Deadlines

This was originally written for a private blog with some writers who signed up for Wardrobe Refashion.

In the crafting community, especially knitblogs, there's a term for a phenomenon we've all experienced, that inability to keep going after you've started a project, especially the tendency to start and start and start lots of projects and never finish anything. It's called startitis.

I've recently been working on - in my writing life - a project I'm fairly sure I won't be workshopping this semester, and yet, despite all the other work I should be doing, I'm still working on it. In the meantime, my research paper and my craft presentation are idling, nearly unbegun. I've got startphobia for the work I should be doing, except it isn't really a fear but a lack of desire, an aversion. I'm not blocked, I just don't want to work on them.

In my crafting life, however, I'm experiencing a definite case of block or the inability to start. I have a pants-to-skirt conversion project planned. In fact, I have two pairs of slacks I want to do this to eventually, but one moreso than the other. And yet, I can't seem to get started.

I blame it a little bit on my setup - my sewing machine is in our disaster of a laundry room and inaccessible on three sides by my housemate's mess, on the other side by my own crafting things. But the issue is also a heavy dose of laziness. I could have worked on the skirt either of the last two mornings. I've been telling my other blog [that's you!] this project was next in the queue for weeks, but I haven't started it.

In the meantime, I have a crochet cap design I've been fiddling with. While I think I've got it down with only a few more rounds to go, after redoing the crown a couple times, I started a new hat yesterday rather than finish the first - startitis at its worst.

So, as works best with my writing, I'm giving myself a deadline. I want to wear this skirt and the prototype cap to the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert at the Rialto Theatre on Thursday, so I must finish them both this week. I'll forgive myself if either doesn't fit, or if the cap still needs tweaking, but I have to at least try, and Tuesday will be my big chunk of time at home for the skirt.

Nonetheless, this whole diatribe is indicative of my crafting practice, whether it be crafting an essay, or a photography project, or a design, or a crochet or sewing project: I love to start things, I love to get hit by an idea and run with it, I love to finish things (though I never feel my written work is finished as magically as a craft project), and I even love the work while I'm doing it. But I am often tempted away from one project by another, or driven to start four or five new things only to find myself coming back to an old, neglected project that has to be backed up and almost started over, not just resumed.

In some writing circles, for instance the world of NaNoWriMo, people are divided into two major work styles: pantsers and plotters. Those who fly through a project by the seat of their pants never knowing where it will take them and those who plan (plot) everything out in advance. I'm trying to learn, in life, to be more of a pantser, but I still need a certain amount of structure to keep me finishing, well, anything really. To divide us into these two types seems not to take into account how we start and stop, pick up and put down, shelve, marinate, sprint, and birth our projects.

The best laid plans...

Lost Wallet Found

Just wanted to let you all know that my wallet was returned a couple of days later - with everything still in it! - to the library reference desk. I guess either I left it somewhere or someone got squeamish about having taken it? Either way, it's back, which makes my life easier. Thanks, Universe!

Crochet update: My group is getting together tonight, where I'll be either proceeding with the hat or trying to pick up another WIP I put down for too long. I'm hoping to be able to get some more done in the next few days, but for now - to class!

Weekend thrown all outta whack

All my plans for yesterday and today have gotten thrown askew. I intended to work hard yesterday before some evening plans with friends but instead spent the day hunting for my lost wallet and retracing my steps from the day before. So far - to no avail.

As you know, I'd also hoped to refashion those pants this morning, but alas, I'm wallet hunting until I find it (or have to leave at noon), and because of girly V-Day plans and a lot of Monday homework, I likely won't have time fir the pants until next weekend. With any luck I can finish the hat (v 2.0) and see if this tweak worked in the next couple days.

Hope you're having an excellent weekend. Happy <3 Day!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Inheritance part 2

This is not a new inheritance, but a recently reacquired goodie. I received some more of my stuff over the holiday break, including my piano, almost-the-last of my crafting supplies, and the sewing machine I did really inherit when my grandmother passed.

(She apparently had quite a few. When my mother came to visit a couple days ago, she didn't know I'd gotten mine back, and so she offered me "one of the extras" she now has!)

I haven't used the machine in a few years, but I have a project in the works. I have a pair of pants that aren't long enough. I'm planning to convert them into a skirt. I may do it this weekend, but I'm not sure yet. I'll photo document the whole thing both for this blog and for Wardrobe Refashion. If you've never heard of the Refashion pledge, you should check it out and consider signing up. Two friends and I will be taking the pledge when it opens this weekend (the 15th). My second project may be a lined bag, with granny square exterior, for etsy, but I'm not committed to it yet.

Next time, the cap!

Inheritance part 1

Apologies for the radio silence. These last couple weeks have been busy-busy, but I'm back!

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to write about some fun goodies I'd "inherited." I use quotation marks because no one has passed away recently in my life. My mother inherited all of my grandparents' crafting stuff when they passed a few years ago. Truck loads of yarn, quilting supplies, multiple knitting machines, etc., etc. All of the 100% acrylic yarn I use is from them, and I tend to pick up a few skeins each visit. I also peek through other boxes of stuff on occasion, but until I moved back to Arizona, I normally didn't find anything worth carting back home on the plane.

Over Christmas, I got something a little more interesting:

Two yarn winders, shown here mid-frogging-and-winding.

I had knitted (on a loom) two panels of a sweater a long time ago - before I really understood gauge, let alone ease. I accepted that I was never really going to do anything with these panels, let alone make a sweater out of them and wear it, so I frogged them straight into the winder.

The winder on the left is useful for small yarn balls that wind easily, because it doesn't have the gripper, but the one of the left was perfect for these greater-than-one-skein panels. The yarn is just an acrylic cream, but I'm looking forward to playing with it. The smaller cakes are perfect for loaning to friends who are still learning crochet.

Part two of inheritance soon, as well as a discussion of the hat pattern I'm currently working up. Wish me luck!

Teaching a Craft

I've found myself in the enjoyable position of crochet guru lately. It started with a friend who knew how to single crochet enough to make scarves and baby blankets. She lives in fear of increasing or decreasing, but we'll get her there. She asked me to teach her how to make granny squares and is now working on a small bag of her own design.

We meet weekly for crochet dates. Another friend asked if I would teach her; one of her New Year's Resolutions was to learn a new hobby - something crafty. She became a part of our crochet dates and in just two "lessons" has made herself a coffee cup cozy and started a sampler scarf.

Last night she made a brief appearance at a class potluck but couldn't stay because she had promised to go with her boyfriend to a UFC fight. A number of girls teased and asked if she'd brought a book to read, so I asked if she had her crochet. She nearly shrieked and pulled the yarn and hook from her bag. She had been planning to just work in single crochet until our next "date", because even though I'd shown her other stitches, like double, she hadn't felt ready for it. But she remembered what I showed her about stitch heights and decided to give it a try since taller stitches work up faster. Using a couple online resources to walk her through the steps again, lo and behold, she has three rows of good double crochet!

I'm so proud. It's really gratifying teaching crochet and watching people click and see what they made with their own hands develop.

What's in my crafty queue: a scarf for sale, a refashioned skirt for me, a pattern for a coffee cup cozy, and a WIP top I've been neglecting.

What I'll be doing today: homework until the Superbowl, which I'm going to watch with friends (and maybe sneak in some crochet).
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry