Crafty Reso...Er, Goals

I don't much care for resolutions.  The very word is off-putting, unless we're talking about screen resolution, and then it's just something that this non-tech-savvy chick doesn't quite understand.  I'm talking about the kind of resolutions that people feel compelled to make at the beginning of every new year.

"I have made a resolution to lose 20 pounds."
"I resolve to save $xx.xx and pay off my credit card debt."
"My New Year's resolution is to quit smoking (or drinking, or nagging my husband, etc.)"

How realistic is that really?  Maybe if you're a go-getter.  I have a sister like that.  She sets her sights on what she wants, and doesn't stop until she has it.  I admire that kind of motivation but I don't possess whatever it is that makes it happen.  I'm the kind of person who doesn't even tell the kids about the trip to the Zoo that I have planned until right before we leave.  Just in case something else comes up, like all of them having meltdowns within 5 minutes of each other.  In that case, I like to lock myself in the bathroom with some wine, a book, music, and a bath and let my sweet husband take care of it.  (Thanks, Dear!)  They never knew that something fun was going to happen; therefore they aren't disappointed and I don't have to feel like I failed.  Voila!

I like to make goals, but not just any goals.  Tentative goals.  The kind of goals that are nice to think about, but if they don't happen, it's OK.  For example, I'll make the tentative goal to not eat out all week long.  A nice homemade, whole food dinner every night of the week.  But if I end up asking my husband (he's so awesome) to pick up Chipotle one night when I'm just not feeling it, it's ok.  Because my goal was tentative.  It almost doesn't count.  All right, I do occasionally make goals that I really really mean, but they're still not resolutions.  Just maybe firm goals.

The point of all of the preceding verbal dribble is this:  I have an exceedingly large yarn stash.  Embarrassingly large.  So big, that I feel like it is really almost more like furniture than crafting supplies.  Sure, I take it out and admire it and think of all of the things I could make with it, but I don't do enough of the making.  So I've made the tentative goal of creating two finished objects per week.  Should be easy, right?  I mean, I could make two dishcloths in just a couple of hours if I wanted to.

Heck, as soon as I put the sleeve on this sweater that I've been working on for two months (and ignoring for 3 weeks)  I'll be halfway there.

Let the Gift Crafting Begin

I feel so behind schedule already!  I always mean to start the Holiday making waaaay back in August, and I always manage to procrastinate until November.  But, at least I managed to get my lazy butt up and get started.

I made these mitts using the Basic Fingerless Gloves for Guys pattern by Jen Spears.  I made a lot of mods to make this fit a hand my size.  You can read my notes on my Ravelry page.

This hat was actually a custom for a trade.  I used the Floral Cloche pattern from Crochet Today.  I don't think I've ever made anything quite so pink before, but it's really cute, and I especially like the three tier flower.

This little hat was made from Linda Permann's Little Sister Hat, for my cousin's (almost here!) new baby.  Speaking of Linda Permann, everyone should check out her patterns, because Wowza! she designs some beautiful stuff.

And lastly, I've got my fabric for gift bags washed, and some of it cut.  I'm not super experienced with the sewing machine...as a matter of fact I haven't used it since last year's bag making!  But I trust that I'll manage to figure it out again!

What are you crafting for the Holiday season?

Autumn Table

I love the Autumn.  No other season brings me such a feeling of comfort, rest, and home as does the Autumn.  I try to take the time to pay attention, to notice all of the slow changes around me.  It's much different than the Springtime, with the awe of new growth and the animals and insects waking up and venturing further each day.  In the Autumn, it is a little harder to see all of the little changes that happen.  Slowly, we realize that the woodchucks aren't darting here and there, the spiders have stopped their frenzy of web construction and destruction, plants let go of their leaves and concentrate their energy on keeping roots strong for the upcoming winter.

I try to encourage my children to bring a little of the outdoors in...colorful leaves, acorns, rocks with interesting shapes, and so on.  Because while the outside is getting ready for winter so are we, nesting in the home and thinking of the season ahead, and we could use the reminder of the beauty of this season.

Benjamin, my four (almost five!) year old put together the decoration for our Autumn Table, using bits and bobs from the outside and leftovers from last Autumn's nature table.  In the glass container and Mason jar, he put pine cones from the park, buckeyes from the community garden, and acorns from a neighbors tree.  Around that, he put small squash from a local pumpkin patch, and a pie pumpkin from a friends garden.  Moving outward, there are small wooden candle holders that we thrifted a couple of years ago, with beeswax candles that the kids rolled themselves.  And of course, my favorite salt and pepper shakers in the shape of snails that came from a garage sale two summers ago.

I expect this display to change as the season progresses.  The pumpkin will soon be used for something delicious, the decorative squash will eventually make their way to compost, and new outside treasures will be brought in as they are found.  And throughout, we'll sit down at our family table and be reminded to notice the changes of the world outside.

Crocheting Garments

I love using crochet to make structural items…toys, baskets, bags, and so on.  But I’ve had a hard time trying to find the love for using crocheted fabric for clothing.  I feel a little bit like a traitor for mostly *knitting* the wearables that I make, since crochet was my first love.  There is a little part of me that wonders if I may be turning into a knit snob…you know those people who look at crocheting as a granny-square craft, only good for creating afghans or lumpy, ill fitting, and out of date garments.  I know that I won’t ever really be one of those people, but I felt compelled to spend some time thinking about why I am so hesitant to pick up the hook to make the same garments that I would knit without hesitation.

I identified several “sticking points”, but the one that I think was the biggest deal for me was that many of the patterns that are out there for crocheted clothing really don’t pay much attention to the drape of the fabric.  There have been many times that I have started to make a cardigan or a sweater for one of my kids and discovered that the fabric was as stiff as a piece of cardboard.  I discovered that to suit my taste, the standard hook recommendations on yarn labels are too small.  And in general, the lighter weight (fingering, sport) yarns look better for garment construction.

What I decided to do was go through my yarn stash and choose a yarn, and go from there in building my own garment.

  

The yarn I chose was Welcomme Le Tweed Angora, which is now discontinued.  It is listed as an aran weight, but is really more of a light DK yarn.  I fiddled around with it until I found a hook size and stitch that I liked…those happened to be an H hook and the Extended Single Crochet stitch.  I didn’t want a stitch as firm as the SC, but I don’t care for the DC used in wearables.

I had decided to make a sweater vest with buttons on one shoulder for my youngest daughter, but not in the size she was at the time.  I used the Craft Yarn Council’s sizing guidelines as a guide for sizing.  I made myself a gauge swatch, and did the math.  I started in the round and worked from the bottom to the armpits, then split for the front and back.  Since the stitching would look difference once I was working back and forth rather than in the round, I decided to add some Back Post Extended Single Crochet rows as accents, similar to the way garter ridges are used as accents in knitting.  In the end, I’m very pleased with the vest, and the only thing I would have done differently is the width of the shoulder straps…I would have made the back and the front a little narrower by about three stitches.  I want to try this again in a fingering weight yarn and compare the results.  My guess is that I would like the lighter weight garment even better.

In the end, I think that crochet can make beautifully draped clothing and elegant garments with a solid fabric, but the yarn needs to be finer and the hooks a little bigger.

Knitting For Baby

I did a lot of yarncrafting while I was expecting my youngest baby.  You could say that the 2010/2011 winter was a blur of yarn…as a matter of fact, I don’t really remember much else of the midpoint of that pregnancy other than being very cold and having aching fingers from the amount of yarn that I tamed.

I did a touch of crochet, but mostly I was focused on knitting for this little one.  I knit many wool soakers, sweaters, and longies for the little girl who was growing away in my belly.  Silly me, I decided to do several of the soaker in a true newborn size, and my dear daughter was born at 8lbs 6 oz.  Beyond that, we spent a week in the NICU (where she put on weight and grew longer) so by the time we got home she had already outgrown some of the cloth diapering woolies.  Luckily I had made many, many things for me sweet girl to wear.

 We brought her home in a pair of wool longies knit from the Wooly Wonderpants pattern in a three ply yarn made by PureWool in the Diante colorway.  The side snap shirt, incidentally, was low-water immersion dyed.

This top was knit using Sandy’s Palette Merino Sox and a vintage baby vest pattern by Sirdar.  I also knit another from the same pattern using a beautiful reddish pink shade of vintage S.R. Kertzer baby camel hair yarn.

Another favorite was the Emma Tunic by Jennifer Alexander using some leftover Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton! Complete with a button picked out by the baby’s big sister.

I made plenty of other items for when she was older, but there really is something special about the newborn knits, isn’t there?  They are just so tiny and sweet, and a reminder of the anticipation of a new family member.