A Break

Okay, listen, I know. I am notorious for heartlessly abandoning projects.

But I HAD to take a break from Teroldego.

So I've been painting just a wee bit on my fancy new iPad.

It's not much, but it's at least kept me from eating my unfinished shawl.

Though tomorrow is a new month. Which means a new WIP to finish.

Suddenly, Teroldego looks much more appealing...

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Painting Palooza

You would think with all this pressure off me to get a project done every month, I'd be drowning in FO's. Things just flying off my needles, right?

Yeah...

I've all but abandoned my needles at this point. (HA! Point! I kill me.)

But seriously, I've only done a few rounds of Mystic Star (it was heartlessly abandoned last year) and made a lil spidey bro. I do have a MKAL that starts at the end of this month, but in the meantime, I've found that I just can't commit myself to any project.

So, to keep myself from slowly descending into a pit of knitless misery  occupied, I've been working on just a *few* watercolor paintings.

And by few, I mean over a dozen.

So here they are in no particular order.

I'd say I've been a little busy.

And I haven't even shown you the best and my favorite.

For a size reference, this is about two feet wide. It's now living happily in an antique frame that belonged to John's late grandma.

And it's now the centerpiece of the living room.

And because this is a knitting blog after all, I will at least tease you with the MKAL yarn.

Any guesses at the theme? Let's just say, I'll be over the moon with it. ;D

Potter Pottery Painting Party

A few weeks ago, I had a marvelous day out with my dear Bethany. We spent the day rummaging around "antique" (read: junk) stores, stumbling on some really cool things for the library.

I even found some old player piano music scrolls. And the boxes reminded me of the ones you'd bring your Ollivander's wand home in.

The scrolls themselves look like, well... scrolls. So they'll be displayed separately somewhere.

And for those of you curious as to what the music actually looks like.

After that, we headed to a place called Hot Pots for a Harry Potter themed craft night. She and I had elected to paint oversized house crest mugs. It was so much fun.

Since I already have a Gryffindor crest mug, I decided to do a Black Goat one instead.

It's really cool to see just how much the glaze changes once it's been fired.

Of course, I ended up having so much fun that I just HAD to take John and Al there as soon as possible. So that's just what I did.

Al did an espresso cup and saucer set.

John decided on a mushroom figurine.

I, of course, did a yarn bowl. Did you expect anything else?

I also did a lantern.

We picked them up on Saturday, and oh my Henry, I'm so dang happy.

First, John's mushroom.

Al doesn't like me to share her projects, so I'll respect her wishes.

Here's my lantern.

I'm pretty happy with it. But I'm not nearly as infatuated with it as I am with my yarn bowl.

LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL BABY!

LOOK IT!

I'm just so dang happy with it. And now I want to make a million more things. John feels the same way. So this may actually become a regular date night for us. Hell yes.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go wind the yarn for this month's shawl. I need an excuse to use my new bowl, don't you think?

374 + 374 And a Couple More

As is tradition, I've missed my blog-iversary by several days. *coughnearly2weekscough*

I'm sure you're all fed up with the mushy, lovey-dovey posts, so I guess I'll do what I did last year and do a pure numbers post.

Let's start with pageviews.

My most popular post was A Comedy of Errors, which sits at 428 pageviews.

Of course Orchid Thief would be my most popular post, the disaster that it was. Let's be honest, it's more entertaining when things go wrong, huh?

A couple of other posts made it well over 150 views, another awesome surprise.

I'm averaging more than 50 pageviews on almost every post, another increase.

To date, I've had 9,008 pageviews to the blog itself. I was right around 3k last year.

I've managed to double my view numbers. In a friggin year.

Like, holy crap, people.

It still blows my mind so may people actually care about what I have to say enough to come here and read it. Truly, deeply, thank you for that. I can't even begin to tell you what this blog has meant to me.

Sorry, sorry, I promised no mush.

My goal was to write at least one post a week. I've happy to say that not only did I average that, but I BEAT IT! I've written 61 posts over the past year at the time of writing this.

As for projects, I didn't actually knit as much this year as I did last year.

Hats

• Neon Ski Bonnet
• Obnoxiously Cheerful Hat
• Pussy Hat Project

Sweaters

• Autumn Lace Shrug
• Grandma's Lace Sweater

Miscellaneous

• Mismatched Socks
• String Bean Fingerless Gloves
• Owl Mitts
• Deep Sea FLower Dice Bag

Amigurumi

• Prickly Bulbasaur
• Fallbasaur (I actually have two of these done, plus commissions for 5 more!)

Shawls

• Age of Brass and Steam
• Orchid Thief
• Art and Coffee
• Grey Skies
• Rainshine
• Yarn Wife (My very first completely original design)
• Kelp
• Steam Bells
• Gem In Eyes

I did release my first paid pattern on Ravelry, though. The lace panel I designed for my sweater up there.

Normally, I think I'd be disappointed with myself for not knitting more. But this past year I found my definitive Second Craft. 

I started teaching myself watercolor painting in November of last year. And I think I've devoted almost an equal amount time to it this past year as my yarn and needles. A rough count in my head gives me a rough estimate of 30+ paintings that I've finished this year. And that's not including all of the pendants I've done.

This was my very first attempt, if you remember.

And this is the latest.

And I'm pretty damned proud of that.

Well, I tried hard to avoid it, but we're going to have to get gross for a second. I know, but it'll be okay. Just find a cuddle buddy and we'll get through this together.

Once again, I have to thank each and every one of you who have stopped here and taken time to read one (or several!) of my posts. 

I started this blog on a whim after reading a bunch of Yarn Harlot's archive. I wanted a place to share and talk about my knitting. Ravelry project notes aren't really that great for that. So having a blog, I could really get down to the knitty-gritty of things. *sorrynotsorry*

But this has been so much more than that. 

I've undergone so many life changes. Losses, gains. Through hell and back, through battles, through love. 

And I've been able to share that all here. I've been able to put myself out into the world. I've learned how to more effectively communicate with the people around me. 

Jamie told me once that she loves reading the blog because it allowed her to see a different aspect of me. And until that moment, I didn't really realize how true that is. This blog has given voice to the things that I want to say, but never quite manage to in person. 

Thank you. 

Thank you for your support. Your patronage. Your love.

And here's to the next 374 days. 

Struggle

This month has kicked my ass. Hard.

I've only managed to get two blog posts done.

I've barely done any knitting, or painting, or much of anything.

Today has been the hardest, mentally, because an emotional scar got ripped open. And I was not in the best place to deal with it.

Right now I feel raw. Stripped to the bone.

So forgive me, but this is just going to be a short list post. I need to get my butt back in gear and put the effort back into this that it deserves.

1. I did manage to get a shawl done for August, but I haven't had the energy to write the post. But here's a little preview.

2. Jamie and I have been together for a year now. And this deserves so much more fanfare. But again, I haven't had the energy.

3. I finally managed to give Bethany birthday presents on time for the first time in about 5 years. She got a painting and a little knit cactus.

4. Al started high school. This is still terrifying.

5. Great Trail time is upon us again, and of course, I made my way to the spinning house and picked this up.

6. I FINALLY made myself some fingerless gloves after making some for like everyone else. I should have used different yarn and moved the owl pattern over a few stitches, but I was frantically trying to get them done to wear at Great Trail. And I'm glad, because it was effing cold.

Yarn is some random alpaca blend that I actually bought at Trail a few years ago.

7. I saw this at Joann's and need somebody to buy it for me as a birthday present.

8. And we found this guy shoved into the ivy in the floral department at Pat Catan's. I couldn't say no. It was too cute. So he's living in my library now.

9. Yes. I have a library. Yes, it's as awesome as you think. Yes, there will be a blog post about it in the future. But there are a couple of key components I'm waiting on before it's truly done.

10. Renee found this notebook for me and it's pretty much the best thing ever.

11. I harvested a bunch of herbs and now my hallway looks delightful.

12. This guy's pretty cute.

13. Ending on cat pictures because internet.