Favourite Store

We all have our favourite stores.

This is one of mine..

I could happily shop in every department...

The joy of creativity, of making things! To me, this store sells JOY!

Follow Your Heart!

I thought my grandkids might enjoy these cute Valentines...

When I gave them to Jericho, he immediately started to assemble them. The creator's idea was to have each pair of paws hold a heart-shaped eraser, like the cat is doing on the right. Great idea!

But in Jericho's imagination, the sticky paws could do much more. The animals could dance! 

Give hugs! Toss each other up in the air! (Didn't get a picture of that one!)

Jericho's Valentines had much more life - "joie de vivre" -  without instructions! 

That's it! Follow your heart! Instructions are just suggestions! 

Wooly Cow Kit

Occasionally I see a cute craft kit that inspires me...

Like this wooly highland cow.

I started it a few months ago - finished the body... but then took a break. 

An upcoming birthday (and Christmas) encouraged me to keep at it... I completed the head!

I did find the instructions challenging to follow. Lots of abbreviations... At times I had to write down the instructions in longhand to not get confused.

Here it is, nearing the end - only the long flowing hair remains.

My stuffy isn't as cute as the picture! Such unruly hair! I think it's because I crocheted from the outside of the ball of yarn. By the time I got to the hair, I was using yarn nfrom the inside, which had been wound more

This salad bowl has been a helpful place to store the project... Now the little guy sits in there and greets the world!

(Does he need more hair above his eyes?! I'll add a bit more...)

Final pose!

Now it's done!

New (Christmas!) Crochet Project

My grandson isn't the only one thinking about Christmas!

I recently downloaded this pattern for six Christmas-themed "mug rugs" done in Mosaic Crochet. I've admired them for a while - and suddenly, there they were, briefly being offered, as a free download.

They were created by one of my favorite pattern makers - "BebaBlanket' (www.bebablanket.com).

I've purchased several of her afghan patterns online in the past. Now I'm looking forward to starting this smaller project.

What Next?'

Now that I finished the shawl that I've been working on for the past few months, I'm wondering what to do next... 

Should I finish this scarf?

This colorful afghan I started at the beginning of winter to cheer myself up when the world outside was grey?

Another cowl - using the same pattern I just finished? 

I have yarn left...

So many options! I could also begin something entirely new - like this sweater kit I bought a while back...

I should probably work on some unfinished project first. Completing something would be really nice!

It Makes Sense!

I've been a "crafter" for much of my life. I learned how to knit when I was 10 or 12. But my knitting interest really took off a few years later when mohair sweaters became popular. Knitting suddenly became a USEFUL skill!

Eventually I learned crochet and quilting as well, though I always had a knitting project on the go. I've dabbled in embroidery, cross stitch, macrame, rug hooking, painting and pottery...

Like many crafters, I have as many unfinished projects as I have completed ones. It's easier to be inspired by something new than to slog on through a large project to the end.

But I recently came across this interesting thought - that it's GOOD to have a VARIETY  of interests and projects on the go at the same time - that having a CHOICE is LIBERATING...

That said, I don't want to be one of those people who always starts but never completes  anything! There is a certain satisfaction in finishing - and being SATISFIED with what is done.

(Also surprising was the term "craft psychology"! I've never heard it before... There's always more to learn!)

Now What?!

I intended to make a scarf with this variegated yarn - but it ended up being too wide...

(It's about a meter long and about 70 cm wide... I have enough yarn to make it twice as long but I think it’s too wide for a scarf.)

When I mentioned my dilemma to my daughter, she said: There's no such thing as a scarf that's too big! Check out Lenny Kravitz' scarf online.

So I did!

She has a point... but that's not my style ... with this scarf anyway.

So I've decided to add a border on all sides and hopefully it will become an afghan that I like...

But should I made a border that's one color - or should I use the same variegated yarn to circle around this rectangle? It would mess up the sense of stripiness that it has now, I think...

So that's my current dilemma.. What to do next?...

Joy in ...Colour!

I'm currently going through the photos stored on my cell phone - deleting a lot of them ... because I just have too many!

But when I came across this picture from an Instagram post, I stopped ...

I probably shared it on my blog before. I agree with what it says. BUT the COLOURS of these granny squares fill me with such energizing joy... I could just bask in it!

I wonder what research says about the POWER of COLOUR!

A Helen Keller House Souvenir

My mother was a home economics teacher in Alberta, then later in Kelowna, BC. 

In her later teaching years who was asked to teach traditional crafts, like knitting, crocheting, spinning and weaving - as they had become popular again.

She took on the challenge with great enthusiasm, taking courses to hone her skills - picking up samples of local crafts wherever she went.

Going through her things recently, I came across these two mats that must have been made - and sold - at Helen Keller House in Jerusalem in the 1960's or 70's. I wonder if it was a school for the blind or simply a place where they could learn to weave.

I haven't been able to find much information online.

The mats are so pretty that I'm going to start using them... after all these years.

Needle Felted Seal

On our last pottery session, the potter who first told me about the craft of needle felting brought her little felted creature to show me.

It's a harbour seal.

The kit was made by a Canadian crafter in Western Canada.

I immediately went out in search of a needle felting kit to do as well... and bought a kit to make this felted bird. (I later bought this little bird house to go with it!) The kit I bought was made in Scotland.

I haven't finished it - I haven't glued them in yet. I'm  wondering what to do. 

The little bird isn't as solid as I'd like it to be... My daughter suggested that I pull it apart  and start over. That's pretty drastic!

Sometimes, when I don't like a craft project I'm  working on, I put it away and work on something else for a while - to get a fresh perspective on it when I return to it.

Now that my pottery session is over, I'll hopefully have more time to figure out how to proceed. 

Back to Sewing!

My main crafts at home this past little while have been knitting and crochet. So when I decided to try to make a pillow for my grandson's birthday, I had to dig my sewing machine out from under a large pile of (unfinished) mending to get to it!

I noticed this lovely "reading pillow" in the mall and thought I'd try to make a similar one - with a pocket to hold books.

I hope he enjoys it!

Mosaic Crochet: Berber Update

A few weeks ago, I started my second mosaic crochet project: a "Berber Afghan."

The pattern is a series of 23 designs - each unique.

The pattern I'm working on (above) reminds me of teeth - or a rake. In it, it's easy to see how mosaic crochet works: Alternating rows use alternating colors. The design is created when one color covers the stitch below it - to hide it.

The back of regular crochet looks completely different. Regular crochet creates simple rows of one color. But the back of mosaic crochet consists of chaotic ridges, as colors take turn covering each other.

Now on to a new design...

Slowly it's taking shape...

I still have a ways to go!

New Crochet Project

Most afternoons and evenings, I spend a few hours knitting and crocheting. Then an hour or two before bedtime, I do several online word puzzles - "quordle", "sedecordle" and "octordle". Then I play a game or two of "Patchwork" to clear my mind and put myself in sleep mode. It's a routine...

So... having finished my most recent crochet project, I needed another. Fortunately my upstairs "studio" has an abundance. So I pulled out a crochet kit I had bought a while back from Mary Maxim..,

 

And I've begun!

So far, I'm enjoying it. I love to watch it progress - so I have to pace myself. If I do too much, I develop hand pain... and I don't want that to happen!

Traditional Crafts

My mother knew how to knit, but she didn't really knit for pleasure. She knit to make things. In fact, the only things I remember her ever knitting for our family, when I was s child, were four thick Mary Maxim sweater-jackets, when I was about 10 years old. We wore them with pride. I still have all the patterns somewhere - but only one sweater remains... the one she knit for herself. My daughter sometimes wears it.

Eventually my mother began to teach knitting and crochet in her home economics classes. Then spinning, weaving and lace-making as well. Those were skills her mother (my grandmother) had learned growing up. 

I remember my grandmother telling me that, when she was young, every young girl needed a chest full of sheets and towels before getting married, because in those days large items like bedding and towels weren't washed in winter. In spring, the women of the community would gather up their winter laundry and take it to the river to wash there, hanging it on bushes to dry.

Our one vestige of that era is this linen towel my grandmother wove and decorated as a young woman with her initials, O.G., in cross stitch. It's over 100 years old.

I'd like to press it and hang it up on display, but I don't know whether to mend it first... 

Would that ruin its authenticity?! But I don't want to just put it away in a drawer and forget about it, either. 

I remember my mother once commenting that it was a pity that spinning, weaving and knitting were becoming lost arts. Then, a few years later, she started to teach those skills in high school. But they were - and still are - practiced as hobbies - not necessities.

New Knitting Inspiration

I'm still working on the mosaic overlay afghan that was my main crafting project this past winter...

One panel done - two more to go.

It involves careful pattern reading, so my goal is to complete 2 rows a day.

Then I found this book of easy sweater patterns at a used book store, and bought it. I was drawn to the sweater on the cover. The pattern might work with some yarn I picked up last year at the Mary Maxim store in Paris, Ontario. It's always nice to use up what you have.

Over the warmer days of spring snd summer, will I want to sit indoors and knit?! (But then, I always like to have some knitting on the go...)

Mermaid Suit

A few weeks ago, my soon-to-be-7-year-old granddaughter said: "Grandma, do you know what I want for my birthday? I want a mermaid suit." After a pause, she added: "They probably have them at Toys R Us."

"Really?! A mermaid suit?"

But - for some reason, Grandma forgot about this little conversation - until a week before the big day. Then ... panic!!

There were no mermaid suits at our local Toys R Us. But there were patterns for knit and crocheted mermaid suits online... (However, time was running short!)

A search through my yarn stash yielded a partly-finished striped afghan and a ball of yarn that could possibly become a mermaid tail fin.

A day later, it was done...

I gave it to her a few days early... 

I hope she likes being a "reading mermaid" - lying or sitting on her bed. It's definitely not for water! 

I added a glittery hairbrush to go with it.... 

Don't mermaids sit on rocks and brush their hair?!