According to the latest story on the topic at Slashdot, I am in an exclusive group of less than 1% of U-verse customers still affected by an internet outage that is now entering its third day. But today, instead of making do with the limitations of the iPad, an electronic device whose vagaries I have not yet mastered, I packed up my computer and headed out for dinner at the nearest eating establishment with free wi-fi to do a little creative disruption of my own.

While I was tempted to get dinner at Dunkin’ Donuts, I opted for Backyard Burgers because in addition to free wi-fi, I was able to set myself up at a table under a heating vent, so despite the arctic air blanketing Raleigh, I am nice and toasty as I write this.

However, the lingering cold is probably why I felt inspired to work on the light raspberry headband I found yesterday while cleaning up in my crochet empire.

Using a 4.25 mm hook, I added a round of single crochet stitches to the side that was not yet finished, decided it needed “one more thing,” and then decided that the one more thing it needed was a round of 3dc shells like the ones I had added to the grape fizz headband I made to coordinate with my Victorian texting gloves.

After all of the ends were woven in, here was the result:

With the headband done and ready for wear, I turned my attention to the small felted bag I had made using Merri Purdy’s free pattern.

Yesterday, after taking a photo of freshly felted, nearly completed currant bag, I stuffed it with small towels to give it shape and set it atop a heat register to speed the drying. By this morning, all that was needed to put in in the “ta-done” column was to find a suitable button, and sew it on.

Truth be told, it took me longer to find a button I liked than it did to sew it on, but eventually, I both found a button I liked, and I sewed it on.

Here is the completed bag in all its glory:

I was tempted to stop with the bag, but I felt combination of ghastly cold weather and no internet was contributing to my productivity, and I thought I had better use it while I had it, so when I was up in my crochet empire surveying my still extensive Unfinished Object collection, this scarcely begun hot pad caught my eye:

Made of ribbons of silk recycled from saris, I had intended for this project to be used with my red 1.5 quart Le Creuset pan. I use the pan almost every day, and I wanted a hot pad that was as awesome as the pan.

Not having made any notes when I began and then quickly abandoned this project, there was a small bit of trial and error before I settled on a 6.0 mm hook which gave me a gauge consistent with the previous work. I noted the size of the hook and stitch progression in a notebook, but other than that brief interruption, this time, I didn’t set the hot pad aside until it was done.

Here it is on its own:

and here it is with the pan I made it for:

An internet outage coupled with cold weather might not have been what Jean-Marie Dru had in mind when he created the concept of creative disruption in 1996, but that is exactly what the result has been for me.

The idea behind the concept of creative disruption is this:

Being subject to disruption forces a person, or organization, to adapt, learn and improve.

and based on my experience these past two days, I would have to say that there seems to be some value to this method, and maybe, just maybe, I need to get outside my comfort zones a bit more often if I am to do my very best work.