Bitter and sweet

I received some bad news last night. I'm not at liberty at the moment (I think) to expand upon it. It doesn't directly affect me and doesn't involve a member of my family, but it's still sad.

The odd thing is....I felt better, actually, after knowing for sure, than I did during the time leading up to getting the news where I didn't know, where I was caught between moments of feeling great hope and moments of feeling fear and sadness. I don't like ambiguity. (And there is a lot of ambiguity in life.)

You have to take the bitter with the sweet, though. One thing about caring means that sometimes you have sad things you have to deal with and I haven't yet learned (and perhaps do not want to learn) the art of being detached to the point of not caring.

***

Oddly, even after that news, my blood pressure was considerably lower (within the range that would be considered OK in a person not diagnosed with hypertension) last night than it had been, even the annoyingly stubborn diastolic pressure. The only thing I know I did differently was that after I showered last night I used a generous amount of powder (It's swamp-foot season here now - very humid) that was scented with lavender oil. Previously, when my blood pressure went down to the point where I actually began dreaming of the possibility of getting off the dang meds, it was during a time when I was having real dry-skin issues and was using a lavender oil-containing skin lotion. (If I buy a scented product, it is generally lavender; that's one of the few floral scents that doesn't either set off my allergies or annoy me to smell it. Rose is also good but it has to be "natural" rose and it should not be mixed with too many other things).

So, I don't know. Vermont Country Store sells an aromatherapy thing that they claim can work in conjunction with medication to lower blood pressure, and claim that some users have been able to cut their dosage while using it - it's a blend of lavender, rose, and I think, ylang-ylang oils. I looked at it and thought, "That can't work....can it?" but maybe it would be worth investing the $17 or whatever to see.

***

I also re-organized my Chamber of Extreme (Amounts Of) Yarn last night. I had been using the bed in my guest room as sort of a supplemental storage-area, tossing yarn into a couple open-topped bins. But there are problems with using open topped bins: first of all, if you're throwing in partial balls that are leftover from projects, the ends tend to unwind and tangle and make a big mess that makes moving the bin hard (because sometimes the tangle links two bins). And second, when you live in the South, there is no shortage of critters waiting to eat animal-fiber yarns if they can get at them. And while I didn't see any evidence of that (the stuff was all off the floor, which is where most of the problems tend to happen), still, leaving yarn out in the open isn't always smart.

So I bought some of those big "blanket storage bags" (the zippered bags that are clear plastic on a couple of sides and canvas on the other sides. I bought four, which was really twice what I needed, given the size of the bags.

One bag now houses sock yarn. (I have a boatload of sock yarn. I really need to stop buying it and use up what I have. And maybe I need to give some away if I can either find a charity that would use it or someone who knits fine-weight things for charity). I have a couple other projects' worth of yarn in there - a couple shawls, a hat, and a pair of gloves.

The other bag holds yarn set aside for sweaters, or worsted-weight yarn for shawls. That bag is less full. (Heh. Baa, baa, baa, not quite three bags full). I have two vests' worth (one with a pattern in mind, the other one without a pattern in mind), a cardigan, two pullovers (one is a kit, the other one is yarn I bought because I liked it and later realized I had a pullover pattern that it will work with), a shawl (this one of Silk Garden - from the Noro book), and then six skeins of Silk Garden I bought on a really good sale but which I am not sure what to do with. At one point I had the vague idea of doing something like one of the prayer shawls, but for myself, with it - to put over my shoulders when I am at home and cold in the winter (the color of the yarn is black with flashes of primary colors - an interesting combination but not the most flattering colors ON me)

I do want to start the Silk Garden shawl - I mean the triangular one, from the pattern in the Noro book - soon. It's a shawl using two colors (originally designed for Kureyon). I bought a pinky colorway and a tan/taupe colorway for it, which is more subdued than many Noro yarns, but I wanted something more subdued. I think it will be pretty.

Having the yarns sorted helps. For one thing, as I said, it tells me I need to quit buying yarn (or mostly quit buying yarn) for quite a while and work on what I have. Also, I found some things I had kind of forgotten I had (that lovely honey-colored yarn for a cabled cardigan, for example. And lots of "semisolid" colors of sock yarn which will be good for if I feel like "designing" a pair of socks again)

Also, as I've mentioned before - somehow, I find it oddly comforting to sort and examine stash. It's kind of the same feeling I had as a kid when I'd go down to the basement and see the jars upon jars of tomatoes and other produce my mother had canned - sort of a feeling of "nothing too bad can happen to me because I have SUPPLIES."