In knitter speak, UFO is an unfinished object. Let’s just say I have a knack for them. I’ve been making a little extra effort lately to finish up some long overdue projects but I don’t have total confidence yet, given my track record.

Cases in point:

2005:: I was really in love with this fluffy sweater in my first knitting pattern book. I boldly struck out to knit myself a sweater. I think I even went so far as to buy this yarn on ebay. I know it was out of production and it took some effort to find it. Once I got about a third of the way done, I became afraid that the sweater was going to be too small or that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn or that it was just too fluffy, so I gave up. Now that I look at it again, it might be okay. Ah, maybe. It is so soft and fluffy. It’s been off my to-do list for over five years but now I’m having second thoughts.

2007:: I decided to knit the Juliet sweater right to specifications. Same yarn, same color as the pattern. I had plenty of extra yarn so no fears about running out. Little room for error. But, the lace pattern was hard for me and I spent an awful lot of time on this. The printed out pattern was crumpled, ripped, and taped back together. Now it seems I’ve lost the pattern and I have no trace of it in my email or computer files. I took the sweater to knitting group one night recently and wasted the entire time trying to see if I could figure out the lace repeat. Then I spent a couple more nights at home doing the same. I finally realized, just last week, that I could quit being such a cheapskate and spring the $6.50 for the the pattern again so I can finish this already. It would take less than a two or three nights to do so.

2008:: I knitted these lovely spa socks in organic cotton for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Ambitiously, I told my sister-in-law I was planning to knit her a pair too. Then, surprise surprise, after some procrastination, I lost the pattern. Definitely a theme running here. Even moreso, it was an obscure pattern in a magazine that I bought on ebay. Wow, I really do repeat myself. This Christmas I thought I could redeem myself so I started scouring Ravelry for a suitable pattern replacement. Turns out it’s hard to find sock patterns for worsted weight cotton. But, then miracle of miracles, I went to buy this book for a project my knitting group is planning, and it had the perfect pattern replacement. I started knitting the socks at the same time I started knitting my husband a hat. The hat required the same needles for the bind off so I took the sock off the needles right when I got to the gusset (the hard part). Bad move. I haven’t put the socks back on the needles yet. I will. Really, I will. Lesson here: don’t believe me when I say I’m going to knit you something for a holiday. Or just prepared to wait a few years.

2011:: Despite all these perfectly suitable projects that I should be knitting, I got ahead of myself and cast on for this sweater. It was 10 degrees out and I was really cold. It was a desperate move. I’m knitting it out of yarn I bought back in 2005 to knit my husband a sweater. Soon after I started the sweater for him, I realized he didn’t actually wear big itchy, chunky sweaters. It was a nice gesture, but totally wasted effort and yarn. The first several inches of that long lost sweater project are now sitting on my end table in the living room waiting to be frogged so I’ll have enough yarn for a sweater for myself. And yes, clearly my sister-in-law deserves those long ago promised socks but I seriously must finish this project before the snow melts and I lose the pattern. Cotton ankle socks will be just perfect for the spring, right?

And that, my friends, is my knitting life. I could say I’m going to stop these habits and maturely work on one project at a time. But who would I be kidding? It’s clearly not my style.

For those moments, the mother of sky and water transformed this scarred urban landscape into a place of total wonder. The river was just barely frozen over. Just enough to wash the surface with a watercolor reflection of the clouds above and all those lights on its shore.

A few weeks before I’d listened to Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk on nurturing creativity where she talks about how we need to think again about creativity as not something you own, but as a gift that passes through you. She talked about a poet, Ruth Stone, who said that she would “feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape and she said it was like a thunderous train of air” and at that moment the only thing to do was to run like hell to find some paper so that she could collect it before it disappeared. I felt the same way this night when I pulled my camera out of my bag in an excited rush.

When I got home I ran inside and told my husband I couldn’t believe the shots I got. Was I really the one to capture these? How incredibly lucky that I was there at that moment, paying attention, and ready to set my camera down and open the shutter. Capturing these images was a gift to me. They transformed my entire perspective on this place that I see almost daily. Now I see a place where nature – water, sky and light – holds enough power of me over me to make me stop and change my plans.

I never made it to that yoga class.

Matt loves snug hats and anything linear. Turn a Square hat was just the hat to knit for him. The pattern by Jared Flood is free and well written. I used some leftover black Patton’s wool and Malabrigo merino worsted in olive (I think). The two give a nice textural contrast between regular wool and super soft wool. If you knit this, make sure you learn how to do jogless stripes first. I skipped that, and the stripes are a little messy (not shown). But, he’s a dude. He doesn’t mind.

I settled on the name wanderCRAFT because while posting to my first blog (which I started over six years ago – gak!), I gravitated towards crafts, nature, and things I stumbled on when I’m out wandering or traveling. That combination felt like me. Since moving to Detroit, I haven’t felt the same inspiration to photograph and it made blogging not quite as fun. The spark was gone. I was okay with the lapsed inspiration as we settled in, but as three months turned to four then five, this gap kept nagging at me more.

After stepping back, I finally owned up to what I think was holding me back. I’m not inspired to photograph abandoned factories and derelict urban scenes but I admit they abound. Others are capturing that side of this place very well and I’m fascinated by what they see through the lens, but it’s not my muse. My calling is to find nature again, even in this very urban place. That’s what makes me feel whole. In Boston it was pretty easy to escape to the woods or the ocean or even the mountains, but here I’m going to have to try a little harder to seek out new places. Finding my connection to nature here is part of this place feeling like home.

Sunday I was still sniffling and coughing from this terribly drawn out cold but I insisted we take off for an hour to a park not too far outside of the city. You see, this weekend we were scheduled to drive several hours up north for what I’m sure was a wonderful celebration of one of my closest friend’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Compared to where we’re living, they live in the wilderness. Stars. Woods. A river that does not have a casino on its shores. My heart broke at not having the energy or health to get away.

Sunday, before the sun made its departure for the evening, this walk was the best remedy. When we stepped out onto frozen Lake St. Claire, I felt a little bit like Maria when she stepped out onto the mountaintop.

I need to find more and soak it in. My one little word for 2011 is ‘stretch’ and part of my challenge is to stretch my boundaries. Over the last five months I’ve managed to cocoon myself into this little comfy nook and routine in the city where I don’t often stray. I really love it here. But I need to get out too.

Here’s to finding myself outside in 2011. Stretching myself up to the wide open sky.

Mirroring the slow food movement, this was my slow craft project for the year. I spent at least 3 months collecting supplies, reading about techniques, and thinking through design aspects. What colors should I use? What size should the page sizes be? What binding technique should I choose? How do I make it special and personalized? Do I have the skill to pull this off? I learned a lot in the process of slowing down and letting this project unfold creatively at its own pace. It tested my patience at times, but it was worth it.

You may recognize the tree on the front cover.

In Photoshop, I made a 12×12 page, so this can do double duty as a digital scrapbook page. My first! Then I wrote some short month-by-month journaling, inspired by Angie Lucas. Next Matt helped me out with adding some color and the snowflakes with the brush tool. Flatten, and done.

It still bums me out a little to not send something through the mail, but whatevs. It went out by email in the nick of time. I am going to get this printed and slide it into a scrapbook too.

This year was such a whirlwind that I really appreciated looking back and reflecting on where we’d been and what we’d done. My one little word this year was “move”. And move we did. At the end of the year, it’s kind of like, what did we do besides move? But it turns out, we did some stuff.

Someone asked me in jest the other week if I live charmed life or something and I happily owned up to it. Yes, my life is totally charmed. It’s because I have a lot of good support. I don’t take the credit. There are so many people who share so much with me, and all I can go is try and try and try to repay the favor.

I am so grateful for this beautiful mess of a life we lead. Even for the crazy, mixed up times we manage to get through. Wishing you many beautiful moments during the week ahead.

Matt and I decided to collaborate and open an etsy shop together devoted solely to vintage ties. He was the creative genius behind the name – Tic Tac Tie – and the banner.

I’ve learned a few things from my first etsy shop. One lesson is that running a shop is easier if the pricing and shipping details are consistent. So, all the ties are $8. Shipping is free in the U.S. We’ll be adding new ties every week to keep the shop fresh.

It is a pretty stunning collection. I’m still in love with tie fabric and design. There’s such a wide variety of styles and color. I’m definitely going to enjoy listing these in the shop as much as I hope others enjoy wearing them!