Taking some comfort

* I am home from work for the day. Tonight is bell choir, which means I get to see Mike and Judy and Billie and all of them, and we're going to start some new music, and it will be fun. And I'm starting to learn to get over my dislike of being seen as being not-expert at something - heck, no one is that good at a piece when we first start it. I probably need things like that in my life; one of the things that holds me back from doing some things is that I feel like (a) I'm not good enough and (b) it's embarrassing for people to see me not be good at something.

Tomorrow is a lunch meeting (we are meeting at a local restaurant so my lunch is planned for, though I presume it's Dutch treat and am OK with that) for some scholarship stuff at church. And I'm also now on the Worship Committee, though that's (a) mainly as a courtesy (the new board moderator said he felt the head elder should be looped in and perhaps he is right) and (b) I won't be able to make the next meeting as it's at the same time as the pre-scheduled Wesley Center meeting - and as recording secretary, I need to be there. 

* My African-American made-to-move doll arrived today - a day early (and at one point, I was wondering if I'd get told she was "out of stock" and I'd have to wait). I have decided that her name is neither Lavinia nor Audrey; it is Olivia, which seems to fit her better. No photo yet; maybe once I find an outfit I really like on her. She is a little darker in complexion than the Gabby Douglas doll. I have her in a short green-and-peach print dress but I'm not sure I like it on her; she might need something more strongly colored.

Heh, for a while when I first opened her, I was calling her "Regular-Sized Olivia" (following the joke on Bob's Burgers about "Regular-Sized Rudy" (vs. "Pocket-Sized Rudy," a very short child) because when I first looked at her I thought, "Wait, is this the Tall body type?" (Which would have been OK; the Curvy shoes fit the Tall dolls, and I would have something that was long enough). But nope: she's the standard Barbie size, which means all the clothes fit her (Well, some of the separates are now made to fit Curvy, and are a bit big on her) and she can share shoes with Gabby. 

And I can make a few "standard sized" Barbie skirts; I have a simple a-line skirt pattern - I want to make a denim-look one (if I have any material that will work, or I could buy a quarter-yard at JoAnn's this weekend) and maybe a fancier one, and maybe a solid color black or brown one. (I probably need to consider getting some tiny snaps to use as closures. The commercial clothes have hook-and-loop closures but I really prefer snaps)

(I also have some inexpensive "vintage" - homemade - Barbie clothes coming from an Etsy seller. And I still want to make some of my own; I found a knit pleated skirt that uses a sockweight yarn that might make cool winter-wear for one of the dolls. I should also dig around next time I'm at my parents; I'm quite sure I have a few pieces of Barbie sized clothing I made back when I was first collecting dolls....).

* Still planning a Whitesboro trip Friday - also maybe will stop on the way back in Sherman to look at the antique mall. Trying to cram in the fun I didn't take over the summer.

* I'm getting a lot better at the current piece for piano (Mendelssohn's "Venetian Boat Song.") I got discouraged after watching a YouTube version of it and the comments had people chiming in about how young they were (how low of a primary grade) when they mastered it; apparently it's a common competition piece. I was struggling with it at that point but I'm getting better. (Perhaps I need to find more challenging pieces, though I tend to gravitate towards the ones for children because my hands are not large, and sometimes the reach in, like, some of the Chopin pieces is just not possible for me). Maybe another Bach invention; Bach seemed to understand that many keyboardists don't have giant hands.)

(And I wonder if little kids understand the sense of - what I interpret as a sort of longing, maybe even what the Germans call Sehnsucht in the piece.)

And I'm pretty good now at the arrangement of "Precious Lord, Take my Hand" and I've found an arrangement of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" that I want to try next.

* I'm working away on a little pair of fingerless mitts, and I want to get more done on the current sweater (the Augusta cardigan) but I admit I'm now eyeing "Incunabula" (in a book I ordered from the UK called "This Thing of Paper"). It's a lovely book - apparently the result of a Kickstarter - and it has complex, unusual designs in it. Pretty much "classic style with a twist," which is EXACTLY what I like in knitting patterns: not trendy, so as long as I stay the same size (and the garment doesn't get eaten by bugs), I can still wear it when I'm 70 or whatever.  Incunabula would work with the yellow DK I bought back on my first trip to A Balanced Skein, and that might be more fun than the simpler cardigan in the Berroco book. (There's another sweater in there - a pullover, Incunabula is a cardi - called "Marginalia" that I also love, it's a simple pullover with some simple colorwork at the cuffs and hem, to recall the notes-written-in-margins of books).


What I need to do is force myself off the internet in the evening (or set it up on a table next to me so I can periodically glance at Twitter or Ravelry) and knit on all the projects I want to be making.