Taking Stock

Here it is, August 29th and I am sitting in my bed at 8:20 on a Monday morning and just feeling happy, sad and grateful.  After 8 weeks basically non-stop chaos, craziness, stress, love and light, I'm done camp for the summer.  For the next couple of weeks I will be cleaning up and packing up camp and then it's back to the real world.  Of course that's not to say that what happened at camp isn't real, it's just that there is no way of explaining it to someone who wasn't there.  Trying to explain why Cowboys vs. Baboons made such a great theme day is futile, but know that I had a smile on my face during each one of those skits.

This was very funny at the time, so funny that I took a picture of it, however I have no idea what it means right now.  Which is very much the truth of camp. 

One thing I didn't do much of this summer is knit, or make in any way.  During the quiet weekend between week 6 and 7 (around mid-August, I'm not great with exact dates during camp) I started a fingering weight mitered square blanket and it was the best knitting I had all summer.  It was so wonderfully bite sized and all the colors and textures was really interesting to the kids.

It does mean that Henry (my darling nephew) turned 1 yesterday without a hand knit birthday gift, however I don't think he noticed! 

So I'm taking about 10 days of slow reintroduction, I'm going to be up at camp getting the closing chores done, completing my end of season paperwork and also working on a whole pile of knitting. Hopefully, I will finish up Jim's birthday socks (his birthday was back in January!).

2016 and Looking Forward

Here we are, just a few days into 2016 and it feels like I've been here for ages.  Although that may have more to do with the fact that my brain has been working on the 2016 camp season since mid-October than the calendar itself, however it is actually the new year and it's time to think about what I want out of my making for 2016.

I did a longer blog on my personal page about my personal goals for the year but my crafting goals are going to follow a similar vein, of figuring out how to improve what I'm already doing.

So, without further ado, here are my goals for 2016.

Make More!
Over the summer and into the fall my life took up a tempo I haven't experienced since grad school, with stuff going on all the time. So when I actually had down time I would veg in front of the television, and didn't make very much (although I did make up for that with some manic knitting binges).  When I'm most tired is when I need knitting the most, because it makes me feel better. So this goal is about making sure I make the right choices to managed my stress with making.

Consume Less!
And by that I mean consume less of the knitting/crafting/making social media.  Over the summer I went on an unintentional social media diet, consuming only what I could get quickly and on my phone and Instagram was the clear winner and I was relieved to not have to keep up with Twitter.  So my goal for this year is to spend less time trying to keep up with all the latest and greatest, and just work on enjoying what I enjoy, some blogs, Ply Magazine, Instagram, and forgetting about the rest. 

Keep Blogging!
This summer really threw me for a loop, and while I kept drafting posts, I never sent them.  And I missed sharing with you folks out there and so I'm wanting to make a commitment to do my best to keep on top of blogging.

For 2016, I think less is more in the goals department, and these are them.

Happy new year!

Happy New Year. Love, Jack.

2015 and looking back

Another year has come and gone, and despite my long absence from this blog, I still think about you often.  It's been an exciting and crazy year and after a certain point I was so overwhelmed by all the changes that it was hard to sit down and blog about it.  However, I'm looking forward to get back at it, so I thought I would do my 6th Annual "Looking Back" post. 

Well, socks really are my favorite, so this result shouldn't be a big surprise. #2015bestnine

"Well, socks really are my favorite, so this result shouldn't be a big surprise. #2015bestnine"

While over the years I've given you tables of numbers, but this year was a big year, that caused my traditional productivity to take a big of a dive. 

However, I managed to knit by new nephew (who is now four months old!) sweaters and socks, made my first adult garment (a vest) and designed a bunch of patterns I hope to release at some stage. 

Some @tincanknits little squirrels for a little monkey. My nephew Henry has long skinny feet and these will keep them warm. #gbfibreco #gbbaby #babyhenry

"Some @tincanknits little squirrels for a little monkey. My nephew Henry has long skinny feet and these will keep them warm. #gbfibreco #gbbaby #babyhenry"

I also destashed a bunch of yarn, and still have more (if anyone wants to check it out - you do need to be a Ravelry member to view), but my official stash gives me joy and makes me want to work with it. 

So in the end I think I've met my 2015 goals, with a few exceptions. 

Knit socks, lots of socks, and any other patterns that inspire me.
Done! Despite my crazy summer of working I knit 9 pairs of adult socks and 3 pairs of baby socks.  Two of those pairs were new design that haven't been released yet!

Spin & weave as much as I can without it feeling like a chore.
I actually taught one of my camp counsellors how to spindle this summer, and while I did bring my wheel and looms to camp, I didn't do any of either. I still love both of these, and so I will call this one a half win, because I tried, but the reality of the year got in the way.

Keep the stashing to a minimum, but buy and use the yarns that inspire me.
YES!!!  I took on little yarn and continue to destash and make myself feel better and better about my stash.

Work on other crafts like cross stitch, needlepoint, tatting and crochet, to keep my fingers and my brain working.
Yes!  I'm working on a cross stitch pattern that is coming along slowly, and my main creative outlet for the summer was making friendship bracelets.  Also, I have a crochet blanket on the go that I expect I will work on next summer when I'm back at camp.

Blog more - because I enjoy doing it and I think you folks out there enjoy reading it.
Sort of, I had a good start on this, then I went of to work at camp and my life went a little haywire and I didn't really get things back on track.  So I need to reevaluate this goal when I review my 2016 goal setting.

Still waiting on @bell 2hrs after being told the technician was on their way, good thing I have #crossstitch to keep me busy. #satsumastreet

"Still waiting on @bell 2hrs after being told the technician was on their way, good thing I have #crossstitch to keep me busy. #satsumastreet"

Thursday Things: Cooking for One

I know that I mostly talk about knitting on here, but I can't help but share about my latest discovery that is making my life easier. 

Here's the thing, cooking for one sucks.  Most people know this, I think it was a meme before there were memes. But it's hard to know how much it sucks till you do it, but the motivation myself to make something other than mac and cheese or salad is somewhat scarce. 

That's where my new friend comes in ... CookSmarts.

This is a meal planning service that has started to motivate me to actually cook meals!  Every Friday they publish 4 new recipes that can be scaled from 1 to any number of servings and will adjust it's ingredients to suit the servings. Also, sometime the meals have pre-planed overlap, so a grain may be cooked for Monday is served with Thursday's dinner.  Or an exotic ingredient will be needed a couple of times during the week to make sure you use it up.

Here is the look of next week's (April 6th) meal plan.  As you can see I started checking off the boxes as soon as I checked it out.  And because I'm not a fan of chicken thighs or shrimp, I selected Monday and Tuesday as Veg, then the other two as GF because I've been finding that wheat and I don't agree with one another so I don't cook it or eat it at home. I've been known to mix and match meal types to make sure I'm getting GF/Veg as my tastes prefer.

 Now if some of those meals don't appeal to you or you  want to plan dinners for 7 days, you can add in any of the thousands of previous recipes to your week. With Original, Gluten-Free, Paleo and Vegetarian versions of each recipe, this system has managed to make me try new things and get out cooking. 

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Once you've picked your  meals and your servings, CookSmarts generates a shopping list for the meals of the week. It assumes you need everything (like sugar, salt etc) but you can go through the grocery list on the website and "check off" the ingredients you already have in your pantry and then they will either let you print or email your list for when you go to the store.

So far I've only made a few of the meals, but most of my delays have been due to changes in plan, but because of the pre-planning involved, I've been able to store those ingredients (freeze for meats, mostly) and then re-select those meals the next week to make sure the ingredients get used before they go bad.

My two fave meals so far have been Ginger-Beef Stirfry and Swiss Chart and Goat Cheese Frittata (which I made with spinach and feta because that's what I had on hand).

So I'm a fan, it takes the thinking (my main barrier to entry) out of dinner and is helping me be  more responsible about my eating, because I'm an eater not a foodie (to quote Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast, another new fave) I don't have the internal drive to create incredible meals just for me.

So this is my first Thursday Thing, which are just things I love and feel the need to share about. This can range from crafting to cooking, and all the other good stuff I love.

I'm still here!

I don't know what it has been like where you are, but here in Muskoka it has been a heckuva winter.  Bitterly cold day after bitterly cold day has been a bit crazymaking.  However, thanks to a good selection of winter clothes (mostly commercially made merino wool clothing and fleecelined spandex) I've been able to get out most days and the sunshine has been good for my soul.

I know I haven't been keeping on top of the blogging, it has been one of those things that never seems to make it to the top of my to do list each day. But after Frances mentioned my radio silence at the Pinecone Treadlers Guild last week, I thought I should check in with y'all.

My winter has been mostly filled with secret knitting (that will be coming out very soon) and my cat.  Jack has really been settling down in the last little while, now that he a year and a half, he seems to be settling into his cat self.  Still very bitey, but really sweet when he wants me to get out of bed in the morning or thinks I need a distraction at my desk.

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While most of my knitting has been secret, I have been finding great enjoyment in the simple shawl at the top of the post, Line Break by Veera Välimäki. There is a real joy in simple garter stitch, nearly mindless but so centering.

Also, I've done a bit of a makeover on my apartment.  With help from my sister, we cleared put away my clutter and removed some of my inheritated furniture that didn't fit my style or my apartment. I will do a bit of tidying so I can get a picture for you folks, but the punchline is that I LOVE the way it looks and I find myself inspired to keep it much tidier (and cleaner) than I have been.

So yes, I'm still here and very glad that it is now March. Which seems to be coming in somewhat Lambish (compared to the last two months) but rather Lion-ish compared to the seasonal averages, so hopefully we will see the ground sometime before April, although I'm not to hopeful on that one.