Inspiration

I'm in some need of inspiration. I see beautiful things all the time, but lately they have not inspired me to do anything. I appreciate their beauty, but can't be bothered to create my own. The good news is, I don't need a huge dose of inspiration to complete projects that have been started - follow the pattern and "get 'er done"! This does not bode well for the creation of cards needed for a stamping class February 20.

Sometimes inspiration can be forced - believe me, I know. If I sit down at the table with the stamps I need to use and try enough things, I'll hit on a winner, then that success usually spins off into another good idea or two. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. If you have any suggestions on how to get past my crafting apathy, please let me know.

I wish you all inspiration when you need it!

Organization

Organization has always been my nemeses. I would love to be organized, I love baskets and bins and drawers and labels and all the organizational gadgets (see the post on gadgets), but I never make it 100% of the way to organized. I can get to tidy, I can get to clean, but organized it always just out of my reach. It's weird too, because I'm a project manager in real life. I'm organizing resources and budgets and tasks, but my desk is a cluttered mess. My projects are fine, my team members don't seem to think I'm way out there or anything. If you are reading this and on one of my project teams, you shouldn't feel obligated to post a comment.

Part of my problem may just be the amount of stuff I have. I have a lot. Let's just talk about yarn. Because I so rarely talk about yarn here. Do I sort by fiber content, by color, by weight, by intended project? If I sort by just one of these it would be OK but I'd have to remember that I have other colors, or weights or content that matches the yarn in my hands. I get bogged down in the details of the sorting and the sub categories. Maybe that's my analytical brain working itself into a frenzy. And really, yarn is not my big problem, I actually keep that sorted by weight so if I need sock yarn I can see my whole color and fiber selection. Easy peasy! Imagine what I'm going through trying to wrap my brain around rubber stamps. Is it a text set, or a Christmas set? Do I keep a cross referenced list somewhere? Do I break up a multi-seasonal set to keep Christmas in one category and snowflakes in another? Do I keep my glitter glue with the glitter or the glue? It just gets worse from there.

This is the year I organize! This is the year my craft room tables are cleared off and things are given a proper home. This is the year I use my craft room and love it. I just have to figure out how...

Yarn, Yarn EVERYWHERE!

With a weekend of sloth behind me I've got a cluttered living room to deal with. I started de-Christmas-ing the house. This means the tree is gone and most of the decorations are packed. I still have a serious pile of penguins, snowmen and Santa figurines to deal with. I also have piles of yarn on the sofa. Yarn I wound, yarn I worked with, completed squares and pieces of sweater. It all needs to be put away and pulled out in manageable pieces.

In the past, I've only allowed myself two projects at a time. One easy, or 'hand candy' and one more difficult. Before I started knitting two was usually sufficient. This led to lots of finished projects and no mystery bags laying around my house. Now that I'm knitting, I've got several projects in the works and most in different stages of completion. I'm going to list them here in the hopes that admitting I have a problem will be the first step in recovery.

1. KAL (knit along) sweater - I was talked into a knit along by some co-workers, then they all bailed. I now have the back of a sweater and part of a front worked and sitting on needles. Started in October
2. Zoe's sweater - this was just started in December. The adorable little munchin will be even more adorable in the Paddington sweater I'm knitting for her birthday. This has a deadline. I'm making some good progress on this.
3. An asymmetrical sweater for myself - crochet - started in November. I was frustrated trying to figure out the sleeves so the sweater got a time out. I hope it's learned it's lesson. I'll be picking this one up soon, I'm just a few hours from completing it.
4. Afghan Squares - the status on this one changes from started to complete pretty quickly, but I have a lot to make. I've joined a group that has committed to making one square a month. I think this will be the best way to use up some stash and MACG donation yarn and have committed to making three of each square in order to complete 3 afghans this year. One for MACG and two for donation to a charity auction. My commitment may change in March - stay tuned.

Now that I've written it down, it's not so daunting - I really just have added two projects to go with my new knitting skill. Of course this does not include the incredibly long list of projects I want to do. I have patterns I want to work, patterns rattling around in my head clamoring to get out, and I'm sure there are patterns I haven't even seen yet but will need to acquire.

Today I talk crafting

As much as I enjoy raw food and sharing information it is a distant contender for my time. I am a crafter. It started with glue and buttons at my gramma's house as a little kid and continues to this day. I always loved art class. I'm not an artist - I can't draw well, I'm not a sculptor or a painter, but getting dirty and making something pretty, if not beautiful, has always made me happy. In high school I started sewing to help out the theatre group. Then I started experimenting to make my own clothes (we won't discuss those failures). In college I taught myself to knit and made the worlds ugliest blanket, but kept my sanity. When I was out on my own I started sewing again to enhance my wardrobe. My first job was at a fabric store so that fed my addiction. I did a lot of sewing over the years, including alterations for a bridal shop to earn money for a down payment on our first house. But I was easily frustrated as well, I tried beading but that made me swear a lot as well. Finally I settled into stamping, I went to a party because my boss invited me. I bought some stamps because I felt guilty, then the addiction took hold I went nuts. I moved to a new job and found a whole crew of stampers to chat and stamp with. We fed each other's addictions and had card exchanges and stamp parties, and basically went nuts together.

DH loves my stamping - no more buying cards, it was relatively quiet and I stopped swearing. I have enough stamping supplies to keep me in ink and paper for the rest of my natural life, and well beyond that I'm sure. However, stamping is not terribly travel friendly. I needed something to keep my hands busy on a plane trip to Europe. I went for the old standby, the long forgotten crochet. I visited my grandmother for some lessons before I left. She taught me when I was a kid so I would stay out of her work, I could make a chain and that's about all. At 29 she taught me how to read a pattern and make the basic stitches. I then set off for Europe and crocheted my way across 'the pond'.

Little did anyone know how crochet would take over my life. I am obsessed. I think about it all the time. I try to figure out how to make new shapes, how to improve patterns I'm using, how to get more crochet done. I crochet every single day. I still stamp. I go on beading jags. I have even learned the proper way to knit and am making a couple of sweaters. None of these things can compare to the comfort I feel when I crochet. I've dabbled in crochet design and get the most satisfaction from those projects. However, there are so many wonderful patterns out there my to-do list is longer than I can manage.

The crazy crafting chatter will only continue ...