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

It’s been a month since we moved into the new house, and even though we had internet access after a week or so I have not been posting.  The move really threw me and stuck me in a big stew of self examination.  And the deeply buried and oh so frustrated clean freak (which does exist despite my best efforts to kill her off completely) has been tip toeing (with my lovely walking stick) around the house and busting my butt to clean and unpack.  A month in and we are so much further along than I imagined on the day we moved in but I can’t imagine when we will be done.  The kitchen and living areas are functional.  We still need to do lots of cleaning and work on the house itself before we can really unpack the rest.  All of which will require time and effort.  We will get it done.  When exactly that will happen is up for grabs.

Never fear – I am still finding time to bead and knit.  I accidentally made the first of my monkey socks 5 extra rows longer which is cool because I like long socks.  It may mean that I will need to buy more yarn to get a pair.  They are going to be really nice when they are done.  I hope soon.  I am on the foot of the first one and then it’s a speed through the second one.  I don’t get second sock syndrome too badly.  I beaded these key chains for the keys to my scooter, which I have dubbed my “clown car”. They are done on double stranded thin wire in hopes that they are fleixble but long lasting. I made them with bead my mother bought for me while I was in the US this summer. Thanks mom! My mother reads this blog – so wave hello to her. I hope she is resting and feeling well.

It hasn’t been all roses and honeymoon for me and my scooter, but I’m coming along with it.  We had a lovely event in the village yesterday and I was full on scooter girl.  More about that at Beneath Our Feet later this week.

Today I am resting with the curtains wide open, lying in the spot that the sun hits my bed.  We have had the most beautiful sunny days recently.  Each one makes me thankful.  This weekend was simple pleasure in the countryside and I put my all into it.  I am really happy that I did what I could and am going to be equally as grateful that I can rest for a few hours today before I go get my youngest from school.  On my little clown car.  I am grateful for that too.

I nearly forgot to mention.  I registered for French language course at the Open University.  I won’t go deep into why right now but I am quite motivated to learn.  A dishwasher won over a weekend in Paris recently, so as you can imagine it would have to be something really big to get me go back to school for the first time in many many (I think this merits another many) years.   And proves that I am crazy.  Which of course was not really in question for some time now.

It looks like I have been on a bit of a Summer break from blogging.  First with the trip to the US for a month and then back home where a few days of resting turned into a few weeks.  The weather here has been decidely un-summer like which means that I have been laid flat by the cold and damp.  My body simply rebels in this weather. Last week my oldest had surgery on her foot, which is the continuation of a saga that started back in June.  A trip to the doctor today tells us that it isn’t over quite yet.  We are a matched set of hobblers now.  I hope that soon I will be the only one in the family to lay claim to that title.  It bites seeing your kid in pain.

School starts in a week so it is now time to start looking back on the summer and sharing some highlights.  It started off quite wonderfully with my youngest brother’s wedding.  It was so much fun to see friends and family that I have not seen in a long time  (some since I was a child) and to meet new people that I am lucky to now call family.   My family  – the one for which I call myself mother – stood still in the same place long enough to get our picture taken.  A feat that has not been accomplished in a very very long time.  It makes my heart swell to see how my daughters are all growing so much.  Even my baby is no longer a baby. And it’s good to know that we all clean up nicely.  Living rurally like we do that is also a rare occurence.

Once back from the trip, as I mentioned earlier, I have been pretty much sidelined by my health.  It is something that I am still coming to grips with.  I have come a long way in the past several months in accepting where things are, but it still is quite raw with me.  One thing that I have had to accept is that walking more than a few meters at a time is a thing of the past for me.  This has meant that I have been more or less housebound for some time, and when I did venture out it meant days of pain for having over done it.  On our holiday we rented a wheelchair and it opened back up parts of life that I had not seen for such a long time.  So it was decided that I needed to get some wheels of my own in an effort to get out more. Since I don’t have the energy to be wheeling myself around I chose to get a mobility scooter so that I could get out without needing an attendant.  My new wheels arrived on what was lucky enough to be a sunny day.

My maiden voyage on it was to the park with my youngest who has been trapped at home with me.  We took a side trip further into the village to our local yarn shop and I treated myself to a skein of sock yarn.  I cast on Monkey from Knitty Winter 06 a couple nights ago and have been joyously rediscovering the fun of sock knitting.  I had been jonesing for a good sock knit for quite some time and am thrilled to have finally given in to the urge.

This weekend we are moving into a new house, which is something we are all looking forward to.  The new house has a real kitchen, unlike our current house which has a closet masquerading as one.  We just moved into this house 6 months ago and were less than thrilled to learn that the landlord was selling so soon afterwards, but it has turned out for the best and we have been looking forward to the move all summer.  Unfortunately we will be without internet for a week minium, so I will be AWOL again.  But when it is back up I promise – for real promise – that I will be back and posting regularly again. I promise!

This is going to have to be quick. As I sat down to write this just now it occurred to me that I really need to get busting a move on the final prep for the trip. I need to make at least 2 more things. Further evidence of my full blown case of pre-holiday making madness. There are patterns to be printed out, yarn and other materials to be gathered for my trip, with glaring omissions that will need to be purchased in the obligatory crafty shopping. I love the stories behind the things I buy while on holiday. It makes the things I make out of them that much more personal. I will try to post while I am on the road and share some of my scores. But if you don’t hear from me for a few days – trust that all is well and we are gearing up for a great journey. My youngest brother is getting married to a woman who I am going to be honored to call my Sister In Law. I do have to say that my brothers have done really well with selecting fabulous sisters for me. If I was denied female relations as a child by being the only girl, I get the good end of the deal this way. Thanks guys!

With that lets get to the business at hand – The giving of awards!

This is my first actual passing on of an award. I did get one before, but it was during a time that my posting was less frequent. Which is a round about way of saying I blew it off. Bad blogger that I am. However, in an effort to be better at showing my appreciation to both those who read my blog and to those who’s blogs I read for being a part of my day – I am going to participate in this one.

I mentioned yesterday that Barb at Craft Therapy was one of my latest discoveries. We found each other through EntreCard and I quickly added her to my daily blog reader. Last week she gave me the “The “Arte y Pico” award, which I was very flattered to receive. Thank you, Barb!

“The “Arte y Pico” award was created and to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents, whether it be writing, artwork in all media’s. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor”. Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to at least 5 others.”

Here are my five Divine Picks for the Arte y Pico award:

The first goes to the blogger who gave me my first award that I flaked on giving a proper shout out to. Jo at Mom Of Heathens is more than just another name in the blogosphere to me. We have been online together for several years at a couple communities and this past February, she opened her home to me on my healing journey to New Mexico. Jo is like no other out there. I won’t even try to describe her – go see for yourself. You will fall in love like I did.

The “other” Katie, The Wool Food Mama, is next on my list. Another crafty mama that I have been online with for several years. (Yes, I have a slight addiction to the internet. This is not news.) I am honored to share both a name and an obsession with wool with Katie. Her stuff is cuter than I could dream of making myself. She just posted some new insanely cute offerings on her blog. I am coveting the nesting dolls. Katie is a deep thinking, down to earth, and very talented mama. And she has chickens, which just make her even cooler in my book.

Keeping with my theme of great women I have been privileged to share the web with, I would like to give the nod to Danielle, at Princess Nimble-Thimble. Danielle is a fellow crafty mama with Fibromyalgia. She has really been kicking the fibro’s behind this past year too. She gives me hope that there is a way out of this somehow. She has been a crafty idol of mine for many years, and I am sure you will see why. Take some time to look at her work.

Cinders is also one of my choices today. I found Cinders through Ravelry in a fibromyalgia knitters group. It’s a great group of knitters who share a common bond and support in the illness we have all been so lucky to draw out of the hat. She has recently entered the wonderful world of selling her lovely hand painted yarns in an etsy shop. She out shines me in the productive with fibro department – I am in awe of how active she remains and as a newbie over here in the UK, Cinders is great for me to find out if I’m on track with all things fibro related over here.

Val at Hobbies of a Domestic Goddess is my final pick today. Val and I go back to when I lived in her corner of the US. We also met through an online community. The same one that I met Jo,Katie,and Danielle through in fact. There have been many good relationships to come out of that particular community. Val is a creative and committed lover of all things about gardening, homeschooling, and making of yummy healthy food. You will want a cup of tea and some time when you go see Val. She has loads of interesting stuff and beautiful pictures on her blog.

I want to say thanks, again, to Barb at Craft Therapy for giving me this award and the chance to share a little bit of love with a few of my favorite people on the web.

Now, I am outta here. I have got so much to do and the time is rapidly going by. I will try to get in at least one more post before we go, but if I don’t then look for me to post at some point during my travels. See you then!