I finally finished the fabulous drop stitch scarf I started Easter weekend. I found the pattern on Ravelry.com and I am going to miss working with the yarn! So soft and pretty! Great American Yarns Superfine Merino/Silk. Way yum! I'm naming it the Nicki Scarf since about half way through I thought that it would make a terrific gift for my Aunt Nicki when we go to Santa Claus, Indiana to see them in June. I think the colors are perfect for her.





Now to think of something for Uncle Glen..... hmmmmm. Mich Ultra would probably do just fine :o)

I am also excited to report that the baby blanket I started making for a friend of mine out of Plymouth Jeannee yarn is confirmed, as of yesterday, to be the exact right colors!! Here's the link to when I blogged about it before. So thrilled!

Also, what a beautiful day here in Minnesota! Almost 70°! That's where the word glorious comes in today! Although I could do without the fuzzy stuff flying through the air and the box elder bugs who think my deck is a brothel! Oh, and Jesse (my son #5 or so) who lives across the street came home a couple of hours ago and I could also do without the thumping coming from his car in his driveway. We are not even that close and I can hear it from inside. Now I could text him and tell him to turn it down, but Jesse is one of my golden acquired children, so I'll let it slip this time.

Truly, I must be getting old when the base thump from across the street annoys my ear drums. Pretty sure that damage was done standing next to the stage at the Loverboy concert in Duluth when I was about 17 or so.

Yesterday was nice also, but I was working most all the day and then took my two youngest and the three  neighbor kids over to Osceola to hike along the Cascade Falls path. What fun! So much blooming and growing along with some beautiful giant green leaf things and some type wildflower columbine that had tiny little flowers that looked a bit like fairies with dangly skirts. Going back up the stairs was still tough. I need to seriously work on that before the Warrior Dash in September!

It was fun to take the neighbor kids with. They hadn't been there before and thought it was fun exploring! On our way back, we took a great back road to Lindstrom that is like driving on a bit of a roller coaster. I asked the kids if they had ever heard of a Chinese fire drill. They hadn't, sooooo, at the next stop sign in the middle of nowhere, I introduced them to the drill! What fun! Of course, before we got to the golf course in Lindstrom to pick up Bryce, we had to do another one and one more in their driveway for good measure when we got home. Made me laugh!

Speaking of laughing, once we picked up Bryce we were talking about the nicknames Bryce comes up with for his brothers. Lately it's B-Nasty for Brock, whhaaaa???? We came up with B-Lo for Blake. Not sure it will stick. Bryce's nickname for Bradee is Latenight, 'nuf said there.

I asked the neighbor kids if their parents had any nicknames for them. As sweet as can be, from little Jesse who is in first grade and pretty much the cutest little girl I know, pipes up, "My mom calls me Stinky Butt!" I have to stop typing even now to laugh as it was so dang cute!

Gotta' run. I'm out of cold coffee concentrate and need to start another batch!

My mature side almost took over and titled this post "Creative Outlets | Playing with Typography". Then I remembered I wasn't being graded on this so hah! "Don't be a Booger" it is!

One of the things I do to get out of a creative rutt, or to stimulate creativity is taking funny sayings or, eh, ummmm, four letter words* and setting them in different typefaces. Working with the letters to create conflicting emotions with the type. One of my favorites is just taking the word "giggle". Just on it's own is a fun word that makes you smile, but setting it in different fonts creates different reactions to the word for sure! See some I was playing with today.

I think you get the idea.

Then for some reason the phrase, "Don't be a booger!" popped into my head. So I played with it a few times. Seriously, I can spend a ridiculous amount of time on fonts and typography. What a great creative outlet. Myfonts.com is a great resource for font exploration. The great thing is that you can type in your own word or phrase, select a typestyle category or an adjective tag to search categories and Myfont.com generates a list of fonts, sets your choice word or phrase and whoolah! Bring on the fun!
Actually, I've been billable doing this before as it helps me work through new logo font ideas for companies etc. If I don't have the font, before I invest in it's purchase, I can see if it suits my project. Which brings me back to my title, "Don't be a booger!" I think it would make a great t-shirt design or a bumper sticker if you are in to that kind of thing. Hey a coffee mug also! TileSmile on Etsy.com would make a cute tile out if it for sure! Maybe she already has!



:o)




*See below for fun with a four letter word. Don't peek if you have kids with you. But fun none-the-less. Heck, I can see a latte mug with one of these type executions now also.

OK. Not that horrible of a four letter word. But still!

I came across the word wabi-sabi awhile back and took it as one of my own personal descriptive words. Basically the word means "the art of imperfection." You can look it up if you want, but that's basically the gyst of what I remember.  I think, "How wonderful! There is a fancy word for something that is screwed up."

Or maybe not screwed up, but none-the-less, "flawed" somehow. Thankfully by grace, I am made perfect as a daughter of Christ who thinks my wabi-sabiness is perfect. But I digress. Back to the point (stop laughing, I have a point :\ !

There are some who actually intentionally create a flaw as to add wabi-sabi to something. Creating beauty in the every day or mundane for balance or what not. Well, I tend to have enough wabi-sabi in my creations that is random so to this point I haven't had to intentionally add any of it to my work.

The great thing is, that when I do make an error, in my knitting, let's say and I don't realize until it's too late, or I realize it, but make it worse trying to fix it—I just think "wabi-sabi". I'm not really a perfectionist my nature with most things, I don't fret about it.  There is some art to my mistake.

Which brings me to my latest knitting project. A beautiful little baby blanket. I picked up the yarn at A  SheepyYarn Shop in White Bear Lake last week. (I was of course going to just browse, but oh well.) I have a terrific friend due in September and I figure if I start the blanket now, there is a good chance that it will be ready on time.  The Plymouth Jeannee yarn I chose is really wonderful. So soft. I hope I got enough skeins to finish it all or, or darn, I will have to run back down to the shop.

The colors I chose seem fairly neutral for boy or girl, but my family says the coral red color looks more girly. So on the 23rd, if she finds out it is a boy, I may be back to choose more yarn and stash this blanket for the next girl on the list.

Saturday was cooler here than expected and basically a quiet day for the Thompson house, so by the afternoon I decided to start in on the blanket. I picked a pattern from a blanket I saw in Sheepy Yarn when I was narrowing down the colors. All the rows of colors were even which I thought I would change up a bit since I'm a bit more on the whimsy random side. But I considered the babies mother. She is exceptionally organized. Random stripes would drive her crazy, so I'm keeping them as even as I can. Plus, the colors I think are a bit whimsy in themselves.

I'm including a picture of the skeins of yarn that I picked out and another photo to show the progress I have so far.



Which brings me to the Wabi-Sabiness of this blanket. I have a dropped stitch in row one, that I couldn't fix. It shows. Basically the edge has a bit of a "nik" in it. Wabi-sabi I thought and kept going. Row 8 or so ended up with a hole of some kind also. Small enough, but still, wabi-sabi.

The second color stripe I was able to catch a dropped stitch and figure out how to fix it without a run to the yarn shop, whew. That particular stitch would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Thankfully I kept going.

Now if you are a perfectionist, then you would have by now started over I'm sure. But k'syrah, I am not and find it a bit unique or wabi-sabi. So on I go. I know it is a gift, but I think this beautiful little baby needs something wrapped around her in love that is slightly imperfect but adored none-the-less. Maybe she too will embrace wabi-sabi and know as she goes through life, and things aren't perfect, that there is still beauty in each breath.

Looking forward to working on the rest of the blanket, wabi-sabi style. Oh,