Everything but the Kitchen Sink…

The hound of the holidays is already nipping at my heels.  You’re probably familiar with this…the voice that says, “You gotta get ready! Start buying! Start making! Start preparing!”  And as November flies by, the voice gets louder and louder, especially if I haven’t paid much attention to the hounding voice.  Every year I say, I’m going to start earlier!  Every year I say, I’m going to simplify!  And every year it ends up feeling like a mad dash to the finish line!  Yet every year, in the midst of the dashing, there are moments of sweetness: baking with my children, enjoying family and friends, and of course, creating gifts for certain people on the list.

Much of the time, when I set about to make a few gifts, this is how things go:

I look around me at what I have.  Paper, paints, yarn galore, fabric, buttons, etc.  And that sets my mind to wonder, “What can I make from all this?”

Last year, I kept peering into a huge stash of leftover yarns.  There they were…the “castoffs”, left over from other yarn projects, or the single ball of yarn that caught my eye on a sale table, or yarns that had been given to me from others who no longer wanted to store their stash.  I SO wanted to USE it!  Not give it away or throw it away.  Hmmm…

So I began putting colors together and came up with this wonderful bag that uses every color in the rainbow.  Genevieve is sporting the large one I’ve kept for myself.  You can see more photos of this one here.  I made them in all different sizes, with whatever yarns I had on hand.  The photo to the left is a small one, also made with multiple leftovers, though the bag can be made with just one yarn.  I line them all with fabric, to give the bag a finished look and to keep it from stretching too much. And of course, a hand-painted card completes the gift!

I’ve created a pattern that allows you to make ANY size bag you’d like.  My hope is that you’ll enjoy getting miles of fun out of just ONE pattern!  So many options, so many to make and give for friends and family members.  I’d love for you to share them with me, if you make one or more!

My next post will share with you another idea for using up what you have.  Repurposing what was once used for something else is a fantastic way to ward off the hound of the holidays!  I’d also love to hear how YOU deal with that ole hound!

Genevieve and her Dreamy Poncho

Meet Genevieve! My trusty dress form who allows me to drape all kinds of apparel, both in progress and finished, over her shoulders, around her neck and waist. She doesn’t seem to mind. She was a birthday gift a few years ago from my husband. My mom asked if she was the grownup version of the dolls I made and played with for years as a child. Yep! Here she’s dressed in Dreamy Poncho, a design of my own. If you knit, you can find the pattern here in my new online pattern shop. This knitted poncho is so much fun because of all the color choices you can make. Picking and combining skeins of yarn is, for me, the most exciting part of beginning a new yarn project. For some, it may seem a bit daunting. But never fear! For those who are skittish when it comes to choosing yarn colors and textures, I have a free article for you to download. The poncho can be worn a couple of ways, and knitted with or without the collar.

Recently, Genevieve has been alternating between wearing a knitted shrug and a knitted wrap…two designs I plan to have out in the next week or so. She has also enjoyed getting outside in the beautiful fall weather and enjoying being amongst the lovely colors, which I fear may not be around too much longer. I’m glad we have yarn and paint to continue the color feast, even in the months of evergreens and bare trees.

Cupcake Mania!

The first cupcake design I created was for a gift…to be given to a dear friend on her birthday last spring.  This friend is now my trusty pattern tester and all-around huge-help in the creating of my new online pattern shop.  Ellen is a fantastic person, knitter, crocheter, lawyer, baker, friend, and wife to Steve.  At the time I gave her this cupcake, I had no idea that the other gals in my crochet workshop at LYS, Knit One Smock Too, would like it so much.  Due to their encouragement, I typed up the crochet pattern and taught them the ins and outs of making one of these fun cupcakes.

I had seen other cupcakes around…knitted ones, crocheted ones, but had not seen one with a candle, nor using multiple yarns for icing.  I spent a whole week making one cupcake after the other using all different textures and colors of yarns for the icing.  I loved making different sizes and coordinating the candle with the rest of the cupcake!  The knitted candle worked out perfectly, but my pattern also offers a crocheted version for those who want to crochet it. I’ve now given a cupcake to numerous friends on their birthdays and to a few children.  The adults seem to like it as well as the kids do, so it really doesn’t matter what age we are–we all love to be celebrated!

The most happy part about being an artist/crafter is GIVING.  It is so gratifying to give something one has made.  Every stitch, or stroke of the brush, has bound up in it a good measure of thoughts and wishes for the recipient. Affection, friendship, and kindness (lofty and ethereal concepts) get translated into something concrete and tangible.  That’s what it’s all about: letting someone know we think of them and celebrate them!

 

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Blastoff!  It’s actually out there!  Flying around in cyberspace and hopefully finding its way to yarn lovers everywhere!   I’ll be blogging (and drawing) about the designs and letting you know when new ones get added to the shop.  The following is taken from My Fiber Filosophy found on the pattern site.  I hope you all enjoy!

Elizabeth, Julia, and Ratatouille

“Be the boss of your knitting” rings loud and clear in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s writings.  I first heard of her a few years ago and felt an immediate connection as she wrote about being freed from the confines of a knitting problem or pattern.  As a child, I had actually seen this motto in action as my mom taught me to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, etc.  Mom readily veered from a pattern if it wasn’t in keeping with her vision of how it should turn out and she passed on to me the same attitude.  As an adult, I have taken Elizabeth Zimmerman’s words to heart in all areas of creativity, including painting and drawing, which was another strong passion of Elizabeth’s.  I pass on this motto to others when I teach, explaining multiple approaches to getting a desired result. This allows the individual to choose what works best for him/her.  The more you know about the creative pursuit at hand, the more easily you can make decisions “outside the box”.  There are even times when one has exhausted all known options, and he/she comes up with something completely different that satisfies the ultimate goal.  Knowing technical things such as how/when to convert a pattern to another gauge yarn, whether to tie knots or not, how to think about color and value, and understanding the concept behind a pattern helps you unravel the answer to a problem much better than blindly following the steps of a pattern.  Blindly following patterns can sometimes lead you down a dark, frustrating path…one that makes me want to rip up my knitting and toss it out the window.  I want to avoid that at all costs!!

Which leads me to Julia Child, the famous gourmande, teacher, and cookbook writer par excellence.  In her book, My Life in France, she comments, “I had come to cooking late in life, and knew from firsthand experience how frustrating it could be to try to learn from badly written recipes.  I was determined that our cookbook would be clear and informative and accurate, just as our teaching strove to be (pg. 144)…Our objective was to reduce the seemingly complex rules of French cooking to their logical sequences…it is not enough that the ‘how’ [of making hollandaise or mayonnaise] be explained.  One should know the ‘why’, the pitfalls, the remedies, the keeping, the serving, etc.” (pg. 150)  Having rediscovered my love for knitting and crocheting later in life, I too am frustrated with the amazing amount of patterns that so blandly, and incorrectly, lead us in our creative endeavors.  There are so many places for error to occur in the writing of a pattern: the designer’s notation, the editor’s interpretation and revision, the typing, and even in the mind of the one knitting or crocheting as she tries to decipher the greek looking words on the page in front of her.  I am setting out to make a pattern which will hopefully lead you to a happy conclusion with a finished, lovely item in your hands that you can be proud of.  I am certainly not beyond error!!  But I’m aiming to bring you patterns that will walk you through the process of making something, and show you where the dangers are and ways to avoid them or fix them.

Chef Gusteau, another gourmand, resounds his famous motto “Anyone can Cook!” in the delightful movie Ratatouille.  To this I heartily say Yes!  Anyone can Knit, Crochet, Paint, Draw, etc!!  Of course it does take patience, determination, and passion.  Actually, if passion exists in good measure, it will be the fuel for determination and patience.  We all need encouragement, the right tools, AND guides…both in person and on paper.  My hope is that you will find my patterns a helpful guide down a sunny path of beauty, enjoyment, and accomplishment.

Here’s to all my yarn friends…both those I know already AND those I have yet to meet:)

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Getting ready for take-off…

Best Time of Day

Early morning has always been my best time for creativity and thinking.  The only problem is that sometimes the creativity and thinking wakes me up…and too early!  But honestly, it is the best time of day for me.  No one is awake, the house has that dreamy glow to it, the smell of coffee is wafting about, I can hear the clock on the mantel ticking…   And somehow in the deliciousness of this oasis in my day, I receive creative direction, help for my soul, thoughts to carry with me throughout my day.  My written journal has on every page, a continuous line drawing.  It’s part of how my brain wakes up…to trace the contours of some part of the room I’m sitting in.  It feels like something I need to do:  to somehow follow the edges of things that surround me, to let my brain and hand wander around the page, stopping here, stopping there to notice the edges, the curves, the directions.  I’m aware that I need this in the rest of my life as well…places where I’m not in accomplish-mode, but just meandering, following the creative line here, there, just being, smelling the coffee, listening to my 7-year old rambling and relishing in her particular way of expressing herself, slowing down to hear the sounds of other parts of my day, exploring a topic or idea just for it’s own sake and not because it is on my to-do list.  This is what I’m hoping for today.  The terrible thing is that I can even make THAT one of the things on my list, just another item to “accomplish”.  It’s good to recognize this tendency in me.  Yet it is also good to be purposeful in my fight against constant “productivity”.  So, today, in the slowness of the morning, I’ll throttle down, ease into a rhythm that I’ll endeavor to make last for as long as possible.

Are We Ready?

Well, no, not quite yet…but it feels like it’s just around the corner.  I’ve set a floating goal of next Monday for the launch of my new knit & crochet pattern website…but “floating” is the operative word here!  I know that things always come up either in life or in the project itself, but whichever way it works out…it’s very exciting!  I can’t wait to share these patterns and projects with you!  I’m starting off with a handful of patterns to get going, to get the word out there, and then add new patterns every week.  Stay tuned…I’ll let you know when it takes off:)

A Swirl of Ideas…

Yep, this is me…hunched over, knitting (or crocheting) to beat the band…trying to work out a new idea, finish up  proofing a pattern, or write out in longhand what I’ve just made.  It’s all very fun, but isn’t very cohesive.  I’ve just not been able to work at my projects for any length of time lately.    My days and weeks are so chopped up with a plethora of wonderful things, but still interruptive to the excitement of getting my online pattern shop up and running.  I have two great friends who are helping me with this endeavor–one is testing the patterns and the other creating the website, so it feels like a group effort, and makes it so much more fun!  So many thanks and hugs to Ellen and Amy for all they have done to see this little dream of mine come to life.  It will be soon, I hope, very soon.

Part of the problem is that once I said “yes” to this direction, to offering my designs in pattern form online, the floodgate of ideas has swung wide open and is pouring them into my brain at an alarming rate.  A problem? you say?  Well, yes!  I’ve got dozens of patterns already waiting to be typed up, I don’t need to add any new ones to the queue.  So what I’m doing is using a sketchbook as a sort of “pensieve” (to use a Harry Potter term).  I draw, sketch, write about the whole idea as given to me, and leave it there for a day when I can get to it.  It is certainly better than NOT writing anything down, since I might forget it, lose it altogether.  This way, I have the kernel of what I need to bring the idea to life in the near future.  Sure is fun!  Then I can go about the task of pattern writing (which I’m actually having fun with…writing them MY way) with a lessened need to get these new ideas out THIS MINUTE.  That’s what they tell me, you know.  “You must make me NOW!”  Well, a couple of them, I’ve actually given in and made them…can’t wait to share them with you, but many of them go in the “pensieve” and will just have to wait.  Well, I’m off to catch some much needed sleep.  After which I shall wake up with the ideas pouring in…good grief!

Imagined-scapes

I paint a lot of these…I do not know why.  They are imagined.  Perhaps they at least hearken to places I’ve been…maybe Bass Lake or Salem Lake, or the New River.  They are not planned.  In some ways these little paintings are a series of responses to the previous colors that are laid down.  I’m simply enjoying the properties of watercolor and allowing it to “suggest” trees, water, space.  I have had art teachers who say paintings must be planned, carefully composed, worked at over a long period of time, not just dashed off.  While I see the need for this in certain types of art, I do not think it should limit us to “only” making paintings that have been subjected to all the “do’s and don’ts” of academic art.  There is value in making art that is less cerebral, less calculated, and freed from restrictions.  It’s value may only lie in the process and thus enjoyed only by the artist.  Yet it is still of worth and perhaps a viewer or two will find it beautiful as well.

Necessity Breeds Creativity…

I’ve been thinking a lot about this phrase lately…it has certainly been true in my life on numerous occasions that where there was a need, creativity sprung to life.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to give a gift, for which purchasing one was not an option, and upon reflection of my resources at hand (yarn stash, paper, pens, watercolors, etc) I’ve been able to give a gift that I enjoyed making and was unique.  Hand made and painted cards, crocheted baby booties, knitted washcloths, felted purses for little girls, etc. etc.)  I’ve even discovered new areas of creativity due to necessity.  Years ago, when my oldest daughter was turning three and I was planning a simple at-home birthday party for her and some friends, I decided to make, instead of purchase, what I would need for a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game.  Being an all-things-Pooh party, I looked at a picture of Eeyore and drew him on a large piece of posterboard then drew a tail separately and cut it out.  My husband, upon seeing the drawing of Eeyore, said, “Jen, you can really draw…you should do more of it.”  It was the first time I ever thought I might be able to draw or paint.  Necessity indeed breeds creativity.  However, I’ve also experienced another reality…

Necessity Chokes Creativity.  There are so  many times when it seems too hard to muster the desire and motivation to engage in creative endeavors when there are SO many things clamoring for our attention.  We tend to relegate creativity to the “unnecessary” and therefore do all the “necessary” things (or those WE THINK are necessary) first, and IF there is any time leftover, then we will paint, knit, draw, crochet, or whatever your creative penchant may be.  I really do try to fight this.  It requires first a shift in my thinking.  Creativity and Necessity are not at odds with each other…they are not even separate things.  To this I propose another phrase we would do well to consider:

Creativity IS a Necessity.  It is an amazing (yet difficult) thing to push all urgent, or seemingly urgent things aside and sit at your easel, drawing board, or chair beside the basket of yarn.  To simply say yes, to being creative, holds incredible value and benefits for us.  I regularly prove this true when after I’ve been knitting or painting, I find I have a greater sense of ease about the clamoring to-do list, as well as more energy to engage with those things and with the people in my life.  It does not mean that I will accomplish all those things on the almighty to-do list, but I will somehow be ok with that if I have spent some time absorbed in making beauty, rather than in managing my life.

It is also my opinion that we need each other in this.  We need to encourage each other to Press On!  Create On!  Make something to give, draw a simple sketch of your world, embark on a lengthier creative project and stick with it.  You need it for your well being, for your family, for your spouse, friends, even for your work-a-day job whatever that may be.  Creativity is certainly bred by necessity…that’s a wonderful thing.  Necessity can threaten to choke out creativity so easily.  Watch out for that.  And remember: creativity is needful, necessary to living, much like food is necessary…it gives energy, strength, fortitude and nutrients to benefit you in all areas of your life.  Create On!