm going to keep feeding it as long as I can.
I like this person. She's simultaneously less bored, less overwhelmed, and less tired. She can listen to music with lyrics and write a blog post at the same time. Who is she? Where has she been all this time? I remember her, but from a long time ago.
But she's me, the same person who has missed two therapy appointments in three months and has struggled to finish projects for who knows how long. I don't pretend to think my lack of discipline is fixed, but something has clearly changed (temporarily or otherwise). My hope is that I can harness this new (old) power and start working toward some of my larger goals: consistently writing for the blog, answering calls for submissions to magazines, and balancing life better than I have in recent memory.
Oh, and the next appointment? I begrudgingly started using my digital calendar and set myself reminders. 😑
Anyway, that's me lately, but you want to see the Wool Gathering spoils.
We started with a trip to Fiber Optic Yarns, and I picked up a high-speed bobbin and whorl for my Schacht Matchless, as well as a second set of US1 (2.25mm) double-pointed needles for knitting tandem socks, so some of those are pictured in the group photo of tools. Along with the Fiber Optic purchases, at the festival I picked up a magnetic sewing needle case, a reeling pin (that I'm using as a miniature nostepinne), and a dew drop. The dew drop is new to me, and it's a nifty little spinning wheel accessory meant to keep your double-drive band under tension while you're changing bobbins, so the band doesn't fall off your drive wheel. Smart!
Next came fiber. My first purchase was some bagged gray Shetland wool, very clean, very soft. Then I found the Gwen Erin booth and couldn't stop shouting "They're just so FAT!" about the massive 8-ounce braids hanging up, so of course one came with me. It's a blend of Rambouillet, Merino, sari silk, and gold stellina. The other two pictured below were picked up on the second day of the festival, and boy howdy do I love buying fiber directly from the person who raised the sheep. The brown is a luxuriously soft Cormo/Romney blend, and the gray is straight Cormo.
And then yarn. Did I find the Shirsty Cat booth? You bet your ass I did, and Kelly wears the best cat-eye glasses I've ever seen in my life. I spent zero time making choices in this stall because I'd have been there for an hour. Instead, I picked up two glorious skeins that sang to my heart, and...set them aside to come pay for later when the wifi wasn't being a shit. I did come back for them though; both Electric Slide and Heart of the Giant are safe and sound. Someone pointed out a new-to-me dyer, Bewitched Pigments, and I just about fell over when the first skein I picked up was called Swamp Witch. No fuss, no muss, here's my credit card, thank you, goodbye. Excellent choice. And lastly for this gang, Fresh Lotus Design got me with their 100% tussah silk lace yarn after I cooed over their oh-so-soft handwoven garment display.
Wait, no. That's not last. What are those in the top left corner? I had never even heard of McMullin Fiber Co., and I stumbled face-first into their sample sweater knit with this Merino/cashmere/nylon blend paired with a Suri alpaca lace yarn. It's one of those garments you can't stop touching because it's so soft. Sadly, living in Las Vegas, I will die if I add a fuzzy laceweight to any sweater, so I left the Suri yarn behind and snagged the last three skeins (a sweater quantity) of the MCN yarn. It's glorious. It will be a sweater. I will wear it until it falls apart.
I don't know/remember what these are. Romney, maybe? I don't actually think they're all the same. Some of them are soft, and some of them are coarse. But they were $10 a ball, and they're fun as hell. On the first day, I bought the confetti ball and used part of it to teach two friends to spindle spin, and on the second day I said why not four more?
Because why not four more?
So I'm, uh, set for a while. I have plenty of fun options to keep me busy in the coming months, and it'll be nice to be able to shop my stash when I want to make something. In the meantime, I finally have the brain to wipe the slate clean, and that's way more exciting than I can describe. I'm going to go watch a movie and finish a sweater, and I'll talk to you all in two weeks.
P.S. Tomorrow is October, the best month. Use it well. 🎃
