Unraveling - ROW80/Camp NaNo

This is my first attempt at making a six foot scarf.  My specialty over the last several years has been skinny scarves that hang no further than the collar bone and won't wrap around.  They are decorative rather than useful.  This one is also nearly a foot wide. I want it long enough to wrap around more than once or alternatively to fold it in half and wrap it around looping the ends through the fold. I'm crocheting with lace yarn that has a thread of tinsel in it, using a 2.5mm hook. 

I stopped to take this picture after I'd unraveled several of the 40 some rows that needed to come out to reach that red stitch saver that marks the first of the mistakes that created unintentional decreases that had narrowed the width by nearly an inch (4 meshes) by the time I realized it.  This is the second time since beginning the scarf three weeks ago that I've had to take out significant parts of it.  The first time I'd reached nearly two feet in length and had to take it back to two inches.  This time I had to take out about eight to ten inches after nearly reaching the halfway point of three feet.

The weird lighting is due to the lightbox it is laying on which I like to have under my work as I crochet to help me see the silhouette of the stitches.  It was probably because I kept moving away from the lightbox so I could more easily glance up now and then at the video playing to my right that set me up for skipping stitches.

Visible in the light on the right edge is a long loose chain which my preferred method for frogging.  I used a 9mm hook to work it and let it fall into the bag on top of the skein as it lengthens.  I find that working off this chain allows for more control of the tension as there is no tugging on a thread wrapped around the outside of a skein.

Unraveling seems to be the theme of my life. Not just one area of it either but nearly every aspect of it.  It feels like it is all coming unraveled or more precisely I'm being faced with having to unravel something about my life or self every time I turn around. 

When I gave up on my marriage two months ago and wrote the poem Who Am I Without You, I had no idea how that same sentiment was going to echo across several other aspects of my life within weeks:  Who am I without my Mom?  Who am I without my vision?  Who am I without the time to devote to the things that make me who I am?  Who am I when words fail me?  Who am I when all the mirrors in my life that showed me myself are missing or broken?

Sigh

I finally got the aps open involved with scavenging my creative writing files for 'good enough to print' words. One of my ROW80 goals.   I'm focusing first on my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld files as that accounts for most of my ROW80 and Wrimo novel projects going back to 2004.  This was a project I began several years ago as an attempt to figure out once and for all if I have a single epic multi-generational novel or a series or a storyworld proliferating stand alone stories with common characters.

As I was perusing the roster of characters I realized one of my major POV characters from one of the earliest stories (the first version was begun in the 1970s when I was in ninth grade) has a name that may no longer serve the purpose I intended because of current events.  I may have to find another name that conjures up the concept of caring, loving and kind because Karyn no longer does and who knows how long that meme is going to reign.

This is making me feel like my storyworld itself is unraveling.  Naming my characters is not a casual thing.  Either the etymology of the name itself or meanings conjured up by the sounding out of the name must relate to the theme the character's arc is playing out.  So I just spent two hours I don't really have on Think Baby Names and none of the alternatives are doing it for me.  Who is my character without her name?

Time to put on my thinking cap.

Cloche Hat

It took me 2.5 days to crochet the cloche hat before starting the matching scarf with the same skein.  This gave me hope that I could do the scarf in a week.  That is until Mom's stroke changed all such calculations.  Even then I was sure I'd be done before the end of the month.  Not likely now.  But I'm learning to love the process.  And that seems to be the attitude I need to cultivate about all my WIP including my Self.

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 3 2020

The writing challenge that
 knows you have a life

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2020

2020 Round 3 ROW80 and July Camp NaNo goals check-in:

* Sleep 7.5 hours Daily Minimum --  Satisfactory effort

* Move/Breathe/Meditate 15 min Daily minimum  -- Satisfactory effort

* Storydreaming with note-taking tools at hand. 15 min Daily Minimum -- This is a technique I learned from Robert Olen Butler in the book From Where You Dream. -- Unsatisfactory

* Read Fiction 30 min Daily Average --  Above and beyond

* Read/Study Craft 15 min Daily Average --  Above and beyond

* Social network activities 30 min Daily Minimum (writing Joystory posts doesn't count only social reaching out like reading/commenting on other blogs, guest posts and posting to fb, twitter, pinterest etc) -- something I've a strong resistance to.  --  Satisfactory effort

* 30 min Daily minimum engagement with a scavenger hunt though all my creative writing files including Joystory looking for better than shitty first draft scenes, sections, stories, poems and essays and edit, organize and make hard copies. --  Satisfactory

* To prep for self-pub: Gather all my poems into a single Scrivener file. Minimum one poem per day until all accounted for.  Adding new ones encouraged. --   Satisfactory

* Personal Journaling 45 min or 1000 words whichever come first Daily Minimum -- This is the heart of the writing challenge.  The preceding provides the structure and the nutrients that nurtures and honors the work which I've learned over time must exist to ensure that this becomes more than just dabbling.  --  Unsatisfactory

For an explanation and links to backstory see the ROW80/Camp NaNo Goals post.