I know, I know…you can’t tell I’m any scarcer than usual around here, but I can. Had three sick kids last week, sick me yesterday, plus the job, plus a possible move coming up if we can’t pull off a near-miracle money-inventing trick in the next week. So it’s on the frantic side.

I’ve been making time to work on patterns, though, for my sanity’s sake as much as anything. Have another almost ready to go to testing, so hopefully it won’t be more than a couple of weeks before it will be ready. It’s a different sort of thing than I’ve been doing, so it’s moving more slowly than I might have wished. There’s another dishcloth in the pipeline, too. This one’s pretty simple, so with any luck it’ll be available in the next week or so.

Back soonest.

Kim Werker just tweeted this crocheted Dr. Horrible. And made my night.

I also just finished my first run at a Jayne hat. Details to come when the kids aren’t trying to kill each other.

One year from my very first sale, I’ve sold 230 items on Etsy. That’s a hell of a thing, isn’t it? I’m shocked, and pleased beyond belief. I seem to have wound up focusing on patterns, which wasn’t my original intention, but I’m thrilled with the way that it’s working out. I love doing this. I love it more than I can quite explain, although the fact that I get up an hour early every morning to make time for it might be a reliable indicator. Heh. But seriously? For me there’s nothing quite like it in the world.

It’s going to be another great year. Thanks, y’all.

Now Available!

Yay!

If you’d rather use Etsy than the Ravelry download, you can also find the pattern in my Etsy shop over there in the sidebar. The finished dishcloth looks like this:

Spirals and dishcloths are two of my very favorite things, and I couldn’t resist the urge to combine them. I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the result!

I’d like to extend a huge thank-you to Tracie at The Crochet Studio for testing this pattern for me. Any errors that might still be lurking are there despite her attempts to straighten me out. Also, I’d like to note that she’s also got a pattern out in the last few days that I was lucky enough to get to test for her: Sunny Picots Coaster. It’s beautifully written, easy to follow, and the finished coaster is stunning.

I’d also like to thank all of you. Designs need crocheters to bring them to life. Your support also means that I can justify doing something that I absolutely love. Thank you.
And now I’m off to celebrate by working on the next one, lol. Good night!

So I’m working on a pattern that seems very suited to being presented with a chart alongside the rather wordy (of necessity, I swear!) written instructions. I have a vague idea how I might be able to accomplish said charting using PSP and a lot of very bad words. What I’m wondering is if all of you out there would be as excited to see a chart included with a pattern as I would be?

I’m sorry I can’t give you more details, but let me tell you this: I don’t believe that having another way to look at the same information could possibly be a bad thing. I just wonder if I’m the only one who has become hooked on the charts and how crazy useful they are.

That reads more like evangelism than an honest question, doesn’t it?

Even so, anyone care to venture an opinion?

I did something heretical last night: I threw yarn away.

Worse, I threw it away in the form of a UFO.

You see, the thing is that I realized that I really, really didn’t want to finish that project. And since it was 10 years old, and I was not the crocheter then that I am now, the quality wasn’t such that I felt comfortable sending it out into the world into someone else’s hands as a donation. And honestly, I just don’t have the space mentally or physically to store something that’s never going to be finished.

So into the trash it went.

I’ve still got a ton of yarn left from it that can become something else. What else, I’m not sure, but I’ll no doubt figure it out after it’s had a chance to be stash for a while.

I feel…lighter. Definitely. When you can send something to the dump with a sigh of relief edged by sadness rather than vice versa, you know you did right.

Time to conquer the giant pile of stuff that has accumulated over here. I go through these cycles every few weeks…starting everything I run across, then sorting through and finishing some and killing the ones that aren’t turning out as well as I’d like.

Still trying to decide what to do with the Monster.

Finished my box for HAP that can go out next week or the week after.

Getting ready to look at the spiral ‘ghan with a critical eye. I think that the way I constructed it makes it fatally flawed. I have an idea how I might get it to behave better, but I’m not likely to start again any time soon.

Decisions, decisions.

The damned thing isn’t ever going to be finished.

Seriously.

I’ll tell you why, too: it’s because in the intervening ten years, I’ve changed too much. I still love the colors, but the way I crochet is totally different now. I don’t have desire enough, or patience enough, to go through the excruciating work of trying to match my former gauge (way too tight), of putting all of those little squares together (or adding on to them), and trying to force the thing to do what I think it should do now, instead of what I’d intended to do then.

I’m going to keep the remaining yarn and find another project for it. That I’m sure of. What to do with the panels I haven’t taken apart? Pillows, maybe? And I have 73 finished squares and some partially finished ones. I’m not sure whether to try to turn those into something else or just re-home them. Anyone interested in 73 tiny granny squares?

(This is the project I’m talking about. Some of those panels have been taken apart now.)

Is starting to falter a bit. This was, of course, inevitable, but I was hoping it would be a little longer before it totally got sidetracked. I did get a bit done this morning, catching up with the shop a bit, but nothing like I was managing the first week. I just can’t get to bed early enough consistently enough. I seem to remember a far-distant past when the children went to bed at a reasonable hour, but I suspect that was before it stayed light *quite* so late. I suppose another month or two will cure that.

Anyway, off to work. Updates if I ever get near the yarn again…

Because they multiply quickly, and because it’s fun. Not so much on the pictures this time, though, I’m afraid. The sun, the clouds, and the children have not been aligning favorably. Heh.

Designs: One new pattern is out for testing, another is in the writing-up stage. We won’t count the insanely long list of ideas that are the top page of the notebook that lives on my desk.

Charity: I make rectangles for HAP, which is an ongoing thing. I’d been sending squares all over charity-dom, but I have little time and less money and needed to focus, and this is the organization that I chose.

Other: This is where the list gets long.

On the too-hot-to work-under-because-we-have-no-air *sob* list:

–1 giant granny intended as a gift eventually, perhaps 1/3 done.

–1 spiral baby blanket. I’m unsure whether I’ll even finish this. I’m not completely pleased with how it’s coming out and I’m very much considering finishing it off as a doll blanket and giving it to the kids. They’ll probably steal the FO anyway, lol.

–1 Monster, which I could probably work on anyway but haven’t talked myself into just yet.

On the knit list:

–1 drop-stitch scarf (this one, to be precise), done in sock yarn on size 3 straights. It’s coming out wonderfully. I was going to put it in the big bag of gifties, but it might just have to stay here and live with me.

–One plain garter stitch scarf done in Bernat Softee Chunky on size 10 straights. I love making things I don’t have to look at. And it’s pretty, too.

–The dishcloth that lives in my lunchbag. This one is scraps for something vaguely log-cabin-ish, since I wanted to practice picking up stitches. Yes, I’m aware that my idea of fun is a tad off.

On the hook:

–Doris Chan’s All Shawl. I called it the “Immediate Shawl” in my Rav projects because I saw it and immediately grabbed yarn and a hook. *grin*

–I started making granny squares out of my Softee Chunky scraps. Which isn’t a WiP as much as it is me being sort of random, but it won’t take much to have enough for a lapghan, if a delightfully clashing one.

–It doesn’t count as a WiP if I haven’t started yet, right? But I’m fixin’ to get at least one more scarf out of my leftover Red Heart Soft that I’ve been steadily turning into scarves. That will probably get started later today.

First, the new design. Because I work Wednesday through Sunday and I won’t have a better chance. Also, if the light holds, I’d really like to redo the photography for the new pattern. It’s not bad, but I’m not happy with it the way I want to be happy with it. That will be out as soon as testing’s finished and I’ve made the inevitable corrections.

Not a bad list, ‘eh?

But I have children.

The lengths I’ll go to to get time to crochet…I’ve started getting up an hour earlier in the mornings.

I’ve lost my mind.

But I have high hopes that I can lose my mind in a productive way.

You know, all my life I’ve wanted to find a passion, to figure out what it is that I love so much I’d be willing to go to great lengths to pursue it. Color me shocked that this is what it turned out to be. I’d never have guessed it. Never.

Life is amazing.