No decision should be made on an empty shopping bag. --Donita K. Paul
It's been warm so far this February on Vancouver Island. I'd tell you it was unseasonably warm, but even after nine years of living here, I couldn't tell you what a normal February is supposed to look like. Maybe I just don't pay attention well enough, or maybe it's so changeable that I try not to think about it. But it has been warm and sunny and pleasant. The crocuses are out in abundance:
The hubby flew us down to Victoria for the day the other day to take advantage of the weather and for a change of scenery.
Pup was on copilot duty, as usual:
We landed at Victoria Flying Club and then walked into Sidney from there:
Sidney is a town located on the northern tip of the Saanich peninsula. It's a charming little place with lots of little shops and cafes and a nice walk along the water:
It was pleasant, but the wind is always a little bitey by the water this time of year. The cormorants and the gulls didn't seem to mind and seemed to enjoy sunning themselves while they could:
I've been very low energy over the past week, but I was determined to do a few things this weekend. In an effort to try to expand my creative horizons, I signed up for a couple of online watercolour courses. With great restraint, I have decided against going out and buying a whole bunch of supplies, at least until I spent some time digging out what I already had. It turned out to be a significant amount of stuff. It took me two weekends to finally get around to going through it all, and I'm glad I did because it was a significant amount of stuff:
I admit that I've found retail therapy to be a satisfying diversion for me over the past few months, but I've recently felt the shine come off of that recently. I am famous for collecting craft supplies galore "in preparation" for some BIG ideas, but that usually ends up with a shameful pile of stuff in my craft drawers that never see the light of day (hello, yarn stash!). I heard the writer James Clear talk about that recently... he said something to the effect of, "Buying stuff FEELS like motion, but it's just action. It's easier to buy all the supplies and books and notebooks than it is to actually spend the time to set boundaries around your time to actually do the big creative things you want to do."
Ouch. Point taken. I will calm the heck down now. Once I empty my online shopping cart...
Meanwhile, on the knitting front, I think I've made some good progress on my current knitting experiment. I was hoping to have the full sleeve finished by today, but I was so tired of looking at the droopy neckline that I took a break from the sleeve to sort that out. I am much happier with it now:
I also decided to go around the bottom hem and do something to the edge in an effort to stop the curling. I chose to crochet around the bottom with a clever stitch that I saw someone do on Instagram. It's basically a single crochet, but you twist the stitches in a full counterclockwise turn before you draw up the final loop and pull it through. It was super simple, but very pretty. It still doesn't lie flat, but I'm hoping it'll settle itself down once I block it:
In truth, there are a lot of things I'm hoping will settle down after I give this thing a good block. I am not so sure about this yarn after spending so much time with it. It's light and airy, but it lacks any kind of drape at all which makes it hard to gauge how the overall shape of the garment is turning out. I winced a bit when I hung this thing on a hanger this afternoon. It looked all lumpy and mishapen. I'm REEEEALLY hoping a good long soak and pin will change my mind about it all because this was a heckuva long time to spend on something that I won't like in the end. Fingers crossed:
Happy middle-of-February, everyone. Have a good week.
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