Back In The Driver's Seat

I don't know about the rest of you out there in the big world, but I feel like I totally lost control of things in December. And it's almost the end of January and I'm just getting things back in order. I can definitely live with a certain amount of chaos (and do on a regular basis), but it really bordered on the make-me-curl-up-into-a-ball-in-the-corner-of-the-room kind. So I'm very happy that it's behind me. And I won't list my 89 reasons for not blogging as the Yarn Harlot did, suffice it to say that I don't want to relive any of the chaos by listing it here. Now, please don't get me wrong. There were many fun avoidance techniques that I was able to invoke and I greatly enjoyed myself during those. But I'm not going to list those now either. It's onward and upward.

First to knitting...

I'm 3/4 finished with the Block Baby Blanket for Danielle. I hope to be finished by the weekend when I will see her again.


And I'm participating in the Malabrigo Swap "Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarf". The idea here is that I start a scarf in Malabrigo worsted and a pattern of my choosing, knit 5-6" and then send it off to the next person in my group. She will knit another 5-6" in color and pattern of her choosing, and so on and so on until it has traveled through 12 hands and returns to me. It is up to each knitter how free or restricted to allow the scarf creation - mine is very open, inspiring me to call it "The Traveling Scarf of Chaos".

Here's my start which I completed last night.

The colorway is Bobbi Blue and the stitch is the Farrow Rib (k2, p1*). I knit a 3 row garter edge to prevent curling. The color is beautiful! And the pattern is very nice.

A journal (which I still have to write in) will accompany my scarf so that I can read about its journey.

Next, is stitching...

I have done a little stitching on Donner (way less than I wanted). I started him after Christmas but didn't get very far before going back to knitting. I want to get re-inspired on the YSP Stitch Along as I haven't completed our December goal - or maybe it was even November! I also have been working on a belated birthday gift, I'll have pictures as soon as it's done and in the recipient's hands.

What's next? Scrapbooking...

I went to a crop at our local Archiver's this past weekend from 2:30pm to 11:00pm. I couldn't see by the last hour, but I had a very good time and managed to get a good amount of scrapbooking done. Pictures coming soon on that...

That pretty much brings us up to date. I hope that I will have substantial progress to show on something soon!

One of my Other Obsessions

Several of you that I know IRL know that I love to scrapbook but don't get nearly enough time to do it. It's much easier to stitch or knit on something for an hour - which is all I have very often - than it is to scrap/crop. In my world (and yours may be completely different), I have to decide what pictures I'm going to scrap and then get out all of my supplies and look through magazines for ideas. Once I have the idea, then there's the time to create it, lay it out, glue it down. I am not known as a speed demon in any of my crafts, but I have to be in the snail category for scrapbooking.

I had taken a long break from scrapbooking - this can be attributed to several physical injuries and recoveries (that we probably don't need to rehash). Then, way back in May (while I was still in my boot from surgery), I went on a weekend scrapbook retreat. Being on crutches slowed me down from my snail's pace but I had a lot of fun and my love of scrapbooking came back strong. Since then I have been trying to get organized or reorganized to get back to it. The first weekend in August I attended the Create.Crop.Cure (a 12 hour crop to support the Susan G. Komen 3 day walk) with two good friends, Vicki and Alisa. We had a lot of fun and I managed to get a few spreads done as well.

I didn't have any firm plans for Labor Day weekend and was very jealous when Vicki told me that she would be scrapping all day Friday. Then I spoke to her Friday night and she invited me over to join her and Jennifer for scrapping on Saturday.

I'd like to share one of the two (yes two - I said I was slow) spreads that I got done on Saturday. This is of my nephew, Nicholas. I'm very pleased with the way that it turned out.

3 Day Weekend

I spent my 3 Day Weekend in a very relaxed fashion. Of course I had things that I wanted to get done and things that I needed to get done, but I didn't make myself crazy with expectations and commitments. The sleep was great!

Knitting-wise, I finished the 2nd preemie baby hat for my office manager's grandsons. I decided at the last minute (of course) to knit these for the shower but didn't quite make the deadline of last Thursday. Taylor and Mason are going to look fab sporting these:
Taylor and Mason come from a mixed-marriage - that's right a Seminole married a gator. Taylor is the Seminole, I made sure to clear that up right away...

I did knit a little on my Jill-Walkers but unfortunately there isn't much to show yet...so I'll hope (or maybe you will?) for an interesting picture in the near future.

Stitching-wise, I managed to work on my Just Cross Stitch ornament. It's over one on 32 count and it is just taking a long time. I'm under the 2 month mark til the deadline now - so I'll be giving it a full-on effort very soon.

Scrapbooking-wise, I did some organization - one of those forced organizations that the Yarn Harlot spoke of - when I was looking for my Xyron. Now I didn't need the Xyron, but I knew that I had one and I couldn't rest until it was located. I don't know why these things/moments/obsessions happen. I worked on one page for about 4 hours on Monday (after locating the Xyron). It's still not complete, yes - after 4 hours!! Sigh. Scrapbooking is not one of the more organized, neat and tidy hobbies either. Even with the forced organization, my office looks like a scrapbook store exploded. There's just no getting around that - so as long as I'm feeling creative I'm going to live with the explosion.

Monday night - Memorial Day (thanks to all of those who gave their lives protecting the rights that I enjoy today) - DF Andy and I went to the new Verizon Ampitheater in Alpharetta to see Joe Cocker and The Steve Miller Band. It was a great show, both acts, and the venue is incredibly nice. But I was not prepared for the late hour(s). We got into the car at 11:55pm - we couldn't leave before Steve Miller played The Joker (c'mon!). It was 12:55am by the time I got home. I'm still recovering, but I did enjoy.