Tuesday's Eclectic Thoughts- Keep Calm and Knit On

I'm trying to focus on a few projects and set aside others.  For a short time I'm not working on my Mom's afghan- it just hurts and I feel like I need to mentally go on.  A week, two, maybe even a month from now perhaps it'll be easier.  Last week it gave consolation.

 This week I'm determined to see the upside of her death- if I had wanted her to still live that would of been selfish of me.  With Alzheimer's she wasn't there anymore.  God was merciful and I'm trying to wrap my heart and mind around that and accept it.

So in a few weeks at the end of the month my oldest daughter Elisabeth will graduate from Middlebury College.  She created her own History-Literature Major, with a Costume Minor and just received her grade for her final Senior thesis: A- !!!  It's a tough college and an achievement especially considering her choice of topic- "St. Catherine's Clothes: The Transformative Power of Medieval Clothing within the English Cult of St. Catherine of Alexandria".  This summer she will work restoring and cataloging Colonial garments at Plimoth Rock  for an Internship and afterwards she might have a job working at a Colonial Museum she worked at last summer.  I'm proud of her hard work.

St. Catherine's Wheel

So I want to focus on my poncho that I need for the trip back East (Technique Thursday- Doing up a Poncho and How To Follow a Knitting Pattern).

I've also started playing with a short cardigan pattern to see if I can make the adjustments and make it larger to fit me.  I'm on my first rip-out.  I seem to learn by trial and error.  I'm following two patterns, the original Cropped Cardigan and an adjusted pattern to a smaller needle size #15 (because that's the needle I have)  C4- Cropped Cardigan by Karen Klein.  

I still want the garment larger to fit me, so I'm also increasing the stitches a bit.  I started the increase at the neck and realized after I had gone to bed that that would just give me too loose a neck.  So I ripped.... That's OK, learning is a process and re-doing things helps me to learn.  I'm using an inexpensive Lion's Hometown USA yarn in blue and  I like the soft and pretty results when it is knitted.  Hopefully I can figure it out.  I connected to the designer but they didn't have the original measurements so I'm going on guesswork.  Hey, maybe, someday I'll be an expert and have all these little experiences under my belt and I'll just be able to whip things up and know what I'm doing.  Or I'll just enjoy the Dream.

And my Fearless Cardigan is taking a back seat for a bit- I'm frogging it to the sleeves and getting it right- The Fearless Cardigan Frogged!.

So that leaves me two main projects to work on and my dishcloth to keep working on on the side.

And for the blog I want to share this week I have my own personal blog of musings which I wrote up one night because I couldn't sleep.  I like the end result and it gave me peace that night- Walking in Random Thoughts: Mom- I'll Be Missing You- Be Happy.

To share your own projects at anytime in the week check out Frontier Dreams where Nicole features:

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

"The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below." (On her blog, link above quote.)