Friday, February 25, 2011

Let's Get Physical...Physical


Okay, so I have been on a legwarmer kick with my knitting as of late. In 2009 I made some adorable little legwarmers for my baby girl.  In 2010 I bought yarn from the LYS (local yarn shop) in Lenoir, NC (Chix with Stix), over Thanksgiving intending to make some Christmas gifts...the purchased yarn balls have morphed into random February gifts. My little niece ballerinas now have legwarmers to wear to dance class in their signature colors, pink and purple. I merged two patterns I found on ravelry to make simple rib pattern legwarmers. My husband thinks I am trying to turn back the clock. Maybe, but I think I am just a sucker for leg warmers. I am a child of the 80s who will be a lifelong fan of the legwarmer. And Olivia Newton-John's wonderfully horrible 80s music.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

the 10 year blanket project

Have you ever started a project and gotten in way over your head? Well...this is the story of the ten year blanket project that took, you guessed it, ten years to complete. While I was in graduate school I got the bright idea that I could make a blanket out of the large stash of t-shirts I accumulated in college. I love these shirts because they are connected to so many great memories...college orientations, field hockey teams, clubs, and honor societies. So I cut these shirts into blocks thinking I could piece them together into a blanket. Graduate school and three part-time jobs stopped my blanket project. Once I returned home and had free weekends again, I took my grandmother on a shopping expedition to the fabric store. My sewing expertise, or lack thereof, quickly became a problem. I am not sure how I thought I would magically peice this blanket together. The blocks sat in a closet for a while, until my mom graciously agreed to help my project along with her sewing machine. I laid out a pattern for all the shirts. She then machine-stiched around the block edges. My mom is incredibly busy with her own projects and the blanket took a few more years to complete. I love the finished product. I love that I can keep warm with all those memories on this blanket. So it may have taken me ten years and some craft rescue to turn those t-shirt squares into this blanket, but it was totally worth the wait.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

2011--GSD

So 2010 was a great year...my husband and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl into our world...which turned things upside down. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and I really didn't accomplish a whole lot. I managed to knit two coffee sleeves for two very dear friends right before the holidays. One of them agreed to model hers for me. I am starting this blog to challenge myself to make the time to create. I love to make and to bake...looking forward to starting new projects and finally finishing works-in-progress. I went to a conference a few years ago where one of the speakers said he tells his staff to "get stuff done." (GSD) Here's to getting stuff done in 2011...what do you want to do this year?
Craft Hope Spreading seeds of hope one stitch at a time