Willpower

Willpower is difficult. I have large amounts of willpower with things I actually want to do - like knitting, sewing, crafts in general. I am very good at Making Things Happen; telling people what to do, organizing them, and then standing over them to make sure they actually do things (while helping out with whatever I'm organizing, of course). I've gotten pretty good at actually getting out of bed in the morning and leaving the house when I need to, even though I never really want to do either of those things. Eating regularly is still a huge challenge - I really wish I enjoyed cooking, but I just don't. At all. Enjoying eating would be a huge help as well, but still working through those issues.

So, as a person, I'm imperfect (duh), but I'm aware of a bunch of stuff I need to work on developing, enough to keep me occupied for a while at least. (Most of it is going to stay private.) But I'm definitely better than I was, which is awesome!

(Side note: I'm getting progressively worse at spelling though. I blame it entirely on spell check?)

My real difficulty right now is school and school-related things. I'm in math, getting a minor in fine art. I love the fine art classes (admittedly I've only taken two so far) but I'm taking math classes for the first time in a while (for complicated reasons) and ....I just really don't enjoy them all that much. They're boring, not all that well taught, and I just can't find any enthusiasm for doing the assignments. I don't want to learn this math just so I can repeat it on exams, just so I can pass courses. I do get something out of finishing a problem, but I never care if I did it properly, and I don't care enough to do more work than is one the assignments. I know that to be good at anything you need to work really really hard for a really really long time, and quite frankly I just don't care enough about math to do that.

Ideally, I want to know a bunch of stuff about a bunch of different things, but what I really care about is crafts, and that's what I've cared about since kindergarten. I probably should have found a job and taken the summer off to try and figure stuff out, but I didn't so now I need to deal with courses I don't really want to be in.

The main reason I don't just run with the craft thing and switch to fine art is that I'm really (really) terrible at not spending money. I'm definitely not as bad as I could be, but I basically have no income and I spend my food money on frivolous things I don't really need. Admittedly, it's not tonnes of money, but with no income it might as well be. I'm getting better at making instead of buying, but now I just spend my money on craft supplies. I don't know if I am skilled enough to support myself by crafts, either. I'm working on making more things to sell this summer, as well as getting commissions from friends, so we'll see how well that goes.

Really though, I just want to be a fairy when I grow up. A yarn fairy.

Scrappy Scarves

Scrappy scarves are great. I started making them a while ago, originally to use for yarn bombing, but it turns out they are awesome for scarves as well, so I've started making them to sell. (Don't hate me, I need the money! For...more yarn.)

They're very relaxing to make, plus they use up leftover tiny balls of yarn that wouldn't get used otherwise. Plus, when they get long enough, I can use one end as a scarf while I'm knitting the other end! Which makes me feel like the coolest person ever.

This blue and purple one is currently available on etsy!

Shall We Knit is here!!

It's very very exciting! Shall We Knit?, a yarn store that lived in New Hamburg, has moved to Waterloo! Not only that, but they moved to a location that takes me all of five minutes to walk to. I am ridiculously excited....they have a whole ROOM just for sock yarn! If you are in Waterloo and spend any time knitting at all, I really really recommend you check them out, they have some marvelously delicious things. (Including a wonderful selection of Koigu.)

And because blog posts are no fun without pictures, here's what I got when I visited (adhering to my only-buy-one-thing decision):

It's Koigu (of course), my plan is to make fingerless gloves that I'll actually wear.

In other news, I spun this yarn:

It is very lumpy and uneven, but that is was I was going for (I didn't prep the fibre at all). I am calling it "acidity" for no particular reason. There's only about 94m here, but I have a bunch of this fibre, so I'll probably spin most of it up like this, and make another hood:

In exciting news, I may be doing a yarn bombing workshop at love.MADE, pending figuring some stuff out. More details will follow as they become available! If it works out I may try to get more involved with them, because they are literally just down the street from my house.

Finally, I've started to give knitting and crochet lessons! $15/hr for individual lessons or $8/hr/person for group lessons. Materials available for a fee or you can bring them yourself. Flexible times and locations. Comment if you're interested, but I don't have a car, so Waterloo-Kitchener area is really the only area I can work with.

Flashin' My Stash

So, as you may know if you're a local yarnie, Herrschners (a local yarn and scrapbooking store) was having a closing sale last week. I got some very nice yarn:

for a rather decent price. The red skeins on top are cashmere. But then when I got home, I couldn't fit them onto my yarn shelves, so obviously the only solution was to reorganize ALLLLLLLL my yarn. So I put in on my bed:

...which was a lovely experience. Then I organized everything by fiber type and quality:

Cheaper wool:

A very small part of my crappy acrylic:

Some nicer acrylic:

Handspun, handdyed and dying yarn:

Non-wool fibers:

My fancy nice wool:

It's nice to have yarn yarn yarn yarn. I went wading:

New Pattern Published!

I've published another pattern! For this hat:

It's available on ravelry or on etsy.

This hat is very large! It's designed to accommodate bulky hair, dreadlocks, or just be super floppy. There are two subtle cables but otherwise it is a basic hat. If you want the hat without having to make it, it's currently still available on etsy.