Sunday, July 24, 2016

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.  









Sunday, July 17, 2016

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.

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 de...