Charity and Stash Reduction Combined

I am still (somewhat) firmly in stash reduction mode.  More on defining the somewhat in a future post.  Two more projects done for the month of April although one, the pair of socks, might have been expressly excluded from the goal in January.

The other project is a blanket for Project Linus.  I have wanted to do something for charity besides joining a board - which would probably be rewarding but reminds me too much of may day job and not enough of what I wish was my day job - crafty stuff.  So a while ago I stumbled on Project Linus and the making of blankets for youth in hospitals or other difficult situations appealed to me.  I hadn't actually done much about the goal to participate in Project Linus until I saw that the local coordinator was going to be at Spun in Burlington a couple of months ago so I went over to check things out.

This blanket is my first project.  It was made from some yarn I picked up at The Needle Emporium's summer tent sale a few years ago and I just made up the pattern.  Cast on 135 stitches, knit 5, purl 5 to the end.  Purl the next row and keep repeating until the yarn runs out.  The result is cozy and I hope it will comfort someone.  I'm also in the middle of a raggedy quilt using left-over flannel from some baby quilts I made last summer.  Future projects aren't figured out yet but I want to work a few of these blankets in each year.  That will satisfy both my desire to do something for charity and my need to find crafty time during the day.  A win-win, I would say.

Curling Socks

I was in a bunch of bonspiels in March and April and brought this Nutkin sock along with me to work on between games.  Since I can't stand sitting around doing nothing, they were perfect.  Enough interest in the pattern but not too much so that I couldn't participate in conversations going on around me.  A great little pattern and a really nice Tosh Sock colour-way.

I found it quite surprising the number of people who talked about being knitters or wanting to learn to knit when I pulled them out and started working on them.

The drives to these different events also involved me working on another sweater project so I may have looked a bit of the obsessive knitter.  This is in no way wrong but my male team mates didn't completely understand it.  But I did enjoy the look of utter amazement on their faces when the owner of a coffee shop we were at asked me if I made the socks that I was wearing.  We then launched into a several minute conversation on homemade socks and the crazy socks she had made with bits of left-over sock yarn.  My friends said it was like we had been speaking an entirely different language!

Things are growing!

Spring is bursting out all over.  The sad looking peach tree, that hopefully won't have peach leaf curl this year after the therapy from the fall, even has buds on it.

Arugula, onions, radishes and kohlrabi are pushing through the ground in the veggie patch.  I have about 4 asparagus spears.  Maybe in 2 or 3 years I'll be able to actually eat some of them instead of letting them feed the roots.

In the grow op, I've added more soil to my tomato plants. The ground cherries and tomatillos, newly added to my seed starting repitoire, are growing.  Neither are looking particularly hearty but I'll keep my fingers crossed.  I've never actually eaten tomatillos or ground cherries but was intrigued by an article about them last year.  Since I don't think I've seen either in the grocery store around here, they just beg to be planted.

Until I started gardening, my favourite season was fall.  The leaves turning beautiful colours, the cooler air, school supplies.  But once I started gardening, it was game over for fall and spring became my favourite season.  The hope of all of those yummy dinners to come with fresh-from-the-vine produce.  The impatience to see if the work we did to get the perennial beds just right has actually worked this time.  This last is the reason gardening keeps drawing me back.  Of course we didn't get it right and it is back outside to try again.

Daydreaming when I should be doing 1000 other things

I'm sitting here at the computer to check out the weather next week and should be getting up to pack for my latest bonspiel adventure.  But instead I'm staring at bags that I have made that are hanging from hooks on the wall and wondering why I like crafting so much.  It might be because my job is very far removed from being a creative outlet.  It could be because I like pretty things and feel that sense of enjoyment in looking at something pretty that I made myself.  It could be because I generally don't like doing nothing at all (even when day dreaming I'm thinking that I should do a blog post and get a little more regular with this again).  It is most likely a combination of the above.  People who don't craft think I'm strange but I know there are a lot of us out there forging ahead.

I planted several different seeds this weekend ... peas, carrots, parsnips, beets, arugula, kohlrabi, radishes, onions, potatoes (the last two technically not seeds).  Several veggies planted a few weeks ago are doing well in the grow-op in the basement.  Tomatoes that I planted last weekend are starting to sprout.  A couple of varieties haven't quite made an appearance yet but I expect to see the slow pokes over the next couple of days.  I love the planting season and all of the hope of summer veggies yet to taste!

Well, back to those 1000 other things.  Happy Easter!  Since I'm not a fan of turkey, it is going to be beer can chicken for dinner tonight.  Not your traditional Easter fare but one of my favourites.

Technically not a big project

But my second project of the month is still on the needles so I'm counting this Alhambra scarf, completed a few days ago as success.  It was time consuming with the little pattern repeats so I'm counting it.  Since it was my resolution, I can change the rules.

And, not only did I complete it, I wore it to work today.  Not really obvious here is the length - about 28 inches long.  Just long enough to wrap around and tie once.  It would have looked very nice with a pin holding it together but who has time to figure out if one owns a pin when running out the door, 5 minutes later when one is supposed to.  I'll have to look around for some sort of pin.  Hard to know whether I have such an item.

And, question for the day.  Why is it when you have a night to yourself, put on your pjs at 7pm, heat up mac and cheese and pour a glass of wine that someone always comes to the door to sell something?  Fortunately, I saw the visitors but they didn't see me so I was able to slip into the kitchen and hide.  I am absolutely not answering the door in my pjs unless it is the cops.  And even then, I would still run upstairs and put on a bra!

Despite steady project completion ...

 ... I really don't feel like I'm making a dent on the craft room.  But just keep putting one foot in front of the other and it will get better, shelf space will be discovered, clutter will be reduced.

I finished this quilt top several months ago and as with many, it sat on the shelf waiting to be quilted.  Now it is done, done, done!  And I love it.  I especially love the little flowers in each of the squares - close-up below.  These resemble the doodles I am constantly doing on powerpoint presentations in endless meetings so I now feel like the doodles are actually serving a creative purpose.

Crafting has been a bit slow in March mainly due to curling.  Curling has been going very well lately.  My teams are doing really well in league play and I am going to another event in a few weeks after qualifying last weekend.  The nice thing about these out-of-club events - the travel time helps me get some knitting done.  And sock knitting is the perfect between-game past time.