Oy! Only one week until Christmas Eve and I'm still making gifts! Am I surprised? Not at all. Last year I resolved to make gifts all year long with nobody in particular in mind, so that by the time Labor Day rolled around I could sit by the pool with my umbrella drink and scoff at those who were planning what they were going to do with the next four months. I would giggle as Thanksgiving closed in on us, safe in the knowledge that all of my gifting was already done, and glad that I wasn't them, getting crushed in that last minute frenzy of working around the clock, burning the midnight oil to get gifts ready. Yup. Those were my plans. So what am I doing right now? Well, I'm wondering why the hell I stopped working on Thelma's hat to write in a blog that I have no time to write in because I still have five more people to crochet gifts for in the next seven days. Thaaaaaaat's right, folks, as usual, my plans didn't work out.
Not to worry, though. Like clockwork, someone on the Crochetville site has started the official yearly "what are your crochet plans for next year" thread, and I am already planning my pat answer - "I am going to start working on next year's Christmas gifts the day after Christmas so that by the time Thanksgiving rolls around next year, I'm already done with my gifts and I can just relax and enjoy the holidays."
It's not just Christmas gifts that cause me to vapor lock like this. Oh no! Not by a long shot! ANY deadline of any kind is enough to throw me into that all-too-familiar last minute frenzy. In 2007, Thanksgiving Day was November 23. November 23 is also my friend Dinah's birthday. So last year the person who owned our hotel at the time decided to host a massive Thanksgiving dinner so that we could have a birthday party for Dinah at the same time. Oddly enough, I finished her gift two days before her birthday last year, which was probably one step away from being declared a miracle by the Catholic Church. I had crocheted a pretty table cover for her. It was actually a doily pattern that I did in knitting worsted weight yarn so that it would be large enough for a table cover. She loved it, and as the party/dinner ended, she said to me, "You know what you can make me for my birthday next year?" Tickled pink at the prospect of having a whole year to make whatever it was I asked, "What?" She replied, "A Christmas Tree skirt!" I was ecstatic! I always try to keep Dinah's gifts to something having to do with angels, since that is what she collects. So I was going to find THE PRETTIEST Christmas tree skirt there was, and I was going to have a WHOLE YEAR to make it! Kathy White, an extremely talented crochet designer, had designed a breathtaking tree skirt that was filet crochet and had BEAUTIFUL angels all around it! I even had the pattern gifted to me! It was going to be PERFECT! Well, it WOULD have been perfect had I been a machine, but there was FAR more work to this tree skirt than I ever imagined, and when Halloween hit and I was just starting it (the pattern was only published in the late summer/early fall) I just wasn't going to have the time to finish it. So a week before her birthday, I started working on a normal tree skirt out of knitting worsted weight yarn and finished it two weeks after the big day. Dinah wasn't surprised that it was late. She giggled. She also loved it. But once again, it was late.
But let me get back to my last minute crunch. Next year will be different. Just you wait and see.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
So Why Am I Not Surprised?
Shavay's birthday party is tomorrow (Saturday). I had figured that if I worked (worked meaning crocheted) during my entire shift at work, and then continued as soon as I got home and worked most of the night, I would have the Shawler done in time for the birthday party tomorrow night. Things started off just fine, but then were quickly derailed. So why am I not surprised?
It started out looking like it was going to be a productive night at work in terms of crocheting. Nobody was around when I first got to work at 3:00, which made the perfect setting for me to be able to get a lot done. After only about 30 minutes things really started to go awry. For some reason, at least a dozen people lost their keys during the course of the day and needed to bother me to make new ones. Then came "The Urinator". We have a guest at the hotel at the moment that we refer to as "The Urinator". He and his girlfriend apparently are into, shall we say, the kinkier side of things. Now, I don't have a problem with what people do in bed, as long as they do it in their OWN bed!! This couple has managed to completely ruin a full-sized mattress with their sexual exploits, and today I had to call the guy in to the office to tell him that he was not going to just skate in here, urinate indiscriminately around the room while he and his girlfriend have sex, and skatke out without having to pay for the things that were ruined in the process. I informed him that he was going to have to pay for the mattress that was ruined. I didn't go into detail about HOW the mattress was ruined. I figured he knew already. After all, he WAS there while it was happening. The tension was caused by the fact that HE knew that I knew, and that fact made it impossible for him to look me in he eye while I talked to him. I thought it was pretty amusing. I don't think he shared my amusement.
Several (somewhere between 20 and 30) interruptions later, I was still only on row 15 of the second half of the Shawler. I have to go to row 35 and then sew the two halves together, THEN I have to make cuffs AND a hood. Since it was already 9:30, it was a lead pipe cinch that I wasn't going to get anywhere near completing anything during my work shift except maybe putting the finishing touches on a raging aggravation headache. Then, at 9:30, Shavay came into the lobby to drop off some things for tomorrow's party at her mother's apartment. P and I asked her what she was planning to serve at the party tomorrow, and she ran down a list of foods. P asked her if she was going to make potato salad, but she said that she was going to buy it instead because she wasn't going to have time to make it. She was disappointed because she wasn't even going to have time to make deviled eggs, which are one of her favorites. Now, I KNEW that I had at LEAST eight hours of crocheting ahead of me if I was even going to come CLOSE to having the Shawler finished for the party tomorrow night, but even though I knew this, my mouth started moving anyway, as if independent from my body and brain, and the words that came out of it were, "Bring me the eggs and I'll make the deviled eggs! That's not a big deal!" Not a big deal? I had one night to finish her gift, not to mention that during that same night I had to do my nails AND dye my hair, and now here I was volunteering myself to make deviled eggs for the party tomorrow night.
Well, my body had to back up what my mouth started, so at 11:00 when I went back upstairs to my apartment, I took with me four dozen eggs to turn into deviled eggs, a shaker container of paprika, and a couple of teaspoons of INDIAN paprika, which is as hot as any hot pepper I have ever tasted! I had maybe three grains of the indian paprika on my finger and I licked it off to see how spicy it was and MAMA MIA!!! That's a some SPICY paprika!!!! Patel giggled at me and said something about me being a lightweight. Fine by me! If not having my lips eaten away by the pernicious little red grains makes me a lightweight, then a lightweight I guess I be.
I got home and started hardboiling eggs for this project. Four dozen eggs. I used a soup pot and it was FULL! I think a dozen of the eggs must have frozen in Vay's fridge, because when I put them in the water they floated, and when I went to peel them they were brown inside and the whites had the consistency of a soap eraser. I decided to toss those because they were going to ruin the project. I ended up with a tray that's over two feet in diameter COVERED with deviled eggs. I will let people put their own indian paprika on them. I don't want to be up on charges of attempted murder!
I made my husband carry the tray up to the apartment in the office because I had no room in my fridge to store the finished eggs, so we took the eggs up and then came home. I did my nails as quickly as I could, looked at the clock and it was 4:00 am. So much for getting the Shawler finished tonight.
One thing I DID find out at work that is in my favor is that Shavay's actual birthday isn't until Monday, so technically, if I don't get to finish the Shawler until Sunday night and then give it to Shavay on Monday, her gift will still be on time for her birthday. But I just knew that my night was going to get messed up. I'm surprised it took as long as it did for the wheels to fall off. So why am I not surprised?
It started out looking like it was going to be a productive night at work in terms of crocheting. Nobody was around when I first got to work at 3:00, which made the perfect setting for me to be able to get a lot done. After only about 30 minutes things really started to go awry. For some reason, at least a dozen people lost their keys during the course of the day and needed to bother me to make new ones. Then came "The Urinator". We have a guest at the hotel at the moment that we refer to as "The Urinator". He and his girlfriend apparently are into, shall we say, the kinkier side of things. Now, I don't have a problem with what people do in bed, as long as they do it in their OWN bed!! This couple has managed to completely ruin a full-sized mattress with their sexual exploits, and today I had to call the guy in to the office to tell him that he was not going to just skate in here, urinate indiscriminately around the room while he and his girlfriend have sex, and skatke out without having to pay for the things that were ruined in the process. I informed him that he was going to have to pay for the mattress that was ruined. I didn't go into detail about HOW the mattress was ruined. I figured he knew already. After all, he WAS there while it was happening. The tension was caused by the fact that HE knew that I knew, and that fact made it impossible for him to look me in he eye while I talked to him. I thought it was pretty amusing. I don't think he shared my amusement.
Several (somewhere between 20 and 30) interruptions later, I was still only on row 15 of the second half of the Shawler. I have to go to row 35 and then sew the two halves together, THEN I have to make cuffs AND a hood. Since it was already 9:30, it was a lead pipe cinch that I wasn't going to get anywhere near completing anything during my work shift except maybe putting the finishing touches on a raging aggravation headache. Then, at 9:30, Shavay came into the lobby to drop off some things for tomorrow's party at her mother's apartment. P and I asked her what she was planning to serve at the party tomorrow, and she ran down a list of foods. P asked her if she was going to make potato salad, but she said that she was going to buy it instead because she wasn't going to have time to make it. She was disappointed because she wasn't even going to have time to make deviled eggs, which are one of her favorites. Now, I KNEW that I had at LEAST eight hours of crocheting ahead of me if I was even going to come CLOSE to having the Shawler finished for the party tomorrow night, but even though I knew this, my mouth started moving anyway, as if independent from my body and brain, and the words that came out of it were, "Bring me the eggs and I'll make the deviled eggs! That's not a big deal!" Not a big deal? I had one night to finish her gift, not to mention that during that same night I had to do my nails AND dye my hair, and now here I was volunteering myself to make deviled eggs for the party tomorrow night.
Well, my body had to back up what my mouth started, so at 11:00 when I went back upstairs to my apartment, I took with me four dozen eggs to turn into deviled eggs, a shaker container of paprika, and a couple of teaspoons of INDIAN paprika, which is as hot as any hot pepper I have ever tasted! I had maybe three grains of the indian paprika on my finger and I licked it off to see how spicy it was and MAMA MIA!!! That's a some SPICY paprika!!!! Patel giggled at me and said something about me being a lightweight. Fine by me! If not having my lips eaten away by the pernicious little red grains makes me a lightweight, then a lightweight I guess I be.
I got home and started hardboiling eggs for this project. Four dozen eggs. I used a soup pot and it was FULL! I think a dozen of the eggs must have frozen in Vay's fridge, because when I put them in the water they floated, and when I went to peel them they were brown inside and the whites had the consistency of a soap eraser. I decided to toss those because they were going to ruin the project. I ended up with a tray that's over two feet in diameter COVERED with deviled eggs. I will let people put their own indian paprika on them. I don't want to be up on charges of attempted murder!
I made my husband carry the tray up to the apartment in the office because I had no room in my fridge to store the finished eggs, so we took the eggs up and then came home. I did my nails as quickly as I could, looked at the clock and it was 4:00 am. So much for getting the Shawler finished tonight.
One thing I DID find out at work that is in my favor is that Shavay's actual birthday isn't until Monday, so technically, if I don't get to finish the Shawler until Sunday night and then give it to Shavay on Monday, her gift will still be on time for her birthday. But I just knew that my night was going to get messed up. I'm surprised it took as long as it did for the wheels to fall off. So why am I not surprised?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Birthday Present for Shavay - The Shawler
The Shawler is the cutest idea I have seen in a long time! It was designed by my online friend Shelleden from Crochetville, which is a WONDERFUL online crochet community! The Shawler is part SHAWL and part sweatER. It has two variations, one has a hood and one has a collar. This one will have a hood.
The yarn I am using is Lion Brand Color Waves in a gorgeous color called Purple Vista. I had originally purchased this yarn with the intention of making The Shawler for my cousin Sue for her birthday in October, because purple is one of her favorite colors. Then I was invited to Shavay's birthday party this Saturday, and I did what I always do and thought I had gobs of time before the birthday to come up with something to make for Vay, and then suddenly the time sailed by, I looked at the calendar, and saw that I had only about 10 days to make something and I still didn't know what or out of what. So I pilfered Sue's yarn from my stash and decided to make Shavay the Shawler. I bought the yarn from Smiley's Online Yarn Sale so this is just a great excuse for me to come up with another $40 worth of yarn so that I can buy more Purple Vista to use for Sue's Shawler in October. I can ALWAYS use more yarn, right? RIGHT??? Right! That's what I thought, too!
So right now I have one half of the Shawler completed. It took me three days, but if I had worked steadily I could probably have had it done in one. Seriously. I messed around a LOT while I was working on it, most of the time was in 15 and 20 minute intervals. I think the longest stretch I worked on it at once was probably 90 minutes, and in that time I got about a third of this half done. So IF I apply myself, I MIGHT get it done by Saturday, which is when I need it for. In fact, I'm going to cut this off now so that I can go work on it for a few hours before I go to bed. It's 2:12 am, and I usually go to bed at 7 am to get up at 1 pm to be in work at 3, so in five hours I can probably put a BIG dent in that second side, and then maybe finish it up between work tomorrow and at home tomorrow night. I'm gonna give it a heck of a try, anyway. I'll let you know how it turns out and I'll post pics when I'm done. Later!
The yarn I am using is Lion Brand Color Waves in a gorgeous color called Purple Vista. I had originally purchased this yarn with the intention of making The Shawler for my cousin Sue for her birthday in October, because purple is one of her favorite colors. Then I was invited to Shavay's birthday party this Saturday, and I did what I always do and thought I had gobs of time before the birthday to come up with something to make for Vay, and then suddenly the time sailed by, I looked at the calendar, and saw that I had only about 10 days to make something and I still didn't know what or out of what. So I pilfered Sue's yarn from my stash and decided to make Shavay the Shawler. I bought the yarn from Smiley's Online Yarn Sale so this is just a great excuse for me to come up with another $40 worth of yarn so that I can buy more Purple Vista to use for Sue's Shawler in October. I can ALWAYS use more yarn, right? RIGHT??? Right! That's what I thought, too!
So right now I have one half of the Shawler completed. It took me three days, but if I had worked steadily I could probably have had it done in one. Seriously. I messed around a LOT while I was working on it, most of the time was in 15 and 20 minute intervals. I think the longest stretch I worked on it at once was probably 90 minutes, and in that time I got about a third of this half done. So IF I apply myself, I MIGHT get it done by Saturday, which is when I need it for. In fact, I'm going to cut this off now so that I can go work on it for a few hours before I go to bed. It's 2:12 am, and I usually go to bed at 7 am to get up at 1 pm to be in work at 3, so in five hours I can probably put a BIG dent in that second side, and then maybe finish it up between work tomorrow and at home tomorrow night. I'm gonna give it a heck of a try, anyway. I'll let you know how it turns out and I'll post pics when I'm done. Later!
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