March Break

I always plan to leave for my vacations with the best intentions.  We left for Maui on March 14 and I had intended to blog on the 13th.  The thing with best intentions is that they often don't come to fruition.  And, despite packing early and being reasonably organized this time, I still couldn't squeeze in a blog post.  So hi- sorry for the long space between there!

I really wish I hadn't run out of time, because I wanted to tell you that the "Ties That Bind" blanket was finished... BEFORE MAUI.  (yay!)



It needs a light blocking still which is why I haven't done a proper photo shoot.  But if someone were to hold a gun to my head tomorrow and say "GIFT THIS BLANKET"- I could.  Which is good, because after being pretty late, Mr. Marcus finally showed up on March 18.

I had a whole post to explain the insanity that nearly took hold of me when I nearly committed to knitting a lace shawl on my vacation.  Thankfully though, after a disasterous attempt at starting the shawl, I decided I better stick to a vacation sock.  As usual I packed way more yarn than I needed and barely knit anything.

It's hard to pay attention to a sock, (even a boring one), when you could be looking at this.

Did I also mention there were whales?  And if you looked away for even a second you missed the whales jumping out of the water?  So yes... very little knitting on vacation.  (It seems I don't really knit on my vacations even though I leave believing I will knit everything 10 times faster than I normally do and RUN OUT OF YARN.)

Also.... this munchkin is BUSY and all eyes need to be on him when he's moving around or else trouble will prevail.  (He's a cute beach bum isn't he?)

Fear not- we are home now and I'm trying to hammer home our regular schedule.  (Maui is 4 hours behind Calgary... child is miserable today- pray for all of us!)  Regular schedule means KNITTING somewhere in there!  I've got the rest of March to do whatever I'd like- which probably means I'll pull out the sock yarn blankey for a bit.  BUT- April 1, I begin a new project.  It's probably going to land me in the "more than I can chew" category- but it's my attempt at a Stampede project to enter for this year.  Here's the hint....

Know what it is yet?

I Can Make That...

The problem with being crafty, is that you often get cocky about your ability.  And pretty soon, what was supposed to be a simple project can take over your life by uttering these 4 words, "I can make that".

I should have further progress on the blanket for you today, (maybe even DONE) but instead I got a little distracted.  What I wanted to find was a small travel size magnet board for my son to play with on our insanely long flight to Maui.  (7 hours flight + 16 month old = SEND BOOZE!)  That ballooned from there and one minute later, MiL had the perfect suggestion- a felt board.  It was a great idea.  Except it threw my focus off.

I have this to show for it.  (MiL has also been distracted making felt items for my son too- so this was a fairly slippery slope.)

The entire alphabet and some cute farm animals.  I used a free template for the alphabet, but ended up finding some cartoon animals on google and improvising the animal ones.  I'm so utterly charmed by the way they've turned out I want to make more animals!  Zoo animals!  Circus animals!  Dogs!  Sheep! (Parker loves "woofs" and "baa baa's".)  But I'm trying to stop myself.  I need to not get carried away here.

As if that wasn't distracting enough- I also veered off last week and knit an adorable lion finger puppet for a friend who was needing a little extra courage for an unpleasant appointment she had.

Meet "Courage" the lion!

Pattern: Jelly Bums Lion by Raynor Gellatly (I made the finger puppet version)
Yarn: Scraps in the leftover bin... it's all worsted weight acrylic.
Needle: US 3
Thoughts: This is a great pattern!  The mane itself is INGENIOUS!  I literally had to stop myself from saying "I"m going to make Parker a whole collection of finger puppets."  I'm still threatening to that!  Then farm animals!  Then Circus animals!  Then Zoo animals!  (NOW... would be the time to stage an intervention people- this post is CLEARLY a cry for help!)

 

I need to stop getting these great ideas and veering off from the plan!  I need to finish this blanket!



Yes, it has seen progress.  It's just going to be a little blanket I'm afraid- but the pattern still has me completely charmed and when I AM working on it, I'm not at all bored.  In fact the fact that I haven't made more felt items and knit more finger puppets is due to the fact that I actually really enjoy working on this blanket.  Pictured above is the blanket beginning ball 8/9.  My goal is to have this done soon- no later than the end of March.

I need to have that blanket done because I did something "wild" and ordered yarn for my Stampede Project.  I'm worried it's more than I can chew already, but I need to do something "great" and I feel like this is going to get me there.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back on "task" here and forge ahead- there's just too many great things to make out there to get behind!

(Oh people... I came so close to giving up on knitting and just making felted quiet books- they are SO cute and there are so many great ideas... but I really don't need to add another hobby to the list right now!)