Incyanity

indie dyeing life stuff pretty yarn temperature blanket updates weatherghan

Even a little bit of progress counts!

It’s March! Time has really flown by. In a way, it’s a bit scary. I could have sworn yesterday was still December. Guess not. On the other hand, I can also look back at the last six months or so and see how far I’ve come in many areas, particularly with my mental health. There are still days where I struggle a lot, but strides have been taken, challenges are being worked on, and generally speaking I am starting to feel a lot better. My family, friends, and doctors say my improvement is noticeable, which is reassuring (especially on days when I feel as if I haven’t made any progress at all).

Progress has been made in other areas too, specifically with respect to my yarn shop and creativity. Seeing tangible results in these areas helps reinforce the strides I’m making with my health, which is great. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Here are where things are at:

30 September 2018 Cheyenne

From hot to cold in just a few weeks…

September! Autumn, back to school, crisp air. The month went by quick (again), particularly as I spent ten days out on Vancouver Island at the Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort for a work conference. The time away was decent, and I took as much advantage of being out on the BC coast as I could muster given the circumstances and the mostly wet weather. I even took a small crochet project a coworker asked me to do for her!

Before I talk about my blanket, I want to share what Mom has done with hers, so let’s dive right in!

31 August 2018 Cheyenne

August 7 and August 8.

I ran into some snags on this project this month, so all I have is a quick update to let everyone know where I’m at!

31 July 2018 Cheyenne

The Canada Day square.

July has been super busy! I spent most of the month concentrating on things I need to do to get ready to launch my hand dyed yarn shop. The shop isn’t open yet but I’m pretty close! Most of the big things are taken care of so over the next few weeks I’ll be moving forward with building up some stock. It’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it.

This month I also had to get ready for a visitor: my best friend Mat is visiting from the UK for a few weeks while my folks are in the United States. I’m house sitting for them during their trip and looking after their dogs, so it’s nice to have the company. On top of looking after my furry siblings I’m also exploring options for a new day job that I can transition to—one which will hopefully lessen my stress and allow me to put more energy into pursuing my yarn.

With all of that going on (and also feeling a bit anti-crochet due to the heat we’ve been having) meant my blanket has been neglected this month, but even so, I do have some progress to share.

30 June 2018 Cheyenne

A cool summer day: June 10 (and June 14 too).

Wow! It’s June 30. Time has flown by—half the year is gone, which means my blanket is about half finished!

Getting to this point is a pretty big milestone. This is my first blanket, the biggest crochet project I’ve undertaken to date, so it’s a pretty huge commitment. So far so good! I’ve managed to avoid burnout (though there have been moments!) and while there’s still a lot of seaming to do, the rows are coming together. The blanket isn’t quite big enough to start snuggling under yet (don’t really need that at this time of year) but it’s getting there. My mountain of yarn is starting to wind down too. Some colors are reducing faster than others. The bag I keep all the individual squares in is bursting!

In addition to being the halfway point of 2018, it’s the end of the second quarter too. Let’s see where things are at!

31 May 2018 Cheyenne

May 15, 2018: the first lilac square of the year.

Last month I talked about how April didn’t go as planned after my vacation to New Zealand. By month-end I still had all of the April squares to do on top of needing to start keeping on top of the May squares. Now it’s the end of May, and thankfully, I made it! It was a lot of work that stressed me out a few times and left my fingers feeling raw more than once, but all the April squares are finished, while May is completed more or less up to where I’d normally be for a month-end update. Whew!

A couple of notable milestones occurred while making all those squares:

April 12 marked the date I could seam the first and second rows together!
On May 12 I was able to add the third row!
On May 15 the high reached 28°C (82.4°F). Hot, at least for this time of year! This triggered me to use yarn from the highest temperature bracket on my chart for the first time. Each color has now been used at least once!

29 April 2018 Cheyenne

April Fool’s Day square.

I’m back! My trip to New Zealand was amazing. But now, let’s talk about the temperature blanket…

I mentioned at the end of the March update that I would have a pile of squares to do after my vacation. Boy, was I right! Not only have I not done any squares (except for April 1, 2018, shown at right) from the time I was away yet, I haven’t finished the last remaining March squares either, nor any squares for the other April days after I arrived back in Canada. Yikes! :( The main culprit has been the chest cold that came back with me and that it has taken me about ten days to get over the jet lag. Originally I expected to do two or three squares each night after work to get caught up but it just hasn’t worked out yet. Instead, I’ll have to try doubling up on squares during the month of May now that I’m starting to feel better and am getting back to my normal sleep schedule.

Temperature Blanket: March Update

30 March 2018 Cheyenne

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Not a speck of green for St. Patty’s Day.

According to the calendar, it’s supposed to be spring. Supposed to be. The snow flying by the window indicates otherwise, but then, I do live in the Great White North…

March, like February, hasn’t been that fun as far as the weather goes. Snow, and snow, and more snow. And just when we started to think we were done, yep, even more snow! As I write this, southern Alberta is under yet another heavy snowfall warning, with up to twenty centimeters expected. By tomorrow morning it should be done, maybe. We’ll see. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about this apparent never-ending winter, and Old Man Winter and Mother Nature might just want to stick it to us for a bit longer.

You’d think, having been born here and lived here my whole life to date, that I’d be used to this kind of crap weather. Nope. I’m with the complainers: sick of winter, bring on spring and more colors for my blanket!

25 February 2018 Cheyenne