Dust off the needles, people.

It's been a good long while since the craft I was cursing was knitting. Right? It's been all sewing and quilting and other nonsense for quite a bit.

BUT!

I think I have to make this scarf. It's purty! I wanna make it! Don't you wanna make it? Say yes! Hooray!

The sun is shining. It's hot as hell outside. And I am ready to knit a scarf.

Let's do this thing!

Oh! P.S. I just drove past that knitting store, and it is officially closed for business. I would love to know what happened and/or what the last straw was. Maybe they fell asleep and the snobbery they'd been smoking sparked some yarn, which then led to the whole place self-combusting. I bet that's it. Yeah. I'm going with that. Self-snobbed combustion it was!

So many reasons

I'm sure there's some central list somewhere of all the reasons bloggers slow down or take hiatuses (haiti?) from blogging. Not knowing where that list is (read: I'm too lazy to look for it), I feel I owe you at least one of the reasons I've been so out of the loop for the last few months. By the way? I know you will find this mind-blowingly fascinating.

At a minimum, I think it may serve as a nice reminder that a change to the smallest thing can cause rather big and unexpected changes to other things.

So, I think it all changed when I started working out in the mornings.

Why would this have anything to do with it? Have I become so athletic that I don't care for crafting anymore, you're wondering? Ha! Hilarious. Don't be silly.

This had been the series of events that would lead to blogging: I would take photos of a crafty item, upload the photos, maybe tweak the photos, write about the item (and/or the photo), and post to the blog. Done. A critical ingredient in there, though, was the light. Nice light? Nice photo.

The best light of the day is in the mornings, in my living room. However! Now that I'm out of the house during the Good Light, taking photos has slowed waaaay down. That, in turn, means no fodder for the hilarious commentary. Sure, I could've been giving you some photo-less Overheard posts, but there just haven't been any that are up to snuff. (This one was so great, I don't know if anything will ever rate again.) So there you go - no light, no photos, no blog fodder. Boo.

I'm not sure how to remedy this. Maybe I'll set up a light box. Maybe I'll go back to making drawings to augment the posts. (My wasband did just give me this awesome drawing tablet that is pretty great.) Something.

I know that when I was feeling bad about not posting, I also felt bad going to other blogs (this makes no sense whatsoever, but it's true). So no posting, very little reading, all around steeeenky situation. I really miss being active in the community of awesome crafters, I can tell you that much.

I'm trying to stay close to the Blogging Without Obligation ideas, because they made me really happy when I read them. For those of you who blog, how do you negotiate your blogging time? I'd be interested to hear. For those of you who don't, aren't you happy to be free of this little dilemma?

Thank you so much for all of your comments and help with my crafting-related troubles recently. You've been super helpful and have kept me feeling connected. So, really, thank you. If you're ever in town, I hope you'll allow me to repay you with a nice cup of iron-brewed coffee and sewing machine-made waffles. It would be my pleasure.

Oh, the wadding.

Inspired by the completion of that Rail Fence baby quilt, I decided to pull Quiltie out again.

Always with the pulling Quiltie out again. I know. I know.

Did I mention that my Sidekick named one of his Guitar Hero bands "Sad Quiltie"? Or that out of the blue my wasband said to me, "Quiltie's never gonna get finished, huh?" in the spirit of, "You can level with me. I can take it." Quiltie isn't even for him. It's for me. God bless 'em.

So we're back to trying to see the lines I drew, using some masking tape here and there, and toying with the idea of using washable marker to re-draw the faded marks. (I must admit that even though I had success with those markers, I am reluctant to put ink to Quiltie.)

I am also fully expecting to hear from the Department of Neglected Crafts, Quilt-Wadding Division any day now. When I do, I will point out that Quiltie still has the best seat in the house, and that, at a minimum, he's got two non-crafting guys looking out for his well-being. It'll all be fine, I'm sure.

Quiltie!

My steam iron

When I turn on my iron, it smells like someone tried to brew a cup of coffee in it. Seriously.

(1) Should I be concerned?

(2) If I wanted it to do something about it, what would I do?

And finally:

(3) What other things could I make my iron smell like?

Discuss.

Extra credit/bonus question: Who the hell was making coffee in my iron?