Creativity – Page 14

A Different Point of View

July 25, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet, Humor1 Comment

One of the wonderful things about going to the Knit and Crochet Shows has been the opportunity to learn from other crocheters. I’ve learned new techniques and finishing tricks both in classes and just sitting stitching in the lounge with others. I’ve also discovered ways of looking at crochet fabric that I had never considered.

I’ve always thought of myself as an “outside the box” kind of thinker. But one of my teachers at Chain Link this year showed me that she isn’t even thinking “inside the room”. This would be the lovely, talented and brilliant Dee Stanziano.

Dee and Me CL2010 — Dee Stanziano and Me at Chain Link 2010

I had the pleasure this year of taking the class “Pushmi, Pullyu” with Dee. She has an amazing eye for crochet fabric and an insatiable curiosity about how it is created. Her understanding of how the fabric of crochet can be influenced by the way we hold our hooks and manipulate the yarn is a bit mind-boggling.

Dee promised by the end of her class we would be forming new neural pathways and looking at our crochet in a whole new way. She was correct in her predictions (and when she made us crochet with our non-dominant hand her promise that we would curse her name also came true). I am now having a great time playing with different approaches to creating stitches in my crochet designs.

Of course one of the benefits of taking this class for me is a better understanding of both the visual differences in fabric, as well as the way left-handed crocheters compensate with their grip and movements in crochet. Since the majority of left-handed crocheters learn from right-handed folks, like myself, I’m hoping this will improve my skills in teaching them. As well as giving me a look into hand-health issues for left-handed crocheters.

In many ways Dee is contagious in her enthusiasm for Crochet, the CGOA and just life in general. We should all be so involved and alive. I strongly urge you, when the opportunity arises, take a class with Dee. It will be money well spent and will gift you with the opportunity to see your crochet (and possibly even life) from a Different Point of View.

Lovely Laceweight and Beautious Beads

July 22, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet Design, YarnLeave a Comment

My gorgeous yarn and beads from the Chain Link 2010 Market.

One of my favorite vendors to see again was Leslie Pope of Twisted Sistah Beads. She always has a beautiful array of beads in every color you can imagine. As well as the perfect sizes for using with yarns. I actually ended up making 3 visits to her booth. I bought beads all 3 times, but the third visit I also couldn’t resist these wonderful charms.

Those hands were too cool. Remind you of anything?

The rest of the charms I purchased for some fun gift making (I’m thinking about Christmas gift giving already).

I also made a search for some laceweight yarns as there is a sad lack of laceweight in my stash. Habu Textiles had so many beautiful ones to choose from. But the lovely colors of the Bamboo Lace finally won the place of honor.

Then I stopped into another booth to purchase a funny mug with goofy sheep on it, and spotted the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace. I decided the laceweight would pack down fairly tightly so purchased 2 balls. Of course once I got it home and read the label closer I did have a bit of a giggle.

No matter….I think I’ll get good results with crocheting it too.

A Life Full of Surprises

July 16, 2010January 25, 2012Creativity, Humor1 Comment

One of my favorite John Lennon songs is “Beautiful Boy.” I particularly like the line about “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”

Mamas2hands-OriginalLogoArt — Original Artwork for my 2Hands Logo

I have found that statement to be so true throughout my life. Just the other evening I was reading one of the forums in Ravelry and noticing the interesting images folks adopt for their Ravatars. I had originally thought that I would be changing my own Ravelry image every month or so, even if it only meant switching the background colors for my trademark hands logo.

But now my pinkish background represents “me” to so many folks. The crazy coloring frenzy I had one evening with a printout of my logo has become my brand.

This got me to thinking about the many times the direction I thought I was headed led me somewhere entirely (and often wonderfully) different. A prime example is this journey as a crochet designer and writer on healthy crafting.

When I sent a message to Laurie Wheeler of the Crochet Liberation Front about her shoulder injury in April of 2008, I had no idea that I had set the wheels in motion for my first article on healthy crafting that came out in the First Ever Crochet Liberation Front Book.

Then curiosity led me to take an online Crochetville class called Designing for Print Publication with Mary Beth Temple in March 2009 . I was pleasantly surprised when my “homework” proposal was accepted for publication by Crochet! Magazine.

This journey has unfolded with surprises at every turn.

Maybe the funniest surprise is how the whole thing began. It all started with cloth diapers. Yes, an unlikely beginning to the road of crochet professional.

I was cloth diapering my youngest son and a neighbor friend recommended a few useful internet sites for me to check out. I had spent very little time online before her recommendation. But suddenly I found interesting blogs to read and so many sites about cloth diapering, which led me to a yahoo group promoting wool soakers.

That group led me to Ravelry. In April 2008 I received my invitation to join Ravelry. Through Ravelry I discovered FreeForm Crochet, the CGOA, and I attended my first Knit and Crochet Show. I have taken numerous wonderful classes with talented teachers and expanded my crochet skills in directions I had never dreamed of. My passion for crochet has been re-ignited and I have officially joined the ranks of Crochet Designers.

This most recent Knit and Crochet Show (Chain Link) was the best ever. I sold more designs, and took fun and inspiring classes. Best of all, I reconnected with wonderful stitching friends that I have met over the past 2 years thru Ravelry and going to shows. My life as a solitary stitcher on a mountain is over, and I am forever grateful to Ravelry for making that possible.

Plarn Experiment #1

June 2, 2010Activism, Creativity, Crochet, How TosLeave a Comment

I had never heard of “Plarn” until I read Amy Swenson’s book “Not your Mama’s Crochet.” In it was a pattern for a hand bag made with plarn. I thought the idea was genius.

After all, the number of plastic bags that routinely take over my household pantry is ridiculous. And this is in a household that uses our own market bags for much of our shopping.

Our newspaper is delivered in green plastic bags most of the time. We reused them for various things, but I kept thinking that they are a great color for making Plarn.

I gathered a bunch together in my crocheting area, as I knew it takes quite a few to make a significant length of plarn. Unfortunately, before I could do anything with them, my husband and father-in-law cleaned out the recyclables and tossed my collection.

So I started collecting again. This time I made sure that all my family understood these were being saved for a purpose. I kept gathering them and placed them all safely in a container in my crafting room. Then life got a bit busy…our second child arrived, I found Ravelry, time kept marching forward.

A few months ago I joined the Laughing Purple Goldfish Group on Ravelry. Sharon Maher , who is Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs, is a wonderful and inspiring voice for designing and encouraging the use of “up-cycled” materials in our fiberwork. Each month she has been having challenges to get folks to look at non-traditional materials for crafting supplies.

The challenge for May was to create something using the “Ubiquitous Plastic Bag.” The demo project used a technique for fusing plastic bags (which I plan to try out sometime too), but I decided to finally experiment with Plarn. I went to my container of plastic bags and picked out a handful of bags to use.

Supplies — Cutting Plastic Bags for Plarn

To cut the loops I first slit the sealed bottom of each bag. Then I folded the bag in half, cut at the fold and repeated that until I had a bunch of one inch wide loops.

I then joined the loops together, by overlapping and pulling the bottom loop thru the top loop, then back under itself like so:

After awhile I had a decent sized ball of plarn and began crocheting a circle.

Plarn-ball-and-basket-botto — Beginning of Basket

The really fun thing about working on this project was that I could create more plarn as I needed by joining more loops onto the end of the working plarn.

Running-out-of-Plarn — Adding on more Plarn loops

I did find working with the thickness I had a bit difficult and wouldn’t consider plarn to be very hand friendly. A wooden crochet hook seemed to be the best tool for the job. My plastic and metal hooks both “stuck” too much to the plarn.

basket-w-hook — Finished Plarn part of Basket

I had in mind an idea of making an easter basket using the plarn and adding some scraps of yarn from my stash. I also added a flower.

I learnt a number of things working on this project. I didn’t like working over the knots where the loops joined. And, as the loops were short, there was a knot to deal with frequently. Next experiment I will try working with strips of plarn and possibly will cut them thinner too. I’m too enthralled with the idea to give up quite yet.

Three Things I Love

May 30, 2010May 31, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet Design, Health and Self Care3 Comments

I may not be the most knowledgable person on these three things, but I am passionately interested in all of them.

Crochet, Math, and Healthy Crafting

Everyday I am thrilled to discover there is more to learn and explore in each of these subjects. Very likely I will spend the rest of my life happily doing just that.

In the world of Crochet I am growing as a designer. Yet there are still stitches and techniques I’ve not mastered. In fact, there are many I haven’t even tried— Hairpin Lace comes quickly to mind.

That’s why I enjoy going to conferences like the Knit and Crochet Show in New Hampshire this July (AKA Chain Link). It is great fun taking classes and talking with other crocheters. I am so inspired by seeing the work of others and learning new techniques and approaches to crochet.

In the world of Math I am a dilettante. I haven’t any mathematical degrees or other honors attached to my name. I just love exploring math theory, especially quantum physics and applicable geometries. I am not a human calculator; in fact it is shameful that I often have to grab the calculator to do fairly simple equations.

Much of my passion for math and geometry has been revived by my work as a crochet designer. I use math for figuring yardage requirements, shaping and garment sizing almost every day. Geometry is also often a source of inspiration for me in creating designs. A prime example of this is my “Lace with a Twist” wrap, which is a mobius.

In the world of Healthy Crafting I love to discover ways to maintain the health of my hands and body and then to share that information with my fellow crafters and artists.

Ever since I took my basic anatomy and physiology classes in massage school I have been fascinated with how the human body functions and malfunctions. During my time in school I found myself thinking that someone needed to translate the technical information so that everyone could understand simple and effective ways to maximize personal health. I retired from massage therapy this Spring with the goal being to concentrate further on this mission.

My career as a massage therapist enforced the value of taking good care of my body and particularly my hands. My hands are still important tools in my work as without them typing and crocheting would be difficult. Working with yarn and at the computer can challenge the strength and endurance of anyone’s hands.

One could say that some of my expertise in healthy crafting has come about thru my own pain. I’ve frequently overworked my hands while crafting. Then halfway thru my pregnancy with my oldest child I started developing carpal tunnel symptoms. I had to modify my lifestyle fairly severely and that included advice from my doctor that I would have to stop crocheting.

I did take a sabbatical from my massage work, but there was no way I was giving up my crochet (!!). The solutions I came up with during that time are the foundation that I am building on now. Writing and teaching on these methods is a passion, because I know how much richer my life is having crochet in it…and I want to help other’s avoid losing crochet (or knitting) from their own lives.

I have been writing articles on healthy crafting for the online quarterly magazine “Crochet Uncut” for a year now, and hope to one day publish a book. You can find links to my articles here.

Tomorrow evening I will be talking with Mary Beth Temple on her Getting Loopy Podcast about Healthy Crafting, so come have a listen. If you miss the show you can always download it later.

Angels in My World

May 24, 2010Art Projects, Celebrating, Creativity1 Comment

I have been a member of the International Free Form Crochet Guild since Fall 2008. Each year they have a challenge to create a freeform piece based on a particular theme. This year’s challenge theme was ” Somewhere in my World.” I decided to enter a piece for the first time since joining the group.

Angels-in-my-World — Angels in my World - Finished Challenge Piece

It took me a while to decide how to approach the challenge. I only had three months to design and complete my entry and to send a photograph to the coordinator (the lovely and talented Myra Wood). So I knew I wanted to keep it small.

I thought about the theme for quite a while before being hit by inspiration. I have been blessed during the past 20 years of my life to be surrounded by amazing, supportive and inspiring women. Some are close friends, others are teachers and mentors. Some may have moved briefly thru my life, but all have left huge impressions in my world.

As I pondered the richness of having these women in my life I hit upon an idea. Angels! In fact I knew just the angel drawing I wanted to use. I didn’t want something too cutsie or twee.

I had been thinking about creating a mixed media piece utilizing FreeForm crochet for some time. I started gathering yarn and paper with an eye toward this challenge.

Angels-in-my-World-material — A Palette of Yarns and Paper

My starting place was a graphic I had drawn years ago for an abstract angel. I sketched and fiddled with the sizing until I had a size that I felt would work with the time constraints as well as the materials I had chosen. The finished Angel is slightly smaller than an 11″x14″ canvas.

I used a combination of paper and cardstock cut to the shapes I wanted. Then I crocheted fragments of various yarns and thread that were either worked into holes punched into the paper or sewn on. My color palette was taken from a lovely handspun yarn that another fiberartist traded me for my first hand carved wooden crochet hook. It is the multicolored yarn you see repeated thruout the final piece.

I plan to create a series of Angel pieces over the next few years using various mixed media, including fiberarts, painting, papermaking and wood work.

If you want to see more of the pieces in the show, you can visit the online gallery. International Free Form Guild Show – Somewhere in My World

Getting Closer

May 21, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, HumorLeave a Comment

I’ve been working on my office re-arrangements, but ran into a bit of a roadblock in the past two weeks when my whole family came down with a nasty cold virus. Mother’s Day weekend I finished moving and re-assembling the work counter from my friend and got most of the major pieces of furniture in place.

May20b — Computer Desk in it's new corner

Now I need to get my books sorted and back on the shelves, and bring over the many crochet books that are still in the house. They will now be living in my office.

It’s a daunting task to go though all my books. So I am chipping away at that project a bit each day. I may have to have a reading frenzy soon, as many of these titles are begging to be opened again. I’ve amassed a great reference library for much of my health-related interests, and I am well on the road to doing the same with my crochet/knitting books.

I still have more projects to complete for the office transformation: installing shelving over the work counter, installing 2 large bulletin boards for tracking schedules and projects, sorting and taking inventory of yarn and fabric, and finding new homes for the massage supplies that I don’t need to have on hand. And of course, some plants remain to be re-potted.

Yikes, I’m tired just thinking about it.

Crochet for Crochet’s Sake

March 24, 2010March 30, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment

March is National Crochet Month and I’ve been giving some thought to why I love crochet so much?

FreeFormNoroDoodleLace1 — FreeForm Doodle Lace

Is it the enjoyment of the action of crocheting itself? Or is the attraction having a lovely item to wear or use? Do I crochet for it’s own sake or to create an object? Basically it comes down to a question of Process or Product.

For me there is added to the concept of process the allure of designing. Much of my design work is process. Swatching and experimenting with various yarns, hook sizes and stitch patterns just to see what I get. I may have absolutely nothing in mind when I start this process, my only goal is exploration. Often times these experiments add to my knowledge, but that may be the only gain.

Does that make the process a waste of time? Personally I don’t view knowledge or entertainment as a waste, so for me the process stage of design work is very rewarding. As I like to tell my students in the various art and craft classes I’ve taught, “There is no such thing as Failure, there is only Discovery.”

The process of crocheting is one that I have always enjoyed as well.

My return to Crochet as my main hobby came about 12 years ago when I hurt my ankle and was forced to spend a great deal of time off my feet. I found crocheting and it’s rhythm to be very soothing.

I was also re-intrigued with the idea of “weaving” with a hook, using a single tool to create fabrics in a variety of dimensions and shaping. All these years later that fascination is still fresh for me. To suspend expectation and just revel in what comes off my hook.

Taking your Yarn for a Walk Fragments — FreeForm fragments from Jenny's Class

Maybe this is one of the reason’s I love to play with FreeForm crochet. Gathering up a variety of harmonious colored yarns of various textures and weights and then creating “fragments or scrumbles” is very relaxing to me.

Often I am asked what I am making, or what will those become. Most of the time I have no idea. Seems I may be deeply entrenched in the process side of crochet. Eventually I do make a product with my hours of stitching, but the joy in the process is why I continue to crochet.

If you are curious about FreeForm crochet and have never tried it there is a great CAL/Game going on in the NatCroMo Party group on Ravelry. It’s not too late to give it a try, and it’s a wonderful introduction to freeforming.

Or check out some of the beautiful and inspiring books out there. I recommend, Jenny Dowde, Myra Wood, Prudence Mapstone and Renate Kirkpatrick as great authors to start with.

The Novelty of it All

March 12, 2010March 13, 2010Celebrating, Creativity, Humor2 Comments

It is the outcast. The “red-headed stepchild” of the yarn and fiber world. But I love it. You know what I’m talking about…Novelty Yarn.

There is Fun Fur and Sparklies and combinations of both. There is Ribbon and Boucle’ and Pom-poms. I revel in it all. I have a supply of novelty yarns that is bordering on the ridiculous in my stash, and I am completely unapologetic about it (I actually don’t have any Pom-Pom yarn…may have to correct that next shopping spree).

Sadly, some of my recent most favorite novelty yarns are now discontinued. Occasionally I find them on sale somewhere languishing un-loved and under appreciated in a sales bin. A few of them always seem to find their way home with me.

Some of them can be a bit tricky to crochet with. But I love the special effects that can be quickly added to a project by using some novelty yarn.

After all, one needs Novelty yarn to create a Pocket Monster…..

Or the fuzzy fringe for a Felted Fiery Bowl….

Or adding sparkle to a Free Form Lace Shrug….

According to a friend of mine that went to the January TNNA show there was talk that novelty yarn is making a comeback.

Be still my heart!

How do you get Ideas?

January 23, 2010January 23, 2010Creativity, Crochet, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment

This is the first question many of my crochet and knitting pals ask when they find out that I’m a designer. Funny thing is…ideas are rarely the problem for me. Just looking at yarn and hooks in my stash or flipping thru stitch dictionaries can start up my creative engine.

Inspiration of Ideas — Some of my Inspiration

But–keeping the focus to make those ideas grow into designs is a whole nuther story for me.

In fact, I’m currently working on finishing the sample and pattern for a design I have already sold, while constantly fighting the distraction of new ideas. For me, handling the material is often the medium for growing new ideas (sort of my own version of a petri dish).

Back when I was doing lots of art work with polymer clay, I’d approach the studio with dread, thinking I had no ideas to work up. Then I would start conditioning some clay. Just running it thru the pasta machine and mooshing it around with my fingers would often start an avalanche of creativity that lasted for hours.

The same goes for yarn inspiration. Simply working with the yarn is almost guaranteed to get my strange geeky brain throwing off all kinds of sparks.

Fortunately I do have some self-control these days, although I do have to grab one of my sketch pads and jot down some quick notes before promising myself I can revisit them as soon as I finish what I am supposed to be doing!

Now if I could just come up with such will-power regarding chocolate….