Rocks

First full day of our vacation took us to Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. It looked to be a lovely day and it was save for the shading clouds above and the cold wind that we were not expecting and thus did not really dress for. We only took a short walk off the driving trail to see the petroglyphs on one on the the rock faces. Then there was a bit of food adventure followed by a quiet evening in when I even managed to get a little knotting in. Day two starts in a few hours so now it's time for coffee.

Vacation

Good Monday morning all. I'm actually off on a family adventure right now visiting friends. I know it's hard to tell since it's still ridiculously early, but I slept in for a couple of hours even. I had to put my etsy shop in vacation mode since I won't be close enough to home to ship anything and there is no convenient way to just leave the patterns up for sale. I'll try to keep dropping notes here all week, but I may have little of interest to say. This is just a photo of part of the drive, which was long, but lovely...in parts.

Fun

Another day, another round of knots. Also, lots of reading, catching up with TV shows and video game playing. Oh, and a half an hour on the phone with the credit card company because of some fraudulent charges that needed to be reported and cleared up. That was super fun. There's not much else I'm afraid though. So I'll just leave you with this pile of lace picture and get on with what is likely a repeat of yesterday, hopefully without the phone call part.

Almost A Round

Again, I didn't even finish a whole new round on the Armenian lace piece. It's just too big around now. Well, it's that and my newfound Zelda distraction that is seriously hampering my ability to do anything else. I swear to you that if I had pieces that needed making, I would put down the game and get to work, but since I don't, I'm clearly not. I'm still managing to carve out some reading and knotting time though so I guess I haven't completely lost reality.

Tornado

We certainly had an interesting weather day for central California. We had a tornado warning followed by a short, but aggressive thunderstorm. That was in turn quickly followed by a clear sky as if none of it had ever happened. We could see the swirling clouds nearby just before the thunderstorm hit, but it never got close enough to us to cause any real concern. It was definitely different though.

When we weren't wondering how to hide from a tornado when no one has a basement around here, I was reading and knotting. I still haven't even finished this large loop round yet. I think I'm going to go with another section of basket stitch, or maybe points. The end is nowhere in sight, so probably both.

Lap of Lace

Let's see, there was schooling followed by an afternoon of not much. I had laundry to do then there was again hours of playing the Zelda game and hours of reading and knotting. That's really all of it in a nutshell. It is also likely all of today. I should lay the piece out and see how big across it is now. It likely hasn't grown much since I started again, but I don't remember how big I left it at either and it will give me a new starting point from which I can feel like I'm not making any progress.

Weekend Recap

On Friday I got a small custom order for a wonderful repeat customer. She uses my tatting in her own work. This time she needed a few hearts made in navy thread, so that was my afternoon. It was lovely to be tatting for someone else again, even if just for an hour or so. The order is of course already done and in the post.

The rest of the weekend was errands and binging Iron Fist on Netflix. My hands got incredibly restless without a project to keep them busy while watching, so I found something to do. Do you guys remember this? I almost didn't. I worked on it forever and then as the circumference grew and progress slowed to a nearly immeasurable crawl, I put it away. Well, it's out again now and it should be perfect to keep me busy when needed since it's likely to never actually be finished.

Baskets

Well, I didn't get any sales, but I was drafted for a task. My mother-in-law wanted to learn how to make these tiny crochet Easter baskets that she saw online. So I was linked to the pattern on pintrest and I made a few. She came over in the afternoon and I attempted to show her how to get them started. They use the magic ring method for the center, so teaching that was a bit of a challenge. It should be noted that she eventually got it, after much frustration and cursing, her, not me.  She is also an avid knitter, just not so much with crochet. That was pretty much my day and now I have tiny baskets that the oldest daughter has decided are for the rat. I guess I'm glad they're good for something other than keeping me busy for the day.

That's Done

I had just enough yarn left over from the blanket and booties to make a matching hat. So, here's the whole gift combination made just in time to send off for the baby shower. Finishing all of this does put me right back into the 'nothing to make' limbo though. I suppose I'll think of something. My thumb doesn't hurt anymore, but I'm still staying away from the tiny steel crochet hooks for awhile. Here's hoping for a sale, that's not a pattern, so I have something that needs making sooner rather than later.

I Made Something

I managed to create something yesterday despite my utter lack of creativity lately. I used some of the yarn left over from the baby blanket to add some booties to the gift for my brother and sister-in-law. I know I said I wouldn't touch a crochet hook, but these used a much larger and much less pointy one, so it was fine.

Today I plan on seeing if I have enough yarn to add a hat as well. If not I'll likely make another pair of booties in the gray yarn. See, I can still create things. I'm still holding out for a sale or a lace idea though.

Still Waiting

Still nothing new to report. I did manage to injure my thumb with a crochet hook while trying to imagine something new to make. I stabbed under the corner of the nail so many times making a cord that I am not, under any circumstances, picking up a crochet hook today. Other than that caveat, I have no plan again today. So again I begin my day with crossed fingers and hope for something, anything, to give.

Any Moment Now

I was hoping something would sell over the weekend, so I would have something interesting to make, but no such luck. Most of this weekend's family time was devoted to playing Zelda. We went on some walks too. Oh, and I read a lot. Now you see why I didn't bother writing on Friday. In fact the only thing I've made in days was a really long crochet cord. That's it. I've no real purpose in mind for this really long cord. I'm just using up the end of a ball of thread and keeping my hands busy at the same time. Hopefully something will sell soon, or I will get an idea soon. I suppose either option is equally as unlikely at this point, but you never know, things could turn around any moment now.

Nothing To See Here

I'm only here out of habit today. I couldn't think of anything new to make yesterday, so I read and played video games. Yep, I'm a grown-up. I mean I still spent the morning on school with the kids and one of them had an eye appointment, so taking care of that is adult, right? I'll try to make an effort to do something worth note today, but don't count on it. Here's a photo of one of the cats from a couple of months ago...sorry it's all I've got to liven this up.

Done

The baby blanket is all done. I actually got it finished right after schooling wrapped for the day. I didn't even pick up the video game once during the day either. Instead I read a lot and picked up the half done, well not half, maybe quarter-done, Armenian lace necklace that I had abandoned when I started the blanket in the first place.

This is the other one I made when I did the triangle ones. I had it made in the cream thread so I felt the need to do it in black as well. So that took some of my afternoon. Of course that leaves me with no projects to start today with. I'm sure I'll think of something, because if I don't, it'll be back to the video game and that just doesn't give me the same feeling of accomplishment that making tangible objects does.

Um

So we got the newest Nintendo system over the weekend(thanks tax refund) and I'm afraid that, along with the new Legend of Zelda game, stole much of my day away. I didn't touch them over the weekend as I had an order to take care of and of course a blanket to knit. Well that and an entire family to compete with for time with them.  I thought I would reward myself with a couple of hours of play time in the afternoon. Before I knew it, it was time to start dinner. Luckily I can still knit while I'm doing schooling and got some of that done during the morning. I'm not going to say that that won't happen again, because it is most likely to. I can just cross my fingers that I sell something that needs making soon, so I don't let my life waste away into Hyrule.

Weekend Recap

Let's see, there has been much knitting, but I am still not done with the baby blanket.  I didn't really expect to be though. Then I got a custom order over the weekend, so I shifted gears and worked on that nonstop to get it done in time to ship out today.

The biggest problem making this piece was that I haven't done so in a long time and I didn't have one on hand to use as a reference. I had to rely on my photographs and thus screwed up more than once and spectacularly.  It took me probably twice as long as making it again would take me now because of all the picking out of stitches and redoing of them. It's done now though and I should be able to get out in the post today. That will get me back to the blanket that I still have two weeks to finish. I should get it done this week, unless I get sucked into another project. Though I would appreciate any new project at this point especially if it's a piece whose pattern I actually have memorized.

Again

Another day, another few inches of blanket created. It was actually an odd little day. There was hair dying right after schooling. Then I taught the oldest child to do her own laundry. Later the kids actually helped with the dishes and we did facial masks in the evening. In between all that there was knitting and reading. My shop as been quiet, but then again that's really the new normal, so I'm just going to keep knitting. When the blanket is done then I'll start wondering what lace to make. Until then, knitting and reading and boring blog posts.

Nothing Much

Yesterday was just knitting and reading. I did also did some hair bleaching, but that's about it for the day. The blanket is about halfway done based on the fact that I finished the first two skeins of yarn and started on the last two. So that likely means it will take another week of fairly constant knitting to get it done which will be about a week earlier than my deadline. I suppose that means I can slow down a little bit, but not much, may remake the beetle wing necklace soon. I guess we'll see how the day goes. I'll try to get a picture of something interesting so tomorrow's post isn't so depressingly boring.

Just Knitting

I didn't manage much creativity yesterday I'm afraid. After schooling, I ran errands. I did a little yard work which mostly just taught me that I have much more yard work to do than I feel like tackling. Then I went inside and started knitting and reading. That was basically my day. I made good progress on the baby blanket and finished reading on novel and started the sequel.

Today is likely to be  quite similar, well save for the yard work. I don't think I'll be doing that to myself again so soon. I might, but it's more likely that I'll try to get more of the blanket done. I love that the pattern looks so random, but it's not. It's also got some interesting texture due to the slipped stitches, that you probably can't see here. Luckily, it is also super easy so I can read while I'm knitting. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something with my day.