inspiration

I spend a lot of time on Facebook; mostly lurking, rarely posting. I can't help it. I love to know what people are talking about and see pictures of what they're doing. I often draw motivation to create when I see pictures of what my friends are creating.

One of my dearest friends surprised me a few months ago when she started posting pictures of colorful yarn creations, which was a departure from her usual mediums of painting and flowers. I am consistently encouraged by her truth-speaking motivational posts and I love seeing her passionate spirit at work in everything she does.

For her birthday, I chose to cross stitch the lyrics from an Indigo Girls song that has been on my heart for several years now as our friends and fellow citizens become more divided than ever by politics, beliefs, prejudices, and the like.

Let it be me

(this is not a fighting song)

Let it be me

(not a wrong for a wrong)

Let it be me

If the world is night

Shine my life like a light

I found inspiration on the Pinterest page of another friend. I've gotten to the point where I instinctively know whose pin I'm seeing on my feed, even before I see the name, because I'm familiar with boards they have created. This sweet friend recently lost her mother very unexpectedly. She lives far away from me and seinding a sympathy card seemed like such a meaningless gesture. I rarely talk to her, but I know so much about her through her social media pages. Recently, she's been pinning a lot of bee related images, and I felt urged to cross stitch a simple bee emblem for her.

finally finished, part 1

I am gong to celebrate my finished projects; the works-in-progress that I deliberately complete before moving on to new things (mostly).

See, I have actually started and finished 3 little cross stitch projects in the past week, including this one.

But let's refer back to my first two official finish-it-up projects that I blogged about here:

I finished these mittens!

The pattern is "Midge" by Berroco, worked with Patons's Kroy Socks Jaquard in Denim.

I finished this cross stitch... mostly. I'm still leaning toward using it as part of a pillow cover, but we'll see. At least the cross stitch part is completed.

I wish I could give better credit for the pattern but I can't find it anywhere on the internet. It's called Phoenix Rising by R. Lawler, and like I said, I modified the thread colors to better represent my alma mater.

birdhouse in your soul

You might be 2 days into a head and chest cold that leaves you coughing every few minutes.

The weather might be inexplicably warm for a February morning. So warm that you open doors and windows to enjoy the sunshine, breeze, and windchimes.

Your best friend from high school might be celebrating a milestone birthday this weekend. 

You might be undecided about making the 9 hour drive, each way, to her house to celebrate, especially given how you're feeling right now.

But you might also be compelled to begin a birthday present for her, regardless.

Regardless of sickness, distance, or other works in progress (they're both almost done, anyway.)

You might choose happy colors based on an equally happy song, and immediately get to work.    

Time is of the essence.

Make a little birdhouse in your soul.

Of socks and mittens

We had a cold spell in NW Louisiana last weekend- as in, the high temperature never made it above freezing for two days! And despite the fact that there was once a snowflake on my weather app, the best I got was 5 minutes of tiny flurry flakes on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, in central NC, my friends were bombarded with the loveliest 8+" of snow the following day. I enjoyed it vicariously through their social media posts, but oh how I yearned to be there in it!

I hunkered down inside my own home, almost as if I were snowbound in NC. I cooked and crafted and even played games with my family (those of you who know how I detest games will understand that this is HUGE). I made excellent progress on my Phoenix Rising cross-stitch.

A little background on this cross stitch project: I started it, on a whim, during a summer vacation trip in 2014. I wanted to make something Elon-y and I found a lovely sampler that fit the bill. A quick re-working of the color scheme to maroon and gold had me hooked... temporarily. I know I worked on it again during a trip to the family compound in SC, but for the most part it has spent its time tucked away in my cross stitch box. Don't worry- it had plenty of company!

I cast on for a new knitting project, as well. My youngest- my baby who is almost 13, and has hands nearly the same size as mine, asked me to make him a pair of mittens. How could I refuse this precious request, especially knowing that in a year or so (if they survive being worn by a teenage boy), they will be mine? His requested colors were light blue and charcoal gray, and I knew I didn't have anything in my stash that would fit the bill. You see, I wanted to use a nice, worsted weight yarn that would knit up quickly.

As I dug through my yarns, I found a 9/10 completed sock made with a skein of fingering weight yarn given to me by someone who didn't have the patience for small, intricate knitting. It wasn't anything I would have chosen for myself, but it did have the requested shades of blue & gray. Fresh off a recent unraveling spree, I knew what the obvious choice should be, but I still dreaded undoing the many hours that went into that sock, and the the tedium of many more hours of tiny stitches.

Another so-close-to-complete sock unraveled, and a mitten begun. For a week that began with temperatures well below freezing and ended with 3 days in the mid-70's, it sometimes felt silly to be knitting mittens. Cold days will be back, all too soon, and hopefully when they arrive I will be ready to warm a small but growing pair of hands.

Use it up

My primary focus in choosing the word deliberate as my word of the year was finishing up craft projects and not buying new craft supplies without a specific purpose. I have meditated on this old proverb for several years, and want to incorporate it more into my habits (and purchases).

Actually, I am really dying to cross stitch it as some sort of sampler, but that doesn't help my myriad of unfinished projects, does it? Maybe it will be a reward for me, when I finish up all of my current works in progress.

Here are reports on my progress from three different craft fronts.

Knitting Over the holiday break, I knitted four hats! One for my son, one for my niece, and two because I had yarn without a purpose and a 14+ hour round trip to my sister-in-law's house for Christmas. I also tried to continue knitting a second sock that was about 58% done, but for the life of me I could not figure out where I left off in the instructions or how to make it the same as the first one. I unravelled it to a point where I thought I knew what was going on, knit about 2 more inches on it, and then unravelled the whole thing because I still wasn't satisfied! I thought about just starting over, but then I wasn't sure I had followed the directions exactly on the first sock, so I unravelled a perfectly completed sock! What can I say? Perfectionism and procrastination are conjoined twins in my world. So now I have two balls of yarn rolled, ready for me to learn to knit two socks at one time... eventually...

Cross Stitch I have so many projects pinned, but before starting ANY of them, I am going to finish what I have already started. (cringe) You can't unravel cross-stitch like socks with the freedom to start over, so I've got my work cut out for me. I know for a fact that I'm still holding on to a project that I started in high school, and one from when I bought my first house almost 20 years ago. Both of those projects were specific to match a room or theme that no longer exists in my life, so I may give myself the grace to part with them.

One work in progress was a sampler that I intended to incorporate into a pillow cover. I am proud to report that all the work from the second zig-zag line down has been completed in the last week! I found that I had used up the light gold thread that I was using, so I still need to go back and fill in a few spots. (purchase- one skein of embroidery floss for a specific project)

Sewing This is the worst of it, y'all. I want/need to make new covers for my living room couch pillows, and a valence for my kitchen. I don't have the right fabrics for these projects, but am allowing myself to purchase them if I find what I need at a reasonable price. The first project on my list to tackle was a requested Superman bib for my nephew's first birthday party. Being the mom of boys, I had a lot of superhero fabric in my stash, but apparently I gave it all away in my pre-moving destash of 2015. 

A craft/fabric store like JoAnn's is to me like a liquor store is to an alcoholic: a huge temptation-fest with the capactity for things to go very wrong, very quickly. But I had to buy Superman fabric for the bib, so off to the store I went. I petted lots of fabrics. I told lots of fabrics they were lovely. But in the end, I walked out with only Superman fabric (just a bit more than what I needed for the bib, but it was justified!) and a remnant fabric that will become couch pillows. Everything else for the two bibs- as well as the matching skirt I made for my niece- came from my stash. Use it up, indeed!