gearing up for…?

Tags

28 day challenge, crocheting, cross stitch, finishing stuff, getting back my mojo, goals, knitting, motivation, projects, pushing myself, sewing, stress management

Ok, let’s get a few little updates/reminders taken care of…

Next Friday is the second Summer Drawing Challenge. The prompt this time is flower. If you want to join the fun try to have your drawing ready by then.

My getting healthy personal project is coming along nicely. In spite of eating out twice this last week and having a bit of candy I still managed to lose 1lb. I’m quite pleased by this. I have been on the treadmill twice so far, once for 20 minutes and once for 30 minutes. I need to get a new pair of walking shoes before I get back on as the ones I have are hurting my feet. That’s on the schedule for either later today or tomorrow morning. The Fitbit is helping with this immensely.

Anyone who is interested in doing a 28 Day Challenge, don’t forget that we’ll start on Monday, June 1. I would encourage you to be finalizing your project selection and to start making your list of the 28 one-hour tasks you’ll need to complete to get your project done.

I am not going to be quite that structured with mine this time, but I have a reason. These are my four started projects that I’m going to try to finish and my general plans to do that.

crocheted vest

What you see is the pictures I found of this lovely little vest, but I couldn’t find a pattern, at least not in English. So I’m winging it. The yarn was a gift from my knitting pals when I first went into the hospital back in 2006. I’ve already made a knit sweater out of it, but I wanted something I could wear any time of year.

I’ve started the back and I’m maybe 1/3 of the way done with that. I need to finish the back section and then figure out how the sleeves/collar are constructed. I honestly think if I just sit down and do this it shouldn’t take even the whole week I’ve allotted for it.

knit shrug

I started this shrug much earlier this year. The way I do these is to start in the middle of the back using a provisional cast on and then work down the sleeves. I tend to make the sleeves as long as I have yarn for, but I might not do that this time. Part of the issue I’m having with this is that I decided I wanted to add some shaping to the sleeves, which is great, but it’s been so long since I picked it up and I didn’t bother to write down what I was doing, so now I’ve completely forgotten.

This is probably damn near 1/2 done and would probably only take 4 or 5 days of concentrated effort.

black and white vest – sewing project

I realize that you really can’t tell anything about this project just from the pic, but you should be able to see how beautiful the pattern is on the fabric itself. This was inspired by a gorgeous vest I got when Mom and I went to Pella. Very flowing, soft fabric, incredibly flattering. I decided to look closer and see if I could reconstruct it. Turned out it’s just a rectangle of fabric with the raw edges covered in satin bias tape and then two arm slits cut in the middle, also finished with bias tape. So that’s what I’m doing. I have the tape pinned on 3/4 of the way around the outer edge already. I need to finish that pinning, sew it, and then do the arms. In all honesty this should be the fastest project of all of them, maybe 2 days.

dragon cross stitch

This one will be my problem child.

I honestly can’t remember when I started this, though it’s entirely possible that it was pre-Dx, so 2006? Maybe? I went through a phase where all I did was cross stitch and blackwork projects. I was smart enough to keep everything together so, as long as my hands cooperate, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to finish. My biggest concern with this is that I have no fucking clue how long he’ll take. Because of that I’m really thinking he’ll be last.

So here’s the order I’m planning to attack these in:

1. black and white vest
2. knit shrug
3. crocheted vest
4. dragon cross stitch

And I might actually see if I can’t get the b/w vest cranked out this weekend since that was on my list of goals for this week anyway. I’d still do the other three projects for my challenge and I’m still quite certain that it’ll be challenging.

Anyone else out there with me?