[note: I usually make active links, but for some reason my editing software won’t let me do that today. I will try to update later on when things are working again. Until then, you can select the entire link after https:// and copy-paste into your browser.}
This year I was determined to finally start on some of the projects I have been dreaming about since soon after I became a mother. For the record, our eldest child was born about 30 years ago. That’s a lot of dreams, a lot of choices, a lot of deferred opportunities, and a lot of other memories made.
Now that the “kids” are grown and flown, I often find myself feeling my age (and the disabilities that I mention in other posts). In addition to teaching, which for me is all-consuming during the school week for most of 10 months in the year, pain, mobility and dexterity issues, immune responses, and exhaustion get in the way of implementing my plans.
AND YET…
I keep making plans, dreaming and scheming, and collecting information and materials.
Literal materials: Since March 2020 I have acquired some beautiful new crochet hooks, fine cotton, linen, and (less fine but durable) polyester yarns alongside sewing supplies such as a sewing table, needles for hand stitching as well as linen, silk, cotton, and polyester thread, and fabrics.
So many fabrics: A lovely royal blue wool, some bright green wool, a dark blue wool. Linens. Calico. Muslin. Cotton “duck” (also called canvas, but it’s really just undyed denim). And some denim in blue. And others that I will describe when I get close to using them.
Patterns. Images. Video tutorials from several sources. BOOKS. So many books… Most recently, the copy of
The Typical Tudor that I preordered arrived. It’s JUST what I needed to help me flesh out the ideas I have for wheelchair-friendly history bounding. You can purchase it directly from The Tudor Tailor’s etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1351741932/the-typical-tudor-reconstructing?click_key=fd579e1c90d04b146b3a8128810b656f53036f59%3A1351741932&click_sum=0164f77e&ref=shop_home_feat_3
And now, FINALLY, this school year, I have the ability to stay awake longer than 30 minutes after I get home most school nights. I am often feeling quite perky before noon on Saturday and able to play around a little in my studio with art, fabrics, and other crafts. I have even already finished a couple of small crochet projects since the beginning of November this school year – and started on one of the mockups for a garment I want to make.
In the gallery the first two images show crocheted items finished this month: a baby sweater and a “lapghan” or small throw just big enough to cover the lap. The cardigan is based on a baby sweater pattern from the Lion Brand’s free pattern founds at https://www.lionbrand.com/products/baby-cardigan-crochet The final image is the Embossed Shell Stitch from Rich Textures Crochet – for the lapghan I expanded the basic stitch to a size that would (barely) cover a lap from side to side and extend just past the knees, then added a shell-picot border of my own design. https://richtexturescrochet.com/embossed-shell-stitch/
Once the baby sweater was completed, I started on a shawl for my mother who chose the “raindrops shawl” pattern from Rich Textures Crochet. https://richtexturescrochet.com/raindrops-shawl-crochet-pattern/ She chose mocha, mint, and ecru for colors. Not very far along yet, and since it’s someone else’s pattern I am not going to record all of the process, but I hope to take a few images and post them together when it is complete.
So, I may not have accomplished everything I was hoping to do in 2022, but I am finally making progress toward goals. I know it’s okay to defer and redefine goals as needed as a teacher, now I am learning to be okay with doing that for myself. AND, I am having FUN again!