Category: inspiration

The Week March 27-April 2, 2017

~ madgeface ~ 8 Comments

Last week’s goals with progress indicated:

      • Knit 3 or more wedges of Aranami.
        Not done – I got caught up in cables and finishing the Aspen sleeves, so I only managed 1 last night.
      • Start sleeve cap shaping on Aspen sleeves.
        Done. Started and finished – the sleeves are done. See?

I finished the sleeves for my Aspen cardi (by @mishi2x) this weekend. On to calculating to make it shorter, balling more yarn, and starting the fronts. This cat-free picture brought to you by blue bouncy ball, the great distractor.

    • Go to TKD twice.
      Done – I went thrice.
    • Add more pictures to Society 6 and let my FB people know.
      Done. Maybe I should replace the blog link in Instagram with a link to S6? And since I’m on the subject, maybe replace etsy shop link in @madgeface twitter account with link to this.

I also started an exercise challenge, egged on by my old roller derby buddies and an article in Runner’s World: 30 burpees (full burpees, with pushups) for 15 days. Today will be day 7 since we started last Tuesday. I pulled or strained something in my shoulder so it aches at rest and hurts when I turn my neck. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep going or not – is the pain just my body getting used to doing pushups again or did I really pull something? (Can you tell I’m putting off today’s 30 burpees by writing about them instead?)

Next week:

    • Knit 1 or more wedge of Aranami.
    • Do the math to figure out the stitch count for the fronts & back of Aspen since I’m doing a shorter version. I have the vague idea that the cabling should start around where the belt loops (which I’m not doing according to pattern) go.
    • Go to TKD twice.
    • Add more pictures to Society 6 and let my FB people know.
    • Decide yes/no on NaPoWriMo and yes/no on 100 day project (likely writing) since April is Saturday, the start day for both.
    • Come up with a good (not completely awful and humiliating) April Fool’s joke to play on Ky & the boys. Or, alternately, rise above it/go into full denial and just call it April 1.
    • Start a cat cave for Jeff (and later, one for Eevee) since he likes his improvised one so much:

Jeff's improvised cave

 

NaPoWriMo, 100 Day Project, An Old Poem

~ madgeface ~ 2 Comments

In keeping with November and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the month, April is NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. I’m thinking about participating again to see if I can write more than the 12 poems I did in 2014. Are any of you planning on doing that?

April 1 also marks the start of the 100 Day project, which I participated in in 2015, with 100 days of fiber art. Wait, that’s not entirely accurate. In 2015, the 100 day project started on April 1, I found out about it from someone I follow on Instagram, and followed along through The Great Discontent. Since then, I think there have been a number of 100 day project efforts, some of them even by lone people challenging themselves. In any case, that’s on my mind as well. I don’t think I could manage 100 days of poetry, but another 100 days of fiber art might be fun and interesting and inspiring.

Back to poetry. I know none of you signed up to read my poetry. I have to say there’s nothing worse than surprise bad poetry (and no one thinks their poetry is bad), but mine really isn’t that bad – I started out as a Creative Writing major focused on poetry before coming to my senses and switching to Rhetoric (in the classical sense, not the way the media uses the word today). So. I guess to warn you all that I may do NaPoWriMo and I may start posting poems, here’s one (unedited) from my 2014 effort.

Early April

The rivers are liquid again
but the puddles still freeze in the mud on the driveway.
In the morning, I stomp on the air bubbles frozen in them
while I wait for the bus to take me to school.
I make the rounds in the yard every day:
the crocuses planted by the foundation are up,
but the daffodils by the stone wall are not.
The lily of the valley bed
still has snow: it’s in the shadow of the house,
but each day it melts a little so that last year’s leaves,
bowed down under the weight of winter, are slowly revealed.
This is just the beginning.
But there will be an ending too:
after the rain overfills the brook and the pond,
the weight of the water will break the dam and my heart.

The Week March 20-26, 2017

~ madgeface ~ 2 Comments

Last week’s goals with progress indicated:

    • Knit 3 more wedges of Aranami.
      Done.
    • Continue with Aspen sleeves.
      I’m almost done with the increases and near where I should start the sleeve cap shaping.
    • Go to TKD twice.
      This almost didn’t happen thanks to snow days, but I’m still feeling Friday’s workout.
    • Keep learning how to spreche Deutsch and hablas Español and not get anything mixed up with le Français. Or Franglais.
      I kept going, but not as often as I was doing it (daily). I’m not sure I want to include it in this goal setting exercise or keep it just for fun. 

      I also:

    • Added pictures to my Society6 page and selected a whole bunch of others to upload there.

Next week:

  • Knit 3 or more wedges of Aranami.
  • Start sleeve cap shaping on Aspen sleeves.
  • Go to TKD twice.
  • Add more pictures to Society 6 and let my FB people know.

And for your enjoyment, Swallow by Tony Pinkevich.

The Week March 13-19, 2017

~ madgeface ~ 11 Comments

Last week’s goals with progress indicated:

  • Knit 3 more wedges of my Aranami shawl.
    Done. Easy peasy.
  • Recreate the charts for Aspen so they’re all in one chart, not a handful of charts with different row counts, which is too much for me to keep track of. Plus for some reason I really enjoy lining boxes up on a grid in Adobe Illustrator so this will be fun for me.
    I started but didn’t finish doing this but I’m marking it done anyway. The resulting chart would’ve been waaaaay too unwieldy, so I’m sucking it up and following 3 charts at once for the sleeves. The back & fronts are going to be interesting because I think there are 5 charts to follow.
  • Go to TKD twice and find more patience for myself and the instructor. (Expecting myself to have mastery of something I’ve practiced once is unreasonable and expecting the instructor to know where I am & what I need by reading my mind is also unreasonable. Maybe my goal should be more about expectations than patience. Or both. Hmm.)
    I almost went 3 times but that ended up not working out. Maybe this week. And my patience level was better.
  • Add more photos to Society6 and ruminate on it more.
    I’m certainly good at ruminating.

In addition, I:

  • Mailed off another order for The Yarn Office. The secret to etsy success appears to be abandoning all hope and then orders will start coming in. Maybe.
  • Downloaded Duolingo and started learning German. And then I tested for Spanish because why not? So I’m learning German & Spanish to add to my French (half of my double major in college).

This week:

    • Knit 3 more wedges of Aranami. Here’s a new picture of it, just for kicks:

Aranami

    • Continue with Aranami sleeves. Here’s a progress picture with my unwitting feline model, Jeff[rey Lebowski, the Dude]:

Owl Creek, Aspen

  • Go to TKD twice.
  • Keep learning how to spreche Deutsch and hablas Español and not get anything mixed up with le Français. Or Franglais.