Friday, July 24, 2009

I'm Falling Behind

Since I joined the Ravelry "52 Projects in 52 Weeks" group, I had hoped to be able to finish at least one project a week, and had clung to the faint hope that I might be able to finish more than one per week. It's not a contest--there's neither prize nor penalty for how many projects I do manage to get done (or not get done, as the case may be), but it still gives me something to aim for. In theory, I should have finished eight things by this coming Sunday. I'm up to six, so that goal is not likely to be reached.

I don't want to get totally neurotic about this. I make things because I love to make things, and I don't want to turn my love of needlework into a JOB (which is why I've gave up trying to earn money from my needleworking skills after a brief fling at it.) But as I have chronic startitis--a horrible affliction--it's good to have a goal. Problem is, so many of the things that I've already started are big projects. I'm still clinging to the plan that I can switch off small projects with large ones, but I can tell already that I'll run out of small things and still be slogging away on the large UFOs when May 31, 2010 rolls around.

Still, it does give me some structure, which I badly need in my life. I kind of ooze from one day to the next, and end up wondering where the week went. I admire people who are able to create structure for themselves and stick to it. Remember the old "Wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, bake on Wednesday..." plan? I don't know who came up with it, or how many housewives actually stuck to that program back in the day, but I need something like that. Not that I do much ironing. Or baking, for that matter.

I suspect I need a school-day type of schedule. Say, from 9:00-12:00 I do my paying work. Then from 1:00-3:00 I do housework. 3:00-4:00 could be violin practice, and so on. I think I'll draw up a little schedule and see how it shakes out. Every day won't be the same, because my paying job has kind of random hours. But I'll work something out.

Oooh, gotta post a couple of pics and get outa here. Rugrat and her mommy just pulled in the driveway!!

Here's the latest finished project. This is the 2004 Collector's Heart from "Heart in Hand" (Celia Turner.) I'm making several small heart-themed pieces in these shades for my bedroom so you'll be seeing more like this. 


Here's the Girasole still in progress. It doesn't look like much, does it? It's all in the blocking!!

 
 I'm a little worried that I'm going to run short of the right shade of yarn. I have seven skeins of this yarn, all the same color from the same dyelot. Three are like the photo above; three are the same colors, only darker; and one only has a slight family resemblance. I'm on the third skein of the paler shades, and I have a feeling that it will end before the shawl will. I'm hoping I can squeak out the shawl and do the edging with one of the darker colors. That might help disguise the mis-matched shades. At any rate, it's not open-heart surgery, so I'll just let it go the way it wants to. I don't know how well the picture shows the change in color, but the skein lying on the shawl is definitely darker.


Now I really must run. Rugrat has discovered my peanut butter M&Ms. She was kind enough to stomp up here and share one with me. It was a little sticky, as was the kiss I got, but that's ok!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Oops, I Missed It!

Yesterday was "Ten on Tuesday" day, and I didn't get around to posting. The list was supposed to be your ten favorite songs from the 'eighties. To tell the truth, I missed posting accidentally on purpose, because my ten-favorite-songs-from-the-'eighties list would probably have been even shorter than my ten-guilty-TV-pleasures list. Now, that's not because I hated 'eighties music quite that much, though a lot of it was lame. Or grody. Or whatever term we were using back then to indicate contempt. And therein lies the problem. I can't remember songs from the 'eighties.

That's not exactly right, either. I guess it's just that it's all blurring together. See, I know that Led Zeppelin and John Denver were the 'seventies, because I can remember listening to them while I was in school. (Yes, I listened to both, and yes, that's probably the first time you've seen both names used in the same sentence.) But I have no specific memories to hang music of the 'eighties and 'nineties on. I had kids. It's all a blur after 1982.

Ok, I do know that Wham-with-an-exclamation-mark was definitely an 'eighties group. But they don't make it on my ten favorite songs list. And, of course, unless you've been living on a desert island or are in a vegetative state (in either case you wouldn't be reading this anyway) you know that Michael Jackson released his "Thriller" album in the 'eighties. But as heretical as it may be, that doesn't make my top ten list either. (Since I'm confessing all my bizarre music tastes, I may as well admit here that I don't really care for the Beatles. So sue me.) Was Whitesnake the 'eighties, or were they early 'nineties? See, I can't even remember song names, so I have to fall back on bands. Nirvana is 'nineties, right? Or were they late late 'eighties too?

Wait, Bruce Springsteen. "Dancing in the Dark." I liked that song. That was definitely 'eighties. There, that's one. Though I really don't know if it would be one of my top ten songs of the 'eighties. That's a pretty narrow field--one song per year. So I got nothing.

Except this. This was the 'eighties, and while I liked the song the first couple of times I heard it, you know how it is when you hear a song for the 4,763,928th time. But this song has been brought back to life in a new and totally exiting way. To make up for my FAIL at the music list, I give you "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as you've never heard it. Enjoy. This just may have made the 'eighties worth living through.