Summer Lovin'...kind of

This summer I have been busy.  And I love it, but it's cutting in to my crafty time and that's bugging me a bit.

My biggest new addition to my life is dating.  I bit the bullet and joined one of the nicer (and more expensive) dating websites.  I had joined several of the free sites a couple years ago and was tired of seeing guys taking selfies with no shirts on in the bathroom mirror.  And the dates were getting progressively worse.

So I joined the fancy site the day after I got back from TNNA.  So far I've gone on 5 dates, and two of them were really fun. But that's a good thing- knowing what you don't like is almost as helpful as knowing what you do like.  I really haven't been in that many "relationships"- they're long, few and very far between and I'm getting to the age where that sort of thing doesn't really work.  So I'm dating.

Some of the highlights have been:

Finding guys who don't think knitting is the dorkiest thing in the world.
Guys love the ladies who wear ninja turtle hats.
Having something to do on Saturday nights.
Shutting down 3 bars in one night and going out with a karaoke duet from Grease.

Some of my very favorite omg bad moments have been:

Going out with a guy who hasn't figured out that he's gay yet.  Awkward.
Being told I'm really pretty...when it's dark.
Being told that my hair and eyebrows don't match.

I'm sure I'll be adding to the lists as this adventure in dating goes on.

And so we move on to the crafting...

I finished a few projects this week....let's start with some socks!

I love them.  They're plain Jane stockinette socks and have been living in my purse since April 2012.  Which is pretty embarrassing.  I went to knit night at Jessica's house on Friday with the crazy idea that I was going to finish a baby blanket and I ran out of yarn pretty early on.  I finished these socks instead, so it's still a win.  I love them and can't wait until a nice crisp Fall day to wear them.  The knitters at the nursery aren't sock knitters (yet) but they've been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over these anyway.  I think a few shall be converted this Fall when they see how toasty my toes are in that cold greenhouse. Yarn is Regia something or other, Erika Knight colorway.  I bought 2 set of the Erika Knight colors at Mass Ave a few years ago and still have the other left.  It will probably be a plain Jane pair of socks too.

Baby Blanket!  I've been carrying this project around since July of last year and finally took that one down this week. It's my design and I will be debuting it at the trunk show in Bloomington on Saturday. Which means I still need to weave in the ends, get it photographed with Jessica's adorable little girl, and then write up the pattern and have it printed.  I know the pattern will take a whopping hour to write and format, it's just getting motivated to do it seems to be an issue.

Naturally I have lots of other projects that I'm working on but the project count is a little bit down for the time being.  I haven't made any progress on the blue Chord Girasole since I last posted but that will be traveling all over the midwest with me this Fall for different trunk shows so I'm not too worried about that. 

I'm still madly in love with my Halloween cross stitching. (Just over 1/3 done) I can't get enough of the audiobook/ cross stitch combo and it's the ultimate stress relief.  By the way, the new David Sedaris book Exploring Diabetes with Owls is fantastic, the latest Sookie Stackhouse murder mystery book...not so much.  But I've been committed to the series for several years now and I have to know how it ends. I have a couple more lined up for after Sookie is finished though. 

I have 4 more oddballs of blue and green yarn that need to disappear into Party Girl's blanket.  I'm really very over this project, but I told myself I had to finish 3 more projects before I start my new quilt. And this one is way overdue to be finished.  I was thinking that I should finish my two cross stitch projects before I start the quilt too but I'm just too excited to get started.  I also rationalized with myself- I can't listen to audiobooks and quilt at the same time because I miss what's happening when I have the sewing machine going. So I'll just stick with the cross stitch/audiobook combo, the quilting/music combo and the knitting during every possible other moment thing.  But the baby blanket, socks, and the scrap monster blanket have been bothering me for a while. 

So that's what I've been making.  I'll flash a couple quick garden shots and then be on my merry way- I've got some Good For Ewe work to get done before the trunk show this weekend. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!