Monday, June 10, 2019

Life keeps interfering with my creative efforts...

I continue to be pretty busy with Lyft, driving lessons, sourcing items for the apartment I'll be moving into in less than a month, regular life stuff, and recently getting ready to leave for the ACCS conference this week. Yes, I have travel knitting and backup travel knitting planned out! I hauled down my carry on to see if I could make it work for what will now be a just over a week long trip (two relative and a friend stop are planned post conference), and filled up my travel sized bottles with shampoo and conditioner. I'm sure everyone else is smarter than me, but I realized that having my two bottles be different shapes or colors helps me remember which is which. Because this is apparently difficult for me. Good thing Walmart gives plenty of variety!

On the crafting front, I've picked up the second half of the car seat poncho, and got it just under where I figured I was going to need to do some math. See, I totally changed the gauge and pattern, so I needed to work out some percentages for the neck shaping. The hood is likely also going to require a bit of math, but I'm hoping it's not too hard to figure out. Wouldn't it have been easier if I had just knit the thing as written? Yes, but then I couldn't have used this yarn, and I like this patter better than the super chunky cables. Plus, isn't it more fun to have to do lots of gauge math?

Between Lyft jobs and reading The Odyssey (pre-school reading for Omnibus), I've been making steady headway on the foot of my second McGonagall sock. I love the colors, the texture of the yarn, and the simplicity of the pattern. This is back up knitting #1 for the trip.

Wait, #1 I say? Yes, I'm considering adding a second backup project. The main project I'm planning to take is my Hasukai cowl, the laceweight project with looong rows. Well, not quite as long now that the ruffle is finished, but still too fine for every knitting possibility. I might take one of those hat cakes I keep buying from Michael's now that I think about it... And I'll try and find some interesting places to take pictures of the cowl as I travel.

The very detailed rendition of Thorin's map continues to make progress. I did the red runes this weekend as I needed a break from the black, and found it strangely therapeutic to stitch their shapes and read the message to my self. When you teach The Hobbit several times, you get to the point where you can almost read the runes...

And, I started spinning again, because I want to get this project finished with the singles if not plied before I move next month. I love the rhythm of spinning, the feel of the wool twisting in my hands, and the pleasure of seeing a pretty even single wind onto my bobbin. It's the little things in life...

As further motivation, a good friend sent me these delicious rovings for my birthday which I'm now itching to spin. I can't wait to see how they spin up!

I've been doing a bit of cookie baking lately, and had the chance to try some more Keto recipes for Sunday dinner, but I have some big plans for when I'm in my own place. A jelly roll of some kind will have to be attempted I think... I can't wait!