I just had a shot of my favorite cold brew, so hopefully I'm good to go.
I am on Day 1 of waking up early. When I say early, I mean the 4 o'clock hour. I don't know if this is a trending thing, but I blame, um, I mean, I give credit to WheezyWaiter for this little adventure. I follow him on YouTube and last week he shared his experience with shifting to an early to bed, early to rise schedule. If you're curious:
This is one of those videos that stuck with me. To say I value time, especially creative time, is probably an understatement. I often feel frustrated when my creative energy runs out, but the night is still young. I end up watching a couple hours of TV because who goes to bed at 8pm?
So I tried it. I slept with my Apple watch on and a 4:30 alarm set to vibrate. It actually took 12 minutes of vibration before I woke up, but I was trying to spare my husband an early morning alarm. I'm sensitive like that. :)
I usually wake up around 6am, so this didn't feel like that much extra time. Determined to make the most of it, I went for a sunrise run, listened to my current audio book, Creative Quest by Questlove and I killed a few zombies (PvZ 2). Now, at 3:12 in the afternoon, I am feeling the sleepies, but I am determined to push through. I know it's going to take a few nights to fully transition.
I think I am going to switch my wake-up time to 4am. I want just a little more am. I'm hoping I'll have an easier time getting to sleep tonight. Last night I tossed and turned which is adding to today's roughness.
This may be a crazy, short lived experiment, but I can't resist giving it a go. I would much rather spend two hours in the early morning being creative, running, or just generally doing stuff than that same amount of time laying in front of the TV. I wonder how I'll feel a few days from now?
There is a better way to do this thing I'm doing, but I'm going to go ahead and do it this other way anyway. This sounds crazy and yet with almost every design I undertake, I find myself thinking this kind of thought. It's different from second-guessing or some sort of crisis of confidence, but rather my brain telling me that there is another way of doing the thing I'm doing that would be even better. I will ignore this intelligence and continue on, very often wasting some of my own precious time as well as yarn which I would argue is also precious.
Case in point, my current project is a baby blanket for my nephew's first. My idea is to take a classic doily pattern and make it up in a soft, baby yarn, modifying it just a little to take out some of the larger spacing in the design so that it would serve well as a blanket. The idea is sound, even kind of fun and appropriate for my vintage loving nephew and his wife, but as I work up the blanket, I know it would represent better in a solid yarn and better still in one with a less fluffy texture. Yet here I am, ignoring my own reasoning and working through with my initial yarn purchase. The best thing you can say about this variegated, furry yarn is that the colors will be appealing to the indented recipients and it has an impressionist air which will probably even present the suggestion of lace when complete. Even so, I know deep down that I will end up crocheting the whole piece over again and this will become something taking up space in my studio or at best, donated to a charity which will have no idea what it is supposed to be.
Why do I do this? Do I want to prove myself wrong? Is it because I can't abandon a project once I've begun? Will writing this phenomena down create personal change?
Honestly, I think this is just a shout into the void, an existential "why?" and one of many I have about myself and my creative brain. Perhaps I'm just wondering if anyone can relate.
I'll come back and share my finished baby blanket, both of them.
I was just reading my last blog post from September of 2018. That's right, September! Blimey it's been a long time!!!
At least let me follow up my last ancient post. Since the fall of last year, I have managed to get a couple projects done. The Daydreamer Dolman Sweater is my brand new pattern that has been months in the making. I really wanted to design something to showcase all of the fun, cake style yarns on the market. This was made using Caron Latte Cakes and I just love how the colors present themselves in cool, geometric patterns. Of course you could go solid or design your own. I made
up this second one with short sleeves using Yarn Bee's Fur-Ever Style and trimmed it out with a pretty blue from my stash. This one is lighter weight and a nice layer to throw on over a tank. It's worked in a free size for all of us fans of loose, comfy clothes.
So that's my big new pattern, but in my last post I was talking about my All Wrapped Up in Circles & Squares Applique and how I was working on project using this motif. I ended up assembling two of the 10" squares and designing a handbag. All of the details can be found on Instagram by searching #circlesandsquaresbag You can find me on Insta @jennofwindrose and here is what the finished project looks like...
Cute, huh?
I guess I have one last share before I call it a night. I recently found a source for really nice quality Recycled Sari Silk Sliver. It is free of little threads and bits that are commonly found in recycled sari silk so its pure pleasure to spin. If you love all of the gorgeous and somewhat random colors that can be found in recycled sari silk, you will go crazy for this fiber. Oops, can't forget the pic! Okay, I am going to call this Wednesday done. Hope life is treating you well!!
