Finding My Treasure

Now that my shawl is complete (yarn purchased during the Orange Blossom Yarn Crawl in March), it is just hanging out in my foyer until I decide if I should gift it to someone or if I'm keeping it for myself.  I think I want to make another one of these shawls (pattern is called Nostalgia Shawl on Ravelry).  While it was an easy pattern, the lacy part required some attention and I think ripped back those sections quite a few times before I actually got it right.   

I started working on a crocheted poncho.  Ugh!  I know you are thinking, "Poncho? Not a good look".  I plan to change your mind!  The colors are very nice and the crochet is very....holey?  Is that even a word?  I should have the first panel done very soon and will post a picture.  

Lately, my knitting/crochet projects are picking me, instead vice versa.  They appear on my radar, and I am lucky enough to find or have the perfect yarn for it.  Of course, nothing I make is perfect but I'm good at ripping back, starting over or just moving forward with the pattern, depending on how the pattern will best be served.  

A bit of this has spilled over into my life.  I never had an confidence in my work, so I worked extra hard to prove...what?  I'm not sure.  I only succeeded in making myself sick with worry and stress.   I decided that it was finally time for me to leave my job, which I hated anyway,   I started doing contract work and, for the first several weeks, I was loving life.  The change of scenery, the new workload, it was all working out for me.  

And then, suddenly, it was not working.  And I realized that it was never the work I hated, it was the atmosphere of the job.  But I was good at what I did simply because I am good at what I know.  Once I realized that, which I could have never done while still at my original job, I was ready to go back.   Try explaining that to your ex-employer.  "I had to break up with you in order to see how much I needed you."  It's a bit like dating.  Only I treasure someone wanting me for my mind so much more than for my body (as if that would ever happen....).  

I have to run to finish the first panel of my poncho - meeting a friend for coffee and knitting tomorrow and I want to be able to show off some of my project.  

Diets Are Challenging

I feel remarkably calm.  Of course, I take this as a sign that all hell is going to break loose.  I live my life constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.  But somehow, this does not paralyze me; instead, I see moving on with my life, such as it is, as a challenge.  And it turns out that I like challenges.

Wait, that doesn't mean that I am ready to rock climb or sky dive, so don't go getting any crazy thoughts about that!  I meant that I made a decision to leave a steady job that I had held for six years, and try something new.  While the new job is not a huge leap from my experience, it is with a major company and I stepped into a corporate world that is foreign to me.  I'm working on a contract basis, and so the end result remains to be seen.   There are benefits to having a short term assignment (less stress, less ownership) and I'm not panicking (yet) about what I might do when the assignment ends.  I can't say a whole bunch about it on here, only because I have stuff in the works.

And I'm back to purchasing more yarn.  No more yarn diet, which lasted a few months. I actually made several projects with existing yarn so I don't feel like a total failure.  Of course, it's not a real failure because I get to play with such nice yarn.

Projects that I'm working on currently:  Summer Shawl (using Cascade Sunseeker yarn in blues and purples and a bit of sparkle), Poncho (using Lion Brand cotton in teal, mint, brown, silver and blue), and my stash project, Sea Turtle Blanket (using acrylic scraps).  

I know I can do better on my projects if I was better organized.  I bought a yarn winder and swift and it's my goal to have everything organized by the end of the month.  The other goal is to fix up my foyer and re-hang the pictures to create a better focal point for when people come over.  Also, it would probably help to remove the empty boxes strewn about, which are there merely for the cats' enjoyment and playtime.

Next post will include pictures of how my projects are coming along.

Take My Hat, Please

Adopt Me

Free to a good home. 
This beanie.  
Made with Holiday Lights Yarn (Acrylic, Wool, Polyester) 
in Christmas Green colorway.  
Just send me an email.

First day of daylight savings time, felt like a million bucks.  To have even a few minutes of sunlight at the end of the workday is an amazing feeling.  My motivation propelled me into going into the garage, cleaning off the bike, putting air in the (deflated, I'm sorry to say) tires, and taking a spin around the neighborhood.  It's a very small step, but at least it is in the right direction.

I finished my shawl.  Well, it's off the needles. I want to block it but it's acrylic but I was told that you can steam block acrylic.  I would prefer to use a handheld steamer but those things are $150 on Amazon.  I guess I will have to try it with my steam iron.

I've got to get to work early tomorrow for a staff meeting and I have lunch plans with a former co-worker.  And then I really want to try to make it to Tuesday night Sit and Knit.  My job gets in the way sometimes of the more important things.

Projects Are My Life

I have the strangest anxiety.  I get anxious that I will never be able to knit/crochet all of the yarn I have in my stash.  The tiny little part of me that is an optimist, well, she's sure that we can use up all of the bits and pieces with a stash-busting project.  However, in the interim, I want to start some real projects - as in sweaters - and you know, that means MORE yarn.  The additional yarn is 100% mandatory because you cannot use big box retail store yarn (i.e. acrylic) for your first sweater.  Nope.  It must be soft, luscious and a natural fiber (maybe wool and cotton?  something appropriate for Florida).  I have to temper my anxiety of my ever-increasing stash with my desire to push my knitting into new projects.

On the weeknights, I've been knitting dishcloths to use up my cotton yarn stash; I had a former co-worker text me and ask me to send her a few.  I hope to have at least four of them to her by the end of the week.

I'm so very close to finishing my latest shawl.  I really love the pattern, but unsure if the yarn really works with it.  The yarn looks so fun in the skein but knitted into the pattern, I feel like it loses some spark.  Plus, it's an acrylic yarn so I don't know if I will be able to block it.

I've got two other WIPs ongoing (my gay pride party bunting and my short row scarf).  However, after the gray metallic shawl is complete, I must start a new shawl that I saw at a local yarn store.  I bought super gorgeous yarn for the shawl. The cake on the right is the official colorway from the 2016 Orange Blossom Yarn Crawl.

Lovely posing by two of my four feline roommates means you get to admire their beauty.  Monkey is our gorgeous tabby cat who turned 3 years old in February.  Monkey loves to be petted and rubbed and she's a good pal to Flower, our newest cat.    Macy is our tortie and we adopted her in 2010.  She's the solitary cat and normally you can find her in her cat bed, which is under the computer desk in the craft room.  She hangs out with Mr. Grumpbump while he watches tv in the craft room.

Macy

Monkey

My completed projects (mostly hats) are overflowing from my dresser floor.  I am going to use this blog to start giving away some of the completed projects and some of my old/extra pattern books.  Maybe help increase the traffic to the website and/or clean out my collection.  

Not happy to be losing an hour today (Daylight Savings starts) but I will put up with it because now the days will start to get really long.  It will no longer be pitch black when I get home from work.  

Projects

It's 61°F in Florida.  I am trying to wear my hand knits, but now I'm burning up.  But my hat is so cute.

I'm currently obsessed with knitting hats.  Crochet is okay, too.  But I found that my gauge in crochet is so way off and I have a better feel for my knitting gauge.  Ha!  I love how I type that as if I really know what my gauge is.  The only thing I know for sure is that I knit loosely and I typically have to go down several needle sizes.

I am also working on a scarf, a Missoni blanket, and finishing my cruise shawl.  My next project is to make party bunting for gay pride.  That's a commissioned work for which I will receive no pay.