flying by the seat of my pants

I like this quote, “I’m an idealist, I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.” because it tells me I don’t always need to have a plan. As a planner and a list-maker there’s quite a bit of freedom there. When I came across this ridiculously soft yarn in shades of chocolate and strawberry I knew there was a birthday gift for my niece in it. Without a plan, in the midst of the end-of-the-year holiday chaos, I bought a few skeins figuring six months was plenty of time to make something.

It’s truthful to say I didn’t procrastinate. I mulled over what to make for quite some time and second-guessed myself often. Do I lose points as a favorite auntie by crocheting a gift for a tween? Heavens. More than once I asked myself what I was thinking when I bought a bunch of yarn without any idea of what I was going to make.

Six months is plenty of time to make a gift. I don’t recommend spending four or five months planning, however. Especially if your niece’s birthday lands on the same day as a huge deadline at your day job. Working 14 hour weekdays and over the weekends doesn’t leave a lot of leisure time. 

Flying by the seat of my pants has it’s place. Next time I think I’ll have a plan before buying the super soft, super cute yarn that is perfect for someone.

If you're wondering... in the end I made niece-sized and American Girl-sized hats and bags. In a moment that hardly smacks of supergirl-ness I had to run out to the store for an additional skein of yarn to finish the project.

 

the new and the old

I posted quite a backlog of items on etsy today [trigonetsy.etsy.com] which got me to thinking about some of my original pieces. The necklace in the image is one of the first necklaces I made. It’s circa junior high and, as I couldn’t drive at this point, I had to talk my mom into stopping to let me browse at a new bead store that had opened. I was dying to stop in because the owner had opened her shop in an old caboose. A bead store in a caboose, the novelty of it called out to me. The story diverges here. First, in retrospect, the shop probably didn’t last very long because the only aisle from front to back was about 18″ wide. Two was a crowd. Second, with the exception of that 18″ wide aisle, every square inch of that place was filled with shelf after shelf of beads and it was a hundred times better than a candy store. When I found these garnet colored glass beads, oh, they were a treasure. A treasure that would wipe out my entire saved up allowance. I wanted seven but I bought six so I could afford the silver beads between them. Somehow they were the most wonderful beads I’d ever possessed and nothing I strung with it was good enough. They were a necklace, a bracelet, back to a necklace – always torn apart within a week. Almost a year later a friend was getting rid of a purse. A purse that had a strap made out of a chain. It’s been a bit longer than week and it’s still intact and still one of my favorite necklaces.

puppy love

Lemmy, a lucky puppy hailing from San Fran, has a pretty great person. She got him a trig basket just to store his toys in.