What happened in April?

The blog was a little quiet last month. I'm kind of sorry, and kind of not. Life wasn't extra crazy and we weren't sick, but I put my focus towards something else for April. My writing. April is one of the Camp NaNoWriMo months. Writers can pick what they want to write and their word goal. You can write scripts, non-fiction, poetry. Or you can do what I did, which was edit. I gave myself the goal of editing and moving 60,000 words from a first draft into a second. I ended up having to rewrite several chapters so I probably ended up writing 30,000 words and editing 30,000. 

Yep, I did it. Finished just before 10 last night. I spent most of the weekend at my computer as I was about 11,000 words shy of my goal on Friday. A lot of new chapters, for the new ending, were written on Saturday and Sunday, and a lot of it wasn't very good. But now that the words are written down, I can edit them and make them better. In February, I started editing the first draft and I'd send a couple chapters a week to my sister-in-law to read. By the end of March I only had 11 of 30+ chapters done. It was taking too long and I'd lose momentum if I didn't edit everyday. So I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo, hoping I'd finish and I did. And I'm pretty thrilled about finishing. Winning for editing feels a lot better than winning for writing 50,000 words in November. I'll be rereading the whole thing starting Wednesday and then I'll be sending it out to some Beta-readers next week. Kind of scary but necessary. May's focus? Catching up on all the knitting and quilting that was ignored in April and researching agents and publishers to send my manuscript too (that's super scary). First up - this blog post and then mending my husband's shorts that have been sitting beside my sewing machine for two weeks.

I finished crocheting this afghan in April. (Ignore my face, I was probably yelling at the 3 year old who was outside with us and getting into trouble.) I used all 9 skeins of yarn I had and then did 3 rounds in blue for a border. Yarn was some acrylic stuff from Michael's that is perfect for afghans. It should hold up really well. And after washing became surprisingly soft.

Feels great wrapped around shoulders.

Got to love how colorful it is.

Back inside the 3 year old and I made sure it was good for snuggling under. It passed. The afghan will be a Christmas gift this year.

Other things that happened in April? My daughter and I marched for Science.

I crocheted a ton of button flowers. There are 72 in this picture if you're looking for an exact number. Only have 12 left to make!

And I have been slowly knitting my Duvessa cowlette. The KAL for this ends on Thursday so I have some knitting to do.

I'm halfway done chart A. Still need to knit charts B and C. So I will be doing that today and tomorrow.

I have several pictures waiting to get posted that I hope to do this week and next. It would be nice to feel caught up (does that ever really happen though?).What have you been up to?

What I Read in April

      It seems that these monthly wrap up posts keep being written later and later. Hard to believe the first week of May is over already. I'm not really sure what happened to April. I was editing for Camp NaNoWriMo in April which took up a lot of my reading time. My goal had been to finish editing my novel and have it be 90,000 words. By the end of April I had edited 16 chapters (about halfway) and the word count was just shy of 77,000 words. I added almost 8,000 words, probably closer to 10,000 as several paragraphs were deleted and rewritten. So, I'm still working on it.

Here is what I read in April:

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

      I really resisted reading this one but decided to read it after I heard so many good reviews of the book. I enjoyed reading it, even if I didn't agree with everything in it. I liked it as a writer, to hear about the struggles of getting published and how many of her books came to be. I think anyone would like this but creative people might get more out of it. I wish I had wrote down my initial thoughts of this book after I read it because I'm struggling to remember what I really thought of it. I know there is a podcast that goes along with the book, but I haven't listened to an episode yet.

Fables: Happily Ever After

And April marked the end of reading Fables, for me. They set up two sides to have a major battle, where one would have to die but of course that isn't how it ended. I don't want to give too much away so I'll leave it at that. I enjoyed this series and thought of starting over once I was done. It's always neat to go back and see the little clues you might have missed the first time. Not thrilled but okay with how it ended. I guess I kind of wanted the big battle.

Fables: Farewell

A History of European Art with Professor William Kloss. 48 lectures, 30 minutes each

     I watched this series with my daughter, mainly after school. We enjoyed the professor but the beginning of the series was heavy in religious art. This made sense as the Catholic church sponsored a lot of the artists but I don't think all the altarpieces that were shown were necessary. It would have been nice to have more lectures on art created in the past 300 years than 500-600 years ago. There was also not one female artist mentioned. This kind of pissed us off. 

From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impression with Professor Richard Brettell, 24 lectures, 30 minutes each.

      My daughter and I both enjoy Impressionism, so we enjoyed the paintings shown in this series. However, the professor was a little boring sometimes. At the end of some lectures my daughter and I would both be lying down and almost asleep - the art kept us awake.  This series did include two female artists; Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Van Gogh episode lacked since the lecture was about Gauguin's visit with him in Arles for a couple months. I know Van Gogh isn't really thought of as being an Impressionist but if his name is in the title of the series you expect more. Of course, I might be a little biased since I adore him.

     My April bookmark. I've already finished reading two novels this month. I think I might start a draft of my What I Read in May post so I can get my thoughts about them written before I forget.

Have you read anything good lately?

WIP Wednesday - Some Knitting and Dresdens

     Making progress on three projects this week. Trying to stop myself from starting a bunch of other projects - both knitting and quilt projects have been calling me. However, I hope to start a new quilt this week for my son's birthday next month. And Shannon announced her annual Tops, Tanks and Tee KAL. I'm thinking of casting on something for my daughter (for her birthday in June) and maybe a little something for me, if there's time. Here's what I've been working on this week.

     Finished the heel and now I'm playing yarn chicken for the foot. Might have to knit the toe in a different colour. Or make them on the small side and gift them instead of keeping them.

     About halfway done the test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes. There are 2 different patterns on the neck warmer. I'm using the yarn leftover from my Thermal Tunic.

Here's one side (cloisters).

     And the other (droplets). I think both of these patterns would be great by themselves and as I work on it I think about how to adapt the pattern so I could make just a cloisters cowl or just a droplets cowl. 

     And the dresdens have officially distracted me from editing. I made 4 more, 6 in total. My current plan is to have a white background with the middle circles being cut from a variety of solids. 

5 more to go. 

     And the stack of fabrics to the left is for the quilt for my son's birthday. I plan on using Cluck Cluck Sew's Stack n' Whack tutorial (9.5 inch size). 

What have you been working on this week?

And Floyd, or toddler, just went down for a rare nap as I wrote this post so I need to decide what to work on now. Editing? Ironing dresdens and the fabrics for his quilt? Or dishes? I think dishes, ironing and then editing. I wonder why I'm not further along with editing my novel?

A Little Knitting and Some Quilting

     I had hoped to be craftier than I was this weekend. I'm still editing a novel for Camp NaNoWriMo but it's been slow going - chapter 6 took me three days. Making it my priority this weekend really cut into my sewing time. I took some time today to recharge and did a little sewing. I was just going to clean up so I can start a new quilt that has a deadline of next month but got distracted. Here's where my crafty projects are at as of this afternoon.

     I'm done the leg and am almost done the heel of a sock. I usually knit this yarn (Kroy) on size 3 needles and 56 stitches. After reading that several people use size 2 and 64 stitches with this yarn, I decided to give that a try this time. 

I started a test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes. Loving it so far. 

Went to a thrift shop this weekend and picked up a couple fabrics. First was this piece.

     It's Strawberry Shortcake and only cost me 75 cents. Not bad. You can read the measurement on the tag. I think I'll be sending this north to my sister who liked Strawberry Shortcake growing up.

Looked at the selvage as I was folding it back up and saw that it was almost as old as me. 

I bought this off white with a flower design for me.

Can't beat almost 3 yards for $3.20. 

Today I finished sewing up 2 inch square pairs for some Scrappy Bento Box blocks.

     And as I was clearing off my desk, I thought I'd sew a few dresden wedges together to see what they were like. Did I want them scrappy or not? Turns out I like them scrappy.

      And they are very addictive. Above is wedges for 9 more blocks (organized so each dresden will have 18 different fabrics). I had to cut a few more fabrics to help the last few dresdens have a variety of fabrics. Lucky me, I already had 4.5 inch squares already cut that I trimmed into wedges. That will make 11 blocks, each 18 inches wide. I might use the white I bought this weekend for the background.

Were you able to have some crafty time this weekend? 

Sock Knitting, a Concert and some Editing

     This weekend I spent some time on the couch knitting. Some time at my desk editing. And a few hours at a concert. Overall, a pretty great few days.

    Friday evening I finished the first sock. I decided these are going to be a gift so I made them a little bigger than I would make for myself. Saturday morning I cast on the second sock.

     And here is the second sock compared to the first, this morning. I decided to try and make them match. It seems I'm not far from doing the heel. I haven't done this kind of heel in a while - I've been doing a short-row heel and this one is a heel flap and gusset. I looked in the sock knitting guide I used to teach myself and discovered that I have been picking up the gusset stitches wrong all these years. I won't say what I had been doing, but it wasn't right. I blame that on being a beginner and not really understanding what the book was trying to explain. And I was mainly going by the pictures. This time I read the actual steps and my picked up stitches look much better. 

     Saturday evening I took my daughter, Calliope, to her first real concert. We went and saw the amazing Ani DiFranco. It was my second time seeing her.  We had a great time and I'm so glad I bought the tickets (they were a Christmas present for Calliope). 

    And this month is Camp NaNoWriMo. I wasn't sure whether I was going to participate or not. Camp is not like the NaNoWriMo that takes place in November. For camp you can choose your own word count. You can write a script instead of a novel. Or short stories. Or even edit. I decided to edit. I have a terrible time editing so I am hoping the deadline of April 30th will keep me motivated. I cleared off the corner of my desk (again) and have been working away at the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2014. The only editing I did on the first day was change the title of the novel but since then I have edited 3 chapters and added over 1,000 words. When I started the novel was just over 69,000 words. I am hoping by the end of the month the novel will be around 90,000 words. I'm going to be taking out/ reworking most of a subplot and I need to decide between one of two endings that I wrote for the novel. 

     And Floyd has been very supportive of my editing. He brought me a cup of tea this morning while I worked. What a good boy.

     My kids are home for Spring break this week so I'm not sure how much crafting will be done. My daughter wants me to teach her how to knit socks but that might be a summer project. 

How was your weekend? And what are your plans for this week?