Tag / Arne and Carlos KAL

by princesshotflash

Hello!

After many years of blogging, I’ve decided to take a WordPress course to draw a bigger audience and focus more on my writing. They suggested taking stock of what I have accomplished and what I liked to do for the next six months. So here’s what I got so far.

Taking Stock

The Chronicles of Princess Hot Flash started as a way to let my family and friends know what was going on with my life through travel, cooking, and baking, turning into restaurant madness, a multitude of crafting projects, and crazy cat lady moments. My trusty companions in my crazy world were my husband Oat and my cat, Click.

Three plus years ago, that all changed plus even more this past year due to COVID. My two companions have gone but hopefully watching over me, making sure I’m okay.

Things I’ll miss: (left to right, top to bottom) my beautiful Click, testing out desserts on my friends, hiking in National Parks, walking on our snowy path, and my funny Oat.

I have a new crew of four: Cora: my mom, the 91-year-old boss of all things and owner of Cora’s garden; Joe, my dad, the 93-year-old singer plus visual artist; Ollie, my stray that I found behind our restaurant; Orange, my round orange tabby. And my location has changed from New Jersey to Hawaii and back to my childhood home.

My new crew: (left to right, top to bottom) Mom modeling a knitted cowl I made for her, Dad the hipster in his new beanie, Ollie looking handsome, and Orange as tiny shy kitten (not any more, hahah).

The Pandemic took my job, and I became one of the many thousands unemployed. I’m currently a freelance graphic designer working part-time, volunteering at my favorite non-profits, and helping care for my parents. In between all of that, I’m working on too many project looking for something to inspire me to make something beautiful.

My slew of project, looking to inspiration: (left to right, top to bottom) Scheepjes 2020 CAL, (still going); trying out boro quilting on my pillow case; basket made from cord made from a lucet loom; trying my hand at pattern making, mom’s shorts; scrappy animals–pink cat;Hot Wheels the scrap dog; Arne and Carlos Quarantine squares blanket (done); hand quilting my aloha shirt blanket; and watercolor painting with embroidery.

The Next Six Months

Planning for the Next Six Months is the hard part. I’ve been putting this off for three-plus years. I guess this was my reason for signing up for this course. Here’s what I’d like to happen. I want to draw a bigger audience by creating more features like Cora’s Garden, posting about my too many projects and looking for inspiration, launching my Etsy shop and posting about my handmade items, and showcasing the photos I’ve been shooting these many years.

How about this does this sound like a plan?

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by princesshotflash

A little sad . . .

#24

. . . but I feel accomplished. I’ve decided square #24 will be my last. Making too many mistakes and spending too much time ripping things out, I feel it’s a sign to stop and making it into a finished piece.

I enjoyed this project immensely and have learned so much from it. My tension has become more even and learned that I can watch Amazon Prime Videos while doing it, even ones with subtitles (haha).

My finish piece will hopefully be done by the end of summer. I even treated myself to some new yarn for t-shirt for my next project.

Thank you so much for this KAL, Arne and Carlos.

by princesshotflash

Still going . . .

. . . on my Quarantine Knit-a-Long with squares from the Quarantine Knitting Group on FB. I’m on #13 Butterfly. I’m slow people have done with their blankets. Some have made 81 squares. But this isn’t a race, it’s something to do together while were in quarantine. To inspire each other with creativity.

#13 on the needles

I was going to stop at 15 squares but I’m getting better at knitting them and decide to continue. I needed to find more dk (weight of yarn) yarn in my stash. I have tons of worsted weight but only a couple of dk; reddish purple, yellow orange, navy-er blue that I’m currently using and a muted green.

So I guess when I run out of yarn, I’ll stop. I told myself this is a stash busting project, no buying new yarn and I’m on a budget now since the furlough.

These what I have so far 12 squares. I have a new set up to knit with charts. I sit at my computer, chart on the left and movie from prime on my right. This is working much better and on top of it my tension is better and I’m reading the charts faster.

not the final layout, needed to see what combinations I have.

If you interested in doing these squares, check out Arne and Carlos blog for the square patterns. https://arnecarlos.com/the-arne-carlos-quarantine-knitting-kal-hug-me-later-pattern/

by princesshotflash

My Furloughed World

The Separation

04.03.20

On top of being quarantine, I’m now furloughed till July. No work, stuck inside with my folks, I need to do something to keep me busy.

I’m a little sad but I think I’m okay. Be handling big changes in my life for the past 3 years and I think this one is small by comparison. But this has been my biggest worry as I get older to get laid off. Especially now that I moved my home base and my connection are all on the east cost.

Disqualified

04.29.20

It’s 3 weeks into my furlough and just receive a disqualified claim. I’m feeling sick to my stomach at the moment as I’m on hold with UI.

I’m trying to be positive but this feels so hard. I’m trying to be creative and productive but some days all I want to do is lie on my bed and watch bad Youtube about dumpster diving. I’m sure there are thousands of people out there in the same position as I am and are being productive. And I wish that it will come my way.

In the meantime, I decided to take Thursday off to go food/necessities shopping. When to Costco and used my new senior status to for kupuna (senior) hours

The sea of silver

Progress?

05.01.20

I’m on hold again. When I got through last time, they told me I had to file in NJ. Then I email my HR person and she said no, HI and gave me an insurance number. So I wait 226 calls to the same number. Then a friend reached out to with 2 new numbers and I go in on the second number. I wanted to cry.

Now I sit and wait and test my patience being on hold.

Got through and spoke to Craig, a volunteer who was calm and reassuring. He took my information that I got from HR and said he thought this would help. He took my number just in case they needed to call back for more information. He said to check my status on Monday if everything is good then it will show a change. If not, UI will be calling me back.

They didn’t call me back. I emailed them the same information I gave Craig and I guess I’m stuck on the phone with UI tomorrow.

Projects to keep me sane

Patchwork quilt

So with this good news, I thought I’d stop whine about unemployment and shows what on my plate for a new project. I’m putting out there that I’d like to finish it by the end of my furlough (2 months and 9 days).

I think these are local Hawaiian fishes
testing half triangle pattern

Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knit-a-long

I started this at the beginning of this project at the beginning of the quarantine. It’s the Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knit-a-long. Arne and Carlos are Norwegian knitwear designers that have a podcast. It’s a project color work project of different square designs.

I’m not that great at color work. But these have gotten me to have better tension and my floats (on the back side of the work) are looking much better, not a jumble of string.

Totes, Project Bags, Box Pouches . . .

Since my machine has come out of hibernation, I start putting together totes with the scraps I have and fabric I’ve been thrifting. Most of it’s prototypes to find a tote shape that I like, has items that I think it needs–pockets, and made up mostly with up cycled material. Here’s a few that I’ve started with.