A descent into chaos

I am provisionally declaring my jam spectrum project finished.

There are twelve jams, jellies, and marmalades all told. Left to right: red plum and white pepper jam; cranberry, hibiscus, and ginger jam; rhubarb and lemon marmalade; apple and jasmine jelly; tangerine and rosewater marmalade; Meyer lemon and vanilla marmalade; rosemary and lemon jelly; lemon and camomile jelly; kiwi and jasmine jam; dill jelly; blueberry, lemon, and vanilla jam; black plum, blackberry, and cardamom jelly. Whew. There are more oranges and yellows than anything else and the blueberry one is not especially blue, but it looks indigo next to the black plum and blackberry jelly, which is quite purple. If I discover borage in bloom that someone will give me before next Saturday, though, I will make jelly out of that and switch it out for one of the yellow things in the middle.

Meanwhile the rest of my life looks basically like this.

We have not too many hundreds of books, but taking an inventory of all of them and dividing them into piles for shipping to various places (dissertation pile! postdoc-maybe pile! someday-book-project pile! wait-I-meant-to-read-that pile! why-did-we-buy-this pile!) is time-consuming and tiring and hot work in the heat wave that has settled over my city.

Now that the jam project is polished off and I need breaks from and rewards for packing, I have turned my attention to a cardigan project from a few months ago, and have added a deadline to it. I have an amazing Liberty dress with oranges! on it, with which the cardigan will coordinate handsomely. It's a top-down raglan one and I intend for it to have elbow-length sleeves; right now there's about an inch of body left to knit, with sleeves, front bands, and neckband remaining. If I can also finish this before next Saturday, I will be extra-adorable at the wedding of the friends for whom the jams are intended. WE WILL SEE.