An over-break project

 Because of various reasons I didn't get NEARLY as many things done over break as I had intended, but I did make one big thing.

I had bought the pattern for "Murdock the Kelpie" off of Ravelry quite a while back, and never made it, because it looked daunting. But I decided maybe this was the time to try it. When I first got up to my mom's, we made a trip to the fancy new JoAnn Fabrics near her (bigger and fancier even than my newer fancy one - I remember the rinky old JoAnn's here before they moved into an old Circuit City space. The one at my mom's is in an old Toys R Us.)

I bought some cream colored Bernat yarn (Bernat "Softee," maybe?) and a Red Heart Gemstones in the colorway "Emerald" (A color shifting yarn). And a pair of lockwasher eyes in a bigger size - because of this design there was no good way to sub in applique eyes (would not work with the eyelids)

It did take me days. Partly because the crochet hurt my hands a little (the Bernat yarn is not the nicest to crochet on; the Red Heart was more loosely spun and was a little more comfortable). But it's a pretty impressive project when done: 

Yeah, a kelpie is like a merhorse, though I guess they also have the added twist in Celtic mythology that they will drag people to the water and drown them? (There was a bit with kelpies - voiced by Tara Strong and Andrea Libman, aka the voices of Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy/Pinkie Pie, and yes, the kelpies were rather My Little Pony style, just smaller and fatter like highland ponies)

Anyway, my Kelpie (which I named Caspian, like the Caspian Sea) is a NICE kelpie and will not drag anyone under the water.

It was a complex pattern - the legs in particular were tough, they're designed so one is bent and one is straight

The face is interesting - you make indentations for the nostrils by increasing then decreasing and then poking in the "bobble" it made, and then you reattach the yarn and make "flares" or "nares" or whatever you would call them. And there are separate eyelids that go over the eyes, which make the lockwasher eyes (which can "read" as a little "dead" on some toys) more expressive and lively). 

The tail, hooves, eyelids, and the "mane" (which is really more like a long fin, there's one on the back of the tail too) are all of the variegated yarn. 

It was a lot of work but I'm pretty happy with how he came out. 

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Had my checkup today. I had been concerned because my ALT (a liver enzyme) was one point over the recommended maximum level, but my doctor was really unconcerned by that. What she was concerned by was that my vitamin D levels had gotten low. I don't quite know why, unless it's because I had really only been taking a low supplemental dose AND a lot of days I would forget to take it. So she encouraged me to increase it to 5000 IU for a while, and see what that did. She did also note that that can help with mood and memory issues - I hadn't really brought them up, other than that there was a lot of frustration surrounding trying to teach in the pandemic. And she said, "Well, try this for six to eight weeks, and see if it helps, if it doesn't maybe we try something else" and yeah, I'm generally resistant to taking more medications, especially ones that can have funky side effects and where you have to mess with the dosage.

She did also note: you need to be better at setting boundaries about taking on more work, and also you should probably be more "intentional" about doing things you enjoy (like, I guess, knitting and sewing, and yeah, I hadn't been doing that as much recently, have gotten sucked into the dumb little mobile games instead, probably because the "activation energy" to play one of those is lower than the "activation energy" to pick up a knitting project or go and sew. I'm not QUITE ready to delete the games from my phone, but I will have to remind myself that I need to do more knitting and sewing - I feel happier when I do.

Of course, also, the chaos of packing stuff for the storage unit (I did a LOT of that yesterday) and the concern about the renovations upcoming also affects my mood, but I DEFINITELY need to be more "intentional" about "okay I will come home and practice piano and then I will knit." I probably do need to guard my free time better.

And I do plan on Friday afternoon to take the quilt down to the longarmer, and heck, I might also just run to the JoAnn's - I don't HAVE to buy anything, or I could just get a small thing (or if they have some kind of early spring/Valentine's Day decoration that is nice, I could get that and put it up. I do find doing a little holiday or seasonal decoration helps me feel less like I'm stuck in Groundhog Day).