Invisible Woman

and a week later...

 
I still haven't had a minute of hammock time.

Why?

The backyard busybodies are keeping an eye on me.

 

"Hey, don't you still have some vacuuming to do?"

"I'm very photogenic up close, but your kitchen is still a mess!"

*  *  *  *  *

And thus every trip out to the backyard ends with me feeling guilty and coming back inside to continue my domestic renewal program.

Luckily, those nosy critters usually go to bed at sundown, so after dinner I've been able to sneak in a bit of progress on a few of my knitting projects:

 
A scarf made from some lovely handspun English yarn I found on Etsy last year.

My first attempt at a cable scarf, in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk.

Another scarf, using soft Uruguayan Manos wool in the Mermaid colorway.

And a new batch of purple Alpaca Silk awaits, for post-Thanksgiving recuperation.

Now I'd better get back to my vacuuming, as the kids begin arriving tonight.

So if I don't return to the computer before Thursday...

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

where to go from here?

Do other creative folks face this question that has been lately nagging at the edges of my consciousness:

Where to go from here?

Do I keep doing more of what I've done recently, because it is familiar?

  Do I return to something satisfying from my past, hoping to find a further-forward path?

Do I try something entirely new and risk having nothing to show for it, and perhaps no feeling of accomplishment?

?
?
?

I can look back over my several years of these blog posts and see the solid evidence of my ADD tendencies.  Something grabs hold of me for a time, and I focus on it intensely.  But then, most often purely by chance, something new catches my interest and off I go.

 

I admire artists who can sustain a focus and develop great expertise in a particular niche, and I wonder how it is they do that?

How are they not distracted, or bored, or simply lured away by the promise of something entirely new and fascinating?

 

My creative detours have included, in no particular order: sewing, gardening, knitting, crocheting, decoupage, traditional and art quilting, lampwork beadmaking, wirework and jewelrymaking, collage and mixed media artmaking, stamping and stampcarving, photography and polaroid transfers.  And probably a few other things I've forgotten at the moment.

 

Part of me wishes I could choose one, or two, or even three things and stick with them.  Get focused.  Develop my niche. But it never seems to happen.

There are just too many possibilities, and I can't seem to ignore them.  Sometimes I even briefly become obsessed.

 

Alas, it's a fault that leaves me a dabbler in much, and master of none.

progress? my week...

Much of my week has been spent looking at the mess in my craft room, which I'll share only through this tiny peephole view.  But multiply this chaos by 1000 and you begin to get the idea.  That's why it's primarily been Craft Room Excavation week here. 

For me, the problem with Craft Room Excavation is always that I uncover so many alluring bits and pieces of unfinished projects.  Inevitably it happens... I think "well, I'll just play with these for a few minutes while I catch the latest news on CNN" -- in the interest of being a well-informed citizen, of course.

 

So I found some pretty paper butterflies I'd punched from paper scraps about a month or so ago, after I saw this and this.  They'd gotten lost under a pile of papers, and I was busy crocheting and quilt dreaming and birdwatching and heaven knows what else.  So when I rediscovered these, I thought "how long would it take me to make a little butterfly shadowbox home for them?"  Not too long...

 

And then, excavating further, I came upon my big box of tags from my Sarah Lugg collage inspiration days, and so while listening to CNN some more, I continued to find new uses for old (and new) butterflies.

Butterflies finished, my fabric stash presents another guilt-inducing dilemma.  So much cotton, but what to make? The old quilting bug is back and buzzing around my brain with a vengeance.  Yet I don't want to do my same old things.  The Modern Quilt Workshop, recently ordered "used" via Amazon (but looking brand new) offers promising fresh inspiration.

Then, taking a break from Excavation duties, I spent Thursday battling with my Photoshop Elements program.  It was definitely winning, freezing the computer repeatedly. Exasperation!  But finally this morning I was able to save and print this newly composed digital collage on inkjet fabric.  Not sure if it's the final version, I'll have to play with it a bit now to see what embellishments it may still need.

And last but not least, I've spent part of every day this week watching the Amgen Tour of California, America's premiere cycling event, like the loyal fan/geek I've now become (blame my husband).  Welcome back Lance, and go Levi!

 

Summery Blues

 

The baby blanket from my last post is now done and soon to be on its way across the country to welcome the newest members of the family, our twin great-nephews born February 4.  And so, never being one to enjoy too much thumb-twiddling, I've started a new ripple afghan, pictured above.

This new one uses all cotton yarns, 5 colors of Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton and 4 colors of Rowan Handknit DK Cotton.  This project came about serendipitously, when I visited the day-after-Thanksgiving sale at my favorite local yarn shop and they had all their Debbie Bliss cotton yarn on clearance.  I'd been itching to try a cotton project after seeing so many lovely cotton blankets over at Attic24.  But I knew it would have to be a project to tackle in the new year... and now, here we are.

In the meantime, after bringing my bargain yarn home and studying it in various arrangements, I realized the colors were a bit too understated for me.  So I searched online and found 4 additional colors from the Rowan palette that added the necessary zing to the color mix, mostly blues with a bit of green and violet. Ordering yarns or fabrics sight unseen online is always a leap of faith (one I am again contemplating for a future project, perhaps something like this...) but I've had good luck buying from suppliers that take pains to represent colors accurately.

After making two all-wool afghans and an acrylic baby blanket in recent months, using this cotton yarn took me a bit of adjustment.  It has so little "give" in the yarn compared to the fibers I've used before.  But now, more than a week of tv-evenings into this new project, the cotton feels very good and natural to my restless hands.  And the cool colors of this blanket will provide a soothing cocoon when our blazing summer heat arrives in just a few months.

baby blanket

 

For the past week, most of my creative energy has been channeled into the making of this almost- finished baby blanket.  The pattern is my own design, simple stripes done in double crochet with four colors of Lion's Vanna's Choice Baby yarns that I found at my local craft megastores.

Originally I'd started with equal sized stripes of each color but quickly found it too dull.  So last Tuesday while watching the inauguration, I decided to start over with this idea and was immediately pleased.

To make sure my starting edge wasn't too tight, I used a K size hook for the 100 chain foundation row, plus a chain 3 for turning; then switched to a J hook for the remainder of the blanket.  My pattern is three rows of color A, two rows of color B, one row of color C, three rows of color D, two rows of color A, one row of color B, and so on, working the 3-2-1 pattern on through all four colors in rotation so there are wide, medium and narrow stripes of each color.  Simple but effective.

I used the Vanna acrylic yarn for durability and ease of laundering, as this intended to be a hardworking blanket for the newest additions to our extended family, our niece's twin sons who are due next week.  Very exciting to soon be welcoming another generation to the clan!

hexagon togetherness

 

At long last I have some progress to show on my hexagon afghan.  So far I've joined 36 blocks over several rows, using the join-as-you-go method shown by Alex of Moonstitches and Lucy of Attic24 (their details varying slightly, I think).  The wonderful detailed photos gave me courage to finally take the plunge, and I must say that once I'd made and joined a few blocks and gotten my aging brain wrapped around the logic of it, it's become very simple and straightforward.

The downside is that it's sometimes awkward to keep turning the block to stitch each of the six sides with the ever-growing body of the afghan attached.  But the pleasure of seeing it come together far outweighs any awkwardness.  This process has an entirely different vibe than the ripple afghan, but I find it equally satisfying.

A word of warning: crocheting gobbles up yarn very rapidly.  I was so spoiled by how far a skein or two of yarn took me for my simple knitted scarves.  For these afghans, unless you are going totally random/scrappy, buy from a shop where you can stock up on key color dye lots at the outset, and then return any unused skeins when you finish.  Luckily for me, the ladies at Knit Happens had ordered more fresh "curry" wool than I'd asked for, and that definitely saved the day!

work in progress... plan A or plan B?

 

Mission Falls 1824 wool in beautiful colors, soft and delicious to work with.  Size J crochet hook.  Evenings watching TV, but not entirely wasted.  I've gotten this far with a pattern I figured out myself after studying these photos.  Now I'm awaiting the delivery of a fresh batch of "curry" color yarn at my favorite new local yarn shop, Knit Happens in Scottsdale, to complete all the finishing & joining.

These colorful crocheted circles were originally intended to be turned into hexagons ("Plan A") and joined.  But to be honest, if I can figure out how to turn these into properly balanced squares ("Plan B") that simpler shape might now be my preference.  Or not.  So I'll probably have to test both.

Originally I'd planned to do random colors for each block's outer border, so the hexagon shapes would be emphasized by the varied colors.  Then somewhere along the way, I decided maybe the colors all show to better effect against the "curry" color background.  Simpler.  But then the graphic impact of the hex shapes is diminished.  With hexes the circles will be offset, but with squares they will be in grids.  Hmmm.

 

Here I've laid a curry-colored cloth behind the circles.  This was how I decided that I wanted to go with the single color background instead.  Truly, I fear I'm too much of a control person to be able to do the random color thing that many others do so well.  Random is a huge challenge for me.

 

Well, the new "curry" dye lot should arrive next week.  Meanwhile, the circles are stacking up.  I've got about 130 made and figure I've got another 70 or so to go before the square vs. hexagon dilemma must finally be resolved.

time flies

 

How can it be time for this already?  But indeed, it's only a month till Halloween, and I happily succumbed to the lure of the season when I found a matching pair of these happy painted canvas jack-o-lanterns at our HomeGoods the other day.  I'd been trying to figure out what I wanted to put atop the bookcases on either side of the fireplace, and these plump little fellows were perfect.  (Not that I have any shortage of collected Halloween figures, but most are smaller and better suited for tabletops.)

Once again, these past couple weeks I've been afflicted with the blahs. Not just feeling that I had nothing to write about here, but a total creative blankout.  I've still been crocheting away, which is very soothing on one level, because at least I could be productive.  But it also felt like a sort of zombie-ish daily escape from the fact that my creative well otherwise seemed very empty.

Happily, the magic energy seems to be slowly returning. No big breakthroughs yet, but perhaps one of these days soon.

Meanwhile, zombie or not, I've steadily grown the ripple afghan, now approximately 42" long x 48" wide, with about 9 more stripes or 14" to go.  And I've started a new afghan, with granny style blocks, probably hexagons-to-be, but only circles for now.  Photos of that one soon.

after a rough start, progress

 

So it took me about two days and much testing and unraveling to sort out what seemed like a very straightforward crochet pattern.  First, I would end up with odd numbers of foundation chain left, not enough for another repeat. Then I could get the first row right, but the second row was off-kilter.  And this was just on my test swatch.

Finally I went to the local bookstore, sat down in front of the crochet section, and studied numerous books' instructions for double crochet, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.  It was still hard to pinpoint my errors exactly.

Then I took some really plain, thick yarn from my stash, and started a larger scale test swatch so I could really see the stitches.  Three or four more swatches crocheted & unraveled, and *POOF* I finally got it right!

So above is the current status of the afghan, midway through the ninth stripe, which is the pink spot barely visible at the photo's top right.  I'm going to have to time myself one evening, but I think each stripe represents at least two steady hours of crochet, longer if I pause to watch the tv here and there instead of just listening.

The colors and the texture are very pleasing, if I do say so myself.  It's one of those wonderful projects that feels like such a reward to sit down to work on, after all my other daily must-dos are taken care of.

new projects getting underway

 

My Typepad is working again!

So with the coming of autumn (which here in Phoenix is really delightful) I have some new projects in the works to look forward to.  I can only go on so long before my attention wanders; my beloved collage bags have been so much fun, but I need a little variety.

The first new project is the afghan-to-be pictured above; 9 delicious colors of soft Bazic washable wool yarn that I intend to crochet into a multicolored ripple throw for my family room sofa.  I was inspired by the beautiful ripple afghans I found on Jane Brocket's and Alicia Paulson's blogs.  It was hard to choose between a ripple and a granny square (or granny hexagon, have you ever seen this beauty?) but I've decided to go with the ripple pattern first.

So then I plugged different color combos into the random stripe generator, and kept clicking refresh till I got a combination I liked.  Then it was a puzzle to figure out what yarn to use... some people mix & match yarn brands, but I didn't feel confident enough to try that yet, so I wanted to find all my colors in one brand to assure a consistent gauge.  And I wanted a soft wool.  As it happens, I've loved Bazic colors since I first saw them back at my favorite yarn shop in Virginia, and I was able to find them at a well stocked local shop up in Scottsdale.

Last week I took some stash yarn and crochet hooks with me on my travels, and managed to master the double crochet well enough to produce 2 1/2 scarves so far.  I really love knitting too, but I'd not crocheted since college (when I proudly made my sister an afghan using her sorority colors -- not always a great basis for a color scheme!) and wanted to give it another try.

So now I have a good evening project for the new fall TV season, since it feels much less lazy if I'm crocheting away while I watch.

More on new projects next time...