Tunisian Crochet

So I finally finished my Tunisian crochet poncho. I used a size Q Tunisian Crochet Hook and 3 balls of tartelette yarn. I purchased an extra ball for the fringe but I have lots of it left over. Truth be told I had finished crocheting it quite a while back but I had failed to put the fringe and beads on at the end. While stalling on MS3 I figured I would take the time to put the fringe on so I can wear it to work tomorrow. I really like the way it turned out.

The puppies had a good time helping with the photo shoot. Halle thought it was great fun but Makena was not too impressed with wearing the poncho.

Halle & Makena

This time Halle was a bit more scared of the poncho than of the sock so she rolled over in submission instead of tearing off across the yard with it. I think that she thought we were playing a game of "roll-over" so she kept doing a crocodile roll a bit but at least she didn't start chewing on it. So that was an improvement.

Halle -

Don't worry she looks that idiotic most of the time

As for MS3 I finished chart A of clue one last night and am hoping to make some project on chart B this evening. My goal is to finish Clue 1 by the end of the week. I'm hoping all goes smoothly. If not I have a stack full of unfinished projects I can work on.

Life lessons....

"Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson"


Its funny how diving in feet first sometimes is a perfect opportunity to distract oneself from the true point of the dive itself. So MS3 seemed like a good idea. The beads seemed fabulous but then as I was using them I began to question my color choice for beads since they weren't standing out as much as I wanted them to, but I kept on knitting. Then I read about folks color coding the different stitches on the charts to make it easier, but I ignored that suggestion and kept on knitting. Then I read numerous accounts of the glory and power of lifelines, but then again I kept on knitting. Somehow if I kept on knitting then everything would somehow magically work out. Yeah....not so much.



So earlier last week I dropped some stitches, picked them up and kept on knitting, with the dull beads, without a color coded chart, and without lifelines. Then I realized my knitting was a bit off so I ripped it out a few rows and kept on going (it was still a bit off) but I rationalized it to myself and kept on going. That resulted in me tinking, then ripping, then tinking again to reach a point that I was fairly certain I knew where I was, so I put it down, grabbed my trusty pair of corn socks and headed off for a few days of academic stimulation.

During those few days I saw this......

this

Site Steward (the squirrel)

some of these

BRM's

I found a few of these

Shell Beads

marveled at a herd of these

Tule Elk

was fascinated by these

Dragonfly

and was in total awe of this

It was great to do some field work in an area outside of my normal geographic area and it was a great opportunity to meet new people, see new things, and be inspired once again. It was an unexpected and highly welcomed feeling to be excited once again about my chosen profession and at the same time it made me come to terms with the "progress" I was making on MS3.

So today I gave it another shot, with the dull beads, a somewhat colored chart, and no lifelines. I made a mistake, I tinked back and then realized starting over isn't always the worst option possible. Going along with it, acting like everything is fine and knowing it isn't is a lot worse than taking a break and starting over with a new perspective and a new respect for a challenging task.



So I'm starting over, from the beginning on MS3 and its OK. I'm changing my beads. I'm going to use lifelines, and I'm going to color code my chart from the very beginning. While diving in head first can be fun, sometimes the best lessons aren't fun but necessary.