Looking forward

Today is the final day of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. We’ve been asked to look forward to next year’s event, to where we or our craft might be in a year’s time. I’ve enjoyed taking part, and a huge thanks must go to the lovely Eskimimi for hosting. I hope to make more of it next year when I’m no longer brand-new to blogging!

Since I’ve only been crocheting for a year and knitting for a few months, I still have lots to learn and I expect to find myself in a much more proficient place next year. I’m determined to be more organised and I’m going to write a list of the projects I’d like to achieve by the end of 2013, together with an ongoing to do list taking me to next year’s blog week.

It’s difficult to imagine the shape of my crafting time by April 2014. I will have a very active one-year old by then and her older sibling at school. Right now she’s learning to crawl and pull herself up, and today showed an unhealthy interest in me using my seam ripper to unpick the pocket from the tail end of a Hopp Paris wrap that I plan to turn into a pod/podaegi. Who knows what she’ll be up to as a one-year old …

Here’s a start to my list for the rest of 2013:

1. Complete my current WIP: insomniacal granny unstripe blanket (for a baby due in June)
2. Wrap-pod conversion
3. Milo or Puerperium for baby small
4. Knitted monkey for baby small’s 1st birthday (September)
5. Several crocheted items from Kat Goldin’s Crochet at Play which arrived this week
6. Craft Fairy items for the Natural Mamas gift swap
7. Knitted item for me going into autumn/winter

I’d better get cracking then …

A tool to covet

The penultimate prompt of this week’s annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is to write about a tool connected with our craft. Without a doubt, the single most useful tool I own is my iPad. Although it is not necessary to do the craft, it makes everything much easier and therefore pleasurable and I would not be writing this now (in bed, next to a sleeping babe) if I did not have it.

I don’t have time to sit down at a desktop computer, but I can move my iPad from room to room. I can search for patterns on Ravelry while cooking dinner (sometimes with sleeping baby small slung on my back), printing them off to collect later. I can shop for yarn online (with the downside of not being able to feel it in my hand before buying, and having to wait for it to be delivered).

It enables me to connect with like-minded mums and crafters. I spend a lot of time (too much time) on the Natural Mamas forum, where there is an inspiringly active crafts section. Although I’m new to blogging, I can read posts from my fellow crafters. I’ve even had one-to-one photo tutorials with a more experienced crafter when I first started crocheting. I took photos of my wool and hook, posted them via PM on FB, asking, ‘Is this right? What do I do next?’ and got real-time feedback. Just brilliant!

The disadvantage is that the Internet can be an incredibly distracting place. I have a job in mind to do on the iPad, switch it on and there are always notifications that I seemingly can’t ignore before eventually coming back to my original task. But it’s only by butterflying in this way that I come across things I would never normally find, small treasures on Etsy, a new pattern to favourite, a photo of someone’s beautiful work to aspire to … the only problem is that my iPad is popular with the rest of the family, so sometimes I have to fight for it. Bring it on!

Colour review part 1

Well, I’m 24 hours late with this entry for day 4 of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Day 1 was my first ever blog post, and on that day I created my blog from scratch; it took all day and I’ve been playing catch-up with other jobs ever since.

Day 4’s prompt is to conduct a colour review of my yarn stash. When I think of yarn colours, unless it it destined for baby small, I generally think of it for me: would I like to wear the colours, what kind of textures would those colours suit, would I be happy wearing it next to my face (a scarf or hat) or is it a colour that works better further way from my skin tone?

My other interest is babywearing and slings. One of my favourite ever colourways is Didymos Iris, a happy combination of blue and green loveliness that always brings a smile to my face. Long after I’ve stopped carrying my children I know I’ll have a piece of Iris somewhere, either as a scarf or cushion cover. I even had a hair braid with that combination of colours, which only came out as I looked down when baby small was only a few weeks old to find that she had the turquoise end-bead in her mouth, and it simply wasn’t worth the risk.

I’ve tried a lot of woven wraps over several years, and I’m gradually refining that particular stash to a combination of colours that work with my wardrobe, and I can see my yarn stash heading that way too. I wear a lot of pinks/burgundies/purples together and petrol/blues/sea greens together. I prefer a combination of similar shades in one outfit rather than complementary colours. I’m drawn to these combinations in yarn too.

As it’s dark now, I’ll be back tomorrow with a peep into the actual stash, to see how much ties in with these themes, and hopefully day 5’s task.

Infographical nonsense

Day 3 of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week asks us to present an infographic, a combination of text and images. Real life reared its head today, from the numerous poosplosions and outfit changes of my youngest, delaying the school run and subsequent naps, to generally throwing the whole day out of whack. I thought I’d have chance to create something after my eldest was back from school, but no such luck. An unexpected family matter also hit Corduroy Towers this evening, so I am finally curled up with small babe asleep in bed, quietly tapping at the iPad. Thank goodness for small tech these days; smuggling my old G4 desktop under the duvet would have been a difficult proposition.

So here’s my day, brought to you by some nifty little new-to-me apps which I’ll enjoy getting to know better over time (Skitch, Krop Circle and Bamboo Paper):

My actual crafting time is disappointingly small and consisted of adding a few rows to my crochet WIP (more on that in a future post, but there’s a clue behind the pie), picked up and put down around baby small. You might think that all the time spent BFing her would have been quality crafting time, but since she turned into a 7 month old bundle of wriggles who loves nothing more than to ‘help’ that’s not always an option.

At least I managed to post in time (GMT anyway). Now for some sleep.

A monkey mascot

For day 2 of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2013, we have been asked to think of a mascot for our chosen house, in my case monkey, representing a crafter who enjoys the challenge of learning new skills. I’m still a relative novice, particularly when it comes to knitting, so there’s lots for me to learn, and most of it is a challenge!

A quick search on the lovely Ravelry brings up hundreds of crocheted and knitted monkeys. So I could make a monkey hat complete with ears to wear while I craft, or crochet a quick coffee cup monkey jacket to keep my beverage hot while I click away with the needles. But I have made several hats, mostly for my daughter who I began crafting for in the first place (baby hats are a great way to learn crochet), and I am not a tea or coffee drinker. With two little people in the house, one with a birthday in September, I will choose the more challenging of the two crafts and knit my daughter a monkey, aiming to finish it for her first birthday.

I came across the marvellous Odd Sox page recently. These are critters with attitude that remind me of something lurking out of the corner of my eye in a Tim Burton film. Not the first thing you’d think of when creating a toy for your child’s first birthday, but I’d much rather create something like this than a typical pink frilly doll.

So my chosen mascot will be Jerry. He has just about the right combination of monkey cheekiness and Odd Sox attitude. And he has plenty of new challenges for me. Although I use circular needles, I have only ever knitted flat, so knitting in the round using magic loop will be new to me, as will a three-needle bind off, whatever that is …

Who am I? Manatee or Monkey?

I am chasing corduroy. It’s a surfing term describing a series of swells in the ocean, organised as clear lines approaching the shore. I’m not a surfer and live about as far away from the sea as it’s possible to get in England. I’m on a countdown to ‘real’ life and returning to work, but while my children are still young, I’m enjoying life at home with my little people and learning to knit and crochet as I go along. While the real world awaits, slowly making its way towards me on the shore, I am chasing corduroy. Today is day 1 of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. My chosen house is monkey. I’ve been crocheting for about a year, knitting for a few months and like to learn a new skill or stitch with each project. I’m hopelessly goal oriented, so can’t practise stitches for the sake of it; I have to be making something, like learning increases and decreases in this beautiful Shizuku drop pattern scarf using colourful yarn from Lamington Lass. I’m looking forward to the rest of KCBW and learning how to make the most of blogging too! Thanks for reading! Sara x