quilting triangles

The top is done ... quilting and all! Now on to my favorite part, the binding ...

robots and rockets boy quilt

Remember when I was contemplating boy quilt colors back in March? I finally settled on .... robots and rockets! This is my first attempt at quilting with equilateral triangles ... my points aren't perfect, but I still love it! I should have the top finished soon ...

 

thrift shop rehab

I've got a different kind of finished object Friday post this week ... a little thrift shop rehab! My sister is furnishing her first off-campus college apartment next year, and like all poor college students wants to do it on the cheap. We lucked out on our last visit to our local thrift shop--we scored this funky hexagon-shaped side table for $20 and a perfectly good desk for $35. We loved the shape of this side table, but not so much it's wood veneer ... enter my magic fix-all, spray paint! The color? Bauhaus Gold. It will definitely add a "pop" of color to her apartment!

Now this thrift shop score required no rehab at all ... these are by far the cutest glasses I've found yet!

project/blog planner pages (free printable)

You may be surprised to read this, but my favorite knitting/craft tool actually is not a traditional crafting tool at all ... it's my planner! I know I'm not the only crafter who feels like they have attention-deficit disorder ... with Ravelry and an endless stream of books, magazines and online publications, we face a constant stream of new, shiny patterns calling "make me! make me!" wherever we turn. It's really hard for me to resist the lure of a new project ... so I typically alternate between periods of cast-on-itis and scrambling to finish some of the countless WIPs I have scattered around the house. But things this year have stayed more focused, and I have to credit my planner for that. I've found that I am sooo much more productive if I consciously think about what I want to achieve when I start each week. And if I devote a little time each day to a project, it's finished before I know it. Or even if I only devote one or two days a week to a long-term project! (just look at my Sunday's Stitches project for evidence of that!)

I've used planners for years to organize my school and work life, but this is the first year I've used one to tackle my current crafting projects and long-term crafting goals (and included in that is maintaining this blog, of course!). Since most planners are focused on managing daily schedules of meetings and appointments, I ended up creating a more project-based version. These have bigger boxes for listing tasks and planning for my projects, and smaller "days" where I can assign a task to each day if I like (like "write FO Friday blog post"). I tend to get stuck doing the little, mindless tasks and not leaving enough time for the bigger priorities--that's where the "top five to do" box comes in. It keeps me honest and visually reminds me of what the most important things I need to do are. Some months I'm more focused on one big project, and others I have multiple going ... so I made a couple of different versions. Feel free to download these and use them to organize your crafting life! They would work well for any project-based goals you may have--crafting, knitting, blogging, writing, whatever!

(click on the image to see larger, right click and "save as" to print and use!)

 



what's your color story?

Color is one of my favorite topics ... color is what attracts me to all the crafts I dabble in. I'm happy with the simplest of patterns as long as the color makes me happy! I thought about doing another infographic to see the patterns in my color choices, but instead I tried one of those free palette generators. First, I took a screen shot of my Ravelry projects page (with the screen size zoomed out to 50% to fit almost everything in!). Here is that image, broken into two parts: 

 

Then I dumped the image into Microsoft Paint and saved it as a .jpg. Next step? Upload the image into a palette generator! I used Palettefx.com, and it generated this palette from my Ravelry Projects page:

Pretty accurate, huh? At first I was surprised, because I feel like I choose brighter and bolder colors than this palette would suggest. More hot pinks, for example. But when I took a closer look at my projects page I realized my impression of my color choices was wrong. Now, the blues in the palette were not surprising at all. What was interesting to me is that I hadn't realized that I've used such a full range of shades/value among my blue projects. What I should do is take a picture of my stash and run another palette generator ...

facing a hard truth

I have a pattern problem. There, I said it. And the pictures prove it.

This is precisely why I started my love your library challenge this year. I was watching my books and magazines pile up, and I just knew I wasn't knitting enough from them. But I didn't actually sit down and do the math like this. And it's ... a little startling, to say the least.

I thought magazines were my biggest problem, but in reality the number of patterns in my book collection is pretty close. I was accurate in realizing that I rarely knit out of my magazines, however. A whopping two projects out of my magazines ... eeesh. I typically only purchase single patterns (e.g. PDFs) if I am about to immediately cast on for the project, so that's why that category has a much better completion rate. Magazines will always be an on-going problem for me, since I have so many subscriptions. I subscribe to Interweave Knits, Knitscene, KnitSimple, and Vogue Knitting. I know it would be smarter to only purchase the issues with patterns I want to knit in them, but I love getting magazines. It's a real treat for me to sit down, relax, and see what kind of patterns are in each issue. So I don't anticipate cancelling my subscriptions anytime soon ... must knit faster!

Looks like I'll be focusing my energy on knitting out of my magazines for the rest of this year!

P.S. For those of you who like the idea of the love your library challenge, feel free to join in! It's okay to start mid-year. Come back at the end of April to add a link to your monthly wrap-up/next month's goals blog post.

joining in ...

Are you participating in the 4th annual kniting and crochet blog week? I'm not as ambitious as last year, but I couldn't skip the fun! When Eskimimi posed the first topic I knew instantly which "house" I belonged to ... bee! I have described myself as having crafting ADD so many times ... as much as I love Ravelry, I struggle with how it enables my distraction issues. I enjoy the rush of planning and casting on for a new project ... about a third of the way in, the adrenaline usually fades and then it can become a slog (except when I have an exceptional pattern or yarn that keeps things interesting!). That's the real reason why you see so many quick knit projects on this blog ... they're the only ones that stand a fighting chance of not getting abandoned to my cast-onitis. Larger projects aren't hopeless, but they really need me to love them to keep from losing my interest, you know? If I make a mistake, or run into trouble with the pattern .... that can be a death sentence for that project ...

What motivates you to stay focused? Desire for the finished product? A deadline or expectations of a recipient? Guilt (e.g. I've spent _____ on the supplies for this ...)?