focus friday. december one little word.

...december's prompt was to document facts and feelings about our word. and things we wanted to remember.

the final spread - november on the left and december on the right

I have a lot more feelings than facts about my word. which makes sense since it was a feeling - having lost my focus - that set me on the journey in the first place.

the one thing I'd been putting off about the project was a binder for the completed pages. this morning I chose the easy route and simply grabbed one of the empty target binders I keep for knitting patterns. it might not be perfect, but it serves the purpose. I anticipate looking back over those pages a lot. they need to be accessible.

the binder is at the far left of row of books; I'll be adding the 2012 pages to it as I finish them, too

in closing, I feel proud of what I've done with my one little word. I love that this is a word I'm not going to lose (ask me my words for all the other years and I might not be able to even remember them).  I plan to continue focus fridays here on my blog. and I know what I learned last year is going to give me a jump start on my 2012 word. shine.

focus friday. november one little word.

...november's prompt was about self-reflection through a series of "i statements". ali provided the six statements and we had three extra spaces for pretty paper collages. when I first watched the video back on november 6, I thought "wow, good stuff"...but as the month progressed, I found it hard to nail down my thoughts. this word, and the process that ali has led us through, have had such an impact on me. how do I sum it all up on six little cards?

last weekend, with the 30th just a few days away (of course the focused me was going to finish the prompt by the end of the month!), I printed the cards on scrap paper, glued them into my journal, and started writing. I finished yesterday (yeah, a day late) and printed the cards for real. the paper collages were easy (for once!) and the words seemed right.

except for the i believe statement. the one I journaled read "the process ali presented has been a huge part of why this word. this year. has worked." but when I went to write it on the card, what came out was "I chose the right word. at the right time. and I'm so grateful. (amen!)" those words are right.

I watched the december video last night, and I'm looking forward to finishing up the project later this month. and yes, I've already signed up for the 2012 class. and chosen my word. more about that later. for now, it's still about focus!

another bout of startitis.

...my last bout of (documented? :-) startitis was at the end of august. followed two weeks later by a commitment to stop setting unrealistic knitting goals. followed two weeks later by a set of what I thought would be reasonable goals for the month of october. the good news is that I think I did well by those goals. I met all of them except starting katie's birthday sweater. But that's because she won't be home for thanksgiving after all and my first try-on opportunity will be december 16. (YAY! and believe me, I'll be ready by then!)

I even managed to squeeze in a totally unplanned hat, the beginning of a new lace shawl and finishing the body on my grey goose.

so I started four projects this week. and purchased yarn for two more.

and I was feeling good about it all except that marc finally complained about my knitting taking over another room of the house. an important one. especially with sara coming home for a birthday dinner tomorrow.

yes, from any angle it's a mess! and even I knew it was bad when I couldn't find the remote for the tv this morning. I am happy to say that I've since organized that mess and moved it to the counter so the table is cleared for eating. and tomorrow I'll get the extra yarn and stack of patterns and my needles moved back to my yarn room. [I haven't figured out a good way to keep six in-process projects neatly in sight while I work on them. as a start, I ordered another project basket. maybe I can keep the traveling projects in one and the at home projects in another? welcome better ideas!]

so those four new projects? here they are!

raveled here

the rocky coast cardigan from coastal knits. I was impressed I managed to hold off starting this one til I finished those october projects. swatching doesn't count! last night I finished the raglan increases, tried it on and had my sister take a picture. today I've worked a few inches of the body. love working a sweater on size 10-1/2 needles for a change!

raveled here

gyllis, the latest release from stephen west (happily not colorwork meaning only a few ends to weave in!). I love lace in worsted weight and the shape of this shawl won me over the first day I saw it. the pattern was only available as a kit through an LA-based yarn store til november 1. I admit I stalked the pattern page for about seven hours on tuesday til it was released. I'm using a llama/mulberry silk blend in a gorgeous holiday red to knit this. a shawl on size 8's goes quickly too!

this is the next pattern I'm suggesting for my saturday shawl class, so I need to finish it this month for sure.

raveled here

leg warmers in a pretty gray alpaca. katie found a photo of these on pinterest and made me feel like a rockstar when I said I could knit them for her. I started these on monday and it felt good to be knitting 1x1 ribbing in the round on size 2 needles. reminded me of my 2011 sock obsession I guess. but now I'm looking forward to starting the lace (just a few more rounds of ribbing to go).

raveled here

and finally, the biggest project. a jared flood pattern (umaro) knit in rowan big wool. 14 balls. like I said, it's "big". thank goodness for size 15 needles!

...and while I'm still running high on startitis, it seems like the best time to document what I plan to accomplish for november:

finish grey goose (another 500? yds)
finish rocky coast (another 750? yds)
finish gyllis (500 yds)
start katie's vitamin d (tbd)
start catkin (tbd)
knit a hat for charity (200 yds)
~2,000 yds...should be a challenge, but doable if I stay focused!

focus friday. a finished project.

...knitting has been good to me this week. as in I finished a project, have another done except for 38 stitches to graft (coffee work tomorrow morning!) and we got a gorgeous shipment of madelinetosh, including madtosh light, in the shop today. and I got to spend nearly all day yesterday and today knitting with friends (and even captured one of those times with a photo - thanks, karen!)

the finished project is creature comforts, the current project crush at the shop (or maybe it was really a knit along, I'm not sure). several of my students are knitting it, too; and really, the knitting along was one of my favorite parts of this project. until I finished it, and put it on, and peeked at the back in my bathroom mirror. truly, the best part about this one is wearing it!

thank you, sharon, for taking the photo - and the suggestion to hold my arms out :-)

now that it's done and I've worn it, I'll admit I was a bit worried about a few things. the seams, having it fall off my shoulders, or just plain fit weird. but really, none of those worries came to be. and I love the finished piece. I did make a few modifications and they're documented on my ravelry project page.

a view from the front (note to self, next time smile at the camera!)

more on the nearly finished project and what I'm going to knit with the madtosh light later this weekend...

focus friday. photographs.

...I've made reference here a few times to the superhero photo workshop. it started september 19 and ends next week. I've been a bit irritated with myself because I don't feel like I've been taking full advantage of everything the course has to offer. truly, as of yesterday, I'd only uploaded four photos. yep, only four!! I'd hoped for more like 100.

I was even more mad at myself about my lack of participation because ali's prompt for october is photos. a re-run of the february prompt, we're capturing nine 2-1/8 x 3-1/8 images that tell the story of our word right now.

but then I spent several hours yesterday afternoon updating my photo album. I had over 120 photos to add, all taken since the beginning of august. and as I worked through the pile (I use the kolo catalina albums - 4x6 prints and I write a short description of who/where/when for each), I revisited so many happy memories. knitting, celebrating with friends, holly's birthday, lunches out, dinner out, the beach, fall at the park, 30 miles walking through atlanta with my sister... some of the photos aren't that great, a few are really spectacular...but all come together to tell my story. one for which I am incredibly grateful.

so (for now, anyway!) no more regrets about the photos. I'm going to work through the class at my own pace and enjoy it.

I did grab my camera this morning for our walk and added three more to the four. and I found nine images to reflect focus for me right now.

1. rainbow in the fountain at the park - it always makes me smile when I see it; 2. on the trail with holly and sure signs of the changing season; 3. our pear tree - I LOVE the way the leaves glow from the light; 4. my latest lace shawl; 5. knitting with friends; 6. a favorite scripture (I've had the bible for years, but only started highlighting passages recently); 7. sunset at the beach; 8. framing the new with the old (I love the metaphor!); 9. remembering to look up

focus friday. finished.

...as in the nantucket vest. which I really finished on tuesday. and wore on wednesday (and thursday :-) but saved to blog til today (so I could write one of those very cool alliterative blog titles).

when I wrote last weekend about having a day's more work to do on this piece, I thought I might be over-estimating a bit. turns out, not so much. I finished the back piece - 60 stitches wide x 13 inches long of straight stockinette - sunday evening, but one look at the body and all those ends to weave in... I put it into timeout. it sat there all day monday while I started my creature comfort cardi, feeling no guilt because both those projects were on my october list. and then tuesday morning I had a burst of energy and decided to start the finishing.

it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I took my time getting the pieces pinned together. and even stopped for a try-on (and a photo :-) before I put my crochet hook to work.

turns out seaming with a crochet hook is pretty painless. I had the two seams done and nearly all the ends finished in about two hours. one more hour that evening and it was ready to block.

I followed my usual routine - soak for 20 minutes (holly enjoyed her walk!) and then lay out to dry. taking a photo at this point helped me get the oval more-or-less even. I turned the fan on high and left it til morning.

I pulled out the points just a tiny bit and evened up the edges along the back

wow! I knew it fit from the try-ons while I was knitting, but the finished piece is fabulous! I'm going to get a lot of wear from this one... tomorrow I'm planning those same cropped jeans and a dark gray long-sleeved t-shirt (the weather is finally turning a bit cooler).

many thanks to martha for the photos (and the fresh flowers :-)

project notes - raveled here - I followed shelley's pattern as written except for the yarn substitution (and the do-over :-). this was my first time knitting with maggi's linen and I think it's perfect for the pattern. love that it shows off all the stitch detail, while maintaining the integrity of her suggested 100% cotton yarn (maggi's is a 48/52 linen/cotton blend).

charmed.

...the weather in atlanta has been beautiful this week (we're very short on rain, but long on highs in the 70's and low 80's with low humidity and a breeze - the kind of weather I imagine san diego has all the time. yes, that beautiful).

so when my plans for the afternoon got cancelled mid-morning, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than sit outside. and knit. with a friend. (daily list #9 & #10 :-)

joanna and I spent two lovely hours outside at starbucks. and she obliged #8, even helping to "pose" holly. obviously, holly didn't want any posing!


we chatted and we knitted and we chatted. I asked if she was planning to meet susie gibbs next week. and that got me chatting about her fabulous yarns, and the lovely laceweight traveling woman I saw on hoxton's blog last week. her shawl is one of the prettiest knitted things I've seen - ever. and once I saw it I knew my plan to re-purpose my breezy cardigan was right. I even have a size 6 lace needle ready for action!

of course mine is orange. and it's for me. but it's the third time I've knit the pattern. it's got to be charmed.

just begun. raveled here.

the battle rages on.

...surrendering isn't supposed to be hard, right? or maybe it depends on the battle. or the personality of the fighter.

my bet is on both.

I chose to surrender a battle that has been beating me since I retired and started knitting "professionally" (please excuse the quotation marks - my husband thinks it's a hobby, but it pays for my yarn, so I think it's more than that). key point here is that knitting is now the only thing I really do. yes, I still meet friends for coffee, I keep house, I walk my dog, I teach, I read, I study, ... but really... most of that takes a back seat to the knitting. it's certainly the only thing I do - besides blogging and photography - that creates something that lasts outside of me. so I take it seriously. and that's my personality.

I like to take things seriously. I like to set stretch goals and meet them (I taught a seminar once in my former life that "exceeding" stretch goals meant you hadn't set the goals right ... simply meeting a stretch goal is a victory).

so there we have the perfect storm to setup this battle.

and in my first month, I've been defeated.

but I've learned.

I almost hate to revisit the campaign, but maybe I'll learn more from it if I do!

remember september 2? a few days before a 3-day weekend (when I wasn't working or teaching), a week before my planned beach trip, and a month off from teaching two of my classes. knitting time seemed abundant. I was excited about the projects. I could do anything!

funny, when I posted on september 16 about my surrender, I didn't actually surrender any of those earlier deadlines. in my head I was still planning to finish a shawl and two sweaters and maybe let the vest slide to october. really?!

yes really?! what was I thinking! I was setting myself up to fail. and I don't like that. that's why I'm surrendering the battle. I said it. and I wrote it. but I didn't do it.

I worked like crazy to finish the crocus shawl so I could share it with my students (that worked, they're excited about the pattern and two of them have started it).

now I'm working like crazy to finish the nantucket vest (so I can start the next sweater). I'm close, but really, I have at least a day's more work to do.

and now I have birthday and holiday knitting to start. I refuse to let those projects become part of my battle this year. over the last few days, I've been re-working the "deadlines" in my head. trying to be realistic about how much knitting time I really have and how much knitting I get done.

my new rule of thumb is about 75 yds of yarn a day. more if it's straight stockinette or heavier yarn. and less is if it's not. that means I can knit about 2,250 yards a month.
so for october, I'm going to:

1. finish nantucket - this is mostly finishing now, not knitting, but say 200 yds
2. start & finish sara's birthday gift - TBD
3. start & finish creature comforts - 1,000 yds
4. start & finish the sunflower shawl - 450 yds
5. start katie's birthday gift - TBD

 I think these goals are realistic, and depending on the gifts, maybe even a stretch. not that I'm looking for stretch this month. I'm just hoping to get back to a saner place.

do you set time goals for your knitting? if so, does it work?

focus friday. choose a battle.

...for september, ali's prompt is about taking action. choosing a battle to fight and one to surrender.

I've been thinking for months about my blog and about how it fits into what matters to me. I realized when I did  june's exercise that my blog was about connecting, and about telling my story. and I'd like to do it better. so my battle to fight is about my blog. about making sure it tells my story - complete with photos! - the best way I can. I'd like to post better photos. I'd like to write better (most days I'd like to get back to proper grammar and punctuation and some days I even think about capitalization :-) I'd like to learn more about html.

the first step I'm going to take is to find - and sign-up for - an online class about photography, or blogging, or writing. the september handout included a story by andrea scher, who just happens to run a six-week photography class. the next session starts monday. I'm going to start by checking that out.

the battle to surrender was harder. my first thoughts went to knitting. not finishing those hibernating projects perhaps? or not working to reduce my stash? or letting myself go crazy starting whatever I wanted? yeah, no. that's too much the opposite of focus!

instead, I'm going to surrender the self-imposed - often completely unrealistic - deadlines I set for finishing my projects. those unrealistic deadlines have started to detract from my enjoyment of knitting. I do still need to get the samples for my lace shawl classes done in advance. and I do still intend to give finished objects as birthday and christmas gifts. but that's it. that's a matter of planning ahead, not about having unrealistic expectations or losing sleep the two weeks before christmas because it really does take many hours to knit a sweater or feeling guilty because I spent my knitting time on wednesday working on the sweater I won't likely wear til november when I have two sweaters on the needles that I could wear now.

funny, I have a feeling the surrender is going to be harder than the fight.

focus friday. works in progress.

...I didn't mean to be a tease with wednesday's photo. but it was the first time I ever started four projects in four days, and it seemed like I should document that!

I think my startitis is the likely reaction to knitting fairly monogamously through each of my last four projects (traveling woman, wispy, damson and westknits mystery kal). I'm ready for more variety and ready to have more fun with my knitting. yes, knitting on only one thing at time - as much time as I spend knitting - just isn't much fun!

part of what led to that burst of monogamy is that two of the shawl projects were for classes I'm teaching and I needed to have them finished to share. and I didn't start them soon enough to have the luxury of knitting them over a few weeks - I needed them done. and then I just wanted to get all my WIPs finished so I could start fresh (I'm not going to add anything to my hibernating pile! well....except for the westknits shawl which is is technically now there because after the knitting I have to weave in 34 ends - triple ugh...I'm giving myself a pass on that for now!)

with only two classes this month and a long weekend at the beach, I'm thinking I'll have lots of time to knit. and I want social knitting as well as some more complicated projects (empty nesting leaves me a good bit of alone time where complicated is good!). so here we have it. four new projects. and I'm saying it now. I want to have all of them finished this month.

raveled here

first up - the autumn breeze. I fell in love with the yarn and thought about using it for knitbot's featherweight cardi - but that pattern takes just over the 800 yds in one skein. and I really didn't want to use just a tiny bit of a second skein. the breezy cardigan takes a lot more yarn. and except for it being laceweight yarn on size 5 needles, it's the ultimate social project. miles and miles of straight stockinette knitting! also, I learned that susie from juniper moon will be visiting the shop on october 11. I really want to have this finished to wear for her visit.

raveled here

then the nantucket vest. technically, I wasn't supposed to start this til 2pm today when our shop kal begins. but I couldn't help myself. 300+ stitches to cast-on and join in the round didn't sound like something I wanted to tackle in a group setting! so I did the the cast-on and knit one round just to be sure it wasn't twisted. done. (and if any of these projects slip to october, this will be it - I'm sure the kal will continue at least a few weeks into next month).

raveled here

and the requisite* lace shawl - crocus, aka the "silver" of rose beck's silver and gold collection. I've selected these two patterns for my november/december lace shawl class and I hope that starting crocus now will give me ample time to finish both of them before the class begins. (and I'm really looking forward to knitting the sunflower, aka "gold" - it's all-over lace design will be a fun change after the stockinette/garter background shawls I've done recently). I chose the canopy fingering because it's lovely - and comes in 200 yard skeins. the medium size calls for 500 yards and most sock yarn comes in 400 yard skeins (again, I don't want to end up using just a bit of that second skein!) *note that I am loving lace shawls right now - especially those without a center point to point you-know-where...my 2010 sock craze has been replaced by a shawl craze!

raveled here

and finally vodka gimlet, which I'm calling grey goose (naming projects should be fun, too!) this one wasn't even in my queue until last sunday when half my seamless sweater workshop students said they wanted to knit this in october. (and no one had any interest in knitting the next two sweaters I'd planned...oh well!) we have some great yarns in the shop for this pattern (recommends a wool at 5 st/in) and the rowan creative focus is brand new. I swatched and got 4.75 st/in which works great - I'm knitting the size 32 planning a size 33.5 - isn't it crazy that a 0.25 stitch difference has such an impact on the finished size? yes, it is!

I'm committed to doing a better job tracking my works in progress in ravelry. lately, a few projects have gone from nothing to finished in one update. ooops!

...off to knit.... happy weekend!

[oh and p.s., yes I'm still stitching too - the poppies piece is about half done and I am loving it and already thinking about my next project!]

focus friday. august one little word.

...another month nearly done, and another prompt complete. this month was a self-portrait (it will be printed 5x7) and a few affirming words. ali's prompt included a list of suggested affirmations, with the idea we'd print them and cut them out to adhere to the photo, but I added mine in photoshop. so one photo to print and done!

I love shadow portraits and knew right away that was the way I wanted to capture this one. on the (right) path at my favorite hembree park, daily exercise, and holly. we walk there a couple of mornings a week, just the two of us. that fifty minutes of quiet time is perfect to get my thoughts together for the day/week ahead. and the exercise - for both of us! - is a bonus.

of course it took me a few tries to get 1) a sunny morning; and 2) holly's cooperation! finally came together yesterday morning.

focus friday. tackling my WIPs.

...I mentioned a few months back that my pile of hibernating projects was surprisingly big. Carole suggested I decide what to finish or frog and at the time I thought "great idea. absolutely. someday." But this past week, that pile of projects has really started to weigh me down. I'm close to finishing a sweater and that means I'm thinking hard about what to knit next. And there's a sweater in that pile (very uncharacteristic of me to start a sweater and not finish it - well, now that I knit seamless sweaters :-) Maybe it's time to take Carole's advice and decide (and then act!)

Last night I stumbled across this Ravelry post, and then this blog. Thank you, ExecutiveKnitter (Denise), for laying out a great process (and for making me feel way better about how many projects I'm tackling here!)

This morning I set to work. I have an older version of Excel, and I couldn't apply her very helpful tips for exporting data from Ravelry. Thank goodness I only have 11 projects (after frogging one to give Karen the yarn) to look up and enter manually!

Once I had the data input, I followed Denise's approach (except I used a 5-point scale) for scoring each project to get something quantifiable into the process. Those are the five columns Product, Process, Effort, Motivation and Score. I copied her Issue definitions exactly. Then I sorted the projects by Score and Percent Complete. It was almost a no-brainer where to draw the line. Yep, those last three projects are going to the frog pond, and I'm going to finish the other eight. Likely starting with the braided hood tunic. ...as soon as I finish wispy!

Random observations:

1. One sweater, three pairs of socks, two scarves.
2. Only two projects are past the halfway point; four are barely started.
3. Three are from shop KALs.
4. Socks seem boring right now.
5. I'm no longer a fan of tedious (maybe because my kitchen table knitting time buddy left for college?)
6. I haven't added anything to the pile since May.
7. I'm going to have a skein of malabrigo sock, 330 yards of DK wool/silk and a ball of noro laceweight to add to my stash!
8. I like the scoring approach - think it would be helpful to apply it before I start a project (instead of once I get bored with it!)

focus friday. interesting knitting.

...at the shop, I have a bit of a reputation for knitting top-down (raglan) sweaters. I'm sure I've earned it (or maybe not? only six of the 10 sweaters I've made this year are top-down raglans?)

but the truth is that I like to knit seamless, not just top-down sweaters. and it's not so much that I won't seam as that I won't seem just because the designer chose to work in pieces! I sewed shoulders on liesl and lolita and underarms on ginger, for example.

and yesterday, after I blocked the body of wispy,


I sewed sleeve seams.


so I now have a very weird looking shrug, ready to pickup hundreds (surely I exaggerate, but I'm trying to get myself ready for it!) of stitches around the inside edge to knit a few inches of ribbing, and then a sort of skirt on the bottom edge.

hannah's construction technique is the main reason I wanted to knit this sweater. it's just interesting! (and finding this FO on ravelry...I had a skein of misti alpaca handpaint lace in my stash - mine is the lavender blue colorway)

the next two sweaters in my queue aren't top-down raglans either. the spoked cardigan (another carol feller design) is knit side to side and cria (my first little red pattern) is top-down, but not a raglan.

what new or interesting construction techniques are intriguing you right now?

focus friday. the playlist.

...wow, how did it get to be the end of july already? which means another one little word prompt. this month it was about creating a nine-song soundtrack to evoke your word. engage your ears. listen. I watched ali's video announcing the prompt back on july 2 and had my list of songs compiled before the video was even done. I created a focus playlist in itunes and periodically played it...making sure it was still right. and this morning I decided it was.

::amazing grace - chris tomlin
::I run to you - lady antebellum
::summer, highland falls - billy joel
::just to see you smile - tim mcgraw
::days like this - van morrison
::home - michael buble
::the book I write - spoon
::here comes the sun - the beatles
::all my days - alexi murdoch

I'm sure nothing on the list will surprise katie or sara. about half these songs are ones they'd quickly list if asked about my favorite songs. two of them are even ringtones on my phone (and I'm pretty sure summer highland falls is katie's ringtone for me :-) billy joel, van morrison and the beatles were from cd's I imported to itunes when I first started using it about five years ago. tim mcgraw and lady antebellum came much later...last summer, I guess. yes, I came late to my love of country music! the latest addition is chris tomlin's amazing grace. that song has been a favorite of mine for years, and his version is my favorite favorite.

so these songs all evoke a sense of me. which is, in a weird sort of way, what I've been looking for with my one little word this year. and the snippets of lyrics I captured for each song...I think they tell exactly the story I'm trying to tell.

my july page

...would love to know what soundtrack you're playing these days?

focus friday. learning.

...learning new things has always excited me. back in january, 2007 (wow, pre-blog!), I made a list of 10 things I want to do each day, and #2 (just after #1 to tell marc, sara and katie I love you!) was "learn something new". and from my journal on january 17 of that year, a lesson from sara on "synthetic division: dividing polynomials - something mom learned new today". (whoa, and for the record, no, I don't still remember how to do that!)

and sometimes I go through periods where it doesn't seem like I'm learning much, and then I get to time like now, where the curve seems pretty steep. getting my macbook, knitting failures (which always mean a lesson learned), c.s. lewis, and - this week - photoshop! following up on may's to-do list, I've been working through kim klassen's photoshop essentials course.

as of this morning, I've completed five and a half of the six days of material. which is roughly 40 videos. on topics ranging from how to organize the photoshop workspace, to really fun stuff like layer masks and curve adjustments and textures and blending modes. I'm sure sara is tired of hearing me say "oh wow" while she's eating breakfast and I'm watching the videos, toggling back and forth with real images I'm editing in elements and seeing how I can actually do what kim does. yes, wow.

I had grand plans of posting before and after images today to share a little of the wow, and holly went to the groomer's yesterday and that seemed ideal because one of the lessons was specifically about getting highlights and contrast in animals (and I've always had problems getting photos to show how cute holly's face is). so of course it's rainy today (no, I'm not complaining!) and I had to take my photo in the kitchen with only overhead lights (darn that sun!)

and 30 minutes later, I edited this....

to this

if you've seen holly in person, I think the after is a pretty good representation of her coloring - and her dog bed :-) and thanks to kim for the portrait texture and of course all the lessons. I think I used about 50% of them here. levels, saturation and brightness adjustments, filters, layer masks, selections, blending modes, textures. my final file had about 12 layers. I applied some of her lessons directly and played around with others to find something that worked.

if you want to learn photoshop, I cannot recommend her class highly enough!

next up, I'm going to learn needlepoint. the ladies at the shop are beyond excited to convert another knitter to a stitcher!

yep, needlepoint! the canvas is poppies...and it's an insert into for a fabulous project bag (BAG55BL, seen here, mine's black!)

what's next on your learning curve?

focus friday. healthy eating.

...during the summer, marc likes to play golf on thursday evenings. so dinner is just for sara and me. and it's nearly always salad. last night we tried a new one, inspired by this clipping my mom sent.

she was right on the mark - this is definitely a salad for us!

the only essential ingredient we didn't have on hand was green onions, but that was an easy fix with harry's right down the street.

the salad is a bed of greens, topped with fruit, vegetables and a savory grain, lightly dressed with a lemon basil dressing.

I first rinsed the tomatoes and blueberries, and stopped to admire the red & blue;

then I made zucchini ribbons with a vegetable peeler and blanched the ribbons (as much as I love vegetables, I do not like raw zucchini) - just a minute in the microwave and then a quick rinse in cold water;

rinsed and cooked the quinoa, chopped more, washed two heads of romaine, and assembled.

(we did have leftovers!)

thinking about this salad in its component parts - fruit, vegetables, grain and greens - we're excited to try other variations. peaches and strawberries for the fruit, tomatoes and cucumber or asparagus and yellow squash (both blanched) for the vegetables, brown rice or couscous for the grain, and greens... or a winter version with apples and oranges and acorn or butternut squash... the possibilities are endless!

mary/sara salad
inspired by better homes & gardens' july 2011 grains & fruit summer salad

for the dressing
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper

for the fruit
1-1/2 cups cubed cantaloupe (half of a medium sized melon)
2 cups blueberries

for the vegetables
one medium zucchini, sliced in ribbons with a vegetable peeler, blanched
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

for the savory grain
2 cups cooked quinoa (1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed, cooked in 1-1/2 cups water)
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
salt and pepper

for the greens
4 cups salad greens (I used the top halves of two heads of romaine and about a cup of mixed baby greens - the romaine leaves were great to layer under the rest of the salad)

for the top
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup mixed, chopped herbs (I used basil, oregano, thyme and parsley - what we have fresh on the deck!)

whisk the dressing ingredients together.

for the quinoa, bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan and add the quinoa. return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. fluff with a fork. add the green onion and 2 tablespoons of the dressing. season with salt and pepper.

to assemble, line a big salad bowl with the greens. cover with the fruit, vegetables and quinoa. sprinkle the walnuts and herbs over the top. serve with the dressing (suggest adding the dressing separately in case you have leftovers - undressed salad keeps better!)

focus friday. one little word update.

...I know I say this all the time, but really. time flies! I can't believe it's been nearly three months since I last posted about the one little word project. I've certainly thought about it, and planned it ... and today I'm finally doing it!

LOVE LOVE LOVE toodledo!

first up, may. a template to document the "stuff to tackle". the prompt really appealed to me... a to-do list is right up my alley! I listed five things:

1. find a to-do list application to synch between my mac and my iphone
2. start planning projects a month at a time
3. finish kim klassen's photoshop essentials class
4. get back into my dark-early study/reflection habit (i.e., getting up at 4:45 am); and
5. finish my big picture definition.

all of these had due dates in june and I felt energized and confident about working through them.  

my may spread - a photoshopped photo of our oak leaf hydrangea on the left and the list on the right

on june 1, I set my alarm for 4:45 am and got up! (it's 5:30 am on the weekends). I found toodledo on june 4 and had the app loaded to my iphone and tasks created shortly afterwards. I laid out the month of june (knitting projects, class preparations, "homemaking", etc) and got those tasks into the app, too.

so far, so good.

and then we went to hilton head and I decided to teach a new lace shawl class at the shop and my sunday sweater workshop students are getting really good and I need to knit two sweaters a month to keep (ever-so-slightly) ahead of them.

I didn't visit kim's photoshop class once.

but I was not going to let that big picture thing hang around for another month - and I really wanted the outcomes from that work. to know that my time and energy are aligned with my priorities. it came to me on wednesday while I was knitting (5 rows of garter stitch trim around the edges of vitamin gray - I love how simple knitting frees up my mind to work on other things!) that note to self I wrote back in april included a definition of the future me, where I hoped I'd be a year from now. and I realized that my big picture is just about making that future me a reality. hunh. yep, that's it. pretty simple. I have no idea why it took me so long to figure out.

ali's june prompt was to create nine baseball card-sized works of art representing our word. she shared hers and video that showed her making them. it was awesome - she sat down with what seemed like not a lot of supplies and created beautiful pieces. I kept procrastinating. not only was I intimated about creating, but I feel like my word is a process, not a thing, and it's hard to evoke.

and after wednesday's revelation, what I really wanted to do was get that big picture down on paper.  I collected supplies and sat down to work.

I didn't end up using much of anything I collected. but I like the results. it's simple. straightforward. and I think, still in keeping with the prompt's intent. and doing it really helped me internalize the words.

my june spread

love that my blog fits, too, as a way to document my story and stay connected. thank you all for reading, and especially for all your words of encouragement!

in closing, here's a look at the album pages so far... I think it's time to start thinking about an album for them.

focused friday. linen liesl. finished.

...now after 8pm and I feel like I'm coming in just under the wire. but that's ok. I really (really!!) wanted to do an FO Friday* post... my version of course has no capital letters, and since it's friday (in 2011) starts with focused.

yep liesl (fka zola) is done!

once I got going (on the right number of stitches :-) it was easy-peasy. a good bit of knitting, but not too hard. I love the bias bind-off and having the shoulder seams sit on the back side of the tunic.

I was a little bit nervous yesterday when I tried it on. finished, but unlaundered.**

um.

but then I washed it. and dried it. and wow!

this is after wearing it all day. yes, I think it grew a little, but I know that a little spritz and a few minutes in the dryer will get it right back into shape.

LOVE! (raveled here).

*FO Friday = "finished object Friday" - an opportunity for knitters to show off completed projects on their blogs. 
**(I almost didn't do this post because the photos are just ... so... you know, not knitterly.... but oh well - did you see up above where this is my FIRST "fo friday" post??!!)