March to the Finish

I'm a bit of a joiner. I troll my Ravelry groups almost daily and find that I'm often writing posts that say

"I'm in!" or

"Oooh, me too" or

"I soooo need this challenge right now. Yippppeee! Count me in!"....and so on.

Which in concept is fine, because that's the beauty of finding a community where we can share our goals and challenges and triumphs. Except for one little thing - I'm waaaaaay more of a joiner than I am a finisher. For all my "I'm in!" posts, I've got at least as many "I didn't make it to the goal" posts. Wait, actually, that's probably not true. When I fizzle out or run out of time, I'm usually hiding somewhere in a corner hoping no one will notice.

For whatever reason though (insanity?) this doesn't keep me from being a consummate joiner to the next new group adventure. So - forward I go into another "-a-long" of sorts, the Stash and Burn Group's March to the Finish 2009. The goal is to work monogamously on a project - or projects - until you've reduced or eliminated your list of UFO's. Those of you've who have been 'round this blog a few times will surely recognize the targets on my list:

Adachi's Cardigan, Girlfriend Socks, and Jaden

There they are - staring at me in all their blatant incompleteness and demanding accountability. I'll keep you posted on my progress this month, and if you're Marching to the finish too let us know!

Oh, and if anyone asks how I did for the Stashalong Finishing in February, or how my Vestuary vest came out or if I've made progress for the Year-Long Gift-a-Long? Just pretend you haven't seen or heard from me in a long, long time, ok? Thanks!

An Original (sort of)

A friend saw this cute accessory on television and asked me to make it for her for an upcoming trip to the mountains (shiver). A simple but fun challenge...the first photo in the mosaic shows the original piece, the others show my interpretation:



Project deets:
Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande Yarn (a bulky)
US 9 needles; knit at 4sts/in
Crochet Flower is from this pattern (Um...I will be making more of these, so easy as to be magical)

The original photo came from this website, and while browsing over there I saw another item I would like to recreate. I'll keep you posted!

Super Saturday

The girls and I spent some time making bread the other day and it was such a great reminder to slow down, enjoy the process, and then - enjoy the rewards!

I have a Betty Crocker recipe book (gotta love the classics!) and I've made some of the things in it so many times it looks like I've mashed parts of the end products into the pages...but as long as I can follow the easy instructions, there will be homemade goodies to share. It might be time for me to make some scanned copies of the banana bread recipe though, I'm just sayin...

I highly recommend this kind of therapeutic endeavor. My work and travel schedule have been so crazy lately that I'm beginning to forget how to wind down. This was a very welcome reminder.

We used the time in while waiting for the dough to rise to talk about the chemistry of yeast and warm liquids and what air does to dough. Homeschooling has taught us that absolutely everything is a learning opportunity.

I love that the girls are always open to try new things...

Bulbous Bread Bears

Umm, unfortunately though, in my photo chronicling, I wasn't quite quick enough with the camera for the "after" shots...clearly we enjoyed them.

For more kitchen therapy and delicious inspiration, go see what Sharon and Nancy made - Yum!

Who Knew?

What fun you can have when you Google your name

Souvenirs

Warning: There is mention of undergarments (but in a most innocent way) :)