A little more realistic in February

I think I was a little too ambitious in January. You know how it is, the start of the new year, the urge to get things in order, set goals, stop procrastinating and find some way to make Christmas not be crazymaking this next year. What I always forget is that I have seasonal affective disorder and Jan. and Feb. are the hardest months of the year for me. While the days are getting longer, there are generally more clouds and precipitation than in other months. So, I need to decide what's most important to me and schedule a limited number of things to do. So, I'm re-evaluating what I want to do on a monthly basis.

Let's start with the Embroidery Sew-Along. I loved my project last month. I had forgotten how satisfying I found stitching. The project for this month is pillowcases. There are two types of pillowcase designs in the book; I'm going to do the satin-stitch initials. I'm going to make one pillowcase for me and one for J. My dilemma is figuring out what pillowcases to do them on. I want to get new pillowcases, but should I get ones that match my current bedding (which I'm not crazy about) so I can enjoy them now or should I buy ones that would go with my dream bedding, realizing that 1) my dream bedding may take a long time to materialize (since I want to make a queen sized quilt) and 2) I might change my mind about what my dream bedding will be before I ever get to use the pillowcases. I'm leaning toward the dream bedding and making that one step toward having a bedroom I really love.

Year of Stash Socks. I started this knit-along not because I have a large stash but because I wanted to have interesting sock patterns picked out for me. However, I'm not really sure I have the time for this knit-along right now. I didn't even finish last month's socks and this month we are doing mittens which I'm not so into making right now given I live in CA. Maybe I'll just put this on hold and see how I feel about it in March. I still would like to finish the Jan. socks, though.

Christmas. I still think it's a good idea to work on Christmas gifts throughout the year instead of cramming it all into Nov. and Dec. Especially since my family usually celebrates Christmas early and I often have to ship gifts, requiring me to be done by the beginning of Dec. But, I think I'm going to put it on hold for the next couple of months until I get more energy.

Stitch by Stitch. I still want to work my way through this book. But, again, I might put this off for another month or so. I do have material for the napkins which are one of the first few projects, though.

The thing is, while it's great to have a plan for what to make, I need to feel like I have enough flexibility to do whatever project I feel inspired to do. And then, there's non-Christmas gift-knitting. It seems like everyone is having babies. I'm really enjoying the baby booties I'm knitting, maybe I should knit a few pairs of those until they become boring and then I'll have a stash of baby gifts.

So, that's what the plan is for this month: embroider pillowcases, finish Jan. socks, knit baby booties, sew napkins.

January Round-up

I had a large number of goals for this month in terms of crafting. Here's what I actually got accomplished.

Goals:

The Year of Stash Socks knit-along on Ravelry--St. Brigid's Canomoyle Socks (Rav. link).

One half of one sock in Cascade 220

I'm about ready to start the heel. It's not that I don't like the sock or the pattern, I just get distracted by new, shiny things!

Embroidery Companion Sew Along--Days of the Week teatowels.

Saturday and Sunday pictured on my oven handle

These were pretty fun. The pattern wanted you to enlarge the template 161%, but I didn't want images that big. For the towels, I got plain white toweling from Moda, hemmed them, then sewed strips of gingham fabric to each one to make the checked stripe. I used two strands of DMC cotton embroidery floss (note to self: color #322). I only did Sat. and Sun. but I have enough toweling to do all of the days of the week if I get ambitious. I really like how these turned out, so I might do it. Very satisfying for my first embroidery project!

Then I made a few things that were not part of my goals for Jan. Last weekend I hosted a baby shower and made the decorations:

The honoree, E, is having twins (!) a boy and a girl, so I went with a gender neutral color scheme: orange, green, and yellow (hey, I just noticed most of the food fit into that scheme, totally not planned). I made the banner, little cupcake picks that said twins, some tissue paper flowers and some yarn pom-poms. E is in my knitting group and the party was for knitters, so for a shower activity, we made these:

Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties

I've got one done and the other just needs a cuff. Then I need to make the i-cord ties. I just used leftover sock yarn. They take a little over 20g of yarn.

I have very little handmade dishcloths. I've decided I need to fix that.

Finally, I made these wool soakers (pictured below on top of the afghan my mother made for my wedding gift) for another person in my knitting group who had her baby a couple of weeks ago and is using cloth diapers. It's the Curly Purly pattern. They knit up pretty quick in this beautiful yarn, Shepherd's Wool which is soft and dreamy. I knit the small size for both, one with butt shaping and one without. Hopefully she gets some good use out of them!

New Kitty!

Today, we adopted a new kitty!

We got him today at an adoption fair for Pets in Need held at our apt. complex. He's a youngster--8 months old. He came with the name Lorenzo. We're not sure if we'll be keeping the name or not. So far, he has started to get the idea he should use the scratching post (for which he got a treat) although he has also scratched at the carpet and he used the litter box so he's acclimating very well. Actually, he's been pretty laid back the whole day. He likes to lay on John on the couch which I find hilarious because J is not into pets. J studiously ignores him but Lorenzo doesn't seem to mind. :)

As for crafting, I think I'm going to have to re-evaluate how much I can get done in a month! This month, I had planned on doing the following:

• Year of Stash Socks knitalong: St. Brigid socks.
• Embroidering Companion Sew-along: Days of the week tea towels.
• Christmas: Pembroke Vest for nephew H.
• Stitch by Stitch: One project a month in order.

So far, I have:

• Gotten the yarn for the knitalong
• Gotten the book and the toweling for the sew-along
• Nothing on the vest
• Bought some onesies for the applique

So, um, I've got all of the materials, but haven't done any of the work on any of this, and, the month is half over. However, I have made 1.9 wool soakers for a knitting group friend who will be having a baby any moment now and is going to be using cloth diapers, so at least I have accomplished something, even if it has nothing to do with any of the goals I set for the month.

So, being realistic, I think I might be able to get one sock (worsted weight yarn), one teatowel and one onesie done.

*I'm not sure if I mentioned it on the blog, but Ghiradelli died before I left Chicago. I still miss big guy. :(