A fresh start...

It seems I can knit, or I can blog about it, but I have a difficult time managing to do both. I've been knitting up a storm for months now. I knit many Christmas presents and then proceeded to gift them out before snapping any photos of them! I've always been notoriously bad about posting my finished objects to Ravelry.

So here it is the beginning of March and I already have some progress made on my 2013 Christmas gifts. Let me share them now before it's too late.

One pair of socks completely finished~

Another pair with about an evening of knitting to finish them off~

And of course as is my mercurial nature, I couldn't finish those because I "needed" to start this pair~

I'm really enjoying knitting some simple colorwork. I have no desire to knit intricate Fair Isle or Intarsia, but knitting simple stripes or stripes combined with slipped stitches keeps me amused.

I've also been working on a crochet project. I've been longing for a vintage-like granny bedspread for my bed. This was inspired by a beautiful spread made by Sucrette. Read about hers on her blog: Le Monde de Sucrette to see how beautiful the finished product can look.

I'm using up leftover yarn from other projects. I think I need about 100 of these squares to make a queen sized spread. I've got 12 so far.

And then there's this~

I thought that I had already blogged about the Bee Keepers Quilt that I started a long time ago, but I took a  quick look at my past posts and couldn't find anything about it. For my non-knitting followers, The Bee Keepers Quilt is made up of about a bizzillon little stuffed knitted hexagon shaped puffs (called "hexipuffs", although I prefer to call them "Honeycombpuffs".) stitched together.

As of this post, I have 49.5 puffs completed. I love displaying them in the glass bowl on the dining room table and watching the pile grow. I'm making them in neutrals of tans, browns, grays, and black, with an occasional dark ocean blue or deep sea green thrown in.

It reminds me of the rocky New England Coast. I'm naming my quilt the Archipelago Quilt.

It's probably going to take me forever (years) to finish this project, but won't it be awesome when it's done?

UFOs-Be-Gone!

I've really been trying to get some of my UFOs completed and I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I've made a bit of progress lately. I've actually been using bribery on myself.


After finishing up some three projects, The Responsible Me told the Mercurial Me that if I finished just one more project, I would allow myself to knit some socks from the beautiful wool/silk yarn I bought a few weeks ago. So I did. I finished another project. I showed it to Responsible Me and the Mercurial Me was so happy that I would soon be knitting some great socks. MM had already picked out the pattern I would use, and had gotten out the circular needle in just the right size. MM couldn't wait to wind the wool into a ball... but NOOOooo! That wasn't good enough for the RM. RM talked MM into working on just one more project.


(Psst! Don't tell RM, but right after this blog post is written, MM is going to start those socks... regardless!)


When I gave you a peek at my mound of unfinished projects, I promised that I would share them again with you as I finished them. So here are a couple of my FFOs (Finally Finished Objects)!


The little pile of grey wool circled at the bottom right of the photo  actually turned into Sleepy Sally! You met her the other day.

And this pretty blue pile of yarniness turned into the Holden Shawlette.

This was knit with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Lace Merino that I bought last year while at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The color is Moody Blues. I loved working with this yarn and the shawl is soft and light as a feather. I'm debating whether to keep it or to gift it.

I bought several hanks of this yarn in different colorways and I've been browsing Ravelry for just the right shawl pattern for each color.


Well, that's all the sharing for today. I'll be back soon with more once I've taken some more photos...


Right now I'm off to start those socks!

If the camera should pan out...

I've read at least three different blog posts in the past year by people talking about how their lives might look rather perfect in their blogs, but actually things aren't as "picture perfect" as they seem. Sure, they write about their fun day out at the park, but the reality of it is they return home with the cranky children who missed their nap, to the dirty dishes they left behind, and the laundry they need to do before work on Monday morning. I'm certainly no exception to this. The truth is I (and apparently many others) blog because it makes us happy and we like to share our happy times. It's not much fun to take pictures of the messy house and cranky kids and write about it!


When my sister started reading my blog, she remarked something about the... I hesitate to use the word ~ perfection. I really don't think that's the word she used, but I'm not coming up with anything better right now. Anyway, what she saw was an always neat home, perfectly executed craft projects, and good food always on the table.


Silly sister! She doesn't live close to me, so she doesn't see my day to day life. I explained to her how I take my photos at close range to what I want to show and I make sure the less impressive stuff in the background doesn't show. I described to her what she would see if the camera should pan out.


I went on to tell her about Lucy at Attic24 who is an artist at taking photos that show just what she wants to show. She lives in a warm and cozy house in England and has a love of color that shows in her crochet creations and the decor of her home. (Scroll down in the post to see how she decorates one of her two beautiful fireplaces.) Lovely, right? But if the camera should pan out... you would see her much talked about "Shelves of Doom". (Again, scroll down.) Here Lucy has indulged us with a quick glimpse of her hidden imperfections!


Today it is my turn to show a glimpse of some of my hidden imperfections.


In my blog, I have shared with you some of my knitting or crochet projects. It may seem like I am a very focused crafter. I plan a project, I have a recipient in mind, I knit or crochet the item, I photograph it, I give it away, or I wear it.


But, as you all should know, I am not at all focused. I am in fact very mercurial when it comes to my creative side. Here you see my current projects that I alternate working on:

The Dr. Who Scarf, some bowls to felted, the ill fitting sock I'm deciding what to do with, a bacon purse, my hexipuffs, the Holden Shawl, a little stuffed lamb, and a bit of secret knitting.


However, if the camera should pan out from the few projects I have shared with you, you would see this:

As you can see, I really have much more going on than I would normally let the camera lens capture! I assure you that I begin each and every one of these projects with a strong conviction to make it. Sadly though, my interest in some of these projects has waned as I have worked on them.


I have many projects in different stages all tucked away in bags to protect them until I feel the urge to work on them again.

I also have a couple (okay, eight) projects that are complete except for some finishing details. Sad, I know!

Most of these projects will get finished eventually and I'll share them with you as I go along. But you can be sure that as I finish these, there will be many new projects waxing and waning in the background, out of the camera's view!


So tell us, what would we see if your camera were to pan out? Tell us about some of your hidden imperfections!

You call me mercurial like it's a bad thing!

I describe myself as mercurial in the most complimentary way possible. I have many, many interests and I find myself with not enough time to do all of them. In my attempt to fit all of my interest into my spare time, I sometimes get involved in many projects at once and jump around between them.

My focus is changeable and I think that's a good thing. I'm never bored and despite what you might think, I do get projects completed. Especially if I'm really short on time. I work best under pressure and I'm known for my eleventh hour ideas.

I knit of course, but I also crochet, sew, and make jewelry. I've recently started playing around with my camera (I hesitate to use the word "photography" since I don;t really know what I'm doing. I just like to take photos that I think look good. There aren't too many crafts that I haven't tried at least once and I usually teach myself from books and Internet resources. You never know what you might find me working on.

So this is where I'll write about my passions and creativity and the things that make me smile. I'm hoping this blog will be about more than just my crafting and art. I hope it will be a place to go to have a glimpse of life through my eyes. Enjoy.