Creativity – Page 13

A Month of Knitting Love

February 5, 2011Creativity, Humor, Knitting2 Comments

Okay, I know that title might be startling a few of you. Afterall, I am a crochet designer.

I can knit. But I’m absolutely garbage at it. All my own fault. Lack of practice is entirely to blame.

I taught myself to knit about 3 years ago from one of those kits at JoAnns. It was the first time I had gotten very far with knitting. Shortly after that I discovered Ravelry and became so distracted with all the wonderful crochet groups on there my knitting needles have been gathering dust.

So I’ve decided to attempt a little experiment, starting on Valentines Day I am going to knit for 1/2 hour every day thru March 13th. These will be very small knitting experiments, fragments really.

The lovely Sarah (who is a talented knitter) gave me a set of the Interweave Knitting Stitches Cards last October. In there is a wonderful card that clearly illustrates the various methods of casting on, binding off, increasing and decreasing.

I will be keeping that card with my “Knitting Teacher” book and some appropriate yarn /needles for doing small bits of knitting in a project bag. Each day I’ll create and photograph a seperate little swatch that will eventually be used in a combo crochet/knit freeform piece.

This all sounds grand in theory, but one will see if I succeed in fact. I figure that if I can knit for 1/2 an hour everyday for 30 days that I will either overcome my ineptitude with knitting or I shall forever surrender to it.

Anyone want to take bets on how it all turns out? Leave a note in the comments and we will see what happens.

The 11th Day

January 11, 2011Creativity, HumorLeave a Comment

Today is the 11th day of 2011. Being I like alliteration and I have not managed to blog yet in this New Year I thought I would try to get something in here today.

It’s been very cold and snowy up here on my mountain since the beginning of 2011. In fact, due to the crummy weather, we chose to stay home for New Year’s Eve. I was up all on my own til midnight, the rest of my family having gone to bed hours before.

I ushered in the New Year the way that I’ve been spending it ever since. Crocheting.

In fact, so far, 2011 has been all about crocheting and writing crochet patterns. I knew that it was going to be a busy year, but this is even busier than I had expected.

As always happens when I am so busy, my brain seems to go into overdrive with ideas for crochet designs. The cold weather is helping in some ways as I am really wishing I had finished the Alpaca mittens and hat that I have planned for myself.

I find Alpaca to be one of the warmest fibers I’ve ever worn. Even living on a mountain it is often too warm for me to wear. So when the thermometer drops below freezing it is a great opportunity to get out the extra warm fibers.

Of course, all is not lost. This is only the beginning of the freezing cold temperatures this year, so I’ll have other chances to wear my Alpaca goodies. Now, all I have to do is find time to make them.

The Importance of Being Needed

December 31, 2010February 19, 2024Creativity, Health and Self Care, HumorLeave a Comment

The end of the year always marks a time of reflection for me. While I may not necessarily come up with resolutions for the coming year, I do re-evaluate what I have accomplished in the previous one.

2010 is nearly over and it has been an amazing year for me as I have moved from working part-time to full-time in my efforts as a crochet designer.

I have sold 10 designs this year to various magazines and yarn companies. Some that will not be published until 2011 and others that are currently available to crocheters.

I have spent countless hours swatching and sketching design ideas for submissions to magazines and yarn companies. As well as working on designs for publishing in my independent line of patterns.

I have discovered that I was actually doing much more work in my life before going back to “work” than I realized or credited myself with. The fact that my time is taken up with “work” work instead of those other tasks has made that abundantly clear.

I love to design. I love to teach about crochet and healthy crafting. I love to crochet for myself, gifting and charity. But I am also realizing the limits on my time and energy as well as the importance of being needed.

My children are quite young still. They have made it rather clear in the past few months that they still need me and my attention. The last 8 years have gone by in a flash and soon enough, they will be far too independent. So I am looking at how to find balance between what they need from me and what I need to do as a designer.

The next 4 months will be about finding greater balance with my work and home life. That may mean focusing more on my blogging and Independent Pattern line. Possibly the opening of my Etsy shop. All things that allow me flexibility with my deadlines.

As much as I enjoy working with editors and creative directors in the Magazine and Yarn business the deadlines are often quite tight. If one of my children becomes sick or my husband has to travel for business it can really make it challenging to meet those deadlines.

Being a re-covering Perfectionist I get very stressed if I can’t meet a deadline. I hate to let down editors or others that are counting on my project to be in on time.

The interesting thing is, slowing things down is in many ways an act of faith. Faith that my skills will continue to grow and that I will find the opportunities that I need at the right time. I hope you, my friends and readers will join me in this journey of faith.

The importance of being needed is key, especially what we need from ourselves.

Christmas Crochet

October 30, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment

Oh boy, it’s time for some quick work with the hooks. Christmas gift making season seems to have snuck up on me once again. Though I had thought about it earlier. In fact, was happily reminded when the Special Newstand issue of Crochet! Magazine came out the end of August.

It was particularly exciting for me as the hat on the cover is my design, Roundabout Hat (thanks to Carol Alexander, the talented editor of Crochet! Magazine for the name).

Fortunately, I already have a hat done for my beloved because of this design, the hat below was actually the proto-type and will be one of his Christmas presents this year.

I had the ball of Universal Yarns Classic Worsted Long Print in the Black Heathers colorway for ages, intending it for a hat for my beloved. When Carol asked me for a warm earflap hat design for this issue my mind went to that yarn right away.

One thing I really love about this design is the simplicity of the color work as the yarn does all the heavy lifting. The hat is worked top down in half double crochet for a lovely stretchy fabric. The earflaps are worked in the round as well so there is a cozy extra layer over the ears, which is super handy in cold winter weather.

I may be making a few of these hats this Christmas as they are quick to stitch up and can be embellished to make them more feminine or fun. There are loads of other fun gift projects in this magazine as well. So if you are looking for some inspiration for your gift list, this issue is a great place to start.

Somedays are Blue

October 10, 2010Creativity, YarnLeave a Comment

I was feeling a bit blue the other day. Partly due to lack of sleep and my twisted ankle. But it got me to thinking about one of my very favorite colors. Blue.

Now folks that know me might guess that is my favorite color, as there are subtle hints everywhere in my life and accoutrement.

My briefcase has colors of blue, and a sort of retro thing going on too (which I adore). My poor abused “Better Back” hand bag is a denim blue. I wear blue jeans out and about in my public life (though at home I am more a yoga pants gal, and those tend to be black or gray). I have quite a few shirts that are various colors of blue.

My design office walls are 2 different shades of blue. I seem to have acquired a number of cobalt blue glass items over the years. There are also quite a few glass beads of that hue in my beading supplies. And of course…there is always lots of blue yarn.

This particular ball of yarn has been tempting me to make something lovely for myself. I’m not sure that it is the absolute best shade of blue for me to wear, but it is so glorious that I may have to anyway.

I purchased it from the wonderful Gypsy Wools shop in Boulder. The owner, Barb Day, dyes the yarn herself and this skein practically jumped off the shelf into my hands. I have worked with this yarn before in other colors. Best of all is the name of the yarn: “Andee”. It is an alpaca and wool blend that is toasty warm.

I originally made myself a hat in a green colorway (to go with my coat, which isn’t blue). Sadly I managed to lose the hat somewhere during all my errand running adventures last winter. I’m looking for a project to work on during my flight next week and another hat would be just the right size.

I’ll have to be more careful if I do make another hat, don’t want to be blue about losing my new blue hat.

New Foundations

September 26, 2010September 28, 2012Creativity, Crochet, Crochet Design, Tips and Tricks1 Comment

As many of you that have worked my designs know, I love simple foundations. Any pattern that asks me to chain more than 50 to start out tends to make me cranky. A cranky Andee is not that fun to be around, just ask my family.

My favorite designs begin with what I like to call “small starts”. Nothing makes me happier than to have the beginning directions in a crochet pattern say, “Chain 2, single crochet in 2nd chain from hook.” Or a variant of that. Which is one of the many reasons I love the foundation single crochet (FSC) for my designs.

But, I know not everyone has my fondness for the FSC. In fact, it took me a very long time to become friends with the FSC. I purchased Doris Chan’s books “Amazing Crocheted Lace” and “Everyday Crochet” years before I felt able to tackle the FSC.

I would drool over her patterns and attempt over and over to do the FSC. Finally one day it all came together and I have mastered the FSC (or at least have a good handle on it).

Recently, I wanted to do a shawl design that would require a long foundation to work off of. The idea of starting a pattern with nearly 200 chain stitches made me break out in a cold sweat.

I also knew there were quite a few folks that would not be too happy with me if I started it off with that number of FSC (I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to make a foundation with that many FSC). What to do?

I wanted a foundation that wasn’t a complete pain to work, that would look attractive on its own. Something that wouldn’t need an additional edging to seem complete.

I started looking at single crochet stitches. What would happen if I worked a bunch of single crochets one on top of the other, then worked into the side of them for the rest of the garment?

Now, I’m pretty sure some other designer has done this at some time or another, though I can’t recall having seen it. Happily the resulting foundation is stretchy and attractive. Basically everything I was looking for.

One thing I did observe is that with my style of crochet the foundation made this way seems a bit too loose. I adjusted for this by working the foundation with a smaller hook than that used for the body of the shawl. Knitters have been casting on for ages with different size needles than the rest of their project is worked with. So I was borrowing from that tradition.

It could also work to just be very aware and crochet the foundation stitches a bit tightly with the larger hook, then work with a more relaxed gauge for the remainder of the garment.

Either way, this may become one of my favorite new techniques for foundations.

Searching for the Perfect Bag

September 4, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Yarn4 Comments

I love bags, purses, satchels, totes. You name it, likely I have at least one in my collection of “containers for carrying stuff in”. I am particularly fond these days of this bag.

Kanji-Bag3 — Kanji Project Cozy by CozySpirit

My dear friend Cozy has a lovely Etsy shop: CozySpirit where she sells bags of all sizes, moth-away sachets to match, and gorgeous yummy hand-dyed yarns. This bag was a synthesis of both our creativity. She did all the hard work though.

I wanted a bag that was a good size to carry a small yarn project in. I was particularly looking at it from the standpoint of classes at conferences. I sent her the measurements I was contemplating and she did some figuring for me.

I purchased 5 bags from her and I used all the bags at this summer’s Chain Link. They were ideal for the classes, easily holding numerous small balls of yarn, my hooks, class notes and a pen.

The pockets of this bag are a gorgeous Asian style print she had leftovers of. I had fallen in love with another bag she had in her shop, but missed out on purchasing it. She only had a bit left and came up with this design to utilize it. It is perfect in so many ways.

The straps are long enough that I can slip the bag over my shoulder and keep stitching away on my project while walking around. The outside pockets are very handy for a place to stow my keys, a small pad for design notes, or even a spare hook or needle when I need my hands free to do something else.

And the interior details are just as nice as the exterior. The seams are fully finished, so there are no fuzzy edges to add lint to my yarn or otherwise gumm up the interior. There is a handy pocket on the interior too for keeping my hooks and such from diving to the bottom of the bag. A nifty little loop on the interior also provides a good spot for stitch markers to rest when not in use.

Cozy has numerous versions of this style of bag at her shop now. She calls them “Project Cozys” and they are very reasonably priced. I use all of mine on a regular basis.

Cozy has also come up with a larger project bag that I will be adding to my collection very soon. Sometimes I need more room in a bag for a project that outgrows the Project Cozy, so I’m looking forward to getting my new bag. This one will be large enough to carry a big shawl project in.

And even if you are not a stitching kind of person Cozy’s bags are a wonderful well-made addition to your own collection. The Project Cozy size is ideal for using as an everyday handbag with lots of good spots to stow your wallet, phone, car keys and all those other necessities when running about.

Progress

August 28, 2010Creativity, Crochet Design, HumorLeave a Comment

Well, things are going a bit slower than I like, but progress is happening with the Design office.

The shelves are all in place. The Bulletin Boards are installed. Now it is becoming more of an issue of sorting thru the accumulations of “stuff” that seems to be coming out of the woodwork.

One of the largest projects is taking an inventory of all my yarn.

Yep, that is a scary one. Fortunately help is arriving in a few minutes in the form of my friend Laura. She’ll keep me on track, she’s not a yarnie like me.

Of course the good news is I may be sending some yarn to new homes once I have a better handle on how much I really have.

Then there is all the fabric, the thread, the beads, drawing and sketching materials. Okay, I’m tired again.

Note to self: Sort thru and pitch (or donate) stuff regularly to avoid this monumental task in the future.

Dangerous Pursuits

August 15, 2010August 15, 2010Creativity, Humor3 Comments

Now, it’s not what you think. I’ve not taken up sky-diving or motor-cycle racing. It’s just my goofy thoughts on the hazards of me going into a craft/hobby store.

I had to stop by JoAnns the other day for some poster board. I had opened my big mouth last spring and found myself in charge of the first PTO fundraiser of the year. As part of all this I needed to make some posters.

The poster board is located about 1/2 way down the first aisle when I walk into my local JoAnns and the registers are not terribly far from there as well. Yet, I somehow managed to make a full loop of the store. Becoming more inspired by the moment.

There was fabric that I knew I could make some lovely things with. Cotton yarns were on sale. Cotton yarn in large balls and gorgeous colors. Ooooo, there are more yarns on sale over there. Ideas for things I could make began hopping about in my brain like some sort of crazed popcorn kernels.

“Whoa there, hold on a minute missy!” my wiser self said to the creative crazed self. “Exactly when, amongst all the deadlines personal and professional you are currently juggling, do you think you will have time to start, let alone do, any of these new projects?”

I’m proud to say, I purchased only 2 pieces of foamcore and 1 very bright piece of poster board. Though there were some seriously heart tugging longing looks being cast at that cotton yarn by my creative self.

It gets Worse, Before it gets Better

July 31, 2010Creativity, Humor2 Comments

This ongoing project of turning what was my Massage office into my Design office is getting a bit cumbersome. At the moment this is the state it is in.

My dream idea of a well-organized and peaceful work environment does seem a bit out of reach. Especially as I go thru my stash of fabric, yarn, threads, buttons etc…the more I discover I have. I am in that stage of organizing, where the work you do seems to create a major mess.

It’s all good though. Sorting thru the accumulations of 20 some years of creative supplies seems to inspire new ideas. So I’m taking sketch breaks to note things down.

Then when I have a “dry” day, I’ll have loads of notes to get the well running again. Admittedly I have rarely had “dry” days, but just in case.