Crochet- A Distant Memory

I feel like I haven’t crocheted or posted in a long time. It all seemed so distant. It must have been weeks since I made something or posted something. I’ve missed two Freebie Fridays in a row. This I know, which added to this distant feeling I’ve been having. I was all set to post a Freebie Friday this last Friday, but it was interrupted by life. So no post.

Since I hadn’t posted in forever, I decided that today I would sit down and write.

What should I write about?

I opened up my WordPress account and checked when I had posted last…Um, this is embarrassing. I posted three days ago, which means it hasn’t been forever since I crocheted or posted something.

Not so distant after all. 🙂 But it feels distant. It begs the question (okay, I’m the only one begging) why it feels so long ago? The answer is because I haven’t picked up a hook since I got off of work. How long ago was that? Oh yeah, last Thursday. Three whole days ago! I realize now that I’ve been crocheting everyday for awhile now and with the school year over, I just stopped.

I didn’t consciously decide I wasn’t going to crochet, I just didn’t crochet. Nothing was pressing. No students were barraging me with request. I had nothing specific I wanted to work on and my Bavarian sweater can wait, it being 90 degrees and all. So no crochet is happening at the moment, and it feels weird.

But that hasn’t stopped me from talking about crochet and dreaming and planning about where crochet might take me.

This is how I dream and plan 🙂

I’ve sporadically mentioned that I wrote a crochet book about how to make dolls and hubby and I have been talking a lot about how to finally get that off the ground. We’ve been strategizing and plotting and just having fun. We talked about his stuff too but this post is about me. Selfish, I know, but I didn’t want you thinking I monopolized the conversation. 😉

I’ve also been listening to crochet podcasts. I found one I really like and I’m finding it to be very inspiring. In the past, I subscribed to a few podcasts on the subject, but after trying to listen to them, they lay abandoned in my queue, never to be listened to again. I felt they didn’t contribute  anything or they plum just didn’t grab my attention. It’s been years, so I gave it another try, figuring there was bound to be new podcasts out there and I found one!

I listened to the latest episode and was hooked from start to finish. It was a long episode and I’m usually turned off by long podcast episodes of anything but I gave it a shot and listened to it while watering the grass. It was an interview about teaching crochet, either for profit or for fun. I’ve been toying with this idea for years now and it piqued my interest. Teaching the kids at school has in turn taught me some valuable lessons and listening to the episode just brought home that I might be ready to take it to the next level.

I listened to a couple more episodes and I liked those as well so I’m sticking with this one. I found it in the iTunes store but I’m sure there are other ways to get the podcast if you are on a different platform but here is a link to the iTunes website in case you are interested.

So even though I’ve been lax in my crocheting (for the past three days lol), I haven’t been completely derelict to the spirit of crochet.

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Gray

 

Gray. What do you think of when you hear the word gray? Is it sad that the first thing that popped into my head was gray hair? Gray hair. I have more gray hair than I had yesterday. Yesterday, I had more gray hair than the day before. It crept up on me at first. It wasn’t so noticeable. Then I got more and I told myself it looked like highlights. It was still pretty in my mind.

This is Mini-Me. I gave her gray highlights to match my hair. This is when I was liking my gray hair. 😉

As it continued to replace my dark hair, I didn’t like it so much. Was it time to start coloring it? I had never colored my hair. My sis–in- law and dear friend had stopped coloring her hair and started embracing her gray hair and she looked beautiful. I couldn’t decide if I should start coloring or try to embrace it as she did.

I really, really didn’t want to color my hair for a number of reasons. (1) I have allergies to chemicals and I was worried I would have an allergic reaction. (2) Coloring my hair would be a commitment and I knew that once I started the process, I would have to keep doing it because it doesn’t look good to have all those roots showing. (3) I have thinnish hair and I was worried the harshness of the chemicals would destroy what little I had left.

As an alternative, I looked at henna. The benefit would be that henna is actually supposed to be good for your hair. Big bonus! But everything about it looked complicated. Not only would I have the commitment of staying on top of coloring my hair, now the process looked even more complicated!

Then one day, my sister had stopped coloring her hair because she was worried the chemicals were actually causing her harm (hah! I knew it!). She didn’t mind coloring her so I told her about henna and she actually tried it. And it looked good! She found one that was pretty easy (or easier than some of the others) and so I gave it a try too.

My first attempt looked good but I messed it up. My sisters helped me apply it. What a mess we made! Henna is so messy. I left it on for one hour per the instructions. The sis who had tried it told me not use shampoo because the henna wouldn’t come out. She said to use dish washing liquid. Well, I, in my infinite wisdom, noticed it was coming out just fine with water alone, so I thought it would be fine with shampoo.

The results

The first thing I noticed was that some of the gray was still showing through, but that was fine since most of it looked really good. When my sis saw it, she agreed it looked good but said all the gray showing through was because I used shampoo. Shampoo has conditioners and I was supposed to avoid conditioners immediately after because they strip the color. Hey, she didn’t say anything about that before! She said not to use it because it’s not strong enough to get the henna out. I should have listened.

What I liked about the henna was that it looked so natural. No one even noticed that I colored my hair. Granted, when you do something like coloring your hair, you want people to notice but I didn’t. My hair was just darker and had less gray. The grays looked brownish and looked like highlights. When it faded (henna fades), it faded naturally so it was less noticeable. I was very happy at how this was working out.

For my next attempt, I was armed with more knowledge. I threw an egg in the mix in an attempt to condition the hair. Henna can be drying. I also added vinegar. That is supposed to help it set. I also left it on way longer. When it was time to shower, I removed it with just plain water. It takes a long time but it takes a long time anyway. The results were beautiful. The hair was shiny and almost all the gray was covered. The best part for me is that if I don’t want to continue coloring it, it just fades away and it’s very subtle. The worry about the commitment is no longer a worry. So at least for now, it’s henna all the way. 🙂

Crochet is Relaxing?

Am I the only only crocheter who doesn’t think crochet is relaxing?

The very first time I heard someone say crochet was relaxing, I remember smiling and nodding but in my head I was all Huh? Relaxing? Really? You think so? I guess I had never thought of it that way. Fun, obsessive, inspiring, creative, compulsive, expressive, exciting, thrilling, artistic, enjoyable, addictive, stress-inducing,  soul-fulfilling, euphoric,
frustrating and possibly soothing (does NOT mean the same thing) but never relaxing. What’s so relaxing about obsessively working on a piece until my hands and wrists hurt? What’s so relaxing about looking at your piece and knowing you’re so far from being finished (I’m looking at you dragon cloak)? What’s so relaxing about planning and organizing and trying to learn new things and not always being successful? What’s so relaxing about obsessing over trying to finish a piece you can’t possibly finish in one sitting? What’s so relaxing about being pumped and excited to start a new project? Is it relaxing when I have to complete a gazillion pieces for the craft fair? And so many more things that aren’t that relaxing.

I don’t have time to relax! I’m crocheting!

My Weed Garden

Not to0 long ago, my sis-in-law and friend was gazing out to my patio through the sliding glass door. She cocked her head and exhaled, “Huh, I never noticed that all your plants were the same.” I giggled  sheepishly because they were indeed all the same. I blurted out, they’re the only plants I can’t kill!” She laughed with understanding. She said they looked nice. I wasn’t sure if I should believe her.

Many years ago, someone, I can’t remember who because it was so long ago, commented that she (I’m pretty sure it was a she) hated this plant we saw in someone’s garden. It’s a succulent that has these big, shiny, tear drop shaped leaves. She said she hated them because they were the weeds of the succulents world. I didn’t say anything because I had some of those in my own garden. I was embarrassed to admit that I actually liked them. I didn’t know they were equivalent to weeds!

I have a black thumb when it comes to plants. I can pretty much kill anything except weeds. That hasn’t stopped me from trying to have a pretty garden , albeit with various degrees of success. I finally had to come to the conclusion that gardening just isn’t my thang. I know I can learn if I really wanted to but I just had to admit that I obviously didn’t want to.

My mom had once attempted to beautify my back yard with these lovely little flowers she bought for me. I looked at all those trays  of flowers and thought, “Oh no! death!” I politely told her that maybe planting those at my house wouldn’t be a good idea since I couldn’t be trusted with their care. She completely disregarded me and said all I had to do was water them. I thought but didn’t say, “If you say so….” My mom happily started digging and planting and sending me off to do various tasks, one of which was to water all those trays of flowers. I quickly did her bidding and asked what else I could do. When she was ready to start planting, she lifted one of the potted plants and said, “Didn’t I ask you to water these? They are still dry inside.” I replied that yes, I watered them. She saw me do it. She shook her head and said in Spanish, “These poor little plants. They were so excited to come to your home to be planted and now they’re thinking, why did you bring us here to die.” I just crookedly smiled and shrugged and she laughed. She said, “No wonder your plants die if you water them like that.” She kept planting them and told me to water them properly from now on. I’m sure nobody is surprised that they didn’t make it. Since then, I’ve tried different things, all mostly failures, until…

I decided I wasn’t going to be embarrassed for liking the weeds of the succulent world! How silly of me to let one person’s opinion color how I felt about certain plants. I chose to embrace that plant and used it all around my house! I couldn’t kill it no matter how much I neglected it. In fact, I could just cut off a stem, a leaf, or any part of it, stick it in some dirt, and voila! It grew. I loved it. It didn’t care if it only got watered when it rained. I even started wondering if I could do topiary with it. If I messed up, no harm no foul. I felt loved back by this plant because it refused to give up and die no matter what I did to it. Today, I saw a bunch of broken stems and leaves on the ground outside because we had some strong winds. I grabbed them, found a cute pot that’s been rolling around outside and put some dirt in it, some pretty rocks and those broken bits plus I cut some more and shoved them right in. I put it on my kitchen counter by a large window.

The plant that will not die!

Mini Me Complete

Mini Me’s Adventures

Mini Me is finally complete and she was so much fun to make. And apparently she was fun to play with. It’s always a good sign when people want to play with or cuddle the dolls I make. I was visiting my sister while working on Mini Me. Her hair was finished and I was going to make her outfit. As usual, I told my sister that I brought my crochet stuff in case she bored me and I needed something to do (this is tongue-in-cheek, she never bores me 🙂 )Before her outfit was complete, my sister grabbed the doll and kept making cutsie faces at it (she would never admit this of course and would probably call me a liar). Then, she started braiding her hair.

My sister couldn’t help self. She just had to braid her hair.

She did a great job!

Worst of all, she kept giving me advice on her outfit. It should be this color not that color. The skirt should go like this and not like that. You get the idea. Since I consider myself a smart person, I listened. It’s a good thing I did because the outfit was a big hit.

Loose Limbs

Mini Me’s Surprise Sister So, while I was working on finishing Mini Me, who was planned, thought out, and carefully created, her little sister accidentally sprang into creation right alongside her. My project bag was littered with loose body parts (doll parts!). These parts have been hanging around for quite some time just waiting to be joined to some finished project. There was a head that turned out smaller than I wanted so I threw it in the bag. There were some arms and legs that I made for illustrative purposes for my book. I threw them in the bag too. I eventually decided to make a body for the head and got about halfway through it  and started something else so that was rattling around in the bag too.

Doll arm waving “hello”…why would anyone find this creepy!?

When I started working on Mini Me, I needed to use that skein of yarn that had that unfinished body attached to it. No problem, I thought. I could just use the other end of the skein to work on Mini Me. I’ve done this many times in the past so I pushed that half body to the side and created Mini Me. The more I pushed that half body to the side, the more it nagged me that it wasn’t finished. I blissfully ignored it when it was just hanging around in my bag but it could be ignored no more. Plus, my family was really getting creeped out seeing all those disembodied body parts floating around in my bag. Personally, I didn’t see the problem but I decided to try to finally make a home for all those parts. Once Mini Me was done, I finished the body attached to the other side of the skein. Turns out the body was thinner than I thought the head needed AND it was a different kind of yarn than I’d used tor the head (so the shade was slightly off). Wwwwellllll, I wasn’t about to make a new head for the new body – that would mean the “floating” head I had would still be cast off in the bag again – so I attached it anyway.

The head finally got her body. Those are her new legs next to her. Her ‘almost’ arms and legs are in the side bag at the bottom.

I pulled out the extra limbs I had, two arms and two legs, and realized the yarn for those matched the head but not the body and they were too short and fat for the accidentally-too-skinny body. I couldn’t do it. I could not bring myself to attach them to the body. I was already thinking the body was too skinny for the head and I just couldn’t add insult to injury by attaching short, stubby arms and legs too…I couldn’t do that to her (she might already have a complex). Instead, I made brand new arms and legs that fit better. Meanwhile, Mini Me was getting jealous because she was being ignored. She was still bald and naked and waiting for her clothes while I was tinkering with her unplanned sister. I have to admit that Mini Me is my favorite but I have hope for my “Frankendoll.” So now I have two dolls that have to be wigged and clothed and they don’t even like each other. I hope the rivalry ends once they realize I have room in my bag for both of them. I hope I can come to love my surprise doll as much as I love Mini Me but only project completion will tell.

Now they are both indecent! But at least they’re pretending to love each other.

After all that, I still have disembodied body parts in my bag!

Mini me to be

This is the progress on my look a like doll.

I think the eyes worked out nicely. Now I’m planning the perfect outfit and accessories.

I’m really loving her already. Usually I have a ‘hate them at first’ relationship with my dolls. I want to love them of course, so I do everything I can to make them beautiful. Once the process is complete, then I love them (usually). But sometimes, I love them right away. Then comes the stress of possibly ruining that great love because I know it can all go wrong if the hair and clothes aren’t just right. Those things make a big difference to the finished doll.  But for now, before the hair and the clothes possibly spoil the love affair, I love her.  🙂

Okay, we won’t be identical twins but fraternal twins definitely!