Old Cross Stitch

Remember when I told you I'd saved up a whole bunch of my cross-stitches to post when I had nothing else to post! Here's one of those times. I mean, I'm doing stuff. I'm actually on the sixth stripe sequence of my scarf, and I've gotten a ton done on my most recent cross-stitch, and I've started a pair of socks, but I'm not doing anything interesting, is the problem.

Well, anyway, here's a photo of work I've done in the past.



This is the "Summer" girl for a collection of Precious Moments and my second or third favorite from the collection. I would say it was definitely my second favorite, but for one thing. I've cross-stitched this sucker twice. That's right, this probably took me about two or more years to complete, because I completed it once, and then twice. The first one, I put into my purse to go look into framing options. Well, I took that purse to the movie theatre where I left it in the bathroom and someone stole that purse. I wasn't even bitter about losing my cards and some spare cash. I was hatefully bitter at the person who took my cross-stitch. Seriously. If you ever come across this blog post, thief, which I know you won't, but if you do, I hate you.

I managed to work out most of my negative energy while I cross-stitched it the second time, but why couldn't that person return my purse sans cards and cash to the movie theatre? Sigh. Oh well.

How have you all been? I'm still busy but things are getting better!

Sadness: I Has It

I had no updates. I had no words. I had nothing to give to you today, audience. I barely did anything last week that couldn't be condensed down to: didn't get off the computer, didn't craft much, didn't do anything new, didn't do much at all with sewing or knitting. The problem with working on large cross-stitch projects or long in the round scarves is that even when you manage to make a few hours worth of work on them, it's still 'ho hum', you know? And with Nathan being suddenly the world's worst sleeper this week, I haven't gotten any sewing done either. I'm not motivated to sew and, if I do sew, the machine is loud enough to set him off.

I was pretty depressed about having no updates and considered not updating my blog this week, pretending the whole week had not occurred. I was at my mom's today, thinking about this, and how it sucked, I got kind of whiny with my mom. (Not that my mom doesn't have her faults, but she did not deserve the attitude today.) When she was sitting there with Nathan, I passively-aggressively asked if she was ever going to put any of the cross-stitch I made for her up on the walls. Or did she just lose the cross-stitch that I did for her at her request? The set that took me ten years to complete? Did she just lose it. My mom looked at me, a bit shocked, because she had forgotten about them. She said to me, "Well, my house is done. I should put them up. It'll cost too much to frame them."

I told her to just put them on the floor, and I'd photograph them. Readers, I'm going to dole them out to you when I have nothing else to show you. That's how I roll. I'm willing to take old projects and make them NEW. So, going back in the day, here's a cross-stitch I completed when I was 19, back when I was ambitious and willing to cross-stitch everything. This is not part of the previously mentioned set. This is my baby polar bears cross-stitch.



The cloth is some type of aida, but I don't know what size (14, perhaps).

As for my sewing, well, I did cut out some stuff for the cloth book my mom wants me to make for my cousin's child.



Isn't my mini-ironing board cute? That's also my crap iron that I love more than I used to love it because at least my crap iron didn't melt my sewing thread like my mom's scary iron of doom did.

How are you guys doing? Getting stuff done? I'm not going to make any firm plans for the upcoming week. If I can sew, I will. If I can't, I won't. If I get nothing done at all, I'm going back to truly firm planning.

The Best Laid Schemes, Gang Aft A-Gley

Last week, I told you all my plans. Wow. I don't even know why I pretended to plan last week. Let us review...

Thursday: cross-stitch

I think we already know how this turned out. Now, I did cross-stitch a tiny bit that night, but ten or fifteen minutes of cross-stitch doesn't really count, does it?

By the way, thank you to everyone who so kindly complimented my socks. I'm a little defensive when people do so because I believe they look hideous in my mind, and I'm not taking the compliments. I'm sorry. They are very soft and very warm, and if I can find some colorways that I like, I will be buying more of the yarn.

I have talked of hating crazy varigations in the past, but I'm a hypocrite. While I'll always believe that a colorway like Space Dust will look like clown puke when knitted up, I'll happily buy Koi Koi or any other pinkish/bluish colorway. I believe it was Christy, my future sister-in-law, that said to me that I liked yarns that looked like unicorns had thrown up on them. Sigh.

Sunday: sewing, another cloth book

I didn't even craft on Sunday. On the weekend itself, I might have done another thread or two of cross-stitch, but nothing noticable.

Monday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

I knit about two rounds of my Slytherin scarf. Okay, lie, I finished one of the gray groups, and started on my green rounds. I'd be sad at the slow progress if it weren't for the fact that I haven't worked on it at all for months!

Tuesday: cross-stitch OR drawing

I might have spent a few minutes cross-stitching this night.

Wednesday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

I went to Helen's, ostensibly to knit. Then, her three foster kittens brought me low. It was horrible! I was knitting while watching The Tudors and then these three kittens sat on me and my knitting. I then proceeded to pet them because KITTENS.

So, I was going to let this whole entry going to go pictureless, but I think we all know what I think about blogs without photos. Here is a picture of The Rose of Sharon cross-stitch.



Hours and hours of work to show you that I added about two square inches of work from the last time I photographed it. Perhaps less. Next time, I'm just going to link to other people's WIPs and pretend that I did a lot more.

I also have an updated photo of the scarf!



In case you're curious as to why it is laying so oddly, I keep the actual yarn stuffed into the center of the scarf to prevent my kitties from taking it out and carrying it around my house. Since I spent part of the weekend simply rewinding my silver yarn again, I clearly needed to take action.

So, are you asking if I have plans for the upcoming week? Yes, I do. I'm not giving up on my plans. I think I have started alternating projects to good effect, but I do need to be a little less stringent about my planning.

My plans are thus: two days of sewing, two days of knitting, one day of cross-stitch, weekends are free as usual. Ideally, I'd also like to start Nathan's matching ugly socks. I'm still working on leaving my computer a bit earlier, though I've failed tonight!

I do still want to get my cloth book done for my cousin's baby, but I'm itching to start another garment with my sewing. I wasn't going to do the Flouncy Tank Top project from the book Sew Everything Workshop, but then I saw a gorgeous version that made me drool.

Mmm, I love when I find inspiring blogs or photos.

Lastly, thank you to the person who came to my blog and followed my links to Amazon and made purchases. It was nice of you and I made a whole dollar! I was stunned when Amazon told me it had happened, actually, and then I told myself that I'd buy a Simplicity pattern to make for my blog! I love the dollar pattern sales at Joann!

How Goes The Plan, Stan?

Just a week ago, I decided I needed to create a plan for my crafting/free time as I was spending too many hours on the computer and not enough doing anything else. How did it go, you ask? Well, sort of okay. So, on Thursday night, I was due to work on Nathan's PJs. That went as expected. The weekend was my free time, so on Friday, I worked on the PJs again. I also worked on them Saturday night. I was even going to work on them Sunday night, but I was frustrated by my lack of proper sized trim, as described in my last post. It is quite clear that I'm obsessive about finishing my sewing projects. I finished my PJs on Monday night, the night I should have been knitting a scarf. I justified it by telling myself that it was too hot to knit a wool scarf and that I could knit on my scarf when I was in proper air-conditioning. I did finish the pajamas, so I had that, at least.



That face is just telling you that he already know that his mom loves to make excuses for when she overrides her own plans.

On Sunday night, I did work on my cross-stitch for the first time in well over a year. Since I only worked on it for one hour, I didn't get much done and it won't even be worth taking another WIP picture until I spend another nine or so hours on it. I really want to work on it again now!

I knitted on the socks on both Saturday afternoon and on Wednesday night, so that went as planned. I'm mostly done the second sock of my 'barf' pair as I affectionately call them. I'm already decreasing on the second sock, in fact, and I expect they'll be done very soon, allowing me to cast on for Nathan's matching ugly socks.



So, where did I fail? I didn't work on my sewn boxers, but I wasn't too sad about that. I've decided I only want one WIP for sewing unless I become one of those people with lots of spare time on Saturdays or Sundays who goes around cutting fifteen projects at once to be sewn during their spare time. (I would love to be one of those people.) I also didn't work on the scarf, but... I'm not too sad about that.

I have decided I'm going to redraft my plans for each week from now on, keeping weekends free for anything I'd like to do. This upcoming week, it'll be:

Thursday: cross-stitch
Sunday: sewing, another cloth book
Monday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)
Tuesday: cross-stitch OR drawing
Wednesday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

We'll see how it goes. I clearly wanted to up my cross-stitching and take a small relax from the sewing.

Both Sophy and Wit stated that this type of plan would stifle their creativity, but I work in the opposite way. I love plans, lists, and schedules. They make me feel happy. If I follow them, I'm getting things done. If I ignore them, I'm being a little wild. It's win-win. The worst time for my crafting this weekend was on the weekend when I had the choice to do anything I wanted. I mostly just surfed the internet.

I remember reading that the human brain likes to have a limited number of choices. No choices and we feel hemmed in, too many choices, and we become indecisive. I think that my plan limits my choices and makes me more able to break away from the computer at night. Instead of wondering which craft or activity I should be doing, and then doing nothing or defaulting to socks, I have a plan and I get to doing it. For instance, prior to my plans, at night, I could watch TV, play on the computer, read, draw, sew several items, cross-stitch, or knit on one of two items. Now, I've basically taken it down to play on the comp, craft, read, or draw. And that's something I can choose between.

Though, what I really should do is spend more time with Paul.



He's a good husband and maybe I spend too much time crafting instead of spending time with him.