Arts in health and wellbeing, how arts and crafting helps me and how it aids my well being.
braving the barricade – barricaded bravery Usually, I blog when I have some crochet related news. Today, I have not. Well, that is not entirely true, I do have a new baby blanket to show cast, but not really, because even though it is finished and ready, it is meant to be a surprise, so broadcasting it here now may kind of lessen the impact of the present received unexpectedly that I am going for. The person I have made it for, well, two people, both mother and baby, might not read the blog or see the pictures, but I would know, and I would then question if my impatience of showing this…
I don’t undo There is no unraveling and recreating stitches until perfection is bestowed upon my work. The point of my crochet is not for the project to look perfect, but for me to remember what i have learnt whilst making it... There is only keeping going and trying as i go along, i have no time to go back and redo... When planning this blog post, this was something that became focal to me, as it was always going to be a review of my work with an aim to start the new year with an increased ability to articulate my intentions within my crochet, and to define my practice a little…
Last time I felt compelled to write a blog post, it was summer time, the weather was warm and crochet blankets were the perfect cover for those chilly evenings.. My giant crochet blankets have just been taken for a trip to the beach, and have returned safely and been washed and put away. I have been working on all sorts of creative crochet projects between then and now, as well as working out ideas for how to explain to you all, what my crochet work is about and how i want to tell each individual project's story: the significance of each part of the process for each of my crochet projects, how each…
yesterday’s yearnings – yearly yonder The weather in the UK has not been following last year's anomalous hotness... Am i surprised? Not really. But, when i started thinking about this post a little while ago, it was looking promising, with few days here and there bringing us temperatures warranting light jackets, if any outerwear at all... I nearly put my woolly wonders away, before i realised how perfect they are for this exact time in the year.... Crochet blankets are exactly the perfect spring/ summer outdoorsy attire – for evenings especially in the UK. Whether you are sitting outside after a barbeque of an evening, in your garden, or gathered by a campfire,…
I have been working with a lot of previously made small crochet items recently, turning them into large, humongous, oversized, ginormous, gigantic, crochet BLANKETS. It has been a way of using any crochet work that i have made previously, and that has been lying around the work room, in variously neatly organized packages/ bags/ boxes/ drawers... or at least on surface, this has been an exercise of efficiency and recycling. To find a use for items that were originally made to be used as small cloths, various sized crochet bunting triangles or crochet coasters, which will not really get a chance to be used in that way, because no one knows they exist…
Wondrous Women – Warm Wanderers So, it is finished. It is now time to write the story of another "thoughts-in-knots" blanket which i recently realised are the core of my current creative crochet work. The process of making these free-form crochet blankets helps me considerably when organising my thoughts.. It started with my Nan's work. I have been given these amazing leaves, pictured below, made by my grandma. The idea together with encouragement for Nan crocheting these maple leaves came from my mum, after having been surrounded by grandma's crochet work for the majority of both my mum's and my life... After completing my last thoughts-in-knots adventure with my Rainbow coloured Chevron Crochet…
Do knitters crochet and do crocheters knit? i can really only speak for one crocheter, and let you make your own mind up. But, let me assure you, contrary to some opinion: THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!! I have recently attended a talk by the amazing knitnibble.com writer and knitter. Read my three things to remember HERE. My arts health interest was expanded to include not only mindful crochet, which I have been doing for myself for even before I have started sharing this with you here, but also mindful knitting. I do also knit, and I have been pondering the difference between these two in-distinguishable (JOKING!) crafts offer in terms of…
Unanimous Understanding - Ultimate Uniqueness I have been meaning to write a post about feminism and where my own particular type of crochet wooliness stands in terms of women and equality. It has not been coming easy… Still isn’t. There is too much to talk about and no clear idea of how to put the complexity into punchy blog post... Today, however, instead of writing nothing because i am not yet sure how, i would like to say to each and every woman: Thank You to all the women in my life, that made me and make my life better by being part of it! In terms of crochet being a female craft,…
So, another project finished, it is time to share the story of the rainbow blanket. I cannot remember, and refuse to count, how many times i have seen a chevron crochet blanket in the movies... It is one that these days appears, do i dare venture an opinion, even more often than the very classic of American crochet, the Granny Square Blanket. I have seen one in many films and because i have used the chevron stitch before, and liked it, i thought, why not.... so i started, a long-ish while ago. it got to a stage, where it was sat on the side and not much was happening with it, because, when…
'There is strength in numbers', I have heard someone say on many an occasion... Being a great believer in individuality, but at the same time questioning TRUE individuality of each and every notion, in my personal views on life, something had made me want to write this post. Crochet related, of course, this is what has happened in my work... I have famously finished the BAVARIAN CROCHET ROUND BLANKET and you can congratulate me endlessly HERE and wherever else you may wish to do so.... But, this had left me open with a space for the next project.... I have tried Chevron Crochet on numerous occasions and most of the time abandoned the…
