Friday, July 19, 2013

Crafting and Heat

I am writing this blog post during a heat wave here in southern Ontario. The current temperature at 1:45 pm is 32C feeling like 41C and yes that is very hot. We have been dealing with this weather since last Sunday and they are saying that we should get cooler weather by tomorrow but will see when it actually happens.

So crafting has been put on a bit of hold while the weather has been like it has been this week. I have been trying to do a bit of knitting or crocheting while sitting on a balcony but even that has been difficult. Hopefully once the weather cools down a bit I will be able to get back to relaxing with my crafts.

Like a lot of crafters I am one of those that finds that my method of relaxing is sitting and working on something with my hands. Of course, my DH, says that “I need to stitch my mind back in order at the end of the day” and I so agree with him. I find that even 15 – 30 minutes of crafting each evening helps me regain my focus and I can sleep better as my mind has had some time to unwind from the day.

Time to try and get a little bit more work done, so that I can hopefully sit this evening and pick up some crocheting or knitting and relax.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Baby afghan progress

Peach - v-stitch baby afghan
As promised I finally remembered to take a picture of the baby afghan that I have been working on.  This is a peach v-stitch baby afghan that I have been working on while at home and when the weather hasn't been too hot or humid.

The v-stitch afghan is something that I really enjoy working on and can do them pretty quickly now.  I have figured out how many stitches and rows I need to do so I no longer measure the afghan to see if it's long enough.  One reason is I do a lot of these afghans for charity and figure that babies vary in size so my afghan can vary in size a bit as well.  By the time this afghan is completed there will be 100 rows on it and I think I have about 60 rows done so far.  The picture is with the afghan almost folded in quarters.

This past week it has been very hot and humid here so I haven't been getting as much done as I would have liked.  I do have a bunch of projects that need to have ends sewn in or items sewn together so need to focus on getting these out of the way soon.  I also want to continue working on some baby afghans so that I can get a bunch done before the end of this month.

Now it's time for me to try and get something done this afternoon as my to-do-list seems to be growing and am not getting things off it.



Friday, July 5, 2013

What have I been up to

Baby hats
Now to explain what I have been up to lately is easy.  HATS.  I have been busy knitting and crocheting hats of different sizes.

Yes these pictures are of hats I made a while ago but this process is continuing.  I have decided that I want to get quite a few baby hats made for a Hospital in Sudbury so have been working on them quite a bit lately.  I had set a goal of 50 hats from June 12 - August 1st and so far I think I have completed 30 of those hats.

Child hats
Now to explain why I am knitting child hats is because when it is really hot out this is a project that I can do while sitting on the balcony.  The basic hat that I have been knitting is the grey and blue hat and I know that pattern by heart and I don't even have to measure it anymore.  I know how many rows I need to do for either the sizes that I make.  Ok, just that is being lazy not measuring them but I figure not everyone has the same size head so a quarter inch difference isn't going to matter when the hat is finished.

I have also been working on a couple of baby afghans but don't have pictures of them yet.  Hopefully this weekend I will remember to take some pictures of the afghans so I can post some pictures.

I am still busy with work but am finding that taking the evenings to craft is really helping me feel better.  In a lot of cases I can focus better during the day if I have been able to relax the night before and just working on something small is great.

So now I am going to go and do some work so I can relax tonight and over the weekend and know I don't have any work outstanding.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

2013 Goal review - midpoint

 I decided that it is time for me to look at my goals and see how I am actually doing on reaching my goals for 2013.

2013 goals:
1. Complete 225 items completed 63 items so far
2. Blog at least 4 time a month Jan - May 4 times a month, June 2 times
3. Compete at Markham Fair in 2013 decided not to compete as I am busy with work this year and it also conflicts with a couple of other work events that weekend.
4. Complete 3 items for myself knits 3 pair of socks so far this year
5. Get stash to below 360 pounds bought yarn instead of using yarn
6. Complete 3 cross-stitch that I already have started. haven't completed these yet
7. Spend more time writing both personally and professionally have been doing a lot more writing this year

I can actually pretty happy with where I am with my 2013 goals.  I know that there are things that aren't going to get completed this year but at least I know why.  I do wish I could blog a little more but understand that in June there were too many things that prevented me from blogging.

So to reach some of my goals that I haven't yet reached I will  need to put a little more effort into them.  I know to complete 225 items I am going to have to work hard in the second half of this year. 

I now have to finish up some work that is currently sitting and waiting for me to do so I better get at it if I want to craft tonight.