Monday/Tuesday

I must admit, I love having a holiday weekend. But I didn't feel so great most of the weekend so not a whole heck of a lot got accomplished. Today, I went home early - felt stuffy and a little warm. Didn't feel like knitting, much less like warping up the loom. So I rested and ravelry-surfed much of the day away. And now I'm sneezing!!!! Argh!! I don't have time to be sick. I have work to do and a spin-in to go to this weekend!!!!

ok, this is a crafting blog, enough of my whining! I have had one stitching finish aside from the acorns I posted about over the weekend:



This is one animal in a "holiday parade". Its strange, but they are cute to me. I've completed 4 of the 6. All that's left is a Santa Claus and a Reindeer.

Overall, I have a huge list of WIPs to work through, and I've made a pledge to myself to try to complete some of my projects in progress this year. That this fact does not stop me from starting new projects somewhat concerns me, but its all about babysteps right? Afterall, since they are scattered to the corners of my house, it is easier to ignore them. But one day soon, all of my projects will be corralled into one room.

So, dear friends, here is a portion of the items I will be attacking this year (or ripping out). Not all of these have pics in flickr, but that will be changing...

Knitting:
Icarus
Sidekick
Silk shawl
Irish Hiking Scarf
Clapotis
Candleflame Shawl
Hairpin Lace Shawl
Mystery Stole 3
Morning Glory Shawl
Renegade Shawl
Another Renegade Shawl
The infamous single sock
Lotus Blossom Tank
Sweet Thing Shawl

Stitching:
Iris Window Garden from Calico Crossroads
Christmas Elf from Mirabilia
Shaker Box smalls
Sleeping Beauty from Mirabilia
Lady Scarlett from Just Nan
Santa Claus
Reindeer
Thanksgiving Tablecloth

The knitting list is pretty comprehensive of all of my projects in progress. The stitching is not, but will continue to evolve as I find more stitching time and space to consider other WIPs. The additions planned so far are a cashmere shawl, a cashmere hat (or fingerless mitts!), stitching a Nativity (from Marbek), maybe the rest of the irish hiking "set".

How am I going to tackle all of this? Excellent question. I've tried a one-at-a-time approach, a rotation (allocating x amount of time (or a week) to work on one thing and then moving on), a focus rotation (same as above but a specific project gets alternated with the other projects....none of that has particularly worked for me since I am pretty much a distracted crafter ("oooo, bright shiny object!"). So my plan is to maintain my list of projects, select a few to focus on, and then alternate those as my time/life allows. One will live in my desk, one in my car, etc. I have been doing a "check-in" with myself to see where I am on house things, bills, etc. so I'll just add my project review into my check-in so I can see where I am.

Wish me luck!

Lazy Sunday

The weather change this weekend should have encouraged me to do lots of cleaning and reorganizing, but I have just not felt well. So yesterday, I spent some time time in Ravelry updating my projects and my book list. Then today, I decided to work on my embroiderers' guild project while doing laundry. This is an in progress shot, still have to be finished with some cording.



They are intended to be favors at our region meeting this summer.

Gotta run, the cat has decided that I need to pay attention to him!

on letting go (and buying)

I need to issue a challenge to myself to try and blog at least every four days. Otherwise the only writing I do is for work!

At the end of December, my wish for change and simplification began to take shape. After my unsuccessful attempt at a garage sale in November, boxes of stuff were just stacked up in the living room and proceeded to suck the life out of me. My couch began to act as if there were some serious structural issues. So, off I went to a furniture store that is closing in town and proceed to find not only a new couch, but nice leather recliners to match. Next I loaded up all the garage sale boxes into the camaro and dropped them off at goodwill, then arranged for the mover that delivered my new furniture to move my piano and take my couch away as well. So I now have this open living room, complete with overstuffed chair in the corner for me to curl up at the window or for the cats to sleep on (since the leather chairs are off limits). Here's the new couch with my chief inspectors.



I still have a ton of furniture, but the space works better. I got to repurpose my grandmother's cedar chest as a coffee table and found small side tables at a Bombay store on my new year's getaway.

So, the list of furniture I need to get rid of is a square coffee table, two small dressers (as soon as I can find a new cabinet to hold the stuff that is in one), a sofa table, and a queen sized waterbed frame (mattress too, but I can't verify the state of it!). Whew! Hopefully soon I can figure out where to distribute all of this stuff. Most of it is in the garage right now. Thank goodness. I also think I want to part with my childhood furniture that I have planned to use in my studio. Its lovely stuff and I had hoped to use it for my future child. But I'm really not sure if I will ever have children at this point.

I'm hoping to finish reorganizing by the end of February. Start seriously floor shopping with installation by the end of May. Not sure how long this goal will stay, but I am optimistic with this sudden readiness to part with things.

But enough about my ramblings on my disorganization!

I've finished the first repeat of chart one for the icarus shawl.



I've also started winding a warp - am still deciding how wide I want it to be, thinking scarf with some sari silk or other fancy yarn or a table runner. And I'm almost done with a stitchery project. So yay me!

Listmaking: 2007 recap and 2008 plans

Christmas was much more relaxed than last year, though the day before seemed to be a bit of a whirlwind. I received

This time last year, I did a quick recap of 2006 and my plans for 2007. In trying to keep my head above water at work and working through my grandmother's death, I didn't accomplish nearly what I hoped for. Highlights are:

1. Buying a new heat pump for the house.
2. Finishing 12 knitting projects.
3. Learning to weave.
4. Buying a loom.
5. Having my first garage sale ever.
6. Getting rid of my old couch and some other things I didn't need in my life anymore.
7. Finding new living room furniture (that I hope the cats don't destroy).

On the list for 2008 isn't too much of a departure from 2007:


1. Reorganize the house.
2. Continue to simplify.
3. Finish what I start.
4. Continue making home improvements.
5. Complete some of the projects that I have in my stash.
6. Continue to look for ways to feed my creativity.
7. Laugh more.
8. Travel more
9. Be more healthy.
10. Blog more.
11. Look for ways to contribute more.

More on all of this later...