I floundered as I set up my new diamond painting; I couldn’t remember the process.
Boom! 1-lined Wednesday, Floundered!
Category: Diamond Painting
Your prompt for JusJoJan, January 26th, 2024, is “atrocious.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Jemima of Jemima’s blog provided us with the prompt of the day. Thank you, Linda and Jemima!
My achievements for this Friday are meager, but I feel good about them. My greatest accomplishment is over a year in getting it done. Now, I need to find a way to send it to its new home.
The socks I was knitting ended up being tinked back to the arch area. I had them all the way to being close to done, but I held them in my hand and wondered about the size. They are supposed to fit a size 1 child, but when I looked that up, that would have been at least 7 inches long. These were only 5. So most of the week I have been undoing the work. The good part is I am getting better acquainted with the shadow wrapping needed for the heel and above. So when I finally get there again I’ll know what I’m doing. By the way, in the picture, you will see that each sock has its own needles. When I reach the heel of these no-show socks I find I do better with them separated.
When I want to just relax I am working on this pair of slipper socks.
I’m still only on day 8 of the lessons as I haven’t mastered the few chords taught so far. My fingers are getting tougher, but they still aren’t coordinated enough to not mute other strings. But, hey, I can now get through Row, Row, Row, and Mary Had A Little Lamb. Yay! I’m thinking I need to make a strap for my uke to carry it around and take the pressure off my hands. There are several patterns on YouTube.
I wish I had learned recorder as a kid like these guys. But I’m glad I do understand music so that I can read and play the notes I know how to play. I finally got out my alto and found I remembered how to play it. My lapse of learning happened when I realized I had been using the wrong fingering for the type of recorder I had. Baroque versus German. All of my recorders and I inherited a lot of them from the school I worked in, plus my alto and my tenor that I bought are the Baroque.
Now that I know that I have retaught my fingers the F. I stopped playing before because it sounded wrong, and I couldn’t figure out why. Now I know, and I have to re-train my brain for it.
Speaking of the musical instruments, this is the time I usually play around with them. So, have a great Friday night and week-end!
This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt for today, Craft, comes from Astrid. Check out her blog here!
I love being retired. After a lifetime of crafts that I never had the time to dive in whole, even though I had a lot more money, there was no energy at the end of the day, nor the time. Being able to deep dive until the muse is used up on a topic or drive.
Diamond Painting is calling me back, and now that the bigger knitting project is finished, the Dragon from last year needs the sealant so I can send it off.
Oh, that’s the thing about these crafts; it is delightful to indulge deeply, but it is so much better to have someone to gift the finished products to. I know some actually sell their works. But I just can’t get to that point. I don’t like a timeline, and I get too perfectionistic the minute I think someone else will see it or pay for it. The minute ‘time is money,’ it is called a job. I can’t. I just can’t.
But yummy yarn, loom knitting, crocheting, Tunisian crochet, diamond painting, drawing, Zentangles, playing with my wig or my own hair (a throwback to my first career of being a cosmetologist), all my musical instruments recorders, ukelele, piano, singing, coloring, rainbow looming, writing, reading. There are many I’m afraid I’m leaving out, and I feel like a bad parent for neglecting them to the point of forgetting their names! And are they all considered crafts? Then there’s macaroni. Oh, yeah, that’s spelled with a ‘K’!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 1st 2024, is “train.” Use it as a noun or a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Train
Some people wake up and see their day full of organized plans like this.
It’s peaceful to know where the train is taking you.
On a good day I wake to
Mostly my trains have a spiderweb network of tracks that overwhelms me.
This blog helps me focus. In case you think yarn and weather is all I deal with, just know it’s just about all I concentrate on before life and distractions take me elsewhere.
Oh, speaking of weather
So, I need to train my brain on the personal possibilities of this new year.
My stationary bike goal has increased from 5 miles in 30 minutes to more miles in less time. Today I reached 5 in 28. So win!
I know last year I planned on podcasting. Stagefright won. So it goes back on the list of things I still feel I want to do.
Besides German, Spanish, Italian, French, Scottish Gaelic, Latin, Esperanto, Japanese, Navajo, Hebrew, I’d like to add a couple more to my Duolingo list so that I am always doing 10 lessons a day. And I want to get more serious about my American Sign Language classes. My brain loves working on languages.
Hello editing. You are cruelest of all. I’ll do what I can and finished products will go see the light of day on the podcast.
I still will continue working on getting healthier.
My diamond paintings are calling so tomorrow I will play.
Why did music find itself this far down the list? With a new ukulele, I’m trying to learn to make my fingers fit the chords needed. But daily practice might get me there, right?
The recorder is calling. No more trying Carols. Now I can enjoy whatever music strikes my fancy.
Okay, piano. I hear you. I will turn around from the diamond painting table and tickle you on occasion.
Singing loud and proud and dancing like no one is watching sneak into this list.
And that’s not including the bins of organizing I’m already doing.
And I want to get over my phone fear and try to enjoy socializing a bit.
There are only so many hours in a day but all these trains want to leave the station and make their way to improvement and new possibilities. There has to be a way. Some things must be daily Duolingo and blogging (no longer on a struggling list but on the ‘it happens’ like eating list).
The list looks like last year. More has been added. Few trains ended their tracks. My brain and strength expand to meet the fun.
Train-ing is fun
I finally organized my wig stuff I’d been playing with since before Halloween. Now it’s all in it’s own bin.
Then I started organizing my hobby shelf. Just the art cubby.
And now I can get back to
And
But before I can go to bed these two are wanting attention.
The prompt word for January 22nd is “seasonal.” Thanks go to Kaye for the wonderful prompt!
Please be sure to check out Kaye’s blog here!
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/22/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-22nd-2023/ It’s fun!
Linda spoke of how her writing was seasonal. NaNoWriMo, CampNaNo and Just Jot It January becomes her writing time. Me, too. It seems those programs help motivate me properly. I haven’t won every time. And sometimes, like last month as I tried another goal, I made no progress at all. But often I make the 50k. Even on the camps. That would probably not surprise my teachers. Most of my report cards had comments like, ‘Darlene talks too much in class.’
This year I’ve over-goaled my life with all the gifts I’m trying to make and so writing has fallen by the wayside.
And I still have to podcast and start reading aloud my books, starting with my memoirs. The area in my house I planned on using, suddenly has Diamond Paintings.
My recorder playing, piano and voice practice have fallen off.
There are only 24 hours in a day. Still!!! I stay up reading until 3 or 4. With my old dog waking me often, sleep also seems seasonal. Heat and smoke and bugs of summer, icy cold and snow of winter affects everything in our house. Where we hang out, how we sleep, either covered up over my head with warmth or sheet to keep bugs off. And all this affects energy and pain levels, ya know?
Maybe I need to organize my day better and my week to include everything I want to do.
Thank goodness for the treadmill. It still gets used most days of the week.
How does anyone get anything done with a job? I did do NaNo. But the rest of this, writing, knitting, especially learning new stitches, artwork, music, etc. Little got done. Too tired. Housework. Phew!
Seasons of our lives are as influential as the weather. Whew!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 20th 2023, is “phantom.” Use the word “phantom” any way you’d like. Have fun!
By the way, the prompt is brought to us by Tuba. Thank you, Tuba! Please be sure to visit Tuba’s blog to read her posts and say hello
Since starting the Jotting for January a few of my own regular features seem to have become phantoms. I can feel them calling me like a phantom limb. Besides a couple reviews behind, I feel I need to catch us up on things I’m working on. Yes, I said ‘us.’ That is how I keep myself aware of what I’ve been up to lately. It helps me realize I’m not sitting and navel gazing. Things are getting done!
I’ve shared my two pairs of circular needle socks. But there are other projects getting attention. Just not as much.
⁰
I shared my method of keeping the cable uncurled with friends today. And I can share the progress since my full frog of yesterday.
Lastly, Diamond Painting continues. Nearly finished with the dragon.
I’ll try to get my reviews done sometime this weekend.
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 14th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “once upon a time.” Start your post with “Once upon a time,” then write whatever comes to you, whether it be fact or fiction. Have fun!
So, here we go…
Once upon a time, when people were kind, there was a bully. But kindness and blah, blah, blah.
What my stream is taking me to my knitting. I didn’t get to do my Finishing Friday. And my knitting is calling loudly, almost like a bully.
So
My newest try (just frogged again within the hour). These on my second set of Knitters’ Pride Royale Circular Needles, size 8, 45″ cord. I found my cast-on too long at 20. So I’ll start the next pair with Judy’s Magic Cast-on. Let’s try 16. Then the toe won’t look so boxy.
Just a quick review of the Knitters’Pride cords. They are so tightly coiled they are hard to work with. After research, I learned to steam or heat the cords. That helped the coiling, but they are not nearly as flexible as the ChiaoGoo red-lace circulars. But maybe with a little practice I’ll get used to them.
Other knitting and loom knitting projects are coming along. They just aren’t the extreme challenge as the Tu2AAT socks.
And the dragon is coming along.
Okay, back to the tiny bras!
This post is brought to you by Linda G. Hill, Just Jot it January, and Destiny! Please be sure to check out her blog.
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/09/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-9th-2023/ It’s fun!
Occasionally I share projects I’m working on, or have finished. This picture goes with the posts.
Why? Because despite me, ADD, arthritis, and other obstacles, things get done. And I feel glad. Endurance is a similar word. Hands hurting is something to be endured, even if the hobby is enjoyable. So here’s my latest batch of projects in various stages of completeness.
Isle yarn from Willows.
Endurance of lack of Internet or streaming services is the hardest part of all of this. I need the distraction. And the chance to work on the web, especially GoodReads and the reviews I need to write. This is endurance. We may be up and running tomorrow when our local Internet fixer will come by. 🤞
Darswords 
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