The Week August 7-13

Last week:

• Carry on with Aranami.
  Done, though only a little.
• Embroidery: finish the top half of the fox pillow design.
  Done: I finished the whole thing and bought a pillow form to fill the case!

• Spinning: carry on.
  I finished spinning and finishing (washing & whacking) all the in-progress stuff, counted yardage and weighed everything and put it all in my stash on Ravelry. I even wrote about it all here yesterday!
• Go to TKD at least once to practice before testing, go Thurs or Fri to test. Practice form right before test to warm up.
  Done. I went Monday and practiced at home Thursday and Friday before the test. I had Henry (my 13 year old 2nd degree black belt who recently started teaching) check my form right before the test. Ethan, my middle kid who’s leaving for college soon, helped administer the test. I was shaky during my form, forgot to kiap (shout) while sparring, but broke the board with a side kick on the first try.
• Go to the gallery. Take Ky or Becky, but go.
  Nope. I’m going to have to take this off the list.
• Decide on next step for gallery/artist thing and stuff down all that doubt.
  I finished the fox embroidery so I feel free to do other stuff now, namely my own embroidery and other fiber projects that would be for a gallery type setting, stuff that doesn’t really fit anywhere else except maybe my etsy shop. I even started a new piece using fabric from a felted sweater and handspun singles! Anyway: the plan is to do a handful of more pieces and noodle through my goals and (maybe) an artist statement.

I also started another summer top using free-to-me yarn that one of the knitter’s in my Wednesday group brought to share/donate. It’s Garnstudio’s Bombul/Lin (Cotton/Linen). Details will be on Ravelry here once I settle on what I’m doing with it; I already ripped it out once because it was way too small.

I got a package from Melissa of Knitting the Stash fame with DPNs and instructions for a really cool group project. You can read all about it on Melissa’s blog, but I’ll definitely be posting more about it. I started thinking about what I want to do with my square and which yarn to use.

And I lucked into/bought/donated money for a print of a new mural that’s a public art project in my town. I just started following the town’s public art organization on twitter and to pay for a new fabulous mural on a building, they were offering prints of the mural for a donation. I really like the color and style of the mural so I jumped on it, and even bought a frame, cut it (carefully using my rotary cutter!) to size, and hung it in my kitchen yesterday. You can see a pic of the mural on the building here.

This week:

• Saturday morning I have an appointment to have a cracked tooth pulled and an implant started. This is my first extraction since having my wisdom teeth out years ago and I’m a little nervous, but I’m looking forward to not having a tooth that complains about cool breezes, much less hot or cold foods.
• Brandon, my oldest, goes back to school on Friday, a day early because he volunteered to help the university/other students with move-in day. I think my husband is taking him & helping him move in, so I will have a day of quiet at home instead of spending 6 hours in the car.
• Continue working on the summer top and/or Aranami.
• Start spinning something new.
• Decide on a yarn for my Knit Together project square and start. I’ve pretty much decided on a stitch pattern and square construction, and I’m sure I’ll write about that, but I’m not sure that it’s going to be this week.
• Continue with the new embroidery project during the day when the light is good.
• Go to TKD Tuesday & Thursday.
• Start strength training again, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – I worked out just before sitting down to write this, so I’ve begun. I hate starting over, but it has to be done instead of just thinking how great it would be if I did start lifting again.

This list is getting a little out of hand again, but I think I can do it all. That’s how it always starts but maybe, just maybe it’s a busy week and not me having unreasonable expectations.