What makes me feel happy and what doesn't work each week

For someone that does a lot of crafting there are going to be weeks when one project catches my attention and then another week it just doesn’t seem to work for me and I have to accept that.

Recently as someone that normally does a lot of cross stitch in a week, I have been finding it a challenge to even think about picking up one of my projects. I am certain if it is because of the projects that I am working on or what it is but wanting to do some cross stitch hasn’t been a priority for me.

What I am talking about is finding what makes you happy and not stressing about letting something else slide for a week because it just isn’t catching your attention. This has been something that I have been dealing with because for so long I would cross stitch every day of every week and that is what I was telling myself was important. Well, I discovered that forcing myself to stitch everyone day even if I project caught my attention or not wasn’t going to work for very long.

After realizing that I was putting too much pressure on myself to make sure that I did a specific technique each wasn’t something that I wanted to do so things need to change. What needed to change was the pressure I was putting upon myself to cross stitch each day no matter what I was really wanting to do on a specific day.

Over the last little while I have been trying to focus on each day instead of a week and figuring out the project that I want to work on that specific day. It has helped a lot as I have now been able to see some good progress on a few projects and very little on other projects. I might end up on a given week saying that what I worked on wasn’t what I originally planned on working on but at least I have been able to make some good progress. I know that I have lots of projects that I can work on, but what I have accepted is I need to work on a project that brings me job each day or each week and I have to just let it happen. It’s been a challenge to figure out what I want to work on and what makes me happy, but I think I am finally starting to see the smile come back on my face.

Yes, what makes me happy each day or week might vary but I have to know that it’s ok to see that I am not focusing on one technique during a week. Being able to allow myself to be happy is the most important thing and we will see how things go moving forward.

Knitting project bag

 Recently I have been looking for a project bag for my knitting and crocheting projects that I can use when we are travelling. I am finding it difficult to find something that I think that will work for me. If I could find something that works, I think it would help me want to work on my knitting and crocheting projects a little more when we are travelling.

Here are some of the things that I would like to have in my project bag:

• Self standing bag with at least 4 or more internal pockets for 100-gram balls of yarn each
• Central area for the project
• Closed top
• Area for the extra supplies, scissors, etc
• Handles, shoulder or backpack
• Grommets not needed, would prefer not having them (won’t be pulling my yarn through the grommets as how do I put the project into the bag and close it with yarn looping back into the bag)
• Black, grey or navy preferred not floral or bright colours
• Doesn’t look like a cooler

Yes, I know that the list is rather long of what I would like my project bag to be. One of the things that I want to be able to do is have all the yarn for a project together or at least a large percentage of the material all in one place. Right now, when I am working on a shawl with multiple colours or skeins, I find it difficult to keep them all in one place unless I throw everything into a shopping bag.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking for a bag that I like and currently haven’t found anything that really looks like what I envision for me to use on a regular basis. Being able to have a current project organized and ready to work on would be great and maybe seeing that everything is all in one place would be nice.

One of the reasons I am looking at buying a knitting project bag is for when we are travelling and I can everything organized in a way that I can keep things in the bag and it is easy to carry. The other reason I am looking for a bag like this is I would like something that I can use to help me manage my project. Yes, I know having a project bag like I am looking for is something that isn’t absolutely needed but it would mean that maybe I would be a little more organized when on the go.