devil’s decimals

The last however many months have been filled with the humdrum activities of daily life in the suburbs, which I tolerate, the most noteworthy positive things being our holiday to Japan, I turned 30, my niece turned 1, and we moved into a bigger place.

Craft wise, the usual ebb and flow has occurred. I finally completed what was once my secret Christmas project for Nick somewhere between then and now, which was… a crochet Cerberus! This project was ambitious in many ways, and as usual, slowed to an extra crawl in the construction stages, but I made it! Cerberus was dubbed by his new owner: “Allen”.

Big props to MrsThallium for sharing her wondrous pattern, and Suncatcher Eyes, well, for the eyes.

Post Cerberus, I spent our mild winter making winter woollies for various people. I became obsessed with variegated yarn for a short while, since it makes things look more interesting than they really are, and the changing colours and textures kept my attention span in check. I have been particularly digging on tweed yarn, of which I originally bought a skein of the most hideous colours I could find for some hobo gloves for my brother. I then actually realised that it is gorgeous to work with, and can look very cool in the right context. A beanie for each of us followed, though I finished my own in the last week of “cold” weather we had, so didn’t actually get a wear in. Whoops.

I’ve more recently fallen back into amigurumi, and taken the daunting step into using purely my own patterns, rather than the splicing together of all the wonderful patterns out there. Who knows how it will end (or if it ever will).

I easily get sucked in to spending a majority of my time doing things I don’t really want to do. This especially happens in Summer. I have spent most of this year so far in this unproductive state, with a minority of exceptions.

Crafternoons were absent from my life for a lot of this time, after a minor case of burnout after so much Xmas pressure, and also due to the growth of my niece, and her new level of mobility, curiousity and tactile fascination, along with the increased ability to distract via cuteness. One of my Xmas projects still remains unfinished, but I am aiming to get it completed before next Xmas. I wouldn’t want to set an unachievable goal. Here are a few of my Xmas projects which were completed and gifted on the due date.

Recently, however, I have been easing back into it, with the return of Winter, and the help of a few friends and keen greenhorns, and have been enjoying the deadline-free element to the crafternoon. It begins again…

So, our plans for change and excitement have been postponed due to unfortunate global circumstances. However, to dwell on the fact would be to invite melancholy into this post, so I won’t.

I turn 30 next month. I am quite unconcerned about this, and am taking the fresh approach of looking forward to it, and using it to make some much needed changes here and there. The one thing I did promise myself, and phrased it as such knowing the unpredictable nature of things, is that I would not be in Brisbane for my birthday. Thanks to this promise, and the freeing up of some savings from the aforementioned plan changes, we are heading to Japan for 11 days! This is the most excitement we have seen in a while, and is keeping us occupied with planning and the making of many lists - one of my favourite things to do, of course.