New hobby, or new passion?

I think I might have to classify this as a new passion, right up there with knitting. Hand spun yarn is amazing. It's not something I can do every night, or something I can spend hours on, like knitting, but I am loving it.

It's relaxing, soothing, and the end results are beautiful. My hands begin to cramp after an hour, and my already bad knee isn't liking the movement of the peddle, but I'm considering spending a sizable amount of money on a wheel of my own, so I know this is a relationship that will be well worth the pain it may cause.

Dear Spinning,
I love you...

Always check gauge

I've been working on a sweater design and when I checked the gauge I did it after washing and blocking, and boy am I glad I did. Sometime I just knit a few rows, check the gauge while it's still on the needles and call it good, but this time I had a feeling it would be better to go all the way.

I'm making a simple lightweight cardigan and I've just finished the back. As you can see from the photos below the piece drastically changes shape after it's been washed and pinned. Before blocking it measured about 14 inches from top to bottom.

After blocking it was up to 24 inches. A little longer than I expected, but I believe that once it's un-pinned it will relax a little and shrink back down to 21 or 22 inches, which will be about right. Although I don't mind long sweaters.

Next are the front pieces, then the sleeves, which are making me nervous, the shaping that is.

If this sweater turns out like planned I hope to write it out and share it. If it doesn't turn out as planned you might find a big red wine stain on it and me in the corner crying...

Not enough time

It has been tough finding time to write on this blog, and it has been tough finding interesting things to write about. After all, my hobbies are pretty normal, run-of-the-mill hobbies. I'm good at them, but I'm not cranking out things that are spectacular or anything. And lately it's been hard to find the time to be creative, and lately I've been sticking with simple projects, ones that I can do while zoning out in front of the TV.

When I first started blogging a couple months ago I had a friend look it over, to get her opinion. She laughed and said, "Oh Anna, your life looks so organized and beautiful. Ha! but I know the truth!" And she was right, I was spending too much time and thought on making my life look like I wished it looked. The truth is, my life is kind of cluttered, not that pretty, and not as cheerful as I try to make it seem. I have too many hobbies (because I'm probably trying to compensate for the boring hours I spend at work everyday), and when I do have time to work on my projects I'm often too tired and depressed to bring any creativity to the project - hence boring simple projects.

My enthusiasm for gardening usually putters out once it starts getting too hot - mid July/August , and boy has it been HOT, and the overwhelming produce from the garden makes me want to hide. I know I should be canning, drying, freezing and pickling all this food, but it takes time, time I feel like I don't have, and I'm lacking the motivation to make the time.

Ugh, enough complaining though, that's not what this blog is for. So here, here are some photos of what my life really looks like. It's messy, cluttered, full of weeds, and lacking the creativity I like to tell myself I have.

...weeds

...laundry

... messy sewing room

You get the idea...

In a few days I have some time off work and I will be spending it doing the things I love doing. Sewing, knitting, gardening, and whatever else sounds good at the time. I might even find some time to blog about it.