Where do I want my crafting to be in a years time? Or the actual question which has been driving me up the wall recently, where do I as a person want to be? My crafting is not separate from myself. It is not an extension that is not affected by who and how I am. It is who I am, it is what I do. Crafters are people who will look at things and automatically think I can make that, or how did they make that, and actually go out looking for an answer. Even if they never make the things, that is how their brains work. They are intrigued by details, they look for signs of workmanship and finesse. If you sew, you will turn garments inside out and look at how seams were finished. If you knit, you will make your friends stand still while you look at the stitch pattern on their new cardigan. I digress.
So, back to the main issue at hand. I have been improving my technique. I can now knit without really tensioning my yarn. This for me was a game changer. My hands would cramp up after an hour or so of knitting or crocheting. I hold my yarn the same way for crocheting and knitting, it just hangs there. If you have cramp issues try different ways of holding your yarn it might help.
I believe that if you can knit and purl you can do all kinds of knitting. Everything else is just another variation of that. The things I do want to improve are my photography, pattern writing and my design. I want to design bolder things, write them out better and take amazing pictures of them.
I want to lose weight so I can model the things I make without feeling subconscious. That is related to my crafting in a round about way, I will sometimes shy of certain things because of fearing they might make me look bulky or boxy. See what I mean, about how everything is related. I might even shy of certain colors because I feel they will attract too much attention.
I also want to get better at cables, fairisle and intarsia. And maybe even learn to spin properly.
That is it folks, the week is over, it was a lot of fun.
A tool to covet? One tool? That is not fair. I love my tools. ALL OF THEM. And when I don’t love them I can’t use them.
But my number one tool is my iPad.
I use it for so many things. I use it to browse ravelry, pinterest and flickr. I find inspiration in these places. I use it to sketch designs using Paper . I use Evernote to keep notes on ideas and stitch counts when I need to, it is awesome that it is all in the cloud so I can access my notes from any device. I use Knit Counter to count stitches and rows. I use it to read my knitting magazines and knitting ebooks. I use both Kobo, iBooks and Kindle because sometimes you can’t find a book in one, you can usually find it in the others. I have the craftsy app and I use it to learn new techniques and take really interesting classes (they have an awesome Pizza making class, it is not knitting, but you can’t knit on an empty stomach can you?). I also use the Blogsy app for blogging. And I watch movies while I knit. So it is an all around great tool. It is almost always with me, so I can do all of these things on the go. I use GoodReader to keep my pdf files and patterns, it also connects to your ravelry library. If you don’t have an iPad but have an android tablet you can still do all of these things, just find the alternative android app.
I also had to mention my nostepine because it is the most awesome thing ever. It is just a wooden round thing. Right? Wrong! I hate messy yarn balls. I love pretty looking yarn. I sometimes wind yarn just for fun.
Today’s post should be a new thing. Perhaps an audio post or a comic. But I am going to do something totally new. I HAVE NOTHING and IT IS GOING TO BE OK. I am not yelling at you. I am yelling at myself. I have a terrible case of crafter’s block. I have been getting them more frequently lately. And I usually fight back by trying to look for inspiration or knitting swatches. But today, I will do nothing. I will accept it as a fact of life and move on. I craft because it relaxes me and makes me happy. If it is going to stress me out then it is not going to work for me anymore. So today I invite you to embrace the moments your crafty inner self refuses to cooperate and do something else instead.
Me? I am going to read a book.
The time has come to talk about color. I have a color problem. I used to think I didn’t like color but the truth is I love colors. ALL THE COLORS. I don’t wear a lot of color, I am usually in black or navy blue. I hate that. I wish I wore colors more often. But I definitely never think that my yarn selections lack colors.
I notice colors and patterns when I look at stuff. I take pictures of things just because I liked the pattern or color and think it might look cool in my knitting or crochet.
I love colors that contrast, match and totally clash. At the end of the day it is only knitting, if it is totally horrid I can always frog it and start all over again. I love bright colors and neutrals. I love reds, pinks, blues, purples, black, grey. I love them all. If you don’t beleive me here are my projects. Almost all the colors, and a couple of rainbow projects too.
I am an infographics nerd. I love them. I love looking at statistics even when I have no idea what they really mean. I have been meaning to organize and look at my projects on ravelry for a very long time.
I finally organized my projects according to type. What I found out was interesting.
I already knew that bags (this includes clutches and pouches) would make up a huge part of my projects. I had no idea I had knit so many things that went on feet, hats and shawls. This means I need to knit some more gloves and things that go on hands. Hair accessories are too low because I know I did make lots of them that I never posted to ravelry.
Finally I looked at projects by craft.
Now this came as a surprise, I know there are lots of projects that I never added, but I always assumed I had more crochet projects than I had knitting ones. It is a close call by all means, but still. I am glad I can do both and I am glad that my projects are numerous and varied. I would still like to learn more things and make more things (ALL the THINGS). It was a lot of fun doing this. I am pretty certain I will want to do this again in a year or two and see if anything has changed.
While I did choose the house of Monkey I don’t think a monkey could be my mascot. No offense to the monkeys.
My mascot is an octopus. First of all he has 8 arms. Imagine all the knitting I could do if I had EIGHT arms. I would be knitting sweaters in a week. He is blue. Blue is my favorite color. Who doesn’t love a blue mascot? He squirts ink! I love ink. The squirting is really cool but it is also a superb defense mechanism which makes him even cooler. And this octopus is even cooler because he is a crochet one. I made him in an evening and he is very well loved by the 5 year old. He has no mouth so he will not drive me crazy with needless chatter (I have two VERY talkative people living with me, and while I adore them to the moon and back, a little less conversation, please).
So there you have it, I already have a mascot and while I do not own him, I think he rocks.
 The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting.Photo by Eskimimi
It is that time of year again. I was really excited about participating this year. Last year was the first time I took part. This year Eskimimi created the House Cup. Four houses, each representing a type of knitter. I think I am a monkey.
The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting.
While I do enjoy comfort knitting and sometimes get a case of startitis, I am mainly a finisher who likes to be challenged. I try to stick to my one WIP at a time rule and I always feel bored if I am not challenged enough. I still do need TV and zombie knitting but can’t do it all the time. It is not just my knitting and it is not a new thing. I was born this way. If I am not challenged enough I will get bored and I will either totally lose interest or I will walk away. I was this way at school. This also happened when I had a “real” job. And it definitely happens with my cooking.
Sometimes I am challenged by the yarn. Really fine yarns and really thick yarns are harder for me. DK seems to be the weight I find easiest to knit. Sometimes the pattern is a challenge, I love lace but when the repeats have too many rows or stitches it is challenging. Sometimes the technique, especially when I am still learning something new.
At the end of the day, it is just knits and purls.
|
|
