K guys I am not even going to pretend that this is going to be a regular feature. That is what pro bloggers do but I am too full of ADD for that kind of thing. Plus I’ve been reading the Dexter books and it has a lot of alliteration and it is super spectacularly stupendously vexing (sorry no s words fit). So let’s not call this Work in Progress Wednesday or anything too clever.
Let’s call this a sweater I started last year but then got too busy to finish and put away for almost a year.
It’s the February Lady sweater, and it is kind of killing me. I was knitting away last night when I noticed a weird yarn loop and discovered that actually I had dropped a stitch somewhere back in garter stitch town without noticing and just kept on plugging away at it. (You can probably tell from the scribbles that this is not the first screw up I’ve made.)
I’ve isolated the problem though and hopefully Val will show me how to surgery this back in. I know how to pick up a dropped stitch by going back in time but not when going back in time involves undoing lace patterns. She asked me how I managed to keep the lace pattern correct and I had to admit that I had added some stitches here and there because I needed the right number. Oops.
The best part is I don’t have enough yarn to finish it. I’ve ordered more online (I’m using Cascade Eco+) but it’s a different dye lot so I’m hoping it’s not weird. If it is, I’ll just chuck it in a dye bath.
Guys I think a bunch of holidays or something just happened? I dunno it was really busy and intense and then today when I went outside it was really quiet and delightful. P.S. I am super over the holidays. I was stressed out so hard that I got really sick on my six days off and spent two days in bed watching Netflix and hanging out in a Nyquil coma.
I’ve also had this song in my brain this morning. You’re welcome.
I hope everyone had a good time last night and that your brains are not hurting this morning. We continued a New Years Eve tradition by having Val and Sean come over to play Rock Band until the night. She brought her entire Xbox over so we could do QUEEN because I am too cheap to buy Rock Band 3 and they will not let you have new songs unless you buy it I guess. I don’t know.
They also brought ZOE over, and she is my favourite. The cats were unimpressed. One time I was in the middle of singing a song and she farted the worst short face stink dog fart and I did not get 100% because I was choking on her fumes.
Here she is with her new dog shoes.
I only drank a tiny bit of gin so I did not wake up feeling the worst ever. But I did wake up early because that is how I roll, so I let Maine sleep in and walked over to the dog park to take photos.
I am not very awesome at photos because I don’t exactly know how to use this camera. One time I read a bit of a book and I was like THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE and then I didn’t take any photos for a while because Vancouver in winter is basically grey forever and also I job a lot in the day time so I can’t really photo when I am talking to people about which cable package they should get. So basically I forgot about how to do a thing. Also I am terrible at manual focus, I think because when you wear glasses it is harder to judge a thing? That’s my excuse anyway.
So I guess one of my goals for the new year is to figure this thing out and get more awesome at photos. And also not be a wiener about it and stop caring if people are looking at the weird girl taking photos of ducks.
I am really terrible at making goals. I think it’s partly because I don’t really know what I want to do, and partly because I get a lot of ideas but thinking about things is way easier than doing things. I spend too much planning and not enough time doing. So then I don’t make goals because I’m like pffft you won’t do it anyway Tams.
Another thing I would like to do this year is make more art happen. I think it’s natural that once school finished I got a bit lazy… Art school is pretty intense you guys. Especially when you are jobbing a lot, too. But there are deadlines so you HAVE to do things or you fail, and failing is not a thing I do. Being mediocre at a thing, yes, but failing, no.
I recently had a dream where Mary Lou Trinkwon (one of the instructors for the Textiles program at Cap, in case that is not a thing you know about) was asking me why I don’t art more, and I listed all the reasons that I normally use (the studio is too cold, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money to buy all the stuff I need to make a thing happen) and the excuses sounded really stupid in my dream, so probably they sound really stupid in real life too.
There is a call for entries coming up for the cherry blossom festival thingy, so I definitely want to submit something for that. I have an idea of a inlay weaving so I need to clean up the table loom I have downstairs and warp it so hard.
What about you, friends? Did you make any goals? Do you have any pro-tips on how to do a thing?
I think the key to goals is having actual quantifiable things you want to achieve and also an idea of how you will do it. So you aren’t supposed to be like “This year I will get fit” – like wtf does that mean anyway? You are supposed to be like “This year I will do the Grouse Grind and not die” (this is an idea I have obviously had in the past and then never achieved hahahaha) and then be like “ok to not die I need to practice going up stairs forever so I will practice being a master of stairs at least x times per week for x amount of time until I am so good at stairs that I can do them for like two hours up a mountain”.
Wait actually I am pretty good at making goals I guess. It is just that pesky doing a thing part that I need to learn about. OH WAIT I GUESS YOU JUST DO IT. That is the key.
What’s new? I am still kinda having the winter sads but I am pretty stoked that the solstice is a thing that is going to happen soon. I can totally understand why in the old days they had big rituals to celebrate the sun coming back. Speaking of, Christmas is kinda bumming me out – it’s too overwhelming. I basically have not achieved any gifts for anyone and it is sad because I LOVE YOU ALL I just don’t want to go to the mall and buy you crap and I have clearly procrastinated too much to make anything worthwhile. Can we have a do over in like four months?
(P.S. Run on sentences are super my favourite)
Oh yeah also I have not forgotten about spoiling movies for you, I just haven’t really watched that many because I have been reading books. Weird, I know. One time I watched “Peep World” and it reminded me kind of the Royal Tenenbaums except full of less whimsy and with more Jewishness.
This movie was ok but I felt like it needed to be longer. I wanted to know more about these characters and it was more like I had a little tiny taste test and not a full meal.
Speaking of Michael C Hall, I need to watch Dexter now. (Also I read the first Dexter book and it is terrible.)
