The Fates

I was thinking about how when you find something you really like, avenues seem to open up in your life that lead to more and more of where your heart lies.  It's neat when it happens.  It's like (going back to my former guitar days) when you hit a certain note which begets a harmonic vibration.  You're in tune to a certain frequency and things begin to line up in that frequency.  It doesn't have to be anything earth shaking . . . you just have little serendipitous happenings that lead to other happenings.

Not too long ago, I was in my favorite section of JoAnne Fabrics (yarn, of course) when a woman in the same isle  asked "Do you Knit?"  Another woman in the same isle took off (obviously not wanting to be bothered) but I answered, "Well, yes, but I'm not really that good at it."  And we were off . . . we got into such a wonderful conversation.  She was like a "Craft Angel".  This friendly stranger was just filling me with all kinds of ideas for ways to get my supplies (Salvation Army, thrift stores, etc.) and re-purposing cheaply gotten goods.  She took me by the hand and walked me through the store . . ."Look at this, I got a whole box of this quilt batting for $8.00 at a thrift store!", and "Look at this, these pattern are 25 cents on sale, I have fur from coats I got at the thrift store that I can use to make these hats" , and "Get yourself a knitting machine and then you can sell lots of stuff on Ebay & Etsy!  You can still hand knit, but in the meantime you can make a lot of stuff to sell", and "Look at these contests! Enter every contest!"   She encouraged me to not be intimidated and to let my creativity shine.  She was such a wonderful person!  Her name was Garnetta.  I am so sorry I didn't get more information about her.  I think about her all the time and look for her every time I go into JoAnne's, hoping I can find her again.

She was so inspirational.  I did enter a contest, the very one Garnetta pointed out to me.  Red Heart Yarn had a contest using their Eco-Ways yarn.  I got in just under the deadline, I'll let ya know how that goes.  I should be seeing contests results around the first two weeks of May.  Then I entered another contest I saw on my Facebook page, by Lion Yarn and the "Instructables" site.  I made an owl phone purse for my niece and entered him in the "Critter Contest" on that site (again, just under the wire!)  I also hope to enter the contest that the "Living Felt" site is having for felted Alice in Wonderland inspired creations.  I've found I like the contests because they spur my creativity and expose me to materials, ideas, and types of yarns I may have not tried otherwise.  Which lead to other ideas, or patterns that I tried that failed with one type of yarn that I know will work with the product I just used for a contest.   Not to mention, it would be soooo neat to win!

Seeds of Imagination . . .

I was wondering all week what I could possibly blog about this weekend. Last night I got my answer as I finished up a project for a friend in England who wanted me to crochet a cat for her friend in Canada.  My other recent project was inspired by my niece’s love of owl’s and my fondness for making small purses. So there it was . . . the Owl and the Pussycat!  How cool, I thought, that my latest projects should evoke fond memories of childhood poems.   My mother loved to read and she also had the ability (amongst her many other talents) to read to my sister and me in a way that was magical. She had the ability to read words as if they were music and breathe life into them so that they played themselves out in our imagination--better than any movie adaptation! I consider myself extremely lucky to have had such a mother and such a childhood. My childhood did not include fuzzy blue or red monsters or big yellow birds. Instead it had the rich imagery of the Owl and the Pussycat, Winnie-the-Pooh (not the Disney version, but the real one), the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, and so many other beautifully penned children’s poems and books. Sadly, my mother passed away at an early age. But what she gave us was a legacy of imagination. She planted the seeds of creativity that still live on in me and in my very talented family members. What I lack in talent is buoyed by imagination and silliness. That’s what keeps it fun! 

APRIL; New Beginnings

For a brief and happy period of time, the strings that struck a resonant chord in my soul were either nylon or steel wrapped.  However much I loved my attempts at making music (via my guitar), music is a demanding mistress (or mister in my case).  Playing guitar requires a devotion & concentration I seem to be lacking in my current state of being.  Now I turn my passion to strings of wool, cotton, bamboo, etc.  Yarn is so much more forgiving and doesn't demand constant attention to maintain one's ego.  I love the creative outlet that knitting & crochet (and my few attempts at wet and needle felting) bring.  By day I do my "clerk-y" duties and fill out the same forms over & over again, plugging banal data into the almighty computer.  By night I get to indulge myself in the soft tactile pleasures of yarn.  I collect patterns and yarn like a pack-rat.  It's a guilty pleasure!   I have branched out into making my own creations in crochet.  I love the beauty of knitted things, but crochet is like play-dough to me.  I can bend it to my creative whims.  I am no professional and I'm never sure how anything will turn out.  But it's just so darn fun, it doesn't matter if its not perfect.  Knitting & crochet are a good way to indulge my creativity, engage in new challenges, and an opportunity to learn to forgive myself for all my imperfections.  I have run into "knitting snobs" in some swanky yarn shops and have learned that many people guard their skills like it's privileged information.  So I'm here to share the good, the bad, the ugly and the funny.  My name is Debi, and I'm a yarn addict.  Hi everyone!  And welcome!