Inspiration

Where do you look for creative inspiration? I look for blogs with different images than I'm used to, quotes, funny things. In a word, 'delightful'. That's the word I use when I see something I really like. I don't use it often so it definitely means something to me. One of my favorite new sites is FFFOUND!. Tons of pictures get posted daily and it makes me look at the world differently. I like that. Where do you look for inspiration?

My craft evolution, part 3

I know you've been waiting with bated breath for this. Well, maybe just waiting.

In college I worked a year and a half at an accounting firm. I was your basic go-fer, filing, copying, filing some more, answering the phone a little. I made a whopping $4 an hour. One of the accountants was pregnant and would work on a counted cross-stitch during her lunch hour. It was your basic baby scene with pastel colors and rattles and cute sayings. But I liked how everything looked just so. And hey! I can count. So off I went to Wal-Mart to look at crafts. You could buy little cross-stitch kits with everything you needed for a little Christmas ornament or whatever. I also ended up doing a couple needlepoint kits. Those were nice too. I liked the exactness of the craft, as long as you counted correctly (count twice, stitch once) everything came out right. So started my love affair with cross-stitch. I bought a lot of pamphlets, subscribed to magazines and stitched away happily, making ever bigger and bigger projects. But do you think that's all I was doing? There's more.

More finishing

I finished the dishcloth (terribly difficult, I know) and I finished my own hat design and got it knitted up. I'm rather proud of it. I think I have someone test knitting it for me. Hopefully a couple someones. I'm afraid designing knitting is addictive. After the hat, that left me with only 2 things I was working on. Masonic lodge socks and the stole. So one night this week I was perusing a knitting stitches book again and POW. I had to start another hat. I think this one will be simpler but I'm using my handspun so you know it will be pretty. I think as my knitting skills improve, my designs will get more complicated. I just envision that someone will follow my path from beginning knitter to more accomplished knitter and have designs to try along the way.
I'm spinning some beautiful black merino wool top. It's 8 ounces worth, the most I've bought at one time. It's Louet and I bought it at Purls of Wisdom. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, I'm too lazy to go back and look at my previous posts. This will be Masonic Lodge socks too I'm thinking. Hopefully 2 pair.
I also saw this tutorial and I really love the yarn colors. I need to take a class or something on combining colors. Other people can think of combinations I would never dream of.
Have a great weekend!

Finished

I finished the scarf and it looks beautiful. I'm going to try and bring some things I've finished next week for a photo shoot as she has a digital camera and I don't. Now to get rid of some more of the WIPs. You know I have some other things on my mind to start already. Some socks from my new sock book and finish spinning a couple things.
The good news is at the fiber festival I attended last weekend, I met a fiber farm person and she hosts the fiber guild. So I'm afraid I'll have to go. She seems to be a down to earth person and I think I'll enjoy it. A solid block of time to work on something (or 2 or 3 somethings) would be great.
Have a great weekend!

Knitting overload

I had two knitting projects going for a long time. Just the socks and the stole. Well, now, I have 5 things going. Still the socks and stole. The lovely Malabrigo is becoming a scarf rather quickly. It's wonderful to knit with and I just chose a stitch pattern from one of the Harmony guides, double basket weave, and it looks beautiful. I got the book through interlibrary loan at the college here where I work. Interlibrary loan is great! Then I can decide whether I really like a book before I buy it. This scarf will be put in the gift stash to be used when needed. Unfortunately I never have enough in the gift stash when Christmas comes around but I'm always trying.
I started teaching a friend to knit a dishcloth and of course I started my own to demonstrate. So that will be done quickly I think.
I also have my knit hat pattern I'm working on. I'm converting a flat pattern to be worked in the round and it's more difficult (for me) than I thought. I had 8 rows done on the brim but I'm going to have to pull it out and rework it. Weird stuff happens. But I'm very please with the yarn and I'll eventually be posting the pattern here.
Have a great day!

My craft evolution, part 2

I don't remember doing many crafts in high school. Such a social butterfly I was (ha!). I was a "brain" so of course I studied and did homework.
But in college I kind of got into a clothes refashioning kick. I'd look through catalogs and magazines and see what I liked then try to make something similar or use some of the ideas. I ended up with bermuda shorts (they were cool back then) sewn inside out and cheap shoes with sequins or beads sewn on. I even had some blue jeans that I bleached half of them and wore them that way. I dyed a few things but didn't do a very good job at it.
My second year of college I was working for an accounting firm and one of the women there was pregnant and working on a counted cross-stitch. There was the danger......

My craft evolution, part 1

I'm planning this to be the story of how I got into doing crafts starting with when I was a wee tot until now. I'm hoping you will find it interesting as well as helping me to understand myself a little better. Feel free to comment!

My first memories of any kind of craft were when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My grandma showing me how to do embroidery. She or my mom bought a little kit that was preprinted and I embroidered the design. I may have done more than one. That is all I remember until I hit about 13 years old. I spent one summer every day at my aunt's house and I had a latch hook kit of flowers that I finished that summer. I really enjoyed it and did several others in the years following.

4th of July

I spent the weekend in Durango at my brother-in-law's house. My boys had a great time playing x-box games and sitting in the hot tub and watching fireworks and playing with the dogs. They always hate to leave. I got going on the 2nd Masonic Lodge sock but didn't work on it too much. I did start some spinning of the lovely black merino wool I got in Denver about a month ago. I have 8 ounces and I'm going to try and get 2 pairs of socks out of it. That was kind of nice to just sit and spin. I think I ate too much.
I also got to go to Yarn, a nice store in Durango. I bought some of the much talked about Malabrigo and some Noro. Silly me, I hadn't brought any knitting needles other than the size 2 dpns for the socks. So all I could was fondle the yarn. Maybe tonight I'll play with it. Not sure what I can make with just one skein apiece but I'll try a hat or something.

Tater tots on parade

Sometimes when I think of a funny combination of words, I set up a blog post with that title and wait for inspiration of what to say. It's been a couple days since I put this one up and when I looked this morning it made me laugh again.
What's happening on the knitting front? No, I'm not knitting the front of anything. I am knitting Quelle Erqsome's lovely Masonic Lodge socks. I've actually managed to memorize the pattern. The heel flap gave me a bit of a problem when I first started it but it was due to my inability to read a pattern, nothing wrong with the pattern. Thinking inversely doesn't work too well with me. I think for the second sock I'll actually write out what I need to do right there. I'm using some yarn I got from a thrift store sweater I took apart. The sweater was pretty boring but I got about 5 pairs of socks worth of yarn from it. The sweater only cost me about $2.
I'm also knitting the lovely Sea and Shells Stole by Dee Bamford. It looks great but is taking forever to knit. I'm using Jaeggerspun laceweight yarn and it's wonderful. There are 34 repeats of 12 rows and I've done 8 repeats so don't expect me to be finishing this anytime soon.
My other little project has been to design a hat. I've done some swatches and now I've ordered the yarn and needles I want to use so keep an eye here for that pattern in the near future. It's my first try at designing something and I've enjoyed the process a lot.
I've finished spinning a beautiful batt from Butterflygirl designs. It was a short staple length and slippery so I had a hard time and had to pay attention or it would just slip away from me. The color was called Tequila Sunrise and it really did look like the drink. I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet. I might just leave it as a single for now.
Sorry I have no pictures. I haven't managed to win a camera yet from Pioneer Woman. If everyone else would quit entering her contests, maybe I'd have a better chance. Grin.
Have a great day!