Notes on First-Time Filming, Rereads, and Redbirds

Studio Notes

all things crochet

No progress on the otter or the sunflower buddy. 😬

I've got an idea for a blanket that I think should be simple to figure out, but it's clearly not that simple because I've spent a lot of time trying to get it to work. But I don't think that time is wasted.

I enjoy just pulling out my yarn and hook and experimenting. What if I do this kind of stitch here instead of that one? What if I chain here instead of there? What if I do front post stitches instead of back post stitches? What if I reverse the order of the pattern rows? It's fun, relaxing, and surprising to see what I can come up with when I experiment, and sometimes new designs come out of it.

I did do some filming for the first time. Which was... a disaster? I kept having to re-film everything as I would discover some fatal flaw after filming. 🤦‍♀️ I don't even remember exactly what the issues were or how many takes I did on the first day, but it had to be near 10. I finally stopped. I realized that I didn't have my pattern firm enough yet, and I kept miscounting stitches. I came back the next day and did it in two takes. So that was better. Hopefully, many of the issues are just first-timer problems.

Nature

sightings and experiences

My daughters and I spotted another Red-headed Woodpecker this week. I think this may have been the first time I've heard its call instead of just pecking. It was oddly creepy and compelling at the same time. I felt like I could be back in the age of the dinosaurs. If you are curious, this is what it sounded like (third one down from Virginia, July 18th, 2018). Does anyone else wonder how to describe sounds accurately? Being a writer would be hard.

Lots of deer sightings. It's getting much colder here, and oddly, the deer seem to come out into the corn fields much more frequently when this happens. My daughters and I were also greeted in the morning by a doe and her yearling, only about 30 feet from the house, one morning.

Gathered Things

annotated links and more discovered this week

Nothing in my starred folder on the read-it-later app on my phone. (I like this one!) I use the highlights notebook to jog my memory and pull quotes from the articles that I find the most compelling for these weekly notes.

This fall, I reread The Chronos Files and Chronos Origins. I really enjoy these books. They are like a guilty pleasure for me, but in an intellectually and spiritually challenging way. I know that sounds weird. I don't know if I would recommend them per se, but I do find them endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy many of the characters. I got the short story anthology for Christmas, so I've been reading it instead of articles on my phone. It's interesting what books a person rereads. I don't always reread for the same reasons. But this series is one that I've read at least 3 or 4 times, and I still find something new to think about.

I've also been reading Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From by Meredith Miller. I've really enjoyed it so far. It's the right book at the right time in my life right now. Those are always nice to find. I will share more from it if it seems appropriate in the future.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great week!