In the Last 2 Weeks...

I have had a few adventures! Well, not really as exciting as all that. Last week I was going to write a nice post about waking up and seeing my hamster run across the kitchen, and the ensuing rescue. But I didn't for whatever reason. Now I'm just not up to relating the story again (especially since when I told Caelyn the story no less than 6 times, the last few with her acting the part of the hamster).

I've also been working on special Valentine's Day goodies for Caelyn's class. I got a little ambitious and am crocheting book worm bookmarks, then I went a step further and decided to do personalized felt hearts to attach to the bookmarks and so I had to get the felt, puff pain, glitter writer, and of course the googly eyes and tiny pompoms and tacky glue for the little book worms. I've got 7 days to make 21 bookworms. That's an even 3 a day. At least they're not hard and they don't take very long to make!

I skipped Insanity today. And for the past 3 days. Today was supposed to be the 3rd Fit Test and the first day of the "Max" workouts. I was looking forward to it last week, but today my fight with myself resulted in just getting dressed and coming down to the 'office' and checking email, perusing Facebook, and downloading a ringtones app on my phone. So far not too impressed.

I did get my default bank checks for my new bank account last week which means now I can order some fancy new designer checks. I'm thinking either Sushi or Ice Cream. I'm leaning toward ice cream, since it's a bit more universal than sushi. Though I do really love sushi.

That's it for now. I really need to do better at blogging more often. I find myself thinking about writing for this blog, then NOT doing it. Then when I DO blog, I forget half the stuff I wanted to write about, and not wanting to write about the other half I wanted to write about. This must change.

Exercising and Crocheting

It's been a while since my last post. I apologize! Today I started the Beach Body Insanity work out dvd's again today. It kicked my butt! I made it through the "warm-up" and skipped the following stretches because the bottoms of my feet were sore. Time to get some gel inserts or something! But I picked it up again and pushed through to the end. I won't get into the details. I don't want to make this an exercise blog or anything.

What I did do after the work-out was crochet! Yes. I am very happy to be crocheting again. Finally dug out my yarn for the crochet-along I started WAY back when and decided to finish it. So I sat and relaxed while watching this Australian cartoon on HUB (Dennis and Gnasher. Pretty much like an Australian version of Dennis the Menace) and crocheted for about 20 minutes. It's an easy enough pattern (uhhh, straight double crochet. Easy peasy) that I can put down and pick up very quickly without having to worry about losing my place or finding where I left off.

And speaking of crocheting, I finally finished the damn scarf I've been working on! It's so pretty, but I wish I had another skein to make it longer. I don't like scarves that are too short to wrap around my neck twice. Any shorter and they just seem to unwind and fall off. It's also a bit scratchy. The yarn felt so soft when it was all balled up, but once I worked it up it still feels kinda soft on my hands, but around my neck is much more sensitive and it made me all itchy. Maybe I'll try to sell it. I do have an Etsy account that I haven't yet utilized. I did buy another skein of the same yarn but in black and white instead of the gray and pink I had. I'll make another one and sell both of them. Whee!

But I'm determined to finish this darn blanket, and then my mom has another blanket that she started that I want to finish. It's kinda springy, blues and purples and greens, with dragonflies worked on some blocks. Very pretty! I've seen the yarn in a bag sitting in the hall every time I go up or down the stairs and it makes me want to just take it out and do it! But I'm going to finish the crochet-along first.

And that's about it. Peace out.

Paper and Poetry

I'm going to keep this post short and to the point. I've had a lot on my mind the past week or so, between going upstate, getting me and Caelyn ready for school, and some propositions in regards to my writing (I will speak about that when things are more set in stone), I feel like I'm ready for a week of sleeping and not showing my face to the world at all.

The following is the response my Get Sparked partner created from the poem posted in my first previous blog post, Morning on Hoel Pond.

"Hoel Pond" Canvas made of handmade paper, made by the Artist, Gwynne Mason, kakishibu dye, silk paper, mixed media.

The following picture is the work of art that my partner sent to me, and then following the picture I'll post the poem that it inspired.

"He Said He Was No Longer Interested In Me" Handmade plant fiber papers, made and decorated by Gwynne Mason, mounted on a handmade silk tapestry, mixed media.

The following is the poem I wrote using this piece as inspiration.

Sea of Wanting

Shower of spring petals
dancing

Trees, flowers, adoration
growing

Silver sands of summer
enticing

Riding waves of desire
reeling

It was wonderful at first.
Everything was vibrant, colorful.
Life was full and then it wasn’t.
empty.
distant.
cold.
lost interest.

Shimmering autumn hopeful
shriveling

Threads that once bound us
unraveling

Snow-flecked winter winds
freezing

Break through fragile ice
sinking

Gone.

© Elizabeth Cordes, 2010

Crochet-a-long

I am participating in a crochet-a-long with some friends of mine and so far it's going well! There are 6 different block styles, 3 colors, for 8 blocks of each style (except the first block, that one gets 9), to make a total of 49 blocks, about 7x9 inches each. At first, I couldn't get past my sense of symmetry and made 2 square blocks (7x7). And then I was deliberating on different color schemes (eg, first two block styles are of the same color, but I was going to make each style in all the colors).

I finally settled on going back, making my previously finished blocks the prescribed dimensions, and sticking to the color scheme/pattern for the whole thing. I think I may need to get more yarn, though, I'm not sure I can squeeze another 5 blocks out of this skein! But we'll see. I'm excited as this will be my first official blanket for the new house! If I do 2 blocks a week I'll have it done before Christmas. I'll probably wind up doing more than that, though: I plan to bring my yarn to Oklahoma with me, and I expect to have plenty of down time to work on it.

Other than that, there's not much going on at the moment. I still haven't read the book I took out from the library, but I don't have to return it for another 3 weeks. I'll get around to it eventually. I've been a bit obsessive about Neopets lately, and that is taking up way more time than it should. I'm gonna have to cut back and actually get some real work done this week... but more on Neopets another time. I'm going to try and finish this 4th block before Caelyn gets home from her dad's.

Filet Patterns reprise

I decided to try a simple looking filet pattern anyway. One of an elephant. I either used yarn that was too heavy (it was normal sport), or my double crochets need to be tighter, OR my chains need to be looser. It came out way elongated, and was twice as wide as it should have been (ok that's an exaggeration, but it was much wider than it should have been). Maybe I have just learned that I need to do 1-dc blocks instead of 2-dc blocks for a filet [when working with sport yarn]. My mom is doing a shawl, but in the right weight cotton thread and it seems to be coming out fine.

I haven't given up on the filet yet, but I may try to make up smaller charts to practice with rather than trying a 60x30 right off the bat. I was really unprepared for how big it worked up. It was a good learning experience and thankfully did not go wrong enough to scare me away from the filet.

Filet Patterns

So, during my many searches for "free animal crochet patterns" I frequently came across these square charts called "filet." I had no idea why they came up or what the heck to do with them until I read an article in a fine crochet book that was sent to me by a friend (Thanks, Amy!). I saw the title "Filet" and then saw the grid pattern and a huge light bulb came up over my head.

SO, without further ado, I searched and searched for simple animal outline filet patterns. To no avail. I have it in my head that it would be awesome to have a number of different animal outlines all of equal block-size, and then put them together as a blanket. I'm not sure how to go about procuring these outline charts and have no hope of making them myself (for being artistically challenged in the drawing department).

I also tried to explain to my brother what I THOUGHT might work after I found a picture of animal shadows... shrink them down to about 60x60 pixels, then zoom in so I can see the blocks (individual pixels) and make the pattern from that. Either he can't do it, or he doesn't quite understand what I'm going for.

In light of this new development, I may just have to try my hand at an icon maker and see what I can come up with. Anyone else have any ideas?