No focus

It's one of those days.

I'm working from home today - which is a little off my normal schedule but I've shifted WFH days to accommodate some meetings happening on Thursday and Friday. Sadly, I can't focus. This is really unusual, normally I can make myself get the work done regardless of the distractions but I've been struggling for six hours now and I'm not getting anywhere. In the time I've spent writing this much I've stopped twice to look at Facebook and my mail (just to see if anything new had arrived). There was nothing new. I even checked my work email. Nothing new there either.

My husband calls it a bad case of Wrong-Side-Of-Window. He made this observation after hearing that a meeting today was cancelled so he decided to blow off the rest of his afternoon and go hunting (the perks of being self-employed eh?!). Lanark county is currently being overrun by wild turkeys; hunting is a public service really. And in case you're wondering, his bunking off for the rest of the day didn't do anything to help me focus. He might be right though, it's a beautiful day outside and would be good to spend some time in the garden, or even just sitting on the deck in the sun.

Honestly, I don't know if I should try and push through it (1h 20min to go), or give in and go outside and plant onions, go downstairs and spin, sit on the deck and knit or go have a nap because I have a sore throat starting and don't have time to be sick. I've been hearing lots lately about taking time for self-care but how do you balance that against work expectations? Especially on days when the body is clearly demanding something, because how else can I interpret behaviour so far from what is my 'normal'. I can always log back in later and will probably get more done if I did that, but I also know that on days like this it's too easy to just not log in again.

Would it be the end of the world if I slipped away?  No, nobody will die and the economy won't collapse if I quietly leave an hour early but there is a trust which is extended to me by my employer that I can work without supervision and I don't want to break that trust.

Do you work from home?  How do you deal with days like this?

Half and Half

It's finished; maybe.  This is the shell I've been working on for a few weeks.  The design is called Fifty Fifty by Laura Cunitz and you can find it on Knitty.com.  I'm calling mine Half and Half.

If you've been following this, you'll know that I've made a few adjustments to the number of stitches to eliminate a four stitch gap in the pattern which appears where the round joins on one side.  I'm happy to report that the finished item does indeed fit, with no awkward gaps around the arms - something that is always a risk with a tank top - and that the pattern now lines up and repeats as it should.

There are some details on this that I really like, such as a really interesting stitch pattern along the arms and the neck

as well as a pretty panel at the back of the neck

I had hoped to photograph this while wearing it, but everyone else is out for the day, and I'm not good at taking self portraits.

As for the maybe at the beginning, I'm undecided if I'm going to leave this white, or if I should dye it.  I don't often wear white because I usually manage to stain it but I still have my two original swatches so I can play with colours.

So what do you think?  Dye it or leave it as it?