Here is what I have been up to crafting wise the past couple of weeks.
Finished a Sweater!
This was started at the time of my last post but I officially finished it. It is big and bulky and so warm. I used a back stitch to account for the gap in the sleeve construction and the seam came out pretty smooth. These pictures were created post blocking and once blocked the sleeve join smoothed out as well.
Stamp Carving
First attempt at hand carved stamps. My wand looks kind of like a weird cactus and i cleaned up some of the extra lines. Over all, I like the way these turned out and will be playing with this process some more.
Temperature Snake CAL Prep
The short version on temperature projects is that you take the high or low temperature of each day and crochet on row per day. You break the temperatures into ranges add each range is a different color.
I joined a temperature snake crochet along (CAL) hosted by Planet June. This is the planning part and I am waiting for yarn to arrive. I am super excited to see how these snakes turn out. It is such a cool take on the temperature crochet project.
Weekly Water Color Washes
I’ve been playing with water color washed for the background of my weekly planning and notes and everything else page. The first two were last week and the last on one is this week.
I have been working on several things the past couple of weeks and thought I’d put a compilation here.
Some were classes or meet ups through the Making app. I participate in paper making meet up and a water color class.
I always have some crochet project going and found this amazing Scarfie yarn from Lion Brand and had to turn it into a sweater. It is seriously the softest and warmest yarn I have worked with in a long time.
My partner also found an amazing bag for me at Powell’s Books and the only thing it needed was a pocket. So I added one!
Honestly, most of my time has been spent in editing and compiling patterns for my Pagan Holiday Symbol Square crochet pattern book. I am hoping to have it together by the end for February for sale at my Etsy and Making shops.
Paper Making
This was such a cool process. I got to use up all those pretty scraps of paper I just couldn’t let go of and make something new! I got a pretty crap blender from the Goodwill but it worked well enough to pulp the soaked paper. I also had a few trial and error moments with the thickness of the paper but to the hang of it in the end. Since there was a lot of pulp left, I drained the water and squished it out to make a puck of pulp that can be re hydrated to make more paper later.
Water Color
I took a water color theory class from Janice Hudson through the Making app. She has such a great way of making things feel easy and natural. These are some of my first attempts at art journaling. The process will likely refine itself as I work through it .
Adding a Pocket
Admittedly not the greatest pictures because I did this near midnight when I got home from work but there you are. The bag is a good sized canvas tote with the tarot inspired High Priestess screen printed onto it. The pocket is one of the samples I did inspired by a Sashiko course. It fits literally everything I need daily as well as a project bag so I can just carry one bag rather than a bag and a purse and a lunch sack and…and…and…you get the idea.
Designing a Sweater
This is the start of my design process. I basically just start crocheting and figuring out the construction as I go, making random notes throughout the process. It is chaotic but it works for me. I also write in pattern “recipe” because I want my patterns to be adaptable to all body sizes and shapes since standard fashion sizing conversions just don’t work for most people. I finished the back panel last night and started the front panel. I will be doing some unorthodox sleeve construction for this piece as well. It is going to be an adventure!
Working on a Book
March 2023 will mark the year anniversary since the conception of my crochet book idea. I started making afghan squares using tapestry crochet and have done all the planet symbols, all the astrological sign symbols and all the pagan holiday symbols. Through trial and error I believe I have come up with a good format and am now focusing my efforts on getting the Pagan holiday square book ready to be put out into the worlds. The planets and astrological symbols will follow and I hope to have all three out by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!
Whew! That was a lot, thanks for hanging in there for it and I’ll update again soon!
Like many crafters, I have a long list of Works In Progress (WIPs) and Unfinished Objects (UFOs).
While I don’t usually make formal resolutions, I do want to make a concerted effort to finish some of the things I started in the past year. At the very least I need to organize all my WIPs and UFOs so I know what and where they are.
The other side of this effort is to really and truly finish the new projects I start. I love finding new and exciting crafts to try but I need to be better and controlling the impulse to jump to the next shiny thing before wrapping up my current shiny thing 🙂
There are a couple new shiny things that I do have going, however. One is the Rose City Yarn Crawl mystery crochet along. The other is a Crochet Lentil, a pattern that I got from the Making App. Good news is that I finished the Lentil this week, so finishing something I started within the first week of the year feels like a good omen!
With the confidence of completing something, I feel ready to tackle my unfinished list. So, here are some of the bigger projects that I would like to finish (or at least make substantial progress on) by the end of January.
the Jasmine Knot 