A week of spring break that has seemed more winter-like than most of winter, and I am now updating my blog.

Crochet:  I am once again competing in NerdWars (on Ravelry), which means I am becoming a more prolific crocheter once again.  This month my key accomplishment was the completion of a lace-weight shawl.  

Here it is, being modeled by my cat Grace.  I began it just before the Super Bowl and finished while watching the Oscars.




I also finally put the finishing touches on an afghan I began in 2009!  Glad to have that finished!


Here you see both of my cats, Grace and Kaito, enjoying the new item.




Enterprise: Today I have taken the first step to making my hobby self-sustaining; I have opened an ETSY shop!  At the moment, there is only one item listed, but I hope to have several more items listed within the next week or so.  We shall see how things turn out!

Writing:  I have recently discovered that a friend and I have similar novel-writing aspirations, and that we both have unfinished works in progress.  It may be that in the near future I will dust off my not-forgotten story and start working on it again.  Check back to see if I actually follow through!

Life has been quite the whirlwind for me these past few months, full of professional and personal challenges, and it shows no signs of slowing!  At least not for another month.  Here are the highlights of what I've been up to.

Original Design

Crochet:  In the most recent NerdWars tournament, I once again fulfilled my own personal challenge of completing all 18 challenges plus a "dissertation" over the three months of the tournament.  However, the most satisfying accomplishment of the past few months has been the creation of my very first original design and pattern!  I created the crochet square pattern that will represent Team Stargate Command in the final NerdWars Scarf pattern (available eventually - still in testing).  The feedback of square testers this past month has been most complimentary, and I am encouraged to possibly create - and document - more original designs.
                                                                                                       

Modified Colors

This has been the number one difference in my crochet since I started playing with NerdWars - the desire and motivation to create my own designs to fit my vision of what the finished product should be.

Tournament 5 begins on Friday, and I can't wait to see what our moderators have in store for us this time!

Cooking:  The most innovative recipe I have come across recently was for homemade granola bars.  I modified the recipe by adding cocoa powder and created dark chocolate almond cranberry bars.  They were a wonderful snack, full of yumminess, and containing NO artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, only ingredients that the average person can pronounce!