Currently Creating - 18 March 2015

One of our cats has the nickname "screenkitty".  Screenkitty just came up and patted at the screen and turned on capslock.  He wants to help with the blogging.

An update on my crochet: The following is what I wrote on the Champagne and Socks Ravelry group last night:-

I’m on the third last border round of the Jabyblanket, and In what I can only assume is a fit of nerves relating either to whether I will run out of yarn, or a dislike of the large gauge and the current look of the border, I have rationalised setting that project aside for another repeat of the same pattern for a baby who is in fact due before the Jade Baby. This will probably be the final time I do this pattern for a while, but it works up very quickly and takes very little concentration, which is a benefit when one realises that there is a baby due around Easter, while the one whose blanket is finished is not due until June. Prioritisation, I suck at it.

This morning, while I was taking photos of yarn (I'm trying to put my stash into Ravelry as well as clearing up my craft room etc), I was looking at the photos of the Elphieblanket and realised that the problem with the Jabyblanket is that I've missed a treble in each group.  Sigh.

(Photo is of the stuff up of the border.)

On the other hand, it explains why I thought the border looked odd - it *was* odd.  And I'm glad I put it down because it means there's less to pull out.

Having sorted that out, I may in fact pick it back up tonight and frog back the mistake and get into fixing this, despite realising that I've been making up these blankets in the wrong 'birth order', so to speak.

So then there's the new project: yet again the same pattern, this time with a ply and hook in between the very small Elphieblanket and the very large Jabyblanket.  Currently using a very cheap hook, because I'm not sure where my tin of good quality hooks has gone (somewhere in the craft room, no doubt.)  Doesn't look like much at the moment, but it will grow rapidly, I'm sure.

Finally - one of the additional reasons why this may be the last time for a while I work on this pattern?  The pattern itself got attacked by the kittyboys last night and has a couple of rips in important places.  Oops.

Currently creating - 11th March 2015

As I said in yesterday's post - I actually did some Project Life this week!  OMG!  Yes, the exclamation points are necessary, because it has been so long.  Like since January long, and I haven't properly finished a layout since mid-November.

Part of my Trello checklist of 2014 spreads that need to be finished...

(I know this because I just yesterday went through and created a list of all the layouts from last year that need to be completed, and there are ridiculous numbers of them.  Plus my December Daily album. (Next listing project is to go through that and work out which days need to be finished, which I think is a lot of them.)  Plus Monday I finished Weeks 3 and 4 of 2015, which were the first 2015 layouts I have completed.)

I was beginning to worry that I was losing interest in PL, which would be a pity (understatement) given how much PL stuff I've spent good money on.  I don't think it's that, though: I think it's actually been a case of trying to adjust to a different work schedule, and recovering from last November's meltdown, and still trying to get into a good workflow with using the app to plan my layouts, then putting together collages and saving those to the Kodak app and then getting myself to Officeworks to print out the photos and then sitting down to put them all together...

Working on Week 2 of 2015 on Monday evening

Of course, the other thing that's been keeping me from spending time on PL, at least lately, is probably the effort I've been putting in to the Jabyblanket.  Which is now at border round 4 of six, where rounds five and six are the most complicated part of the pattern (there's hearts and picots and bits where you're crocheting trebles that look like nothing until all of a sudden you go "oh, so that's where that was going!" and then you do that again.  Hundreds of times.

Here it is, laid out on the floor so you can see the whole thing, and then a detail shot of the corner.  And in answer to Alisa - the pattern repeat was four rows: I'm using a 6mm hook so the stitches are large.

I'm desperately hoping that the yarn will hold out to the end: I haven't seen this one available again since the day I bought two huge balls of it.  If the yarn doesn't last (which I think is likely) I'll do the last two rounds of the border in a solid colour - probably purple - and hope that works out.

Around here - including bentos from last week

Yesterday was a public holiday here (yay!) and as well as doing a little bit of cleaning, finally introducing the kittyboys to my cousin (she lives an hour away but hasn't been able to visit since we got the boys) I worked on Project Life!

I am *so* far behind on PL.  I have a Trello checklist set up so that I can check off weeks when I finish them - actually, I have one for last year's PL, one for December Daily (still not finished), and one for 2015.  Yesterday I finished two weeks in 2015 - the first two weeks I've actually finished yet. (Yes, we're in week 11.)

But more on that in this week's Currently Creative, coming tomorrow (hopefully).

So: this past week's bento:

I don't think I've yet managed to make bento four days in the week, which is my goal, but I did do three days last week, which was a definite improvement on the previous week, which I think was none.

This week I introduced eggs to the mix - M doesn't eat eggs or anything all that eggy, which means that if I want eggs I need to have a replacement protien for her box.  This week I'm going to try Mako Itoh's spinach-stuffed tamagoyaki to see if it's too eggy for M or not: from the recipe it looks like there's a chance it will be okay.

But this past week I did sho-yu tamago (soy sauce eggs) which were just for me.

Tuesday: This bento was rice, sweet-pepper and carrot confetti, stirfried soy chicken, and asparagus.  The rice was shaped in my new rice molds that I got at Daiso over the weekend.  The photo is of M's - she also had some babaganoush and crackers - although the babaganoush was apparently no good (eggplant too old?)

Wednesday: These two were both for the same day: M's on the left and mine on the right.

Common to both: rice, broccoli, mini-angus burgers, sweet pepper and carrot confetti

M has asparagus and some stirfried soy chicken, while mine has a sho-yu tamago (soy sauce egg).

Thursday: again, M's is on the left, mine on the right.

Common to both: rice, kinpira (carrot, broccoli stem and beans) mini-angus burgers, carrot and zucchini muffin, broccoli.

In M's, apple and grapes.  Mine has asparagus and another soy sauce egg.  Mine was in two containers because I hadn't kept on top of the dishwashing and so I didn't have the right sized containers available.

Currently creating - 4th March 2015

I've gotten really behind on my crafting this past week.

I'm also behind on my Craft Circle podcast listening, mostly because I'm trying desperately to listen to an eAudiobook before my loan runs out in six days.  It's Jung Chang's "Empress Dowager Cixi", which in treebook form is 436pg and in audiobook is 57 segments of an average of 20 minutes.

You'd think all this listening time would mean that I'd have got some crochet done, but apparently not.  I am going to make a big effort on Friday to do some Project Life, however, if only so that I have something to report next week.

Last week was a total failure as far as bento was concerned, as well - (hey, bento is creative!) - but this week I've done a little better so far, including trying Sho-yu Tomago (soy sauce eggs) for the first time, and baking a batch of carrot and zucchini muffins.

Oh, and when we were in Melbourne last weekend, I got a couple of rice moulds.  So our rice now comes in fun shapes!