Friday Fortius

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Changes

A couple of years ago, I had to streamline the living room and dining room to eliminate tripping hazards. I knew then the day would come when I would have to begin working on the rest of the house, too. That day has come.

Some of the things I'm finding are taking me back in time. Back to the days of craft fairs, handmade greeting cards, spray paint for rocks and snowflakes, weeklong bicycle tours, overnight drives to 14er trailheads to begin hiking at 2 a.m. and hopefully summit before any threat of lightning... man, where on earth did all the time go?!?

Here are just a few of the stashed things that brought back pleasant memories:

an entire box of used and shredded paper scraps I hoped to craft into homemade paper (circa 2016)
travel sanitizer bottles I planned to crochet wrap for loved ones
every variety of glow-in-the-dark glitter and pigment I can imagine
17 bottles of colorful Elmer's glow-in-the-dark glue (not the clear I used on snowflakes)
reams of photo paper and ink for a printer no longer made

Crafts and activities I planned (pre-pandemic) to do with the grands during the summer:

homemade rock-painting kits
crazy buttons for homemade Christmas tree hoodies
coloring books
boxes and boxes of photos of their birth parents as children
eight huge bags of to-be-recycled plastic lids for a giant mural

Therapy tools I collected to help Lizard increase or maintain skills:

sliced-up pool noodles to help combat shuffles
mystery novels he would hopefully read to me in his LOUD voice
three huge boxes of colored pencils for his art therapy
southwest, shark and aircraft coloring books to motivate coloring
word game magazines
cycling magazines
wooden birdhouses he intended to paint and seal for outdoor use

Lizard belongings he can't or won't use now:

maps, maps, and more maps
hydrology textbooks
college thesis materials (for two hard-earned degrees!!!)
camera batteries and memory cards
his GoPro
his calculator
his flight simulators

My own unfinished projects (which doesn't even rate on the scale of quilt WIPs):

a stack of unfinished snowflakes
a stack of finished but no-pattern-yet-snowflakes
three crochet baskets
the motif project I began after Lizard's knee replacement
the Harvest Flower motif project
a pair of crochet leg warmers (or, more accurately, 1 and a quarter leg warmer)
three headless troll bodies
dragonflies in every color of thread I've dyed
the snowflake flower vest
carbon fiber I intended to spin into yarn for a Christmas beanie for Lizard
hundreds of beads, charms and drilled stones I'd planned to crochet into jewelry for my (still empty) Etsy shop

The unfinished projects listed above also don't rate on the scale of handmade greeting cards. I'll bet I could open up my own card shop if I finished all these!!! But, oh, yeah, most card shops are like extinct dinosaurs these days. No one sends paper cards now. Everything is virtual these days. Too bad we can't make Parkinson's virtual.

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Better than Resolutions

Now that I've freed myself of completing another daily year-long temperature crochet project (or actual fabric temperature quilt), I'm free to set new goals for 2024. I'm not one who shies away from resolutions, and generally, I can keep resolutions I make. Nevertheless, I have a few (self-imposed) obligations in the coming year, and one is coming up a bit too quickly.

I have set resolutions for Lizard, all with his approval. Nothing new; I've been trying to encourage him in these goals for the last six to eight or so months. I hope to get him walking at least once a day again, and we can work up to that at his pace. I am trying to get him to do his LOUD therapy every day. That one is a bit harder for both of us (for me because it's very difficult to enforce while I'm working, and that's his best time for doing it), but I won't give up. I want him to color or do some other finger therapy at least three times per week. He's been doing once or twice a week for going on two weeks now, and that's SO encouraging for me. I'm hoping he will be able to get back on his bike. Whatever he can do will be amazing. He wants to get back into his Parkinson's stretching routine on a daily basis. He was unable for nearly six weeks, so the one time per week he is achieving right now is an AWESOME accomplishment.

My one resolution this year (other than trying to get back into an exercise routine and lose a bit of weight) is to get back to sewing. I've missed it SO much. I was tempted to say SEW much! I have a ton of mending that needs to be done, I have fabric for dresses I can't wait to wear, one of my bosses is getting married in just eight weeks, and I'm going to be an aunt again twice this year. I have established contact with three more of my adopted kids' adopted kids (just three more to go!!!), and they need grandma quilts. And, one of the adoptive families to whom I have become "grandma" has adopted three more kids. They need quilts from their new grandma.

As a result, my goal this year is to finish nine baby/kid quilts. I really hope to finish a quilt for my soon-to-be-wed boss. I have yet to even pick a pattern for what was supposed to be my mother-i-law's quilt for Christmas in 2022. I also would like to finish one or two of the UFO quilts I've been trying to finish for more than a decade.

I would really love to work on my Moda Blockheads quilt from 2018-2019. That involves crochet as well as piecing, quilting and binding. Part two of the current Blockhead project just started up, and I'd really like to finish off one of my existing blocks each week of the current Blockheads. I don't know if that's a doable goal (didn't get one done last week), but hopefully I can at least make a bit of progress on what I think will be a stunning quilt when done.

I designed my 800th snowflake late last year. I guess I have a goal now of 1,000. I don't know if I can make it that far. However, especially during times of crisis, I've discovered snowflake crochet is my solace. My goal for this year is a new snowflake each week (or finishing up the pattern for one of my unpublished patterns in my shrinking stash).

Because my ability to complete an actual Block a Day quilt is impacted by Lizard's health struggles, I instead would like to design a new crochet snowflake design each day I am able. I would LOVE to do a Flake a Day, but I know I cannot reach that goal in our current circumstances. If I give myself wiggle room and don't put as much pressure on myself, my Flake A Day When I Can project can stay fun, and hopefully I won't get discouraged if I get too far behind. I have all these wonderful snowflake photography books (plus my own snowflake photos), and I'd love to be able to pick one photograph each day I'm able and create a crocheted version. We're already on Day 9, and I've started only one. So, as I said, I've got to keep this fun and not put too much pressure on myself. Just do what I can when I can.

Goal setting for me is fun and motivating, as long as I keep my expectations realistic. I can't set goals like Ride the Rockies anymore, and I doubt I will get any more 14ers. But that doesn't mean life can't be rich and rewarding. I made myself so proud last year with my digital snowflake temperature quilt. My goals this year are to keep caregiving, and to keep creating, even if I can't create every single day. The end goal is a smile at work well done, and I think I can do that!

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Temperature Project Lessons

One of my fundamental teachers of 2023 was my collection of temperature projects: the digital charm square mockup, the crochet project, and the wide assortment of digital temperature quilts I started the year with vs. the four digital temperature quilts I finished.

I learned if I don't like a color in a daily project, I'm not likely to finish the project. I learned using colors I adore makes it easier for me to finish the year. However, hot summer temperatures can make me dislike a color I love, not because the color doesn't go beautifully in the project, but because it symbolizes sweating and discomfort. I just don't like hot weather! I guess I should live further north!!! Or in Gunnison...

(affiliate links to my designs)

I learned I don't necessarily want to use up ALL my hand-dyed crochet thread, particularly hard-to-acheive colors.

I learned I like digital temperature projects better than fiber projects because they are easier to catch up on when something, such as a pinched nerve in my back or an extended family medical emergency, keeps me from my daily goals.

I learned I do not like catching up more than about five days on a daily crochet project. Especially when my back is not cooperating.

I learned I like gradient color charts better than rainbow color charts.

I wound up liking two of the new (to me) digital projects I designed myself so much, my creative juices began percolating again at the end of the summer. Could I do it again? Could I come up with two more original projects???

I came up with two brand new potential schemes for 2024's digital temperature projects. I learned that new daily challenges get me excited when current projects become boring (thanks to a string of solid high 90s).

Especially when new ideas involve photography!!!

I was fascinated to discover I could design 12 new snowflakes based on my 2023 crochet temperature project motif. I mistakenly thought I'd designed 13, and 13 has always has been my lucky number. Perhaps I will have to design one more... In the meantime, I created a snowflake frame you may download for personal use. Merry belated Christmas!

My 2023 crochet temperature project (or, rather, the snowflakes I designed based on the project motif) forced me to perfect my foundation crochet. This newfound crochet strength has left me extremely satisfied, excited, proud and giddy.

Of course, those of you who have been following along know I questioned finishing the December portion of my 2023 temperature crochet project, due to work demands and then health challenges. Now that work is taking a deep breath and counting to ten and Lizard's most recent health crisis is beginning to heal, I'm catching up and adding in those final two rows. No more doubt!!!

I literally rang in the new year while Lizard peacefully slept (for the first time in at least three weeks) by catching up the 19 days I'd lost. I still have to finish that final row, so 12 more days (which the forecast says will include a lot of my favorite blue hand-dyed threads!), and I'll be done.

Because the end of the year was so difficult to keep going and because I've started new digital temperature projects for 2024, I've decided not to create a new crochet temperature project for this year. I ruled out doing a 10-month temperature quilt or afghan because November and December can be the prettiest months of a temperature project. I have considered doing perhaps a month-long crochet project or perhaps even a crochet temperature snake. I suppose I could even do a temperature lizard...

Although I'm not doing another motif crochet temperature project in 2024, I learned from working on this project I can set a motif-a-day goal for one of my favorite motif WIPs and perhaps finish one of those in the next few months. It would be awesome if I could finish two this year. Three would be a real bonus.

For now, my 2023 digital snowflake temperature quilt is one of my most favorite creations of all time. (It should be complete on January 14.) Even though it is digital, it still took a lot of time, a commitment every single day, and a complete redo of January and February when I discovered my digital snowflakes would not print white via Spoonflower the way I was then doing them. I really would love to create a fiber version of this quilt one day, and I think that would be the creative capstone of my life. However, my 2023 crochet temperature project has taught me I cannot commit to such a crochet/quilt endeavor until I retire. And even then, caregiving takes precedence. Perhaps the fiber version of this work of art will live its life in my head. That's not such a bad thing...

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