Organization

I’ve been thinking a lot about the purposes of this blog. I had a blog in a community that no longer served my needs. I have a number of people I keep tabs on, but I rarely post there because I never had anything to talk about. That blog was all about sharing for people I’ve communicated with for years. I’m a different person than I was when I posted copiously there, and I frankly feel a little strange offering differently themed content than I used to. I have felt more liberated in this blog because I only have 2.5 readers because I am writing for me, to organize my thoughts and record my doings.

When I made this journal, I needed it to be about the things I was missing. The overall theme of the journal is loosely “the things that I love doing that I should be doing more of to have a happy life” and happily, since I have been keeping it I have been living a more mindful life full of the things I love to do (hence the paucity of posts at times). Trust me when I say this has been a very fulfilling change from the way things have been for me for quite some time.

In the vein of other blogs that I like, I’ve been thinking that besides the general journal format, I’d like to try to post semi-regularly to more focused themes, while also having regular spots for recipes, crafty projects, animal updates, around the home updates, etc. The artificial structure will help keep me from hyperfocusing on one or another addicting activity.

I need some organizational changes as well. I’ve been busy, and I’ve been knitting for stress relief, but I haven’t wanted to flood the blog with more knitting posts. Crafting is certainly a part of this blog, but even I don’t want to look back on a flood of posts that read: “Knitted more. Tried some stuff. Frogged it. Happy with a pattern, will post pictures soon.” Instead, I will start a new page that has project entries, one project per entry with photos, and dates for the edits. Keeps things organized for me, and better for overall flow. I might do the same with recipes, or book/music/website reviews, or whatever I end up having a lot of.

School starts on Monday, complete with Beginning Painting, so things should stay interesting for me for quite some time.

A little bad habit

So I have a little bad habit of buying single skeins of yarn when i find something interesting at the yarn store. I do this because I think something is neat, not because I have a project in mind, and I’m not rich enough or dedicated enough to buy the 10-20 skeins it would take to complete an undefined larger project that I might never get around to sometime in the future. What this means for me is that I tend to acquire a number of really great yarns that I don’t have enough to do anything with.

It frustrates me when I sit down and take a look at what I have. I end up with quantity of sale acrylics and novelty earmarked for specific projects that I’ve since thought better of, and single skeins of really nice wool or other natural fiber. I’ve been trying to mend my ways, and I have made some really pretty scarves out of novel combinations of this yarn in an effort to clear out these singletons.

While one can never have too many scarves in a chilly place like Alaska, I’ve been wanting to branch out a bit. My last rummage came up with a dark skein of Manos del Uruguay in a variegated warm black and shades of dove gray. It’s *much* darker than anything that I usually like, and it must have looked very different in the store. It’s so dark, in fact, that I couldn’t think of a single thing to do with it once I got it home.

When I was going through hat patterns for something to knit the Landscapes into, I came across a pattern for a cloche hat that I particularly liked. It was felted, which is something that I’ve been experimenting with a little, and I just think it looks really snazzy.

I wondered what yarn they used, and when I checked, lo and behold it was one skein of Manos del Uruguay. Sweet. After tearing through my supplies looking for the correct sized  needles and some stitch markers, I realized I could knit it on double pointed needles instead of circular needles (not instantly obvious to me, I’m still new at this) and I found exactly FOUR stitch markers, which I cannibalized from a dead project. I cast on immediately, and man, this wool feels good to knit. It’s a bit sticky in hand, but it slides well even on my wooden needles. I have great faith in its ability to felt.

Since my hat will be dark, I shouldn’t use a dark band for it. I like that ribbon, but I don’t want to do a light colored ribbon because I don’t think it will look as nice. Instead, I plan to find a matching cabochon and bead it, perhaps in dark teal for contrast, perhaps pink, with a medium toned ribbon that brings out the lighter colors in the wool.

I’m starting to see the necessity of a project notebook.