Yipes!

I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I think I may have just over-committed myself a wee bit. Ah well - I didn't commit to anyone else, just stuff I want to do myself. But let's just see what I have in mind.

Since I decided to go to Pennsic after all, there are a variety of things that need done for that.

1. Fix two dresses. I have two sleeveless dresses that I wear over chemises that are two of my favorite Pennsic outfits. I made them for my first Pennsic, but now - 6 or 7 years later - they've gotten a little - ahem - snug. I don't have a lot of garb as it is, and need all that I can manage to make wearable. So I decided to refurbish them by splitting out the side seams and adding a strip of complementary fabric down the side, to add width. I have the material to fix the green dress; I haven't bought the material yet to fix the purple dress.

2. Finish the pirate coat, at least enough to wear. I intended to do a lot of embroidery on it; then when I started and saw how tedious that was going to be, I backed off to just doing some embroidery on it. I've started the embroidery on one of the cuffs, so since it's started, I at least have to finish that part in order to wear it. The cuffs aren't sewn on yet, either, because obviously they're easier to embroider that way. The cuff design isn't large, but it is a rather intricate pattern, which I've only just barely begun on one of them. So I'd have to finish one, do the other entirely, sew the cuffs on, hem the coat, and find and install some type of buttons or fasteners. This is by far the most complex project I want to complete before Pennsic.

3. I need to make two t-tunics to go with pants I already had made from a year or two ago (which thanks to the magic of elastic and making things way too big the first time around, still fit), but had no tops to go with. I bought the material for those on Saturday.

4. I need to fix my sandals, or get them professionally repaired. They are nice, leather, Doc Marten sandals, but one of the buckles broke last year. I really need them for Pennsic; or I need to go buy a new pair of something (which I looked for last year and never found anything I liked). Without the sandals I'm forced to wear my boots even during the day, when it's so hot - and that's no fun.

5. I wanted to make a haversack - a medium-sized bag with a long strap that you can wear over one shoulder and cross-wise across your body. Greg got one a year or two ago, and it comes in extraordinarily handy when shopping, or going out for an evening when you might want to take your refreshment of choice with you. I bought a piece of waterproof canvas to make one last year, but ... um, yeah, never got around to it.

6. Whether I get the haversack made or not, I at least need some kind of a pouch. I've had half a dozen pouches over the years, and none of them ever really worked out just the way I had in mind - too small, too big, too bulky, too hard to get into, too heavy on the belt. I have to have something this year, no matter how simple it is.

7. I need to make some head wraps. This shouldn't be any big deal - just a large triangle of material. I'd like to hem it, but I don't strictly have to. This may sound trivial, but it's actually a very big deal to me. One of my worst problems at Pennsic is sweating my ass off, and my hair looking like hell. Yeah, I'm not usually very concerned about how I look, but this is different - this is me with my bangs plastered to my forehead dripping sweat into my eyes. That's not just 'not attractive,' that's downright gross. I've never before figured out a solution to it, as 'staying cool' just isn't an option. This year, I've decided to fight it by hiding it. I'm going to wear the pirate hat as much as possible, and just put a good head wrap on underneath it, and that'll be that for the day. This small thing will make a huge difference in my endurance of the heat, because half my battle with it isn't just the being hot, but being pissed off about looking like a stuffed, sweating pig. If I can at least look cool (both temperature-wise and fashion-wise), I'll be much happier. No one needs to know what's going on under my hat.

8. Other Pennsic stuff that needs done: food cooked for me. I want to prepare a bunch of one-dish meals, and freeze them with my handy-dandy Seal-A-Meal into single portion servings, so that my dinners will be simple boil-in-bag affairs, with minimal clean up.

9. Cook for Tyler. He eats a home-cooked diet, so I have to have at least two weeks, and preferably 2 1/2 or 3 weeks of meals prepared in advance for him and frozen - to have a buffer both before I leave and when I come back, so I'm not scrambling around at either end of my vacation. I'm not sure all this stuff is even going to fit in my freezer.

That was all more than enough to keep me hopping, but then there was the latest addition. About a month ago I found out my sister-in-law has some very serious health problems. One of the side effects of it is that her feet and legs have swollen very, very badly. She wrote me an email this morning to tell me that she could no longer wear any shoes, and even most of her socks are horribly uncomfortable, but the only thing she can wear which is comfy for when she has to go out in public (doctor's appointments and whatnot) are the socks I made her for Christmas, and she wondered if I could make her some more.

Well, of course! I was thrilled to be able to knit something for someone that would actually be truly useful and helpful! So I immediately ordered enough sock yarn online for 3 more pairs, then started a pair today from some sock yarn I had in my stash. (If she can't even wear shoes, just a couple pairs of socks aren't enough - anything less than 4 or 5 pairs isn't going to cut it).

But then I realized ... ummm, do all that other stuff I just listed, AND knit 3 or 4 pairs of socks - in the five - yes, five - weeks till Pennsic.

We won't even talk about how I have to bust major ass to get all my work caught up at the office before I can go on vacation, and that's going to be complicated by the fact that my boss is going on vacation a couple weeks before me - and he always buries me beyond belief when he goes on vacation. The point being, just when I most need the extra time, I'm usually stuck working copious amounts of overtime.

Yep. I'd say I'm highly over-committed.

But you know what? I really don't mind. I like being busy. I love a good challenge. I'm kind of excited about all this. This will be intriguing. Will I get it all done? Probably not. What it'll come down to is some serious prioritizing, making sure the stuff I have to do gets done (the socks fall into that category; because I really want to makes it a half to on this list), and then what I can't get to, I'll live without. I've done it plenty of times before.

At least I took one major undertaking off my plate today - and may be getting a literal dream come true into the bargain. But that's a story for another day.