Projects & pastimes

I've been spending too much time watching TV lately. The evil thing about TV on DVD is the fact that you don't have to wait a week for the next episode; it's right there for the watching, so you can keep on going. I'm addictive that way, and ended up spending more time inside today than I intended. I finished the season, so perhaps now I can set that aside, at least until I buy the next set.

Overall, I've been enjoying the book club I joined last year, but I am having a very tough time getting into our current pick. While I did enjoy the last pick, I would have preferred something that wasn't similar for the next pick. I will continue to try and plow through it. Unless I absolutely loathe a book, I will see it through to the end. It's still too early for me to form a fair opinion on this book, I am just lacking in motivation. Maybe now that my addictive TV watching is done, I can get more reading done.

After a few false starts, I finally got going on a knitting project today. I am going to end up doing it in 2 pieces and weaving it together, something I didn't want to do. I tried avoiding that by using circular needles, but they just weren't working for me. The yarn is chunky and was very difficult to get it in the correct direction and I found myself screwing it up repeatedly. I gave up and decided to knit it in 2 pieces. I also abandoned my idea of doing seed stitch and am sticking with just straight knit stitches. With the chunky yarn, it doesn't really look any different or curl, so I think I'm ok. I'm a bit frustrated by my lack of skill. I feel somewhat defeated that I couldn't use the needles or the stitches I wanted... maybe I gave up too easily? I'm not even sure how this is going to turn out. Will they like it? Or will it be the equivalent of a 4 year old's drawing that gets put up on the fridge because his parents have to make a fuss about it? Is the thought and love in the making enough to make it good? I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Knitting is something I only was able to get so far with before Nana passed away. I went further and did more with embroidery than knitting, but hand embroidery is not something that is very popular anymore, thus it's difficult to find anything pre-stamped to work on. I just don't have the creative mind to think of something I can do, draw it, and then embroider it. If someone handed me something, I could do it. I want to get back to it; I don't want my skills getting rusty. Knitting and embroidery is a way for me to remember my grandmother and somehow stay close to her. I'll have to come up with something to work on.