Inspirations – The Sick Chick's Constantly Crafty

11 Crafty Things to Try in 2011

I don’t really do resolutions. But I’m always looking to learn more, expand my skills and even add to my growing repertoire of crafts!

11 Crafty Things I want to try (in no order):

Finger Weaving
Tunisian Crochet
Locker & Rug Hooking
Free-motion stitching (by machine)
Creating patterns in crochet
Metal etching
Garment sewing
Digital scrapbooking
Nuno Felting
Fabric-based art journalling
Actually keeping a proper craft blog for a change, with regular updates! 🙂

What do you want to try out or learn in 2011?

Create @ Late

Alas, in this case I don’t have many pictures. I took video last night but I have yet to edit it and that’s pretty far down the priority list at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry!

Last night, the Museum of London had its monthly late night opening (link may rot) but for this occasion it had a crafty theme. There were booths of people making felt mustaches, animals out of pipe cleaners and wool, a diorama of London with plasticine sculptures, a sign language music video about London and in the other room the booths of knitting, crocheting and spinning. You can guess what room I was in!

First I met up with my acquaintance, the lovely Claire from PurlPirate, who was teaching hyperbolic crochet which makes a coral-ish sort of shape. She gave me several pointers about the second row issue (using a larger hook to cast on, not trying to get “under the v” when stitching into the chain, etc.) so I hope that I will be able to improve when I try it again next week. She also had quite a crowd of people trying out the hyperbolic forms, including many totally new to crocheting. Go Claire! She was also teaching people how to crochet with plastic bags and gave an excellent demo on how to cut them up into jag-less strips.

Next I met Rachael Matthews and Louise of Prick Your Finger (their blog), a yarn and fiber shop that I am sad to say that I have not yet made it to. Especially since they are involved in the Walking Stick Cozy competition with Missability (run by Felix). (As an aside, I am sad that I have not yet been able to make a cozy for any of my walking sticks, I think I need the Knifty Knitter Bloom Loom for that to get the right sized tube and shall get one this summer but alas, too late for the competition which ended yesterday.) Bethnal Green is geographically closer to me than Waterloo (home of I Knit) but it’s harder for me to get to due to the weird nature of the London bus system, and that’s why I have yet to go to Prick Your Finger. 🙁 They were demo’ing spinning and had drop spindles available to play with and a big bag of what I think is Black Welsh Mountain fiber.

I sat there forever and made this bundle of yarn:

Not bad for my third time on a drop spindle, but all the credit goes to the fiber, which was sooo easy to spin and wanted to be spun so fine it was almost scary. Just in case it was the spindle rather than the fiber I tried a bit of my signature flouro pink roving but it came out crap as always. The moral of the story is that I am not very good with roving but am much better with carded batts, so I need to card my fiber! I have handcarders but man, I covet a drum carder now.

Black Welsh Mountain is a mountain fiber so it’s very scratchy. I don’t know that I would use this sort of yarn for much of anything but it was heavenly to spin so I shall endeavor to get to PYF before I leave for the summer to get some more to play with!

Finally, I went to meet some of the lovely ladies of Stitch and Bitch London. I’d only just signed up for their newsletter about three days ago so I haven’t had a chance to attend their events yet (I couldn’t do their sewing up event on the 30th as I had to rest up to go out on the 1st). But it was very nice to meet people and show off the world of loomknitting. Photos of me will probably be appearing on their blog in the near future.

I didn’t really have anything to do with the other crafty things,which seemed either aimed at kids or designed for people who aren’t usually crafty to dip their toe into the waters and have a little fun. I have nothing against that, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Still, it was a very fun evening and many thanks to all of the lovely ladies I met who made it such a great experience!

A very special Sick Chick who Crafts

Marian is six years old and has been blogging for over a year now (by dictating to her mum, Valerie). From what I’ve seen she so very enthusiastic about crafting which is so great to see in a girl her age.

But there’s something potentially getting in the way of her crafting this year: her bone marrow transplant. Because of the way this transplant will work, she will undergo chemotherapy in March and then go into the hospital for her transplant surgery. Her older sister is her donor, a perfect match, but that’s still a painful operation for both little girls 🙁 Anyway, after her transplant, Marian’s immune system will be so fragile that she will only be able to use brand-new craft supplies that can be easily cleaned. She will be in hospital for a long time until she is recovered enough to be able to take her new immune system out into the world so will need a lot of supplies!

Not taking this lying down, she’s raising money through the sales of craft kits and other artwork to fund her supplies with leftover money going to a charity called Caitlyn’s Smiles which provides craft kids for children in hospitals. The kits and things are for sale through her mom’s Etsy shop, Purple Petunia which is due to be restocked today.

I don’t know what else can be done for this amazing crafty family, but I’m going to try whatever they ask 🙂 I’ve written to get a t shirt (which features a drawing Marian did of a pop singer with the caption “Project Superstar” which is the codename for the fund raising and Marian-cheering efforts) but I don’t know if they are sold out already. If I get one though I shall take a photo of me in it in front of major landmarks in London and Paris and email them periodically while Marian is recovering.

So I encourage everyone to go over to the blog and post comments, to go to the shop and buy some of the snowglobe necklace kits made by the girls, and to watch this space as I’ll post if I hear of any other ways to help. Let’s do what we can to keep this sick chick crafting! 🙂

Thing-a-day and Things that must come before

I’m going to be brave and sign up for Thing-A-Day 2 — a group project to create one brand new thing every day in the month of February. Those 29 things (remember, it’s a leap year!) can be in any creative art, including culinary, and you’re asked to spend 30 minutes per day devoted to your projects. I am probably going to do some loom knit samplers (which I usually do as dishcloths), lots of beading (I foresee many earrings, but that’s what my mom wants anyway), some ATCs or at least backgrounds for ATCs (which will involve painting) and a few cooking projects. Maybe some needle felting or stamping or even the felted soaps I have planned. T-a-D ask for a theme for each week but I don’t know that I will do that, more likely I will do one type of project and cook things on weekends.

Before I can do this, I need to: 1) Organize my craft supplies. This is mostly done, but I need to get everything in one place. 2) Find a place to leave my crafting supplies out overnight. Not sure about this, but I know that packing things up and pulling them out again every time is a big hindrance to my crafting. Hefting boxes and bags is the most difficult step for me! 3) Find a way to photograph finished objects that does not rely on sunlight, since in England we won’t have much sun at all in February. I really have no idea how I will manage this, so I’m going to rely on t to set something up. A white box of sorts that we can shine lights onto would be the ideal, but I don’t know if I can acquire one at a reasonable price in time.

I encourage every crafty person reading this to at least consider joining Thing-A-Day this year. If you do decide to take the plunge, please let me know! (Perhaps by email until the comment-eating spam filter gets fixed here :/)

Newcastle: Thanks to PurlPower!

On my quest to read more blogs of chronically ill women who craft, I found the delightful PurlPower blog by a woman who lives in the North of England (but luckily going to spend several months in Spain this year). She’s recently had to stop working, at least for now, due to fibromyalgia. I know how much that sucks :/ (For the record it’s been six years since I was able to work even part time…)

Since I’m going to be in Newcastle over the holidays, and was wanting to go to yarn shops while there, I asked if she could recommend a few. She kindly posted a huge list! I’m not sure how much time we will have to go out, but I am really looking forward to checking some of these places out 🙂 Thanks again!!

On an amusing note, my husband is originally from Newcastle, Australia and his mother thinks it’s great that we will be in Newcastle for Christmas while the rest of his family is in the other Newcastle.

Inspiration Point

Part One of Blogs I Love:

Saying that you admire the Yarn Harlot is like saying that Macs are the prettiest computers: pretty much everyone will say the same, even if they might not want to admit it. Indeed, I stayed away from her blog from a while because I thought it was *too* trendy. But you have to admire Stephanie Pearl-McGee as a philosopher and quintessential blogger. She writes not only about knitting (which she does very well), but about life in general with three teenagers and too many things to knit before Christmas! This is a general blog about the crafting life and I think a lot of people also read to see how she has managed to turn her craft writing into a full time business.

What blows my mind is the TECHKnitting blog. This blog goes deep into the knitty-gritty of knitting problems, exposing all of the little tips and tricks that make a knitted piece look better and/or more professional. I don’t know much about needle knitting, but I know enough to understand just how entirely over my head this blog is and yet I read it because I’m sure it will be very useful someday. So much about the physics of knitting doesn’t change whether you loom or use needles. Plus I am astounded at how thorough and well-written the posts are, and illustrated too! TECHKnitter inspires me to keep learning!

Finally for today, someone who inspires me on a more personal level. Lene Andersen of The Seated View is a long time knitter *and* lifetime survivor of chronic pain and chronic illness. She’s the sort of person who I hope to be if I ever grow up 🙂 She’s warm and funny while also being introspective and, like her friend the Yarn Harlot, very insightful into issues of daily life. I can’t say what it is about her blog that pushes me the most, it is probably just knowing that she deals with a lot of the same things I deal with and still manages to create such wonderful stuff (both in terms of craft and writing and her photography).

I suspect that writing about all of the blogs that I really enjoy will take weeks, and I feel that I am being a little bit skimpy on the descriptions of these, but my hands are hurting a lot today so I can’t really manage any more at this time.