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First things first, have you noticed it’s snowing here at LPE? Boy do I love me some snow. On the blog that is. Ok in real life too. Just minus the biting cold. I’m not ready. It’s sooooo cold! Boo.
Ok, the annual whining about the winter weather is complete. On to the real purpose of this post.
Hip Hip Hoooooooraaaaay! The co-knitted blanket is finally complete.
My first project in the One Project a Week create-a-thon is done. I know. It’s been like twelve weeks. Ok ok. Fifteen weeks. And I should have fifteen different projects to show for my toils. But no, it’s just the one. But I’m glad to have finished. Thanks to Lesa/Mummy for tag-teaming this lovely beast of a blanket. And thanks also to the easy-to-follow pattern in More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson (Mount Holyoke ’89!!) and and the beautiful and inspirational work and guidance shown on her Purl Bee blog. Mum, I hope that one day soon you and I can make a pilgrimage to Purl Soho to reward ourselves for our efforts. 🙂
So what’s next, you ask?
We’ll, I’m also here to announce that I won’t be selecting another project out of the jar until January. Given that it’s now the holiday season and I have lots of creative and crafty projects on my to-do list in preparation for Christmas gifting, I’m gifting myself a break with the idea that starting back up on the One Project a Week project would make a great New Years Resolution!
This is a good plan, methinks. Ok. Good. Good good good.
Full disclosure # 1 — It has been three weeks since my last post. This is no big hidden secret. You can check the date stamp on my prior post and see that yes, in fact, three weeks have passed since my first post on doing One Project a Week. Ha Ha!, you laugh. She couldn’t even make it through week one! Ha ha!
Well…
Full disclosure # 2 — I have been working on the same project I pulled from the Jar on Week 1. I know, I have already broken a rule. Rule No. 4 states:
‘If project isn’t finished by Sunday evening, put the To-Do back into the jar so you can work on it again another week.’
Well, you see, Project 1 is this flipping co-knitted blanket. It is beautiful, really, and I only say flipping because I feel like we’ve been knitting on it for a year. And I only feel that way because we almost have? My mum and I have been kneedling away on this thing since… last November? Yes. It was last November. We bought the wool from Windsor Button (RIP, boo-hoo, no more Windsor Button) during Thanksgiving 2012. Now remember too that we live about 10-flyover states away from each other, and have had to mail (or fly) this dang thing back and forth to get it done. So really, it’s not that bad, right? And it is a huge 5×5 foot blanket. Knitted. With multiple and complicated color and stitch direction changes. Did I tell you it’s knitted?
Well, it is.
And it is lovely.
It is a gift, and the recipient needs this blanket before the cold months begin, so I MUST finish it. It’s not quite done and probably needs a few more weeks of work. Goal is two weeks.
So for now, I’m foregoing the rules and will finish this blanket by knit and by purl (well, really only by knit since the whole thing is knit stitch) and will pull a new to-do from the jar whence this dang blanket is complete.
In other news, I have been a fairly productive baker these last three weeks. I made these, for instance:
To be honest, I have baked scones every weekend. Having been spoiled with readily available quality scones on our vacation, I have had the urge to bake them. A lot. I’ve tried three different recipes, and today’s were the worst. The scone in the pic above was try #1 and they were quite good.
I also made this Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe with Bird’s Custard ice cream (a recipe of my own design). ‘Where’s the pic!?’ you say. ‘Show me this STP!’ Hoh! Aren’t you demanding?
I promise I did make it. I cut up and made a crazy mound of sticky dates, and used cream and molasses to make the toffee sauce. I did make this delectable pudding. And though I have no photographic evidence, I do have witnesses—Annie, Mark, and Shehz all partook in the STP.
And it was good.
See, I’ve been productive, even though I have spent all of my creative time baking and knitting on this one project. I feel accomplished! I feel happy! And I feel… full.
And ok, NO. I have not completed One Project a Week. But I have completed one scone a week. OK OK! I’ve completed 4 scones a week, if you must count… OK 5!!!
Cheeky.
Well, yeah. It’s been a few weeks (or maybe months?) since I last posted about the creativity intervention. You remember – I totally promised that I’d post on my creative endeavors once per week until my birthday (yikes! quickly approaching!) and that if I didn’t follow through on said promise, I’d have to give up my small fortune’s worth of artsy supplies and spend the rest of my life in sadness. So… as you might have noticed, on the blogging front, I haven’t been keeping up with my creativity posting promise. Boo to me. But. BUT… I have been working on a few projects and have been super busy on a BIG project that I’ll tell you more about in a minute.
First, I’ve been knitting some booties for my cousins who are expecting their Baby Maddie ANY DAY NOW, and have been trying to figure out a really easy (ppht! NOT!) difficult baby bootie pattern.
Every bootie comes out differently and really wonky, and the directions just don’t make any sense, so I might just try making my own pattern. Soon to Be Baby Maddie may just be Toddler Maddie by the time she gets these things.
And I am knitting socks for my mum… uh… yah.
Not an easy task. I apologize to my mum in advance if they come out funny and unwearable. She may just have to use them as an iPod case or washcloth or something. I did a few independent design projects here and there… and just started my new class at the SMFA in color theory. Totally excited to start painting again.
But the big thing I’ve been busy with the last month and a half was a HUGE project, of which I’m enormously proud and am eager to share with you. I just finished applying to graduate school for an MFA in graphic design/visual studies. I applied to five schools, all over everywhere, in graphic design, visual design, visual studies and craft. I don’t have a top choice–they’re all top choices, and I’d be thrilled to be accepted into any of the programs. Going through all of my work and deciding which pieces were relevant/good/interesting/representative was not an easy task. And talking about myself, clarifying my goals and vision, sharing my history and my inspirations and influences was kind of… weird. But good at the same time. Cleansing? Clarifying? Heartening? Fulfilling? All of those things, and mostly deeply personal. I’m really excited. !!!! And nervous. And I can’t wait to hear back. And even if I don’t get in, going through the process was already, two days out, so worth the work. My portfolio is here:
So yes. I have done some creative work since I last wrote. And now that my applications are in I can fill my evenings and weekends with more paint, more knitting, more soap making, more art making and, AND, luckily for you (and me, because now I won’t have to give up my art supplies!) more BLOGGING! And I can’t wait to share it with you all here. It’s been weeks since I’ve shared–now what creative things have YOU been working on?
I’m continuing work on my unfinished mittens (I actually started over so I could really do it right. I was kind of just making it up as I was going). And so I’m following directions now (for once!) on this training mitten pattern, and came to the direction “Increase 1 after the 6 and 18 stitch.” WHA? Yeah. I don’t know how to do that. Well, NOW I do! Thanks to happening on to:
They have amazingly clear how-to videos for everything from casting on, adding stitches, subtracting stitches and learning different knitting styles. For instance, my Mum taught me the Throw/American Method which is what I’ve done for years and been just fine with. But there are other methods too, like the German Method/Left-Handed Knitting or Combined Knitting, or BACKWARDS Knitting! German Method is actually easier than I thought, and I just followed the videos and WOW! I know a new method of knitting. YAY!
This is all well and good because I just purchased this beautiful sweater pattern on Etsy!
OH MY! It’s so cute but I’m sure I wouldn’t know all the directions. SO glad I found this website because I know it will help me along the way. Yipppeeeeee!
Happy Knitting!
le-petit-elephant.com 