Stacyverb

Focus

Nope, there hasn't been much blog action lately.  I've been busy with a lot of things, and had to make the choice between writing about them or actually doing them.  I went with doing them.

I've been trying to get better about prioritizing, trying not to spread myself so thin.  Instead of putting a little bit of energy into a lot of things, I'm trying to put of lot of concentrated energy toward a few projects at a time.  It's not easy for me!  I have a lot of interests, and am easily distracted!  But while I love to multi-task, sometimes I need to face the fact that focusing on one thing (well, maybe two or three) at a time is better.  It creates less frenzy, and I can enjoy the feeling of actually finishing stuff.

Case in point: a couple of gifts I made for important events this month.  This is a little sweater I knit as a baby shower gift for my friend Melissa.

The yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed from my stash, and this is the pattern. 

Then I knit these socks as a present for my grandmother's 90th birthday:

The color was pretty much unphotographable and the stitch pattern wasn't showing up at all until I fiddled around A LOT with the exposure.  But trust that these are a nice basic brown color called Coffee Bean, in Elann Sock It To Me yarn (also from stash!).  The pattern is called open twisted ribbing--pretty simple, but enough to add interest to an otherwise plain pair of socks.

These gifts have been gifted, and I'm pleased to report they were well received by the giftees. :)

In progress: Cloudette Cardigan

This week I've been trying to get back into a sweater project I started in May and then put aside for the summer.  It's Claudia Geiger's Cloudette Cardigan from the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits.  (Irony: I can't stand Jane Austen!)

I've been wanting a lightweight wrap sweater for a while, and I really like the shape of this one.  Of course, a lot of things about it are all wrong for me.  That picot edging is fussy, the white-on-pink color combo manages to look both juvenile and elderly at the same time, and combined with the gathered sleeves, the overall effect of this sample is just way too precious for my taste.  I do like the gathered sleeves, actually, but with all the other stuff, it's just too much.

But mine won't have all that other stuff.  I'm ditching the picot edge in favor of something cleaner, like ribbing or garter stitch (haven't gotten that far--I'll decide when I get there).  The whole thing will be all one color.  And the color will be this rich, grown-up jewel tone called "bottle green."  The yarn is 50% silk, 50% merino, and I love the sheen and depth of color the silk provides.

I've had a hell of time trying to figure out where I left off on this thing back in May.  It's taken me a while even to figure out what size I'd been making.  I hadn't gotten very far on it when it went into hibernation, and the few notes I took make no sense to me now.  But I think I'm back on track now.  (Well, my armholes were way too deep and I had to rip out several inches of knitting, but that's a whole other thang....)

I need more hands

Let's be real--the last thing I need to do is start a new project.  We all know I have plenty of UFOs lying around already.  (Plus, I now realize I forgot to include another sweater-in-progess in that UFO post.)  Not to mention the projects that aren't so much unfinished as they are flailing. And my gift knitting that I can't show you.  And of course, the glider.  And the novel I'm sort of working on.  And the mandolin that I'm not practicing enough.  And the fact that I'm trying to fit all this in around work, social life, and so on, at what is pretty much the busiest time of year for me.

Call me fickle, or unfocused, or whatever, but the change of seasons makes my attention wander.  I mean, come on: there are so many pretty colors and textures, and I need new clothes.  Since I got rid of so much stuff I wasn't using, there's all this room in my closet now, waiting to be filled up with more wearable garments.  Money isn't as tight as it has been (knock on wood), so I can go out more now, which makes me feel more interested in clothes again. 

So, maybe it wasn't a great idea, but I cut out the pieces for a Pendrell blouse the other day. 

I'm making View A, and this is my fabric:

I bought this print a while back when I was going through an abstract floral phase, and tucked it away in my stash for fall.  The palette should make this a really versatile addition to my wardrobe. 

Although Pendrell seems like a pretty straightforward pattern, I have some concerns about this project.  From what I've read on some other sewing blogs, the pattern runs kind of big, and I'm a bit gun-shy about fitting issues right now.  Also, the length seems insane (26" for the size 4??), so I know I need to shorten it, but by how much?  And should I take the length off the hem, or from somewhere in the middle?

To many of you, I'm sure the obvious solution is for me to make a test garment first, and work out the kinks that way.  But geez, people, I don't have the patience for that!  At the rate I'm going, by the time I'd made a test garment, I'd have lost interest in the project altogether.  As it is, I'm not sure when I think I'm going to have time to sew this together once, let alone twice.

Gah, I'm getting agitated and overstimulated just thinking about it.  Fall does this to me.  Fall also made me buy some dark chocolatey brown nail polish over the weekend, which is hilarious, because with all these things I'm supposed to be doing with my hands, how do I think I'll manage to sit still long enough to paint my nails?

Reading Challenge complete!

You might recall that back in January, I joined the Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge.  I did it because the past two years had left me with little time or energy to enjoy one of the great loves of my life--books.  Wanting to bring my life back into some balance of normalcy, I set the modest goal of reading 30 books in 2012 (I'd only read a total of 24 books in 2010 and 2011 combined--SAD).

Well, looky there.  It's barely October and I've already surpassed my goal for the year.

I'm glad.  I feel more like myself when reading is part of my daily life.  The goal of 30 books in a year probably sounds like nothing to some of you who read while you commute and plow through a couple of books a week, and probably sounds impossible to those who spend your days chasing small children around, or reading textbooks for school, never having time to read for pleasure.  For me, it's a good balance--I'm making books a priority in my life again, but also leaving time for my other activities and interests.

Have you read any good books lately?