26 of 52….Finishing and Starting

In the past 10 days…. I finished this top for my grandson as soon as I got my design wall up.

Then I made him some fancy pants to wear at his birthday party.

I used BOGO coupons at Joann to buy delicious precuts for grandchildren.

I drove to North Carolina to attend that birthday party. I stopped to eat seafood and deliver the finished third Fourth Doctor Scarf.

I failed to take a single picture of the grandchildren, the children, the party, or any other weekend shenanigans. And then I drove home, slept, and woke up to start some designing.

3 of 52

Jan21

We’ll call this one “The Nope Edition.” Nope, I didn’t finish the Fourth Doctor Scarf, though I only have 72 rows to go. Nope, I didn’t finish Illusions, though another 20 minutes should do it. I did go to Frederick today, where I picked up another copy of Illusions for a friend, and this delightful yarn.

It’s wound into cakes and ready to become Edison by Lynn Di Cristina, and I can cast on as soon as I quit typing.

1 of 52

Jan7

So. Here I am, with a goal of 52 posts in 2018. There is no way I am going to try to bring you all up to speed on the last however many months it’s been. We’ll just start with current stories, the first of which has old antecedents. Last Christmas (that would be 2016) I gave out six knitting coupons “for a hand knitted item of your choice.” And one of the recipients said “Anything?” And I said “Sure,” because I love him and am also naÃ¯ve. And then he said “a Fourth Doctor Scarf.” And then a second recipient changed her mind, and said she wanted that, too, but not full size. And then I said, “Well, I’ve been meaning to knit one for myself anyway, so three Fourth Doctor scarves it is!” Then I had a thyroid flare which aggravated my carpal tunnel to the point that I could not knit for about 10 months. But here, at long last, is the first of three Fourth Doctor scarves approaching the finish line. This one is full size. I’m 1492 rows in, a bit less than 600 rows to go. Â Goal for the year: 12 finished pieces, six for others and six for me. Â General craftiness goal: Â At least 30 minutes on five of seven days.

Look at me go: Â SMART goals in my personal life. Â You’d almost think I write a lot of treatment plans or something. Â Like a Social Worker.

This is what I am reading. Â I bought two copies of this book, one for me and one for Sarah. Â We’re trying again to start a long distance book club, since she’s moved back to North Carolina, and this book looked fun. Â And it is! Â I’m sure she’s finished by now because she reads much faster than I do. Â I’ve finally accepted that I just don’t have the liberty to sit for hours and read on a regular basis, so I have cut my reading goal to an achievable 12 books this year. Â A long way for my 50+ days, but more realistic. Â Again, I aim for 30 minutes a day on five of seven days.

And this was the highlight of the week! Â We attended the Midwinter Night’s Dream Masquerade Ball last night. Â Here I am dancing, dressed as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Â I somehow managed to lose about 5 pounds between the time my dress was fitted on Wednesday morning and putting it on for the party Saturday night. Â No lie. Â Not complaining, mind you, but it is a bit of a seamstress’s nightmare.

Oh, I said we: Â Here I am with The Mad Hatter, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat.

Explore and More

Feb4

Eight days ago, I found myself inside a hands-on children’s museum in Gettysburg. By the way, I need to confess that the first time I went to Gettysburg (which was the 27th of December), I had to rewrite a lot of Civil War history in my head. For some reason, it never occurred to me that THE GETTYSBURG was in Pennsylvania. I sorta thought it was vaguely in Virginia-ish. Because my textbooks never said Gettysburg, PA. Only Gettysburg. Anyway, I digress.

Here is my youngest child looking somewhat bored inside the giant bubble contraption. I know there exists a picture of me in the thing, but I don’t have it.

And here is a picture of some paint I finally smeared on paper. Not that I have opened my own year-old paints yet. But the first step has been made. I can put cheap children’s acrylic on butcher block, and if I mean to make a tree, it comes out sorta tree-like. Good enough. I’m still somewhat intimidated, but not as intimidated as I was. Progress.

And then there was this. It’s a simple contraption, just some wooden leaf things around a wooden pole. But in the tray on the bottom are wooden balls in different sizes. If you put the balls at the top, they roll down and make a noise of the musical type. Like scales. And if you drop the three different size balls rapidly one after the other, you get scaled scales. And for some reason, this just fascinated me. I did it over and over. And I want one of these for my very own, so I can do this every day. Bopbopbopbopboopboopboopboopbooopbooopbooop. I want it. Every day.