Knitting Needles

I love knitting - it is called the new yoga for a reason!  So relaxing.  I picked up a book at the library today called 'Knitting Through It' which contains stories of people who've got through darker times like war or prison by knitting their way through.  Sounds interesting; I'll have to let you know.

My latest knitting love is bamboo needles.  I'd heard they were kinder on your hands than metal needles, so when I saw them at the knockdown price of $1 I knew it was my time to trial them.  This pair are 4mm needles, they feel very light and are lovely and smooth so your knitting won't get snagged on them.  They are warmer than metal needles which is I suppose the reason why they are better for your hands.  The only drawback as I see it is that they don't make the characteristic click-click associated with knitting, more of a 'shk' but I don't care - I'm in love!

Button Moon

Is it my imagination, or did there used to be a kid's programme called Button Moon?  It had a cute little song to go with it.  The beautiful, supernaturally big moon we had this weekend, coupled with my love of buttons inspired this temporary artwork.

I just adore buttons!  They are so cheerful.  I love the sound they make as I empty them on the table.  I love the colours and shapes.  I love simply playing with them and putting them back in the pot.  Love, love, love buttons.

Pretty sure I've mentioned this before in this blog - but someone different might read it this time and discover the wonderful, therapeutic quality of buttons for themselves.  I hope so. :)

Revelations in a circle of women - and my wish for you ...

It's been a busy, busy, past few days!  I've completed my second reiki course this weekend - two days spent in the company of amazing, compassionate women.  Bliss.  I realized I've overcome a major hurdle too - when I was at school I had a terrible time, bullied everyday by people who couldn't and didn't want to understand why I was so quiet and shy.  It was a girls' school, so I've spent most of my adult life being very wary of being involved in a group of women.  This weekend I came to see that I was enjoying my time being with a group of women, accepted for who I am and celebrated for my uniqueness.  It meant so much and ended many years' anxiety of being disconnected from other women.  Huge.

Here's a little snippet from one of the creations for my ebook - just a peek - but it seems so relevant for a blog dedicated to creativity of all kinds, and it's a wish I have for everyone who visits here (and indeed the whole planet - let's dream big!)

Crochet-a-Rainbow spreads to Christchurch and Japan

Just a quickie tonight to let you know that Crochet-a-Rainbow will now be sending granny square blankets to Christchurch and Japan, so if ever you needed a reason to use up your stash and crochet for a fantastically caring and compassionate reason this is it!  Visit Sarah London's site for more details.

Bless you!

Autumn looming

Oh the sheer joy!  My walk this morning was w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l - it was so cool that I actually felt cold - and I loved every minute of it.  Even if it did warm up to 35 degrees later on - nothing was going to spoil my day of cool.  Not even the fact that I turned up to school this morning in my scruffy dog walking gear and I realized that my day as helper was today and not tomorrow as I'd thought!

Cooler weather in the evenings means different crafts are happening:

I can bare to sit with my quilt on my lap now to do the stitching ...

and I can continue with my lovely winter hoodie...

Oh happy, happy!

The Dress ...

I finished the dress on time!  Yay, though only with an hour or so to go, lucky we'd been fitting it as I went, so no nasty surprises :)  Doesn't it look gorgeous on the hanger?

But even more beautiful when worn by a very special young lady.

Maker and wearer very happy.  Maker not having to stress anymore, or having to eat, sleep and breathe the red dress.  (But I did have so much fun making it really!)

Illustration Friday - Warning

“Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky at morning, sailors warning.”

As soon as I saw this theme I visualized a red, glittery exclamation mark which has stayed in my head all week - so it had to come out of my head and be created on paper.

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on making my own collage background papers, of which these are the most interesting - the red and blue colours are from raspberries and blueberries - I'd been using kitchen towel to cover my frozen brekkie fruit whilst it was thawing!  See, you really can use anything to create with!  The orange colour was added later using watered down acrylic paint, after reading the above quote - I was trying to achieve a sunset of sorts.  And of course, the centrepiece of the red exclamation mark.  What's it warning about?  I'll leave you to decide ...

This is my day so far.

Mess.  Paint.  Glue.  Sparkles.   Creating.  Perfect!

Seeing red - in a good way

What a lovely day I've had!  Very creative and very productive.  I spent the morning making another project for my book - completely from scratch, I hadn't even made it myself before, and the result was pleasing.  Can't show you here, but part of it may appear in my new blog banner I'm intending to create sometime in the future ...

And the rest of the day was spent sewing the evening dress for my daughter.  Do you like the ruffles?  I'm getting quite excited myself to see it finished.  Only 3 sleeps to go!

Sunday is a Fun Day

Look at what we've been up to ... creativity abounds in the hills ...

Painting a cardboard box to make a spaceship - very serious work ...

Making an evening dress for my daughter - gorgeous red satin and georgette (not that I was saying this when I had to cut the blessed stuff out ...)  It's the short dress with frills in the top left hand corner ...

Finished off by an open air movie night at the school, watching 'My Neighbour Totoro' snuggled up with the kids under a blankie and the stars ... ahhhh, bliss ...

I haven't had much to blog about this week as I've either been creating my book and I don't want to give anything away about that, or I've been doing data entry which really isn't a subject I'm inspired to blog about.

So thank goodness for Charlie, who seems to have been a kitten in a former life.  Look at the mess he made with my yarn!  At least he's managing to look a little contrite.  It's a good job I've got a few balls of yellow in reserve for another project - this one's from my 'Crochet a Rainbow' stash but I don't think blankets with dog slobber and hairs are in vogue, so I'll have to swap it for another one.  Winding this mess back into a ball was very meditative though - I was truly relaxed and calm after doing it.  Aaahh ...

Order from chaos ...