Positively Shameful

Okay, time for me to fess up. I've been lazy. REALLY lazy. I was just reading other people's blogs, the panopticon, actually (http://www.the-panopticon.blogspot.com/ check out his book, too...I really want it, knitting humor "It Itches") and Franklin posted a blog about these beautiful socks that he made.
SOCKS. I think I started knitting socks 50 bajillion years ago. They were supposed to be a Christmas gift for the boy, but I only finished one of them-I wrapped it with the other sock in progress and gave him that for Christmas. There's a lovely pic of the boy's cold foot, with only one sock to warm it up! Note: He may have been sleeping when I took that pic.Folks, I STILL haven't finished the second sock. I have photographic proof of my laziness. Oh, and the icing on the cake is that I pulled one of the needles out when I was going to take a picture of the second sock in progress, so I can try to pick up stitches or start over....completely...urg

I feel so guilty! I was going to surprise the boy with the socks when I got back from Montana...I had plenty of time...but nope, I was lazy there too. I had a great excuse at the start of the sock action. It took me a week to knit the sock, and I stayed up late, worked on it for hours straight, took it with me wherever I went, etc. I was in the middle of finishing school, graduating and attending to visiting family, and handmaking Christmas presents, as well as working two jobs.

And I still finished one sock. Now I have no school, no work (still....sad), and I spent all day yesterday playing Sims 2(which was fun, but not productive).

I'm posting this to hold myself accountable. I need to start getting crap done.Lets not even talk about the blue-scarf-of-doom.

Rachel May

Ambitious Fool

Okay, now I'm on to recording my crafts and WIPs (Works in Progress). I'm hoping that by sharing these, it will force me to finish a project and to be held responsible for my ambitious crafting goals.



For this Christmas, I really want to pledge handmade. I've always tried to make handmade items for my family members, but I'm going to try to make things that are extra special this year.


In the picture, you will see something that I fear will be a really long WIP. I intend to do an interpretation of the Log Cabin Blanket and design that the ladies at Mason Dixon Knitting do. I read a great story about it on the Vegetarian Knitter's blog (http://www.vegetarianknitter.wordpress.com/). She talks about having the blanket as a comfort item through many moves and about adding to it when she feels like it. I like the idea behind that. I have started with Cascade 220 (I'm pretty sure, the labels are long gone though) and I've crocheted a square and I will just keep adding to each side.


Other than that, many new and some crafty things have been happening in our apartment. I have started recycling, which I am really excited about. But I wanted to take it a step further. I understand that our landfills are filling up, so recycling is a good step towards avoiding that, however, there are three parts: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I want to work more on the reuse part of that equation.


So far, I am thinking of ideas for reusing the soup cans that we have set aside to be recycled. Right now, I use them to hold pens, pencils, and paintbrushes. They also work good for mini-pails. Last year, I painted them orange with black faces and filled them with candy for halloween coworker gifts. I will try to think of some sort of Christmas application for them.


Other than that, I have purchased a handmade papermaking kit by http://www.basicingredients.etsy.com/ and I have started to reuse my paper. I take scraps of paper from my cardmaking for color, and other papers (like credit card offers and old school junk) that have print on both sides, shred them up together, and make paper. For paper that only has one side used, I'm setting it aside for later endeavors (I will let you know when it progresses).


Anyone have new craft/recycling ideas? Let me know!

Rachel May