I'm on a mission to finish...

A short and sweet post today.   I've gotten back to the shades of brown blanket, and it's still giving me angst.

The two mid-range browns are very similar.  To the point that I'm second-guessing them again.  

It's kind of amazing, though, how quickly I can make progress when I plough forward through my uncertainties and stop ripping back and starting over again.  I keep telling myself the recipient will love me (and maybe the blanket) in spite of whether or not I am comfortable with it.

There are, no doubt, several life lessons in the making of this project.  Some, yet to be discovered, I think...

Visions of growing things dance in my head...

Every once a while in central Indiana we get to experience a few amazingly warm days during the winter months.  Yesterday, it reached 70℉, and today may see a high of 65 before the rains and winds blow in more seasonably cold weather for the next week of days.  

I celebrated this spring-like weather by sitting myself in the sun and planting some seeds in pots.  Just whatever struck my fancy.

Mostly, lettuces and other leafy greens.  And a few herbs.  And kohlrabi - which is possibly a ridiculous thing to plant in a pot, but I did it anyway.

I also moved my hibiscus plants (above) into the sunroom, and fertilized them. If these perk up, I will repot them to a larger planter outside when the temperatures have stabilized.  These were bought on clearance last summer. Years ago, I had great success with clearanced hibiscus - keeping them for a couple of summers.  I'm hoping I can get at least another summer out of these.

And the amaryllis (above) that my neighbor gave me last spring is producing some growth, so it got a side dressing of new soil and some fertilizer.  Since Easter is early this year (at least in my mind it is) I might be a tad late getting this back in the sun if I hope for a bloom by then.  I'm not overly hoping.  I'll just be thrilled if it blooms again, given my complete neglect of it since its blooms died off last spring.

We'll see if anything above grows.  Just planting and tending these things made me happy yesterday. And then dinner and good discussion with youngest son made my day complete.  The snow here has finally melted. Birds are singing. Sandhill cranes are flying overhead with their distinct call.  

Spring is coming! 

A small cross stitch...

Thanks to all who gave feedback on my blanket project.  I've decided to put it on hold until I get with my friend for her to weigh in on it again.  Comments helped me see some ideas I didn't think about, and also made me feel a little more confident of the colors I'm working with.  I appreciate it.

While waiting to get back to the blanket, I've given myself permission to start a small cross stitch project I found in an older (February 2015) Just Cross Stitch magazine.  I have found some gems in old craft magazines - which is good and bad.  It's fun, because the ideas are so old, they're new again.  It's bad because it feeds my hoarding tendency of all things crafty...  Do you relate?

While Valentine's Day was the inspiration for picking this pattern to work on, and the variegated thread color, I think the finished project will look fine through the spring and summer months displayed with other colorful small projects.  Do I have those other colorful projects done?  No...  But this may just inspire me to begin that collection.  😉

We're warming up here for the next week to temps in the 50's and 60's.  Anticipating the warm up, I bought some seeds a few days ago - with the thought that I might just get something planted this week.  We are also expecting a fair amount of rain in the upcoming days, but hopefully I can find a dry one to do some potting of seeds outside.  The idea of doing that in February just sounds incredible!

The 10 year window...

This short video stopped my mindless scrolling, and started me thinking...

My guess is it will be worth 2 1/2 minutes of your life, too.

A new project...

It's been a little bit since I've shared anything I've been working on because, frankly, having a desire to hand-craft has been hit or miss in recent weeks.  

That said, in early January I offered (and a friend accepted) for me to make a gift for her of a crocheted blanket.  I gave her free reign to tell me what colors she would like it in - with yarns that are available to me locally, that is.  

She had a vision...  An ombre blanket with shades of brown to beige.  Now shades of brown and beige aren't really my bent, but I also didn't think it was a bad idea.  So I gathered some options, and together we picked out shades of yarn that will hopefully fade nicely from dark to light, and make a respectable looking blanket. 

I started this before I landed in the hospital three weeks ago.  Up to that point, it took some trial and error to get the size right.  And I needed to decide from the outset how many colors I would use, and how big (tall) each color section would be.  I (thought I'd) finally settled on five colors, each approximately 14 inches tall, which would make a blanket around 72 inches long.  

And, I did some crochet tests with colors, and order of colors, and finally landed on the five colors I would use.  And wouldn't you know...  today, I'm once again second guessing the colors. and how many colors to use. 

Here are the options:

Five shades

Six shades

I hate all this waffling, especially after being sure (for most of a week) that five shades would be enough.  And an odd number always sounds good to me.  But when I see how large 14 inches is, and thinking this might look better with more shades, I think six shades is a respectable idea too.

Using six colors will mean ripping back and restarting the second shade earlier.  But that's a small price to pay if it looks better in the end.

Feel free to weigh in.  The colors above are pretty true (on my screen), but that second skein from the left is slightly darker  than it shows in the picture.  So it works best in the order I've placed these colors.

Once I make my final decision, I'm hoping I can knock this out in just a few weeks.  

~~~~~

On the health front, biopsies on the two most suspicious thyroid nodules have come back as benign.  What a relief that is.  I felt I was holding well onto the most likely scenario - which was that the nodules were benign.  And that my bigger fear (a metastasis) was unlikely.  But until I saw "benign" on a final report, I didn't fully realize how preoccupied I was with it all.  I think this simply goes with the territory of having had cancer.  I'm grateful to not be plagued with worry about it coming back, but boy...  does the possibility ever rear its ugly head when you're least expecting it!  I know that not everyone will understand that, but if you feel what I'm saying, I'm happy to validate you.

I'm also very happy to say I now feel free to kick to the curb the niggling worry that hung around in the back of my mind the past two weeks.  

I'm feeling good.  I'm movin' on...  

Thank you for prayers and encouragement.