The March 2018 Geek and Nerd Swap: Science Fiction

Now that I am crafting again, I am also logging into Ravelry again, and remembering how fun it is to snoop through message boards and new patterns.  In keeping with that, I decided to sign up for another Geek and Nerd Swap.  In particular, I opted for the March one with the theme Science Fiction.  I carefully reviewed the month, noted all the days I was taking off work, and decided that I could do this.  I could even explore some of these science fiction TV shows I have heard so much about but never watched (like . . . Firefly . . . or Dr. Who . . . I don't watch a lot of TV, okay?).

The month promptly fell apart for reasons I don't want to go into because they are no fun.  Happily, I received this package.

I wonder what's inside?

Tissue paper?  Let's take a peek underneath . . .

I spy something knitted . . .

Behold my awesome swap gift!

I received Dune-themed post cards, spicy hot chocolate and spicy chocolate (for spice, get it?), a ball of yarn, a book on the science of Dune, and a sand dunes inspired scarf!  I love it all!

It promptly got too warm here in Frankfurt to wear the scarf, so clearly it has magical powers that made spring come.  I love it all the more.

2017

In roughly June of last year, I suddenly felt like crafting again.  So I started crocheting a baby blanket.

I understand if a blanket makes no sense to you as a crafting re-entry project.  Even a baby blanket is a large, time-consuming, non-portable endeavor.  Historically, I have done most of my knitting or crocheting on public transit, and that would never happen with this sort of WIP.  However, I had a mess of multi-colored acrylic and the itch to do something mindless while browsing youtube videos on the couch, and let us all acknowledge the suitability of blanket projects when one really wants a convenient lap-warmer.

(Cats are right out, because I live in an apartment and my husband is allergic.  But I acknowledge their prowess as lap-warmers too.)

The multi-colored yarn was a melange of grey, white, black, peach, mauve, and lavender, and a gift.  I doubt I would have ever picked up such yarn myself.  But I thought it would look good in strips with some solid colors to balance things, and so worked up the Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket.  The only change I made was to limit the solid pink strips to two rows, which did not impact the placement of any other increases.  Doesn't it look fetching?  I worked in up in less than four months.

Then I gave it to my mother over Christmas to regift, since she goes to more baby-shower-type events than I do.  I was on to other crafting pursuits, my inspiration more or less back intact. 

2016

In January 2016, after finishing my holiday crafting, I wrote the names of all the patterns I wanted to knit on slips of papers and dumped them into the top of an cup-shaped dance trophy.  I drew one at random, and cast on the Cancan mitts.

Then I stopped knitting.  I was jobless and struggling to learn a new language, and I stopped crafting.  My creative energy disappeared, rerouted to deal with the stresses in my life.

Then I got a new job, and was assigned to a new project, and started flying around Europe every single week.  I did not knit on the plane.  The first mitt languished unfinished through the end of the year and into 2017.  It was spring before I found myself sitting in a train instead of a plane, and confident enough in my work, to have some energy to make things again.  Then I finished the mitts.

They are too small for me.  I refused to do anything about that.  They are done and off my needles and gone, and I have moved onto other projects.