Divinely Crafty

This time for real.  It’s been a long hard winter that seems to have started last summer.  After a wonderful trip to the Pacific Northwest of the US where there was sun and warmth, coming back to a record wet, gray and cold English summer was a bit of a crash to say the least.  My health and our move in late August turned out to be much harder to recover from than I anticipated.  As the winter took hold I found myself frozen in my body and as a result I never did get back to blogging as I had intended to.

Happily spring appears to be trying to break through and with it I am experiencing a renewal of my own.  I recently started a new medication that while still early days has me feeling optimistic about getting some of my spark back.  I’m not looking for a miracle cure but to have a bit more fire burning in me is a very welcome change.  There have been treatments in the past which have given me a little boost but unfortunately they all seem to be short lived.  Not wanting to count on this boost being a permanent thing I am taking it one day at a time and trying to simply appreciate each day for what it gives me without putting stock in what it may or may not mean for the future.  In the true spirit of zen – living each moment as it comes.

In my hiatus I was not all together a slug.  I did finish the pair of socks I started way back in August and have gotten much love and warming of my feet out of them during the cold days.

Of course with my feet all toasty warm, my hands were feeling a bit left out so I obliged them with this lovely pair of mittens.

Which led to my husband wanting his own knitted warmth, so I obliged with these fingerless gloves. He started working for the Royal Mail in December so he needed something to keep his hands warm but left his fingers free to sort mail as he delivered.

In making these I did my first attempt at knitting on two circulars as opposed to DPN’s and must say that I am a committed convert. The speed at which I knit these was truly amazing and I found the method to be overall much less fiddly than using the DPNs. I have since cast on a pair of socks on two circs, and while they have been sidelined for another project (of which I will write more on another day) I am pleased with the speed and ease. If you haven’t tried the two circs, you should give it a go. There are some great tutorials on you tube to get you started.

And to round it out, and show that I do indeed do other things besides knit – a project that I had been planning to do for ages but never made the time to do. Recovering an old stool that we had in our kitchen. Previously it was a robin’s egg blue which was nice, but the giant hold in the middle with foam sticking out kind of ruined it’s aesthetic. A square of oil cloth, a few minutes of labor and hey ho – a newly covered stool that fits nicely into my slowly becoming retro red kitchen. I really love this stool now.

There have been other projects, but I won’t go into them all. In my flickr you can see some more and if you happen over to Beneath Our Feet and follow it to my family flickr you can see some projects around the house that we have been working on over the winter. I have lots planned for the spring and looking forward to being back and sharing them with you!

Tags: crafty, hand warmers, household, knitting, ktichen, makeover, restyle, socks, stool, upcycle, writing

I finished the Log Cabin blanket that I started back in early May for the wedding of our friends. Finished size was roughly 48″x42″. The perfect size to throw over your lap and snuggle up with a cup of teas and good book. True to the best of gifts, it is a bit difficult to see this one leave my home. Made of odd bits of yarn left over from projects over the past couple years, making it was a fun trip down memory lane and they type of item that would give warmth of heart and body on as cold day. Several yarns were those that I dyed myself, including a small bit of my very first skein of hand painted yarn. There was even some that I spun from sheep which were raised on the farm where the happy couple lives. Definitely a project that I will do again once I have a good stash of leftovers that needs using up. I have a few new projects lined up to work on that will start me on that quest. It feels good to have made a “big” knitting project. It wasn’t the most complicated of patterns, but it did take time. I often shy away from the longer projects because so often I will go into a flare and not work on it for a time. (Not too different than me and my blog in that respect.) If I chose a smaller, quicker piece then I have a better chance of finishing in a reasonable time frame. I didn’t rush through this one, and only at the end when I was in a time crunch did I push myself to work on it when I didn’t really want to be working on it. True to my form, I finished it the day of the wedding with 3 hours to spare. Just enough time to get my daughter and myself cleaned up and ready to go. She was the flower girl, which in the world of a 7 year old girl is a much honored role. She was up first thing in the morning asking how long until the wedding. When I told her she had 7 hours to wait (an eternity in her eyes) she groaned and asked how many minutes that was. 420 met with several more groans.

We are in our final week before we leave for our trip to the Pacific Northwest of the US. My brother is getting married and it will be the first time back for my whole family except for me. I went last year to gather with several of my sewing mama friends, where I taught a little workshop on wet felting and then I went to a course on using hypnotic techniques as an element in the childbirth classes I teach. This year I went to get started on a holistic course of treatment for my fibromyalgia. Very different reasons. So much has changed. I know from my own experience that it will be odd being back in a place that used to be home and have it seem so foreign. It’s remarkable how much we have settled into life here.

There are always a million details that pop up at the last minute. With this being a month long trip I am expecting twice that. We are moving house (again) shortly after we get back so all that needs to be squared away this week in addition to all the normal packing business. Fortunately it is still pretty calm today with a week left to go, and maybe it will stay that way if we are lucky. Cross fingers and hope for the best!

Tags: friends, knitting, spinning, traveling

In amongst keeping up with all that life hands us, I have managed to work on a few crafty projects. Shortly after I returned from my trip I got a custom order through my etsy shop to do some hand dyed yarn that was based on the colors in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was a fun order to do and I was very pleased with the results. But it really drove home the fact that even though I am feeling a bit better than I was earlier this year that I am far from ready to take on any real work. I put all the energy I had into the project and then proceeded to go to bed and not get up for several days. I am bummed about my limitations, but it was fun to do and helped me remember the thrill I get from making pretty things.

With limited budget (as in zero budget) for acquiring of new yarn for my stash, and a need for a significant but not too brain taxing project I decided to give a Log Cabin style blanket a try. It is a stash buster project using up all the odd bits and bobs left over from other projects and a few odd skeins that have been with me for way to long and needed to be used up or given away. My original intent for it was to just make something for the family. We can always use another nice warm blanket. But then I remembered that our friends are getting married in late June and it would be a perfect wedding gift for them. They are very eclectic people and it is definitely an eclectic blanket. So far it measures roughly 2ft x 2ft and I am hoping to make it no less than 4×4. I might need to raid some yarn from my shop to meet that goal but if ever there was a reason to do so, making the perfect gift for good friends is as good as it gets.

I have a few other projects that I would like to get started in the next few weeks. I had hoped to make a shrug with some nice cotton that my friend Anna gave me last year before I go to Seattle in July. I’m not sure that I will get to it by then, but it would make a good project to work on while I am there if I don’t finish it before hand. I have another project planned that I really want to get done before the end of June, but again I am not sure that it will be possible. Its another gift for another wedding and I can’t say anything more because the recipient just might be reading this blog. But if I don’t get it done before that wedding I will give my apologies and get it to them as soon as possible. Hopefully before their first anniversary!

Tags: hand dyed yarn, knitting, log cabin

Last week the spirit of the season blew through me as I surrendered to a most intense fibromyalgia flare. With a good mystery audiobook playing on my laptop on my nightstand, cup of tea placed within easy reach, and my supplies set before me neatly on my bed I began hunting and pecking through beads and baubles for inspiration. The result was several pairs of glass and stone earrings that were bundled up and sent to their new homes before I had a chance to take pictures, and this lovely necklace that I made for our friend Sabrina. Made from orange/red/yellow rolled felt beads that I made last spring and colorful glass beads which I bought in a fabulous bead store in Barcelona.

I also made this divine hat for Stephen to wear with his once again long hair ponytail. It is cold in the mountains of Italy where he lives but it can be a real pain trying to find a hat that works with ponytails. Hopefully this will do the trick and keep him warm and in style. Made with handspun single and the pattern can be found here.

It was good to get some creative work done. I have been in such a drought lately, putting my energy mostly into daily needs, but also attending to other calls that have been demanding my attention. When I opened my box of beads and tools there was a sense of apprehension with my eagerness to get started. Knowing that I was in the midst of a bad flare, I also knew it was entirely likely that I wouldn’t be able to finish what I started. Another thing that keeps me from my creative pursuits is the lonely trail of abandoned projects that are evidence of good intentions gone the way of dreams. But not this time. Once I got going the momentum built on itself and I began to get as much energy from making them as I was putting into them. More even. What a joy and a delight! ‘Tis the season to be merry and bright!

Tags: felt and fiber, inspiration, knitting