Weekend Progress

I worked on several different projects this weekend. We were busy with a birthday party, errands, chores and donating items to a thrift shop. I find it hard to believe I got anything done. Lucky for me, evenings were spent at home, in front of the tv so I was able to squeeze in some crafting. I've also spent some time the past week reorganizing/ cleaning up my desk and stash. Not a huge difference so no pictures but it felt good to go through almost everything and decide what I want to work on and pass on some supplies I won't use.

Finished the body of the Potter's shawl and started the sideways leaf border. I like the orange yarn with the variegated yarn when the skein is sitting next to the shawl but I'm doubting my choice as I see the border being knit. I think the two oranges don't go together at all so I am hoping the orange border will look better beside the other colours in the variegated yarn.

Close-up of the leaf detail. I think I will do a few more leaf repeats before I decide if I will knit the whole border. I still have a bit of the variegated yarn left. Part of me is thinking of frogging the border and continuing the body until I run out of yarn.

A few more inches of the red scarf got stitched.

And I finally tried my hand at yo-yo's. Very addictive. Had to force myself to stop at four. This will be a very long term project. I'm thinking 2 years before this is finished.

Sneak peak of a little Spring art project. I knit the first piece on Friday and painted the canvas on Saturday. Still have some other parts to make and assemble. Hope to have it finished by the first day of Spring.

Went through my Christmasy fabric looking for fabrics to make some scrappy blocks.

I filled a basket full of worsted weight yarn scraps to make hats for charity. Underneath are some hat patterns.

All that progress means I didn't start my Beacon Hill cardigan. Hopefully this week. The needles and yarn are impatiently waiting.

What did you do this weekend?

Little Poem Project

It's been a couple weeks since I've shared any of my little poems. I am still writing them everyday but I've decided not to share a week's worth of poems every Saturday. I'll still share one every now and then but not all of them. Knowing that I won't be sharing them, has changed the poems the last few days. They've become more personal and experimental in form. 

Today, I am sharing a poem I wrote on Tuesday, February 10th. The little poem came to be during yoga class. I am currently taking a Mindful Yoga class which includes three meditations per class, along with yoga postures. It's been an interesting class to take and a good way to get back into yoga after almost 4 years off. During one of the meditations on the 10th, the teacher instructed us to imagine ourselves as a mountain. I've been lucky to see the Rockies and visited Banff and Jasper and loved those mountains. When we lived in Idaho, I saw Moscow "mountain" everyday but none of those felt right. In 2011, our family visited the west coast and we stopped at Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helen's and it is the later one that came to mind. And then the poem followed.

This is what I feel like a lot of the time. That I am one moment away from erupting. And not in a good way. Being a stay-at-home mom of three kids, who would like to do more writing, life can be frustrating and sometimes I don't know how I hold it all together. I don't feel like a strong mountain connected to the Earth. I feel like a mountain who has lost it once and is struggling not to do it again.

I couldn't get the poem and image out of my head, even after I wrote it down. So, I'm going to try and make a Mt. St. Helen's painting. 

I settled on this picture which is from 1979, a year before it's eruption. I might do a second one from after the eruption but I'm going to try this one first.

Weekend Craftiness

I mentioned on Monday that I was grumpy last weekend. Sometimes lack of sleep gets to me. Here are the crafts I did to get me out of my funk.

I painted. This is the background. I'm going to be adding more onto it - a yarned twig and some knitted creatures. If it turns out the way I want it to, it will be a Christmas present.

I had got out too much green paint so I got out some paper and did a tree painting. 

Sorry about the white line and reflection. I couldn't find anywhere in the house that didn't cause a reflection in the glass. I didn't notice the white line at the bottom until I loaded it onto the blog.

It turned out better than I thought so I trimmed it and put it in a frame. Not sure if I'm going to keep it or gift it. I'd like to make more tree paintings. It was fun and I have a thing for trees.

I finished hollowing out the four books I had prepped and did the final step of putting mod podge around the outside edges and inside edges. They turned out okay and I think I'm going to do more.

I started crocheting a robot for the Little Guy.

Worked on the Akron cowl.

And the Mystery KAL shawl. I finished the first clue and am half way done the second. Last clue comes out on Friday. It will look a lot better blocked.

My hollowed book with some pens.

Today I'm busy getting stuff ready so I can enjoy Friday Night Sew-In tomorrow night.