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Category Archives: arts health

Arts in health and wellbeing, how arts and crafting helps me and how it aids my well being.

quintessential questioning

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I have finished MOHAIR QUEEN, before New Year’s Eve 2020, and as much as i have wanted to start learning a new brioche hat technique, i wasn’t quite ready for that. What i was ready for, was more of completing a whole, finishing and old crochet WIP (work in progress) project. The cotton squares (mentioned before HERE and HERE) blanket was about to get finished, all together with working out my dense centre granny square into a favourable configuration of granny square and popcorn stitch… Pattern for this singular square, can be found in my Ravelry Pattern Shop HERE. … Continue reading →

phenomenological pondering

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I have no words for the world right now. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, i think that is the only/ best possible state of mind to have right now. So let’s not dwell, and get back to crochet. I mean, those of you who have not picked up needles and yarn, you may as well… I have said before HERE: #crochetplayoneaday you have probably seen this before but I have adapted it with crochet hooks rather than knitting needles. Wooly eyed skull anyone? 🙂 #crochetplay #oneaday Posted by thecreativehook.com on Monday, July 14, 2014 Today i … Continue reading →

overindulgent optometry

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New Year. By this i mean both: The one day in January (New Year – day 1 of 365), the first day of the year, and the new cycle (new year – 365 days dates marked anew). What does it mean? In the majority of the western world, people might be aware of setting out resolutions for improvements in the year ahead, as a way of welcoming the new year… My blog had been about hopes for future last month (resolutions, in a way). In this sense, i have done it backwards (or forwards) compare to tradition, and so, … Continue reading →

nautical noel

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So, we have made it to December 2020. This month i would like to concentrate on the good this year has brought. There had been a lot of hopeless moments in 2020, for sure. The year 2020 shall be remembered as … dramatic pause … We will see how it is remembered, i cannot possibly predict that, that is for future generations and future historians to determine. Intense? Tense? In a word that has been a lot by the media to describe events: Unprecedented. Today’s post, however, is not going to be concerned too much with the disasters that … Continue reading →

mammalian mutts

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Teddy bears are for November.  Are they?  Let’s say that for the purposes of creative hooking in 2020, they are.  I have been making these for a while. Cute bears with big heads and bodies way too small to support their big thinking brains. There is evidence on this website, in a number of different places, feel free to check it out:  If you would like wonder over to HERE to see crochet creatures and therefore crochet bears related pages, or click HERE and follow the link for all the other blog posts containing more photos of brainy beauties, as and when they … Continue reading →

lucrative labyrinth

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It is October. First Saturday in October 2020, and time for my next monthly blog post. September has been busy with a lot of personal stuff, partially because it happened to be so this year, and partially, perhaps, to keep busy through what is usually the most difficult month of my year, emotionally. September usually means new beginnings, which come with some stress until things settle down again. Not sure why, but coincidentally, i usually start new jobs around this time of year, or various courses, and with this excitement of the new thing, also comes the slight stress … Continue reading →

kvelling kvetcher

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I am going to kick off with a quote: “The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair.” Louise Bourgeois Normally i would substitute ‘sewing’ for ‘crocheting’ but for this particular post, for what i want to dwell on today, let’s stick with the original quotation, because today, the glove fits, and i shall wear it! I do love sewing. I have spent some time comparing crochet and knitting in one of my blog ramblings before HERE, but i do not think i have ever yet looked at how, why and when i sew for alleviating my struggles, or … Continue reading →

jovial jockeys

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Toys for boys. That was my prime directive for this kind and considerate request, and it is the story about how they came to be that i would like to tell you today. I do not fully agree that there is such a natural distinction… What i mean is, i am not convinced there is such a thing as innately boy’s toys and innately girl’s toys. I do not have children, so i cannot comment from experience of bringing up a little person of either gender, but i secretly hope that it is culturally enforced and reinforced into our … Continue reading →

industrious inquiry

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Blue squares. There is something about the blanket that i want to talk about today, that feels complete. Not just because it is actually finished as a blanket. There is something more. The individual pieces of this blanket were made at various stages as i was learning and relearning crochet stitches. As i started changing my work from my arty farty video installation work and adapting it into something more every day use – you could say crafty farty… I know i keep saying that i do not follow patterns, but at least i try to look at patterns … Continue reading →

hot heads

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At the start of 2020 (or pre Corona) i decided to make regular contributions to the blog but was worried i’d have nothing to talk about monthly as blankets take so long to create. I went ahead anyway. Then as i have started writing monthly posts, i was pleasantly surprised not to be short on blog post themes, in fact i am one or three crochet blog posts about completed projects behind, seemingly…. I work on more than two projects at any one time, some small, some big, picking up one or the other as and when, depending whether … Continue reading →