Marching Through April...
This month, for some reason, my desire to complete tasks has vanished.
I sit, watching Coffeehouse Crime on YouTube, no work in my hands, zoning out.
Normally I am crocheting or knitting.
I finished three blankets last month.
Ok, so I am nearly finished with my hexagon cardigan. As of today, all I need to do is completely lengthen both sleeves and add the cuffs. Then all that is left is weaving in ends.
I am still working on my green and white one large granny square blanket. The green yarn here is Caron Simply Soft. One reason it is taking me so long to complete this blanket is that I drive myself crazy making sure I only do two rounds of each color. I have to check and check and recheck while I work. Plus, that Caron Simply Soft yarn? I refuse to crochet with that yarn once this blanket is complete. It is so splitty and angry. This yarn does not want to be crocheted. When I knit with this yarn, it’s fine. But I am very upset with this stuff now. I have never crocheted with it alone before. I have only used it double, triple, and even quadruple-stranded with other yarns. As in, I held two, three, or four strands of different yarns together and crocheted them as one. Those were stash-busting blankets.
A word on making blankets like that from now on: I won’t be doing it. Now, I may double-strand some projects to stash-bust. If I need to make a specific yarn weight and it takes five strands of fingering weight, for example, to do it, I’ll do that. But using so many yarns held as one to make a big granny blanket or something, I will not do it. I have one currently in my UFO pile that I am loathed to finish. I may finish it out with what I have and use it as a throw.
I hate how wide the holes are. I hate just how heavy the blanket is. I hate how it looks. I prefer to do stash-busting blankets with a smaller hook. Toni of TL Yarn Crafts has totally ruined me with her crochet granny squares tips. Use a hook smaller than the yarn label calls for? Fewer chain spaces made and used? (I mean no ill will—I am LOVING these tips of Toni’s. I mean it.)
Plus, by making my hexagon cardigan, I learned that while making a granny square (or granny anything) other than corners—and not even really there either, you do not have to chain space at all and it will all still work out fine.
What?
Now imagine me doing this for my cardigan, and then having to swap over to my Temperature Blanket, or my green and white granny square blanket. It takes me at least half a round to remember to add those darn chain spaces in between the clusters all over again. Sometimes I catch myself after about half a side and I don’t feel bad about ripping it all out and starting over. Other times, I have simply let it go.
I have been working on Thalia, my Camp NaNoWriMo project for this month.
However, this week, there has been something else come up.
I have been dreaming of myself actually sitting at my desk with my writing notebook. I can clearly see what I am writing. It is not Thalia. It is something more intricate to do with my Grimoire of Self series.
This is why I am altering the focus of my work this month.
There is a lot of work to be done with GOS.
I have essays to write. I have journal prompts to write. I have tutorials to write out and then film.
I have no set writing goal yet for GOS.
Although this has been a long-term project, I have not set up a single project notebook for this project. I have simply set up various spreads in long-term collection journals, as well as monthly Bullet Journals.
Today, I began to set up a project book specifically for GOS.
Every time I think I know the pace and focus of this series, it shifts on me. Which is a good thing from my perspective. There is so much more to it than just, hey, let’s hit your art journal and have a go at it.
I had said last week that I would not buy any more planners until I was more sure about what I want from my planner system and set-up.
Yeah. No.
I actually bought an A6 Hobonichi Techo —and then I bought a Jibun Techo Days. I am still waiting for the Jibun Days to arrive. The Hobonich Techo is already in my grubby greedy little paws.
Oh, I do so love this Spring Start A6 Hobonichi. Right now, I am playing around with setting it up. I am not sure what I want out of it at the moment, due to the fact that I have an A6 Archer and Olive notebook that I have been using for morning and evening reflection. Truly, the A6 Hobonichi is perfect for reflection. I am not quite ready to make the shift from the A&O A6 to the Hobonichi one.
I decided to buy the Jibun Techo Days as it is on sale at the moment. I was sort of hoping Jibun would have a spring start as well, but it looks as if only their Biz version is a spring start. I may have read that wrong when I was looking.
I bought it on sale because I just want to try it out before next year so I will know if I want to buy this or something else. I am aware that three months will be unused in this planner, but I can always find something to fill the pages.
I can try out various spreads and layouts on the empty pages. I can play with different pens and markers and tools to test them on the paper. I can simply fill pages with stickers and ephemera. I can use the empty spreads and pages to create vision boards. I can glue or tape in pictures of family on those unused pages.
I have options.
Do you have any other suggestions for what to use those unused planner pages for?
Until next week,
Stay safe.