Victory!

I never thought I'd actually finish my Knitting Olympics project--my own personal (secret) goal was to just make a good start on it . . . but here is my shrug (with it's arms raised in victory):


I finished it Sunday morning, while watching the Swedish Hockey Team receive their gold medals.

It felt so good, I think I'm going to order the yarn to make the shawl pictured with it in the Mission Falls book, after all ... but don't expect me to finish this one in a fortnight :-)

More Japanese Eye Candy

This is a photo of a detail of a quilt from the Tokyo Quilt show from Be*mused. Don't follow the link to check out her album until you can take your time and enjoy–there are many so wonderful quilts.

Artist way: week 12 check-in

All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. -J. Cameron

In terms of Artist Way tasks, my performance this week was anything but stellar, but still, I experienced a feeling of accomplishment for completing the book and enjoyed looking back on the small, positive changes in my creative life.

The photo is of a section of my branching out scarf, knit last fall and cited as an example of my habit of creating and abandoning almost finished objects. It's pinned to my design wall, blocking now--I am going to wear it to work one day next week. Along with another almost finished scarf, socks and a sleeveless turtleneck, I faced my fears of judgement and finished the projects anyway. The sky didn't fall.

I also made the leap and tried a new direction in quilting. No one laughed out loud or slyly intimated that my approach was too simplistic.

In the time available to me, I am making more and finishing more. I credit the work with TAW.

At work, I have re-established an attitude of work as play and am finding ways to enjoy being there.

Getting back to the basics, a week of sleepless nights resulted in no morning pages this week for me and, honestly, I missed the way they help me stay grounded during stressful times.

My artist date this week was the beginning of a 2 week adventure that I'm sharing with more than 4,000 others around the world: the Knitting Olympics. A couple of participants have blogged about why they think we're all doing it. My opinion is that we're doing it for the simple JOY it brings. It has all the qualities of a perfect artist date.

My Knitting Olympics experience provided me with a bit of synchronicity, too. As I just described in my upate, after making phenomenal progress, I discovered a mistake and had to rip out most of what I knit yesterday afternoon and evening. Flipping back through chapter 12 and my notes on it, I had to smile at this, very appropriate for me, quote:

Do not fear mistakes–there are none. -Miles Davis

The Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat

The Knitting Olympics have begun.

Along with more than 4,000 other knitters from around the world (see map). I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night and, after the flame was lit, cast on and started knitting a new, challenging project of my choice.

it has been a while since I have worked with needles so large and yarn so thick. Although I was too sleepy to knit much Friday night, I woke early on Saturday and by noon, I had completed the back of the shrug.

I was thrilled. Until I actually started knitting, I honestly didn't think that I'd actually be able to complete my sweater and was ready to settle for just making significant progress. By Saturday afternoon, I was confident that I will finish.

After a quick trip out to pick up groceries, run some errands and track down the extra-long circulars that I'll eventually need to add the ribbed edge, I came home and enjoyed the luxury of an afternoon and evening of knitting and TV.

I watched the women skiers bounce over moguls, pairs figure skating and caught up on episodes of Project Runway that I'd missed and couldn't believe the progress I made on the first sleeve.

I woke up (early again) this morning and started to pick up where I left off, except ... re-reading the directions, I saw that I'd missed a critical line and realized that my sleeve was wrong, wrong, all wrong and would have to be ripped back, almost to the cuff.

Agony yes, but I refuse to feel defeated ... like the skiers that land the jump, lean back and ALMOST sit down, I gritted my teeth, ripped out ALL THOSE ROWS and started knitting again.


I'll probably always remember this sweater as the shrug with three sleeves :-)

Artist Way: week 11 check-in

Last week, I did morning pages 5 of 7 days. I have suggested the practice to a couple of colleagues as a way of starting the day centered in the midst of too much going on at the office.

For my Artist Date, I spent a morning in my sewing room, truly playing with two ideas: the Illustration Friday topic of the week (chair) and Ami Simms' Art Quilt Initiative. The result is this start on a journal-sized quilt which, if it turns out well, will be donated for Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts.

Synchronicity is alive and well and even following me into the office on a regular basis. My project has become very interrupt driven--I'm being bombarded with phone calls and email messages from a large cast of characters and yet, I continue to be surprised by how often I'll pick up the phone to call someone who is calling me or I'll be in the middle of responding to an email message and the person I'm mailing will call. On the home front, I was home in bed with a cold one day last week. I took advantage of being home during daylight hours and ventured out briefly in the afternoon to take a photo to use as the basis for the design for my February Journal Quilt. While I was out, I popped in next door, where I met a friend of my neighbor who is on the brink of moving to Santa Fe, a place I believe could be my next home. She was also talking about a very innovative business program that she recently completed that actually sounded very interesting to me; it's very innovative out-of-the-box stuff. So now you know--I'm not just a quilt class junkie ... I love to learn and this could be my next learning adventure.