Monday, December 19, 2016

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 25


Back for another week!!  I am keeping up with my Advent scarf and today completed Day 22 of the 28 days the pattern will be released on.  This is running four days longer than the "usual" Advent season.  Here are two pictures:

The first 14 days worth of knitting

Where the two orange markers are marks the end of Day 14
And I decided to cast on something else!  I am going to knit a little scarf for my niece for her birthday (January 5th).  I dyed the yarn myself - my first attempt at a long gradient.  It didn't quite turn out how I hoped, but it is still a good attempt!  I am knitting her Boom!  It is a nice. simple, mindless project and one that should show off the gradient!




I am going to be away over the holidays so I doubt I will post until January.  Happy holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 24


Most of this week was spent busy with end of semester grading and other university things.  I did spend some time most days working on my Advent Scarf and so far I am up to date with it!!  I did fall a bit behind, but I was able to catch up on Friday!  So far I am really enjoying this knit!  Short and sweet post this week!


Sunday, December 4, 2016

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 23



Back for another week!!  I have worked on nothing but my Advent Scarf this past week.  Eight days completed now and I am enjoying it very much!!  I am also enjoying my Sampler Tea package.  So far I have sampled eight of the teas to correspond to the eight days of pattern pieces.  I also thought it would be fun to keep track of my thoughts on each of the teas I tried.  I know that I will never remember which ones I really liked and which ones I did not like so I though I should keep track!  I recently began keeping a Bullet journal in a Leuchtturm1917 dot grid book (I plan to write more about Bullet journaling in an upcoming post) and am keeping track there.  I use my Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen to write out my little notes about each tea.




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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 28


So I made it to the end of NaBloPoMo 2016 and managed to post 28 or the 30 days!!  I only missed two days and I consider the challenge a success!!  I did find that it is very difficult to keep up with blogging each and every day.  I found that several days I simply had a little bit of almost nothing posted just to be able to say I posted something!  I want to continue to post on a more regular basis but I doubt I will post every day unless I get into another challenge!  I really do need to get on track to posting at least once or twice a week though and hopefully this challenge has settled me into a nice routine of posting more often!

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 27


I can't believe I completely forgot to post yesterday!!  Sigh.  But posting 28 out of 30 days is not too bad!!

On Sunday I began a mystery Advent Scarf.  It started a few days early so that we would not have as much knitting to do every day.  This way we have 30 rows to knit each day (and the rows are 47 stitches long).  The pattern is a mosaic design and so far I am really enjoying the knit!  The goal of the scarf is to give knitters a little break and some "me" time each day during this busy time of the year!  I usually try to do most of the knitting in the morning over a cup of tea before work, but sometimes (like today) I am knitting in the evening.  Either way - I am making a bit of down time to do something I enjoy!

Here is my progress so far over the three days:




Sunday, November 27, 2016

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 22


Blocking is pure magic!!  I had two projects that needed blocking and made the time to get those done this past weekend.  One project - Celtic Myths Shawl - is a recent finish and did not languish long awaiting blocking to finish it off completely.  The second however has been waiting forever (or so it seems!)  For the past several years I have participated in an Advent Scarf Knit Along.  This December will be my fourth year!  Anyway, I finished the 2015 scarf back in December 2015 and have still not blocked it!  For shame!  Actually I did the same last year - I blocked my 2014 Advent Scarf in December 2015...  At least I am consistent!

So, blocking is magic!!  I use my colorful mats that I bought at Sam's Club and some T-pins and away I go!  I add a little Eucalan wool-wash to the water and let it soak for an hour or so.

Before

Soaking

Close up - before

After!

Before

Soaking

After!

In other news, my Coffee Cantata Socks have seen some growth in the past week!  Here is how they look now!  Again, thanks to everyone who encouraged me to continue knitting this project!  I appreciate the push!  Maybe these socks will be done before 2016 is done!!  At least I should have them done before the next round of Sock Madness begins in March 2017!  I need to free up my Addi Turbo Sock Rockets for more sock knitting!!



And I started an Advent Scarf this morning.  The pattern is being released four days early so that each day's clue is not too daunting!  The design is mosaic and I am eager to spend a little bit of time each and every morning knitting!  I will make a cup of tea and will work the pattern each morning.  I tried to buy an Advent calendar tea package (a different tea for the 24 days of Advent) but I was slow and missed out.  I ended up buying another tea sampler package and this one had 28 different flavors and types.  Bonus is that we will have the pattern coming out over 28 days instead of 24 and I will have just the right number of teabags to make it through!!  I am quite easy to please!!


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Saturday, November 26, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 25


Recently I read about Morning Pages and thought it was something I wanted to try.

This also comes from the book "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  She also has a workbook that is devoted to this process.  I have not yet read the book, but plan to do so in the near future!  From the creators webpage "Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page...and then do three more pages tomorrow."  

I have found this to be a fun and beneficial activity!  I did my first entry on November 16th and I have not missed a day yet (granted only ten days but that is impressive for me!!)  I find that it does help to clear my mind and it allows me to spend about 15 minutes in the morning letting all the random, disconnected thoughts in my mind to go somewhere.  It sometimes turns into a random to-do list, or a recollection of the previous day's activities, or plans for the upcoming day, or descriptions of a dream I had, or sometimes just writing I have nothing to write over and over until something else pops into my head and onto the paper.  I am happy I began doing this and can see myself continuing with the process for the foreseeable future!

For my Morning Pages I am using a Moleskine hardcover notebook with a cute cover and (until I ran out of ink this morning) I was using my Pentel EnerGel black pen.  I have ordered a Pilot Metropolitan fine nib fountain pen and as soon as it arrives I plan to switch over and will use that to write every morning.

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Friday, November 25, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 24


Over the past few months I have been following a Zen Art Challenge on Facebook and have been loving it!!  I gives me a little time each day to relax and learn something new.  Many days it takes only a few minutes and some days it takes a bit longer if the design is complicated for me.  Either way it has been fun!  I joined up in September and have been following on a "mostly" daily basis since then.  I also backtracked and worked on the ones from previous months too.

I have several supplies that I use for doing my Zentanging:

1.  I love my Faber Castell Pitt Pen Set
2.  I also love my Sakura 6-Piece Pigma Micron Ink Pen Set
3.  And I love my Copic Markers Multiliners

I actually alternate between each of these pens.  I like to have the sets with multiple sized tips and use the different ones for different types of drawing and sketching.  I also need my ruler, pencil, and eraser to practice and work on the design before I commit to using pen!  I make a lot of mistakes, my artwork is far from perfect, and I love it!

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Thursday, November 24, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 23


Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family in the US!  I am fat, full, and happy and am posting quite late today!

I have been looking over sales and planning out some shopping for myself!  What great deals!!  I love these pencil crayons and these watercolor pencil crayons and these watercolors!!  I am glad I have saved up because my Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping is going to be fun!!  I plan to use each of these in my bullet journal (which I plan to blog about soon!)  Now to get some sleep and dream of the fun I will have using these treats!

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Wednesday, November 23, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 22


I am finding that I enjoy quilting.  Mom suspected she would bring me to the dark side!!  All I need is another hobby!!  But one I will happily add to my ever growing list!  I do however need some supplies!  Mom cut the fabric for my Advent Table Runner for our church communion table and I sewed it together and will do the quilting on it by machine today.  What I did find was after sewing the strips together I needed to trim down the edges to make them all nice and straight again.  I don't have the needed tools to do this easily so had to use my scissors.  I have added a cutting board, ruler, and rotary cutter set to my wishlist!  It is not expensive and a better deal to buy as a set instead of piece by piece.  Mom has each of these pieces and I have seen how they make cutting quilt pieces so easy and perfect!  I want one!!  And I suspect I will be buying fabric...  Another thing for me to hoard and collect :)

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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 21


I spent a good amount of time today working on my Coffee Cantata Socks and am almost done the second leg portion.  I think I have about 16 rounds to go and the second leg is done.  Then we move on to the heel flaps and then down the foot.  Hopefully it will move faster once I get to the foot since only the top has the cabling!  I am using my Addi Turbo Sock Rockets - I love these needles!!  I am a fan of doing my socks magic loop and I tend to work my socks two at a time in tandem - which means I do some on one sock and then do some on the second sock.  I don't usually work one sock from beginning to the end first and then do the same for the second sock - I go back and first between each!

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Monday, November 21, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 20


Today I did some sewing!!  Mom cut some fabric for me when I was home this past summer so that I could quilt a table runner for the new communion table at church.  Today I finally got around to starting on it!  I got the pieces all sewn together and got the three layers all pinned down. Tomorrow when I have better light I will do the quilting part and will get the binding on too.  We can take it to church on Wednesday night!






Sunday, November 20, 2016

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 21


Back with a few finishes this week!!  I finished off the fingerless mittens for Sarah and since I had a bit of yarn left I also made her a little cowl to go along with the set.  I have to get the mittens and cowl into the mail for her tomorrow!

I also finished knitting my Celtic Myths Shawl yesterday!  It needs blocking and i plan to get that done this week so I will post a after blocking picture next week!


And after the encouragement here I decided to continue along with my Coffee Cantata socks.  The first leg is all done now and I am continuing along with the second leg now.  Thanks for the push to keep knitting on these!!  They will be gorgeous when they are done!


Excuse the poor quality pictures - my good camera has a dead battery and I cannot locate the charger...  Until next week!!

Saturday, November 19, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 18


I finished my Celtic Myths Shawl today but the battery in my camera is dead...  I will post an update tomorrow!

Friday, November 18, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 17


WOW I did absolutely nothing craftwise yesterday!! I spent the day watching YouTube videos and reading through all sorts of Bullet Journal stuff and Ravelry forums.  I got nothing accomplished all day!!  I suspect I needed a down day!  Today is off to work to teach one more class before the Thanksgiving break begins.  This afternoon when I get home I need to spend some time tidying up the dining room table so I can start working on my Advent Table Runner on Saturday!  And I want to watch some TV and work on my Celtic Myths Shawl.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 16


I am set to begin on WIP-it Down Day 2!  I have the day off work and will spend a significant amount of time working on my Celtic Myths Shawl.  It is quite close to completion and I am hoping to finish the knitting today!!  Check back tomorrow to see how much I did!!


Wednesday, November 16, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 15


WIP-it Down Day 1 was a huge success!!  I finished Sarah's fingerless mittens and I also managed to start and finish a small cowl for her.  I almost used up all the yarn in the two skeins I had!  Now I have to get it all packaged up and sent off in the mail to her!



Today I have classes to teach and won't be home until after 9pm, but on Thursday I plan to spend my time working on my Celtic Myths shawl.  It is getting closer to done so maybe, just maybe I'll get the knitting part done!!  Once the knitting is done I have to soak and block it.


Tuesday, November 15, 2016

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 14


WIP-it Down Day 1

The plan for today is to finish Sarah's fingerless mittens and work on a keyhole scarf for her to use up the rest of the yarn but while perusing Ravelry I decided on a small cowl instead.  I hope I have enough yarn!!

I'll update tomorrow about what I got done!