novamade

birthday deadlines

While I like the idea of deadlines in theory, practically speaking, they are a problem for me.  For a crafter, the worst kind of deadline is a birthday (or, really, any gift-giving occasion), but birthday deadlines imply that your gift was supposed to be a birthday gift...and if you are making something, presumably, you know when that person's birthday is...particularly if you have been married to said birthday celebrator for almost twelve years.  That being said, getting a handknit sweater a few days after one's birthday, isn't such a bad thing either (it's like the celebration that never ends...which I am a fan of, obviously).

 

K celebrated his birthday.  We dragged it out for three days this year (he normally likes as little fuss and celebration as possible).  He got a bunch of presents.  The Littles sang off key, it was all quite fabulous.

 

He usually asks for a cake made from mix from a box, which is a travesty of the first order for someone like me.  I mean, seriously, I like to bake!  I want to bake!  And most would say that I am good at said baking!  So this year, K decided to let me bake him a cake.  After looking at all of my baking books, of course he selects the most time-consuming cake possible.

 

I made the Miette Tomboy Cake with Raspberry European Buttercream frosting.  This cake took the better part of a day to make.  And when all is said and done, you have two 6-inch cakes to feast upon; but, it's a lot of work for a cake (or two, rather).  There was choclate melting, whisking, cooling, ordered additions to batter before straining it (yes, straining the batter--that is commitment, people); and, don't even get me started on the frosting; what, with the raspberry juice extracting, sugar syrup making, egg-white whipping...(honestly, it makes me exhausted just thinking about it).  But you know what?  It was worth it.  This little dainty bit is probably the best cake I have ever made.  It was delicious.  I don't generally care for chocolate cake, to be honest.  I usually find  cake too rich or too dry, or too....something.  But this cake?  It was perfect.  And the European buttercream, it was out of this world.  And now I can say, "why yes, I have made European buttercream frosting, and there were no tears."  Because apparently, sometimes there are tears.

 

I finished K's birthday sweater last night, and will block it tonight, or maybe tomorrow. There's no real hurry to finish it at this point since my model is on the other side of the country at a conference; but, I just wanted it noted that my 12 in 12 thing is totally on track.

2012's list of unachievable greatness

I am sure I have mentioned it before; I don’t really buy into the whole “New Year’s Resolutions” thing.  But I am a list maker, and therefore, theoretically, goal-oriented.  So, I do like the whole goals list (which really, is just a list to tasks...which is kind of a list of goals...which are kind of like resolutions...maybe I am more resolutions-oriented than I thought, oh well, moving on...).  Also, the late date in my entry on New Year's Goals (or what have you), is not due to any sort of procrastination on my part...I just like to be thorough (and set impossible goals for myself. It takes loads of time to set yourself up for failure the way I tend to do, really.).

I have thought really hard about what I want to accomplish this year.  The original goal I came up with was: finish up (in whatever way possible to bring said project to termination) all my unfinished objects (UFOs) or works in progress (WIPs).  While this might sound perfectly doable for a normal person/crafter, we have to remember, I am not the normal person/crafter. 

I am somewhat magpious when it comes to crafting.  All things are shiny and they attract me, thus I start projects readily and move on to other projects before started projects are completed.  I listed all of my UFOs and WIPs, got a little depressed, drank something fizzy and uplifting; and, after coming up with a list that was completely unfeasible, I added a few more things to it just to give myself something to ruminate over, because, that’s what I tend to do. Here are my crafting goals for 2012—if you are drinking anything, I suggest you desist in that until you are done reading my list…you know, for your own safety:

Knitting

1) 12 in 12.  Yeah, not original, but so catchy.  I am going to knit twelve sweaters this year.  More precisely, I am going to knit/finish twelve sweaters this year.  I will tell you up front that I have a few sweaters that are, for all intents and purposes, done (one of them just has to have the ends woven in and a good soak and blocking); but, whatever.  I have a ridiculous amount of yarn that needs to be used.  What I am showing you is just what is in the visible cabinet.  This doesn’t even take into consideration the stuff in bins and bags elsewhere in my craft space.  So yes, twelve sweaters (and by sweater, I mean anything that in some way covers some part of a torso of any size.  Therefore vests and baby sweaters totally apply here.  See?  Bam, doable.  Sure.

2) Knit other things in addition to sweaters.  This is purposely ambiguous.  Because aside from the mittens Little Sir has asked me for and something I will knit next month for a knitterly friend, I don’t feel any great need to be specific…but I should knit other things… and well, I have at least three things that are already done, they just need to be blocked.  No really, that is how pathetically busy I was last year.

Crochet

 

3) Do some. I like to do a little bit of everything just so I don’t lose the skills.  Also, I have a few crocheted things that are done (see above, on the left)…but you know, the ends need to be woven in and the pieces blocked.  Broken record, right?

Spinning

4) Um, just do some.  Spinning a sweater’s worth of yarn would be great, but this is not a high priority goal for me, I just want to do some spinning this year (just to keep my skills up).

Weaving

5) So maybe a scarf?  Maybe two?  Why don’t we just fold it under the umbrella of “do some”?  Yeah, as Little Mister would say (as he nods and flashes me a look that seems to suggest that he is trying to figure out how he can possibly be related to me), “yeah...that’s a good idea, okay.”

Stitchery

6) Again, just do some. This includes embroidery as well as cross-stitch.   I have a design/pattern that I need to “test-stitch,” I did the drawing last year, I just haven’t stitched it.  I wouldn’t mind doing a few other things, which I probably will in the summer when I don’t enjoy working with wool so much...but I want to knit 12 sweaters, so.... 

Dyeing

7) Well, you know, just do some of it.  I still owe Stacey 8 ounces of dyed BFL (I have not forgotten you, Stacey!).  And well, I have a shop, so there’s that.  But I only list what I have, and I like to get it out of my house as soon as possible so I am not tempted by it.

Sewing

8)I absolutely need to get a few boxbags done.  I have promised them to people…so I should do that.  I am not a welcher, I am just slow.

9) I would also like to try and sew some clothing this year, but this is low priority, I won’t resort to self-flagellation should my efforts in this pursuit fall flat, but there you are.

Quilting (really, if you are drinking or eating anything, now is the time to put it down)

10) 24 in 12.  I know; but, the sad part is: this is me showing restraint.  It seems lofty, but I felt like shooting for 12 in 12 would be a bit cheaterly of me considering that I have 8 quilts that are all quilted and just need to be squared up and have the binding applied. 

So 24 quilts this year…I actually listed out all the quilts that I want to finish and the complete list has 40 quilts on it, and well, no.  That would just be a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure, wouldn’t it?  So 24 quilts.  Yep.  Get excited.

Blogging

11) And yes, I intend to actually blog about all of this in-process this year.  I would like to start next year off with a post looking forward, not necessarily backward...because I am progessive like that.

If you look at the list, you probably get the sense that 2012 will be a productive year for me, craft-wise (presumably).  You probably also get the sense that any success in accomplishment this year could, really, be attributed to diligent starts (but unfortunate stops) in previous years.  But mostly, you probably get the sense that I am completely out of my mind.  Let’s be honest, this list is stupidly unfeasible when you consider the other factors of my life (husband, children, job, school, side business ventures, etcetera).  But well, you know, I like a challenge (and yes, I am probably a little nuts too, I will own it).  So here’s to 2012, may she be craftily productive.

Okay, you can resume consuming culinary delights now.  I know I could certainly use a drink.

hey, it's a new year!

I think I unintentionally started a new tradition last year. Instead of my first post of the year being about goals, hopes, dreams and what-have-you, it was all about the things that I did the year before that I forgot (or was too lazy) to blog about. So without further ado, this is the cool stuff that I did in 2011 that I never talked about.

knitting

Log cabin baby blanket. I had a ton of Mission Falls Cotton so I just started knitting with it. And I produced this really tiny baby blanket…but now I don’t have anymore MF Cotton taking up space on my shelves, so win.

February Baby Sweater. I originally started this in pink yarn, which was a knitted nightmare, and then realized that is was confining the creativity of my soul (or something akin to that). I had some Dream in Color Smooshy, I think it’s Candy Apple Red (I could be making that up, is that even a colorway?). I think it’s fabulous. It’s going to give it to a friend of mine scheduled to have a baby in three days. She asked for something knitted; and you know, I like to make wishes come true.

I also made some baby socks. I had a hank of Koigu yarn that I bought when I was pregnant with Little Mister…thinking I was going to have a girl. Yeah, not so much. The fact that I bought pink yarn should have been the first clue, really. Why would I want to look at pink baby feet? I wouldn't.

Stockinette Socks of awesome. So they are just plain and simple stockinette socks; but, they are awesome. I started knitting them last May when I hung out with some knitterly friends of mine, and they make me smile whenever I wear them. Yarn is from the Barefoot Spinner. There is no colorway on it, so let’s just call it “purple” shall we?

quilting & sewing

I sewed my kids some pillowcases. It wasn't rocket science, but easily, probably the highest impact gift I've made in a long time. Every time we pull one of them out of the linen cabinet, it's like Christmas! It's a fact, kids love ridiculous pillowcases.

 

Locked Squares. So I made this baby quilt. And then thought, it might be a nice quilt to try pattern writing. So... still doing the pattern writing bit, but the blanket was a huge hit. It was really fun to make (and quite easy), actually.

 Lilly’s Quilt. A friend of mine from library school asked if I could make a full sized quilt from her daughter’s baby bedding. Her daughter was moving up to a full-sized bed and she wanted to save the baby bedding. Because I don’t really think things through sometimes, I said “sure!”. Um, I have never made a bed-sized quilt before this quilt. In case you were under the impression that a full-sized quilt is “no big deal” let me dissuade you from this notion. Cramming a full-sized quilt into the throat of a domestic home sewing machine pretty much made me want to gouge my own eyes out with a dull pencil. But, it came out really nice and I was unspeakably proud of myself after I shipped the quilt off last month. I really was. I should probably get out more.

embroidery & x-stitch

Every summer I get interested in embroidery, because, well, it doesn't involve wool and it doesn’t make my hands sweaty. I was involved in various quilting bees last year (more on that later, this post is getting long) and when Chawne’s month rolled around for one of the bees (I honestly can’t remember which one since she and I were in three bees together, no, I am not kidding), she asked for redwork, we could do anything we wanted. Since I am bookish.... Well, yeah.

 

I did a little drawing, traced it onto some Kona cottong and then stitched it up.  I ended up doing a multi-color version and framed it because I liked it so much, so now I can look at my handi-work (ha…did you see what I did there, oh, nevermind) everyday at work.

I also did some cross stitch last fall.  I needed something for my dining room wall, so I stitched an appropriate eating area command.  I am a fan.

So that’s it. That was the hidden craftiness of 2011. I also went to the International Quilt Festival, but apparently, I was so overwhelmed by it, I never blogged about it (but here is a photo set in flickr). But, I am getting my blogging house in order now, because, well, I pay for this space, so I might as well get my money’s worth. I am all about getting my money’s worth.

In my next post, I will tell you all about my hopes, dreams, and goals (or whatever) for 2012. I just need to think of something to share with you first. While I think of an unfeasible list worthy of my frustrations and energies, check out my studio shot of the Littles that I foisted upon friends and family for Christmas last month.

Next year, the Christmas shot will feature knitted sweaters, I mean, the Littles in knitted sweaters (or course that’s what I meant). Oh, that’s a goal, right there!